i’m liberal, yes, but…

There was a school shooting at my son’s High School in Seattle last week. It was the third this year.

An interesting article is going around from the Seattle Times that references Officer Bennie - the police officer who was on campus from 2008 to 2019. He was let go by the district during the “defund the police” movement around George Floyd and now, many, are wondering if that not only did not help, but hurt.

Which brings me to a broader principle. I’m liberal as hell but I’m also practical and it seems like the one thing liberals don’t do well is acknowledge the state of the culture,

So, yes, I think homeless should be treated as whole human beings and allowed to camp in cities, BUT, are we ready for that culturally?
Yes, I think drugs should be decriminalized, BUT are we ready for that culturally?
Yes, I think we should defund the police, BUT…

And if I want to be an asshole I could argue that it’s the MAGA wing of the Republican Party who, in part, is not letting the culture be there. But I think it’s much more than that - I think it’s acknowledging that we don’t live in a culture where those things always work. There is so much to be done BEFORE we can get to those principles and many of those principles require a shit ton of time and work that we don’t necessarily want to give.

Are we ready to tax the wealthy and build housing?
Are we ready to provide free mental health treatment and addiction services to homeless?
Are we ready to do so many things that we might need to do before we’re ready to just let humans camp in downtowns for however long and wherever they want.

In short, it’s been said many times but it’s definitely worth saying again: culture eats strategy for breakfast.

We aren’t Sweden. God I wish we were, but we’re not. We’re a selfish, capitalistic, violent, individualistic, culture. Yes, there is all kinds of beautiful moments (and if fact violent crime is at some of the lowest levels its been in years) but maybe we need to work on moving the culture a bit more, before acting like we already live in it?

I could be wrong but it’s how I feel right now.

who are they…

We all agree “we can’t let them win.” But, who are they?

I don’t believe they are gangs, immigrants, terrorists, liars, evil politicians, etc… or the people that belong to certain groups.

I do believe they are insecurity, loneliness, rejection, shame, hopelessness, revenge, violence, etc… and the systems that create those things.

it’s not the mistake…

It’s rarely the mistake that knocks us over… it’s the habits that are formed around the mistake. James Clear says something along the lines of never miss twice. It’s not breaking the habit that ruins us, it’s believing that breaking the habit has ruined who we want to be.

So, next time you miss, or mess up, or do it wrong, don’t worry… you’re still who you want to be, if you don’t let the mistake convince you otherwise.

maybe immortality isn’t what we want…

I just heard this from Sanjay Gupta and it kinda blew my mind: tumor cells main problem is that they don’t die normally. All of our cells are constantly dying but tumors cells don’t - they’re immortal - and that’s the big problem.

Damn.

He added: And with immunotherapy, you're not necessarily killing them, you're telling them to die normally. Just behave yourself. Stop growing out of control like you are.

Well if that isn’t a lesson for life. Maybe it’s the people, businesses, and systems, that are not behaving themselves and growing out of control, scared of change and death, that are the real issues - the cancers of society.

the only thing worse…

The only thing worse than a habitual liar…
Is a consistently hypocritical habitual liar.

The only thing worse than a consistently hypocritical habitual liar…
Is a consistently hypocritical habitual liar who is running for president.

The only thing worse a consistently hypocritical habitual liar who is running for president…
Is millions of consistently hypocritical habitual liars votings for and defending the consistently hypocritical habitual liar running for president.

The only thing worse than of all of that?
The inability to see any of this.

bold, but…

Was at a gay bar with a very drunk person who was not being too great and a very large gay man, who turned out to be a therapist, said this to the man in the most calm and nice way. (How I got there is a long story for another day)

“You’re attractive, you’re bold. I love that. But you can be bold and also be polite. You need to learn to be polite.”

Great advice for the world.

information.

All information is not news. All information is not true. All information is not beneficial. Some is toxic. Some is false. Some is spread to convince us of something that may benefit someone else more than ourselves.

It’s great to be informed. It’s better to be informed with beneficial, accurate, true, healthy information.

you can’t

I just heard today from a “professional” that they had once again learned “we can do anything we put our mind to.”

Welp, it just isn’t true.

I can’t win the 100 meter sprint in the Olympics.
I can’t become and F1 Driver.
I can’t dunk a basketball.

I can’t do so many things. And none of this is sad or debilitating or depressing, it’s inspiring. There are so many things I can do, and more than enough for us to have a successful meaningful life. Focus on those and be in awe of people who do those things and let them be in awe of the things you can do that they can’t.

more taxes

Yes, we need more taxes. Inequality is completely out of control, as are taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Here’s the article - with lots of facts if you disagree.

For the first time in the history of the United States, billionaires had a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.

Mackle-more dumb logic

I was bummed to hear Macklemore’s song this morning that supported the pro-Palestinian protests and a Palestine state (which I agree with) but then said fuck no on voting for Biden.

