![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/2529/2023/e890bc5c68.jpg\")
He was (is) a lovely man. I had to lean in to hear what he was saying. So I did. Our conversation continued and he apologized for his speech. No apology necessary, but he had identified that it was hard for me to hear (loud place aside), he was also a little ‘croakey’.
\nHe explained that he had had cancer.
\nCancer of the throat.
\nThree times.
\nHe was diagnosed in 2017. The doctors recommended he have surgery. He went through the surgery and ‘radio’ and ‘chemo’. “Let’s see” they said.
\nA year later in 2018, the doctors did a PET Scan, and found ‘some more’, so they recommended he have surgery and ‘radio’ and ‘chemo’. “Let’s see” they said.
\nA year later in 2019, the doctors did a PET Scan, and found ‘some more’, so they recommended he have surgery and ‘radio’ and ‘chemo’. “Let’s see” they said.
\nHe got his clearance a year later in 2020, and as I write, it is 2023. Finally he is three years clear.
\nHe is such a positive, focussed, alive person … despite not having eaten solid food for 5 years. Despite having to grind the pills he needs to take daily into a powder before he can swallow them. Despite having lost so much of his throat where the surgeon had cut and cut and cut … to remove the cancer. Despite having had his vocal cords so damaged that the raspy, quiet speech is now his voice. Despite no longer having any of this teeth left because of the radiation therapy. Despite all of this and so much more … like going through all of this totally alone.
\nHis positivity was absolutely awe inspiring.
\nNo ‘poor me’. No ‘why me’. No ‘sad face’. Just happy and grateful to be alive - and alive he most certainly is. Living life as much to the full as he can as he put it.
\n—
\nAll of this resonated deeply.
\nMy cancer diagnosis was January 2021. It was identical. Both of us were ‘T2, stage 4’, with three significant differences.
\nAs of now, it looks like we beat it … having got my two year clearance just a few weeks ago.
\nThat said at the time, hospitalized twice, in the first visit, Jax was told to be prepared for me ‘not to make it’. I was warned that everything that Cody is experiencing could be me plus, needing a cane to walk, maybe even a wheelchair. For me, I have essentially blocked this all out (my way of coping), so this served as a massive wake up call … a bigger one than I experienced when I walked into a new doctor who looked past me waiting for ‘John’ … expecting to see me hobbling in at best. Or another doctor here in the US who knew my background from the advance files that he had received and was stunned that they hadnt operated and ‘looked this good’.
\nSure I have side effects, some of which I am told will be with me for the rest of my life, but compared to Cody … so insignificant that I shouldn’t mention it. I tend not to, but sometimes people ask.
\n\n\n“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow! What a ride!’”
\n
💬 Hunter S Thompson
\n.. I try, but ain’t nothing compared to Cody who is doing just that … in Spades.
\nThis is a story from my occasional series ‘🖇️ Travels Without Charley’ - my small ‘homage’ to John Steinbeck. The names are changed to protect the innocent, but they are all true and based on conversations I have had with people that I have met around the world … and who’s story resonates.
\nThis particular one - more than any other in the published (and unpublished) series - resonated more than any other.
\n", "date_published": "2023-09-09T09:36:45+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2023/09/08/people-cody.html", "tags": ["? WWW","? Quotes","? LongForm","People First","Travels Without Charley","? HUB"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2023/05/05/my-last-travels.html", "content_html": "My last 🔗 Travels Without Charley makes for a short, thoughtful read.
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nI spotted this car parked near a Farmers Market - I walked on, wondering about the owner and what their story was.
\n![\"The](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/2529/2023/d150ef9c50.jpg\" "\\"The")
\nReturning a few hours later, I saw a couple of cars stopped at a junction. They weren’t moving and as I got closer saw an elderly man using his feet to propel him and his wheelchair backwards across this small, pot hole riven junction … up a small incline.
\nI walked over and asked him if he needed any help.
\n\n\n“No thanks. I’m fine.
\n
Are you sure?
\n\n\n“No really. I’m ok … Thankyou.
\n
Pushing harder with his feet for the final assault on the slope.
\nI waved to him ... ok then ... and kept going. He shouted out.
\n\n\n“Thankyou. Thankyou very much. I’m ok ... really."
\n
I turned around to wav to see him by his car, wrestling with the door to get in, carefully watched by his lady friend, sitting patiently to one side of the road in her wheelchair.
\nI still don’t know the story of the car, nor it’s owner - but clearly, despite what the car might say to a passer by ... he was a proud, well mannered, graceful man. I really wish I knew his story.
\n", "date_published": "2023-04-24T08:16:28+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2023/04/23/people-the-driver.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","? LongForm","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2020/04/22/people-will.html", "title": "People: Will", "content_html": "\nI got my skills very early in life and never looked back. A lot of people in my line of work are ex-military, but I was trained and worked as a civilian all of my life. It's funny when I was at school all the advice I got was about getting a ‘good’ job with a ‘reputable company’. What they meant was ‘large’.
\n\n\n\n\nI've never worked for a large company. Well, unless you call 30 people large. I’ve worked for myself and for others … in construction, emergency services, tourism, deliveries and seen the world while I was at it.
\n\n\nPapua New Guinea ... only after their independence (I'm not that old!), up in Canada, down in Australia and New Zealand …. I pretty much work wherever the next phone call takes me.
\n\n\nMe? Oh, I fly helicopters.
\n\n\nWill never had ‘pilot’ on his ‘what I will do when I grow up’ childhood list, but he’s never regretted it. “What else would I do?” he asked.
\n\n\n\n\n“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”
Seneca
Thinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n🎙️ Travels Without Charlie - Episode 1 - Kevin
\nIt’s a series of stories that are part of People First. The growing set is here, while the story about Kevin is here.
\nI hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I have enjoyed meeting the people that tell me their stories.
\n\n", "date_published": "2020-04-08T17:43:26+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2020/04/08/travels-without-charlie.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","? Podcasts","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2020/02/03/people-sylvester.html", "title": "People: Sylvester", "content_html": "\n“They come for three months - they stay for four years - and I welcome that. That’s how we learn. They see us up close and personal and we see them. A lot of countries that they come from have very different governments, with different rules. We get to learn about each without the filter of what they are told. I wouldn’t say that when they leave we fully understand each other’s cultures, but we are surely better off than we would have been if we hadn't.”
\n\n\n“We bring people in from all over the world, staff and customers. So, why would we treat anyone differently? Them, Us, Staff, Customers, Family … each one of us is part of another’s world. And I mean all of us.”
\n\n\n“I don’t know much about those large companies you hear about in the news. You could fit our entire community into one of their office blocks. They have their ways. We have ours. So we’re different. Except we’re not. None of us are. They just haven’t worked that out yet.”
