Unchained melody: Robert Earl Keen, Feelin’ good again.

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my kind of country song, a celebration of what human social interaction can be and should be.

This is what Don Reedy comes to BloodhoundBlog for. Teri Lussier, too. Al Lorenz, as well, I think, all of them in their own ways, along with a few other folks.

The funny part is, I’m actually pretty poor at delivering that experience here.

That feelin’-good-again feeling comes not so much from BloodhoundBlog as it does from BloodhoundBlog Unchained, from our memories of our shared experiences in Phoenix, Orlando and Seattle.

Here’s why: BloodhoundBlog Unchained brought out the best in you, wherever we did it. We were all of us learning, all of us teaching, and all of us were appreciated for our accomplishments. Just making it through our killer workdays was an achievement all on its own, but what made those workdays feel so right was that your virtues were fully visible to everyone, and each one of us was in full agreement about the worthiness and admirability of those virtues.

I am due some credit for this, I think. You cannot both attract my attention and hide from me. I learn a lot about the people I see from every opportunity I have to observe them. I have done this for my entire adult life, and I know I am good at it. When I see you, even if you don’t know I am aware of you, I am figuring out everything I can about you, gleaning every implication I can from every action of yours I am aware of. I can do a plausible back-story on just about anyone, and if I take the time to think about you, any secrets you keep from me will be matters of meaningless detail. I will have inferred everything about you that matters to you.

That’s actually a fine reason to dismiss me: I am scary-good at “reading” people.

But that matters in this context because I think that feelin’-good-again feeling starts with me seeing, understanding, admiring and celebrating your virtues — and celebrating you for being so wonderfully virtuous — by my standards and by your own. I know I can bring out the worst in bad people, but to the extent that I can bring out the best in good people, this is how I do it: By acknowledging and taking delight in the best you have within you.

At BloodhoundBlog Unchained, that kind of shared visibility and celebration of virtue was the common culture, for the short spans of time we were together. And it is that feelin’-good-again feeling that many of us are seeking here, too.

And thus I must conclude that I have been a poor host. I’ve always wanted for BloodhoundBlog to be a force for good in the real estate industry, but the reality is that almost no one in residential real estate representation, at least, has much interest in being good. Not good at representing their clients. Not good at selling real estate. And most especially not good at being a decent, honest, productive member of society.

To the contrary, most Realtors seem to me to be congenital rent-seekers in everything they do — oily, deceptive hucksters offering minimal value but demanding maximum compensation and always angling for Rotarian Socialist giveaways from the state — at the expense of their own clients.

This is not something I’m happy about, if you hadn’t guessed.

But it profits me nothing to dwell on these sad facts. The people I’m talking about know who they are. They’re the folks who are feeling huffy and insulted right now. But because they’re feeling huffy and insulted, there is no chance whatever that they will change their behavior, not right now: Acting huffy and insulted is how you justify behavior you already know is wrong. If you thought you were actually in the right, you would feel dismissiveness or, most appropriately, indifference. An error is comical, at best. You put on a display of offended virtue — to fool whom? — when you are caught and you won’t admit it.

Have fun with that. I don’t care. I live in a world of splendor, and there is nothing of mine to be found in any kind of squalor.

Which is not to imply that I will stop bitching at the NAR, at Inman, at the vendorsluts and all of their grateful victims. I won’t cross the street to step on a cockroach, but the proper fate of cockroaches is to be stepped on, when they come too near true human values.

But: At the same time: I am working at a larger game. If you are a friend of the dogs who knows and likes that feelin’-good-again feeling — that feeling of being admired by people you like and respect for what you yourself see as your most admirable qualities and feeling that same admiration for them — I want for you to have more of that. And if you’re someone who has always missed out on that feeling — I’d like to show you how to find it.

I’m doing most of that work at SplendorQuest.com. It’s on-topic there, not so much here. As my time permits, I want to document everything I know about this — about the proper care and functioning of the human ego. I’ve been saying this for three years, so it’s time I got it done.

Meanwhile, that probably means less big stuff from me here. I can’t not write here. I’m bursting with things to say. But the heavier reading is going to end up over there — and I invite you to join me there.

What does that mean here? I’m thinking it means the other contributors need to step up to the plate. I have never pushed people to write here — and I never, ever want anyone writing here from that creepy, rent-seeking hustle and jive. But for the writers here who like seeing that feelin’-good-again feeling on our pages, I’ll tell you where it comes from:

You come up with an idea you’re really proud of. You work it out so that you know that it really works — and why it works. You write it up for BloodhoundBlog. And the dogs eat it up. It’s the formula we started with, and it’s always worked great. Not only do you feel good about the work you’ve done, everyone feels better. The comments might unearth even better ideas, which can turn into new discussions.

The good — the pursuit and practice of virtuous behavior — is simply this: Continuously getting better at being alive as a fully-human being. This is a job BloodhoundBlog can do. How do I know? Because I can see it in your eyes — from any distance. I might be a lousy host, but I am honored to have such wonderful people as my guests.