There's No Place To Stink

By Jim Whelan, The Joan Randall Agency

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Before I tell you what that means, I'll explain alittle bit about yesterdays rant, or whatever youwant to call it.

Sometimes people don't hear what you tell them.

To paraphrase Anais Nin, "We don't hear thingsthe way they are, we hear things the way we are."

Sometimes the way we are needs fixin.

Sometimes the only way to fix things is to blowthem up and start over. That's what I was facingyesterday. Was I right? Was I wrong?

I don't know. But I'm closer to an answer todaythan I was yesterday. My frustration has boiledover, and my head is clearer, and that is just howit goes sometimes. Sometimes you have to waitfor the smoke from the grenades to clear before youknow whether something you did is right or wrong, oreven if it fits into that category at all.

The one thing I know for sure is that I've been heard.

That doesn't mean I've been understood, that's a wholenew category. But being heard is a start, and I'll settlefor that at the moment. Being understood usually takeslonger, if it happens at all.

But one thing I know for sure is that real men aren'tafraid of the arena, and of doing battle once in a whilebefore they work out agreeable solutions. It's how someof the best work gets done.

Another thing is that you should never come to battlewearing some one else's armor, or before a long lookin the mirror. It just may be that the battle doesn't needto be fought.

But yesterday I didn't feel that way, and I went to thearena to win. I'm not sure what I won, but the otherwarrior heard me bellow. I heard him bellow too, buthis armor was full of holes that he just doesn't see.So in a sense, the battle was tainted, and all the arrowsthrown missed the mark, which means in the end thatlittle was accomplished, except my need to heard.

Somedays that is all you can ask for.

The late great George Burns said, "With the death ofvaudeville, there's no place to stink."

What he meant was that to be good at something youhave to be willing to fail at it.

That's what I was doing yesterday, sending a messagethat I want to be good at something, and willing to failat it.

The ride in the big saddle ain't always smooth,

From the big saddle,
Jim Whelan

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Getting heard, Getting understood

There's No Place To Stink