\n\n\n“Turns out, we have more in common with ‘foreigners’ - like you” (he smiles and points his finger at me) “than some of the people from our own country. Turns out that the ones that are just here to 'party' are the odd ones out. That’s why we came up with the 'Silly Bugger' rule.”
\n\n\n“It goes like this. When you come here, you can work and you can party. But that’s on your time. If you play 'silly bugger', there is no second chance. You are out on the next boat. That’s how we build and strengthen our community. Everybody is welcome until they make themselves unwelcome.”
\n\n\n“Maybe that’s something else those big companies could learn from us. If they did, we wouldn’t charge. That’s another thing - we don’t charge to learn - learning makes us all better.”
\n\n\n\n\n“There is no harm in our criticizing foreigners, if only we would also criticize ourselves. In other words, the world might need even less of its new charity, if it had a little more of the old humility.”
G.K. Chesterton
Thinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nIn a recent newsletter, I referenced a book; Everything I Know About Business I Learned from the Grateful Dead which unbeknownst to me was written by a friend of a friend. Turns out the two friends used to swap Grateful Dead stories and on reading my post this story came to mind. When I read the story, it seemed a perfect addition to my Travels Without Charley series - so please read on and enjoy the first 'guest post' in the series.
\n\n\nOne favourite was about a concerned father and his 16 year old son.
\n\n\n\n\nThe affluent, NorCal dad arrange to meet with a well-regarded psychiatrist and youth councillor regarding his son. The father was troubled and anxious that his son lacked motivation. He further arranged for the son to also meet with the same Doctor. After a few months, they all agreed to have a face-to-face sit down.
\n\n\nDuring the course of the intervention, the Doctor learned the son was a Deadhead. The Doctor apprised himself of what that meant, and the recent activities of the boy. The Doctor immediately concluded his diagnosis and recommendation.
\n\n\nDuring the three-way meeting in the Fall, the Doctor asked the dad if he knew what his son was doing for the last three summer months. The dad really didn't know. The Doctor explained that his son, his only spawn, had recently travelled to 30 different cities, in nearly as many states, saw around 20 Grateful Dead shows, all with no money, no car, and no visible means of support. The Doctor quickly allayed any fatherly concerns about 'motivation.'
\n\n\nEventually, the dad became a Deadhead, went to shows with his son, all while his son graduated cum laude from Leland Stanford Junior University aka Stanford, in Palo Alto, the ancestral home of the Grateful Dead.
\n\n\n\n\nI use this vignette to rail on the emetic notion of managerialism. The fact is the Deadhead kid was exceptionally motivated. It was just a different type of motivation. It was foreign to the father. Eventually and fortuitously it was embraced. Unfortunately, this metacognition is sorely absent in most orgs.
John Maloney
Thinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n\"Me? I'm from England ... you’ve heard of the 'Garden of England'?“
\n\n\n“I have - Kent right?”
\n\n\n“That’s the one - and every garden needs a compost heap - that’s the town I'm from, so my girlfriend and I sold everything we had, bought a couple of tickets and here we are.”
\n\n\n\n\nKevin went on to tell me that he moved here because he had friends in the country and they spoke well of all they found. Recognizing that their options couldn’t be worse, they just did it. Where they work is thousands of miles from family and hundreds of miles from any of their ‘local’ friends but they'd both got jobs at the same place ... so it was a ‘no brainer’, although he'd been working there twice as long as his girlfriend.
\n\n\n“She started today. Me? I started yesterday.”
\n\n\nKevin and his girlfriend broke the chain of their 'destiny' and created their own opportunity. They don’t know how it will all work out ... but if it doesn't, they'll just do it all again.
\n\n\n“No point in waiting for things to happen is there?”
\n\n\n\n\nYou don't stumble upon your heritage. It's there, just waiting to be explored and shared.
Robbie Robertson
Thinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n'Real Stories | Real People' is a new occasional series that will start to appear on this blog in the not too distant future. But that's not the point of the newsletter. The point was first to share the story of Richard Montañez
\"In Italy I was a photographer. In Rome.\"
\n\n\n“A pretty place to photograph.”
\n\n\n\"Well, not so much, my job was a police photographer. When someone died, I took the photographs. I was very busy. Ten years .. every day … click click click … more death. Depressing. Soul ‘killing’’. I couldn’t make a life out of death.\"
\n\n\nSo different city, different country, different job?
\n\n\n\"Yes. But same girl!\"
\n\n\n\"She said to me one day that she is coming here. To England. It seemed a good idea. Time for change.\"
\n\n\nYou didn’t want to do something in photography? Maybe scenery, weddings, commercial … put your skills to a different use?
\n\n\n\"No.\"
\n\n\n\"My girl friend she is always changing. Me too. I wanted change. But Only one change. Change. Stop.\"
\n\n\nSo you have been here for ten years.
\n\n\n\"Yes. And will be for another ten. My girlfriend she has had 15 jobs in the same time. Sometimes working 50 miles away. Always changing. Always chasing. But never arriving.\"
\n\n\n\"Me? I’ve arrived.\"
\n\n\n\n\nAny journey is a series of events and one of those events is the destination. [efn_note] I was reminded of this story when I was sharing a bottle of wine with a friend recently. The wine was 'own label' - and on that label was a line ... that he assured me was his, I haven't found it anywhere else so let me attribute accordingly. [/efn_note]
Thinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nHow about you? I asked.
\n\n\n\"Me? More brothers and sisters than most and none of them talk to me and the missus.\"
\n\n\nThat must be hard.
\n\n\nNot really. It runs in the family. My parents hardly ever talked.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"You can't choose your family, but you sure can choose your friends\".
My Dad [efn_note]A long time ago[/efn_note]
Thinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nHe looked at me. Eyes piercing my skull.
\n\n\n“Yes - I have heard of it I replied. An African nation … right?”
\n\n\nAfrican yes.
\n\n\n\"I’m sorry, I can’t place exactly where in Africa - but, my memory tells me in the North .. near Ethiopia?”
\n\n\nYou do indeed know my country. He gave me the biggest smile.
\n\n\nAnd then this young man from Eritrea launched into the story of his journey from Africa to San Francisco. Not harrowing … though if you know anything of that region, that is more surprising than if it was.
\n\n\nI won a scholarship to America. I am a musician. I came here ten years ago.
\n\n\n\n\n\"Why San Francisco?”
\n\n\nMy friend … anyone coming to the USA knows the San Francisco is where you should enter America.
\n\n\n\"Because they are more accepting?”
\n\n\nI must have hit a nerve.
\n\n\nI came here legally. He stopped talking. Looking at me.
\n\n\nLegally.
\n\n\n\"I know, I know, I’m sorry, I wasn’t suggesting anything else, I am just intrigued why San Francisco.”
