Don’t Blink

This article is a reprint from a column I pen each month for the website of my high school class www.DanMccarty70.com.  While it has been over four decades since the 400+ of us exploded from the halls of Dan McCarthy High and into our lives, today over 250 of us still meet on a regular basis in cyberspace to remember, smile and stay in touch.  I hope you enjoy my Ramblings.

Don’t Blink

 

I love technology—that is, when I don’t hate it.

Growing up when we did, we had the unique opportunity to witness first-hand the development of a vast array of technology that has changed every aspect of, business, our world, and our lives. I remember the first fax machine I bought for my office in 1975. It came with a roll of paper that resembled wax paper. The image was burned onto the chemically treated paper. You then simply tore off your copy in the same manner you would tear off a paper towel. I can remember as if it were yesterday the first time I left a newly received fax sitting in the front seat of my car on a hot Florida summer day; the sun turned the entire paper black. Honestly, I cannot remember life before fax machines, copiers, and, of course, the machine we all love to hate—the computer.

Does anyone remember looking words up in the dictionary? I was never very good at it. Although I’ve authored ten books, I still can’t spell cat. I always wondered how I was supposed to look up a word I didn’t know how to spell. I’m sure some of you intelligent kids would be happy to explain it to me, but for forty-two years, it has completely mystified me.

Today, just typing the first few letters of a word in Google will quickly provide its spelling, definition, and roughly 20,000,000 sites where that word or phrase can be found. Oh, thank God for Mr. Google. It has made this aging baby boomer look almost intelligent himself. The next thing you know somebody will be calling me one of the smart kids. As I write this article, my feet are on the desk, my arms crossed across my chest, a microphone strapped to my head, and my Dragon Dictation is typing this Rambling for me. Maybe I’m turning into my version of the lyrics from the Zager & Evans song “In the Year 2525.”

“In the year 5555, your arms hangin' limp at your sides, your legs got nothin' to do, some machine's doin' that for you.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhNM2K8cmU8

Well, maybe we are not to that point yet, but the other night as I watched a late-night television infomercial, I was tempted to order the exercise bike that peddles itself and sweats for you while it provides power for a George Foreman grill and bamboo steamer to prepare a healthy meal. All that is done with the musical backdrop provided by Richard Simmons’ “Sweatin’ to the Oldies.” But that is a story for a different Rambling.

 

As you can tell from several of my previous Ramblings, I have become hooked on YouTube. Think of a song, want to know how to cook a meal, or just want a good laugh, and YouTube is there at your service.

Because I travel so much, my constant sidekick has become my iPad. It allows me to answer e-mail in the airport, surf the Web, and listen to my ever-changing, always expanding iTunes account. Today you can tell much about a person by simply looking at their iTunes song list.

A few nights ago, I watched the video, “Don’t Blink,” from Kenny Chesney.” This certainly struck a chord in me. Can you remember when sixty seemed old? We all might be marching in cadence toward our mid-sixties, but this aging baby boomer promises not to go quietly into the night. I have come to believe that life is not, nor should it be, simple or pretty. It is a menagerie of good decisions and bad, laughter and tears, mixed with a heaping helping of ups and downs. But I for one will not be accused of looking pretty and well preserved in my casket.
I intend to slide broadside into Rick and Jimmy Anne Halsey’s funeral home parking lot thoroughly used up and totally worn out, a bit disheveled, eyes still wide with excitement, and the look of “WOW! what a ride my life was” permanently etched on my haggard and weathered face. And I intend to ring ten seconds of life out of every two the good Lord has granted me.

I have always refused to live my life in a predictable middle-of-the-road safe manner, much to the dismay of my loving and supportive wife Joan whom I’m sure has thought many times, “Why didn’t I marry a postal worker?” When given the chance, I seem to have always opted for the road less traveled. So many times, I’ve zigged when, in retrospect, I definitely should’ve zagged. But, as the Fifties crooner, Frank Sinatra, made so famous in his song, “My Way,” by many accounts, “my way” was not necessarily the right way, but I take great pride that I did it my way.

That is one reason that it bothers me so much to hear people talk about being at the end of their life. I choose to believe that the end is nowhere in sight. I think the best years are yet to come. And I darn well intend to continue to live with the full expectation that God is not finished with me—that I am a work in progress that can cause the future to be exciting, fun, and productive.

I have received several e-mails over the last couple of months asking me where I’ve been. Yes, I’ve sent fewer e-mails to you and posted fewer YouTube videos on our forum over the past few months but still managed to hobble together a Rambling for you each month. And I believe you all deserve an explanation.

At sixty-one, I’ve taken on the largest business project of my life. I expect this will be the grand finale of my business career. Win, lose, or draw, I’m determined to swing for the bleachers. I might strike out, but I can guarantee you I will not be called out with the bat resting comfortably on my shoulder. My contract in this business venture is for a one-year period that began on January 1, 2013. After that, we’ll see what happens.

