Life | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the tag “Life”

15 Feb 2013

Not My “Demographic”

Over the years we have all been marketed to. Likely millions of products and services, piles of entertainment choices of music, books and movies. Mining the “popular culture” that has become the goal of companies wanting your attention.

One of the things those marketing strategists focus on is taking a look at is who things appeal to; Like what age bracket, what ethnic group, what income bracket, where you live and work.

Once they have “their demographic” target, they create the plan. The plan to appeal to that target, whether it is a teen, a tween, the young or the senior market among others – there is a place to aim the message or the talent.

Maybe this happens to you: My wife and I will see things on television or in advertising in magazines or the web and wonder “who the heck would ever want that?” Sometimes the media makes it seem that “everyone” is paying attention (but they aren’t) . They make it appear that every one is tuning in to the next “reality” show to see someone win or lose, or tune in to see things like Honey Boo-boo disgust us so we can feel better about our own lives.

As I get older I realize that these things aren’t designed to appeal to me (or my wife or others in my generation). This is not new actually- it has been happening since the dawn of the advertising age. From the earliest days of entertainment, from the beginning of the newspaper or selling soap, from Elvis or the Beatles to Justin Bieber. There is a plan on who will and will not “get it”… it will be something parents shake their head at (Elvis and his pelvis, John & Paul and those haircuts) , or kids wont ever understand about their parents . It just happens.

Are you part of the Generation X, Y or Z? Are you a baby-boomer? In the scheme of things in your busy life it likely doesn’t matter at all to you. But someone is thinking about what you want- so they can be sure to supply it and make their mark on the world by gaining profit or recognition. They are out there.

I remember when I was a kid The Who singing “My Generation” and thinking it spoke for the voice of my peers. Listening to it now, it seems old and archaic – like “either burn out or fade away” of the 60’s… or something.

In the end I have learned, I need to accept change as a challenge of my generation, like with each generation before and after me… all of whom are getting older and looking at those other demographics and wondering in amazement… who on earth would really like these things/why is that so popular? who would every buy that?

Accepting change is always the challenge of a generation- when it is happening so fast, maybe change itself is something the new generations find so appealing now?

So fellow bloggers and Internet surfers, what is that is that for you?

What is it that just is too hard to believe anyone should be interested in but seems so popular What is that makes you ask the question “why” does that exist? (LEAVE A COMMENT)

Who cares? You just don’t get it (maybe it’s not your demographic).

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged advertising, Beatles, Change, Generations and Age Groups, Justin Beiber, Justin Bieber, Life, Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Self-Awareness

07 Aug 2012

2 Comments

Looking for Life’s GPS

The other day I was driving to some places I had never been before and taking some guests around our huge metro area. So I brought out the GPS device. Global satellite positioning means that this little screen can always tell where you are on the face of the Earth, and help you by providing the directions needed to reach your final destination. It’s amazing that so many years ago that concept would have been some sort of “space age” future miracle you would see in sci-fi movies.

Now it is a reality that is entirely possible and can show up on your handheld smartphone or sit neatly on your dashboard wherever you go. And announce what turns and lanes you should be in. Wow.

It would be nice if our lives had a device for reaching our goals and destinations in life. We could just type in where we wanted to end up, and let the life-GPS just program it. It would talk to you, just like the GPS’s do today. Part of the features of the GPS lets you know when you get “off course” by announcing “recalculating your route” adjusting your course and helping you get turned around the right way.

Often in life we get off course, and there just isn’t that convenient GPS in our pocket to turn our lives back on course. The course corrections are ours to make, sometimes with guidance from others around us. The people we trust, the people we admire or sometimes from those who have alternative motivations that may not be the best course. We may get lost because we get distracted. In my GPS for the car, you can program “attractions” along the way, but in our lives some of those are more interesting than others, and in other cases they are indeed “distractions” rather than attractions, although we may be drawn to them.

So what course do we program into our life’s GPS? How well would we listen to the instructions it would speak out to us. Would we ignore it? It could sit on our dashboard and tell us when we made a wrong turn to our final goal. Of course we could end up with detours, and construction or accidents that may slow our lives course down. But the GPS would just recalculate. Funny.

But we don’t have a GPS for our lives here on Earth. There is nothing we can program. We have to rely on our family and friends and importantly our spiritual leaders that will provide us the feedback we need to make corrections when things go astray. Sure we can just wander like nomads on the map, in hope of getting where we think we want to be, but in the end we have to keep our eyes and ears open to where we are going and who we are listening to.

