Category Archives: Opinion

Behavior, Cellphone, Entertainment, Humor, Lemon Moment, Movie, Nostalgia, Opinion, Personal, Psychology, Social Rules, Technology

The Magic of Focus

01/01/2024 X Teri Leave a comment

What makes going to the movie so special? It could be the excessive butter that leads to gas-propelled walking and making you regret every decision you’ve made in your adult life by eating too much of it. The kernels that plague your teeth and make you reaffirm the decision that, yes this year, you need to go to the dentist. It could be the occasional narcissist who thinks that we need their phone lit up in order to see that they are checking their Tinder for people who are really into selfishness. Rarely do you see a brain surgeon at the theater. I really doubt that Chad or Karen needs to check their phone every 16 seconds.

And that leads me to one of the most joyous things about theaters. It is one of the last remaining places that we are supposed to pretend that our life doesn’t require our personal and immediate attention. We get to focus on a fantasy world, feel our heart race, and even feel a tear sometimes form in the corner of our eyes. Without the distraction of devices. We’re just sitting and absorbing a collective story that brings us happiness.

I’m old school. I want to see and hear the nuance on the screen and to dive in to an alternate reality for a couple of hours. To feel the spark of creativity and originality fire in my brain as I watch and listen. And that requires focus. No matter how people defend their restlessness, entertainment without focus is a diluted shadow of the experience when you aren’t aying attention.

I know people roll their eyes at me when I tell them I don’t get bored. There’s no secret to it. Even if you’re sitting alone on a quiet porch, there’s an entire world within your view. And another one inside of your head to match it.

It’s being in the moment and giving each moment your attention. I can’t help but think that so many people are sitting in the passenger seat of their car ignoring the world as it passes by. At the fulcrum of most people’s lives are their phones. They are the best communication and entertainment devices ever invented. But you have to remind yourself that for every second you are distracted by your phone, you are missing the world and the people standing right next to you. If if first come first serve is truly important to us, then surely it follows that the people already with us deserve our undivided attention.

And that’s one of the reasons I love movie theaters. We haven’t quite lost the expectation of being in the moment and focused.

Like all experiences, a great movie that is shared takes on new life. Much in the same way that doing something together has the same result. All of us can list seminal movies that changed us in small ways. None of it could happen without allowing the magic of imagination and focus to envelope us.

Yes, we also get to eat a bushel of popcorn and drink so much soda that we are afraid we might not make it to the bathroom before the movie is over.

Love, X
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Behavior, Holiday, Opinion, Personal, Psychology

New Old Reminder

01/01/2024 X Teri Leave a comment

@xteriq
#newyear #regret #life #behavior #motivation #clarionmisconception #live #carpediem #time #opportunity #foryoupage #fyp
♬ Sunrise Light – ZydSounds

Behavior, Christmas, Holiday, Nostalgia, Opinion, Personal, Social Rules, Xmas

Christmas Is Us

12/03/2023 X Teri Leave a comment

I write something like this each year. We all have our own idea of the Christmas season – and some have none. For those with faith, it is the hallmark of charity, love, and kindness, enveloped by the majesty of the celebration of their faith. For others, it is a secular celebration of family, friends, surprises, and time spent together. It is also a time of unreachable loss and loneliness precisely because our memories of love and family can’t help but be tinged by the nostalgia of times no longer within our reach. For others? It is a struggle of choices to afford to surprise their children, family, and friends with gifts worthy of their attention.

Regardless of its significance, we all own a piece of the Christmas season. Even the Christians wisely appropriated the winter solstice celebration to change the celebration of the birth of their savior. It does not lessen its profound meaning for them.

“The Gift of the Magi” is my quintessential Xmas story. Both husband and wife sacrificed what was most valuable to them to give the best gift possible.

We all have within our reach the ability to give everyone the gift of joy and acceptance. No matter how they choose to celebrate.

Each year, most of us universally agree that the ideal of Christmas lies not in things but in moments and thoughts of others, in profound observation of faith, and in our ability to celebrate collectively.

