Category: Deep Thoughts

Stupid Ideas

Published on by Andy Affleck

My friend Mur, author of the wonderful Playing for Keeps (don’t stop,  just order and read, trust me) posted a blog entry that resonated with me on every level possible.

First, go here and read it. Done? Yes, I like Zefrank too.

Anyway, just the other day, Ann and I had a conversation in which we expressed our frustration with life. We’re doing fine but we’ve been feeling like we’ve been running up a gravel hill for some time now. Ann put it best when she pointed out that we were doing better when we were younger and were taking more risks. We weren’t doing the safe and smart thing all of the time. Not that we were being stupid, we were just worrying less and being a bit more adventurous. And it paid off for us. But these last few years, we’ve been making safe choices, doing smart things, being (dare I say it?) conservative (no, not that kind of conservative) and it hasn’t been paying off for us. We’ve felt stymied and defeated and, generally, less fulfilled. 

We were thinking that it was time to take some risks again. No, we don’t need to take the kinds of risks that could result in the loss of health and home but we can take the kinds of risks that make us feel alive and are personally and maybe even financially rewarding.

It was in the few days after that conversation, as we both began spinning out some of the ways we can change things and move ourselves forward in a new direction that I saw Mur’s post and it struck me that we do not necessarily need to think large. We can do this on the micro-level and the aggregate will be the kind of rewards we are looking for.

So, on the heels of both of these, I took the one idea I’ve been playing with the last few days and decided to run with it full steam ahead. We’ll see where that leads me. It’s a start and I’m feeling pretty excited about it.

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My thinking has been 2-Dimensional…

Published on by Andy Affleck

At my age, I do not expect to have major revelations in my own thinking. I figure that I’ve long ago puzzled things out and that, at this point, I am just refining my thoughts and ideas. But, today I was happy to discover that I can still have major revelations about my life, my world, and my own thoughts.
 
Of course, what I realized is also something that’s so obvious, it’s a wonder it took me this many years to figure out.
 
The problem, the perennial problem, is that my personal work space at home is a mess. Granted, I am one of those people who, despite the piles, always knows where the important documents are and can produce them instantly. But, still, there are piles of stuff on every available surface including, unfortunately, my Casio keyboard next to the desk (meaning that I only have access to about 2 octaves and only one some weird instrument I created in the FM Synthesis module and cannot change because the instrument selection buttons are buried under things).
 
My solution has always been to organize as much as I can. I keep telling myself that given a file cabinet and drop folders, I can get it all squared away and pretty, like in the Pottery Barn catalogs where the desks are pristine, inviting, devoid of dust and crumbs, and so very well lit. Well, maybe not that last part. Having one’s office in the basement does preclude nice lighting to a large degree. However, in any organization project, I hit that stage where I have items that have no home and no place to go and thus get put in one or more piles for me to later figure out. In short: FAIL.
 
Then, today, it hit me. My hobbies are three-dimensional. I’ve been applying two-dimensional thinking to a three-dimensional problem. I don’t need more file folders or pandaflex thingies. What I need are cubbies and boxes or baskets. I need a basket into which I put my sketch books, pencils, sharpeners, erasers, how-to books, workbooks, and anything else that fits the “learn to draw” hobby. I need a box for guitar strings, the digital tuner, extra picks, songbooks, and my teach-yourself-to-play software and DVDs. I need another box for all things scouting including fishing lures, pinewood derby kits from years past, Scouting and Boy’s Life magazines, and so much more. And so forth and so on.
 
I don’t know why I never figured this out before. We’ve long organized Kiddo’s stuff this way. He has shelves in the family room which have cubbies in them inside of which fit boxes and baskets, each containing a different type of toy. And it works pretty well for him. But I never made the connection to my own space and my own needs. Of course, I have no cubbies nor baskets nor boxes so implementing this is not going to be happening immediately. But as we design our new office and prepare for future renovations (fingers crossed!) I now at least have a much better idea how I will keep things organized then. Until that time, I’m sure I can fit fishing lures into a manila folder, right?

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