\n\n\nI came here legally … with scholarship. I have always worked to earn money. I have always paid my taxes. I am not illegal immigrant. And no - not accepting. Look at me, 10 years after arriving in America I am here, my music I play for weddings 4, 5 times a year. I have qualified as accountant. But no work. I barely survive. No my friend I am not accepted. San Francisco is not accepting.
\n\n\n\"Sorry - I understand, didn’t mean to imply, I am just interested in how you come to decide to arrive in San Francisco when you are living on the other side of the world. New York would have been closer. Easier?”
\n\n\nAaaahhh
\"Have you ever considered going back to Eritrea?”
\n\n\nOne day. Maybe. I have family there . But even now, even with so called peace … it is hard. Too hard.
\n\n\nWorking too much. Not applying his education to his job. Massively over qualified for what he does. Struggling to makes ends meet. Not following his dreams or passions. Rarely seeing his family.
\n\n\nAnd yet still this life is better than what he would have if he returned home.
\n\n\n\n\nSuccess has always been easy to measure. It is the distance between one's origins and one's final achievement.
Michael Korda
Thinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nThe twenty sixth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nwas recently published on BIZCATALYST 360.
\nJan … following her dreams and passion along a route that she could never have planned for.
\n", "date_published": "2019-02-26T11:49:50+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2019/02/25/154950.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2019/02/25/the-twenty-fifth.html", "content_html": "The twenty fifth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nwas recently published on BIZCATALYST 360.
\nAlex lives in the moment - in a way I understand, but could never replicate.
\n", "date_published": "2019-02-26T11:48:20+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2019/02/25/the-twenty-fifth.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2019/02/25/the-twenty-fourth.html", "content_html": "The twenty fourth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nwas recently published on BIZCATALYST 360.
\nNenah … working hard, reaping rewards. It’s ‘the American way’.
\n", "date_published": "2019-02-26T11:47:06+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2019/02/25/the-twenty-fourth.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2019/02/25/the-twenty-third.html", "content_html": "The twenty third in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nwas recently published on BIZCATALYST 360.
\nRebecca has had a hard life, dealt more than the usual knocks - but deals with it. No complaints. Just surviving with support from ‘the nation’.
\n", "date_published": "2019-02-26T11:45:34+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2019/02/25/the-twenty-third.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2019/02/11/200823.html", "content_html": "‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’ : Leroy : No.22
\nLeroy is hanging onto the most important part of his life - before she goes.
\nSign Up For The People First Newsletter
\n", "date_published": "2019-02-12T16:08:23+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2019/02/11/200823.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2019/02/11/the-twenty-first.html", "content_html": "‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’ : JK : No.21
\nJK is young - but has already lived a full life many times over.
\nSign Up For The People First Newsletter
\n", "date_published": "2019-02-12T16:06:37+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2019/02/11/the-twenty-first.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2019/02/11/the-twentieth-in.html", "content_html": "‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’ : Alan and Margaret : No.20
\n\nSign Up For The People First Newsletter
\n", "date_published": "2019-02-12T16:04:53+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2019/02/11/the-twentieth-in.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/12/12/alan-played-by.html", "content_html": "‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’ : Alan and Margaret : No.20
\n\nSign Up For The People First Newsletter
\n", "date_published": "2018-12-13T05:36:22+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/12/12/alan-played-by.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/12/11/people-benjamin.html", "title": "People: Benjamin", "content_html": "Stood to the side of the road, walking stick supporting him. Well kept. Elegant even. Just standing. The traffic constantly passing him by. No slowing down, but then no attempt by him to get them to either.
\nI slowed down to let him cross. No movement.
\nI opened the window.
\n“Would you like a lift?”
\n“Thankyou.” he said. “Thankyou very much.”
\nSlowly walking towards the car, he gets in.
\n“Much appreciated.” he said. “I’m going to 4th street … is that ok?”
\n\"No problem. Which cross street?\"
\n“It doesn’t matter. Anywhere on 4th. I’m going to the bank.”
\n4th Street is long …. twice as long as the distance I was going to drive to get him there. We pulled away and got back into step with the traffic.
\n“Good news he said. I have $5,000 in my account that I didn’t know I had. I’m going to check that it’s there. That it’s real. Hope so he said, I’ve already been celebrating.”
\nI’d already guessed it wasn’t cologne that I was smelling.
\n\"Which bank?\"
\n“It doesn’t matter. If I have it, maybe I will buy the car I’ve been wanting. Save all this waiting and walking.”
\n\"You could get a nice car for $5,000.\"
\n“Can you? It’s been a long while since they took my last one away. They took it with my license.”
\n\"How long ago?\"
\n“Can’t rightly recall. A long time ago. Be nice to drive again.”
\n“Oh, wait - here will be just fine.”
\n\"There’s a bank 5 blocks up. No problem to take you there.\"
\n“Oh no no no… thankyou. Here’s just fine.”
\nI pulled over, and he got out.
\nI watched him walk away in the opposite direction to the bank.
\nWho knows where his mind was going to take him next.
\nOne thing was sure. It would be wherever he wanted it to be. A walking stick isn’t going to stop his travels.
\nI know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.\n
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
", "date_published": "2018-12-12T10:41:03+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/12/11/people-benjamin.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","? LongForm","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/12/02/the-nineteenth-in.html", "content_html": "The nineteenth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\nBrad reinvented himself a few times in his life and wrote a sci-fi novel where people routinely have multiple careers. Must be semi autobiographical.
\n", "date_published": "2018-12-03T11:08:23+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/12/02/the-nineteenth-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/11/27/the-eighteenth-in.html", "content_html": "The eighteenth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\nPete is an older gentleman that lives in London. He can see no reason to even visit America - certainly not after what his brother experienced.
\n", "date_published": "2018-11-27T12:15:00+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/11/26/the-eighteenth-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/11/20/the-seventeenth-in.html", "content_html": "The seventeenth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\nWhen I saw this on BizCatalyst360 - I just had to write this because one year later here we are again - with even an bigger disaster in the making.
\n", "date_published": "2018-11-20T12:32:00+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/11/19/the-seventeenth-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/11/05/the-sixteenth-in.html", "content_html": "The sixteenth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\nIf Steve only knew that his vote was just 1% of all that was needed to switch his entire congressional district.
\n", "date_published": "2018-11-06T11:59:19+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/11/05/the-sixteenth-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/10/29/the-fifteenth-in.html", "content_html": "The fifteenth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\nEvelyn has come to understand that decisions are not simple transactions and have real long term consequences.
\n", "date_published": "2018-10-30T05:03:47+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/10/29/the-fifteenth-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/10/29/the-fourteenth-in.html", "content_html": "The fourteenth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\nEnrique knows which side of his bread is buttered on and approaches life from the PoV of what he wants … not others.
