It's 9AM
I don’t want to hear it, she said.
Who could blame her?
She’s a pragmatic person.
Why on earth would she listen to a dreamer?
Why would anyone?
It is a dilemma I’ve faced my whole life.
I have an ongoing internal debate on a subject, trying to pound it from both directions, and sometimes I like a sounding board.
It might be a book idea.
Or a TV show.
Or thoughts about what’s going on in the world around me.
A lot of “What If?” questions.
Which makes me a fun beer drinking buddy.
Let’s discuss and explore and build on ideas.
An almost philosophical approach to practical applications.
Like why on earth would anyone move to Pine Bluff Arkansas?
A dying town in a region of dying delta towns.
Poor people with little to hope for or to gain.
Businesses fleeing, population fleeing, crime feels like it’s going up, but that’s because the population is going down.
I would sit and wonder about how to “fix” it.
Not the pie in the sky problems a lot of people talk about.
Like poverty.
I can’t “Fix” poverty.
But I think there can be a mindset adjustment because what’s been done over the past twenty years isn’t working.
The “education” system isn’t preparing kids for a future, or at least not giving them a vision of a future they want.
I would sit and talk about it with someone, how to work on changing mindset and building hopes.
My biggest challenge?
No business wants to move to Pine Bluff.
But waiting for a business to save you is like waiting on the government for a hand out.
Especially since anyone with an internet connection and a smartphone can start a business today.
I was trying to tell her that someone should go into the high school and teach a new kind of business class and do after school programs on:
Ebay
Shopify
Mercari
Tik Tok
Youtube channels
Amazon publishing
And the ways to monetize those channels to build a business.
She said if it was so easy, anyone would do it.
I countered that it was just as easy to teach kids how to make money with an online business as it was to try and attract a new business to the area.
And that the skills they are learning aren’t really preparing them for the future.
What’s so sad about a lot of discussion around anything is how close it edges to being “political” which is an automatic buzzword for taking sides and getting pissed.
Neither of which solves the problem.
I talk to older people who say we need to “Go back to the way things were.”
But that’s as much of a dream as pint fueled ponderings.
Because not everything was great in the good old days, and we’re way past them now because that doesn’t solve the problem(s).
What will?
She asked, and I wondered and we came up with nothing.
Looks like we’ll need another round or two to discuss.
Do you like to talk it out or do you think that’s just hot air?
SPACESHIPS / Science Fiction Only
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Hi, me again, I'm kinda behind you on talking things out, a hope and a prayer. But you got a point, a lot of things have started to really drift in the heavy orbit of political this or political that. For a while I kinda left a lot of my ramblings and chats to personal friends until I got into the current job I'm in. Granted the guy I talk too is heavy on certain political views and conspiracy theorist on a level that's oddly not pure illogical insane. But the first time talking to him I felt like a kid throw into the deep end with no life vest on, before the writer part of me kinda took over and asked him some questions. Now we debate with no hate and weird out the other workers. I'd give an example but I'd be writing a book on the topics talked about. Shit be wild at times