Richard Branson Putting Business World To Work For Refugees? An Idealistic Hope

There's a question mark up there for a good reason.

While I appreciate much of what 'Cousin Rick' has accomplished (disclaimer: not literal cousins, at least not that I know of - it's just the name association I get a kick out of) I don't always agree with every last little thing he says.

That having been said, there's no doubt the man knows business and is good at it.

CLICK HERE for a link to an article dated 12 July 2018.

As we all know, remarks were made during a recent joint press conference by Presidents Trump and Putin of the United States of America and Russia respectively. The remarks I'm referring to have to do with the refugee crisis now under way in Europe. As I understand it, preliminary efforts may already be underway to provide safety for refugees in the more stable regions of the Middle East, much closer to home for many, if not most or all, of the refugees they were talking about.

Humanitarian support for people whose homelands are unsafe for them at the moment is a privilege, and a responsibility that cannot be set aside. It does not, however, include a prerequisite that one's own homeland or people be put at risk in any way.

Branson is completely on target that Business can and should step up to the plate.

Here is where our possible scenarios might diverge a bit.

I have a hunch he is referring to Business stepping up to help plant refugees more solidly within what are supposed to be temporary places of shelter until their own homelands become secure enough for them to return.

I, on the other hand, am referring to Business stepping up to support what I'm thinking of as Sanctuary Cities in the Middle East - those oases of stability would have a ready on-the-spot workforce whose talents could be put to good use in the building of communities and businesses that would provide them the means by which to support themselves while they wait to go home. It would also provide them with skill sets they'll need when comes the time to rebuild their own homelands.

So if the United States, Russia, the Nations of Europe and of the Middle East, Canada, Australia, India, China, the Nations of Africa, Central and South America ... essentially all the Nations of Earth ... cooperate and coordinate efforts on behalf of the displaced peoples who are now homeless, the expense of providing them with sanctuary would not fall so heavily on any one nation or group of nations to care for them while they wait to go home.

Providing 'humanitarian relief' in real terms ought to include providing education and training. A 'side effect' would be the development of business enterprises that would provide employment and products. Business acumen is of vital importance to such development - and Richard Branson has that in spades!

Another 'side effect' would be to minimize (or eliminate) the impact on the homelands of Peoples whose cultures are incompatible (at least with things the way they are right now) with the culture/s of the refugees now finding refuge in said homelands - trying to force acceptance makes it uncomfortable (to understate) for all involved.

I'm visioning cities whose primary objective and reason for existence is to provide for the refugees of our world, be their status caused by natural disaster or by human-initiated crisis.

Who has the resources to put into developing thriving productive cities where the refugees of the world can be safe while learning skills and contributing to not only their own economic stability but to the economy of the world as their products are marketed?

Business.

Nations.

Of the two, guess which is generally richer ... hmmm ... ? That bugbear that bothers so many folks - well here's a great chance to redeem themselves; they can put their money where their mouths have been, eh? The kicker is that if they do it right they'll come out even further ahead, which ought to be an incentive.

Getting to build their own financial enterprises with the Nations of the World picking up a hefty hunk of the tab by providing for their workforces' food, clothing, and shelter?

What's not to like about that?

Richard Branson and other entrepreneurs turned moguls know exactly what to do and how to do it successfully.

They have millions upon millions upon millions of people ready willing and able to work.

They have (or will have) the backing of the Nations of Earth, which coincidentally will also be buying their products as they hit markets.

Designated World Sanctuary Cities under the VERY able leadership of the best of the best in our Business world, built by the cooperation of all the Nations of our world, protected by the best of the best of our world's protective services, peopled by smart, motivated populations (smart enough to want to get the heck out of their failing, dangerous nations - and motivated enough to do it) ... and independently administered by their own choice of administrators, guided by Business and World leaders (that would be an 'oversight committee' in case you're wondering).

Here's your chance, Big Business.
Here's your chance, whichever nation hosts these cities.
Here's your chance, Europe and America and other Nations of the world.
And most of all ...
Here's your chance, refugees from all over the whole wide world - here's your chance.
Take it.

I heard America promise humanitarian aid.
I heard Russia promise transportation.
I heard (read) Big Business (aka 'Cousin Rick') promise expertise, development, jobs.
So far so good.
Who will be host?
Saudi Arabia? Turkey? India? Egypt?

My vote, if I had one?
Saudi Arabia, smack dab in the center of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis could use an upswing in popularity.

Now get on with it already before Europe erupts and America has a melt-down.

There are twenty or thirty million people who need a place to go and something productive to do.

Make it happen - for them and for all of us.

Now, if this had been MY idea I would be patting myself on the back. As it is, the idea/s spring/s from the minds of the most unlikely combination I've ever heard of.

What on God's Green Earth do these three men : Trump, Putin, Branson : have in common? Trump's a Christian; Branson's an Atheist; Putin's ... well, Putin is Putin. Trump wants Independent Nations; Branson comes across as being heavily in favor of the EU; Putin wants ... well, Putin is Putin.

