It is fair to say I have someone in mind when I think about certain songs like this one, this one and this one.
These are not the only ones, there are many others.
The funny thing is I can’t quite remember which ones had to be included and which ones might be on the bubble probably because too many thoughts and ideas are fighting to break free.
So some may be left out and some may make the cut because I remember to include them or recognize them as being the perfect puzzle piece for that particular moment.
Maybe it is because life has taught me to remember you only think you are the boss or maybe it is this particular moment in time in which life seems to twice as difficult and three times as hard as it ought to be
Love In A Time Of Chaos
A friend asks me if I feel like the world is collapsing around me explaining their Facebook feed is filled with people moaning about how bad it is.
I understand the comment and say I am seeing similar things but I can’t let myself get too crazy because it is unhealthy and now is the time to plant our feet and work with what is and not what might happen.
“Remember when we kept hearing how life would never be the same after 9/11? Well, it hasn’t been but the biggest change we think of is what happened to flying.
We don’t walk each other to the gate to say goodbye or pick up loved ones. Don’t get to the airport 30 minutes prior knowing we can blow through security and walk onboard.
Now we build extra time in and we’re good.”
I felt the pause on the other line and answered the next question.
“I don’t know what this next justice will do to the make up of the court and how they interact with each other and us. Ask the members of the Earl Warren fan club and they’ll tell you Ike’s guy fooled them and did not rule as they had hoped or expected.
More than few people have complained that John Roberts isn’t conservative enough so I hope if this woman is approved we see her fool people. I hope she rules based upon the Constitution and not based upon religious beliefs,.
I hope she doesn’t go in with an axe to grind and a desire to change things but hope is not a strategy so I can’t rely upon it.
Nor can I rely upon Biden winning and Trump losing. I am doing the little things I can to influence things and after that, well who knows.”
****
My 16 year-old daughter told me she is thinking about applying to the University of Toronto.
“I don’t know if that is a thing, but I am pretty sure they must have a university there. Or maybe I’ll go to school in Israel, that will make you happy, Dad.”
I smile and say I am not opposed to either.
“I don’t know what is going to happen. I have my thoughts and ideas, you know some of them already. If things go a certain way and it makes sense to move out the country, well then we will move. You know I have been thinking about some of this since before you were born.”
She rolls her eyes and tells me she has heard the stories and I laugh.
“I get to tell you the same story a million times if I feel like it. It is the Dad rule.”
“The daughter rule is in effect, I am going back to my room now.”
“You do that.”
She pretends not to hear me and keeps walking and I stare out the window and start breaking things down into bite size chunks in my head.
No need today to figure out whether things changed in 1990, 2001 or 2008 because as far as I am concerned the most important change and the one I can influence the most started when Trump took over.
That is when the chaos and division began in earnest and it has progressively gotten worst. Doesn’t matter whether the groundwork began when Fox news became popular, can’t go back in time.
But I can work on voting him out and work to put people in place in the local, state and federal governments to help fix and repair the damage.
That is my obligation to my children, family and friends.
And if there is a reason to believe that won’t work for us, well we can always make the hard decisions to make the bigger moves if need be.
But I am not ready to do that yet, not ready to say it is done because if it was that dope in the WH and his flunkies wouldn’t be fighting so hard to change the rules, scare people into not voting or feeling like nothing can be done.
Been through too much and in places that felt much darker than this one, so I am planting my feet and saying ‘not on my watch. No sir.’
May not be the boss of life but you better believe I am the damn captain of my ship.
