Chronicles of an Ordinary Man: November 2012

Friday, 30 November 2012

30 November 2012 ~ COMMITMENT; NOT JUST ANOTHER CLICHÉ

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. True? I don’t know. But just suppose it is true, and it’s five minutes to midnight and you haven’t eaten yours yet; munch away! Perhaps it’s just a cliché.

Life is full of clichés and ‘sayings’ and definitions and sales slogans that call out for our attention. I’m not in marketing as a career and that is probably a good thing; I would go hungry, for sure. Imagine if I was a marketing director for some major vacuum cleaner company and I was tasked with coming up with next year’s big slogan for their new line of upright models and all I could come up with is “Dysell; we’ve seen the future of our new vacuum cleaner; and it sucks.” I guess I will stick to aviation maintenance, and all that it entails, because that is my life.

How about life? Here’s my definition of life; keeping death at a comfortable distance. Now, as much as I may commit to that, at some point I know I will fail in my commitment. Why? Simple; because that’s life! We are not here ad infinitum; and neither is your vacuum cleaner.

Commitment; I made a commitment to post two blogs a month in my quest to become a good writer. After all, one has to engage in the activity of ‘doing’ in order to become good at it; whether that activity is writing, learning the piano, loving your partner, or whatever. So this, my second blog for the month of November, and second blog this afternoon, is me achieving my commitment. It is not a monumental blog by any means; but a commitment is a commitment.

It may not be five minutes to midnight yet; I still have a little less than one hour before November closes out. I have eaten my apple already, and I feel good knowing that my second blog is published before the midnight hour; monumental or not! That was, and is, my commitment.

So, to close out this blog, here’s another good definition for you --- Commitment; doing the thing you said you would do, long after the mood that you said it in has left you.

Commitment may be just another cliché to some; but to this writer, at this moment in time, it feels like much more than that.

Two blogs a month is my commitment; this travellin’ man is still staying on course.

30 November 2012 ~ THEN AND NOW; A TURN OF EVENTS

My commitment was to post two blogs a month. Here we are on 30 November 2012 and I haven’t posted one yet! It has been an incredibly busy month for me, work-wise, and there hasn’t been a free ‘moment’ to focus on my blog posts. So I am going to cheat a little. My commitment was to ‘post’ two blogs a month… not necessarily ‘write’ two blogs a month! So my first post is from some of my old ‘Notes’ that I wrote before I really went public with my writings in this blog; however I did add a comment or two here and there in this 'Then and now...'!

This was written last year. It is interesting how things have turned out since then!

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New Beginnings ~ Part 2; Written on Monday 19 September 2011

After ten+ years with my airline (Air Ontario, Air Canada Regional, Air Canada Jazz, Jazz Air, Jazz Aviation --- and all that Jazz!) another ‘New Beginning’ awaits. My time as a technical instructor in aircraft maintenance with Air Canada Jazz is coming to a close. Another opportunity has come my way that will allow me to continue doing what I love best; training. But it will also afford me a chance to build, improve and grow as an instructor

Fond memories of what was at Air Canada Jazz, and excitement for what will be. Watch out world; Freeman is taking his training expertise global!!!

Texo ~ Amplexus ~ Crescere

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The bottom line is that things did not work out as I was led to believe; but you can read all about that in my blog titled ‘THE VIEW; OTHER-SIDE, INSIDE-OUT OR OUTSIDE-IN’ because that, as diplomatically as I could, sums up the events that took place when I left a great job, with great people and a great boss, to take on a more ambitious challenge. And it proved to be challenging in more ways than one. Perhaps someday I will write more about the events that transpired between October 2011 and April 2012, but now is not the time. I will write about it when the time is right.

So, since I wrote those exiting words back on 19 September 2011, a lot has changed. I am now very happy with the path my career has taken and I am amazed at what I have found out that I can do. The following is another one of my ‘Notes’ that was written shortly after the one above.

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Last Day at the Airline; Written on Friday 30 September 2011

Yup; Laptop handed in. Keys handed in. Security Passes handed in. Today is the first time I have left the building without all of the above - - and the last time I will leave the building as an employee. Next week the new beginning starts; still as an aircraft maintenance instructor.

Things I have learned during my eleven years with the airline; nine of them as an instructor:

I've learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.

I've learned that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I've learned that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance.

I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon.

I've learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I've learned that you can keep going long after you think you can't.

I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people just don't care back.

I've learned that writing helps me to ease my emotional pains.

I've learned that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

"Men do less than they ought, unless they do all they can" ~~~ Thomas Carlyle

"Onwards and upwards" ~~~ Paul Freeman

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Regarding that last bullet above; I’m getting there. But now I believe that ‘there’ is not a destination; it is a journey. I'm a travellin' man...