Maybe it’s the current protests around the George Floyd killing. Maybe it’s the emerging exposure of Black Lives Matter. Whatever it is, Juneteenth seems to have gotten more attention this year than years past.
March 1861 – Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated the 16th president of the United States and the founder of the Republican party on a staunch anti-slavery platform.
The Southern states knew that the fragile “compromise” that had kept the balance between slave and free states would not survive Lincoln’s term.
April 12, 1861 – Conferate forces open fire on Fort Sumpter in South Carolina marking the start of hostilities in the Civil war
Eventually, 11 states would leave the Union to form the Confederacy. Ironically, nearly the same number of colonies that rebelled against England 85 years earlier. Some states split. West Virginia, for example, was made up of anti-slave supporters. They became a separate state.
And not all slave states joined the Confederacy. Maryland, Missouri, Deleware and Kentucky were slave states, but remained in the Union. The South was very much fighting to preserve slavery. The North was fighting to preserve the Union.
However, it eventually became clear to President Lincoln that an all out war required all out effort.
September 22, 1862 – President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in rebellious states currently under occupation by Union forces
Contrary to popular belief the Emancipation Proclamation did not free all the slaves. President Lincoln understood that he, as head of the Executive Branch, did not have the authority to change state laws, even states in rebellion.
But, what he did have power to do was make rules governing the area under direct Federal military control. So, he could free the slaves located in areas within the states that had rebelled where the Federal troops were occupying.
January 1, 1863 – Emancipation proclamation goes into effect
The Emancipation Proclamation eventually freed 3.5 million enslaved Americans. As the Army advanced, slaves were freed as soon as the area they were in changed hands from the Confederacy to the Union. Eventually, the entire rebellious Southern states were occupied and all the slaves in those 13 states were freed.
Ironically, there were still slaves in the United States. Remember those slave states that remained in the Union? The slaves in those states were still slaves.
April 9, 1865 – The Civil War effectively comes to a end with the surrender of General Robert E Lee. The war would officially end 16 months later when President Andrew Johnson declares a formal end to the conflict in August 1866
Lee was not the commander of the Southern Forces. He was General of the Army of Northern Virginia. Unlike the Northern forces, the Southern Armies were divided into state armies. Jefferson Davis was in charge of the entire Sourthern forces.
April 15, 1865 – President Lincoln is assissinated just a week after the surrender of General Lee marking the beginning of the end of the war
President Lincoln rightly is credited with winning the war and freeing the slaves. He had won reelection less than a year earlier and had he lived to serve out the remainder of his term, who knows how much life in the United States might have been different.
June 19, 1865 – Juneteenth, General Gordon Granger makes an announcement in Galvaston, TX pursuant to the Emancipation Proclamation that all slaves in Texas are now free. This marks the last group of slaves to hear they have been freed by Executive Order.
Galvaston, TX was deemed to be the last area emancipated. Ironically, the Union slave states were still not emancipated.
December 18, 1865 – XIII Amendment is ratified abolishing slavery except in cases of punishment of a crime
The 13th Amendment finally abolished slavery in all states. It was only the first of three reconstruction amendments.
July 9, 1868 – XIV Amendment adopted. It provides for equal protection under the law for all citizens
The 14th Amendment extended all the rights to every citizen. Effectively barring laws targeted at denying rights to freed slaves. In spite of this, Jim Crow laws were passed enforcing segregation. On May 17, 1954 in Brown vs The Board of Education, the Supreme Court voted unanimously that Jim Crow laws were unconstitutional. They cited the 14th Amendment in their decision.
February 3, 1870 – XV Amendment adopted granted all men the right to vote. (Women wouldn’t get the vote until August 26, 1920 when the adoption of the 19th Amendment.)
Juneteenth is a funny name for a holiday. At least the day being remembered is actually in June. And the day ends in “teenth.” It’s not just a holiday for members of one ethnic group. It’s a day that marks an important moment in the history of America.
