If you open your eyes, you can learn something just about anywhere.
For example: A bus stop.
Or, in this case, two bus stops a couple hundred yards around the corner from each other.
I was driving down Thomas Road in Phoenix and passed the first bus stop. The sign behind it said, “Some people are smarter than you. Listen to them.”
“Sage advice from a beer advertisement,” I mused, as I drove on down the road.
Then, as I turned the corner at 32nd Street, I spied a second bus stop sign, also selling beer:
“The bulk of your life should be off the record,” this one touted.
More wise advice. Beer advertisements have sure come up in the world in the past 20 years. No Clydesdales playing football, no bikini clad women in the snow, and no vapid arguments over whether a beer tastes great or is less filling. All things we can certainly do without. Well, maybe not the bikini clad snow girls. Definitely not without them. Why would anyone drink beer if it weren't for the bikini clad snow girls. But, I digress.
In this age of Googled answers and Facebook friends, when Snopes can’t keep track of the balderdash and Twitter can’t keep Weiners off the air; it’s refreshing to get some good old-fashioned wisdom from your friendly neighborhood brewery.
There are people who are smarter than you. Seek them out and listen to them. Chances are they don’t live in Hollywood or Washington D.C. Look for them in your neighborhood. Most of them are over 70 and have lived long enough to learn a few hard lessons. Get to know them. Spend some time. Learn from them.
And while you are at it, how about keeping most of your life off the record. I still have to learn this one myself, but let me put it out there. You don’t need to blather every inane thing in your day on Facebook. No one cares. They are too busy broadcasting their own frivolities.
Maybe it’s time to turn off the computer, tune in to the real people around us and drop out of the online world.
Just for a while…
Wisdom is where you find it.
