ellenspictures

Category: Mind

the millennial mindset and me

I read blogs out there on the inter-universe, and articles, which are really blog pieces, and I think to myself – I just feel confused about where I fit. But thankfully, a fellow-writer, Julia Bell, has this piece that tells us that it is actually important to think about your purpose, and accept yourself.

Millennials the Consumer Majority.

There is a lot of talk about Millennials these days, because they are at the heart of the labor force and consumer groups that are the focus of advertising and the media. I go back to that generational part of my life when I was in my 30’s (phase into where they are moving or are), and think about the crazy parts, especially, and how, if I had to do that now, would I manage it – if differently, or not.

#ThinkLikeAMillenial

I’m not necessarily like some people “my age”. I have these friends and neighbors and they are around “my age”, but let’s just say that we don’t always align on some pretty major things. It’s like my feet are stuck in the mud of one time frame, and those people are pretty satisfied with moving on, getting into their senior years and all that comes with that. Sometimes we relate on some things, like I said, and this yields some pretty interesting conversations, especially if adult beverages are involved…

It’s hard to be “me”, without letting my feelings about certain things out of the bag, which immediately categorizes me it a lot of people’s minds, and there you go.

What you must know is that I might not fit into the “boomer” mindset completely, maybe a little, but not anywhere near 50%, even. Actually, I just measured. I’m not even in the “Boomer” range on the scale.

While people are “enjoying retirement”, I am doing “business development”. I figure, just go until you are stopped… by something, other than yourself.

If you are interested in seeing where you fit, take this survey and contribute to Pew Research:

How Millennial Are You? You see, I’m pretty much half way to being a Millennial!

Why is this important?

Let’s take the targeted advertising, for instance. People are trying to get you to buy stuff. It may be pure crap. But they look at how you surf the net, and Facebook, and LinkedIn, and every other social media site. They probably monitor your phone calls, for all I know. There is NO PRIVACY. This has been a factoid for many years – likely well over 15.

“They” may look at your chronological age and assess, “this person needs to be looking at bathtubs with doors, or those seat things that move you up stairs on some sort of pulley mechanism to get you to the top without you having to climb, or catheters, or comfortable shoes, or knee braces, or” You get it, right?

Every time one of these ads pops up onto my radar, I’m thinking, “Really?” Why me? Well, it’s because of these constantly churning information collecting/analytical info-bots, looking to enable people to sell to the right audience – but they can be wrong – but do they care? Not really. They try to refine based on what you actually do buy vs. what they thought you might buy, and so forth.

If you want to wack them out a bit, when you are “retirement age”, sign up for a Seventeen Magazine subscription, WIRED, some news magazine (take your pick), and one other one that is discordant – it gets “them” confused. It’s the Andy Rooney influence…

Yet there can be advantages.

When I turned 40, my Mom signed me up for AARP. I still like AARP so that I can get the old-people discounts, plus they are lobbying for “us” – and they have a strong voice behind the effort.

My Mom was not by any stretch of the imagination anything but smart. She was an activist of sorts, and spoke her opinion (maybe a bit too much at times). She got a little flaky in her last years on earth, but she was still intellectually top notch. She, too, did not align with people her own age and had many younger friends.

There is an urge that I have, sometimes, walking in stores, or wherever you’re in a crowd, to ask people, whose age I can’t guess, “Can you answer a simple question for me? How old are you?” I think that they’re likely to either to flip me off, or maybe lie, or they just might tell me the truth. If I could correlate this with their picture, even better. But, this is a delusional idea – probably, especially these days, people would give you “that look” (crazy lady alert!)… And just walk off…

Predictable Outcomes?

Just a few years ago, five to be exact, a notice went out to those attending my high-school reunion: “Those who need assistance to walk upstairs, please let us know such that we can get assistance for moving you in and out of the building, when you arrive and depart.” Whoa. These are people that would not even be 60 yet. Geeze-Louise.

And then, I thought about the prior 10-year reunion, and why they sent the message about disabilities out makes sense. There was an interesting picture taken of the members of our class who attended. A large percentage were in the extremely obese range of weight. Yeah, I imagine that their joints are not holding up so well by now.