A moment that I’m sorry I didn’t learn about in school. It’s a moment that I hope my children and grandchildren will learn about in school.
We cannot achieve the future we desire without underderstanding our past. And Juneteenth is an important part of that past.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Who can tell me a difference between computers and people? Rodney?
Well, people can heal themselves and computers can’t.
That’s not correct. Anyone else?
I could be misremembering his response. But, it was something like that. I went to 6th grade at Nisqually Middle School in Lacey, WA in 1977. Even 43 years later, the question has stuck with me. And after four decades, I still think I’m right.
In fairness Mr Michalek was probably thinking about someone with cancer or a life threatening disease. Obviously, we can’t cure ourselves.
Back in 1977, the quintesential IBM PC hadn’t been released. It would come out three years later in 1980. But, there were some early computers in the consumer market. And of course, the government and universities had big mainframes. So, we all knew what a computer was.
Of course, even those mainframes that took up an entire room couldn’t do as much as the smart phone you had in your pocket. Oh, and cat memes were not yet a thing. Anyway, we knew what computers did.
Can people heal themselves? Of course. I recently built a fort in my backyard. In Utah’s heat and low humidity if I work outside with wood too much, my fingers chap. They get dry and the skin splits.
Do you know why Super Glue is so good at glueing your fingers to that tea cup you were trying to repair? It’s because Super Glue was originally developed as a tool to close wounds. It was designed to stick well to skin.
I used Super Glue on my fingers to close up a couple of the splits. They don’t really bleed, but they hurt like a really big paper cut. A little Super Glue and they were better. But, then something happens, after a couple of days, the “cuts” open up again. By that time, it has started to heal and it’s less painful.
Why do they reopen? Because your skin doesn’t stay attached to you. You are constantly shedding dead skin. In fact, most of the “dust” in your house is dead skin that you and the other humans living in your house have shed.
The point is that left alone, the cracks on my fingers will eventually “fix” themselves. If you get a cold, you might take some cold medicine for the symptoms but your body will eventually fix itself. Even COVID-19, while the most serious cases require hospitalization to avoid death, the milder cases often don’t require anything. The infected bodies simply produce the necessary anti-bodies and fight off the virus.
Our bodies are amazing. Our species has spent millenia developing ways to not die. And our bodies are pretty good at it.
Computers aren’t so lucky, or adaptive. If your computer gets a virus, it won’t eventually develop anti-bodies. In fact, most anti-virus software is designed to be preventive rather than corrective. Your AV software will work very hard to avoid letting a virus get past the front door. But, if a virus does infect your computer, the computer is not going to be able to fix itself.
Even without considering viruses, because unlike human viruses, computer viruses are developed by a person for the express purpose of infecting your computer. Often to try to steal personal information.
(Yes, I know that human viruses can be engineered. No, COVID-19 was not developed in a lab.)
But, even without considering viruses, computers are very predictable things. There’s an IT concept called GIGO.
GIGO: Garbage In Garbage Out
In other words, if you give a computer bad data, it will give you bad results. And if you give the computer the same data every time, it will give you the same results every time.
Computers require hardware. There’s a CPU, RAM, ROM, SDD, VGA, HDMI, monitor, keyboard, mouse, power supply, network connections, WIFI, Ethernet, and thousands of others. If one breaks, say your monitor shorts out. No amount of waiting is going to allow the computer to fix itself. If your harddrive has bad sectors, you can isolate them, and the computer might even do that itself. But, the computer won’t fix the harddrive.
You might be thinking, what about monitor programs? All they are doing is telling you where it broke. They aren’t fixing it themselves.
Imagine your Check Engine Light. It’s controlled by a computer. Your CEL isn’t actually fixing the misfire in piston 3. It’s ony telling you that you need to fix it.
So, Mr Michalek, if you happen to read this, and if you figure out that I was adopted after your class so you never had Rodney Bliss, please understand that I’ve carefully considered my original answer and upon further reflection I’ve decide I was right.
Humans can fix themselves. Computers can’t.
