Banal magic. Walking along the early December streets when the world is silent but my mind isn’t.
The fog and humidity that permeated the air made the attempt of a snapshot tricky. Because my brain is a feedback loop, the words from SFU ran through my head: “…it’s already gone.” But I tried because sometimes in the briefest of intervals and through the indiscernible capricious luck of the moment, I get a picture that defies the inability to describe the universe in my head at that moment.
One such picture escaped me. As I walked the dead end length of Leverett, rabbit after rabbit fled from the greens of the apartment complex and across the road into the thick brush. At least a hundred of them made the odyssey in front of me along that strip of road. Does the moment sound magical or mirthsome to people after the fact? Probably not; such moments require presence.
When I doubled back down Poplar, a man on a ridiculously large bicycle asked if I had any money. I told him no. I saw him near the torn up section of sidewalk being rebuilt near the trail and suspected he might ask me something as I approached. I didn’t catch what he said in reply but the tone was inescapable. “I’m sorry. Have a good morning,”I told him. “F*** you,”he said. “Anatomically improbable,” was my reply. I once again did not catch his response. I’m certain my life is much better because of it.
As I walked the streets, I took a long look at all the houses still lit up by Christmas lights. I wondered if the sentiment of holiday charity and kindness would last as the new year approaches.
Something I read yesterday popped into my head: “If you don’t give when you have little, you won’t when you have a lot. If you don’t practice attention and love when you’re busy, you won’t when you’re idle. If you don’t wave hello first and often, don’t be surprised if the world seems hostile. And if you haven’t lived long enough to know that on a long enough timeline you could be everyone you see around you, give it time.”
The words sound like a New Year’s invocation. And they feel true.
This is personal. As is everything I write and post. I don’t duck behind sharing other people’s memes or messages. As imperfectly as I express myself, I’d rather be misunderstood for making the attempt.
I’m not pointing the finger as an accusation. I’m pointing it because if you don’t make the effort to connect with people who disagree, you’ve already failed. So many of us have friendships and family members who are going to have a difficult time for the foreseeable future.
The law of entropy affects everything, including human systems of governance. No matter how much work you put in, things can dissolve and dissipate without warning. Apart from that, we’re standing on lava and spinning through the universe at an incalculable speed.
One thing that people don’t like to acknowledge is the logical inference that results from their claim that God or their deity endorses or blesses their candidate.
If God is for your candidate, it follows that he is not for the opponent… that the preponderance of their beliefs and behaviors are endorsed by or align with the creator you worship.
I am 100% a believer in non-interventionism. Whatever shape or form a deity takes in your mind, I’m certain based on the evidence that we were set in motion to solve our own problems with the resources and intelligence that we have.
Many things that we take for granted were once angrily and violently endorsed by God. At least according to some proponents of each mistaken beliefs. Whether it’s the pronouncement that owning other human beings was acceptable or whether half the population, depending on gender or race, were less than equal and therefore ineligible to vote or own property.
To have been wrong about such fundamental beliefs and rights should be the clearest possible indication that people are quite often wrong. Insisting that their creator endorses something has a huge track history of error.
No two denominations or people believe alike. From there it degenerates into cherry-picking which parts matter, or to whom it applies.
As for the current state of things, my head hurts when I consider that people endorsed someone with such an obvious track record of objectionable behavior. Factoring in the allegation that their deity favored such a person goes against my identity as a member of a democracy. That much more qualified and human candidates should have been chosen goes without saying.
I can’t fathom how the message of hope and brotherly love translates into a candidate who in no way embodies the essential nature of the predominant religion in our country.
Those of you who mistakingly believe that we might not have voted for a conservative simply because he or she was a conservative are mistaken. We would have opted for George Bush (either father or son) over the presumptive president-elect. Part of that is because despite their flaws, they honored the pledge to democracy and rule of law. They certainly would have still done ill-advised things, but none of them would have undercut our democratic principles unilaterally in the way that the president-elect has and will again.