So, I get on my treadmill, and tread. Every day, if possible – or do something else to “feed the Fitbit”… I don’t fight with it , I know that this has to happen. I get out and “wog” on the trails, weather permitting, and I do what I can to stay as healthy as I can, because, God only knows, they sock it to the old people who get sick and take away all of their money, even their homes and such – but that is quite another story… they actually will do that to anybody, regardless of age.

When I am facing questions related to my age:

Q: What do I do about things like fashion?

A: Go comfy. If it hurts, don’t wear it. This goes for clothes and shoes. Absolutely NO stilettos. Broken arches and ankles do not serve anyone very well.

Q: Glasses, what frames do I choose? You see, I kind of feel like people prejudge me because of my glasses frames, and the thickness of the lenses, when I know full well that there are people who have worn thick lenses since they were in grade-school – so, why prejudge me for this? It’s silly.

A: I wear those that enable me to see the best. If there are big fat frames around my view, it is limiting my view. Enough said.

Q: What about my hair?

A: No, I am NOT going to get that short haircut again that makes me look like any other middle-aged, stodgy aging woman that wears pantsuits with elastic waistbands made of polyester or rayon mu-mu’s, for that matter. We start losing our curves and become “Weebles” (thank you Hasbro).

TMI – Information – Dis-information – Re-Digested Opinions

Information that looks like one thing that is actually another thing – appearance is not always reality. Go with your gut.

OK, when I really think about this and it makes me a bit dizzy, I have to step back to a book called Gut that was written in 2006, by Karen Salamansohn, about using your intuition, that I purchased back then – after my first Myers-Briggs scoring. My score was very high “N” – in fact it is within my four letter MB descriptor. This score, subsequently, has been validated over and over by other tests that measure this. I do have strong intuition. Measured. Felt.

I have to listen to my gut, as imperfect as it is, as not listening to it has put me in a bad place more than once – you live, you learn. If there is something not quite right sometimes, and it drives me crazy until I solve it. That’s how “intuitive life” is.

At any rate, I am still observing the culture – every day. There is so much information, and with the way that I think and with my strong intuition, I can only conclude that taking the high ground is the safest way to keep from drowning. It seems to work at a number of levels right now…

June 5, 2016
what I like to do vs. what I do

What I like to do? That’s a good question. It depends on the day. Sometimes I can’t even answer that question. It’s kind of like “what do you want to eat?” – to which I respond, “What do you have?” or it’s close cousin “What are you going to eat?” A question answer for a question… Hmmmm – what’s going on there?

I need me some insight! Yeah.

I recently decided to take the Myers-Briggs test again, just to check and see if I have changed. Well. Actually, I haven’t much. It was of some comfort to be reminded of all of my blind-spots. It reconfirms what some people tell me about myself, either frustratingly, or sometimes gently, but mostly in the former way, as I may have pushed them to the brink of whatever. I guess that I am hard to be around sometimes, especially when I am not in my comfort zone, which can be a lot of the time.

What happens is that I think that everything should fit into Planet Me. Anything else is illogical. I have to ask God to help me with this and give over to the higher power as I traverse into the land of the overwhelmed. When I was in deep grief after losing Rob, and yes, he was lost, no matter what anyone has told me otherwise, on my planet, he isn’t here – I can’t find him, so he is lost… As I was saying, when I was in deep grief, I had to give over to God. It wasn’t possible for me to feel in control of anything – it was like something else had taken over me and was driving from deep inside me. Hard as hell to ride those waves, but I finally managed to stay on the surfboard and not fall into the sea. I kept looking for some dry land and eventually, I did land on a beach somewhere – still on my planet. I have learned to live on “survivor island”, as it is impossible to return to the old place where I was. Forever changed, but not gotten — that old place… Yep, it didn’t get me then — and I pray for peace all the time that this will be settled for at least a while (in geological time).

As with most of us humans, I believe that I am programmed to worry about “the end” of life on earth – my life, everyone else’s “who are dear to me” ‘s lives – not so much that I have any control – but that I pray for not painful transitions – All the horseshit with suffering is not a good deal for anyone. Enough of that. FIDO. If you want to know the acronym meaning of FIDO, search the inter-google. You’ll find it eventually.