\n", "date_published": "2018-10-30T05:02:01+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/10/29/the-fourteenth-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/10/11/the-thirteenth-in.html", "content_html": "‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’ : Cynthia : No.13
\n\nSign Up For The People First Newsletter
\nMore: Tenets | Quotes | Frameworks | Stories
\n", "date_published": "2018-10-12T07:42:00+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/10/11/the-thirteenth-in.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/10/11/the-twelfth-in.html", "content_html": "‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’ : Graham : No.12
\n\nSign Up For The People First Newsletter
\nMore: Tenets | Quotes | Frameworks | Stories
\n", "date_published": "2018-10-12T07:21:22+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/10/11/the-twelfth-in.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/10/11/191013.html", "content_html": "The eleventh in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nis published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\nJames, proud of his heritage and who he is.
\nI couldn’t always track the logic of what he said, but we’re talking people!
\nWhat’s logic got to do with it?
\n", "date_published": "2018-10-12T07:10:13+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/10/11/191013.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/10/07/people-jan.html", "title": "People: Jan", "content_html": "\nJan knows the UK and lives in Texas now, but the journey from one to the other allowed her to see the rest of the world.
\n\n\nShe lived in Mildenhall. I’d heard of it. Used to live near there myself.
\n\n\nShe joined the USAF to get trained, qualified and see a world ‘outside of the 50’. She left after just three years because she met and fell in love with the man who became her husband (best-laid plans and all that!). Training and Qualifications put on hold, but still traveled and saw the world. After all - her husband was still in the forces.
\n\n\nNow she is an antique dealer and her husband works at the nearby USAF facility. Well not just the USAF, turns out it is the only joint USAF and NATO training facility in the world.
\n\n\nWho knew?
\n\n\n\n\nHer vision was clear, as was her mission and strategy: join the USAF, get trained and qualified. See the world.
\n\n\nBut, the tactics to achieve the mission changed. Quickly.
\n\n\nRegardless, mission accomplished. She saw the world and got trained and qualified.
\n\n\nJan never looked back. In fact, by not holding on to a pre-conceived notion as to how this was all going to work out, she did everything she wanted to do and then some.
\n\n\nWithout her husband, she would never have gotten into antiques ... which turned out to be her passion. Seeing the world? Sure.
\n\n\nWe never quite know what we really want to do. Or be. Do we? At least that's true for the most of us. So why hang on to some arbitrary plan?
\n\n\nI am reminded of the Japanese term Ikigai ... literally a 'reason for being'. Jan started in a military profession to live, with a personal mission to see the world. Through the good fortune of her USAF career being derailed, she discovered her own 'Ikigai. Good fortune? Maybe. But really through her own agility.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLife is What Happens To You While You're Busy Making Other Plans.\n
John Lennon
[ Or Was It? ]
\n\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n“I spent the day with my dog.”
\n\"What kind of dog is it?\"\n\"A Boston Terrier.\"\n
\"Oh wow, do you have pictures?\"
\n\"I did, but I lost my camera and so all my pictures.\"\n\"Oh no, you know these days it’s so easy to keep your photos backed up in the cloud, so you’ll never lose them.\"
\n\"I know. I have Google storage and Verizon cloud, but I just never get round to doing it, because it isn't important.\"\n\"Well maybe you will now.\"
\n\"Maybe. But now there’s an opportunity to create a set of new memories.\"\nThe differences in people are revealed by the smallest truths. I live in a world of online back ups, local back ups - duplicated and a system that allows me to recover files lost just a minute ago. Anything less would make me nervous.
\nThere are also those people that never back up because they simply don’t know. Or they have never lost their phone, and with it their only copy of photos, phone numbers and notes.
\nAnd then there are people like Alex. He knows all about that. He just doesn’t care. He is not driven by the same triggers that drive me. He lives in the moment. For the moment.
\n“What day is it?” asked Pooh.\n“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.\n“My favorite day,” said Pooh.”\n
A.A. Milne
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’ : Midori : No.10
\nMidori celebrates her heritage with images that she always carries with her.
\nSign Up For The People First Newsletter
\nMore: Tenets | Quotes | Frameworks | Stories
\n", "date_published": "2018-09-03T06:57:35+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/09/02/the-tenth-in.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/08/31/the-ninth-in.html", "content_html": "The ninth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\n“James And Jean. Two different journeys. Two similar endings. Two different feelings."
\n", "date_published": "2018-09-01T07:59:47+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/08/31/the-ninth-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/08/30/people-nenah.html", "title": "People: Nenah", "content_html": "I worked in San Diego in those days. Everybody around me was promising the world and just doing it what it took. Nobody was asking questions. It was crazy. I held to my truth. But I was the only one that did. But it still all blew up.
\nThat was ten years ago. Now I am here, for me, nothing has changed. I work hard. I reap my rewards.
\nI love Commercial Banking. It is what I do. All of it.
\nI find the deals. I work the deals. I close the deals.
\nI never let go of my core principles.
\nI didn’t react.
\nOur truths are our lives. Those truths can do move.
\nNo legacy is so rich as honesty.\n\n
\nWilliam Shakespeare\n
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nThe eighth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\n“Sarah. Alone. Nobody with her. Imagine what they could have learned had they sat beside her. Talked to her."
\n", "date_published": "2018-08-07T10:12:59+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/08/06/the-eighth-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/08/06/the-seventh-in.html", "content_html": "The seventh in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\n“John and Mary’s truck has broken down. Completely. And they seem just fine with that."
\n", "date_published": "2018-08-07T10:10:52+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/08/06/the-seventh-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/07/31/people-rebecca.html", "title": "People: Rebecca", "content_html": "“I live about 30 minutes North of here. There really isn’t any work up there. My husband is a mechanic from Mexico. He has his own auto repair business and helps me look after the children. I drive down here to work. I like it, the hours are flexible so it makes the family side easier.”
\n“I have 5 children. My firstborn is 15, the youngest is 2. It’s good because my mom helps, particularly with my eldest. He likes her and she likes him. It’s a good relationship and they bonded at birth”.
\nShe will miss him when he moves away.
\n“That won’t happen. He is 15 years old with the mind of a 2 year old. When he was in my womb, the umbilical chord had wrapped around his neck three times and choked him.”
\n\"Do you get help from the authorities, the local government, social services?”
\nShe looked at me as if I was an alien.
\n\u2028\u2028“No. There is not much government help on the reservation, but we all help each other.”
\n\"Your father?”
\n“I have no idea who my father is. My mother, she’s Navajo, told me once that he was Irish - but he has long gone.\u2028\u2028
\n“We survive in the nation. We always have.”
\nMy fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.\n
\nBarack Obama\n
\n… strangers to the nations that had already been here for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n“I am 76 years old and have been married for 58 of them. She had just turned 17 when we started our lives together.”
\n“I buy jewelry from the Zuni Indians and sell it to people that appreciate the intricacy and beauty. Their art is so fine it is almost like needlepoint.”
\nHow do your customers find you?
