Psychology Can Fix This
All we need do is reverse it!
Some high-profile companies use psychology when they interview a potential employee. The candidate walks into an intimidating environment with big pillars outside the building, shiny marble floors in the lobby and an exquisite elevator bigger and more elaborate than your kitchen!
Hopefully the interview process allows the candidate to make the final step in meeting the CEO. And if so as expected, the office is amazing, mind-blowing and the immense desk separates the two of them by miles. Managing the stress of intimidation and overwhelm appear to be key in acquiring this position. For the applicant there is an attempt to being controlled, an awareness of condescendence, and some non-verbal bullying tactics. Some people do well under these conditions and become successful in their industry and others have zero interest in that game. So what would happen if we did the opposite of what these high-profile companies do?
We have a country extremely divided by hate, discrimination, misunderstandings and filled with terror. The communication breakdown makes the situation so much worse and there doesn’t seem to be a way to reverse it. At this point it may take a miracle and many lives lost before anyone is ready to sit down and LISTEN to each other. But I’ll give you something pretty extreme to think about.
What if there was a common ground location for the top leaders of both sides to meet? I am not talking about leaders of the domestic terrorists or the idiots who slither their way through the streets inciting violence. All legitimate leaders would be dressed in clean, unnripped jeans, clean white unripped, unwritten tee shirts and sneakers. Jeans would need to fit over the buttocks properly how they were made to be worn. Piercings need to be left at home and tattoos covered. City leaders and law enforcement would need to abstain from their high and mighty attitudes, righteousness, any condescending and moral authority.
The location would be inside an open area where no masks are allowed! The layout for the meeting is composed of chairs only, placed in a circle. Of course there’s distancing but full disclosure of all non-verbal communication is vital, including everyone’s arms unfolded and hands resting on their laps. I should not need to mention that all weapons are forbidden. Any person who elevates their voice in a manner not conducive to the success of this nation will need to leave. Nobody would be allowed to come to the meeting with a serious issue without having a sensible solution that is fair to everyone. If anyone comes to the meeting with a problem without a solution they will be asked to leave; it would be obvious that they are part of the problem.
If everyone looked and sounded alike, would there be a way to find any common ground solution for just one issue and avoid profiling? The answer is yes because everything that incites violence, intimidation or agitation no longer exists. How’s that for extreme?!
Now I’m not sure how many people or how many common ground meetings is advisable but you get the gist of this. Make everyone feel comfortable enough to drop their guard. Give them a feeling of a level playing field to communicate effectively, eliminating the stereotyping. I’ll bet that more progress would be made and more questions answered than there are now with the fighting and killing on the streets. We need to start somewhere so let’s make it simple and balanced and keep the damn politics out of it.
We need to move forward from this
Media Madness
Is the truth hidden somewhere and where the heck do we find it?
The mainstream media is blasting us every minute of the day about how dreadful our world is right now. But we are pretty intelligent creatures or we wouldn’t have gotten as far as we have today. Keeping a proper prospective is important if we’re going to survive this trifecta of cycles starring climate change, a depressing economy and cultural/civil unrest. And now can blend in a global pandemic for a robust topping.
These cycles are seriously life altering which gives the mainstream media a lot hype to chew on and spit out. What I found easier to live with was getting an update from my local channel, weather, what is happening, etc. Unfortunately for national and world news it is a different story. We are on our own to decipher what we hear after learning so-called facts that lean to the left as well as the right, politically. It doesn’t matter what subject they’re talking about; it becomes political! Chances are the truth can be detected after peeling back the layers of defamation and I am not in the mood to waste that kind of time.
There was a moment when I could go between CNN and FOX news and take half of what I learned from each and get myself to some sort of middle ground. I can no longer accomplish that because they both have gone so far off the rails for me to make sense of it all. It really is way too much.
I must admit that part of this problem is because of my age and going back to earlier days. Actual television watching time was limited to 11:00 pm and today I think we are too inundated with 24/7 reporting. Politics was not on my mind when I was younger but Walter Cronkite did a fantastic job reporting the news and only the news. And not that long ago I used to love watching Peter Jennings; God rest his soul. Now I’m not sure what’s going on but mainstream media is driving me up the tree!
I believe the time is now to search for the kind of media that’s dependable, respectable and deals in facts only. Maybe my usual attempt to find out the news of the day is the wrong way to go anymore. I already receive notices about what is going on locally throughout the day from an app and I check my weather out on an app. I also found London Real which has some intelligent individuals on the show and I do learn something new from them! So I’m still checking them out but so far so good.
At any rate it appears I need to get out of my old-fashioned groove because it’s upsetting me. Isn’t that usually when change occurs and a better way of life appears? Whatever new world lies ahead after the chaos settles might just be a brand-new place where we all can thrive; that’s my plan.
Cheap Paper Towels DO NOT Work!