So what DO they have in common?
For one thing, they're all three hard-headed.
For another thing, they're all three soft-hearted.
For yet another, they're all three in favor of World Peace.
For another, they are pragmatists to the core, each and all of them.
AND, they're all three some of the brightest bulbs in the world's chandelier.

Perhaps we should all take heed. God works in mysterious ways, the Universe unfolds as it should, and Hope springs eternal ...

Something You Might Or Might Not Want To Hear

note: I have no idea why this blog isn't posting any of the photo images these past months :( 

A few years ago it would never have occurred to me that what you are about to read might possibly be anything that anyone would need to be reminded of, let alone be something that some people may not have even heard of. It’s not new news; it’s not a new take on anything; it’s not unique in any way – at least until these past few years … the growing up years of our young adults. 

Below you’ll find excerpts from three separate blog posts. Together they say something you might or might not want to hear.

this is an image of the Constitution of the United States of America, which isn't showing up

1)  We are governed not by any one sitting president, not by any single current congress, not even by our courts. 

We are governed by the Constitution of the United States of America which grants sovereign rights to the PEOPLE of the United States. It is We the People of the United States of America who wield the final authority. We are not just saying 'NO' to corruption in our government; we are also saying 'NO' to those who have for too long been disregarding the fundamental premise of our form of government. 

  

these are images of a flying Bald Eagle and a standing American Bison

2)  Both the National Bird of the United States and our (apparently soon-to-be) National Animal/Mammal - the Bald Eagle and the American Bison - were both around for that last big ELE (Extinction Level Event, almost 13,000 years ago) - and somehow survived.

In much more recent years, both were on the verge of extinction (again) and both were 'brought back' from that verge by the collective will of the American People.

That we as a people, once we recognized what we had done, were doing, did what we had to do to correct ourselves ... something about that is reassuring, gives me hope.

God Bless America

Indivisible

3)  … I refer you to the stars that grace the Flag of the United States of America. Yes I know they represent each and all of the States of our Nation. They can also represent the forging of this Nation, one made up of many. You notice that each of those stars is the same size; each is equal to all of the others. The fact that Texas and Alaska are far bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware is entirely moot. They share equal status, and our Flag needs ALL of her stars in order to be complete. Not a single one of those stars carries a label but together they, and the stripes of red and white that flank them, represent one nation. One. Recognizing and respecting individuality in NO way diminishes what that means but enhances it.

this is an image of a flying dove carrying an olive branch

All of the above having been said, here’s what I want to remind you of:

First, regardless of who is in the White House, regardless of who fills the Seats of Congress in Washington DC, even regardless of who sits the benches of our courtrooms, the United States of America’s Constitution and Bill of Rights are what govern us.

Administrations come and administrations go, one after another after another. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights cannot be changed, only added to by the collective Will of the People via amendments (which are not easily achieved).

Second, we as a people have made mistakes. That we have, and do, and will come to recognize our mistakes, speaks well of us. That we have, and do, and will take steps to correct our mistakes speaks even louder.

Bringing back the Bald Eagle and the American Bison from the brink … how many of our younger folk even realize what that means? How many care? I would venture to say  :  few – very few – too few. Yet it is symbolic, and perhaps therein lies the issue at the moment. It is symbolic of something we as a people did RIGHT. These days, everyone’s focusing on other symbols, interpreting them in ways that are twisted.

Third, connected to second (and to first when it comes right down to it) the individual groups that make up our larger population have been, are, and will be collectively We the People of the United States of America.

That’s a statement of fact folks, not a recommendation.

There was a time, brought to mind by recent events, when mistakes were made by more than one ‘faction’. The effect was not pretty. The result was a still-united nation, albeit a wounded one.

The three points merge.

Today we can, if we look, see what has come of ‘that time’ which is of course our own Civil War, something that I hear some people threatening again. We will not go there, people. We will not.

For those who think perhaps it is a viable option, think again.

You have only to look to our southern states of Texas and Louisiana, right now, in August of 2017, to see the incontrovertible conclusion of that war. In the midst of horror and pain We the People, once divided and again threatened with division, are oblivious to the factors that once divided us. Watch, and listen. You can’t help but see what I’m talking about. There is no South any more; there is no North. There is no Urban; there is no Rural. There is no Rich; there is no Poor. There is only ONE People of the United States.

What you will see, if you care to look, is the United States of America, full-blown and just doing what it does – pulling together in a time of crisis. Addressing with steadfast resolution (a cliché I know but here it fits so yes I’m going to use it) those who would use the hurt of others for their own ends – the looters are being arrested; the politicizers are being shouted down or ignored; the price gougers are being documented and will be dealt with; the haters are being called out and shown up for what they are.

So, contrary to what ‘current events’ in the form of riots and protests and the destruction of symbols of our past successes and the haters might want us to believe, our nation as a whole is actually reaffirming what we have needed to be reminded of: we are ONE nation, indivisible. Made up of many and many different folks, this is true, but nevertheless ONE.

