Dealing with uninformed, and misinformed people in Phoenix, Arizona


I moved to Phoenix from Minneapolis at the age of 19 and I began my journey of dealing with people who just didn't know stuff. And since I loved my new home of Arizona, I had to accept these people.

Nowadays, most people point to the internet as the source of easy misinformation, as if it all just started with that. But misinformation is as old as human communication, and if you'll excuse the expression, when I was a kid it was called "Old Wives Tales". And when I moved to Phoenix, it was the stuff that young people shared with each other, such as "you won't get a ticket if you drive a yellow car" or "If you hold your breath you won't get pregnant". The list goes on and on, and as a young person this was the kind of information that made me stop and think.

I'm a reader, and a researcher. I can read a book, or an article, without being hypnotized by it, or brainwashed by it. And I give credit to my parents for encouraging me to read, which I still do a lot of. This has been a superpower all of my life, and gave me the ability to learn software programs quickly, and then teach them, right away. And when someone in my class said, "I heard that if you use an Apple computer you'll... (whatever they had heard which wasn't true), I just had to let it go, and see if I could address those concerns without embarrassing anyone. I still do "common misconceptions" on my blogs. I won't shout "NO! WRONG!", instead I'll smile and let it go, and see if I can replace a misconception with the facts.

As you'd imagine, having all of this information inside of me has made me kinda twitchy. I learned to watch someone pick up their ball from the green before marking it without betraying any emotion. If you're a serious golfer, you're probably screaming with rage right now. But I had to get along, and besides, that person might be buying the beers later on!

Over the years, with a slight hiatus in my late forties after a stroke, I've continued to make things more difficult for myself. I love learning, and I have to realize not everyone knows how to tell a waxing moon from a waning one. In fact, I didn't know that until last month! And there will be more stuff that I'll learn in the future. I will NOT roll my eyes at people's ignorance, and I'm hoping that other people will have patience with me, too.

Yes, I'm a college man, and yes I've had a library card since I was a little kid, but I try not to wear that too brightly. There are a lot of people who decry "book learnin'", and really rather not hear that I was in the, uh, part of the class that made the bottom part possible. Yes, Dean's List, National Honor Society, that sort of thing. I was never an "A" student, but I breezed through high school and college with a B average, and still had a lot of free time, which included hanging out in the art building,  doing freelance graphic design, and playing with my neighbor's dogs.

I dealt with misinformation all over again when I moved to California in 1982, and found that some people didn't even know what state was due east of them, and were convinced that it was Texas. Then I did it again in 1989, when I moved back to Phoenix and found that many people thought that Hollywood was right on the ocean. The list goes on and on.

Misinformation is nothing new. And although it's been a long time since I was 19, I'm sure that there are things that I'm misinformed about. And a very wise man taught me what to say when I learn something, "Wow! I never knew that! Thank you!"
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