It’s a dangerous thing to equate God’s endorsement to a person or set of beliefs. History taught us that.
We have collectively decided to eff around and find out.
Such a collision of God and politics has never resulted in a balanced democracy.
Communication is key, or so they say. It’s comprehension that’s the objective. People’s minds often don’t speak the same language. If you can see a color that others can’t, it takes incredible simplicity to describe it. The Dunning-Kruger affect adds levels of complexity because the other person is unaware of what they don’t know – and overestimates their grasp of what they think they do. I walk around in the world and observe people not only oversimplify the complex, but double down by erroneously speaking as if they understand. It’s like walking around with glasses that add a yellow tinge to everything. They won’t be open to new information or to the idea that they might be wrong because the first step is to take the glasses off and objectively take a second look. Most of us are stuck because we are damn sure reluctant to realize the limits of our understanding. Our brains are organic filters that have their own self-imposed limits. I still caution people to start with the premise that they might be mistaken. Anyone spending any time around people in the world or on the internet knows the folly of assuming that people will willingly change what they believe to be true. Even against a mountain of evidence or their inability to express what they believe or why they believe it. It’s both fascinating and horrifying at times. It doesn’t matter if it’s politics, religion, humor, or even the best way to load the dishwasher.
I’ve shared stories about the relative unsafety of crosswalks. Especially ones at the bottom of a hill. I routinely see people going more than twice the speed limit. Earlier, I opted to use the crosswalk.
A bit of trivia that most people don’t know is that crosswalks are so named because you need to make a sign of the cross prior to attempting to engage one. I’m pretty fearless with crosswalks. It’s ridiculous to worry about being run over when physics clearly teaches us that it’s way more likely to be run under and thrown over the hood of the car.
I had more than enough time to cross before causing traffic to slow on their way to purchase more knickknacks for their bathroom. Or whatever insanely hurried people seem to be doing. I did a pirouette and waved my arms as I started across. Of course I jogged across. The driver must have been going 60 or 70 because even though I made it across the road in plenty of time, he blared the horn. Without looking back, I lifted my right arm and gave him the opportunity to inspect one of my straightened fingers. I won’t mention the name of the company emblazoned on the side of the car. He must have immediately put down his driver window because I heard him either shouting gibberish or management jargon. They are indistinguishable, after all.
I only mention this anecdote because a few minutes ago when I left the apartment, I looked in my rearview mirror to see that someone was going at least 70 down Gregg. I was waiting to make a left turn. Needing to turn must have offended that driver as he flew down the road. He blared his horn non-stop and miraculously avoided rear-ending me. No pun intended. He swerved to my right and then decided to be clever and swerve back into the left lane. Only to discover that the car in front of me was now only about 70 ft in front. I’m pretty sure everyone clenched in anticipation of the inevitable crash as he hit the brakes as hard as he could. How he got the car slowed enough to avoid hitting the car in front of me is a question for the muses. Though I was still full of adrenaline from almost being rear-ended, I had the presence of mind to lay on my horn and laugh as I made a left turn.
Too many people in a hurry to meet Jesus. I’m fine with them being in a hurry to meet him. I’d rather them not take me with them just yet.
I’m a big believer in expressing myself directly. If I share a meme, I made it. Disinformation converts my brain to cottage cheese. Ad hominem attacks or personal derision, especially on social media, is not my cup of tea. It convinces no one and just bounces around in the echo chambers of the people who follow such content. I’m not sharing my thoughts because I expect anyone’s opinion to change. I’m sharing them because it exposes the things I believe and the frustration I see all around me.
It’s interesting that when most of us grew up, family members would warn us not to hang out with people who misbehaved. They would admonish us that it invited danger. And that people would judge us based on the people around us. Personally, this isn’t true in my case. My parents and some of the people they associated with tended to be the actual bad example I’ve struggled to unlearn my entire life.
Being in a group of people in no way automatically defines you. If you are in a crowd of people and all of them have a top hat on except you, people will assume you forgot your hat, not that you’re the odd man out.