In our ‘crisis mode’ nobody cares about anything that doesn’t matter. Nobody cares about who someone is sleeping with; nobody cares about skin tones; nobody cares about how big someone’s house is or how fancy their vehicle is; nobody cares about who anybody else voted for; nobody cares when or how or under what circumstances anybody else’s ancestors came to these shores. Nobody cares about what anybody else ‘identifies as’ – because at the moment the only ‘identity’ anybody has is ‘American’.

Part of me weeps that it has had to take a Powerful Act of Nature to bring home to us what should have been recognized and celebrated all along. Instead, we’ve had divisiveness shoved down our throats for so long that we were starting to believe in it, even while choking on the very thought of it.

So y’all haters can just sit down and shut up now. We do accept that even you are a part of us. You are the part of each and all of us that we know we have inside, the dark ugly part that we fight to subdue and overcome. You are in the dark corners of our internal ‘gardens’, where we put the rotting detritus that we don’t want to see. You are there, and we are not denying it – but just as we nurture and care for the beauty and productivity of our own selves and our nation and set the detritus aside in a dark corner, so too will we set you aside. You need no nurturing; natural processes will decay you until you become again something we can use to further nurture the beauty and productivity. In the meantime, we do not want you front and center – not of our own selves and not of our nation.

Going back to our points …

The laws that govern us as American citizens forbid harm to any, for any reason.

We the People of the United States of America have been making a mistake; we can and will take steps to correct ourselves.

We cannot, and do not, and will not deny the value and importance of any part of our collective population. We might have to put you haters in a corner for a while, but in so doing we are but protecting the beauty and productivity while you’re decaying enough to become again nurturers of said beauty and productivity.

Just as, at the moment, Houston and other places are addressing the weeds (haters) in their sodden garden while caring for the beauty so too will the United States as a whole.

So you can either go to the corner on your own or we can put you there. Your choice.

Frankly, it would be a great deal more pleasant if you choose to become a part of the beauty right away, for you and for the rest of us. I can’t imagine it would be at all pleasant to find myself rotting and decaying for as long as it takes to become fertilizer. You can skip that step. Pay the piper (can’t skip this step, sorry), be forgiven, and ‘come on home’ – if you want.

It took many of our folk a real long time to make that happen, but … look to Texas and Louisiana right now. Look to We the People of the United States of America as we respond to the needs of our own. Look to the various States kicking in and getting the job done. Look to our Federal Government doing its part.

Tell me you don’t want to be a part of that; tell me you’d rather be rotting in a dark corner instead. Go ahead; try to convince me; give it your best shot; tell me why you’d prefer divisiveness over unity. Your chances of convincing me are slim to none, and slim isn’t really in the running, but here’s your chance to try.

My words to you are: come home – just come home to the America who already accepts you and loves you enough to put you in a corner when need be. You don’t have to stay in that dark rotting corner. Your place is here in the beauty and productivity of this oh so precious nation that we all call Home.

Justice

+Mercy

=Peace

An Angel Story

I have a number of 'Angel Stories' but for today my focus is on a point that needs to be made about one of them in particular. The whole story will come in another post; for now the abbreviated version will make the point.

A recent topic of conversation was about angels; it reminded me of the reluctant angel I met when my vehicle overheated on I-25 between Pueblo and Colorado Springs, the one who drove a red corvette convertible. 

I needed help and he helped me, confused as all get-out because, as he told me, he just didn’t do stuff like help people because all people are inherently bad, hateful, and generally mean. Nevertheless he helped me in more ways than one and was on the receiving end of a blessing of his own.

He drove into the Springs to get the part my poor little beat-up S10 Blazer needed, leaving me with my vehicle because otherwise it probably wouldn't be there when we got back, and I was to stay IN the vehicle (doors locked and windows up). 

While he was gone, people pulled off of I-25 from both directions to check on me. I’m not even kidding you a little bit here. I started writing down plate numbers on the back of an envelope but stopped when I ran out of room and lost count. More than FORTY vehicles pulled into that little area, some of the folk choosing to stick around until my ‘angel’ got back with the part, which took better than an hour.

The point I want to make here is not so much that there are indeed an abundance of ‘angels among us’ (although that’s most certainly true and I’m here to tell you so) but ... 

Those angels showed up from all socio-economic backgrounds (going by their vehicles and clothes) and from all the ethnic-cultural backgrounds that the Front Range is home to, they were of all ages and both genders – and not a one of them gave any of the others so much as a sideways look, I’ll have you know. 

Each and all of them had pulled off of that highway urged by the exact same impulse, to help someone, and they all knew it. Grins and waves from each to the other and they were back on their own paths for the day. 

Few of them would have known how MANY they were a part of on that day, but I knew and so did a couple of the early stoppers who stayed to ‘stand guard’.

So it wasn’t just me who was blessed on that day, nor just my reluctant angel (who was shocked enough to find a group of folks waiting with me when he got back, let alone when we told him how MANY more had stopped), but also all those folk who took the time out of their days and made the effort to check on the well-being of a total stranger.