I just can’t…
Okay, I have been as patient as I can possibly be with grocery stores and their lack of inventory for good quality paper products. There are three varieties of paper towels in my closet and all three are downright useless, I really, really miss my Bounty. I find that I’m using about three to four of the cheap sheets vs one Bounty paper towel. And I realize I am dating myself but there are visions of “Rosie” in the Bounty commercials dashing through my head right now.
To rationalize my aggravation I’ve tried various stores and dollar stores, bought their inferior products only to be disappointed again. Our current situation kind of reminds me of Morocco because they never have quality paper products including toilet paper. But I really am in America, right? Am I just spoiled and this is our new reality, a Moroccan paper product reality???
The amount of shopping I do is nowhere as much as I used to do before the pandemic arrived. I have not been able to capture my usual paper towels, toilet paper, napkins, Kleenex and wet wipes on Publix shelves. I went shopping once at the early hour at 7am (for us old people) and the shelves were still empty. What makes matters worse for us here in Florida is we’re all attempting to get ourselves prepared for hurricane season. We stock up on all those items, including bleach which is another item I haven’t seen since the start of the pandemic.
I can deal with most substandard paper products, I don’t like it but I can do it. So what if I go through a roll of shoddy, less than paper thin toilet paper every two days. Also using my cloth napkins at dinner time is also fine with me. Here is where I get a tad cantankerous. Cannot and will not use cheap paper towels, so I found a way around that issue.
I love drying my dishes and especially glassware with flour sacks. Yes, I wash my dishes by hand (no judging please) but I will use the dishwasher about 4 times a year to make sure it still operates well. Anyway, I needed to replace my sacks after a long time of use and misuse and ordered more of them. I took my old ones and cut them is quarters and now use them as my paper towels. I love wiping my hands often while cooking or baking and these sacks are awesome. They easily get washed by hand, soaked overnight in a sanitizer, dry quickly and they are ready to go the next day. I no longer swear or make ridiculous faces at my paper towels sitting on my counter because I have something better to use. My hunting and gathering days of attempting to apprehend quality paper towels has come to an end. I guess if we get aggravated enough we can create a solution for anything. Isn’t that what usually happens in life?
Perfect size!
Online Shopping
So aggravating; or is it just me?
I decided it might be a good idea to replace my broken digital thermometer in case I needed to take my temperature during this virus. There was not one to be found locally at any store and I had no choice but to purchase one online. When I can’t find what I need in the vicinity Amazon is my next step. I sincerely attempt to support local businesses but that is not the typical reality it used to be.
Shopping online for the thermometer was not that simple either with very few left to buy. But I finally found one similar to what I had for many years and I purchased it the first part of April. When ordering items through Amazon Prime delivery times are swift and I am always amazed. This thermometer took three weeks to get to me and I’m really lucky I didn’t need it in the month of April.
I opened the package and it looked exactly like my previous thermometer. Except not only did it come from China but there were a couple of issues that aggravated the heck out of me! It could be that my patience level through this virus was not where it usually rides. But the readout on the thermometer was in Celsius vs. Fahrenheit. Okay….I can do conversions as good as the next guy and it was okay knowing that I’ll probably use it once every eight years like the previous one.
The main issue I had was that the instructions were in Chinese. Yep, Chinese only. I have the intelligence to know how to operate my new thermometer but what if I needed more details? What if I wanted to know EXACTLY the best way to care for or wash or sanitize it? Can I replace the battery in it? Does it need to be stored in a cool, dry place? Is there a guarantee on the product? Are there instructions on how to return it? Oh, I can come up with more questions but it would border on being even more obnoxious.
Usually new products come with directions in English, Spanish and French which is understandable. When China sends a product our way in America with Chinese only for instructions, what the heck are they thinking? Do they think that we Americans are now a minority and they are the majority so English is no longer necessary and Chinese is? Why do I have more questions about this absurd little transaction than I do answers? Being in isolation for some time might have my panties in a wad over this but it just hits me the wrong way.
My cousin told me that when she orders from Amazon that she changed her setting to search for products only made in the USA. Don’t think that I didn’t race into my account and do the same thing because I did, yes I was still that aggravated. And when I went back into Amazon last night to quickly order a new yoga roller, the one made in America was $100 vs. China’s $49. I was disgusted, mad yet again and I hated the fact that I had ordered the one from China.
I cannot continue to be frustrated over these China products and my anger about our dependence on the communist country. Awareness is the first step in taking action. Going forward my shopping habits will change. If I must pay more for American made goods then I will shop early to check prices, not be in a huge hurry to receive the goods and save for the extra cost. Maybe I’ll need to wait another month for my next check but I’ll do most anything not to support a country that hates America. There is no better satisfaction for me than to take a little control over something I have absolutely no control over. I feel better already, thanks for listening.
