A DYING BREED!

I have had the privilege of working with some very talented men in my life. Self motivated hard working men who learned through the school of hard knocks and as such can do most anything at some level. Most of these men are older and on the verge of retirement.

Now for the sad part. The torch isn't being passed. Instead the flame of knowledge is burning out as these men take their knowledge and talent with them to retirement or to the grave. I've asked why they haven't shared their knowledge with the younger generation. Almost all of them give the same answer. "No one wants to learn. It takes time to learn what I have to teach and your generation wants the quick fix answer".

In the age of "Instant Gratification" we have lost the patience of dedication in search of skill and knowledge. We have taken away the school of hard knocks and now just look for specialized talent or contracted work. We pay someone else to do our work and then wonder why "our" team has no talent. We fail to train our men, and then complain when they know nothing.

I fear shortly I will be left in a world of ignorance. I fear the knowledge pool will be gone before I have finished drinking from it. The gap will be huge and the shoes left empty impossible to fill.

Am I prepared for this up and coming loss due to retirement? I don't think anybody is. This is going to be a hard decade for technological fields. Those of us left in the coming knowledge vacuum will have to step up. We will need to be motivated and dedicated to learning what we failed to learn while the Wisdom was still readily available. Are there enough of my generation with the drive to meet the task? So far the answer seems to be no.

So what can I do? Hmmm, lead by example, dedicate my own life to salvaging the outgoing wisdom and keep my team of workers motivated in the search of deeper knowledge and understanding.

Comedians

"Black kids are magicians, they make their fathers disappear!"

Did he just say that? *blinks* He did just say that.

Actually I didn't. The black comedian I watching at 1am did. Not sure why I'm up at 1am, but I am. Now I don't know about you, but that line had me rolling. (it's probably funnier when delivered by someone other than me)

"the average white man gets pulled over and he's thinking, 'I hope I don't get a ticket'. I get pulled over and I'm thinking, 'I hope nobody who looks like me did something'."

I love great comedians, but I think black comedians have an unfair advantage. They are allowed to throw out the borderline if not blatant racist jokes that would get anyone else blacklisted. Labelled a bigot.

Guess that's just part of living in our politically correct world.

Ok, one more joke. Read it slowly with an Irish accent.

"This jokes about an Irishman working in England. As you know there's alot of Irishman working in England. They go over there and help em to build the skyscrapers, the highways, the supermarkets, the hotels. And then they go back a couple of years later and blow them all up... and then they go back and build them again.. and than they go and blow them all up.. and then they go back and build them again. And the English haven't caught on yet. They think it's political. It's not. It's Job Security!"

and on that note, I'm off to bed.

Living for Posterity

I've lived my life in survival mode. Always living to get through the day, but rarely looking to future.

In my defense, I am a dreamer, as my wife likes to remind me. I've spent many an hour dreaming of possible futures, possible business ventures, possible realities.

So where has a life of dreams and survival gotten me? As the song goes, "Another day older and deeper in debt". This would be acceptable to me if it was just me. But it's me, my wife and my three kids. Poverty, sofa hopping, dreaming without pursuing of dreams, living on whims, seizing the day without care or worry of tomorrow; all a me I can no longer be. The future matters. It's something to plan and prepare for. To strive for. Survival worked when I was a bachelor but it has become a burden as a family man.

Today PP gave a sermon on planning for the future. Part of Israel's failure before God was her failure to look ahead. It had me thinking about other Bible passages. God says we are to build an inheritance for our grandchildren (and I would say for our great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren). This being both a spiritual inheritance and a physical inheritance. The blessings God gives to me and my wife are supposed to be carried on to my posterity. This means I have to do more than survive, I have to excel. I have to get out of debt, and learn how to wisely invest my money to create an empire for me and my family. I need to teach my children the lessons I've learned; about God; about debt; about family; about all of the knowledge God has given me. If I don't pass what I have learned through the school of hard knocks onto my children, than I am failing them.

I sat thinking about what my parents and grandparents left me. My grandfather had a stronger work ethic than anyone I've ever known. This man came to America with nothing and died with 7 homes paid for in cash and a small fortune in the bank all earned through hard work at normal everyday jobs. He left it all to his wife and kids when he died. My grandmother, being a product of the great depression, was the most frugal person I ever knew and she certainly didn't waste it. But their children did and all that my grandfather worked for in his life vanished in less than a decade. See, my grandparents were two very talented people, and some of that they passed on to their children, but they failed to pass on their financial knowledge, and they failed to pass on any real spiritual knowledge. The net result is they left their children bankrupt (financially and spiritually).

So my father had little to pass on to me (my mother had even less). What little they had, not even that was passed on to me. It's as if I grew up in a vacuum. Survival is all I've ever known.

So now what? Now I learn the hard way. Now I move forward. Now I pass on to my posterity what I have had to teach myself. Now I live for the future, not just my future (that's the least of my worries), but my childrens future, my grand-childrens future. It is they who will see the greatest rewards of my labor.

I've learned late in life lessons which could have benefitted me greatly when I was younger. Now I'm digging myself out of a hole of my own creation. Maybe my children's hole won't be so deep if I can teach them rightly in their youth. And maybe my grand-children's hole will be even shallower.

My wife and I are both 1st generation Christians. We are bound to make many mistakes. But I think we are headed on the right path and I am confident my posterity will be blessed because of it. Maybe the Lord will let me live long enough to see the benifits of my labor proclaimed through my grand-children and great-grand-children.

I thought I was so wise when I was a teenager. Am I going to look back at me today and say, "what a young fool you were"?