Do not ask me to explain because I flat out cannot do it. 

Such a thing may never have happened before and may not have happened since and may never happen again – but on that day it did I tell you true.

In today’s world we could have and would likely have recorded the whole thing and it would have gone viral on line. As it is, the memory makes me smile and having had the experience makes me believe very strongly in just the opposite of what my reluctant angel told me about people on that day.

Score one for the good folk!

From all walks of life, from all ages, from all ethnicities, from all cultures, male and female they stepped up to the plate and offered aid, support, good wishes, protection, and many a smile and/or hug as well. 

That I am still so impacted by that one short time speaks on behalf of everyone who was there on that day. 

I couldn’t tell you the name of a single one of them except that I remember Ric was the name of the reluctant angel. 

But I will never ever in my life forget the message they brought with them, each and all independently of everyone else. 

‘I care,’ they said. ‘I am here.’

*sentimental sigh*

I totally love remembering times like that.

I Expect the Millennials to Be Superheroes

On my mind today are the Millennials. I was up with them all night last night, kinda sorta, and woke up with them today.

People attach all kinds of labels to this generation. I can't for the life of me figure out why they bother, except maybe that we Boomers are big on labels. I've seen a lot of the data, a lot of the 'studies', a lot of the analysis about this generation. The research has its place, and the labels happen for a reason ... even so, labels don't really do a whole lot of good. As my daughters tell me, 'It is what it is, Mom.'

Being as I'm a Boomer, I'm going to go ahead and use the 'Millennials' label, just because I want to.

The Millennials certainly don't care. I doubt they even realize that labels might be important to some people. From what I've seen, this batch of young people honestly doesn't even recognize the differences we Boomers look for when we're assigning our labels. I think Millennials might be color-blind, and gender-blind, and status-blind, and (thankfully, from my point of view) age-blind. A lot of the things that are so all-fired important to Boomers flat out do not matter to Millennials. Boomers look at that; they see it as a 'bad thing'. If Boomers acted the way Millennials do they would, by their own standards, be far off from the ideals they hold dear.

But Millennials do not really give a rat's hind end about the standards of the Boomers. They aren't bound by them. They aren't even really aware of them. The Boomers stand back shaking their heads, completely unaware that Millennials have their own set of standards. They do not have to do things the same way the Boomers did. They do not want to do things that way (it hasn't worked too well in a lot of ways anyhow, you have to admit). It's not quite a total lack of respect for an older generation; it's more like a confident respect for their own selves. Call it arrogance; that's okay. It's what we brought them up into, after all.

*smiling*

Millennials, so I hear, are 'late bloomers' - supposedly a lot of them are, anyway ... I myself haven't see that but if it is indeed true, so be it. Their peers will handle that problem when the time comes, I do believe.

At any rate, thinking about what we can expect from the Millennials is a good way to spend a hazy smoky dim-skied sort of day.

The day itself brings with it thoughts of the Millennials. The smoke is pouring down out of Canada from the raging Alberta forest fires. I expect the young folks I'm thinking about on this day will do something about what causes those fires.

Contrary to what some Boomers may believe, I don't think our Millennials are the least bit stupid. Nor do I consider them any more selfish than anyone else. Nor do I stick the 'entitled' label on them. They're ... how can I say this? ... seeing things from their own perspective just like everyone else.

And just what exactly are they seeing?

A lot of what they have to look at isn't all that pretty.

They don't like what they're seeing any more than the rest of us do.

The difference is that they're the ones who are going to have to change it.

And they will.

I do expect our Millennials to reverse a lot of the choices we as Boomers have made. Most of it I not only don't have a problem with but enthusiastically applaud. And no I don't expect them to care that I'm rooting for them. They don't need me, or anyone else, rooting for them. Millennials aren't going to even hear either our hoots or our applause. They've got other things on their minds, and are busy doing said things.

No, I'm not talking about taking selfies or lounging on their parents' couches.

I'm talking about the level of communication among them represented by those selfies. It is not the same sort of in person interpersonal communication we as Boomers so heartily approve of, but it is highly effective and efficient, which we tend to ignore while we're criticizing them for it.

When the time comes, they'll use those communication skills to make the changes they want for the world they're going to have to live in, and that their children will have to live in.

They'll use technology to protect and preserve, and to heal, their world - watch them. 

Because you know what? 

Millennials care. 

Deeply. 

Not necessarily in ways or about things Boomers can easily wrap their heads around, but you better believe that yes they do indeed care about their world.

At the moment it's the Canadian forest fires that come to mind. It will be the Millennials who figure out how to eliminate or minimize that threat - by whatever means their creative minds and strong selves can come up with. Maybe they'll ensure proper care-taking of the forests of the world. Maybe they'll be the ones who will see to the re-foresting of Earth. Maybe they'll figure out a way to be certain vulnerable areas have sufficient fire-fighting resources (water supplies, transportation, prevention, yada yada ... how am I supposed to know, I'm not a Millennial). Maybe they'll be the ones who will be able to produce rain when needed, who knows? They don't want the world they're going to give to their children to go up in smoke.

