Last Post of 2009

Happy upcoming New Year!

It’s been a busy week.  I have a whole bunch of tests and continuing ed that I have to complete in the next week and a half.  Just took a two hour licensing exam today that I passed with flying colors.    Next week, however, is the more important test.  If I don’t get through that one, there’s gonna be a world of hurt.  I’ll be at my computer studying for that for most of the next few days.

It’s been a bruising year. Lots of personal issues went down this year.  I was looking at last year’s final post, and things were a lot more optimistic then.  We had just elected the first black President of the United States, and after eight years of Bush, who was and is probably the worst president ever, we were ready for change. I thought this year would represent a dramatic turnaround.

A year later, things are probably better, but not by much.  We’re still stuck in a terrible recession, jobless rates have moved even higher, and the somber mood remains.  Obama has been working hard, but a lot of the hoopla surrounding him is ridiculous, like Crowley-Gates and that undeserved Nobel Peace Prize.  We’re moving further ahead in getting universal healthcare.  Kind of.

bigWOWO had its first real ethical issue this year when a young Asian American dude in Portland filed a false police report and told a exaggerated fib about a hate crime. WOWO published, then reversed, then apologized.  WOWO got thrown in front of a moving car by some of the people involved (not all–I’m talking mostly about the people who clearly knew it was not true from the beginning.).  I’d be lying if I said that this didn’t personally affect me.  I felt betrayed on so many levels.

However, I realized a few things from this event:

a) I care about ethical standards more than who comes out on top.  It’s a lot easier on my conscience to see myself oppressed than it is to justify misleading hundreds or thousands of people just because I wanted to push a certain cause.

b) So much activism–PUA activism or just normal activism–focuses on what others are doing or what others are thinking.  There’s not a lot of introspection in most activism.  Introspection could help us all.  But introspection absolutely has to have a strong moral and ethical foundation.

c) When the going gets tough and people are fighting and posturing, you see people at their very worst–everyone’s true nature comes out in the open.  It can be hurtful to see this.  I have to admit that probably some of my own demons came out during this mess.  But you also see people at their very best–also because people’s true natures come out.  For this reason, I think putting yourself in tough positions isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  How often do you get to see people at their best?   Here’s a good slideshow with a quote from Colin Powell: “Being Responsible Sometimes Means Pissing People Off.”

I’m reading a book right now called Who’s Got Your Back by Keith Ferrazzi.  It’s about how to assemble advisory teams in order to maximize one’s effectiveness.  I told myself that I was going to lay off the business books, but since I enjoyed Ferrazzi’s first book Never Eat Alone, and since I was impressed by a talk I saw him give in LA a few years back, I decided to give his new book a shot.  It’s a good book.  It’s given me a much needed motivational and strategic boost at the end of year.

In addition to helping me assemble an advisory team for some of my pursuits, the book pointed out  something positive–even though things seem down right now, I’m writing every day.  Every day.  This is where I want to be.  It wasn’t something I was doing last year or the year before.  I’m basically living exactly as I want and giving myself a fighting chance (as Ferrazzi says). So even though there are many less positive things going on in the world today, there is at least one thing to be very positive about.

Hope you all are enjoying the holidays.  Stay strong, stay healthy, stay positive, stay truthful, and let’s move forward in 2010.

Related posts:

1. Welcome 2009!
2. Thymos Book Project 2009
3. The Post-PUA Era of the Asian American Blogosphere
4. Banana Conference 2009
5. The World Outside and the Post-Election Portland Fervor