Let me explain. One of my wife's favorite responses during one of our conversations is "You're weird. or "Have I ever told you you're weird". Yes plenty of times. She has been saying that for thirty years and I have been responding: "I know, but you still love me." or "But you're still married to me". Her original comment usually comes in response to one of my slightly off center, or out of left field comments during our conversation.
Yes, I look at the world through a different perspective. I always have. Most of the time, I would classify myself as a realist. The glass is half full, not half empty, but is that because it has ice in it? The rest of the time, I am an optimist, never really considering the negative. That might be because I don't consider anything to be truly negative, even failure.
A favorite grade school teacher told us repeatedly that we would never learn anything by doing something right the first time, only that the process worked, but not knowing why. The only way to truly learn is to do something wrong or fail, then we would question why and as we kept trying to solve the problem, finally learn how to solve it and by doing so, learn or increase our knowledge base. Therefore, we all have permission to fail in our life, but that is a whole nothing chapter in this blog.
I have always considered myself somewhat of of rebel because one of my favorite questions during a conversation is "Why?". I ask that lot, not so much because I don't know or think I know the answer, but to see if the person I ask knows or has the answer. It is a simple question, but a lot of times I don't get an answer. Maybe a startled or surprised look, but quite often no answer. Over the years, I have learned that I have to ask the question in the proper context, because quite often it can be a conversation killer any maybe a friendship killer. More on the subject of agreeing to disagree, but still remain friends in an chapter.
Asking "Why?" or "Why not?" can be a bit disarming. Being in a leadership (managerial) position at work, at my church, and in various other organizations / activities I participate in allows my to ask why or why not a lot. Many times the answer is we don't do that or we don't do it that way here. And again I will ask why or why not? Humans are surprising resistant to change. Many times we complain about the status quo but are resistant if someone actually tries to facilitate change. We don't want someone to rock the boat, or push us into new territory. As a former restaurant manager, I use to try new menu items all of the time. I would find that a small percentage of regular customers would always try it the first time they saw it on the menu. Others would then ask what they thought of it, and if it got a favorable rating, would try it the next time. A similar minority would never try it. So we had to feature it at least three times and maybe as many as five to seven times to see if it was a hit or dud.
I will probably have you asking "why?" a lot over the coming chapters, and I hope to answer your question with thoughtful, thought provoking answers. It will hopefully be a fun ride and I look forward to any interactions. Hopefully they can be civilized and engaging conversations.
My plan is to post new blogs twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday. They may relate to something topical in news of the day or maybe a random thought of mine,based on one of those comments I might have made to my wife as I try to figure out if I really am weird or jest a bit off center.
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