So much of life is living through one’s days, not knowing when days will no longer be, and trying to enjoy life, love others, feel somewhat satisfied and successful at what you do, interact with those around you and your world, in a positive way – and not be fearful of being alone… Once I am by myself in quiet solitude, it isn’t so bad.

It helps to have the dog here with me. She is somebody. Until my special somebody comes home again and we are together, she is here and remains here until such time as she isn’t – but that hopefully is on down the road some.

I do worry about this enough that it enters my dreams, and so I know that the worry baseline contains this worrisome stuff. I think it is because of my intuition and its strength. God only knows why He gave me this. It must serve some purpose. Here, Dearie, have an extra helping of intuition, thank you very much… Hmmmm… Does that come with salsa?

My f***ing intuition drives me nuts sometimes and I want it to go away or just tame down some… I pray over and over that I can be more wrong that right and just “normal” on the intuitive front. Using intuition for good – that’s okay.

What is interesting today is being up at 4:30 AM, or thereabouts – and being here at 6:40 AM, having been awake for two hours already! It will make the day seem earlier, and then the evening will, too… It’s fall-ish outside (finally) and yet it will get warm again before it doesn’t for awhile. Typical weather for these here parts, plus a little bit warmer – thanks to climate change…

I plan to take this road trip tomorrow which will be an experience I have not had in a good while – road trip by myself. My vehicle and I will traverse the roads of the hill country and try to avoid accidents and incidents with texting drivers who think it is their entitlement to text while driving, regardless of how it makes them drive. ugh.

Straight shot. All the way to the midpoint (well maybe more than the mid-point!) have lunch, go again to the destination.

Birds are chirping, sun is rising – once again, it’s morning…

October 4, 2015
What’s in Your Car? Looking, Examining, Interpreting and Understanding a Universe of Elements AKA Our World

How we look at our world is as various as we are from one individual to another. I recently watched a documentary about what’s in your car – what elements are within its materials – that described that each “thing” that the earth contains within or on it, has existed always in our universe – that there is the continual process of the ongoing reconfiguration of elements, that have always been – somehow, or daily life consists of what our DNA configures us to do, day in and day out, multiple times from sunrise to sunrise in a cyclical fashion.

We progress by discovering more of these elements and by becoming more sophisticated in our manipulation and configurations of them through time.

We know this as technology development, a named overarching set of activities towards this end. It represents many intents, mainly making order out of chaos in a perception world that is becoming increasingly described in a virtual way. We call this “modeling” or virtual worlds.

Communication has always been, and follows a similar progression path to that of the elements. More expressive and virtual, communication enables beings to cooperate, and sustain by lending understanding of essential knowledge based on experience or for more critical situations, help in filling gaps of understanding of diagnosis and of interpretations that not all beings can understand.

Values are placed on elements and expressions as well as the more clever manipulations and configurations of them. What we describe as “work” is treated as a multi-level activity hierarchy that consolidates behaviors and actions into groups, types, and levels of sophistication. Heady stuff.

Pleasure or pain, celebrating the entry or lamenting the losses of certain forms and beings are a part of this period that we experience described universally as “life” by various words that translate to that same meaning.

However, ironically, we are clueless to the actual “meaning of life”. For addressing this, some utilize “science” which is a more “technical” view and some utilize “faith” and the various “belief systems” to bring themselves closer to an understanding of this “meaning of life”. We are in many ways, in many faith groups, seeking to understand the sunrise and sunset of our lives, and what it all means in the context of our universe.

In the meantime, there is what exists here – and love is a huge part of it. The heartbreaking aspects of hurt and anguish in our lives are assuaged by love and its variable nature. We know that love exists, as we feel it – just as we are able to feel God and the presence of the envelope that holds us here. Our higher consciousness has been attained by meditation and prayer, which gives us insight into the existence of this state.

I had these thoughts on an airplane, recently, as I often do. Might be the air quality or the altitude – whatever, these flowed into my mind… I had to capture them. That program that I watched was quite good.

It got me to thinking…

August 4, 2015