Stay safe.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I do lots of project work. In fact, it’s almost the only thing I do. I’m technically trained as a Program Manager. I got a certificate and everything. It’s called a PMP, Program Manager Professional. It was the hardest test I ever took. Four hours. I don’t remember what score I got. Only that I passed all four sections on the first try.
But, nobody really cares. In fact, at this point you are wondering why I bothered to write such a boring opening paragraph. (Yeah, me too.)
Projects are how we do much if not most of our work. Projects have a set of features, a budget and a start and end date. That’s what makes them project as opposed to say regular maintenance.
About four years we had a big project to move all our agents from one virtual environment and phone system to a different one. I’m now in the middle of a another big project. We are moving a data center from Iowa to Oklahoma. Moving the data center isn’t my project. Amir is the project manager responsible for the big move. However, my client also uses that data center. I’m responsible for moving my client’s systems.
Oh, and we are moving because our old data center doesn’t support enough bandwidth to go to a new audio CODEC.
(The point, Rodney. What’s the point of this?)
The point is that our project started over a year ago. And we aren’t scheduled to be done until sometime in 2021. (Remember a project needs to have a start and end date.)
So, my project schedule is two years, right?
It’s really hard to run a project for two years. Kind of like making a journey of 1000 miles.
The journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step
That is true. But, who wants to walk 1000 miles? You’ll never make it in a single day. So, you will have to sleep, and eat and plan daily routes and allow for rain and heat. There’s a lot of work that goes into a thousand mile journey.
You know what makes more sense? Shorter trips. Sure, you might ultimately need to go from Iowa to Oklahoma, but it might make sense to plan how you are going to get to Kansas City first.
And that’s how you handle projects that go months or years. You don’t do a 24 month project. Instead you break it up into smaller projects. Tonight we moved some of our network traffic to upgraded firewalls.
Today was our “finish” date for the mini-project of upgrading our firewalls. Is it a “real” project? Well, we had to order the firewalls. We had to configure them. We had to schedule the install. And we had to test the install.
Yes, it hit all the requirements for a project.
In progamming there is a concept called AGILE programming. One of the aspects is to write short “code sprints,” typically about two weeks. A program might take years to complete. In fact, my longest programming project lasted about three years.
We went 1000 miles, two weeks at a time.
Stay safe.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I’m sure your dad will build this before he finishes the patio.
Why?
It’s more fun to build forts than to pour concrete.
She was right, of course, my lovely wife. But, my excuse was that the grandkids were going to be coming by soon. My grandkids don’t care if I have a new patio poured. You know what the 6 year old, three year old and two year old like to play with?
Yeah, forts.
Do you know the difference between concrete and cement? Did you even know there was a difference? I didn’t, for a long time. And even now I have to look them up. In fairness they are often used interchangably. But, technically, you use cement to make concrete, or leave the rocks out and make mortar.
That isn’t really important to the story, but I find myself getting easily distracted when my lovely wife asks me to pour the new patio.
And the fort was a great distraction.
The instruction book is 100 pages long. There are over 50 individual steps.
It suggests that the construction should take two people 14-18 hours. I’m not sure if that included the 1-2 hours they estimated the tube slide would require to construct.
Regardless, all the estimates were off. . .by a lot. There were literally hundreds of pieces and thousands of screws.
These are the screws that were LEFT OVER. Originally all four boxes were full
The instruction writers, or, as I like to call them, “Those who NEVER HAD TO PUT THIS TOGETHER” included allen wrenches to use on the bolts and screws. Allen wrenches are okay if you are putting together a flimsy overpriced bookcase from IKEA. But, trying to put 3″ wood screws into cedar wood, is not something you want to do by hand.
It would have taken 18 hours just to screw in 10 screws.
Fortunately, I have a well supplied tool chest and multiple electric drills.
