dbjorklund.com

If the me from out of the past, the 80s to be specific were to meet the person I currently am and have been for quite some time now I’m certain there would be an argument and it would end in fisticuffs or worse.. Most know me as the guy who allows money to worry about itself, I give away more freebies in a day than most do all year, somewhat like good old Scrooge at the end of a Christmas Carol. Mister 1980s was all about the cheese, I could work any crazy scheme toward profitability I never held a steady job but always had the money for the good times while looking ahead to spot the next sucker. PT Barnum could’ve mistaken me for a long lost bastard son.. It was most probable the changing factor for me that set the ball rolling was during the dotcom bubble burst where I began my progression from Ben & Jerry type hippie into just plan old dirty hippie.. during the dotcom craze I left for Chicago in pursuit of the big score, I was promised things unbelievable all while being pushed by one who had more greed than I thought imaginable. To shorten the story and not bore the few readers of my site, things didn’t go as promised and I was given a rare opportunity, something I didn’t recognize until recently.. I was at rock bottom and able to reset who I was. I re-examined my core beliefs my actions and began anew.  Over the past decade I had encountered and was thrown in with people who actively attacked my core being and when they couldn’t twist me to accept their greed they would profit off my generosity, by strange happenstance and shear luck I escaped a bit bruised but still always the believer…

For me life is measured by the experience one collects, not the relentless pursuit of greed. In the end I want to have an unending collection of stories to relate to those who want to listen, but.. and there always has to be a but lurking somewhere out in the ugly parts of the world.. I’m faced now again with a reevaluation of greed and desire, I don’t wish to compromise myself yet I find those about who care for little more than obtaining wealth. While looking in the metaphorical mirror I can see myself desiring to be the one who profits at the expense of others instead of being the one used to fuel the greed machine. I lose sleep over this, I know inside me I am capable of an ugliness more vile than Mr. Gray’s portrait. My soul is not clean my conscience is foul with a history of manipulation and while it was all learned behavior and realistically difficult to go back to the skills of long ago the path can be set upon quite easily..

So here I sit at yet a new crossroad, familiar yet different enough that I could so readily slip into the comfortable shoes of the past “for old times sake” or “just this once”. It’s right now that I must pull all my strength to be honest with myself and keep to things that have brought me the most profit in life, the stories, love, kindness. When I leave this planet I want people to celebrate my life, not my passing…

“So, I’m a tanked-up loser? Is that how you see me?” — Barney Gumble

We can go around proclaiming we are anything we want, we can even believe ourselves to be such things. While it’s important.. no.. it’s necessary to have a reference point for who you are but heres the deal, you are who people say you are.  It’s through the eyes of other people our being is filtered and made into what we are. People may see us as jerks and losers and none too bright, we know we’re not but why do they? Sure part of the blame is some inherent flaw in the one calling us a loser but we must look into ourselves and examine the actions which brought out this judgment.  After study we may find nothing wrong and that is alright in fact it’s most likely a good sign that we are being true to our internal yardstick. An unpopular man said that it was important to stay the course, yes he was talking about something else but under the surface the meaning was there. Even if he was unaware he was practicing what too many don’t. He was staying the course, he held certain core values that regardless of popularity he was unwilling to compromise. Today it’s so easy to give up core beliefs in the name of popularity, you might not even notice you’re doing it. Wanting to fit in is like a drug once accepted it’s all that more critical to stay accepted, the masses are fickle and will toss you aside like yesterday’s trash before you know what’s what. Another thing about the masses is they don’t care about what you’ve done before they want to know what you have for them now, what kind of shiny are you going to give them today.  The overlooked key to popularity is to be genuine to who you want to be, don’t let your conversations be just an ad for someone else’s latest craze or product. The truth is people want character not the made up reality TV kind but real personal stand up character. Plant your flag and state “these are my values, they are not for sale!” people will seek you out for it and the added bonus is they will stick around and help you define who you really are…

My mind has been a bit clouded these past few days. I had thought I could leave behind all the petty small minded nonsense but then came along television.. Everything began all good and sweet they sucked up to me told me how wonderful and great I am and then just as quickly they turned, refused to pay and claimed my work was not my own and belonged to them.  There was a time where I would’ve allowed such bullies push me down and take my lunch money.. that was the old me, the one who was alright carrying a crushed spirit, the downtrodden.  Today I choose to live by a few core principles that are based on ethical behavior.  Life will return wonder and amazement if you let it, with that said though there are people out there that will take advantage of one’s good nature and use you to further their own agenda. For myself the way to counteract this negative force is to first identify it as quickly as I can and stand firm on my principles. To put it into business terms it’s alright to fire customers if they don’t fit with your goals doubly so if they’re a drain on your resources and add zero value. The most important piece of the puzzle in defending against the small minds is not to build walls between you and the rest of the world to prevent the chance of encountering more of the like but to open yourself up to the world and live to your principles because after all a smile and laughter is contagious and happy people need to be around other happy people, they are the ones you want filling your world…

I’m glad that outside of this isolated incident I’ve been surrounded by and had the opportunity to work with some amazingly happy people, a list I hope to add you too.

“..Well you can twist and shout let it all hang out, but you won’t fool the children of the revolution..”