\n“They don’t … I find them. I have been doing it for 40 years. No point in stopping, it is what I love and my wife isn’t waiting at home for me any more.”
\nMarried 58 years, but his wife is no longer waiting at home for him ... I swallowed.
\n“She lives three hours away. So, I visit every weekend. Drive there. We have lunch together. I drive back.\u2028\u2028It’s been a little over two years now. She still recognizes me, which is good, but I am not sure for how much longer.”
\n\nWe love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving. \n\n
\nFriedrich Nietzsche\n
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nA post from last year … it was probably back then when I started formulating Travels without Charley
\n", "date_published": "2018-07-25T06:27:20+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/07/24/a-post-from.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/07/13/the-sixth-in.html", "content_html": "The sixth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\n“Gina’s husband is a magician and maths teacher. He really wants to bring the two worlds together. Should He? Could He? Would He?”
\n", "date_published": "2018-07-14T08:07:27+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/07/13/the-sixth-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/07/11/people-jk.html", "title": "People: 'JK'", "content_html": "‘JK’ was born in Eastern Texas - ‘where there are trees and orchards’. From there she moved down to Corpus Christie … showed me photographs of the Ocean and Beaches that she could step out to from the restaurant she worked in.
\nGorgeous, what took you there from East Texas?
\n“My boyfriend.”
\n“I have moved a lot, so when he suggested it, I was hesitant, but he pushed, he had a great opportunity and said that when we moved, we wouldn’t be doing the lifting, moving and driving, we were going to pay someone else to do all that. Nobody had ever said something like that to me before. How could I refuse?”
\nSo great boyfriend, great career opportunity, beautiful new place and town to live in …
\n.. and yes, she had moved again. Away from the Ocean and Beach. Away from her new home. Leaving behind her new life and was now working in a very different kind of place, in a very different part of Texas.
\nTurns out she wasn’t even with her boyfriend anymore.
\nHe was everything she could have wanted, but it wasn’t to be.
\nIt was Thanksgiving. She and the children were at her mothers waiting for him to join them. She called. No answer. Eventually, she got word.
\nHe was just 37 when he had his heart attack and died. Thirty Seven. Leaving behind her, her ten year old and his two young teenagers.
\nShe was worried that she might not see his children anymore. They had gone back to ‘their family’, she meanwhile has headed north to her family, the only ‘close’ people she had left in the world. But essentially, she was still alone and all after being shown the possibility of a brighter new future, only to have the rug whipped out from under her. In her mind, she had nothing left.
\nShe met another woman at her new place of work. Instant connection. ‘Two sisters from different misters’. Support immediately given. Unconditionally. They have been inseparable for nearly a year. Just a month ago, they were driving in the city and as she looked out through the car window, the cloud lifted. In her words, it was nothing short of an epiphany. As she looked at the view, truly seeing for the first time she knew at that moment it was time. Time to live again.
\nShe still misses her partner and his children, the ocean, the beach, the life that he had promised and that they had started, but she is getting through it thanks to her ‘BFF’ - a true friend without who she couldn’t have done any of this.
\nI met her friend. As always, never far away, even at work.
\n\nChange is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.\n\n
\nJohn F. Kennedy\n
", "date_published": "2018-07-12T18:28:54+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/07/11/people-jk.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","? LongForm","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/07/05/the-fifth-in.html", "content_html": "The fifth in my series …
\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’
\nhas been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\n“Dan owns and runs a craft beer bar and one of the beers he offers is Coors … I asked why. He had a good answer.”
\n", "date_published": "2018-07-06T07:47:58+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/07/05/the-fifth-in.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/06/25/people-alan-and.html", "title": "People: Alan and Margaret", "content_html": "Alan from the mid west, Margaret from the East Coast, met, married and started a family in Ohio.
\nAlan was someone who lived by the rules, so it took ‘Madge’ to show Alan an advert for a job opportunity in California.
\nAlan wasn’t sure but applied anyway. He got the job and the two of them moved their lives 2,500 miles away.
\nThey had children and grand children and all the while, Alan whilst moving jobs, played by the rules and kept a single career in Banking. The whole family all still live in California
\nAlan retired and continued into his retirement with the rule book at his side. He didn’t say if he ‘got the gold watch’.
\nAnd then he hit 70. Something stopped inside of him. Something started inside of him. The rule book was dispatched to the garbage can.
\nHe is now 72. Their house is sold - as are most of the furnishings. The rest sits in storage. The two of them travel. Everywhere. Together. They just got back from Portugal. She would have stayed there. He needed to come back first. They still might move.
\nLife is changing around them faster than ever - but just as when they were in their twenties, it’s Madge who is ahead in the thinking. Alan just needs to catch up. I think he will.
\n\"I said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side.\"\n
Lou Reed
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nThe fourth of my series … ‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’. …. has been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\nThis one is about Candy.
\n", "date_published": "2018-06-26T09:10:44+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/06/25/the-fourth-of.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/06/25/people-brad.html", "title": "People: Brad", "content_html": "Brad studied and graduated in Aerodynamics and then went on to work in Florida, before moving to Virginia as an Aeronautical Engineer.
\nAnd then he ‘had the rug pulled out from under him’.
\nI assumed that he was the casualty of some corporate down-sizing or reorganization, but no…
\n“I met a girl, and then she said ‘Hi’.”\n
… and at a stroke, he started his life again, moving to the other side of the continent and then training as an actor and getting work over a period of many years.
\nHe naturally progressed to Director with his last production being mounted just two years ago - after he had started his novel which which was published in 2015.
\nHis engineering background directed the back drop for his SciFi novel where he explored a number of themes based in what Brad called ‘bleeding edge and real science’.
\nLongevity was one of those themes.
\nThe book is set 400 years into the future, both Moon and Mars are colonized and people now routinely live to 200 years old and during that life-time they may have three or four careers. In Brad’s world, it is routine to qualify and work in one discipline and then start all over again in another, and another throughout life.
\nI can’t help feeling that as an aeronautical engineer-come-actor-come-director-come-writer - not to mention quite a few other ‘careers’ as part of his life’s journey that the book was perhaps semi-autobiographical.
\n”There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.”\n
Aldous Huxley
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’ : Caroline and Marcus : No.3
\nCaroline and Marcus travel to travel.
\nSign Up For The People First Newsletter
\nMore: Tenets | Quotes | Frameworks | Stories
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nI am delighted that the second of my series … ‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’. …. has been published on BIZCATALYST 360°.
\nThis one is about Stevie.
\n", "date_published": "2018-06-13T03:23:13+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/06/12/i-am-delighted.html", "tags": ["People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/06/05/people-pete.html", "title": "People: Pete", "content_html": "Pete … loud … but nice. Turkish is his ’baby’ has ‘been with him for 15 years’. Turkish looked up at me from Pete’s lap. Cute.
\n“You don’t sound like you’re from America”
\n“What’s it like?”
