Flotsam
Travel Update - I walked over to a local Sears store a mile or so from my luxurious hotel here in Milwaukee and purchased two pairs of socks. The folks who work at my client’s here are now spared the sight of my bare ankles.
Weather Update - I have forfeited my right to comment on the torrid west coast heat wave due to my fleeing to the midwest. While I understand it’s now 20 degrees cooler in Seattle than it was over the weekend, here in Milwaukee it’s in the mid-80s, accompanied by its trademark mugginess. A run this evening, despite my new, svelte airfoil, left me pretty drenched. I like this weather sometimes, though, because it brings a whiff of home, or what used to be home. And I saw a lightning bug!
Problem Solved An article in yesterday’s Seattle Times revealed like a lighthouse beacon something that, in retrospect, has probably afflicted me all my life. I’m too nice. The article basically faults people, especially guys, who are so conflict-averse that they surround themselves with a pillow-like shell of niceness that, yes, most often protects them from the vicissitudes of those who aren’t so nice, but also is a prison from which they can never articulate and assert their own desires. Moreover, :
“Nice guys are fundamentally dishonest,” says Dr. Robert Glover, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Bellevue, and author of “No More Mr. Nice Guy!” one of two books on the subject by local authors. The nice guy says what other people want to hear and hides their mistakes to avoid conflict … Glover has worked for years counseling men whose need to please has interfered with their work and relationships. These men generally fear being the brutish jerk that people dislike. By being extremely nice, they believe they’re different and therefore better than the typical guy.
I think you’ll agree that, once you view the world’s problems through this lens, you’ll be pretty angry with us (formerly) nice guys. Problems have festered all over the globe due to these craven, grovelling imposters. Remedial actions of honest, responsible nastiness were long overdue. Let’s hope it’s not too late.
