The hours of my day went flying by quite quickly with all my scheduled errands around the City. One of my stops was at a home so to get some exterior and interior photos taken. What an exceptionally comfortable home! After finishing up with my room shots, I told the owner it was no surprise it sold before I could even my get photos taken.
Now if some if these homebuilders would use that floor plan as a new construction, it would certainly sell because it wouldn’t be like any of those monster homes that some builders think to be still in style. They need to get it in their heads that tastes are changing–especially with our younger crowd. In spite of what some believe, we don’t have that many people living in North Iowa with incomes high enough to support such monstrous monthly mortgage payments.
One of my clients whom I’ve done business with for at least 15 years or more stopped by for a chat, and while talking about this and that, we somehow got on the subjects of respect and trust. Oh Mercy! That was quite the debate regarding how and when respect and trust is a given, and when in most cases in today’s society it must be earned. Every society has mores, or should I say hard-coded traditions regarding interactions within families, along with the general public. In the old days, we were taught to respect all our elders, but what happens when we’re fully aware of many whose own failures within their families as well as society, far exceed that which even those having ever-forgiving liberal mindsets would consider forgivable, and or acceptable?
These past years I’ve grown to understand, as well as embracing the concept that in most cases, respect along with trust is something that must be hard-earned. Writing this just now, reminded me of that old Smith-Barney commercial where that old gentleman says, “We make our money the old-fashioned way, because we earn it.” In these fire-storm times, we must be all the more careful whenever blindly considering someone trustworthy as well as worthy of respect. What I believe is the driving force of these changes, is the devil-may-care attitude of all those many regarding the acquisition of wealth. It’s unfortunate that most are now re-aligning their generations-old beliefs regarding family/social mores, but times have changed, and adaptation is all the more necessary for survival.
Since having several hours free this afternoon, I decided it was time to give the wooden floors in my office a good scrub. It took a bit longer than normal due to the extra work needed to get that tracked in and then dried-on snowmelt junk removed. After they were dry, I stood back with admiration and was again reminded how those 120+ year old floors can still glow with such a deeply rich beauty which could never be copied with today’s flooring technologies. I’m ever-thankful I made the decision years ago to have them re-finished. Some things really do get better with age, don’t you think?