\n… staccato questions - like gunfire.
\n“Never been myself … my brother went to New York a couple of years ago. Had a great time, other than being manhandled by the police.”
\nI stopped and looked at him. An older gentleman, with that rough London accent that would have fitted into a movie like ‘The Long Good Friday’. (Excellent movie BTW - if a tad dated.)
\n“Seriously?” I asked.
\n“Yeah,” he said " up in Harlem. My Brothers mad on Jazz, so someone bundled him in a cab and told the driver to take him up to Harlem. He had a great time. Only white bloke in the entire place and the Jazz was amazing. Well, that’s what the brother said, i don’t know. I wasn’t there.
\n“Yeah that area is great for music, sounds a fun time … what went wrong?”
\n“Well, it turns out that he was the only white boy and not just in the club! When he left, a police car driving by saw him and they thought he didn’t ‘look right’, so pulled over and had him against a wall in seconds.”
\nHe went on …. “Once they heard him talk, the penny must have dropped … so sent him on his way, but they told him he wasn’t in the right neighborhood - so don’t come back.”
\n“So he didn’t, not even to America. Blimey that President of theirs talks about ‘no go’ areas in London … what a load of bollocks, I think he got confused with New York.”
\n\"So would you go to America?\" I asked?.
\n“Me? No mate. Not me. My brothers a big bloke and if that can happen to him - I’m not gonna risk it … I’m 76 now, not as quick on my feet as I used to be.”
\n\"But that’s a pretty unusual case.\"
\n“Probably.” he said, “but why risk it? What’s America got that I need - let alone want?”
\nGood question.
\nA little piece of you\nThe little peace in me\nWill die\nFor this is not America\n
David Bowie
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nRiley was angry. Not visibly. But it wasn’t hard to ‘see’.
\nHe had been fighting the fires as they encroached on his house with his father. He could see the fire down the street, but right then he felt it was all manageable. He was about to cut down the fences while keeping the house wet with the water hoses.
\nThat’s when the Fire Department arrived.
\n“We’ve got it”. They said. “But you and the family need get out to safe ground.”
\nRiley looked around, the fire was a quarter of a mile away, the Fire Department had arrived, there was a water hydrant right there in the road.
\n“We’ve got it.” They reiterated - you need to leave.
\nRiley and the family left. They only took what they needed.
\nThey returned the next morning, their house was gone. All the houses from where the fire was through to his were gone. The house next door was still standing.
\nApparently The fire had ‘jumped’, quickly with speed - there weren’t sufficient resources, once a fire took hold the strategy was to not to ‘protect’, but to ‘contain’.
\nIt would have taken them maybe 10 minutes more to load up their cars with the boxes of pictures, the memorabilia, the family history … packed for an entirely different reason, but left behind because they ‘trusted’ the authorities, the professionals, the people who ‘knew what they were doing’. All that was now gone, along with their house.
\nYes - Riley was angry. ‘If only’ - he had stayed, it would have been different. ‘If only’ - they had loaded the cars, mom would not be crying every day … 6 months later. ‘If only’ - the fire service had done their job. He had a lot of ‘if only’ in him…
\nBut he knew in his heart that they had done their job. He was really just angry at himself. He seemed to feel that he had failed.
\nWhat he didn’t know was if he had stayed whether the outcome would be different. And if it was different, would the outcome be better or worse.
\nHolding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal held in your hand, with the intent of throwing it at someone else. You are the only one that gets burned.\n
Buddha
\n", "date_published": "2018-06-02T22:00:43+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/06/02/people-riley.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","? LongForm","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/06/01/people-evelyn.html", "title": "People: Evelyn", "content_html": "“We quit taking credit cards because of the fees.”
\n“Couldn’t you have passed the fees back to customers that wanted to use credit?”
\n“That would have been too complicated.”
\n“And now you are closing down because there aren’t enough customers?”
\n“Yes.”
\nMake your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you.\n
Mark Cuban
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n“I was born in Tijuana. I grew up In San Diego. I moved to San Jose and then San Francisco. Now I’m in Oregon. I guess I’ll get to Canada eventually.”
\n“Always a barman?” I asked.
\n“Always a barman.”
\n“Never thought about doing more? Management? Your own place?”
\n“Nah." He said. “Increase my hours, increase my responsibilities, increase my workload, reduce my interaction with my customers and slash my earnings? I might be a barman, but I’m not stupid!”
\n\n“I recently asked a room full of 100 managers, ‘If you could keep your current pay but go back to your old role as an individual contributor, would you do it?’” Wellins says. “About 90 people raised their hands. It startled me. I see it as an indication that lots of managers accepted promotions for the wrong reasons.”\n\n
\nRichard Wellins\n
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nCynthia was brought up about 50 miles away, moved here in her teens, and ‘worked the tables’ for longer than she meant to. On ‘the way through’ she fell into a job that she had for 38 years and had just retired from, not because she had to but really because the market had fallen through the floor.
\nCynthia traveled the world working for a single company for every one of those 38 years. She loved it.
\nBefore she got into it, she didn’t even know it was a job to be done. Have to say - 38 years later, neither did I.
\nEver wondered what happened to those gold fillings when grandma passed? Cynthia knows. In Cynthia’s words; “Whoever saw grandma last, just before she was ‘planted’ …. that’s who knows where the gold went. And it wasn’t buried with her.”
\nBottom line, Cynthia worked for a gold refinery business - ‘recycling’ division. It was ‘big business’ and kept Cynthia in a really good job for most of her working life.
\nIn case you don’t think that there was money to be made, Cynthia assured me that just one old dentist carpet that was going to be thrown away delivered thousands of dollars in gold.
\n“Gold," I said. “I thought that market was very much alive and well?”
\n“It is,” she said, “but not at the dentists. People haven’t been doing gold fillings for years now - and if they aren’t filling their mouths with gold, we have nothing to buy and recycle.”
\n\nIf you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.\n\n
\nOrson Welles\n
\n---\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nThe conversation started simply enough. He lived just up the road, had a little farm … “just as a hobby you know”.
\nYes, he’s been in farming the whole of his life, always in ‘these parts’.
\nHis son runs the ‘family farms’. We’ve mainly got grain, orchards and nuts.
\n“Oh. All over” … the answer to where the farms are located.… “and we have patents.\"
\nWhich raised my eyebrows … how many farmers do you know that have patents? No, me neither.
\nTurns out the patents are in water - wastewater specifically.
\nTurns out that there are many customers from all over the world already using his technology. Paying customers. A global business that emerged from the farming. And you would never know without talking to him. Exploring the conversation. Doing the journey with him.
\nWithout all of that, he was just 'another' elderly gentleman, keeping himself to himself, watching 'the game', having a glass of wine at the end of the day - like he does every day BTW.\n
\n\n\n\n\nIsn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different.\n
C.S. Lewis
Thinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n“I trained as a Psychologist.”