I started on Step 1 on Friday afternoon. I finished Step 50 sometime Monday night after dark. Not everything was construction. I don’t think I’ve ever built anything, including a flimsy over-priced bookshelf from IKEA, that I didn’t customize at least a little. My play fort was no exception. My biggest addition was adding an extra slide. My neighbor was getting ready to throw away a heavy duty 10′ long plastic slide. I knocked out a section of siding, added a support base and the new slide was ready to go.
I also installed a flag pole. I was tempted to go with a pirate flag. The upper section is called the crow’s nest. And I plan on adding a ship’s wheel. But, then I thought about the fact that my grandkids would be playing on it, and decided I’d rather they play under the American flag than any other flag.
My kids helped as I was building. Some for an hour. Some for a little more. My grandkids came by on Saturday. I had to skip a few steps to get the double slide installed and the swings set up. When they showed up, they even “helped” Papa with the installation.
All in all, I think it probably took me close to 30 hours. The tube slide definitely deserved to have it’s own estimates. It involved 20 different pieces of plastic and dozens of screws. And at least a couple of points where I literally had to balance a nut on the end of my finger, push it into a 1″ wide slot and then try to “catch” the threads from the top side. That alone took almost 30 minutes. I had to do it twice.
I have a new project this week. Well, it’s really an old project, of course. It’s pouring concrete. Or was it pouring cement to make concrete? Again, I know they are different, but I have trouble remembering the difference.
In any case, it won’t be nearly as fun as building a fort in my backyard.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I love my grandkids. They are aged from six years old down to a one year old. There are several on the way as well.
I loved being a Dad and I’m even happier being a grandfather. The great thing about being a grandfather is that when the kids get cranky you can just have them go home. . .and they take the grandkids. Okay, that’s a joke. But, it is great that a grandparent gets to hang out with their grandkids and then the kids go home.
But, one thing hasn’t changed. I’m still picking up after kids. We have a box of toys that we pull out for the grandkids to play with. There are Hot Wheels cars. There are play dishes and play food and balls. My grandkids love to strew the toys all over the house.
Typically they help to put the toys away. But, often going home coincides with “The kids are getting cranky.” So, it’s not unusual for me to be the one that puts the toys away. In fact, there are times we only bring out a few toys. There are less to put away.
It’s a small price to pay to get to hang out with some of my favorite little people.
With the nice weather, and the need for social distancing, we’ve been visiting outside. There’s less to play with outside. We get some soccer balls out and the kids like to kick them around the yard. We fenced our backyard a couple months ago.
Our fence matched up to our neighbor’s fence. He has a beautiful Pondarosa Pine that overhangs my fence. It’s at least 50 feet tall. And like all pine trees, it has pine cones. They drop into my yard daily.
I collect them into a pile next to the fence. If I don’t they become grenades; getting set off by the lawn mower, becoming so many caltrops under the my feet.
So, I pile them up and when they get to be too much, I load them up and throw them away. My grandkids love to play with them. And like the toys, they get scattered all over the yard.
Recently, I collected an entire wheelbarrow full and threw them away. My lovely wife was concerned.
What will the grandkids play with when they come over?
You know that the tree will continue to drop more, right?
We will get to a point in the season where there are no more.
I’m back up to another wheelbarrow full. Clearly, we aren’t to that point in the season yet.
Stay Safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
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LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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June 12 is one of the days I never miss. Sometimes it sneaks up on me. Sometimes I see it coming for weeks. But, regardless, I never miss this day.
This year I saw it coming weeks away. Twenty years ago on June 12, 2000, my friend Howard Tayler doodled a cartoon. He doodled again the next day and the next, and the next. And he kept doodling every day for twenty years. He never missed a day.
His cartoon is called Schlock Mercenary. The main character is a silicon based life form that looks like a pile of poop. Over the years, he’s created literally hundreds of characters, thousands of worlds, and even managed to span a couple of galaxies.
Ten years ago, a few of us threw a party for Schlock, and my friend Howard. June 12 will forever be the day that my friend’s creation came to life. It’s Schlock’s birthday.
But, June 12 is also a day of sadness for me.