For this opportunity, I feel both blessed and more excited than I’ve felt in years. I know that this will test the skills I’ve honed over the last almost forty years of business. Will I be successful? Who the heck knows? But I promise you that, with every fiber of my being, I believe I can be.

So, why did I decide to tell you this? Well, there are two reasons. First, I thought I owed you an explanation about where I have been. I guess you could say I’ve been hiding right here in plain sight, and because, for the last two years, I have chosen to willingly opened my life to you, telling you the things that excite me, upset me, that fire me up and bring me down, baring my soul to you at times as I Ramble on about the big and small things that, well… the things that make me, for better or worse, me. It’s not always been easy or comfortable to share these feelings. But it certainly has been rewarding and I hope it is broader than that of enjoyment to you. The second reason is that with all I have on my plate, I could use a little help from my friends.

I fully intend to continue to post these ramblings every month for the best class ever to graduate Dan McCarty High School. But I can certainly use some help in keeping our website fresh, and more importantly you coming back month after month. The simple fact is that the website is worthless and my Ramblings worth even less if it doesn’t bring you back. So many of you over the last few years have thanked me for the website and even offered help. Now, I would like to the answer to your question is absolutely! Your help is both needed and appreciated.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking any of you to take a full-time job or to become some computer whiz smart enough to teach your grandchildren how to play Xbox. I’m simply asking each of you to take a moment to post one simple article, joke, adage, or YouTube video on our forum every month or so. Your e-mail inbox is jammed with some great stuff, and it only takes a few seconds to copy and paste it to the forum. Don’t worry; you cannot break it, so try it—just copy and paste something. After all, what really keeps people coming back to our website is new and fresh postings, and it is the real reason I began to write my Ramblings—to give you a reason to come back to the website every month and read my words of wisdom and wit. OK, my Ramblings might be short on both wisdom and wit, but they made you come back, didn’t they?

Maybe all you do is send a few congratulatory birthday e-mails to your classmates. How about providing a link to a funny video or something that has touched your heart? You see, this is our website, not my website. Although I do not intend to stop my involvement with something I’ve truly grown to love—our class site—I could really use a little help.

A good first step would be to update your profile. I know that at least one thing is different in your life since the time you originally logged on to DanMcCarty70.com. So, why not post a new picture, brag about a grandbaby, or just deliver your own words of wisdom. You should not plan to do this next week; rather, take a stab at it right now. Go to the left navigation bar, under Member Functions, Edit Profile or Upload Photo. The new Notify Me option will notify you when someone changes his or her profile. You can track the updates of a single classmate or the entire class. It’s simple, and it’s easy.
On the home page, there is a list of upcoming birthdays over about the next two to four weeks. If you would like to have a real fun job, why not volunteer to be the official-unofficial happy birthday kid for our class. It’s a real tough job—click the link and type happy birthday. It might seem small and even a bit simple, but when it’s your birthday and you receive a birthday wish from someone you’ve known for more than fifty years, it can really make your day. Just imagine if three or four of us did that.

I recently heard an interview with the young country artist Taylor Swift. They asked her what’s the most important lesson she’s learned in her long twenty-two-year life. Although I expected her to describe the shade of lipstick she wears, I was taken aback to hear the depth of wisdom in her reply. She said, “Just because I’m having a bad day, it does not give me the right to make someone else’s day bad.” Another way of saying that is you never know when someone is having a bad day. But some simple note or gesture from you can turn it around on a dime. So, why not take five minutes a month, click on the happy birthday list, and in the words of that great American philosopher Clint Eastwood, go ahead and make their day!

But I do like the idea of having our own unofficial-official birthday kid. So, why not waive your hand high above your head like you know the answer to one of Mr. Diggs classroom questions and volunteer? See how this works? I asked for help, and you volunteer. What a team!

Now, for the guilt trip. The next time you read one of my articles, I want you to remember that even with what I have on my list of things to do, I somehow found the time to write this month’s Rambling. I want you to feel very badly that, over the previous month, you have not found just a few minutes to help make your website the best website in cyberspace.

On that subject, when someone does something nice for you, didn’t your mama and daddy teach you to say thank you? When someone looks good, you were taught to say you look nice today. So, when you read something on our website, whether from one of your other classmates or me, take a moment to share your comments. Your comments do more to bring people back to the website than my Ramblings ever will.

So, let me raise a glass of Diet Coke high over my head and toast the new volunteers from the Class of 1970 who have now been inspired to reach deep down inside and muster the energy from their aging bones required to type some words. Ready—set—type.

Keepin’ the Spirit Alive,
Richard Parker