This is kind of an odd topic and I will keyboard my thoughts as I go, but there seemed to me a theme today as I drove back from Carlo's in Syracuse in the snow.
I was listening to the international weekly round-up on Diane Rehm's show (http://thedianerehmshow.org) and of course hearing about the Middle East. Pressure there, all right. Who would believe that the people could rise up after all these years and throw out ruthless dictators. It continues to amaze me.
Then the story from Rolling Stone (www.rollingstone.com) about the general who ordered his men to use psychological weapons (!) on Senators (!) to get them to approve funding. Now supposedly this was a balanced man who had come up through the ranks, and as they said on the show, was seen as a great candidate for future promotion. But here's where the pressure comes in. He was expected to perform, and he could not allow Senators to cut funding after seeing his troops. So he went around the law - until he was stopped.
The school unions in Wisconsin are another example. Teachers staying home and leaving classrooms untended, schools closing...all to apply pressure to their legislators. And then in the middle of the night, the legislators, feeling the pressure, took a very strange up or down vote to cut them off. It won't work in the Senate there....12 state senators are "in hiding" so they won't have to vote! Pressure.
So then we come at least to real estate. My seller and I lost a deal this week because the buyer (not my client) felt the pressure of buying too soon, in his/her opinion. No one put the pressure on the buyer, but when the offer went in the reality bells started to toll, and the offer was withdrawn. Too much pressure - to buy a house, to sell a house, to finalize life-style decisions. So much of real estate, when you come down to it, is a leap of faith. Of course grounded on sound reasons, but major changes nonetheless.
So from the Middle East to Skaneateles - just thoughts....
