Welcome
Hey there everyone, I hope you’ve had a good week. I’ve been thinking today about family and friends. This was driven by several things but encouraged by 2 podcasts I heard today. I listened to the first episode of The Michelle Obama Podcast and Reba McEntire’s podcast Living and Learning. These 2 shows embodied the topics of family and friendship. We all need both of these things in our lives. Especially in our current COVID world.
Family
In Michelle Obama’s first podcast she reflects on her upbringing and how her family varies from today’s family structures. How families today don’t have the same support structures. How the lessons she learned as a child aren’t the same lessons learned by children today.
Growing up in rural Ohio to what the government would qualify as a poor family I know some of these lessons. I remember my mother telling me that you should always be nice to people. She would say you never know when your car is going to break down. This was pretty relevant because we drove older used cars and there were plenty of times we were having flat tires on old dirt back roads.
There was one winter in the 70’s when there was a blizzard. We lived in this farm house on the top of a hill in pretty much the middle of nowhere. We ended up snowed in and it took a couple days for the local road crews to open the road. I bring it up because my Grandfather was upset that we didn’t leave to stay with another family member in a ‘better’ situation. He was concerned about my brother, parents and I being stuck up on this hill where no one could help us.
I’d like to think that everyone has family/people like this around them. Different but similar was a comment I remember my father saying to me. ‘What’s the worst that could happen? I’d have to buy you a bus ticket home?’ I always knew this was an option. A parachute if something didn’t go as planned.
Something else Michelle mentions is how they lived within their means and did what they had to improve their children’s lives. Some parents hope for a better life for their children. I imagine that still happens for some families today. However, I think there are plenty of parents who are wanting to improve their lives, and sometimes that’s coming before their love for their children. Think of things like cars, vacations, or hobbies. Family budgets aren’t the first thought. It’s what do I want.
Friends
We all need friends. We need to support us in our lives. People with similar interests, who have similar goals, who will listen to us and not pass judgment, and to encourage us in our endeavors.
Just like a family friendships are a support group in our lives. In a world where there’s a pandemic and natural disasters support groups are very important. People to distract, support or encourage us to do and be better.
If someone were to say they don’t need friends, that should be a red flag. Everyone needs friends. Even if it’s just a couple. Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman speak about their friendship in this podcast. Reba and Melissa met on a television show about 20 years ago.
They also had Leslie Jordan & Lauren Alaina as guests on their podcast. If you don’t know Leslie Jordan’s name you’ve more than likely seen him on a comedy television show. One of his more famous roles was on Will and Grace. Leslie is from Tennessee and his accent shows it. He speaks about how to be a good friend. He also speaks about people’s lives change as they age and friends understand that and support those changes.
Lauren is a new country music artist who’s gotten to know Reba through television shows and award ceremonies. Young and sweet she speaks about her friends and how they support her. Being younger and dealing with an early stardom made for different challenges.
I sure have depended on friends in my life. Friends provide someone to talk to or ask for advice. I left a small town for college. Then living in several different cities. I wanted my career to be teaching but that didn’t work out. I ended up in the business world. That didn’t make life easy. I worked as a substitute teacher for 3 years after college. Being a substitute teacher didn’t pay that well as you can imagine. Children can create a lot of questions in your life. Questions like ‘how did I end up here?’ So I depended on friends from college to ask questions and encouragement.
After a number of years in the business world, I had an opportunity to transfer/move to New Orleans. This was something that shocked my family to some degree. No one had left the area and moved that far away with the exception of that one ‘excentric’ uncle. Lucky for me I made a great friend there who could show me the city and its culture.
A few years after that I was back in Ohio and I made the decision to move out west. I wasn’t happy at work and after starting to work more in the technology world it looked like a good idea. Well after a stroke and some recovery time I ended up in San Francisco. A friend from college who lived in San Francisco supported me till I could get on my feet. Fast forward and I’m still on the west coast and life is good.
Wrapup
Live is a journey for sure and family and friends are important. They are also something to be grateful to have in our lives. Being grateful or having gratitude and being mindful are so important in today’s world. Being present and mindful of what we have instead of looking at the things that ‘you feel’ are wrong. To many times we worry about things out of our control, what we want, or how we’re perceived.
Be grateful for what you have in your life. The small things are normally the best things. Don’t discount all the things you have going for you. There are lots of people who don’t have what we have in this world. Even our basic freedoms here in the United States are something others dream of in their lives.
Follow up
As a follow-up from last week, I sent 3 separate notes to senators and I received no response. I’m not actually shocked by that but at the same time, these people have staff working for them or even an automated message letting me know my message was received would have been nice. A politician works for the people so don’t you think I’m not going to write again. If my boss were to write to me you can bet they would expect me to respond.
Also get out there and vote! Every vote matters and it’s your American right to vote.
#vote, #vote2020,
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