Solutions

April 13, 2023

I had written in my Conversation that we are all standing in downpours of revolutionary new ideas and solutions.

I mean that.

We are swimming in genius.

Everyone knows more about something than does anyone else.

You are a genius.

Your genius is specific to who you exactly are.

Your starting place is exactly where you are right now.

How could it not be?

You wouldn’t want it to be any other way, which is why you are there.

You wouldn’t be comfortable any other way.

Just like that, the course will always reflect what you most deeply want.

“Want” fuels the car.

Without want, nothing moves.

What you want is obvious.

It’s what you do.

“Standing in downpours of revolutionary new ideas and solutions.”

I was wondering what one must think when reading that?

That’s why I started writing this.

I’ll give you the first example from my life that came to mind.

It was one of those exceptionally hot and humid days. I was standing in my air-conditioned living room looking out the front window at the sanitation guys, and I saw my neighbor Sabastian run out and give them all a bottle of water.

Maybe it’s an age thing, or maybe it’s the intensity of the sun’s rays these days, but on those sunny hot humid days, man, I personally have a hard time dealing with it. I simply can’t be outside.

Then you see what these sanitation guys do in that environment, all day long, no matter how hot, cold, or pouring down rain; and then they get up the next day and do it again.

This time and place, we worship our athletes. We throw hundreds of millions of dollars at them to entice them to come and play in our city.

You look at it like that, the conditions, the time spent on the field of play, and who is the real athlete here?

And then these guys are not just performing for our city. They are coming to our very own homes, to haul away our very own smelly crap.

Where would we be without them?

So ever since that day, if the temperature goes above 90, I started putting out a cooler labeled “Cold Water on Hot Days for Workers”. Maybe they have their own, but how much can they carry? I’m sure they are sweating out at least a bottle a block.

Truth is, I had already gotten to know the local guys going back three crews, as I go on these early morning bike rides and at different times of the year we would meet when I would be leaving.

We know each other, not by name, but we know we know and respect each other. I give each of them $20 at Christmas in envelopes with signed cards with my little man. This year the one guy told me that nobody else in the town does anything like that or the water.

Think of who you tip for what.

I think they all deserve it.

Now think about what these guys do for our families day in and day out. I think we should be randomly tipping them all year round.

And they are cool people to get to know. Like side stories in your life. They add dimension.

On another occasion, about the time of George Floyd’s death, we had a new washer and dryer delivered and hooked up. There was a black older supervisor and two younger black guys who did the heavy lifting.

They did a fine job and so when they left I went up to each of them individually. I gave the supervisor $20 and the younger guys $10 each “in the name of black lives matter.”

It took us to a deep place, if only for a moment or two.

It was as if I had showed up at his mom’s hospital room because I had heard that she was sick.

When it comes to what one gets back, I don’t know that I have ever spent better money.

Life is littered with those kinds of opportunities.

Rich, deep experiences, there for the taking.

In this case, street reparations.

Anyway.

These would be my idea of common sense solutions that are easily implemented by the individual, that have the capacity to change lives and neighborhoods, or at very least it very positively impacted my own.

My guys, we care about each other.

I appreciate what they do, and they know it.

We enrich each other’s lives.