This is one of the things that people struggle with regarding their family and friends. You might be kind. You might be open to diversity. Your views on sexual identity might be universal.
If you are under an orange flag, the tendency to fairly or unfairly attribute affiliation with those holding the orange flag increases.
It’s why people who might normally otherwise vote Republican usually react with silence when they watch Mr. Orange. He is the embodiment of what’s wrong with living a good life and suitability for the office of president. He did not serve as a beacon of reason and inclusiveness. Objective observers can only conclude that he oafishly and cleverly co-opted a specific brand of religion while simultaneously hijacking a political party to gain office. Politics and religion don’t mix well precisely because such systems invariably become autocratic and blur the line that is required for large groups of competing ideas and interests to coexist. Religion is personal and should not be favored or codified into our law. If you think otherwise, I’ll wager your opinion will shift if you find yourself in a particular religious group that loses favor to another.
Politics is never a question of intelligence. There are extraordinary intellects along the entire spectrum of politics. The same is true for those who succumb to the allure of tribalism with their respective ideologies, parties, and candidates. It is supremely difficult to argue someone out of a position they did not argue themselves into. One of the basic truths is that overwhelmingly people choose an idea and then avidly search for evidence to support it. Once entrenched, it is miraculous that someone will fundamentally shift their ideologies.
Fair or not, some watch their family and friends avidly support someone who has proven that he is not a man of character in his personal life. Sometimes, we draw erroneous conclusions. You might be a fan of disruption or economic issues. There could be myriad reasons for you to support such a candidate. But we can’t shy away from the fact that people around you are recoiling. They recoil because voting for such a candidate is a package deal. In his case, you can’t separate the consequences of your choice, regardless of the main reason he will be getting your vote. By endorsing him for a particular reason, you’re also dragging the rest of his damaging type of politics into power.
The problem comes because Mr Orange marginalizes and demeans groups. They just want to live their lives without interference. When we see support for a person demeaning us, our interests, or the people we are close to, some of us cannot find the right words to explain to his supporters that they are inadvertently or purposefully endorsing some of his ideas. Mr. Orange is a failed businessman who doesn’t attempt to conceal his contempt and prejudice. Bullies empower other bullies.
Good people don’t want to attack those around them. But so many wince in silence because they are personally insulted by your endorsement of such a candidate. Good people also eventually stand up. Part of the reason is that people they love or respect are being harmed or marginalized. The other realization is that if we remain silent long enough, it could easily be us in the bullseye in the future.
Things that people explain away as “just politics” aren’t politics at all. Politics is running the government efficiently with core principles. We all get an equal voice regarding the collective rules we are supposed to live by. Prejudice and discrimination of any kind are among the things which have no place in politics. Furthering the interests of a particular group in such a manner that they receive special privilege through law counters one of our most basic principles.
It’s not my job to ridicule Mr. Orange. His record of fraud, coercion of women, and obvious attempts to avoid accountability for his actions speak louder than any condemnation I could utter. Even absent all the other behaviors in his business and personal life, he actively encouraged literal insurrection after the last election.
And of course, we wouldn’t be dealing with him if our antiquated system of presidential selection wasn’t based on an anachronism resulting from the power struggle of those who wanted to preserve slavery. A popular vote such as that which governs every other candidacy historically would have resulted in several different presidents in the last few decades. The Constitution is a living document, one which is supposed to embody our collective goals and ideas. Abusing one of the branches of government in such a way as to skew the balance of the separate branches will lead to ruin because people will lose even more faith in the fair process of elections and decision-making.
It is a shame that we do not have several political parties. Or even none. That the best idea and plan will overcome, but all of us know that this is a daydream. People across the spectrum, unfortunately, strive to exert power when they should instead focus on governance for the collective mismatch of people and groups that we are.
In so many ways, we are still that same nation of divided priorities. And we always will be. One thing we could count on was that even though we were not happy about the person occupying the presidency, we at least maintained the illusion that they were qualified for the office. That any party would put forward a convicted felon for a race in which said candidate could not even legally vote, we have a serious problem. I’m conflicted because I have believed for years that a felony record should not take away your essential right to vote. Fomenting rebellion or insurrection to destabilize a government or overturn an election is one of the unforgivable acts of a citizen.
