All over the country, cities are taking out car lanes and turning them into bike lanes. Based on the changes we’re making, you’d think the city streets were running red with the blood of mangled bikers. Partly motivated by creating safer conditions for bikers, partly motivated by reducing the incentive to drive your car, local politicians are deciding that’s what’s best for their towns and cities. But I think we’re losing sight of the politician/citizen dynamic. Lest anyone forget, politicians are hired by citizens. They report to us. We are the boss. Under our republican form of government, we…
Do people still bob for apples?
When’s the last time you were invited to go bobbing for apples? I haven’t even heard the phrase “bobbing for apples,” in years, much less been invited to participate. Given all the food allergies and sensitivities (and concerns for food waste and composting), is bobbing for apples even acceptable anymore? I didn’t look too deeply, but it’s entirely possible the CDC or WHO shut it down years ago. Oh, well… I guess we still have pin the tail on the ass.
Worldwide slavery
Living in the US, we are understandably concerned mainly with our own history of slavery (when such things are discussed). But I got to wondering, do other countries constantly debate or rehash their own histories of slavery? Slavery is not unique to the United States. Not even close. A simple look at “slavery” in Wikipedia will give you a high level run down of slavery, over the years, and around the world. We tend to look at slavery only through the lens of living in the United States, and how it has left a lasting set of challenges for…
But we’re in the first world…
Too often, people are quick to dismiss the problems of others. They look objectively at someone who has a relationship or money problem and decide that it doesn’t hold up against those starving in some third world country. Many are under the impression that straight white males have no problems and never have. They speak of them as if their life has been on long string of successes and merely articulating what they want and getting it. You hear people use the phrase, “sounds like a first world problem,” to joke about a problem another is encountering in an…
Have we overcorrected?
According to this article in Investor’s Business Daily, the earth has been cooling. So I guess we’ve overcorrected. Our response to global warming was to stop driving Hummers, remove the freon from our refrigerators, stop spraying aerosol cans, recycle everything in site, drive Prius’, pollute fairgrounds on Earth Day, and use no more than one square sheet of toilet paper every time you use the restroom (with no flush). But we apparently went to far, because we went from heating the earth too much to cooling it too much. I wonder when we’ll hear the calls to reverse course….
How many laws did you break today?
There are hundreds of thousands of government rules, laws and regulations, and there isn’t one person in this country who isn’t breaking multiple laws every day – without even knowing it. There simply has to be. There are so many regulations and laws in the books that there isn’t one person among us who knows what they all say. Can you imagine if the government was efficient enough to enforce them all?
Walk me through your resume…
The worst interviews I’ve ever had have always started with this question. They might as well ask, “So, boil down your 25 years of experience into a five minute answer.” That question is a sign that they haven’t taken the time to read the resume, and they want me to stall while they take that chance to read it for the first time. Sometimes I think the best response to that request is, “How about you take the time to read it, and then call me back with specific questions about my accomplishments.” Interviews are two-way. At this point…
Unoffendable
There’s always a desire to simplify the complicated. An interest in boiling down an intricate set of events or decisions into one convenient sound bite. So, here’s mine… Be unoffendable. Find humor and joy in everything. Don’t take it all too seriously. Be willing and able to laugh at yourself. There are way too many people actively seeking ideas, words, phrases, visuals, or actions that will offend them. I’m not sure what drives that. Need to justify innate anger? Wanting to have a cause? Seeking purpose? If you’re unoffendable, you’ll see some interesting changes around you. People will start…
When blacks criticize Trump, it’s racist
Isn’t that what we learned during the Obama presidency? While Obama was in office, white conservatives who had been criticizing liberalism since before Obama was born were suddenly racist when criticizing Obama’s liberalism. It was as if the entire white population of the country was liberal, and then Obama came along, and they criticized him just because he was black. After all, who could possibly have disagreed with anything Obama did or said? But, now that we know how racism works and what it really is, we can apply that rule going forward. And that means Stephen Curry and…
A matter of perspective
When I hear people say things like, “we can learn so much from our children,” I can’t help but think that it’s the adults who are teaching the kids, not the other way around. But last night, I had one of those moments that reminded me of what those people mean. The kid and I were sitting and talking and there was a glass half full of water sitting there. So I asked, “Do you think this glass is half full or half empty?” She thought a second and said, “It depends.” “If you started with an empty glass…