7-point Type

The Comic Sans of the business world, its the most unwelcome formatting there is.

That begs the question, "Why is it so prevalent?"

The answer is simple and sad. 7-point type has been proven to be overlooked and under-read. Nothing about small type (especially with a serif) says, "read me," and everyone knows it.

And why is this important? Because everyone who uses it wants to "get-away-with-something." The Creditors Bill of Rights is written in 7-point serif. Your cell-phone contract. Your auto lease. Your home owner's insurance. No coincidence that all of the above are legal in nature - lawyers are typically the ones looking to get-away-with-something.

Imagine if life were always written in an attempt to get away with something...

The Constitution would be in 7-point (or smaller) as would the Bills of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation and even, "1984."

I think the world could use a little straight-forwardness and integrity. This culture needs some 12-point. Bring back the critical thinking in a use other-than espionage or skulduggery. Let's bring back clarity and usefulness.

Hollow

So much for substance. Louder, faster, bolder, brasher, more, more, more cowbell! This is the new American Public.

Substance is gone. Quips are in their stead. Cliche powers the new lexicon. People spout and spray and rarely leave a mark on the thin air between their own lips.

The standard for passable discussion has sunken to the level that "dude" lives on, with his parents.

Who are these people holding court in a restaurant addressing a handset?

Where's the Constitutional whiteout?

I motion to have qualifiers on the Bill of Rights. Certain bodies must be barred! If common sense is something that is uniquely yours - out. If courtesy is something that is demanded but never given - out. All who expound on their opinion as 'right' - out!

Manners never require explanation or proper circumstance. Manners need only use. Usage is the meter by which manners are gauged.

Learn the language. Get the book. Buy the iTune. Ask your grandparents. Because the rest of us are unimpressed. You are hollow. Hollow as the picture of yourself in your own head. Hollow for all the reasons that ants understand and you are woefully unaware.

Take the chance to be you - the real you - and not the image of you on the silver screen inside your cortex. Laugh for the reasons that are meaningful. Talk to share and communicate - not just to exchange and be heard. Live to grow. Make your grandparents proud.

Wheels, garments and sarcasm

Life is a system of props (stay with me for a minute).

As a highly-evolved species (damn we're speciocentric), we have remarkably (painfully and sinfully at other times) little internal purpose. Face it, a red ant knows why it exists. Understands? Hmmm... maybe, maybe not (but not really my direction for this rant) - it's debatable. But, they know what they need to do. And they do it. (Hey, Nike... new market!) They have a purpose that is not manufactured.

In this sense, they have more self-awareness than the average college senior - and a decided cushion over each of us at a desk, computer, or conference.

We, the ones with the opposable thumbs and proportionately gigantic brains, have no purpose. Or is it that we don't yet know what it is. I posit the latter.

We dream up things like inventions and innovation and other intriguing things like, the word "intriguing" - which, for your education, was invented in 1650: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intriguing. What did we ever do without "intriguing"? *shudder*

What is it that requires us, the self-proclaimed masters of the world, the world's most dominant species, to have a manufactured reason for ... anything? Do we not believe, in our social psyche, that we deserve our lot? Are we, in the strangest melange of narcissistic and Draconian tendencies, forcing upon ourselves a script? What are you here for? Reading this blog (and thank you anyway) and surfing this 'net and making your pork - why? Why invent before you know the reason? Who took a long look at the wheel and said, "Why?" Does getting things from here or there to somewhere else with less effort really play a pivotal role? Is there something in the exchange between people and their neurons that creates purpose?

Shouldn't we all be working together to accomplish something? Ants cooperate for survival, transportation, and communication - among many other things. We do the opposite.

Our survival is based on our ability and, more frighteningly, our willingness to destroy or dominate others (geez, we're smart). Our transportation is designed to remove any social aspect - holding a telephone to the ear transforms one from capable, top-o-food-chainer to imbecilic, miss-guided-missile. And communication on this planet is so fragmented and estranged to the majority of us that it clearly represents the most poignantly ironic expression of a misnomer in the whole of all time.

So ... why the stage? Is the simple (though not easy - to swallow or accomplish) evolution of our kind the goal for our kind?

To exist must we progress? It would represent an insight of histrionic impact if we were one day to discover our purpose is nothing more than ... motion.

Scary to think that NASCAR and Dancing with the Stars may have just figured-it-out.

Wisdom from the most likely of places...

When was the last time you sat down and listened to your best friend? And by 'listen' I'm referring the process of auditory recognition, understanding and reflection - to listen, we must be willing to hear.

My best friend has no idea that they hold the position. I know this because I didn't know it either. Strange how the obvious is often so damnedably obfuscated... another fun wrinkle in the experience of life.

The realization hit me as I listened ... for the first time in some time (I can be quite obtuse and even thick as an Ayn Rand novel sometimes - curses) and I'm sharing this because the impact is for everyone.

A simple communique became a platform and the platform became my realization; changed the way I view them instantly and for all ways.

Here's what was listened to:

"Support and love from friends and family often comes right when you need it most. I think this is one of the ways that God lets us know he's really there."

This is a proof. It was given and thereby created the basis for its interpretation. Why? Because it came precisely when I needed it most.

It's a big place out there. Take a friend.

5 tips for successful living with the other 6+ billion of us

1. Keep the color and pattern of your underwear to yourself.
2. If you can't obey the laws, don't exacerbate the faux paux by acting entitled.
3. Even rock stars aren't rock stars if no one believes them to be (Yes you, "Ocho Cinco").
4. There is a thing called, "Age Appropriate Dress" you know? If you're wearing the same fashions as your college-aged child ...
5. Show of hands... how many people want to hear someone drop a name?