There is a saying along the lines of never being able to go home.. I have to call bullshit on those words and more importantly the thinking behind them.  It’s not the physical return that you are barred from, it’s the mental and in certain ways spiritual return to home that seems to be the trouble for some.  I recently went home, a place I haven’t been for many many years and it was a very easy thing to do. I began with the physical journey and while there it was revealed to me that in every way I was home. The things unimportant, those actions that cloud our perceptions of the day.. all were gone my mind, heart and body found rest and peace.  The best part about being able to go home wasn’t so much being able to continue working on the reset of outlook on the world but that I was able to share a part of me with someone very close to me, a part that had be hidden away and feared lost. The added bonus, the icing on the cake if you will is being able to take home with me when I left this time…

“People say I’m crazy doing what I’m doing…”

I’m not really sure where I got off track and honestly it’s been too long to recollect the times before losing my way.. I do know it was during my college years I began waning away from a natural way of living and immersing myself into the kind of life other people expect you to exist.. no suffer through.  I’m sure for some people the endless pursuit of material goods and profit is a noble cause but seriously I see it as unnatural, who said it was alright to spend the majority of your waking hours locked in a cage toiling for another’s profit? that is what most office workers are doing.  Around November of  last year that I started to remember how things were for me in my teens years the promises I made to myself, how I was going to view this world in all it’s wonder with fresh eyes everyday. It was then I began the hard struggle back to that state of mind and let me say for the record I’m a better man for it.  I know what I need to get by and the answer when an old friend asks me how I’ve been is not “I’m working too long and wish things were better” I can say now I’m loving life the good and bad that comes my way and continue to do so. Life’s too short is more than just words it should be a wake up call telling you to stop putting off your dreams and to take care of the inner voice that’s calling you to come out and play…

“…When I say that I’m o.k. they look at me kind of strange,
Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game…”

I’ve long been a subscriber to the belief that life can’t be without death.. As an average person though I fight the endings that come our way, sometimes I fight too hard and lose sight of what new exciting things are waiting to come and run their course. Sure the unknown is a frightening place but remember no experience is good or bad, it’s what we choose to do with them that makes them so. Just as the new season cannot come without the death of the previous our next level of growth cannot happen without the previous running it’s course and coming to an end…

Looking back I’m thankful that I have built a great many more bridges than I have burned. I’m even more thankful for those bridges that for some reason or another have not been able to burn away, sure they’ve been abused and beat up, a little charred about the supports but the bridges still stand and are sound. As the world about seems to crumble it’s a comfort that these bridges are still there allowing an exit from the wilderness into safety and comfort, a place where everyone loves you regardless just because you are you.  Of course I’m talking about people here and not actual bridges made of concrete and steel.. or asbestos.. It’s the people who know you best who see through all your faults and inadequacies to the real and wonderful you that I’m most thankful for.  It’s the people who believe in me when I doubt myself that keeps me going even if I want to give in and hide from the world they come along and get me back out there on the field and I can’t thank them enough…

It’s been far too long since I’ve posted here.. When I began this blog I had set myself the goal of posting regular content and I feel I have been letting myself down if I can’t post at least 3 times a week.  It’s not for lack of things to say that has kept me from posting but lack of quality, I do not wish for dbjorklund.com to become a place of whining.. The message closest to my heart is a positive one of hope and togetherness, quite the opposite of what I must face daily out in the real world. Back on the 5th of March I was honored to shoot the 3rd installment of Ignite Lansing and see first hand behind the scenes and in the faces and hearts of those who worked to make it happen as well as those attending the kind of world that I long to live in everyday. The message of hope for a brighter tomorrow could not have been stated any louder than it was that Friday night in the Knapp building. Being allowed to be even a small part of it has reassured me that my regular days of fighting the hatred of poisoned small minds will come to an end and one day I will awake in the bright new day that we’re all working towards…

I haven’t had much to say for awhile and even though it is due mostly to be busy with good things I find myself being disappointed at my lack of updates, I promise soon I’ll have some more uplifting posts coming..

February has been a rather difficult month for me projects being started, and trying to put away projects that just won’t end.. It’s these never ending bad ideas that put the greatest strain on the brain.  Sure the new projects have all the energy not to mention are still a bit shiny so it doesn’t feel like work even though it may be time intensive and fills your ever waking moments. But the old bad choices that linger and no matter what one may try to escape it keeps coming back each day harder to deal with than the last. I don’t really believe that any job or the idea for it can be bad yet I have come to learn that all it takes is for one person involved can make it bad and quickly if we don’t guard against it, soon everyone possesses a bad attitude not only about the job at hand but life in general and eventually that bad attitude turns into an open hostility towards fellow workers and then people outside the project.  Things don’t have to be this way and it’s really simple to avoid this, I use 3 ways first everyone gets a smile and friendly greeting even if I get no response or worse yet a negative response I keep being friendly. Secondly I do not join in with negative speech or thought patterns with those involved, this can lead to some lonely days but it is better than the alternatives. The third thing to do and the most important is to get involved with positive people in positive projects and to allow their good mood and friendly manner to influence you while shaking off the poison of negativity that may have gotten through your defenses and clung to you.. Ultimately though the best thing to do is avoid putting yourself into such negative spaces of thought over and over, which unfortunately in this economy is difficult, I have to believe nobody wants to be treated poorly or to treat others poorly who like you are just trying to pay the rent as best they can…

These guys understand how life works.

The everyday world can be a stressful place.. It can be difficult to deal with the average things one has to handle during the day let alone the added stress of not seeming to have the time to follow your passions.  Everyone needs to be passionate about something, life isn’t worth experiencing if all your doing is going through the motions as though a machine. It’s easy to forget this, easy to allow others to influence you into forgetting what is important.  We as individuals must experience life and all the wonders it has to offer, to do any less is criminal or at least should be.  It had taken me a trip to a physical place, a location far from my everyday world for me to be reminded of what is important in life, why we all are on this mud ball of a planet.  My passion for life and photography was rekindled on those Caribbean Islands and whenever I find myself being pulled into the grayness of a dull existence that so many seem to accept as how it is, I look back to my days in the sun when time had no meaning and all that mattered was we were living life for all its worth…