[Opinion] Build Your Own House

When living in a house that someone else has built, there is always a sense of something that could be better, roiling around underneath the veneer of “being comfortable.”

Walking around in that house, the renter (or person paying the mortgage) always notices nails sticking out, annoying rough edges and corners of door jambs and knobs, cabinets that are the wrong height and colors of the walls that are “off.”

But, most people put up with those irritations in a house, because…well…it takes a lot of technical—and emotional—knowledge, to design your own house, to your own specifications, that’s comfortable for you.

It’s the same thing with the houses that we have built on top of the virtually property space of the web: social media platforms, apps, websites and many, many other items.

Too many clever people in the web space complain too much and too loudly, about the houses they are paying rent to live in. And as clever as they are, they are not picking up a pen, a ruler and sitting at a slanted desk, to design and build something of their own.

In order to develop the web past where it is now, we need more clever people building houses, versus renting houses.

And the amount of real estate is always expanding…

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: jsorrells@hsconsultingandtraining.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

On Our Former Greatness

From Detroit, Michigan to Gary, Indiana, urban decay is a fact as cities evolve from the physical industrial totems to 20^th century progress into the semi-transparent, high technology incubators of the virtual 21^st century.

And, with 70% of the human population living in cities by 2050, the crimes, poverty, squatting and homelessness that occur in the midst of inevitable urban decay, will make the distinction between the virtual and the physical more and more stark.

The often highlighted conflicts between residents in the cities and those in rural areas will become more acute as well, but they will not be the most serious.

With all of the in-migration occurring, urban decay becomes a consequence of conflict between a vision of the past and the possibility of the future.

Environmental degradation, fossil fuel use, convenience to services, access to information and job security will all become the battlegrounds in the war between the physical and the virtual.

And when more and more people need fewer and fewer physical places to produce the same amount of goods and services that they did 70 years ago, what will become of the totems to humanity’s former industrial greatness.

Oh, by the way, since the poor—those in spirit, those in material wealth and those in talent—will be with us always, the discarded remnants of the current and future world’s former glory—physical and digital—will also increasingly become places to carve out their own form of prosperity, security and culture.

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

Garage Sale Mediation

Garage sales are the closest that many people will get to the retail experience in their own home.

A number of items in the household are determined to be of value—sentimental, monetary, emotional or utilitarian—and then they are selected and sold to others.

The display of items is critical—the better the display, the better a chance of the homeowners actually selling the items —as is good weather and other conditions that are outside of the homeowners’ control.

Customer service is, of course, the primary driver throughout the sales process once items are actually displayed outside the house.

Kids of all kinds, as well as friendly pets, are used to establish a connection with anyone who drives up and says “Hey. What do you have for sale?”

Various websites, such as Ebay, Backpages and Craigslist, have taken over many of the more ineffable marketing and advertising pieces of the garage sale experience, but the sales process itself remains the same as ever.

Mediators and peacemaking professionals would do well to keep the aspects of garage sales in mind as they build their projects:

Keep it simple with a few high profile items
Don’t be afraid to let things go (how many unsaleable items do you then drop off at Goodwill or Salvation Army)?
The sales process from opening to closing relies on being personable, engaged and maintaining a friendly disposition throughout.

Kids and pets sometimes help as well.

Just some things to keep in mind.

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA

Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/