\n“I became a Winemaker.”
\n“I run a Bar.”
\n“It’s all the same really.”
\n", "date_published": "2018-05-29T07:37:02+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/05/28/people-kerry.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","? LongForm","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/05/28/people-james.html", "title": "People: James", "content_html": "“I’m descended from a Scotsman who married a Dakotan Indian. That’s how I came to be in the Crystal business.”
\nJames never explained how that particular logic worked. I think that is part of his charm … and, of course was proud of his lineage.
\n“But I am Gay - who KNOWS where that came from,” he then proclaimed … in that wonderfully affirmative, standing proud way that some people have.
\nJames. Lovely. Outgoing. Humorous. Positive. Self-Effacing.
\nIs it because I’m English that I value that trait?
\nThen again, a six foot, loud, witty, dyed blonde, gay guy selling crystals in a town of less than 30,000 - can you be self-effacing?
\n", "date_published": "2018-05-29T07:35:58+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/05/28/people-james.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","? LongForm","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/05/28/people-midori.html", "title": "People: Midori", "content_html": "“My dad is half Japanese and half Latvian, my mom is French, they met, married and I was born in Alabama.”
\nThat’s a story right there … it emerged as I complimented her on her tattoos.
\n“This one,” pointing to her upper left arm, “is by an artist that specialized in Victorian Cats but as she got older the cat illustrations morphed into psychedelic art. The explanation of the morphing emerged when doctors diagnosed her as schizophrenic. My brother is a cat lover who is schizophrenic, this is to honor him."
\nAs I looked at the tattoo, it flipped between cat and owl, not quite as a Rubin Vase … better, more detail, with color … it was almost alive.
\nThe tattoo just below the dedication to her brother was of a tear vial. The art was beautiful. The story that accompanied it just as.
\nA young woman literally (?) wearing her heart on her sleeve.
\n\nIt is as sure as you are Roderigo,\nWere I the Moor, I would not be Iago.\nIn following him, I follow but myself;\nHeaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,\nBut seeming so, for my peculiar end;\nFor when my outward action doth demonstrate\nThe native act and figure of my heart\nIn complement extern, ’tis not long after\nBut I will wear my heart upon my sleeve\nFor daws to peck at. I am not what I am.\n\n
\nWilliam Shakespeare\n
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n“I was born in Palm Springs” he said.
\nHe had my attention. I know a few people who have lived in Palm Springs. James was the first time I knew of someone born there.
\n“Then I moved to Wisconsin.”
\nAn unusual move (at least in terms of direction), from my perspective.
\n“.. and now I’m here. I do guided walks through the wine country.”
\n\n\"That must be wonderful.\"\n
\n“Not really,” he replied, “I’m actually a pastor, but sometimes you need to make it work.”
\nJean used to be a Dean at one of California’s Universities.
\n“… and now I work in a tasting room, learning as much as I can about wine. It’s the dream of my life."
\nDifferent horses on similar courses … from different stables, with different riders heading to different finish lines.
\nYou have to know which race you are in - and you will rarely know that of another.
\n\"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.\"\n
F. Scott Fitzgerald
", "date_published": "2018-05-28T08:52:48+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/05/27/people-james-and.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","? LongForm","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/05/21/there-are-a.html", "content_html": "There are a series of posts that I am publishing at People First that are my simple, beginners attempt to capture stories about people I meet.
\nI announced them here.
\nThey are catalogued under ‘Travels Without Charley’ here if you are interested.
\n", "date_published": "2018-05-22T05:03:28+12:00", "url": "https://john.philpin.com/2018/05/21/there-are-a.html", "tags": ["? PeopleFirst","People First","Travels Without Charley"] }, { "id": "http://johnphilpin.micro.blog/2018/05/21/people-sarah.html", "title": "People: Sarah", "content_html": "She was alone at the bar … a glass of water, a giant pile of French fries and a separate bowl of potato chips sat in front of her. The seats on either side of her were empty at an otherwise full bar.
\n“No” she said. “Nobody is sitting there”
\nI took a seat, introduced myself and she said her name was Sarah. I ordered a beverage.
\nSomeone to my right was talking about a seminar being held that night on the topic of renewable energy.
\nInteresting. I wouldn’t really have expected that topic to be high on the list in this establishment. I surfed the conversation. Not my gig really. It sounded as if it was going to be more like a sales pitch than educational.
\nThat didn’t put Sarah off who had heard the answer and asked if anyone could attend. Turns out it was invitation only, but the other person ambled off to see if there were any ‘spare’ invitations.
\nI asked Sarah if she was interested in renewable energy. Not specifically she said, but it’s always good to learn.
\nOur investigator returned but there were no spare invitations. She then spent time explaining to Sarah how she could get invited to the next seminar.
\nConversation with Sarah was sporadic, and I eventually stood up, excused myself and went out for some air.
\nI returned 10 minutes later, the Barman had packaged up Sarah’s chips and fries to go and she had left.
\nI never learned her story, but the barman filled me in on what he knew. The previous manager had banned her but she had discovered that there was a new one and started coming again. The ‘carb loaded diet’ was what she could afford, the water was free. The spaces either side of her at the bar helped the other patrons breathe more easily … hygiene was not her highest priority. She lived ‘nowhere’.
\nAnd yet she understood the world well enough to have a meaningful conversation with the lady running the renewable energy seminar … though my guess is that what she was really wanting was some proper food.
\n\nThe discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.\n\n
\nArthur Schopenhauer\n
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nThey were from Massachusetts. This was the start of their fourth month on the road - thousands of miles away from their home.
\nMary was stood watching John who was lying on his back under the car.
\nI remarked that if I actually knew anything about how to fix engines, I would offer to help diagnose the problem. But I didn’t, so it was pointless. Was there anything else I could do to help?
\nMary smiled, “no thank-you” she said and went on to remark that they had just spent $500 giving the truck a service because they felt it needed it. Not because anything was wrong. They got the truck back yesterday. This was the first problem of the trip.
\n“I am sure it is just a coincidence,” said Mary.
\nI know I would not be so magnanimous.
\n“It’s ok”, she said, “we have Triple A. They will come and fix it. And while we are waiting, who could want a more beautiful place to wait.”
\nI looked around. No argument.
\nThe smiles on their faces. The positivity. The gentleness, The patience.
\nThey were just fine.
\n\nA healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.\n\n
\nTom Stoppard\n
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nGina told me that her husband was a magician. A very good magician.
\nTurns out that he is also a maths teacher. That’s how he makes is money. He really wants to make his living as a magician. Magic is is his passion.
\nHer husband thinks that maths could be made more interesting to students by using magic. Essentially going to schools and revealing the maths through performance and magic.
\nNot exactly sure how that would work, but it is a wonderful example of mixing passion with income. Ikigai is a simple guide to how well we are all doing on that score by the way.
