What Color is Your Umbrella?
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What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers
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Here's an interesting exercise that I suggest you try. Pick an ordinary object (or have someone pick one for you) and think about what it means to you. You probably won't come up with much at first, just the ordinary uses for whatever the object is, but don't stop there. Keep thinking, and try to think about how you feel about it, try to think outside the box and be as abstract as you can.
Not having any ideas for what to put in this post, I asked a friend for a topic. My assignment: "you shall post about umbrellas."
Here are a few of the things that I relate to umbrellas:
- Stubbornness – There are very few times in my life when I've actually used an umbrella. I'll walk without an umbrella when it's completely pouring rain, because sometimes I'm just to stubborn to admit that I need to use an umbrella. It's almost like I wear the fact that I'm soaking wet as a badge of honor, some sort of odd pride is obtained by doing this.
- Protection – This one is a multi-parter. There's the obvious fact that an umbrella acts as protection against rain and sun. Going a bit farther than that, though, is that I'm more than willing to hold an umbrella for someone else, for whatever reason. When that's the case, I'll make sure that they get the complete protection of the umbrella, even if that means exposing myself mostly or completely to the onslaught of rain.
Vacation/Relaxation – It took awhile for this one to pop into my mind, but now I can't get the picture of a chair and umbrella on the beach out of my head. Just being able to chill out and relax surrounded by a flawless beach is so appealing right now.- Spudart – Matt Maldre donated the following quote for this post: "with large umbrellas, come large responbilities." I'm not exactly sure what a "responbilities" is, but I think it might be something that's used to clean umbrellas.
- Unexpected weather, and "lost and founds" – today's forecast was clear. A nice day with no rain. I guess the weather didn't listen to the forecast. I was thinking about this post when I saw that it was raining, and decided that I needed to fight my stubbornness. I now have a new umbrella (that I'm "borrowing" from the lost and found) that will live in my car. I used it when I went to lunch, and am a better person for it.
So, there you go. Pick something, anything, and run with it. Post your reactions in the comments here. Need an idea? Shoes. Comment about what your shoes do for you.
spudart said,
Sparx! What an excellent way to write up a post. Pick a word and write your thoughts on it. You should make a list of your favorite things. And then you can write a blog post for each one of those items. I started with my 500 favorite things and now I just need to write about one item every now and then.
August 27, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
spudart said,
Oh, and the meaning of that umbrella quote, "with large umbrellas, come large responsibilities" means that when one carries an open large umbrella, they have to be very careful about not poking someone's eye out when walking down the street. Some big umbrella carriers think they own the sidewalk with their large umbrella. Uh no, buddy. If you have a super big umbrella, you need to be careful and raise your umbrella higher, so you don't hit anyone with it. Besides, your umbrella is so big, that A) you won't get wet if you have to carry it higher and B) you will be protecting other people momentarily while you raise your umbrella while passing by someone.
August 27, 2007 @ 4:34 pm
spudart said,
and oh. how do you like that in my previous two comments, i managed to link back to my own blog. hahahaha! 🙂 thanks! *running away*
August 27, 2007 @ 4:34 pm
spudart said,
oh. my umbrella is black. a nice small broken black umbrella. I have several. Although I think one of them is not broken. But carrying a broken (actually bent) umbrella is fun. Actually I would like to have a nice dark gray umbrella. Just a little different, so it's not black, but it's not fruity for a man to carry.
August 27, 2007 @ 4:37 pm
spudart said,
dude. i'm totally comment bombing your post here!
August 27, 2007 @ 4:37 pm
sparx said,
Wow.. that's a lot of commenting. 😛
As far as the quote – I copied and pasted it into my notes to use in this post, and when I was looking over it this morning, I realized that you typo'd "responsibilities." I had to give you crap for that.
My new umbrella is black. I'm still getting the hang of it. There are buttons, and slidey tubes and all sorts of great joints. I have to find my umbrella hat that I got in my 'bag of crap' from woot.com.
August 27, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
Kelly (KH) said,
Fine job with the umbrellas assignment. Fine job.
My umbrella is light gray, as you well know, but it doesn't match my shoes as much as I'd like. (To tie in to the "shoes" thing you added at the end).
August 27, 2007 @ 8:13 pm
unlikelymoose said,
I like umbrellas that have those buttons you push and it automatically opens. I feel like James Bond using button-activated opening umbrellas.
August 28, 2007 @ 12:58 pm
spudart said,
i haven't used a button-activated umbrella in years. that would be fun to own one.
August 28, 2007 @ 8:35 pm
sparx said,
spudart.. your post linking to this one came up as #5 for "umbrella shoe".. i guess since the exact phrase doesn't even appear on this page.. until now.
August 30, 2007 @ 11:13 pm
sparxMind » Reader Requests said,
[…] tried my hand at posting about umbrellas, getting everyone sick, and a few other suggested topics that I don't feel like looking up […]
September 7, 2007 @ 7:52 am