UDAAP Know How it Feels
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Good Morning to all you American Girls and Boys,
I have heard that quite a few of you have been waiting with baited breath for this blog post and, well, you know what they say - the waiting is the hardest part. Now, I'm hopeful that your anticipation is based on your desire primarily for knowledge (with perhaps a bit of entertainment mixed in to boot). And I hope, that, based on previous experiences with these emails you recognize that they are filled with things that both you and I need to know.
At this point, you may be wondering why I'm speaking in Tom Petty song titles. Perhaps you are thinking, it's time to move on to the crux of this email. Don't worry, there's something good coming if you just don't fade on me.
Tom Petty, if you can't already tell, is one of my favorite musicians. He was one of those guys that was on my concert "bucket list" if you will. You know, that list of musicians/bands that you really want to see live either before they kick the bucket or you do. I was fortunate enough that he made his way through Memphis on his 40th anniversary tour in May of 2017 and I was able to check him off the list. Sadly, it would be both my first and last Tom Petty concert as he was to pass away about 5 months later.
So what does Tom Petty have to do with anything? Not much really, I guess. But I did listen to a podcast recently in which Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin discuss the making of Tom Petty's "Wildflowers" album. If you are a Petty or music fan, it's a great listen. They talk about how one of my favorite Petty songs - You Don't Know How it Feels - was written/produced on the record. Since youtube is blocked on our network, I'll give you a sample of the lyrics - my notes in (parentheses):
But let me get to the point (probably what you are thinking now) let's roll another joint (probably what our former HR director turned - Oregon hippie Mike Dowling is thinking right now - jk)
And turn the radio loud
I'm too alone to be proud,
You don't know how it feels
You don't know how it feels to be me. (what everyone reading this has probably thought at sometime or another)
The way Petty sings "You don't" in the chorus of this tune, made me, for some reason, think of UDAAP... perhaps it's the emphasis on hard U sound, coupled with the hard D of "DAP" and "Don't", but they have a sonorous correlation in my mind. And because of that tenuous correlation, you have read about 463 words trying to tie Tom Petty to UDAAP.
The power behind a song like "you don't know how it feels" is, I believe, its ability to give voice to a fundamental truth of the human condition. That is, that every one of us is a unique being created in the image of God. And so, yes, nobody, in fact, knows exactly what it's like to be you. But the song also examines universal themes such as loneliness, loss, meaning, etc., things that each of us deal with on a daily basis.
How, you may be wondering, does this relate to UDAAP? Well, UDAPP, at its core, is a regulation designed to ensure that people undergoing collections activity are treated with the basic dignity that is owed to all people. This dignity is birthed out of the fundamental notion that all men were created equal by God. It is this truth that Petty's music reaches towards and our laws and regulations aspire to achieve. In practice it prohibits collectors - and for our purposes repossessors - from using Unfair, Deceptive, Abusive Acts and Practices in their collection attempts. The UDAAP rules were formulated with the idea that although people may be having their car repossessed due to poor decisions or even factors beyond their control, they are deserving of the respect that is owed to all people. So, when your talking to a debtor and they seem to be having a breakdown, begging and pleading, "don't do me like that," or when you pull up to someone's house and they tell you "Don't come around here no more" just remember to keep your cool, perform your job with dignity and respect, and hopefully it will all work out.
What band is on your bucket list?
