OREGON SHARING: WHEN IS IT ENOUGH?

The Sharing Economy, Or Just An Excuse To Complain.

For all good reasons to share, because it’s the right thing to do, because you can make money doing nothing, because it’s so easy, there’s as many reasons not to share.

That’s the sharing economy.

Use my stuff for a price. A lower price than buying something you won’t use often enough to justify the cost.

Stay in my house for less than the worst dive motel with questionable sheet hygiene and free roaming cats.

When Joel Stein gets a Time Magazine cover story on the sharing economy you know it’s big.

Are Portland baby boomers getting into the sharing mode? Are you?

Let’s check on the millennials before going any further, since they’re sharing so much already.

My yard care equipment is available. Rakes, shovels, hoes.

You can borrow it for free if you rake my yard, plant a tree, and loosen up the flower beds first.

The line starts over there.

Transportation?

I’ve got a van you can rent. You want to use it as an Uber vehicle? Perfect.

While you’re out and about, I’ve got a regular oil change scheduled. It’s a lifetime deal so you don’t have to pay.

Just drive in, tell them who owns the rig, and wait. It might be an hour. You’ll find something to do.

Take a selfie of you waiting? Remember, get in front of the light, not behind.

You’d like to rent my room AirBnb style? Of course. No need to ask.

You’ll notice the walls of the room are painted with three tone sponge? So nineties, don’t you think?

I’ll give you a great rate if you’ll paint while you stay. It shouldn’t take to long.

An eggshell white ought cover the sponge paint in two or three coats.

I’ll prep the room before you get here. You won’t need drop clothes or tape.

While you wait for the paint to dry, why not paint another room. This sponge look is so dated.

What we know about millennials is they’re all in for experience. Not so much ‘things.’ The hoarding gene hasn’t kicked in yet.

Children of boomers want memories, not maintenance. Rent a lawn mower and return it instead of changing oil, spark plugs, cleaning the deck. sharpening the blades.

That stuff is so last century.

If the sharing economy puts everything into play for a nominal price, what does the biggest generation, the baby boomer’s boom generation, make of the changes in Oregon state leadership?

Turns out former governor John Kitzhaber might be a millennial at heart. The man loves to experience things.

Instead of watching a show about fly fishing, he puts on the gear and wades out in the river with his whip.

Instead of going for the trifecta marriage after two divorces, he experienced a less formal relationship.

Instead of driving between the lines, he and his fiance Cylvia Hayes went off-road to experience…?

Millennials understand the Kitzhaber evolution, the jeans, the boots, the hair, better than their boomer elders who wear dad pants, pulled on the hush puppies, cut their hair, and stayed with their wives.

BoomerPdx supports all life choices when they enhance a better life. Millennials seek a better life, so why not support them?

If a better life includes state and federal investigations, an FBI net over everyone and everything associated with Governor Kitzhaber and Ms Hayes, and getting run from office, it’s not a life of choice.

From oregonlive.com:

“In announcing his resignation last week and setting the stage for Wednesday’s elevation of Secretary of State Kate Brown, Gov. Kitzhaber claimed to be a victim of the media. Much can be said, and has been, about the tendency of people to assert victimhood when they find themselves in trouble. We’ll just say this: John Kitzhaber is no victim.

Kitzhaber’s media culpa laments “that we have come to a place in the history of this great state of ours where a person can be charged, tried, convicted and sentenced by the media with no due process and no independent verification of the allegations involved.””

When it’s all going well the winners can thumb their noses at the rest of us. They don’t need to say they’re better, smarter, richer. It shows.

But stand tall when things tank on you. That’s the lesson from boomer to millennial. Stand up for what you believe in.

Respect authority and work for change when you get caught on the other side of the fence. No whining.

Respect women you care for. When The Who sang “Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss” they weren’t talking about wives. You don’t need a new wife anymore than most women need a new hubby. Find a way to agree. Then agree.

Be a parent to your kids. There’s a seventeen year old kid out there who might need some dad time, Mr. Kitzhaber.

Show the rest of us how to help boys turn into good men.

Do that and write a happy ending.