Because natural disasters are on my mind from the research I've been doing for a book, I expect the Millennials to safely vent volcanoes. I expect them to not only safely vent them but to put all that vented energy to a productive use. They don't want the world they live in and that their children will inherit covered with ash and poisonous fumes.

I expect them to come up with a way to relieve pressures within Earth herself so that the movement of the tectonic plates can happen without danger to anyone up top. Those plates have to be able to move and flex, but the Millennials aren't going to be having a lot of patience with earthquakes. An ounce of prevention, you know. They'll figure it out, watch them.

I expect them to explore the deepest reaches of the waters of Earth, to learn what's going on down there, to respect what they find, and to do their utmost to protect and preserve that too. Having the waters of Earth disturbed is not going to fit in with the plans they have for themselves and their children, if you're looking at it from the 'they're selfish' perspective, which I am not. They might want safe shores for personal reasons but they're also looking out for the welfare of the sea folk, the ecological balance of the whole of Earth.

I expect them to produce Sky Guards to protect themselves from threats coming from 'up there out there'. I also expect them to get their backsides, at least some of them, off of Earth and start pioneering 'out there up there'. 

I do not expect them to do any of this stuff out of any sense of true 'altruism', not at first. I suspect at least part of their motivation is likely to be rooted in anger at us Boomers, and a 'this is how you do it!' kind of attitude.  I don't care why they do it, so long as it gets done. They'll find their sense of others as they go along, even if said others are only each other. Says a Boomer, in a kind of snarky Boomer sort of voice. Millennials have already, I think, more of a sense of being truly connected to others than any of the rest of us.

If it's true what people say about them, they'll do what they do for purely selfish reasons. And the people who are saying that act like it's a bad thing, as though they themselves haven't created this situation (as a species, as a Boomer generation) out of pure selfishness themselves. Humankind is inherently self-oriented, folks. Cope as best you can. We don't do anything unless we're likely to get something good for our own selves out of it, even if it's only being able to say 'I told you so' or to pat ourselves on the back. 

Except, apparently, for the Millennials who could not possibly care less about telling anybody so or patting themselves on the back. 

They are a paradox, a conundrum to me as a Boomer. When I find myself thinking of, or referring to, them as 'thumbing their noses' at Boomers it's because that's what we would do. When I think they're angry at us, it's not because they are; it's because we deserve their anger. In reality, I doubt they bother being mad about much of anything.

I expect they'll look for and find alternatives that we the Boomers, and previous generations, have been ignoring for way too long. 

I expect they'll look for and find - and put to use - medical remedies we've long been bemoaning the 'absence' of. They'll look everywhere, not just in test tubes. They've got the technology to do whatever they put their minds to. The technology we gripe about dominating their lives is going to save their lives, and prolong them. If they look for answers because they ('selfishly') want to have longer and stronger lives, it's nothing but sour grapes on our part if we whine about it. They won't turn up their noses at things that work, no matter how 'old' they might be, or how 'experimental'.

I expect the American Millennials to take a good long hard look at every last law we've got on every last book in the United States. I expect them to bloody well study and know their own Constitution inside out, upside down, and every which way from Tuesday - and to take each and every one of our laws straight to the Constitution to make sure it fits the way it's supposed to. I expect them to eliminate the ones that do not fit. 

Yes. I do expect it. Not from all of them, of course, but Millennials are surprisingly picky about the strangest things. They'll get a bee in their bonnet and start doing this, on a Local level, then a State level, and then they'll tackle the Federal laws. Some will want to go straight for the Feds but they'll be reined in by their peers who are going to put their picky minds to good use and do things in a way that makes sense to them. 

Of course, not being a Millennial myself I can't vouch for the way their collective mind works, but that's the impression I've gotten from the generation at large. Some will want to strike hot and hard and fast and make a whole new thing; the majority will take their own sweet time getting around to bigger things while they unobtrusively tend to whatever they want. The sweet thing about this one is that it can all be done electronically - all the laws are public and so is the Constitution. 

The Boomers could have done this their own selves but most of us aren't nearly as adept with electronics and communication as the Millennials are. And we are set in our ways, generally speaking. We've all but given up hope of being able to make any constructive changes (which is just as well, considering some of the changes we've made haven't exactly been all that constructive). What the Millennials will just up and do for no good reason except that they feel like it, we'd debate to death.

I expect the Millennials to make the switch from fossil fuels to 'natural resources' any second now. They're only just getting started; we have to give them maybe five or six minutes here you know. Unless they get the atmosphere of Earth cleaned up they're going to have a long hard haul. So they'll likely start there, while they're developing stuff to maximize solar power, and the wind and water they've got to work with. From their perspective, they've got the chore of taking out the trash generated by others. When they ban the use of plastics for anything except the most vitally needed things until they can come up with viable replacements, I for one will celebrate.

