Can’t decide if I want to take this post and do something more with it because Old Neville would find substance in it or if I want to go a different direction.
A bad case of stupid seems to be going around. There is an abundance of morons, the supply of idiots seems to exceed the demand. And the worst part of this is that I seem to be exuding the imbecile pheromone in waves.
Some of it has to do with the fear and uncertainty generated by the wannabe mobster in the White House and his intent to wave a big stick at those he doesn’t like and disagrees with.
More than a few people have asked me what I think about what he says and whether he truly means it.
I always respond by suggesting we have to begin by asking is the fear truly warranted and then evaluating it from there.
Because that changes things, our evaluation. You have to take a moment to remove emotion and try to suss out what is going on without letting fear, anger or happiness push you into rash decisions.
Had a conversation where someone told me they know what they know thinking it provided proof of their position and I pushed back and said it was ridiculous.
We went back and forth with the serious and the silly “You remember that girl that you said liked you. You said you just knew.”
“I did just know. I still just know about her.”
“Would she affirm that?”
“If she was honest and smart but we’re not going to have that conversation troublemaker. We’re going to go back and talk about hard times and how we get through them.”
He said ok and I asked him if he remembered Admiral Stockdale.
“The crazy guy who was going to be Perot’s VP?”
“Yeah, that is the one and I don’t think he was crazy. Just presented poorly or so I am guessing, though I probably made fun of him too.
Anyway, I read an excerpt from a Rosh Hashanah sermon that quoted someone quoting Stockdale about what happened at the Hanoi Hilton.
Stockdale talked about his faith that he would eventually be freed and when asked about who did poorly in the camps pointed his finger in a direction some might not expect.”
Oh, that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart. This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. Stockdale Paradox
Go back a post or two maybe three and you’ll see I wrote that 2020 hasn’t been my hardest year, it is probably in the top five but close to the bottom.
I had one relatively recent experience that still hurts to think about that I got through only because I didn’t try to fool myself into believing it was any better than it was.
The great contradiction of every day was knowing the very worst could happen and the belief it wouldn’t.
Every day I did my best to focus on doing my part to take care of things knowing that I didn’t have anywhere near the kind of control I desperately wanted.
Things could have gone sideways at any time.
When they asked me if I was concerned about current events I said I absolutely am because it would be foolish to play ostrich now.
That didn’t prevent me from saying we’re not done and the actions of that Trump guy make it clear we’re not.
He is working hard to sow dissent and set up a way to contest results he doesn’t like but that action proves to me he doesn’t feel secure in his position.
It proves he isn’t confident he has things wrapped up and that is critical.
I am not ignoring the millions who support him and not going to waste energy trying to figure out what their red lines are because that is a fool’s errand.
My role now is to continue to be the rock for those who require it, to rally the troops, push back and hopefully get some of the fence sitters to find the right side.
Some people think it is ridiculous to look for those who haven’t made up their mind yet, but they exist. There are still those who voted for him once but whose allegiance is faltering.
If we can pull a chunk of them from their poles we might make a little bit of noise and cause some good trouble.
Take my damn hand and I can show you.