But we also have to keep our hearts and minds open to God and his plan. Without it we may be recalcuating in circles that eventually get us lost. For many of us, we so much want to stay “on the map” and headed in the proper direction. In the end it will lead to the best destination we could all want. It starts by programming it in… go ahead. You can do it.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Change, Doubt, Eternity, Faith, God, GPS, Life, Reality Check, Self-Awareness, Sprituality

26 Jun 2012

1 Comment

The Seasons and The Hot Summer Day

When I was growing up in the northern mid-west of the US, we always looked forward to the seasons. Each one of them brought a change in attitude, and every season signified something special in some way. I recall as a child I thinking of summer to be those warm days where some days were really hot and the bright sun that you would feel on your skin would be the fuel for a days worth of playing, like sunshine was energy. There would be humid days where everyone would comment “it’s not the heat that’s bad, it’s the humidity”. That too would pass as one of those huge storms would conger up the bursts of thunder and lighting, but also bring the breath of fresh air after the storms. Refreshing you like magic, with cool air the likes of something you hadn’t sucked into your lungs in some time.

Then there was fall. Autumn. Colors of the trees, the crisp night air and the smell of burning leaves. Some days would be wet and the trees and leaves would smell musty. There would be that day when it would rain a cold rain, a hard rain that would put shivers down your neck if you were out in it. By the next day all the leaves would be almost all gone, and the sky would turn a defiantly grey tone letting everyone know winter was knocking.

Oh those winters. In northern states, they could be brutal. Cold on top of cold, ice coated with ice. Cars not starting, cold winds shuddering the outside walls of my home. There would be days where it was so cold a deep breath would hurt and you would know it was time to get from one place to another and not stand out in it. There would be snow, but on those cold days it would crunch like styrofoam under your boots. Almost squeaking with the reminder that you better walk briskly but be mindful of the ice patches underneath. THere were even those lovely “snow days” where schools would be closed, work places too. The snow was so high and thick you weren’t going anywhere and everyone else was in the same place as you. Watching out the window for a break so you could start to shovel out.. peaceful, but cautious we would enjoy the day that nature provided a break.

Spring would start the cycle again. the newness of the grass before the first cut. The trees not exactly full of leaves, but running sap and getting ready for the warm days ahead. Fresh spring rains. Life showing up again in the backyard. Squirrels, birds and bugs. All the time knowing summer was on the other side of all of those spring showers.

So I do miss the seasons. Living in Northern Texas now, it seems like the Texas summers are like those cold winter days in the north. I escape in doors from the heat (104 degrees Fahrenheit today) that will hang around for weeks (maybe months). But I know that in the fall we can lounge in the yard, take long walks in the park. In the winter we can put on a light jacket and say “my how cold it is today” when freezing temps aren’t even in the forecast. All the while others in the north, they will be getting ready for their cold days and icy challenges, pulling out the boots and heavy coats.

I can handle the southern heat knowing that is coming. But there are days when I truly miss the changing seasons. This hot summer day is one of them.

Posted in Before and After Things Change, Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Change, Joy, Life, life is precious, Memories, moments, North Texas, Sprituality, Weather

24 Jun 2012

Don’t Worry Your Life Away

Worry. There’s one thing that seems to be able to consume so much of your life in so many ways that it can become such a fixation that little else matters. Whether it involves work, your family, your friends, your health, your finances, what others think of you, what you will do today or tomorrow… and on and on.

It’s not that you can’t be concerned, that you cannot plan things and be careful to manuever those things that can get in your way. We all have to go through our lives with eyes wide open and watch for the obstacles we can avoid. But taking “worry” to a point in your life that it stops you from experiencing what God has given you is just not a good course to take.

When my wife and I had our first child, every thing had changed about worry. We would worry did he have enough to eat, enough sleep, were we paying enough attention to him? If he would sneeze we would imagine the worse and always be consulting books or family and friends.

Over the years we have learned that there are only some things we can do as parents, and we have to be concerned about our children (we love them), but we are going to leave it up to God as well. We have to plant the core-things in them that they need to make it through life, but in the end we cannot be standing next to them every step of the way.

When I was diagnosed with cancer, I know that it was something that would need God’s help. My wife has been there to help me through. Even as she has been my angel (because I believe God sent her to me so many years ago), I know that some of it is built on faith to take it one day at a time. Worry could easily consume every minute of every day.

