Pants Legs & Blood Red

I was blessed with good company during my flight to Los Angeles. He is half Apache, half White and 100% human. He has and still is leading a diverse, dynamic and “no holds will bar me from my dreams”-driven life. He has overcome and withstood the trials and tests while managing to maintain conscience and character. His decency and desire to learn more about life and himself is invigorating. His varied travels, knowledge and integration of such into their proper minor and larger contexts is a testament to the better balanced selves possible for each of us.

On the surface, Beverly Hills is a different place than the West Virginia hills. The red carpet is a flash-filled environment while the natural environment is perennially picturesque. In the midst of 90210 camera muggers and celebrity huggers, I met a couple who said California is not the place they wanna be so they moved to the other Coast to raise a family. A couple alive with loving and supporting. A father holding it down to free the mother. An artist winning the battles of staying true to artform and personal values. A writer 35 books, several publishers, an agent and a publicist into the game. A writer keeping continued success in its place.

Then there was another entertainment and media professional with whom I spoke about pecans, peanut butter, performers, publicity and psychic practices.

When it comes to people, it always comes down to realizing our joyful and painful parts between first and last breaths are the same. Though public personae and personal accomplishments vary, in the core of experiences there is absolutely no difference. We put our pants on one leg at a time and bleed one color.

Cool People

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100% human, cool people, overcome, values, writer

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Understanding Underwriting

What is underwriting? Is it some other dimensional place where personal documents are sent to have spells cast over them using bones, shiny things and marbles? From these cipherings comes a single word like “approved.” For this privilege, they add rates, fees, phrases and clauses using an intergalactic calculator and language where points and premiums are not in your favor.

What are they really doing that takes several days of seclusion? Calling our employers, creditors and former neighbors or chanting incantations to the loan document wizard like “Show me the mortgage! How much can we charge? How many ways? and Create another form containing the same information!” The term underwriting just sounds shady doesn’t it. There’s no way humans can double-check the results from their elaborate ceremonies of wheel spinning, button pushing and lever pulling. Underwriters make odds makers look like newbies on the block.

The real question is whether underwriters really exist. Maybe they’re the mutant offspring of the financial and insurance industry weaned on calculating postage, shipping & handling, gas prices and author royalties before graduating to mortgages and insurance policies.

If anyone has actually seen an underwriter, let me know. I’d like to tag it electronically to monitor its behavior in its natural habitat. I’ve met more ghostwriters than I’ve met underwriters. I’ve seen more comets than I've seen underwriters. I’ve met nearly everyone who’s ever flown over the cuckoo’s nest but never once in my travels or networking have I met an underwriter.

My quest for understanding the elusive underwriter continues. Next time I need to convince some corporation to take my money, I’ll walk in demanding, “Take me to your underwriter” or that at least they make subterfuge a quicker process. Until I get better explanations than, “They’re writers from Australia” or “Ancient Chinese secret,” you’ll find me trying to catch a glimpse of an underwriter in action by following anyone carrying all of their personal information.

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mortgage, personal information, satire, underwriting, writers

Tired of Dreaming

I’ve dreamed enough. Wrapped my gifts with their purposes. Announced them to the world. Made myself accountable. Now, I’m tired of talking about: dreaming, pursuing the dream, living the dream…Just as I can’t talk and listen at the same time, neither can I walk and dream simultaneously.

Discussing dreams has limited value. I’m continuously shown that no matter what I do or say, others will summarize to suit themselves. In addition, they will take my plain and simple intent and surmise one of their own in a “there must be an ulterior motive” kind of way.

My brother’s unspoken and unheralded dream now exists in his reality. It is the daily, do-what-it-takes, direct result of each step it took to make it back on both tracks after 25 years. My dream of making a living as a writer and entrepreneur is now showing as a silent movie without color commentary.

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dreams, gifts, purpose, writer