The premise of this post was supposed to be a reminder that the candidate you enthusiastically endorse also comes with the perceived reputation and behavior to whom it is attached. Your alliance with particularly pernicious candidates comes with a raised eyebrow and a profound feeling of disappointment. Each time your candidate disparages women, minorities, and people of different religious groups, people are watching, expecting you to acknowledge that some people are a danger to democracy.
I don’t say these things because I question your intelligence.
I say them because some supporters say they don’t understand why they are arguing with their loved ones over politics. These are not political arguments. They are attacks not only on people but also on our entire process.
When you encourage authoritarianism, you place yourself in the future invisible line of being the target and losing freedoms that you take for granted. Each country that has succumbed to it couldn’t fathom that it could happen to them. The riots of January 6th should have been an obvious wake-up call that a certain faction of our citizenry was willing to upend the entire political process.
Joe Biden stepped aside because it was the best thing to do to further his political ideology. Who among us could imagine Mr. Orange swallowing his ego to further his political party’s goals? A party is not one person and a single party is not a government. We require competing and conflicting interests to maintain balance.
As damaged and erratic as the process sometimes is, you need to stop and realize that the entire system was constructed with checks and balances to prevent the subversion of the goal of collective politics.
Mr. Orange co-opted religion, a party, and populism.
We’d be wise to be done with him so that the Republican party of old might regain its stability and reason.
No argument, appeal, or logic can pierce the veil of insistent ignorance. Learning can only occur if the person accepts new information as a new opportunity. Too many people consider their knowledge and opinions to be finished forever. Coupled with the inability to understand that they might be wrong, this tendency toward close-mindedness becomes toxic to both the person and the society around them. It also leads you to wrongly conclude that either Rush or Nicki Minaj sounds great at any volume.
“…but scientific ideas have been proven wrong…”
They are supposed to be. The premise of knowledge is expansion. New information isn’t met with denial. It’s embraced so that the base of understanding can be revised. Being wrong is built into the scientific method. We went from an Earth-centric bubble to one in which we are a minuscule component of a vast universe.
Among examples of this is that it wasn’t until the late 1980s that it was declared unethical to perform surgeries on babies without anesthesia. Another great example is that people thought Led Zeppelin made great music. The man who insisted that ulcers weren’t caused by stress was told he was an idiot – until he proved it by infecting himself. Germs didn’t exist for centuries.
We should strive to live our individual lives with the same mantra: new information leads to new ideas.
“Regarding human affairs, the expectation that you can heal someone’s inability to be open to new information is among the most foolish.” If you think that bombarding someone with information will change their mind, you’re forgetting that you’re talking to a closed door.
“I know what I know and no amount of proof otherwise will sway me.” This quote is from something I wrote four years ago and it perfectly sums up so much of the problem. We expend considerable money and effort to educate people. It’s useless unless all of us are willing to listen, absorb, and change our fundamental understanding of anything and everything.
Study after study has proven that we tend to believe something and then find ways to substantiate it, excluding other possibilities. It’s the problem with politics, religion, and interpersonal relationships.
Knowing you’re ignorant is the essence of humility. Just because I don’t know something doesn’t mean it’s unknowable. If you blind yourself to the likelihood of error, you’re going to be betting on dead horses.
Ignorance is easy to exploit. A questioning mind, though still ignorant, can’t be locked into permanence.
At 2:02 a.m., I watched a meteorite burn out across the sky to the north. I was sitting by the pool in the dark in a strange place watching the American flag wave across the street. Yesterday’s clouds were gone, leaving an open canopy view of the overhead nigjt sky. The cicadas were keeping me cacophonous company, their shrill ancient sounds providing a background syncopation to my thoughts. I made a wish upon a star. It went right to the heart of my reoccurring theme of abandoning secrecy and living a life of accountability and openness.