At any rate, the Millennials have everything they need to make all of the above happen, plus a whole lot more. They've got time to learn and to plan and to implement - the rest of their lives are liable to be longer than any previous generation.

That they'll be building on what has been provided to them is a given they might not choose to recognize. And that's okay too.

The Millennials are an odd lot, from the perspective of the Boomers. They will save the world out of sheer want-to, and never think twice about it as they go along. If we wind up viewing them as the heroes they are, they'll look at us like they have no idea in this world what we're going on about.

On the other hand, there's another little oddity I've noticed about the Millennials. They like superheroes. They like the old-fashioned superheroes of comic books, for starters. It seems a strange proclivity for a generation who grew up on reality shows and who spend their lives electronically connected. There's something lurking in them that responds to 'bigger-than-life' heroes. 

That they themselves are the living embodiment of what the word 'superhero' means is nothing that would ever even cross their collective mind. They do not care how any of us view them. They just want what they want. As they come to the realization that they're going to have to do it themselves, they'll (maybe, IMO they should) whine and yap about how they shouldn't have to be the ones doing all this stuff, (maybe, IMO they should) give the Boomers dirty looks, and then they'll do what they have to do when they have to do it. Because somebody has to, you know. And the Millennials are going to soon realize that they themselves are the biggest and strongest 'somebody' around.

The Boomers will watch as the Millennials go about doing what needs doing in such a nonchalant lackadaisical way that they don't look like they're even doing anything at all, let alone saving the world. 

The Boomers will shake their collective head and grumble about what the world is coming to when they're expected to remember to take along their cloth bags when they go grocery shopping. What are they going to do when Millennial medical professionals give them a prescription that they have to take to the local grocery store instead of a pharmacy, and then take what they buy there on home to make their own medicine for a sinus infection or bronchitis - instead of giving them pharmaceuticals? They'll moan and groan and long for the good old days - and be totally shocked when the medicine they made themselves actually works, quickly, without nasty side effects except maybe garlic breath for a day or two. Feeling stressed? Can't sleep? Here's your prescription (weather dependent of course): open a window at dawn and at dusk so you can actually hear the birds singing out there. Sit and listen to them for a while. What! No sleeping pills?

I expect the Millennials will eventually migrate out from the cities and the suburbs. Yeah I know; that sounds really weird but I still expect it to happen. They'll move into dead little towns and revitalize them, create their own, or at the very least bring back a sense of community in their own neighborhoods.

Sounds bass-ackward from what we ought to expect from a generation linked electronically to their world, doesn't it? They don't exactly come across as community-oriented.

Don't they?

Have they not been creating their own variety of 'community' via electronics for the entirety of their lives? Don't tell me they don't want or need human interaction. That's what they're all about. Granted, the scale and style is a lot different from anything the Boomers can understand - but the Millennials are using their technology for what main purpose? Communication. Reaching out. Interacting with others. Connecting.

See the thing is - and this is for the Boomers - you don't give someone a gift and then try to tell them what they have to do with it. 

One of my daughters made that point to me just last week. Some years ago I had wanted to give her an antique dresser that she wanted, but told her she couldn't refinish it. So she didn't take it. When I offered it this time, and she told me it was going to get refinished, I didn't argue the point. I might be old but I can still learn a thing or two or three. Millennials don't particularly care a whole lot about whether or not something loses its original varnish or its 'value' as an antique resting in part on that 'distressed' look. Distress isn't a positive word in the vocabulary of Millennials. So off the antique dresser goes, to a new generation and a makeover that will likely do it a world of good.

She's a Millennial. I'm a Boomer. The more I don't expect her to see things from my perspective the more impressed I am with the way she sees things and the steps she takes to make her world better. The same goes for all four of my Millennial daughters. And they are not exceptions. The Millennials I've known from my work are the same. The friends and colleagues of my daughters are the same. The ones I know on line or from random meetings here and there and everywhere are the same. 

They don't see things the same way we Boomers see them - they live in a different world, almost a parallel world if you want to go with a science-fiction kind of thing. Our Boomer world is here, alive and kicking, but so is the world the Millennials live in ... and they're completely different worlds in a lot of ways. 

Here's another oddity about the Millennials. For a generation noted for electronics, the Millennials (at least the ones I know) are ardent about nature. 

They plant gardens, and trees, and flowers. They recycle. They go fishing and hope their cell phones don't fall in the lake. They bike and blade and run. They can be fanatics about what's going into their bodies. They are blending the two worlds they live in, taking the best of the old and putting it together with the best of the new. And they share it as they go along, because they can. They tend to try to take good care of themselves, if only because they are such public figures and want to look good for the camera.

Of the two, I'd have to say theirs, the one they're making, is better, stronger, healthier all the way around. We Boomers are quick to judge and to condemn anything that's 'different'. Millennials don't seem to recognize 'different' and are just as quick to make friends with Boomers as with everyone else, reserving judgement. Millennials, in general, are just plain flat out nice. Which we Boomers are not. They might be borderline 'too nice' - but I'm pretty sure there's steel in those backbones. If you've ever seen them dig their heels in, you won't doubt them ever again.

