deciding what you want to be
—
“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.
Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s 
around – nobody big, I mean – except me.
And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.
What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.
That’s all I do all day.
I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”
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J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye)
—
So.
I have noted earlier on my site I loved the book “Catcher in the Rye”.
And many argue it’s out of touch with today’s world.
I say they are silly <if not wrong>.
This quote from Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorites as proof.
For is not every parent a catcher in the rye?
Is not every teacher a catcher in the rye?
Is not every good business leader a catcher in the rye?
Some of us choose to be the catcher.
Some of us, like me, love the responsibility and embraces being a catcher in the rye in business.
Sure.
A little part of me dies a little when I miss someone who mistakenly goes off the edge of that crazy cliff. 
But, on the other hand, I become a better person for everyone I get to steer clear of the crazy cliff.
There are some of us who don’t really sign up to be the catcher and yet are put in that role.
Many parents are that way.
Not because they didn’t want to be but rather before you have a child it’s a little difficult to understand that crazy cliff is always there and you always have to keep at least a little eye on it.
That is one reason I respect great parents.
And then teachers.
Some begin a career as a teacher because they just love to teach. But as time goes on they realize a part of their responsibility is to watch those in the fields of rye to insure those who wander to close to the cliff that they at least know someone is paying attention <and parents should recognize that teachers fulfill that role sometimes>.
And then there are business leaders who go, go go.
Always forward focused.
And yet, over time, they realize to be the best leader a part of their role is to see the crazy cliff and catch people before they go over.
Ok.
Maybe I’m nuts for seeing all this in the catcher in the rye but that is what I see.
And maybe that’s why I loved the book even when I was young.
A part of me wanted to be the catcher in the rye.
I am sure some guidance counselor would have had me put in some institution if I had answered “be a catcher in the rye” when asked “so what do you want to be.”
But.
Now that I am here, i.e., no longer that young?
Being the catcher in the rye may be the best job in the world.
a full life, a lot of good little stuff happens, abandon the haughty, ability to dwell on ordinariness, accept our own ignorance, accountable decision making, Accumulation, achieving greatness with an idea, Achieving stuff, action and consequence, action and consequences, actions and character, actions today make who i am tomorrow, actually made an impact on teen’s behavior, actually may simply further encourage deeper learning from their peer, adaptive ignorance, address some parenting mis-perceptions, adult responsibility, agree that society has put fewer expectations and responsibilities, aiming high, alignment, all use a touch of sincere humility, amount of freedom parents allow their children, analysis paralysis, analyzing actual behavior, Any fool can know, any of us kids survived, any of us survived childhood, anything that can go wrong will, architects of fate, article on the lack of influence parents, asked me whether I wanted to live, assume habits and behaviors of their peer 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unevenly, guilt and obligation, had to learn to deal with disappointment, happen to big dreams when a dreamer dies, happier people as individuals, happiness, happiness of life is made up of minute fractions, happiness runs the risk of being overwhelmed, happy coincidence, happy coincidence that is not to be taken for granted, hard choices, hard decisions, have a responsibility, having a personal defect, hedonistic adaptation, hedonistic adaptation impulse, heightening value in life choices, Here is the truth., here is what I believe’mumbo jumbo, hiding behind statistics, higher level of ethical responsibility with kids, hollowness of unparalleled prosperity, hope, hope and unicorns, hope in learning, hopeful in that we still remain at our core good, how parents are bringing up a generation of, how parents have little effect on how you turn out, how systems that shouldn’t work do work, how the parents rear the child has no long term effects, how you think, I am an uneven guy, I am 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rich beyond belief, numbers are facts nonsense, numbers show possibilities, numbers will confess anything, numerous moments the child has spent outside the parents auspices, numerous shaping moments a child, nurture assumption is not a truism, obligation to do, obligation to do the right thing, odd mixture of tighter overall discipline, odds are they saw it for all its merits, once doubt enters it takes on huge proportions, one can't believe impossible things, one foot in history one foot in future, ongoing search for the right words, only few find the way, opportunities become limited for significant new learning, opportunity to truly leave your mark, optimistic enough to aim high, optimistic interpretation in the despair itself, ordinary life with extraordinary responsibilities, ordinary people don't think they are