Living With Yourself

 "That is not the way a man does business." That quote right there is a favorite one of mine from an Inside Sports Magazine article on Randy White of the Dallas Cowboys in 1982. You can put woman in for man, or human, whatever. There is a certain way to do things and a certain way not to do things, and I have witnessed a degradation of what should be done by folks in a bunch of situations.

In 51 years, I have seen a bunch of stuff change. Like what? Well, growing up with my father, who was a professor and the best male student at his college, and had his PHD and all that (and didn't get it from the back of a Cracker Jack box like some folks out there), but he was real and so cut and dried with stuff that I always thought that men were supposed to be that way. Do it or don't do it. No meeting to discuss the strategic plan on how to do it. I'm not going on a rant about useless meetings (all of them seem to be), but my point here is that my dad grew up in an era where people didn't have time for all the BS, and folks were also hard ass workers back then , so listening to all the stories from people from that era and reading books about those times, there wasn't much time to have discussions and drag your feet about everything, you had to go, action, get it done. Now its like more and more talking and talking. Talk about talking. Not at all encouraging anyone to just DO.

I have always had a problem with butt kissing. How can you wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror knowing that your days are going to be spent not working or doing your job, but fake smiling and nodding your head at whatever your boss says even if it compromises everything that you believe in? Or maybe you like being like that! Taking the easy way out ALL OF THE TIME. It's safe, its how you got your promotion. Hey, it works for you.  Great. What I have noticed is that all men that I know who act like that don't squat or deadlift or have never participated in football or any combat sports or been in the military. They never have been punched in the face and have never been around people who, if you say the wrong thing, don't want to talk about it, they want to handle it by punching you in the face. I have a buddy who is the greatest  guy in the world, but there is always the underlying respect that I have for him. That respect means that if he gets pissed off at me, we are gonna scrap. So I am careful around him, but I like it. I like the intensity, the pride and the tension . 

Obviously, those who haven't been around that type of intensity just go along, saying what they want to say, never thinking of the possible repercussions. I always think , because of being around those type of dudes all of my life, that I better watch my step , better not say the wrong thing, or be prepared to go if I piss somebody off. To me, thats real and actually the way that it should be.

I know thats a minority opinion these days. Most folks now of age, just grew up thinking that they were tough because they imagined themselves in a stupid video game that they were playing while the door was locked in their safe little room.

Yes, you must be well read, educated and all that, but damn, you have to have a little dangerousness about yourself. Gotta take a chance that not everybody will love you all the time. It is not the way to be. All nodding your head and selling your soul down the river of nothingness. Makes me ill thinking about the people that I know who are keeping their jobs because of their butt kissing. But it's their face that they have to look at in the morning, And the cliche is true: The mirror doesn't lie.