Open Agenda

My time is open to new possibilities. Stepping away from the newspaper has freed up my time and attention. The latter is the most important. Attention. What I spend time thinking about, maybe doing something about. What are the most important things I could and should focus my energy on?

The freedom aches a bit. Like a new car that has extra horsepower yet local roads are not designed for that power. In fact traffic laws thwart use of the horsepower. So I ache to find the open road to test the car. Feel the thrust into my seat as my foot presses down on the accelerator. Yes! The freedom and the rush. Without it only yearning can take its place.

That sort of ache. I have the time and the brainpower to choose things important to my philosophy and learning. I have the capability to do something worthwhile. But what subject will receive this attention?

Currently I volunteer with SCORE, the national corps of retired executives, and mentor small business people attempting to open a new business or trying to improve an existing small business and take it to a higher level. This is a rewarding use of time. The people I meet are energetic, bright, filled with ideas and promise for the future. Our job is to help them channel their talent, ideas and time/money in a manner that will yield business results for them. With those results come another tiny boost to the economy and its resilience. This is like building a large ship one plank at a time.

Another volunteer effort is Alcoholics Anonymous. Specifically I work with those who need an extra boost of encouragement to get sober, or remain so. Working with a teen group at a local rehab center is an example of that work. There the teens (13 to 17) are mostly abusers of drugs and alcohol. Some are addicted, chemically dependent, although those patients have completed a detox program; our job with them is to alter behavior that led to the dependence in the first place.

This work is often frustrating because we have no control over the persons afflicted. We can only encourage, provide a helping hand, and an uplifting word to guide them on their way. There are no guarantees that such actions will have desired effects. Many good steps forward overshadowed by the downward slides!

Another involvement is church, mostly behind the scenes with committee work and idea generation. The occasional written piece is thrown in to help, too. Mostly this work is directed outward so that inward we can experience what the faith journey is all about. For most of us that journey is incomplete – a poor start, a bad middle, a few false re-starts, and finally a better exploratory journey today. Who knows where the finish line is? Indeed, does that really matter?

I also journal daily about whatever is on my mind. That’s what this blog is. And it has been mostly a daily deliverance for me for 3.5 years now.  Well over 1100 posts and 62,000 hits have occurred in that time period. And the audience is not just America, but global. That is a sobering fact in itself!

I sing (mostly at church) in the shower and car. I read a lot. I yearn, too, to write a book.

So that is what consumes my time presently. You can see how the newspaper consumed a lot of time. Now free of that, I can move into other areas of interest.

What will those interests be? Among available issues are these:

-World peace: what one person can do

-Futures built on healthy youth

-Finding the power within to…?

-Education reform

-Onward to a future without petroleum

-Music, art and the well educated person

-Other?

There seem to be several big-idea issues on the list. That’s as it should be. If we can’t get our heads around them, how can we expect anyone else to make a breakthrough?

Stay tuned as we explore these issues in more detail in coming months.

March 23, 2015