remarkable, organizations are living orgamisms, our knowledge gathering life, our lives are defined by opportunities, our sometimes self indulgent world, out of touch with today’s world, overindulgence or indulging, paradise is there if you look, parent responsibility, parenting just the right thing to do, parenting made it better, parenting part 1, parenting part 2, Parenting when I was young, parents, parents and experts agree, parents and kids, parents are more likely to feel guilty about, parents are more sensitive to kids' individual needs, parents have greater expectations, parents have little effect on how, parents may feel guilty about, parents were more concerned with raising non-self-centered, parents' perceptions, part of me wanted to be the catcher in the rye, part of their responsibility, pendulum of trust and doubt, people have become quite cynical, people institute attitudes & behavior, people trying to improve themselves, people who abuse or use the system, people who see unicorns, Perception and reality have a tendency to not match up, perception is that the system is rigged, perception or enforcement of such conduct, perfect for an opportunity is difficult to show, perfection is crap, Perfection is in nuances, perfection is the thief, personal choice, personal creative destruction, personal direction, personal intellectual growth, personal mental imprints based on experience, personal strength, personal thoughts, perspective can help with the complex, philosophy behind patrenting hasn’t changed, picking up pieces and parts of attitudes & behavior, please tell me what you think you are good at, point to parents as the major influencer, point was to seek truth, ponder where the frickin’ apple falls instead, poor parenting drives children deeper into their peer group, pop psychology makes us lazy, possibilities, power of words, practice believing impossible things, Pragmatic with no limits, pragmatism leads to, prior to a meeting they need to deliver on exactly that within the meeting, prioritizing actions, process is a means to an end, product of lucky foresight, product of our culture, productivity, progressive learning, progressively move on to additional learning, provides some structure and focus, providing perspective, pursuing the way, put failing in perpsective, putting profits before people, question everything, Question hope, questioning the unquestionable, quod satis est, quod satis est Horace, quotations, quote from Catcher in the Rye, quotes, randomness of life, raw unbridled pursuit of self-interest, reach for the stars, reaching toward it the possibilities, read this as fact and it is simply opinion, realistic enough to know when enough is enough, realization of individual goals, reason for being, recognize the limitations of their actual talent, recognize the unacceptable limits on prosperity, recognizing limitations to talent, recognizing your limitations is a challenge, refection neglects to uncover, referencing personal branding, Reflecting on parenting is difficult, regard to how we view life, relationship between encouragement and discouragement, relationship between preference and value, relationships, relatively great in the scheme of things, relentlessly pursuing a dream, relevant because it corrodes the ideal, report having higher expectations and monitoring, resiliency, resiliency and character, respect, responsibility, responsibility for actions, responsibility of parents, responsible for survival instincts, right is right, right words, rising tide of evidence against the nurture assumption, risk something to achieve a dream, ROI versus imagination, safe, scared, schumpeter and capitalism, Schumpeter wisdom, seduced by the urge to acquire, see your own reality, seeing the other side of choice, seek out events without fear, seek out the small to insure the big turns out right, seek to make someone speechless on occasion, seek truth, seeking the way of truth, seen this moral challenge before, self actualization, self doubt, self esteem through problem solving, self truth, self worth, self-esteem and individuality, self-help gurus, self-improvement people, self-interest could fuel a successful economy only, sends the wrong message to everyday people, shades of gray, shifts away from traditional parenting roles, shortcomings leading to consequences, should not involve anything close to narcissism, should seek to build something big, showcasing character, sifting through everything they are seeing and hearing, simplicity in life, simplicity seems too chaotic, simplifying to make choices easier, simply illogical behavior cancelling out illogical behavior, six impossible things before breakfast, slippery slope, slippery slope of despair, slippery slope of I am not fine, slippery surface of irrelevant brilliance, slow paced learning, small gestures in trivial looking moments, smallest actions contribute, smart expert driven mumbo jumbo, society of indulgers and accumulators, soft choices, some achievement in and of itself, some of them defied the odds, some parents find mistakes unacceptable, something more important than fear, something that piqued my curiosity, sometimes extremely unpredictable and never ordinary, sometimes produce completely irrational results, sometimes systems work that should not work, sometimes the illogical occurs, sorting out the truth, speaking, speechless. finding the right words at the right time, stand for something within yourself, standing on the edge of some crazy cliff, standing on the uncertainty pedestal, standing up every time we