Nice Ways to Wrap Things Up
The technique reminded me of something I’d been taught by another reporter at the Journal-News. When somebody is screaming you mustn’t hang up on them because they’ll call your boss right back, and they’ll be much angrier. ‘Uh-huh,’ you say ‘uh-huh, uh-huh.’ Make sympathetic noises, and wait until they’re done with their tirade. Finally you start to talk to them calming, and as if you have a lot to say. Talk for about a minute and then in midsentence hang up on yourself. Half the time, they won’t call back. If they do call back, they’re going to be easier to deal with. Now they feel you’ve both been wrong. – Selling Ben Cheever by Ben Cheever
I had a high school cross country coach who would just talk forever without saying anything important. My friends and I would wait until there was a pause her speech and I would pretend that I was swinging my arms around until my hands connected and clapped. Then someone else would follow it with another clap or stand up. About half the time she unconsciously mistake take that emphasis for her own poignancy – like when a captain yells BREAK! before going out onto the field – and decide to end on the high note.
I like that. Nice.
I think escaping/derailing a long-winded tirade can be one of the simpler pleasures of life. I have a friend who can change the mood with the most random of questions. She once interrupted a (rather forgetful) science teacher when he paused to breathe during a rant about the level of disrespect in the classroom and very politely asked if they could talk after class about the subject of his dissertation.
He then spent the next five minutes rummaging around in the back room for a copy, and class was over by the time he returned.
You can’t deny how inspirational she was. Her words stay with me to this day, things like “Core isn’t a neck exercise” and other such valuable life lssons.
I remember one time where she explained that if you quickened your stride enough you could avoid falling because you’d already have picked up the foot before it had time to lose balance.
Holiday, let me tell you something I thought of that doesn’t have anything to do with this blog post.
So today I was thinking about what motivates people, and I think that people are somewhat biologically programmed just to obsess over small details and continually strive for some sort of improvement or reward.
I was thinking about how you talk about success and bettering yourself, and it reminds me of how people will play MMORPG’s, which is Online Role Playing Games, and spend hours repeatedly fighting monsters just so it will go “DING! LEVEL UP!” and you will gain a level and gain +2 Strength +3 Intelligence and + 4 Dexterity or whatever else it is.
However in a sense it’s rather stupid because it’s just a video game, and in the long run no one cares if your character is level 70 or whatever.
Now what I was wondering is what is the point of trying to better yourself when in the end your destination is the grave and to turn into dust?
All things die, and any progress you made will one day be forgotten with history as your bones rot away and your flesh is devoured by bacteria.
In light of the futile nature of things to eternally survive and the ephemeral nature of human life, what is the point of bettering yourself?
Or why do you strive for improvement, knowing that inevitable doom is what awaits you?