Worry will make you older faster, it can replace the good things in front of you with an awkward view and dangerous perspective. It can consume so much of your life and in exchange repel others around you. So the end it seems, life is the experience and all that goes with it.

As Jason Mraz says below in a song about his friend who fought cancer, “The remedy is the experience.” Don’t let it control your life. Be strong.

The Remedy by Jason Mraz

Well i saw fireworks from the freeway
And behind closed eyes I cannot make them go away
‘Cause you were born on the fourth of July, freedom ring
Now something on the surface it stings
I said something on the surface
Well it kind of makes me nervous
Who says that you deserve this
And what kind of god would serve this?
We will cure this dirty old disease
Well if you’ve got the poison I’ve got the remedy

The remedy is the experience.
This is a dangerous liaison
I say the comedy is that it’s serious.
This is a strange enough new play on words
I say the tragedy is how you’re gonna spend
The rest of your nights with the light on
So shine the light on all of your friends
When it all amounts to nothing in the end.

I won’t worry my life away.
I won’t worry my life away.

Well i heard two men talking on the radio
In a cross fire kind of reality show
Uncovering the ways to plan the next big attack
They were counting down the ways to stab
The brother in the be right back after this
The unavoidable kiss, where the minty fresh
Death breath is sure to outlast this catastrophe
Dance with me, because if you’ve got the poison,
I’ve got the remedy

I won’t worry my life away.
I won’t worry my life away.

When I fall in love I take my time
There’s no need to hurry when I’m making up my mind
You can turn off the sun but I’m still gonna shine and I’ll tell you why

Because

I won’t worry my life away
I won’t worry my life away
I won’t and I won’t and I won’t

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Mathew 6:34

Posted in Before and After Things Change, Life's Sound Track (Music) and tagged Acceptance, Faith, Health, jason-mraz, Life, life is precious, one day at a time, Postive Thinking, remedy, Slow Down, Sprituality, Worry, Worry

18 Jun 2012

2 Comments

The Mosaic of Life

Some days can seem to drone on for a long time. As the summer days in Texas grow longer and the heat lingers on, it gives me pause to stop and thank God for all the people he has put in my life. They have all created a mosaic of memories and experiences that allow me to get to this point and see what I see. It amazes me. Even on those bland and simple days , where nothing eventful of note has left its mark, there is always the reflection of the events and people that have been before this moment.

I miss many of them, but they had their own roads to take and lives to travel. I am better for having them in my life’s paths, and hopefully I helped be a piece of who they are too… Not all of them were the greatest of friends, in fact some were foes. But they all made a difference.

I am also thankful that I have my family. Through the laughter, the tears, the frustrations and triumphs we work through them together as best we know how, with God’s countenance and grace to watch over us. I haven’t seen one of my sons in nearly nine years, and I pray that he is learning this to be true. But I love him still. I am fortunate for my three other children and my wonderful wife that have been in my life these many years.

As the US recognized Fathers Day this past weekend, I want to hope that I have reflected some of the greatness of my father on my children. I think I have. I am fortunate to be able to say that, (when so many don’t wish or want it so)…my children never really got to know my father before he died- but I see him in them. Such precious little time with their other grandfather was hopefully enough to see the man he was and what pieces of him exist in them as well.

So I continue to be amazed. And I hope you can reflect on the mosaic of your life that has brought you to each day, and be amazed along with me in the light it produces. Be good with what makes you who you are today, share it with your family and friends, and be joyful for what adventures lie ahead in the time here on Earth.

“Family” by Joe Walsh

I’ve been alone most of my life
I’ve never known what it was like
To end up somewhere and not have to pack
To be among friends I know have my back

But now I’m here where I belong
I’ve finally found a wife and a home
And a family that matters, means more to me
Than anything I have ever believed

And when we are gathered together
Tell me how blessed can somebody be

Give thanks, break bread, say grace, bow heads
For all of this love that surrounds me
We laugh, we cry, stand together that’s why
It’s all being part of a family

Tried it before, never felt right
I never dreamed that someday I might
Be part of something bigger than me
It makes me feel humble, finally I see

All that we have is each other
And that’s all that I’ll ever need

Give thanks, take time to say that I’m
So grateful for all that surrounds me
We laugh, we cry, stand together that’s why
It’s all being part of a family