fall down, star gazing, state of being perpetually dissatisfied, stay or go, stop and think, straight lines, straight lines are rare in life, strategy, strength against adversity, strength of character, strength of character to make change, stressful decisions, stretch your limitations, strip away the undoable and identify the doable, stronger emphasis on building a child's autonomy, struggle between energy and indolence, struggle between vitality and decay, Stuff I Like, stumble upon doing it right, stunning grace in the face of overwhelming life, style more important than substance, style over substance questions, subconscious influences behavior, subconscious is really a place of super-fast data processing, success lies within the understanding of the process, successful economy could arise from the raw, suck at managing our lives against our limitations, suggest a kids peer group is a stronger influence, swallowing nonsense, Take or be taken attitude, take revenge on doubters, takers will take what you allow, talking, tangled ball of string, tangled up people, teachers, technology and parenting, tend to believe parents are doing a pretty good job, that i will be tomorrow, That is human nature, that simply living life, that which could be, the 50TopModels guys book, the answers are within you, the apple never falls far from the tree, the choices we make, the creatures of the commonplace, the entanglement of nuances, The Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, the moments that words fail, the more you do not know the more you can learn, the most powerful weapon in life is not a mission, the ones who actually get a second look, the only thing truly unique is your personality, the peer group in which they are socialized, the people who get lost, The point is to understand, the professor and the person ahead of you on the checkout line agree, the slaves of the ordinary, the small gesture in the trivial moment, the subconscious, the word failure is tough love, their heads and hearts, there is always something more to learn, there is no formula for good choices, there is nothing left to give, they don’t thrive on non stop goals & objectives, they think that they need more now, they will be defined by that socialization process, things children experience, thinking, thinking impossible things, thinking is good, thinking of yourself as a brand, thinking too much, this i am today, this unevenness, thoughts, thrive on dreams, thrive on dreams and possibilities, through the looking glass wisdom, time spent within their peer group assimilating learnings, times were different when I was growing up, to be meaningful, to be sure of you, to slay a dragon you need to believe in dragons, to suggest that parents have no responsibility, today’s parenting, too much focus on what you already know, torturing numbers, tough for dreamers these days, tough on dreamers, transformational people, trapped by fear, trivial moments, trivial moments in bigger life, trust, trust and doubt embodies people, Trust can be objective and subjective, Trust one side too much and it dulls, truth, truth and expectations, truth goggles, truth is rarely simple, truth is what really happened, truth or lies, truth or nothing, truth to oneself, trying to preserve will lead to stagnation, uncertainty is a bitch, uncertainty takes on geometric proportions, underneath greatness, understanding your ignorance, understanding your own path to learning, undisciplined irresponsible unfocused kids, unexpected innovation, unicorns symbolize hope, unintended results, universally acknowledged truth, unquestionable, unrelenting parent pressure, untangling people, urgency to find meaning, use your imagination, used rainbows for sale, values of independence, values of personal freedom, very philosophy of parenting has changed in the past, was not trying to make changes, we all fail, we all have dark moments, We are made up of layers, we individuals are pretty self-reliant, we modify our behavior depending on the environment, we should desire to make something big out, We should want to create, we're a little bit too light on our kids nowadays, well rounded individual maximizing their talents, well rounded learning, what do you do when you get what you want, what do you want to be, what I know opinions, what is enough, what is overindulgence or decadence, what is pure decadence or greed, what is the alternative, what it is to be America, what looks like chaos, what the professors of psychology believes, what we have is not what we need, what we need is impossible to get, what we need to get us through, what we want is not what we need, whatever it takes, whatever it takes to cross that dark bridge, where are you going, where danger can look divine, whether children elicit particular behavior in their parents, while you may be highly qualified for an opportunity, who your kid is hanging around with, Why Parents are Unimportant, within capitalism LURKS the possibility of moral poverty, words, words that become deeds, work is often up to people, work nevertheless, worry about implementing a great idea versus protecting it, would be smart enough, you are not a failure because you fail, you are overcoming objections one by one, you cannot dwell on every moment that slipped by, you doubt just enough to be humble and realistic, you live a little life, you lived life doing stuff, you should be ready to face all sorts of problems, you will inevitably be measured by your actual deeds
Written by Bruce
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