Paul Merrill
Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. You know that. But today I wanted to remind you that you should try to keep those flames of romance burning more than just one day a year.
(Prego Pasta House was where Heather and I had our first date – in January 1989. We’re still together. We’ve had some tough times but are still loving each other. We only give credit to God.)
Chris Brogan and I first met when I was in Africa. We “met” through the wonderful world of blogging. I was working as a manager at a non-profit organization whose Africa headquarters were in Nairobi, Kenya. I found Chris’s blog through another long-forgotten social media authority. Chris’s blog quickly made it to the top of my daily must-read list. His easy-going manner, wide knowledge of many topics and above all, humility, drew me in. He has the ability to relate with a large number of people and make them feel like they have value. Rare indeed.
Chris found me through our mutual friend Jon Swanson. I was blogging about the quirkiness of life in the frenzied city of Nairobi. Chris enjoyed my perspectives and appreciated some of the work we went there to accomplish.
How did Chris change my life? He introduced me to the world of social media. I realized that I enjoyed that world! Management was not my cup of tea – at least when it involved directly managing 15 people, none of whom were Americans. (Cultural gaps were magnified in ways that I never expected.) So when our tour of duty was up, we returned home to Colorado – and social media became part of my job mix. Thank you Chris!
Disclosure: a small part of why I wrote this post is that I’m entering this post to try to win a free trip to #SOBCon2010 (the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers Conference in Chicago). I met Chris and Jon face-to-face at SOBCon 2009. I must say that more people than Chris changed my life as a result of the 2009 conference.
The biggest thing I learned from my own children is how selfish I am. This is a lesson I continue to learn in new and different ways with each passing year.
Children (particularly the younger variety) don’t ask for their parents’ time – they demand it. Every time their request is made, I have a choice – my fulfillment or theirs?
I feel like I have failed this test many many times. (“Dad, your computer is more important than I am!”) But the few times I have passed the test by making the right choice, I never regret it. I’d urge you to do the same.
A second thing I learned is that having children has expanded my capacity to love. I was single until I was 29. Getting married expanded that love capacity. Having children expanded it further.
Special thanks to Robert Hruzek for suggesting this post.
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I like watches. I rarely wear them.
The trend these days is big watches. I have very skinny wrists. Those kinds of watches look ridiculous on me.
I did not buy this watch. But it was fun to try it on. Nixon makes some pretty cool watches.
So I looked at the letters page, as I always do. Yay! My letter made it!
(By the way, the shot shown is not the cover – obviously. They didn’t want to show that shot again.)
Thanks, Automobile Magazine.
(You know that.)
I wanted to remind you – and me – of what a beautiful thing it is how people can be so different.
Two of the very smartest people I know are not very good public speakers. It takes them both a full minute to spit out a good sentence. But when it comes to their areas of expertise, stand back!
Too often, I find myself judging another person for their weakness… “Why can’t that person just understand the basics of how to do this?” or “Why is that person so blind to how they are harming the situation?”
I am so blind to my weaknesses – most of the time. (This concept is not my own… see here.) And any healthy group has members that are weak in some areas and others who are strong in those same areas. (That is also not my concept!)
In our desire to provide suitable entertainment for our fathers or family, we watched Pendragon.
It was pretty much a C-grade movie. The acting was OK, in some instances. None of us thought the heroine was beautiful enough. But the thing that killed it for us was the American accents. Somehow we have been conditioned to expect that any historical film reflecting that era should have actors and actresses with English (British) accents.
(Image courtesy of the film production company’s site.)
As I have traveled to different places in the world, I am always amused when people claim, “We have no accent.” It’s true – if they have never lived anywhere else. But my contention is that we all have accents.
I admit that there are standard accents. In England, there is the BBC broadcaster’s accent, which is a kind of measuring stick. The American equivalent would be what one can hear on the national nightly news. In Kenya, national radio broadcasts are spoken in a standard baseline Swahili that is most easily understood by the largest majority of the listening population. But those are still accents!
Another factor is saturation. If we are used to hearing a particular voice on a long-term basis, we put their voice into our accent-less category. In high school, my friend Bryan’s mom was from Quebec. She had a wonderful French-Canadian lilt. He thought she had no accent. My dad grew up in Texas. Bryan claimed he had a southern accent. I thought he had none.
The lovely model for today’s photo is my daughter Rachel.
