67F and sunny with some clouds this am. We’re getting into the 90s by afternoon.
I did some work on my rent house yesterday. And then had a bunch of family stuff.
Which is part of today’s topic.
I’m not very good at recognizing people, and terrible with names. Never have been. Don’t care about most of them, so I don’t spend the energy. This is ‘bad’ for some levels of ‘bad’. I know that, but am just not wired that way. This precludes me from certain jobs, like Concierge, personal assistant, mobster, politician, club owner, hollyweird dealmaker, etc. Jobs where people and relationships trump ability to get the job done. Unlike some, I don’t whine and cry about how unfair it is, I just find jobs that I AM suited to.
BUT, I’d argue that in a disaster, people and relationships are going to be critically important. Not just as “tribe” or your personal group, but for any interactions during recovery. This puts me at a disadvantage.
The good news is, you can learn to remember names, and people, and learn to get along and motivate, etc. I’ve had a masters class in that during my years of working on the road with local crews. This is not perfectly useful, as our interests aligned, and we both knew the relationship was short term.
Short digression- One of the guys I worked with had a reputation for being able to remember every attendee’s name by the end of the event, and something about them. Keep in mind, we’d get a new crop of attendees every day, 50-100 of them. He demonstrated it for us one day, and he was in fact able to do it. I asked him How? Mnemonics? rhymes? His answer was simple and devastating. He said “You just have to CARE.” No way could I apply that!
Anyway, I’m seeing the same people now at events. Our social circle, which condensed down to wife, me, dog, kids, one other couple….. is expanding. This happens when you have kids in school and activities. It occurred to me last night at the Girl Scout event that I recognized at least a dozen kids, and the same number of moms, with a couple of dads thrown in. Our circles overlap, school, neighborhood, sports, rec assn pool, and Girl Scouts.
Since I started going to the neighborhood city meetings, I recognize our City Councilwoman, the Mayor, and possibly a couple of aides, at least in context. I recognize my estate sellers, their helpers, and many of the other buyers. I recognize some of the people in the stores around the neighborhood, especially in the Goodwills and other places I go frequently.
I make an effort to recognize our local homeless and panhandlers, as a security issue. If we had obvious gang bangers hanging around, I’d make an effort with them too.
It occurs to me that I REALLY need to make the effort, find the desire to CARE with the good and decent people in my life too. They are the community that I’m embedded in. They may not be ‘tribe’ * (in the sense used by various blogs on the right and patriot movement) but they are the ones most likely to impact MY life, mainly thru my kids.
So that’s my resolution for now. I’m prepped up in terms of gear, now I need to address the social aspect a bit more. I need to acknowledge that I’m part of the broader community and start working on that.
nick
* I will never, and have never used ‘tribe’ to mean Jews or israelis. It is an unfortunate choice on the part of some in the patriot, liberty, alt-right, etc. to have adopted the word to describe those affiliated with you and sharing a common mindset, giving the amount of anti-semetism that is often present in the comments of many blogs that are alt-media and right leaning. The word has been and continues to be applied to the descendants of David in a negative context and that is unfortunate.