Just a little more than usual
Probably won’t happen today. I did have 14000+ steps on Saturday, when it was still hospitable for humans to be outdoors. So I’m gonna count that as having some in the bank… 🙂
Had a “feels like” temp of 116 here yesterday. More of the same today. And tomorrow.
Kudos to all who get it done today.
This isn’t a mere difference of opinion, nor is it a manageable give-and-take between liberal and conservative or whatever labels can be slapped on someone’s political stance.
It is, rather, blatant awfulness on full display. It is abject failure and incompetence in need of being called out. This is about naming intentional evil, ignorance, deceit, neglect, self-interest, power grabs, delusions of grandeur, and deprived childhoods that have mushroomed into skewed worldviews and irrational hate.
We’re watching as this all plays out before us. And as abhorrent as many say it is, it just keeps happening. It’s a cancer, a toxic ooze that’s finding its way into cracks in the foundation.
Imagine the balls it takes to step into an administrative role with little to no experience and then behave as if everyone should bow in your presence. Every day the dynamic is one of bruised egos and kids in candy stores. In Donald Trump’s case, add bull in a China closet.
The folks at MS Now are apoplectic on a daily basis, taken aback by the bald-faced lying, the unabashed attempts at sabotage and destruction of long-held norms and Constitutional provisions. Meanwhile, the crew at Fox News is seemingly luxuriating in the afterglow of jobs well done, still wondering what all the fuss is about among “Dumbocrats,” yelling and swearing at Haitian immigrants to get the fuck out of America and return to a homeland that’s on fire with gang violence and rampant poverty.
No, this is nowhere close to a mere difference of opinion. This is more like watching the shining city on the hill being taken to the cleaners, being reduced to a smoldering pile of shattered dreams and empty promises, and not wanting that to happen.
Maybe, though, our dreams need to be made of sterner stuff than a chicken in every pot and some shallow, endless pursuit of… happiness?
I had written and was ready to publish a whole post offering up various ideas and suggestions but decided to nix that, given that I quickly headed into the weeds, and water that was over my head. I started to wonder if “negative thoughts” gave license to tackle the topic of depression and decided this was a bridge too far, outside the bounds of a reasonable and responsible treatment of a topic with which I am not that familiar.
So, I will treat this prompt from the perspective of someone who understands “negative thoughts” to be of a more garden variety that looks like anger and frustration– with oneself or with the state of affairs in this country or the world.
Explore these thoughts, recognize an overreaction when you see one, take a walk or run, exercise, help someone, work them out on paper or in a blog post, talk them through with a friend or a therapist. Or make a rational attempt to work through an issue with the person who may have caused the negativity in the first place.
You could just ignore these thoughts, because we all have a bad day every now and then, and given the current state of world affairs, we’re allowed to be a bit sour or angry on occasion.
But an unrelenting cloud of negativity is never a good thing, so it helps to have trusted friends, support, someone who can offer a healthy perspective and some light to counter the darkness, along with the recognition that a constructive response helps lighten the load and disappear the sometimes self-imposed frown.
And now I realize I’m touching on depression, anyway.
Getting up early, going to bed early, being left alone with my thoughts, having less guilt over being idle; working in the yard and tending to the lawn and gardens; broccoli, beets, and chickpeas– but only after they’ve been turned into hummus (the chickpeas, that is).
What is there to celebrate right now?
Who are we? Has America always been someone’s pipe dream? There’s been a lot of blood spilled in the name of “freedom and democracy” and protecting some way of life. But I’ve been wondering lately if the “new birth of freedom” of which Lincoln spoke died with him.
Most leaders do their best to offer inspiration and hope and reality checks when necessary. Donald Trump is not a leader, so he can’t be expected to rise to even the minimum expectations of someone in his position. He’d rather talk about a ballroom or an arch or spend a ridiculous amount of time pontificating on the spelling of “dumb.”
I know what I’d like to celebrate, and it has nothing to do with power trips and reflecting ponds and the smarmy and sickening ego stroking that goes on in a Cabinet meeting. It has much more to do with the fits and starts that have contributed along the way to this elusive “more perfect union” of which so many speak. It has to do with believing in the idea of a place where everyone is seen and heard and valued– even if such a place may remain more a figment of our imagination than reality.
Here’s to our imperfect founding fathers and mothers, who cast a worthy vision and gave us a framework. Here’s to all who, despite the current resistance, are putting in the effort to offer something different and better to the tired and poor and everyone else.
I’ve been away for a while, taking a road trip from Colorado to Michigan with our daughter. I had paid hardly any but passing attention to current events during that time, except to notice that there were a couple of deadly earthquakes in Venezuela and a deadly heatwave in France.
I paid little mind to the ongoing disaster always unfolding in Washington, except to note that some sort of ceasefire with Iran appears to be just another PR stunt to keep the markets and media hounds at bay. And it sounds like the Trump administration attempt at celebrating our 250th has been a predictable flop.
What is there to celebrate, really? I hear it’s gonna end up being yet another “massive” Trump rally, which should be totally great for that unshakeable 30% who STILL believe The Donald is God’s chosen one and who can stomach the next rambling screed.
So… here we are, wondering about the mental and emotional state of our CEO, our future seemingly in the hands of people woefully ill-equipped for their assigned roles, who have been appointed because of their willingness to sell out their country and sell their souls to a lost cause and a whiny man baby.
It’s enough to cause one to consider taking a chance on some sort of world-wide cooperative instead of leaving governance to a multi-ring circus full of incompetent cast-offs and flakes.
Pete Buttigieg. He’s smart, and likely capable of keeping us grounded in reality.
Ooh. There’s a lot to choose from, but I used to believe that trees generated wind.
In my defense, that was a long time ago.
The one movie that has left the greatest long-term impression is Selma, because it drove home the idea that life isn’t a take it or leave it thing. Yes, we do have a say in whether or not we engage or disengage, whether we dive in or just dismiss any sense of obligation. But this movie made it much more difficult to treat life with a certain cavalier disinterest.
A book that changed the way I view the world is Sapiens, by Juval Noah Harari. Among other things, it has clouded my understanding of religious faith, which is no insignificant development.
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