Regardless of why or how we are here, we are all here with our respective lives, beliefs, and attitudes.

Let not the harshness of personal conviction blind any of us to the joy of having a season in which we need no further excuse or justification to surprise one another, to be appreciative, and to find a way to look past the differences we each exercise during our celebrations.

Love, X

Behavior, Justice, Law, Mental Health, Opinion

Justice?

11/30/2023 X Teri 2 Comments

It seems as if legal systems forget the consequences to victims. In this particular case, the person in question was rightfully convicted in more than one criminal case. Each case involved a woman confronted with the potential for further harm. His release pending appeal puts each previous victim in the position of fearing for their safety.

This isn’t a case of someone accused yet not convicted. The record is established and his actions are well documented. Each of his convictions result from behavior that should not be condoned in a civilized society. Releasing him pending appeal on a particular case after he’s already pled guilty to other charges regarding other women is a misstep of our collective sense of justice.

Eric P. Osborne, approximately 46, of Stratford, Ontario in Canada was convicted of sexual assault in August of 2023. As a result, he was given the maximum sentence possible for the summary conviction, less time served, along with many other conditions including registering on the sex offenders list and providing DNA samples.

Mr. Osborne also has a history of other convictions for crimes committed against other women. He pleaded guilty to those charges.

As of Monday, Nov. 27, 2023, he is at large in the community again pending an appeal.

He may not seem dangerous at first but the public is encouraged to question the legitimacy of his statements and be wary.

Behavior, Mental Health, Opinion, Personal, Psychology

Worry

11/19/2023 X Teri 1 Comment

I was challenged to write words that might frame the idea of worry differently:

Worry is the embodiment of arrogance.

To worry is to borrow time from tomorrow and waste it in the now.

Though I do not believe that God intervenes, instead of worrying, ask yourself if you’ve used your intelligence, time, resources, and money to minimize whatever it is you are stressing about.

If it cannot be changed? Acceptance. It must be acceptance grounded in action and surrender simultaneously.

If it can be changed, do not squander with the universe has given you. If you believe that you were molded in the creator’s image, it is your duty not to waste that which you have been given. Work the problem as best as you can.

Worry is arrogance because it implies that any amount of present preoccupation with stress will yield a different result.

Even if you do everything right, life will still hand you problems that aren’t your fault. You can consume your energy wanting it to be otherwise or questioning the fairness of it. Yet, the same result awaits you. The same sun that provides illumination also darkens.

If you use such words, worry is the sin of gluttony. You’ve focused on the idea of you to the point it consumes you.

Do what you can with what you have.

To worry is to believe that our feeble fingers can overcome obstacles by doing nothing.

Worry is the roommate who eats all your potato chips and never pays rent.

If you are lucky enough to be one of the few who can dispel worry, your life will be different than the rest of us. We are human batteries, and most of us are drained by our own thoughts; immobilized and wasteful of the time and energy we’ve been given.

Love, X

Lemon Moment, Opinion, Personal, Poetry And Prose, Writing

…though minutes long

11/08/2023 X Teri Leave a comment

blanketed by the sky blue

above the Earth immense

billowing trees verdant

dropping splashes of color bright

each one perhaps for my delight

seventy-seven irregular degrees

November ignored

tomorrow reminds me that this is the last

time is short

though minutes long

when you find yourself

where you belong

bare feet sliding across bedrock mossy

water cold washing away the day

this moment stolen can’t exist tomorrow

you cannot borrow against what is not yours

for all the things displaced for tomorrow

surely regret will be your sorrow

time is short though minutes long

what is surely yours is a song

you choose your verse

until its end

Opinion, Politics, Religion, Social Media, Social Rules

Unintended

10/03/2023 X Teri Leave a comment

I got a thought-provoking message a little bit ago. Telling me what I already know. I was sitting in the creek in the cool water, so I took a moment. Here’s what I wrote back:

