Skip to main content

Welcome 2020

It's a New Year once again! 2020 how can that possibly be? The Y2K (2000) computer scare was just yesterday, wasn’t it? Impossible . . . 

No matter who you are, what you do, where you go, or what you plan - time simply slips away. Don’t believe me, let's take stock in what you may or may not recollect, as a reader of this blog and count the years.

High School, remember those days? August of 1970, I became a freshman (50 years ago)!

Songs always make an impact, “So tonight I'm gonna party like it's nineteen ninety-nine," 1999 by Prince. That song was released September 24, 1982 (38 years ago). Or maybe for you, it was Stairway to Heaven, by Led Zeppelin (1971).

Greg LeMond is the only American to win Le Tour de France, in July 1986 (34 years ago). After moving to Los Angeles in 1985, I met my hero at Two Wheel Transit Authority in 1987.

Radio Shack launched the Tandy 1000 computer in November 1984. This was my first personal computer. A 7.16 MHz 8088 processor, dual floppy disk drive with a revolutionary 300 baud Modem, which I purchased used in 1989 (31 years ago).

On January 31, 2014 (6 years ago) I became a Free Agent after 27 years of loyal service to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).

And of course, we cannot forget August 16, 2016, my 60th birthday. The day we made the trip to Los Angeles where I received my new Fender Telecaster.

It’s going on four years now and I’m having the time of my life exploring, the world of music with my beautiful guitar . . .

You see, in my experience, to remain curious, active, and young at heart, life is about learning and teaching new skills. That reminds me, I need to get back to my YouTube video channel Guitar Gems (launched May 23, 2019). The emotional and physical rewards are simply undeniable. And if I might add practically unexplainable, but let’s try.

Lately, I’ve been reading on FaceBook a number of my high school classmates from the class of 1974 (46 years ago) are retiring.  I can’t even believe that. What exactly does that mean - retirement? 

Is retirement about doing what you’ve always dreamed of doing but we're afraid to try - or lacked the time? Or is it about walking away from a job that you’re tired of? Most would like to believe the former. Throughout my life, I’ve been an avid listener of many motivational speakers; Earl Nightingale, Zig Ziglar, Robert Schuller, all gone now.

Everything I’d listened to or read kept encouraging me. Dare to dream! Re-invent yourself! Go back to what you loved as a child. It’s never too late to learn something new, so I did. Every morning I practice guitar. First, it’s as simple as warming up your fingers; A Blues Scale, G Major Scale, or simply run the neck of the guitar over three octaves. Forward and backwards. Then it’s practicing the transition between chords, G, C, F, D, A, and E in time.

Little by little - by doing; trying out new riffs, practicing many different scales, and just doodling on the guitar I’m getting better. Every breakthrough an epiphany, simply magical.

There comes a time when you, once again, like it or not, must adopt the student mentality. Not because you’re expected to - because you have the desire to want to. No pressure, no grades, no criticism, no shit.

So as we move into this new decade, embrace your inner child. Go out and DO something different today. Learn a new skill, meet new people, play an instrument, volunteer at a foundation, work at what you love to do and you too will welcome in the New Year.

Happy New Year!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular of All Time

The Gopher Problem and the High Powered Solution

Vacationing in Maine this week, just a short drive down the coast from Freeport, it is hard not to think about the outsized impact one frustrated outdoorsman had on the gear we all use today. Bad equipment can ruin a perfectly good day on the water or the trail, but it takes a special kind of vision to turn cold feet into a century-old empire. This is the story of the company we now know as L.L.Bean, but more importantly, it is a masterclass in integrity, learning from failure, and standing behind your work. In 1912, Leon Leonwood Bean faced a persistent problem: returning from expeditions in the Maine woods with cold, wet feet. Instead of complaining, he got creative. He had a local shoemaker stitch waterproof rubber soles onto the flexible leather uppers of a hunting boot. He called it the Maine Hunting Shoe and mailed a flyer promising perfect satisfaction. Then reality arrived. Ninety of his first 100 pairs failed when the rubber separated from the leather. Not an effective product...
Post a Comment
Read more

On Becoming Real

Some things get better with wear: old shoes, old friendships, and old books. Especially old books. A new volume arrives with crisp corners and a spine that hasn’t yet learned to bend. An old one has been somewhere. It has traveled through time in the hands of people who may no longer be around to tell us what they found inside. The copy of The Velveteen Rabbit (first published in 1922) on my desk is one of those books. My friend Don Hanley gave it to me. This late-1950s Doubleday edition features William Nicholson’s original illustrations and cream paper boards softened by age. Worn corners, a split spine, and colored tabs mark passages worth revisiting. Don didn’t hand me a keepsake. He gave me homework. When we talked about the book recently, he pointed me straight to the nursery conversation between a young rabbit and an old Skin Horse. The rabbit had noticed the mechanical toys around him—the ones with internal gears, bright paint, and stick-out handles that seem terribly impressiv...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Dog, a Beer . . . and the Ghost of 1912

Whenever you step into an American cathedral of our National Pastime built before modern ergonomics, municipal zoning, or crowd-flow dynamics, an unspoken understanding forms, creating a welcoming, timeless atmosphere. You trade legroom, sensible corridors, and personal space for the privilege of communing with ghosts. Last week, Lori and I made our pilgrimage to Fenway Park to watch our Chicago Cubs take on the Boston Red Sox (a taut 0–2 contest that felt spiritually tied to their 1918 World Series meeting). Staying just across the Charles River at the Courtyard Marriott in Cambridge gave us one immeasurable tactical advantage: we walked. While the automotive gridlock around Kenmore Square took on the character of the Siege of Yorktown—horns echoing across the asphalt like musket fire—we simply strolled across the Boston University Bridge, enjoying the river breeze and feeling smugly superior to everyone trapped behind a steering wheel. Fenway, built in the spring of 1912, holds rough...
Post a Comment
Read more

Engineering Beef Stew

On July 2nd—Day Two of what I call The Great Un-Working —I sat down with my morning notebook to map out this new chapter of my life. One goal made the list in bold ink: Learn to Cook. At seventy, I was adding a skill most people master before they’re old enough to drive. Before you judge me, understand our household ecosystem. Lori is a phenomenal cook. For decades, she’s made meals so effortless and delicious that restaurants seem unsatisfying . My contribution to the culinary arts during my bachelor years–tuna mixed into Kraft Mac & Cheese. Let’s just say I wasn’t threatening her spot on the Food Network. But retirement changed the equation. I’m officially off the clock while Lori is still working. And I had a lovely thought: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if she came home after a long day to find dinner waiting? She loved the idea. Then came the question that haunted me for weeks: “What do you want to make?” I had no idea. Apparently, the first step in learning to cook is deciding wh...
Post a Comment
Read more