Change The World...

... from the inside and from the bottom!

Some old people take a devil-may-care attitude in their later years and go for the chocolate. I've taken that tact in a different way. Instead of indulgences, it's been activity.

From youth, I was a bookworm and a tinkerer, like any engineer. Due to my hyperactivity, I've had no problem reaching my professional pinnacle. I am respected for my organizational and technical abilities, have a great boss and am in high demand. I wear 5 hats and have dozens of helpers. I mentor those helpers because they will inherit my job sometime.

At 40 I began physical activity... a new parallel sideline... transforming myself into the physical. Ten years ago I won a benchpressing trophy, and I have the current record for my gym (all ages!) and enjoy pressing with the youth, motivating them and encouraging them. I train, hike and bike more now than I ever did. I hike 8 to 12 mountain miles every weekend. This year have two Smokeys hikes (I did a 6-hour 8-mile straight up hike to LeConte in 4-hours two weekends ago), a Rockeys hike next month and a rim-to-rim Grand Canyon hike in September. I do this because I enjoy nature... scenery, wildflowers and birds. I continue bicycle commuting to work daily (when I can), and ride a 35-55 miler on the weekends, with the goal to bicycle back from the beach (400 miles) this fall... just because I enjoy the wind in my hair. I'm very vocal and active in promoting bicycling to work, having taken part in news stories, videos and newspaper articles. I'm don't train specific but am a unusual generalist with muscles and cardio ability both. I'm proud and smug in my physical prowess... whereas my ex-wife just entered a nursing home, and my peers have trouble with the stairs, I smile instead and suggest an active lifestyple with my example.

My real work is that of a mentor, teacher, and kindness distributor... enabling others. At my job, I call myself The Roto-Rooter Man and have a plunger in my office as a symbol to help make things flow again. I spend a considerable amount of time and money to do this. I'm the vice-chair of the Industrial Advisory Committee for one of the local colleges. I taught 20 years in the evenings, to good reviews. I buy dozens of birthday cakes a year for work and elsewhere, and actively look for possibilities not just to help but to teach 'em to fish. After all, I'm a co-dependent, and I am what I am.

I disagree that happiness is a good relationship. Nor the usual FFF (Friends, Fun, Food) nor PPP (Possessions, Power, Prestige). To me life and happiness is first contributing... from the bottom up... and then being content and proud of what you are and what you have done. I have an enormous amount of power to change the world from the inside and from the bottom, and I'm doing so with very few people noticing.

- text © 2008 by Willy

P.S., How do you change the world? One small act of kindness at a time.

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