“You’re right. Expecting easy money is stupidity. But I will counter with the fact that unless you own the output, you’ll most likely ruin your body and sell your soul to make a fabulous living. Even with hard work. Even when you do everything right, you can fail. And as much as I love this country, it fundamentally frustrates me that we’re the only modern country without universal health care. People can have whatever opinion they want about it. But until you have a medical catastrophe, especially one through no fault of your own, you simply don’t understand how it can financially ruin you. Even with private insurance. It’s undeniably a fact that universal health care cost less per person then we’re currently paying now for our hodgepodge system. We’re supposed to be the country of individual liberty and freedom. Yet, unlike the rest of the world, we can’t even get our act together enough to provide healthcare without restrictions. For me, universal healthcare also comes with universal mental health care. All of us who are observant can’t help but notice that too many of us suffer with mental health issues, depression, or relationship issues. Failing to provide universal access is a guaranteed way to sit back and observe our societal problems worsen. Regarding education, it should not be fundamentally looked at as a way to fuel a production economy. Education has earned its own birthright. Yet, our system tends to reward those already rewarded. About half of our adult population reads at a sixth grade level or lower. That is staggering. It also explains a great deal of the issues we’re dealing with regarding the divides we suffer while trying to make compromises and decisions regarding social policy. People with means live in a different world than those of us who don’t have money. As for the rest, I’m different than the rest of y’all. I do not expect to get up and find that everybody I loved the day before will still be alive. It’s another one of those things that until you experience it, simply can’t be communicated. And when that happens to you, every cent you’ve accumulated in lieu of enjoying life and being with the people you love might as well be sand in your boot. You can’t practically live every day as if it’s your last. I know in my heart that we’re not put here to be means of production and efficiency. That’s the system we have, but it’s one with which I disagree. Everything and everyone can vanish, no matter who you are and how hard you work. Unlike most Americans, I do not believe in an interventionist God. It doesn’t mean I don’t believe in the creator, but observation reinforces that we’re supposed to be using our brains to solve our problems. I believe that no matter who you worship, we’re expected to use our reason and collective ability in the furtherance of improving the quality of human beings as they live their lives. We’re definitely not doing that.”

Love, X
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Business, Humor, Opinion, Work

Superhero For Mockery

09/24/2023 X Teri Leave a comment

“Put your hands up. This is a mockery.”

We need a superhero with this famous tagline phrase.

He swoops in at the very moment someone sends us a CYA email, one that probably starts with the passive-aggressive “per my last email.”

Or when management blames us for failing to complete a 9,000-item checklist with staff better suited to boil water.

Let’s not forget in-service or education, the kind that includes things we don’t need to know (or we’d already know it), where the goal is to get through as quickly as possible without succumbing to insanity as our fingers click keys faster than a cocaine-fueled chipmunk.

We definitely need this superhero when we have a malingerer. The ones with apparently infinite time to tell us stories, usually punctuated by, “I am SO busy.” All they’ll feel is the splash of the water balloon, right after they feel something press into the small of their back.

When we hear the phrase, “We’re family.” Lord knows that when we’re with family at Thanksgiving, most of us are calculating how quickly we can stuff Uncle Larry and his opinions into the garage deep freezer. It’s best to avoid that phrase at work.

He’d dramatically run into the meeting, the could-have-been-an-email kind, and force us to put our hands up and admit no one knows why we’re in a budget crisis yet spending thousands on a gathering to consume bad pastry products and pray that we might be drinking poisoned coffee.

My superhero would have the elements of Terry Tate, Office Linebacker, armed with only scathing sarcasm, eye-rolls, and water balloons to lob at the offenders upon discovery.

Lastly, my superhero would tell us jokes until we laughed. Even if takes ninety-seven jokes to do so. And to remind us that work is just work, not a mission to save mankind or fool ourselves into getting our identity mixed up with commerce-driven endeavors.

A lot of work is Greek tragedy, at least to those wrapped up in it. Look at how all those turned out.

Take a step back. Lighten up. Do your job well. But not so much that you can’t appreciate the farce of sacrificing your well-being for a position that will be refilled faster than a manager’s coffee cup.

And if you forget? My superhero will be there when you least expect it.

“Put your hands up! This is a mockery!”

Love, X
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