Just one more time, if you’re not voting for Biden, you don’t give a shit about the protests or Palestine/Gaza/whatever else. The other option (Trump) has said multiple times to destroy Gaza and how beautiful the police were taking out protestors.

So you’re saying fuck Biden because of the people you care about and then allowing the guy that will do them worse harm to get elected.

Huh?

Stick with rationality and logic people not your emotions.

your worst.

Have you ever told a friend about a restaurant you won’t be back to and had the friend say, “Oh, shoot, yeah, but you should have had the lasagna (or fill in the blank)"? It happens all the time, and not just with restaurants. Oh you should have upgraded, you should have gotten the larger version, you should have…

If the worst thing a business sells, or offers, isn’t something a business is proud of then why is it offered? If a business isn’t as proud of their “worst” item as their “best” item, then something is wrong. If I go to a restaurant and order the dish that isn’t great, well, I’m not coming back and I’m not telling my friends to go.

It all seems so obvious and simple but, trust me, it’s not.

don’t be so hard

We were with some friends recently and talking about the Branches days when someone said this: Branches was just a constant reminder to not be so hard on yourself and not be so hard on others.

And I added, and there were stories that convinced us all why.

That’s pretty much it. Pretty much every sermon I ever gave. And I’m still cool with that.

white straight evangelical men

Sometimes (and I’m of course over generalizing here) they just seem to be so scared of everyone… but weak white women which is why they are maybe always trying to get their women to be weaker.

Every other kind of person is terrifying to them and they can’t seem to change any of them.

speeding vendetta

I try to pay as little attention to Trump as I can but even the BBC and Al Jazeera write about him fairly often so I’m forced to. It’s pretty wild how every time Trump does anything “wrong” it’s not because he did something wrong but because someone wants to punish him or get even or is an idiot or whatever other excuse he has. Which further confirms the power of bias and further confirms that it’s impossible for Trump to do anything wrong because every time he does it’s because someone has set him up.

Which has got me thinking… next time I get a speeding ticket and I can just claim the police officer had a vendetta against me, right?

Worthy

Here’s another old draft from 2017.

If someone understand their own worthiness, they will insist on taking away any barrier that prevents others from realizing their own worthiness.

If someone does not understand their own worthiness, they will continue to put up barriers that prevent others from realizing their own.

anti

Saying something negative about something does not make you an anti-that something.

In other words,

Saying America’s health care is not even top 10 in the developed does not make me anti-American.

Saying Israel should not be bombing children and women does not make me anti-Semitic.

Saying Hamas should not parachute in to a music festival and kill teenagers does not make me anti-Muslim.

Saying we should be careful giving kids who are under 18 transition surgery does not make me anti-trans.

Saying unregulated greed is inherently dangerous does not make me anti-capitalism.

It’s just one more example in our society of the lack of the ability for any nuance or critical thinking and the insistence on instantly throwing people into groups - we gotta fight this with everything we can.

Or we’re seriously fucked.

worry is imagining fear but…

I’ve been writing posts since 2016 which means I have lots of old posts I started and never published. This is one of them from 2016.

Worry is taking what we think will make our kids unsuccessful and then imagining it happening - if nothing can make our kids unsuccessful though… then there is nothing to worry about.

In 2016 I had little kids and now my youngest is a freshman at UW. But, I still love this thought - it’s true not just of kids but of everything. It’s mostly the fear of something programmed into us that can go wrong that contributes to most of our worry. But if those fears are put where they belong - programmed thoughts that aren’t necessarily true - then it gets rid of a lot of our worry.  

from Dave…

I don’t know if the writers of Dave came up with this quote (I can’t find it anywhere else) but it’s a baller one whomever did.

You loathe where you’re from but you’re afraid it’s all you have.

Well if that isn’t a mic drop.

don’t forget better

It sometimes feels like we’ve forgotten the word more. Or less. We respond to every “Trump is a liar” with “So is Biden.”

And that is true, but there are things that are more and less. I’ve said this before coke and arsenic are both liquids but one is much more dangerous than the other - even though both are dangerous.

It’s a scale world. The scales tip one way or the other and instead of simply acknowledging black and white facts, he’s old, so is he, it seems we need to measure which was the scale tips and understand which way we want it to tip. And then have a conversation.

400,000

This is my new theory. If you imagine yourself making $400,000 a year (maybe you already do) and can’t really imagine how/what you would do with that kind of money or how you would ever spend it or why you would ever possibly need more… you will be a happier person. It doesn’t mean you have to make that amount of money and I suppose the amount could change slightly depending on where you live (although I think it holds pretty steady for most places in the U.S.) but if that’s “enough” for you, you will be happier than those who don’t believe it’s enough.

I’ve seen it proven over and over and, it’s not really about the money but about the way we see money and it’s a good indicator of how we see money. Frankly, I’m 95% convinced it’s true.

Yes, I know… but investments? Retirement? That summer lake place?

It’s simple. Is that enough for you or not?