Twins Express Thanks to Electrical Contractors and Workers.

No, that’s not the tagline to a porn movie. It’s the a magazine headline from Hong Kong’s “Electricity News” trade magazine.

There I was, trolling the internet for electrical safety images to use in an employee website post, and I came across this site.

At first I thought it was odd, but then the idea grew on me. They have somewhat famous and sexy Asian women standing in as “spokespersons” for electrical safety. Kind of like swimsuit models promoting things like car parts. Electrical safety and car parts are both made much more interesting with smiling, attractive women alongside. They actually “interview” these women about their different monthly topics. You know, exciting things like “No More Blackouts” and “Set Top Box Safety Tips.”

These covers and article images came from the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

That sounds boring. However, I have to say there is a lot of good content on that site. The site design could be improved in a major way, but the content, again, is good.

Recently, Linda pondered lifestyle decisions in a post. This got me to thinking (that’s not hard to do.)

The Meaning of Life

The key question I came away from Linda’s post with was, “What is truly important in our lives?”

Lucky to wonder.

We are lucky to have this predicament. For us to have time and energy to ponder this question means we have more basic needs mostly taken care of. Several out there don’t have the time to ponder the question.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Answers from Maslow?

If we’re asking this question, we’ve probably got at least the first “Physiological” tier taken care of. (Unless you have kids, in which case the sex part might be hit-or-miss!)

One might assume the second part is probably taken care of, too, but for me, it isn’t. I’m always paranoid about that second tier being shaken and having the employment, resources, and property aspects taken away.

The truth is, most people aspire for aspects in all five tiers of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs at the same time. I guess there’s no easy answer from Maslow, then.

Appealing to childhood.

As adults, we usually make things too complicated. When we were kids, we pretty much had cut-and-dried ideas about what we wanted at any given time. We didn’t pressure ourselves with “short, medium, and long-term goals” and all that razzmatazz. So let’s appeal to childhood to see what might be important, then add a dash of adult experience to the mix — but only a dash!

Gone fishing

Gone fishing.

When I was a younger kid, all I wanted to do was go fishing. When I wasn’t fishing, I was reading about fishing, or pretending to fish in the front yard. To think about it, though, I liked this because it meant spending time with my grandma and grandpa, and sometimes dad. It meant I was doing something that usually earned praise (I was a good fisherboy) and meant I got to spend all day outside in the woods or in a boat.

1. Social interaction
2. Approval
3. Enveloped in nature

Kids Whole Future Catalog

Hush, I’m escaping.

I grew up in a town where there was nothing to do but get in trouble. My parents did a fair job keeping me out of any real trouble, so one of the only places I could go to was the library. I spent a lot of time there. As the fishing phase faded, I spent a lot of time reading about exploration. From those books, I explored space, the oceans, and ancient Egypt. I was really enthralled by all three.

1. Thirst for knowledge — understanding
2. Escaping from everyday humdrum

Ann Landers

Remember Heartbreak Ridge?

You don’t have to be a Dirty Harry fan to appreciate the Clint Eastwood movie “Heartbreak Ridge.” In it, Eastwood’s character is trying hard to understand women by reading women’s magazines. As a kid I did the same thing. The titles that cross my mind are “Redbook,” “Woman’s Day,” “Family Circle,” and a few others. Between those and “Reader’s Digest,” I ended up with a really strange mix of knowledge floating around in my head.

But why?

Why would a 9- to 14-year-old kid be reading these magazines?

Well, first of all, I was usually bored at home or at grandma’s, where these magazines were plentiful. Back issues, too. But mostly, I wanted to belong. I wanted to be a person that other people would want to be with, especially women. I would read Ann Landers and all these other advice articles and get an understanding of how humans have such a hard time communicating, even though it shouldn’t be that difficult.

1. Desire to belong
2. Empathy

Nature Rocks

Earth Day, Stupid

I first heard of Earth Day in 1980. Somewhere in the 80’s was the first “green movement” I was aware of. I bought a book to share with my sister, titled something like “100 Ways To Save the Earth” or something. “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” was all you heard everywhere. A few droughts had me worrying about global warming. Ozone holes were supposed to be frying my body within a few days. Mercury was poisoning my drinking water, and we were running out of room for trash.

I pretty much wanted to save the world.

Someone told me once that the world doesn’t need saving. She told me the world would be just fine once we’re gone. She was right, of course. It’s pretty arrogant to think we could really amount to a hill of beans (hill of trash?) in the scheme of things. But that’s not the point. I wanted to help keep the world a place worth living in, worth seeing, worth breathing in.

1. At one with nature

Compile the List Already

My list from childhood, then, looks like this:

1. Social interaction
2. Approval
3. Enveloped in nature
4. Thirst for knowledge — understanding
5. Escaping from everyday humdrum
6. Desire to belong
7. Empathy
8. At one with nature

Huh. Well none of that should be so hard, should it? If you could live within a group of supportive friends and family that respect the earth around them and keep things interesting by exploring the Arts, I think it’s all covered. Maybe that’s why some folks choose communal living? That’s a whole other challenge, though.

Back to work.