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I have a friend who I have known for over twenty years. Our relationship has grown from us being involved to partners in business to living four thousand miles apart. We don’t talk much; in fact our communications went from him sending me a “hope everything goes well” email to virtually nil. Our relationship one could say is just a memory.
The memory I hold with him is complicated to say the least. When I think of him on any event or time of the day it makes me sad. Most of us would see him to be someone who has everything. He was a “Michael Angelo” when it came to creating art for business. Creativity seeped out of him without any energy it seemed. He’d picked up a drawing pencil and start sketching a design it was like you could see each individual pixel come together to form the design. The man had won several awards for his talent and was in the “Who’s Who” book. His personal life was just a flourish; beautiful wife, daughters and home with nice cars. He traveled to major cities from clients requesting him to create “Michael Angelo” pieces for them.
As his business partner a typical day with him started with him being 30 minutes late or more. He was always late but could not tolerate waiting on anyone. He would come in the office, either a person driving or wife made him late. And then say he did not want to talk about it only to go into great detail about the driver being stupid or his wife wanted to argue. Then he would go talking as he went to office expressing more of his frustration of a client or life. Anytime we would go out to eat he complained either the waiter or the food or location; did not matter if it was a fast-food or fine dining place. Conversing with him was hard for perfection is the only thing he would accept, even though the reach of perfection he never found for nothing seemed good enough for him. It was as though his perception was the only way everyone should live. He had a temper. He was very educated and yet, when he got angry…suddenly it would be like a volcano erupting.
I love Chuck as friend and always will but his negative way of living life was a weight I could not carry. There are a lot people who seemed to wake-up in the morning and their perception of life is a grey cloud over them. They complain about everything it seems; traffic, construction, drivers, how a store is laid out, food, and…just life…no one seems to be doing anything right! It is though they took a “Chuck’s pill.” Maybe those complaints enlighten them toward positive feeling by releasing stress or perhaps things they cannot control just tick’s-them-off. How important is it to make everything function the way you want it too? Imagine everything working exactly like you want it. Now imagine all the people in the world doing the same thing exactly like you. What could we possibly learn from each other? Why is it so important to control anyone or anything? Living one’s life with happiness and controlling yourself…being open to others perceptions is a continue tool to acquire knowledge.
