The Growth Principle

The Growth Principle

I wrote a pretty inflammatory essay a couple nights ago that I was going to post tonight but the more I stew on it, the more it comes off like senseless bitching. I’ve spent too many years bitching I think. I’ll save it for another day maybe. I have my days when I get mad about things that have happened to me. I want to extract a pound of flesh from those that have done me wrong. My long game plan is to make a billion dollars and then go hire them for double what they are making now and put them to task doing menial things. You now, cleaning toilets, getting my dry cleaning, and walking my dog. I know it’s mean spirited. I never said I was perfect and I am still working on being humble as the dust. It’s a life’s work so cut me some slack.

The reason I decided to sit on it was you really; the two or three of you that read my ramblings. I read the things you post and I know you feel the same things that I feel. There are a lot of you that have been wronged and been discarded. You've given years of your life to some entity just to be thrown out with the trash when you’re no longer useful or compatible. Most of you don’t bitch (at least not to me). I’ve had conversations with one or two of you where I can start to draw it out of you but at the end you back away. You’re bigger people then me. You guys are the ones I look to when I’m getting left of center, when I want to really drive a stake through someone’s heart and for that I thank-you. It inspires me to try and better myself.

I was out on TV Hwy (real street) on a quest with my wife for the perfect curtains for the living room. So we’re out and about and I start seeing places that sell firewood. I have a fireplace in my new apartment but spending three to five dollars on a bundle of wood is not particle long term. I’ve been on the lookout for a full cord of wood that someone will bring to the house. It’s done here; I just haven’t found the perfect place. So we stop at a spot that has half cords I get out and start walking around. This older Hispanic lady comes up to me and I start asking her about the firewood. She’s doing a lot of nodding. I’ve been overseas and I know when the person I’m talking to doesn’t have any idea what I’m saying. Eventually she puts me on the phone with someone and she says “speaks English.” We get back in the car and we decide we really need to learn Spanish. There is a very heavy Hispanic community here and learning Spanish would benefit both of us and our children. Something as simple as learning to speak Spanish can be the one thing that pushes me towards being a more well rounded individual and will by default, help me grow; enriching my life and the lives of those around me.

It’s all about growth at the end of the day. We are only as old as we let ourselves become. When we stop moving forward and stop learning I think we begin to die. Holding on to the past helps us die faster too…I’m trying guys, I really am.

For you Mark, under 600 words.