Their outlook is not the least bit wrong and I watch them quietly from the sidelines and smile. They have no idea of the magic they are creating. Not a clue.

They just do what they do, you see. They do what they want to do. Luckily for us, it seems what they want to do is what we've tried to instill in them from infancy on - they just process things differently than we expected them to, and go about doing what they do in their own way. 

That might or might not make any sense to us, but as they come into their adult years we're going to be seeing a lot more of them 'doing what they do'. If we disagree with them, they'll probably listen fairly politely to what we have to say and then just keep on doing what they do in their own way. Because that's what they do.

It's who they are, the Millennials.

Without making any kind of fuss about it, they are already changing their (and our) world for the better.

So, while some might be as 'bad' as people say they are, we'd be better off paying attention to what the Millennials as a generation are telling us without ever really saying a word about it. While they're busy checking their phones they're equally busy building communications networks that are going to pack a good solid punch when they're needed. 

The Millennials are also just taking care of business in their own imitable way ... I think our Millennials have a very long collective fuse is what I think. They don't seem to get too bent out of shape about too many things that Boomers have hissy fits about. 

On the other hand, injustice or abuse or a threat to what they want for themselves and their children are likely to kindle flames in their eyes. It might take a lot to make a Millennial mad, but ... really ... you don't want to go there. They are a force to be reckoned with even when they're just doing what they do. Their numbers alone assure that nobody's likely to underestimate the power they wield. That they're so easy-going about most things might make someone think they are unaware of their own power, or don't know how to wield it. Woe to such a person. I kid you not.

They can go from Clark Kent to Superman in the blink of an eye.

SURVIVING STRESS AIN'T A WALK IN THE PARK

Today, for the first time in almost half of a year and a day, I woke up relaxed, calm, and smiling.

I had almost forgotten what that was like.

Sometimes, I think, we don't realize what a load of stress we're carrying, nor the toll it takes to carry it, until part of it is lifted from our shoulders.

Sometimes (most often, actually) we're the ones who have to do what it takes to throw off part of that load. 

We might not really want to. 
We might not really be able to afford to. 

But to continue with it weighing us down, and to continue to pay that price - those are going to bring us to our knees ... and we want that even less.

So we do what we have to do.

Me, I just dropped my shift-work hours down to something I think I'll be able to manage.

I had no sooner done that than the scheduling person also snagged from off of my shoulders the majority of the burden that has made the bearing of it so intensely expensive for me. 

Finally, after all this time, she has assigned me (FOR A WHOLE WEEK!) to ONE, JUST ONE of the five hallways she's been randomly putting me on for God only knows what reason. When I went back full time she asked me if I have a preference about placement. Because I honestly do love all five hallways equally I said that no I don't, thinking that she was just going to assign me to one of said hallways. Ha. SHE apparently interpreted what I said as meaning that I was giving her carte blanche to do that flip-flop random thing at her pleasure. 

With almost everyone on my 'team' having had at least one major life-affecting event over the past couple of weeks, on top of job-related stressors, we're all reeling. Already well on the road to burnout, we've all been struggling. 

When I tried to talk to someone in management about it, she told me that it's up to me to give her solid ideas and suggestions about what to do about it.

That kind of sounds like a bit of a slap in the face, but in reality it's something I've been waiting for. And waiting. And waiting.

On line I went and on line I stayed for the duration of a full night (when I ought to have been sleeping) doing someone else's homework. 

Really.

People whose educations SURELY included training about things related to their chosen career fields have to tell a lowly bottom-of-the-ladder employee to come up with 'solutions' to a problem that is rampant in their industry? 

*laughing*

It's not like I didn't know where to look, being as it's been on my mind for all this time, right?

Anyway, I wrote up a piece that addresses burnout.

I did it my way. Eighteen pages.

Then I did it her way. A page and a half. 

There's no way in Hades she would have made it through even the first paragraph of 'my way'. Her personality type is probably the exact opposite of mine. Fortunately for both of us, my type is a lot more flexible about communication styles. While she cannot flex far enough to even try to 'get' communications offered in 'my' style, I most certainly can flex far enough to offer said communications in 'hers'. 

Being as (with any luck) she might take said suggestions further up the ladder, giving them to her in a format she can understand makes sense. The ones she'd maybe pass them on to would be even less able to grasp the finer points of my narrative than she would. Not for any lack of intelligence, mind you, but only because their brains don't work the way mine does. While I am okay with accepting that difference, they are not. 

We don't speak the same language. I can learn theirs; they cannot learn mine. So it is theirs I have to use if I want to communicate with them at all. Sad but true.

At any rate, today I woke up smiling, which will likely make me smile all day just remembering it.

It's a chilly gloomy rainy day, a good one to get some writing done on COME HELL AND HIGH WATER. I set out Duke's water barrel to collect rain water for him as our tap water is rather on the toxic side, so hopefully at least he will benefit from this day's rain.

