A week in the life of this boomer AND the news
Wow,
What a week. The ups and downs both personally and in the news. Amazing how much can happen within a short time frame.
First, this boomer, meaning me. I traveled all last week. I spoke in Detroit, then twice in Houston, then in Abilene, TX and then spent a day in Austin, TX. I got stuck in several airports due to weather delays. To do a Keynote speech in Abilene on Friday morning, I had to fly to Midland. The people for whom I was speaking had to drive 3 hours to pick me up. I made it to the hotel at 2:30 in the morning, only to do an early morning keynote. But, I've never missed a speech. I ended up renting a car to drive from Abilene to Austin, rather than get stuck at yet another airport. Saturday night, I arrived back in NY at 2:00 a.m. and was finally safe and sound in my own bed at 3:30 a.m. But, I sure was glad to be home.
Point: Despite the setbacks, I was always willing to do whatever it takes to show up where I was committed to being. I was assertive, changed airlines, times, etc. to get where I needed to be. At times, I was unreasonable. It was all worth it.
Monday morning, I had knee surgery to repair a meniscal tear. It went well and I'm recovering nicely, but, it's still limiting my mobility for a few days. And, it's letting me listen to the news ... maybe more than I usually would. My sister came to NY to be my caretaker. I allowed myself to be taken care of.
Point: I was pretty exhausted going into the surgery, but I allowed myself the downtime and actually put my independence aside to let someone be there for me. I am getting better at asking for and accepting help. That's an important lesson for me.
Speaking of time for the news, however, I watched the whole debacle of Elliot Spitzer and the prostitution ring unfold. I was horrified. Let me explain.
Elliot Spitzer was an incredible prosecutor in NY. He put big people away for breaking laws. His popularity grew and he was elected Governor of the state in 2006. He was highly admired. Personally, I don't judge people for their individual behaviors and flaws. We all make mistakes and we all do things we're sorry for. In this case, however, he clearly broke several laws and he hypocritically engaged in activities he would generally have prosecuted others for. Given that, his only decision was to resign.
Now, putting on my old therapist's hat ... I see that he had some deep-seated needs to fulfill and he allowed his power to take him in directions not totally understandable to many of us. Is he a "sex addict?" Who knows. That's definitely not for me to judge. What I do observe, though, is that he engaged in activities without concern for the possible consequences and in the process lost his position and hurt his family and others. He caused a lot of shame. I feel deeply for him and for his family.
Now, why do I write about him? Well, first of all, he's newsworthy and he's a boomer. He's a young one (only 48). Is that relevant to anything? Who knows. Is there something we need to learn from his behavior? The boomers have been known for being somewhat self-serving. We were the generation of free sex and love and doing whatever made us feel good. Some of us have tempered that more to fit the constraints of society, our families and our lives. Evidently, he didn't. But, it doesn't make him a bad person. I hope he will learn about himself, get some help and then come back to us all with pearls of vision that will inspire us all.
Point: It's not so much our behavior, our poor judgements and our failings that count ... but rather, our ability to learn and redeem ourselves and pull ourselves back up. We don't live in the world in a vacuum. There are others to whom we are accountable. I hope I, and all of us, can remember that when we make some of the decisions we make along the way.
To Elliot: I wish him a way out and to his family I wish healing.
To all of us: I wish us an opportunity to learn from the experiences of others so that we might live full lives and be happy and contented with our directions.
Happy searching and growing for us all.
Ann
What a week. The ups and downs both personally and in the news. Amazing how much can happen within a short time frame.
First, this boomer, meaning me. I traveled all last week. I spoke in Detroit, then twice in Houston, then in Abilene, TX and then spent a day in Austin, TX. I got stuck in several airports due to weather delays. To do a Keynote speech in Abilene on Friday morning, I had to fly to Midland. The people for whom I was speaking had to drive 3 hours to pick me up. I made it to the hotel at 2:30 in the morning, only to do an early morning keynote. But, I've never missed a speech. I ended up renting a car to drive from Abilene to Austin, rather than get stuck at yet another airport. Saturday night, I arrived back in NY at 2:00 a.m. and was finally safe and sound in my own bed at 3:30 a.m. But, I sure was glad to be home.
Point: Despite the setbacks, I was always willing to do whatever it takes to show up where I was committed to being. I was assertive, changed airlines, times, etc. to get where I needed to be. At times, I was unreasonable. It was all worth it.
Monday morning, I had knee surgery to repair a meniscal tear. It went well and I'm recovering nicely, but, it's still limiting my mobility for a few days. And, it's letting me listen to the news ... maybe more than I usually would. My sister came to NY to be my caretaker. I allowed myself to be taken care of.
Point: I was pretty exhausted going into the surgery, but I allowed myself the downtime and actually put my independence aside to let someone be there for me. I am getting better at asking for and accepting help. That's an important lesson for me.
Speaking of time for the news, however, I watched the whole debacle of Elliot Spitzer and the prostitution ring unfold. I was horrified. Let me explain.
Elliot Spitzer was an incredible prosecutor in NY. He put big people away for breaking laws. His popularity grew and he was elected Governor of the state in 2006. He was highly admired. Personally, I don't judge people for their individual behaviors and flaws. We all make mistakes and we all do things we're sorry for. In this case, however, he clearly broke several laws and he hypocritically engaged in activities he would generally have prosecuted others for. Given that, his only decision was to resign.
Now, putting on my old therapist's hat ... I see that he had some deep-seated needs to fulfill and he allowed his power to take him in directions not totally understandable to many of us. Is he a "sex addict?" Who knows. That's definitely not for me to judge. What I do observe, though, is that he engaged in activities without concern for the possible consequences and in the process lost his position and hurt his family and others. He caused a lot of shame. I feel deeply for him and for his family.
Now, why do I write about him? Well, first of all, he's newsworthy and he's a boomer. He's a young one (only 48). Is that relevant to anything? Who knows. Is there something we need to learn from his behavior? The boomers have been known for being somewhat self-serving. We were the generation of free sex and love and doing whatever made us feel good. Some of us have tempered that more to fit the constraints of society, our families and our lives. Evidently, he didn't. But, it doesn't make him a bad person. I hope he will learn about himself, get some help and then come back to us all with pearls of vision that will inspire us all.
Point: It's not so much our behavior, our poor judgements and our failings that count ... but rather, our ability to learn and redeem ourselves and pull ourselves back up. We don't live in the world in a vacuum. There are others to whom we are accountable. I hope I, and all of us, can remember that when we make some of the decisions we make along the way.
To Elliot: I wish him a way out and to his family I wish healing.
To all of us: I wish us an opportunity to learn from the experiences of others so that we might live full lives and be happy and contented with our directions.
Happy searching and growing for us all.
Ann
Labels: BAby boomers, Motivation, Spitzer
posted by Ann Fry, Head Boomer at
11:33 AM
1 Comments:
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