$2, and Chakabooka
So this evening, Isaac looks up at me with perfect little blue eyes and says "Can I have two dollars?" I have no idea where he gets this from. So I repsonded with "I don't have two dollars", which was in a way true. Although I do have at least $2 somewhere, it wasn't at home, so I was unable to give it to him.

Isaac responsds with "I want two dollars. Can I have two dollars?" This goes back and forth for several minutes, until I try a new tactic.

"Isaac," I respond, "I don't have two dollars. Would you like a penny instead?"
"Ok."

So as a Sales trainer I look at this and say his closing skills are excellent, but he needs to work on the negotiation end of things. He's got a few years left, but God help the first guy in a suit who walks by his Lemonade stand.

Carnage.

On a different note, Herr Brudermann (my brother, for those in the know) posted a great blog post about Inertia, and how good it is at keeping you from doing the things you want to do. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, but a body at rest tends to stay there too - unless acted upon by an outside force (as my son's namesake, Mr Newton once famously remarked).

He is (my brother, not Isaac Newton) struggling with the weight of inertia, and mentioned a term he had heard in a rather bad movie once: Chakabooka (sp?), which meant a spiritual kick in the butt.

My brother clearly is not happy with his situation, and is a little weighed down with Inertia. He thinks he could use some Chakabooka. He has certainly demonstrated it in huge amounts before, when about 6 years ago or so, he sold off most of what he owned, pulled up stakes, and moved to England. So the ability is there. He just needs to tap into the kind of resourcefullness that got him to England in the first place, and use it to get him out of his rut.

Incidentally, a massive rut is what brought Noelle and I to Ontario in the first place. We knew, once we bought the condo, that unless we did something drastic, that that was going to be pretty much it for quite a few years. It certainly put things like our future, our potential, and our dreams into sharp releif. In other words, it delivered hardcore Chakabooka. Noelle was working part time at a publishing company, and I was selling shoes, and something had to give.

Was it a good move? Well, now Noelle owns a publishing company, and now I teach other people how to sell. However the road to getting here has been kind of long and winding, and for that I blame: You guessed it, inertia.

You see, the deadly other side of an object at rest not being able to move (unless otherwise acted upon) is the tendancy of an object in motion to keep moving unless acted upon by an outside force.

So since we left Calgary 6 years ago, we have lived in 6 houses or apartments, in 4 cities, in two countries. We have lived in more places in the last 6 years than some of our relatives have visited. This presents it's own entirely new set of challenges.

Now in Hamilton, it feels like we are really starting to put down roots. The municipal election last night (the crook is out! Hooray!) really got my political finger itching again, I have made a decision about a church, and my job is simply amazing. I have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon.

I know that if we need a good dose of Chakabooka some time in the not too distant future, we will fully be able to deliver it to ourselves, or even one another. My fear, is that if that day comes, will it take us another 6 years to stop?

It's something for my brother to consider, anyway.