June 12, 2009, my father passed away. It wasn’t unexpected. But, it was still sad. I don’t remember my Dad’s birthday. It’s in April and I could look it up. But, it never really stuck with me. Honestly, I wasn’t there, of course. And I didn’t even meet my dad until I was 11 years old. And he hated birthdays.
So, happy June 12th. Happy birthday to Schlock Mercenary. And I get to remember my Father. A man that was hard to love, but wonderful to know.
Stay Safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.
– Rocky Balboa
Not “all” but some, right?
My friend Rachel Solomon is a piano player. She’s been out of work for the past 11 weeks. So, to keep her occupied and stay connected to her fans, she does virtual piano bars. Twice a week, she puts on a web broadcast for a couple of hours. It’s your typical piano bar. She takes requests. Accepts tips. Jokes with the crowd. She acknowledges her regulars. She notices new comers. And she does themes.
The only thing is that it’s virtual. She’s in Nashville. Her fans are located all over the world. She’s done a night devoted to 80’s music. She did one that was all original music. (Rachel has two CD’s released.) And today she did one focused on upbeat and positive music.
So, there was lots of happy tunes. Songs about sunshine and rainbows.
I needed a little sunshine and rainbows today. Maybe you did to. If so, I hope you found some. Tomorrow is soon enough to think about the the rain and the storms.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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How much is that going to cost?
Well, the parts are about $120. I can work on it this weekend.
I don’t remember the context, but my Dad told me
Everyone makes a car payment. You either pay the bank or the mechanic
I find myself telling my kids the same thing. Most of my kids have their own cars. And most of those cars are old. And most of those old cars are paid for. My kids hate paying for repairs. I mean, does anyone like paying for repairs?
Everytime they have a major repair we have the same discussion. My son’s Pontiac recently needed new outer tie rods and he just found out it needs a new tranmission mount. I helped him swap out the tie rods. He knows I’ll help with the transmission mount. The quote from the tire shop was $180 for parts and labor. Just parts from the auto parts store? Eighty dollars.
His sister has a Honda civic. I’ve rebuilt the front end of her car three times. Once, I wrecked it. Once she wrecked it. And once her sister wrecked it. My daughter only had to pay for the one that she wrecked, but it was the most expensive.
Recently her alternator went out. . .for the second time. I replaced it for her. $160 for a new battery and alternator from the parts store.
She really wants to buy a new car. I told her,
The cheapest car to own is the one you already have.
She believes me. . .I think. But, everytime she has to drop a couple hundred for more supplies from the parts store, she questions it.
My 17 year-old son just got his license. He doesn’t have a car. But, he is obviously very interested the car situation in our household.
Don’t you think she should buy a newer car?
Why?
So she wouldn’t have as many problems.
You mean a car like our Suburban?
Yeah.
You know the Suburban has a bunch of issues too, right?
Really?
I have two cars. My 1996 Toyota Carolla with 285,000 miles. And our 2005 Suburban with about 112,000 miles. Both run. The Suburban has an ongoing problem with it’s air filter. We’ve dropped $1000 to try to get it pass emissions last Fall. The Summer heat here in Utah has caused some of the interior padding to seperate. The speedometer occasionally gets out of sync. I have the parts to fix it, I just haven’t taken the time to rip apart the dash to get to the stepper motor.
My son assumed the Suburban didn’t have a car payment. Of course it did.
Because every car has a car payment. As my Dad said, you either pay the bank or you pay the mechanic.
Or, in my case, the parts store.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Have you ever heard the phrase, “Give 110%”?
It’s not possible, of course.
I watched a group of athletes working out on a track field. The athletes were running the forty yard dash. After one competitor finished, the coach asked him if he’d given his very best.
Yes, I ran absolutely as fast as I could. That was my best time.
I will give you this $100 cash right now, if you run even a hundredth of a second faster.
And they did it. They were able to squeeze slightly more performance out of their bodies. They gave a slightly higher percentage.
What’s the most effective you’ve ever been? If you are an athlete, maybe you’ve at one point given 95%? 96%?
