Happy Valentine’s Day!  Tell someone you love them today, tell someone you appreciate them today, hug your kids and kiss your partner. 

In class we are discussing the need for government to do more to encourage entrepreneurship in this country.  Today I wrote that it seems the government has red-taped itself into oblivion; far beyond it’s ability to be helpful to anyone.  How do we, the constituents, create fundamental change in a system filled with elected officials who are more concerned with their own paychecks than with the needs of the many?

Revolution.

The United States

Russia

France

Egypt

The list goes on and on.  Revolution does not have to be violent.  Occupy Portland (in Maine) was not violent.  This blog is not violent.  I have a vote, and I have the ability to write Congress.  I have the ability to NOT vote for someone whose ideals do not align with my own.  So does every other red-blooded American.  So how did we get here?  How did we get to a place in society where I can’t get married or my son will loose healthcare, where we are permitted to borrow more and more and more no matter what, where even children loose their patience and bear arms?  I vote, read, write and raise my child to be a citizen with ethical values and integrity.  What are the rest of you doing?

You must face adversity in order to overcome it. 

Define microsociety.  How does this definition fit in with the image you project of society at large?  Could it be just another form of gonzo?

How have you made a difference in your own life today?  How have you made a difference in someone else life today?  Today I made a difference by being PRESENT for my son before school this morning.  That one little bit of effort, put in every single day, will pay off for him and me and everyone else we each come into contact with throughout the day.  It does not matter that his father chooses to be absent.  It does not matter that my job is kind of lame.  What matters is that I made the choice to sit with him, to ask him about his night, his day, his thoughts. 

He is only 5 years old and he knows right from wrong.  He knows up from down, left from right, good men from evil men, hard-working adults from lazy adults, and he is only 5 years old. 

Maybe I am not working on my MBA or filling out law school applications (yet).  Maybe I am not spending every waking minute volunteering or baking or shopping or participating in politics.  But that few minutes each and every morning helps to make him a more aware, more satisfied child.  This will in turn help to make him a more aware and satisfied adult, which will serve him and all who know him very well.

The best, most honest work one can do is work done with one’s own hands.  Only when you toil in poor conditions (such as on your knees scrubbing leftover grout off new tile rather than paying for someone else to do it) do you truly appreciate the final product.

I’ve just read an article on cnn.com that men are in trouble because they are getting lazier and lazier.  Women, however, are continuing to reclaim the world through education and work.  Women are surpassing men approximately 3 to 2, according to this article.  The writer barely scratched the surface of what continues to be an issue in adults ages 20-40. 

Parents (and other role models, educators and leaders) failed to teach children accountability, and not in just one or two cases.  Now there are multitudes of adults in the world who have never been held accountable for themselves…they have no sense of responsibility for themselves or their families.  They have no idea how their own actions and behaviors affect everyone around them.  They have children that can’t read in the first grade, can’t chew with their mouths closed at age 7, and never experience a social life because these adults are too busy watching TV, playing video games and otherwise sitting around to notice that their children might want to make some friends.

While the article limited criticism to men, I believe many young women cannot be excluded from this class of drones that are now contributing less than they are consuming.  Jerry Weintraub tells in his memoir of his father teaching him the most basic principle of accounting.  Have a list in one pocket of what you owe, and a list in the other pocket of what you have.  Always be sure to make sure the Have List outweighs the Owe List.  Jerry Weintraub’s dad would have been about the same age as my great-grandfathers.  Where did this knowledge go?  Who let the ball drop?

We all need to claim responsibility.  It is up to each of us to do all we can to pull the world out of the shithole it is currently sitting in.  Shut off the TV.  Throw out the xbox, the ds, the ipad touch.  Sweat a little.  Discipline your children when they need it.  Teach accountability.  Both men and women. 

Some things need to be destroyed to make space for better things.

After a morning of showers and clouds the sun is peaking through onto grass dotted in dandelions and my little man playing trucks.  Dandelions are pretty enough from afar but they are nasty weeds that take over everything within reach of their tempting fairy-wing seeds.  They are like a venomous lover; a sweet wine may be produced from their flowers but their roots run deep and firm into the soil and the plant is nearly impossible to exterminate without a pesticide.

This morning’s rainy segment was spent relaxing in a local coffee shop downtown with my dear Jessica.  We brainstormed several life-changing possibilities; many of which can only take place with time and careful planning.  Immediately we decided to try out moving my coffee pot from the office out back into the front section of showroom.  There is usually coffee going here, and for $3.15 I picked up non-dairy creamer, sugar and styrofoam cups.  It’s taking a little more effort than it should to get dad on board with either installing a new outlet for the fax machine so I can utilize the table that is under it (we have all the parts needed to do this already) or to move an antique cookstove from one wall to another.  He has decided to avoid doing either of these by spending 15 minutes looking for his car keys so he can go down to the post office and mail a small part to a customer.

Jessica and I also talked about getting some cooperative advertising going with some other area businesses.  I then came in and approached dad with the idea of revisiting the possibility of putting a woodstove in a local furniture store where they make their own furniture and wanted a woodstove for free to burn in their showroom.  No interest.  There are several other area businesses that would benefit from displaying a burning fireplace or stove but dad cannot seem to understand the long-term benefits.  He only sees the up-front expense and time that it would take to drive around talking with other business owners.  For being the life of the party he sure does seem to have a hard time with the ideas I am presenting to him. 

One may think that working in the alternative heating industry in New England would be a no-brainer.  It gets cold here, every year, year in and year out.  Every single person who lives and/or works in New England needs heat 8-10 months out of the year.  There are so many different ways to heat any space, and so many different spaces to heat and people to satisfy, that one would think the work would be steady.

This past winter was an anomally.  The temperature did not drop as drasticly, or as long, as it usually does.  Mind you 20 degrees is still cold but can feel like summer after a couple weeks of negative numbers.  Mild temperatures and infrequent storms led to a decrease in sales of wood, gas and pellet stoves in comparison to previous winters.  I’ve been nudging the boss (who also happens to be my father) to get thinking early about different products/services we can offer to carry us through the summer months.  The man has self-destructive tendencies and would prefer to cuss under his breath instead of getting out into the community to generate some business.

I need to find ways to get customers into the store and spending money in the off-season while at the same time continuing to allow dad to believe he is in fact the person behind the wheel of this business.  My 4-year-old son has CF and his health has always suffered when left in the care of another person, so I am limited in the amount of time I can put in each day and in my ability to go get a job that will have me punching a clock.

We do not live or work in a wealthy community.  There is a usually booming tourism industry, but that has also suffered with the economy.  We purchase many of our goods as locally as possible and shop locally where we can.  Please support your own local businesses; they have local families to feed.  Just like me.