We can’t understand ourselves or other people if we continue to insist that we can control and curate the dissonance in our lives resulting from believing that secrecy is beneficial.
Some of my posts are interconnected without seeming to be. A few years ago, I went to one of the local ERs. My family member, who I will call Susan, had an accident. In the course of her treatment, it was discovered she had fallen at home and likely suffered an event triggered by a brain injury. Because I have a background both in medical and secrecy, I was glad to have shown up. Had I not, she would have been administered a medication that likely would have killed her quickly. Another family member had decided to keep Susan’s history of excessive drinking secret. I understand the tendency to not discuss it. Being me, I didn’t hesitate to pull medical staff aside and indicate that alcoholism was an undisclosed factor. The doctor, despite having experience with all manner of such non-disclosure, reacted with surprise and took measures to quickly change how Susan would be treated.
Much later that day, I visited the hospital and discovered that some of the information had not been passed on to the nursing staff. The nursing staff once again immediately changed the medications for the course of treatment for Susan.
I’m not telling the story so that I will somehow look better. People who know me well know the opposite is true. I’m not saying any of this to point the finger at anyone. Most of us do the best we can and hope that we are rationally making the best choices. Family honor, misguided loyalty, and the inability to tell ourselves or the people around us tough truth combine to rob us of a better life.
Part of my truth is that a portion of my identity is tied to the resentment I experience when I deal with people who want to live in secrecy. The stubbornness and resentment has caused me sometimes to stick my foot in icy water and challenge people. My early life is full of such stories. One of those stories resulted in me discovering a sister. Others pushed me into huge fights when I foolishly tilted at windmills and asked people to choose differently. Conversely, the same obstinacy cemented my own feet, resulting in my idiocy morphing words of concern for my choices into accusations. We tend to recognize it later as love or concern. But in the moment? Our defensiveness whispers to us that we are being unfairly attacked.
My life history is littered with people who ruin their lives with alcoholism, addiction, or anger. Every person in my family who drank too much finished their lives still suffering from the little voice in their head that insisted that they continue drinking. It’s one of the reasons I’m proud of my sister. It took her a long time to look back on the arc of her life and tell herself that enough was enough. Each of us usually only takes action when it’s the only other choice. We sometimes talk and nod toward one another, once again agreeing that it has nothing to do with intelligence. We make choices, or adopt maladaptive ways to feel better. And then our strategies turn traitor and entrap us.
All of the preceding words also disclose my volatile resentment regarding secrecy. People can’t develop long-term drinking issues without secrecy. They can’t blow up their marriages without secrecy being perverted into privacy. We can’t become helplessly overweight unless we don’t talk about the elephant in the room or the ostrich in the closet. Depression blossoms because the difference in what people experience inside their private worlds in their heads becomes disproportionately silent. Isolation in thought or action inevitably brings toxicity. Even to otherwise normal behavior that becomes an unhealthy obsession.
If we had to experience the accountability of people around us knowing us in our private moments, it would be difficult to continue the charade of secrecy. Instead of choosing authenticity, we spiral into a cocoon of self-fulfilling prophecy. Image truly becomes the identity we cling to. The people around us flail and overthink because they bear witness to the consequences of our choices. Further out into our personal periphery, the people in our orbit are unaware. Most of the time I think we have this backwards.
A little bit ago, I navigated the dark and put my feet into the pool. After a few minutes, another dimmer meteorite scorched its way into non-existense as it penetrated the atmosphere above me. I didn’t make another wish, even though initially I wished that I wouldn’t overthink. I’m sitting in the late night or early morning of the last day of July. I’ve outlived people who were better than me. Definitely smarter.
For a brief second, the lesson of detachment and gratitude reminded me that it’s to be experienced. And the only way to experience anything meaningfully is to unflinchingly know yourself and live in the reality that you’ve been given rather than the one you attempt to craft.
Secrecy can kiss my ass. It’s no irony that I’m sitting in the dark writing this.
P.S. Parenthetically Speaking 