I have a voice in my head that is a perfect person. He is there to tell me that I can always do a little better. He knows how to give that 100%. But, being a figment, that’s easy for him.
When I manage to do something well, he tells me how to get better. When I do something poorly, he’s there to point out my mistakes. And when I’m working on something he reminds me of the things I could be doing. Maybe it’s better or more important than the thing I’m working on? That idiot in my head has plenty of other ideas.
He’s not mean. He’s just brutally efficient.
I discovered something about myself today.
I enjoy hikes. I don’t enjoy hiking. It’s hard on my knees. I have old man knees. I take lots of ibuprofen on my hikes. I grew up camping and hiking in the Pacific Northwest. As an adult, I was a scout leader. I enjoyed my time with the boys.
Later, I had my own sons (and daughters.) We went camping often. Three of my sons became Eagle Scouts and the other two lacked only a an Eagle project.
Just last month, during the height of the social distancing, two of my sons and I did the “Baldy Hike.) It’s a 8 mile hike with thousands of feet in elevation change. It’s the hardest hike we ever did with the scouts.
And I forgot my ibuprofen. My knees hated it. But, other than that, I had a wonderful time. And today I figured out why.
Remember that guy in my head? The one telling me all the other things I could be doing.
He hates hiking. Well, maybe not hate it, but he’s silent during the hikes. Because when you are hiking, even camping, there is nothing else to do. Literally, you are doing the only thing possible.
In the middle of a miles long hike, you are doing exactly what needs to be done. There is no doubt. No question. You could not be doing anything better, more important.
It’s a very comforting feeling, knowing that you are doing everything possible. And you can come closest to achieving 100% performance. Not by setting records for speed or endurance, but simply by doing the only thing you can possibly do.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Give 110%”?
It’s not possible, of course.
I watched a group of athletes working out on a track field. The athletes were running the forty yard dash. After one competitor finished, the coach asked him if he’d given his very best.
Yes, I ran absolutely as fast as I could. That was my best time.
I will give you this $100 cash right now, if you run even a hundredth of a second faster.
And they did it. They were able to squeeze slightly more performance out of their bodies. They gave a slightly higher percentage.
What’s the most effective you’ve ever been? If you are an athlete, maybe you’ve at one point given 95%? 96%?
I have a voice in my head that is a perfect person. He is there to tell me that I can always do a little better. He knows how to give that 100%. But, being a figment, that’s easy for him.
When I manage to do something well, he tells me how to get better. When I do something poorly, he’s there to point out my mistakes. And when I’m working on something he reminds me of the things I could be doing. Maybe it’s better or more important than the thing I’m working on? That idiot in my head has plenty of other ideas.
He’s not mean. He’s just brutally efficient.
I discovered something about myself today.
I enjoy hikes. I don’t enjoy hiking. It’s hard on my knees. I have old man knees. I take lots of ibuprofen on my hikes. I grew up camping and hiking in the Pacific Northwest. As an adult, I was a scout leader. I enjoyed my time with the boys.
Later, I had my own sons (and daughters.) We went camping often. Three of my sons became Eagle Scouts and the other two lacked only a an Eagle project.
Just last month, during the height of the social distancing, two of my sons and I did the “Baldy Hike.) It’s a 8 mile hike with thousands of feet in elevation change. It’s the hardest hike we ever did with the scouts.
And I forgot my ibuprofen. My knees hated it. But, other than that, I had a wonderful time. And today I figured out why.
Remember that guy in my head? The one telling me all the other things I could be doing.
He hates hiking. Well, maybe not hate it, but he’s silent during the hikes. Because when you are hiking, even camping, there is nothing else to do. Literally, you are doing the only thing possible.
In the middle of a miles long hike, you are doing exactly what needs to be done. There is no doubt. No question. You could not be doing anything better, more important.
It’s a very comforting feeling, knowing that you are doing everything possible. And you can come closest to achieving 100% performance. Not by setting records for speed or endurance, but simply by doing the only thing you can possibly do.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved