What is Real?

The recent lowering of the USA's credit rating is a great indicator of what exactly is REAL.
I must say that, though we are still here, my neighborhood looks the same and the grocery store is still full of consumer items, we, as an entity, a country, are less real than we have been in recent memory. In light of this, the proposition that the world, as we know it isn’t really what it seems is mostly true.
A job is not what my father’s generation experienced when they obtained one. A career, much the same, is less substantial, lacks stability, is less solid as an anchor point in ones life.
I have a friend, he owned a business. I used to work there. It became apparent in the fall of 2007 that something had changed. We were looking at the data (with the CFO) and we determined that the longer the company trudged along, into the future, the more money the owner would lose. We looked at ways the company might change its approach to stop this trend, but nothing we could realistically project could fix the problem. I went to the owner and informed him of this observation. Though we were still there; advertising, sales force, internet presence, crews working, it was like we were a terminal patient. We tried treatment, adjustments, radical shifts in approach, three months later the company was closed; the owner put it out of its misery.
Though we we were there, we weren’t; we were already a ghost. That was the truth.

So, in my last 12 months of searching the job market I have found;
More scams than real jobs.
Positions with companies who haven’t yet realized they are dead yet.
A consuming public that cannot find what is “Real”.

I suggest a wholesale “Freelance” approach to work and life.
Decide what YOU believe. Make decisions based on that.
Do what is right for you, your family and your community.
Make no “Deals with the Devil".

Examples;
Don’t buy stolen goods.
Pay people you believe in what they ask.
Don’t participate in that which disrespects good folks.
Shame what is criminal and morally gray.
Give to those who are decent.
Pray to be able to see the TRUTH.

We, who survive, shall determine what life is like and what it means to be an American.
You are doing that right now. This is a good time to be purposeful.
God bless.

Why I am what I am

My father was a naval architect, by trade; an engineer. Growing up, our garage had the tools for every mechanical repair, metal fabrication and carpentry project. We had no less than three sets of "Do it yourself" encyclopedias. I grew up at his knee "Helping" with every endeavor. We had an array of those little plastic drawer cabinets filled with a multitude of spare bolts, washers, clips, knobs, etc,etc.
I could fix, find or fabricate almost anything, as long as I was willing to search for the right parts and tools.
This aptitude, or perspective on life, is the foundation of my work ethic. I love to fix what I find needs improvement. The question often is whether to fix the old or build anew.
In an effort to do this better I gravitated to philosophy in college. Asking the right questions is imperative to a proper solution. So, I am a Fixer and a finder. I love the challenge. If they say “it can’t be done”, or “that’s never been tried before” ,all the better.

Art; beyond skill

Progression is part of the natural order. Though one may find a comfortable place to stay along the path, set up camp, give it a name, get others to join and have by doing so, cease any true forward momentum. The classical learning style would require one to submit to another who would for a time instruct by way of rudimentary disciplines the novice thus building a foundation of knowledge and a binding of the student to the history of the subject, tying him to all those who have gone before on his particular path. Once the novice had demonstrated the external expression of the inward character at a level which met the elders' approval he would then become a brother, adult; Journeyman. This is an interesting term in that it paints a picture of one who is on his way...somewhere. Most would believe this station as a destination, but no, it is stated as a beginning. The journeyman, artisan must need progress and by application of his repository of skill and knowledge grow and find further and further truths about his art and his inward capacities. If you have met a modern, union"Journeyman", you may have found a lack of this old world element. What the modern journeyman has attained is the socio-political rules of conformity; how much work not to do, when to hide, how to call to blame the next guy or craft and finally to utilize the retardant of guilt to extinguish the flames of passion as applied to artisan-ship leaving only a flat plain of mediocrity.
I, as a craftsman, am on this journey.I have acquired by my experiences on life’s path some skill, in many areas, and have gained the opportunity to pass some down and see them flourish in the hands of those eager to walk their own path.
I do seek to apply all that I know to the task at hand whether it is simple or complicated.
I find challenge in the opportunity to do that which has not been tried as of yet.
I am eager to share that which I know, rather than to hoard and thus secure my future.
I look to create that which is more than the formula had derived by bringing to bear my very life in the doing.
Thus Art; that which lies beyond skill