As for me, I can't get anything done on my outside projects so may as well spend the day writing - and maybe at long last getting the leather outers for my felted wool boots worked on. 

Writing and doing my projects are stress-relievers for me.

A vicious cycle kicks in without mercy when I get to a certain point.

When the stressors in my life consume all of my internal resources, the load really does take me to my knees. I can't even stand up, let alone take any steps.

When it gets to the point that I have to carry Pepto with me to my shift-work job because the stress of it creates physical symptoms, and live with headaches for the same reason, and resort to adapting my required 'real shoes' to accommodate at least a modified version of my 'happy feet boots' in order to try to minimize the effects of not being able to wear the actual footwear ... and when my 'off' time consists of futile efforts to reconcile myself to the fact that I'm actually doing what I'm doing with (to) myself and my life here ... I have to shake my head at myself.

It's time to ditch the hope of writing a success story about that place. Maybe one about the value of silver linings would work, though.

But first things first, right?

For this day, at least, I've got a reprieve from at least some of the stress, physical, intellectual, and emotional. 

-My feet, legs, back, shoulders, neck, and arms got a whole night of 'full-body heating pad' so they're limber and happy with me for the moment. 
-My eye is appreciating the break from all those spotlights. 
-My mind is at ease, having gotten that narrative written and then translated. That burden is no longer mine. What she/they choose to do with it is not up to me. 
-I've got a bit of a supply of the protein my body needs, so I'm good on that front. 
-I'm not running out of any of my vitamins. 
-My friends and I are making it through what we've got to get through, one way or another, together. 
-Duke is lying by my side while I patter. 
-I have enough project supplies to keep me busy doing basically whatever I want for a while. 
-I can look forward to some stability at that shift-work job for at least the coming week. 
-And, as soon as the new schedule comes out, I can maybe look forward to a few more days like this!

All of the above contribute to the sense of well-being that has me (finally) relaxed on this day.

And so ... it's off I go to find out what sorts of trouble the Young Ones are going to get themselves into and out of, what might be going on in the lives of our Characters, and try to keep the book shorter than the Mamm of Dunnottar one of the Mamm Books. Wish me luck with that. The century of the 500s CE was a busy one, not to mention what happened 12,800 years ago.

OH.

Lest I forget, here's the translated version of that narrative:

Bottom line:

Burnout is going to show up in terms of people: 
coming in late, 
leaving early, 
calling in, 
taking vacations, 
cutting their own hours, 
being less productive than they want/ought to be, 
dragging rather than bouncing, 
developing stress-related illnesses, 
being physically and emotionally drained and showing it, 
not caring as much, 
becoming grouchy, 
and there being a high turnover rate.

Things an individual can do include:
-getting a good solid physical including bloodwork to rule out physical reasons for their malaise and determining whether or not their symptoms are stress-induced, 
-going to a counselor, 
-getting a prescription for stress and anxiety alleviation or using more traditional remedies, 
-taking personal health days, 
-pursuing and developing interests and activities outside of the work realm, 
-eating and sleeping right, 
-using positive self-talk and positive team-talk on a regular basis, 
-taking a vacation, 
-switching divisions or shifts, 
-cutting hours, 
-trying to talk to management about what’s going on, 
-or quitting if none of the above work.

Things a facility might try include: 
=offering said physicals/health screenings and encouraging their people to get them if they’re feeling ‘off’; 
=training staff and management to recognize and respect the signs of impending burnout and/or compassion fatigue without assigning guilt in either direction so that it can be dealt with in an efficient and effective manner; 
=adapting scheduling and assignments when needed; 
=giving credit where credit is due and appropriate compensation; 
=avoiding ‘talking down to’, ignoring, threatening, minimizing, or otherwise insulting staff; 
=taking care when hiring and giving people opportunities to do what they do best without micro-managing; 
=recognizing that there are times that are going to be particularly stressful for staff and offering support and understanding; 
=including healthy shift meals; 
=developing and nurturing core teams; 
=hiring an impartial professional to do an evaluation of the entire functioning of the facility to identify strengths and weaknesses; 
=having someone staff can trust available for them to talk/vent to confidentially without fear of reprisals, either direct or subtle; 
=using all forms of media for recruitment purposes; 
=management picking up shifts rather than making their staff work short (then chastising them) –  
=volunteering to come in during notoriously difficult times (or hiring someone *short shift* for those few hours every day/evening) –  
=providing what is needed to minimize ‘behaviors’ during those same hours … generally a reduction of sensory stimulation for those sensitive to it; 
=ASKING staff (sincerely and nicely) what is needed and then PROVIDING it; 
=discovering and maximizing the unique talents and strengths of individuals; 
=without de-emphasizing the rights of residents, making it clear that staff also have rights which may not be infringed on; 
=recognizing, accepting, and acting on the fact that you cannot get to the root of a problem by blaming the leaves that get sick and fall from the sick tree that made them sick in the first place. 

Or, as an old cowboy would say, ‘You don’t ride your workhorse until it drops – and then blame the horse.’

Also: you can catch a lot more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. 

And: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.