The good news in the reality that we make up our world…is that…while our anxieties can make the world and people scarier than they are…We’re in charge of the process!  We can change our experience.  The effort, however, is not for sissies.

Heh…heh…Since we make people up….We can even make them up nicer than they are.  (I suspect that everyone is secretly crazy about you and me.  Even though some of them are prit-tee excellent at keeping their feelings hidden.)

Will the real Galena, Illinois, and the REAL Dubuque, Iowa, please stand up?

What?  There isn’t a REAL Galena, Illinois?  At least not ONE that can be seen and reported by a human…because we’re all subjective nuts, you say?

“Which is more important?  The Galena, Illinois that could be captured in a photograph?  Or the Galena, Illinois I made up?”

In the previous full post (there was the ‘quick post’ on my complete failure at being cool)…title, your fearless leader was preparing for a book-signing venture to Galena, Illinois and Dubuque, Iowa.

Now…Was I preparing for the REAL Galena, Illinois, and Dubuque, Iowa?  Was I preparing to meet people like myself with their own imperfect natures?  Of course not.  That sort of preparation would depend on the facts regarding these two spots…and a reasonable way of rating my experiences with humans so far.  Neeeuuuu.  I was preparing for the Galena and Dubuque I constructed in my head.  I was preparing for experiences based on my anxieties, which, given my weinnie nature…well, let’s just say…it ain’t a pretty picture.

Had I visited either place before, or met the people I was working with before, perhaps I’d been slightly more prepared to take in how terrific, exciting, and interesting these places and people are.  But, no guarantee. 

We fit the people we meet into the people we ‘expect’ them to be…and this varies depending on whether or not we’re hungry, down about something at work, reactive to physical traits, oh good grief.

Think of what happens when you visit family in another city.  You do not prepare for them …as they are…you prepare for them as you remember them…even though your memory is a subjective mess based on your anxieties and expectatations….and…

Come on… those people have changed from the people YOU MADE UP last time you visited.  Are you with me here?  Repeat:  We are all nuts making up people and the world as we go along.  And that’s okay, because…We live and work with other people who are all nuts and who are MAKING US UP out of their anxieties and expectations.

We’re all a mess.  Really.