\nI asked her if he had approached any of the schools in the area to let him come in and try out the idea.
\nNo. No he hadn’t. He didn’t think that they would ‘go for it’.
\n“If you don’t ask - how do you know?” I asked.
\nShe looked at me silently and after a long pause said that she would tell him to start asking.
\n\nDon’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. \n\n
\nSteve Jobs\n
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nDan knew what he was doing. He offered me an Amber Ale from his selection. It was glorious. Arguably one of the best Amber’s I had ever tasted.
\nThe rest of the beer selection looked equally impressive (Looked - because I didn’t taste them all).
\nI didn’t quite get why Coors was on the list. It hardly fitted into the craft beer category that described everything else.
\n“Oh”, he said, “I did a deal with them, they agreed to install my entire beer system for free if I agreed to sell Coors. They did, So I do.”
\n“And we are a business. A lot of people drink Coors and those profits support what I really enjoy doing.
\nHe’s a wise man that Dan. Maybe that is why he is moving to The United Arab Emirates. Or maybe he’s doing that regardless?
\n“No matter what the work you are doing, be always ready to drop it. And plan it, so as to be able to leave it.”\n
\nLeo Tolstoy\n
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nI met Candy while she was having dinner with her beau ... Brian. She is a truck driver who operates as far North as Seattle and as far South as San Jose.
\n\n\n\n\nHer grandfather had a business maintaining and fixing trucks. In that part of the country, back in those days, I am guessing his shop was THE place to go. Her father didn’t share the love of trucks. He tinkered. He knew his stuff ... but he didn’t feel it.
\n\n\nOn the side, he fixed bikes. He was good at it. Very good. It was a passion. Everybody said to him that he should go into the bike business. He did. He loved it. It worked. He never looked back.
\n\n\nThat is probably why Candy found herself riding a motorbike at the age of 5. On her first ride, she fell off. She wasn’t hurt and with help from her dad - got right back on.
\n\n\nShe hasn’t fallen off since, let alone crashed.
\n\n\nIt was through her bike that she met Brian. He was a pro motocross rider. Together they still ride ... on and off the roads.
\n\n\nA woman living a life she loves. Blending a legacy of trucks and a love of motorbikes.
\n\n\n\n\n\"You can get what you want or you can just get old.\"
Billy Joel
Thinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nCaroline and Marcus had arrived in the US a couple of days earlier, most of their two-week sojourn in front of them.
\nThey described their route over the next 10 days. There was going to be a lot of driving. A lot.
\nI knew where they lived in the UK. Each day they were going to drive a distance equivalent to what they did in a month at home.
\nEach day they were going to see a unique piece of nature the likes of which they would not see at home.
\nI knew that somewhere near their home their were tourists from the other side of the world seeing everything that they had in their backyard.
\n\n\"The profoundest distances are never geographical.\"\n
\nJohn Fowles
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nStevie was unsteady on his feet. He walked slowly. He didn’t seem to have much money. He was visiting the area because he had a hospital appointment.
\nIt wasn’t clear why he needed a hospital. I didn’t ask. His elbow was gashed. But was that the reason? No idea - and not what you explore when you first meet.
\nHis father owned a hardware store back in the day. With his uncle they bought a second store in the next town over.
\nYou know that the hardware businesses did well when you got Bill Champlin to come over to your house and give your son (that would be Stevie) music lessons. Bill was good - even then. Stevie apparently wasn’t.
\nIt is clear that Stevie was a handful throughout his teens. It seemed that he remained that way most of his life.
\nAccording to Stevie - he was never much good at anything - but he was alright. He “didn’t need much”.
\nListening to Stevie, it seemed that he recognized that he had a lot of opportunities, but didn’t make the most them. It wasn’t clear that he regretted anything.
\nExcept he was lonely. I think he is facing his mortality and wondering why he is alone.
\n\nThe whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.\n
\nTom Wolfe
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nJeff had worked in Somerset for 4 years. Emma's mother was born in England. Now they lived in America. Together.
\nWe found ourselves talking over a couple of brews about the benefits of America over the UK. That with the current uncertainty of America, where would we rather be? More importantly, what would we do if the US continued this way after November of this year.
\nWe agreed that the UK probably wasn't the solution.
\n\"It is of course perfectly natural to assume that everyone else is having a far more exciting time than you. Human beings, for instance, have a phrase that describes this phenomenon, 'The other man's grass is always greener.\"\nThe Shaltanac race of Broopkidren 13 had a similar phrase, but since their planet is somewhat eccentric, botanically speaking, the best they could manage was, 'The other Shaltanac's joopleberry shrub is always a more mauvy shade of pinky-russet.' And so the expression soon fell into disuse, and the Shaltanacs had little option but to become terribly happy and contented with their lot, much to the surprise of everyone else in the Galaxy who had not realized that the best way not to be unhappy is not to have a word for it.\"\n
💬 Douglas Adams
\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\nPeople First has a big vision and is moving forward on a variety of initiatives. Life is too short to record it all in detail here ... so I am choosing to reference a few (in alphabetical order);
\n\n\nSome are large far-reaching initiatives some are small ideas. Some I am just interested in, others I am helping get established. I believe all are designed to help 'move the can down the road' in different ways. (The can being that which we each need to move forward to create a better world where people and their humanity are not afterthoughts but at the center of thinking, decisions and action.
\n\n\nAnd that human-centered perspective got me to thinking about people - and their stories.
\n\n\nSo, in parallel with these initiatives, we are also pivoting the site, including moving the blog front and center and dropping the 'WhoWhatWhenWhereWhyHow' pages to a supporting role on the site.
\n\n\n![\"Microphones\"](\"https://people-first.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Microphones.jpg\")
We are also announcing the introduction of a new theme of posts categorized as 'Travels Without Charley' - tipping cap, doffing hat, nodding head vigorously towards one John Steinbeck.
\n\n\n\n\nSteinbeck is one of 4 literary ‘Johns’ that I reference from time to time. Steinbeck, of course, wrote ‘East of Eden’ and ‘Grapes of Wrath’ ... but also a lesser-known work from 1962 that records a journey in 1960 through America with his dog Charley. The book ‘Travels With Charley’ is lovely, containing such delights as
\n\n\n\n\n\n“I suppose our capacity for self-delusion is boundless.”
... still true 60 years later!
\n\n\nMe? I don’t have a dog to travel with and would not even begin to compare myself to someone like Steinbeck. I am just borrowing his idea because there are stories I hear from people. All kinds of people. All the time. So ‘Travels Without Charley’ is my modern day, far less skilled contribution to the storytelling that in my mind has never been lost by people that care - but that corporations and punters constantly reference as if they have just learned of the 'second coming'.
\n\nThinking Allowed
\n\n\n\n\nThis is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.\n\n