Sometimes someone asks you for information and in doing so they open a doorway that might not have been seen before their question.
Maybe it was always there or at least the outline but the person didn’t see it because they were distracted or not looking in the right direction.
But once they became aware, well it is as if you shone a spotlight on that particular spot and now they can’t miss it.
Red dress, blue dress, green and black, or just black–doesn’t matter it can’t be missed or ignored any longer.
Hell, the intensity of the stare is impossible to miss. That is just how it is.
Once you are aware you don’t have to run, you just walk forward knowing you’re going to cross that line and score or so the sports analogies go.
That is the update you haven’t read yet, the one recently written but as of yet unseen.
I don’t think of myself as being particularly tough or smart though I know I am tougher and smarter than many.
What I do know is when I am engaged and motivated I can be more tenacious in pursuit of change and more determined to keep trying than others.
It is how I am wired.
Thought about it today during a discussion with other parents about schools, masks and the safety of our children.
A few people have told me they think Texas has got to be among the very worst states for keeping our kids safe because of some of the shenanigans we see from some parents and school boards.
Sadly I am not convinced they are correct because I see/hear what goes on elsewhere and that includes my home state.
The virus of stupidity is rampant and not limited to Texas though we might have a double dose in some areas.
Something I saw made me shake my head and almost spit out my coffee. What you see below is my response to it.
It is not me being silly or insouciant though I wish it was.
Every day I wait for the next clown to get out of the clown car and throw another proverbial pie for us to have to dodge while advocating for safe schools for our kids.
This is not the kind of adventure I wish to be on.
I am dumbfounded by having to listen to the educated and poorly educated spew bizarre conspiracy theories about what is going on in the world.
When I was a kid I had trouble believing that something as horrific as the Holocaust could have taken place. I had trouble understanding pogroms and I heard the stories first hand from survivors.
I saw the tattoos.
My daughter is taking a Holocaust studies course and she doesn’t have the same issue I had trying to absorb some of this because she has seen the crazy.
It is a sad thing.
She knows more about antisemitism than I did at her age.
Thankfully she knows and has seen an awful lot of good and kindness. She knows the world doesn’t have to be as dark as it can sometimes appear.
Sometimes she rolls her eyes at some of the stories I tell her about the letters I have written and the phone calls I have made.
I can live with that.
I want her to see we have to be active. We have to take steps to try and affect change or the net effect will be a loss.
Good people have to push back against the crazy. Good people have to stand up so that others take action and stand with them.
There doesn’t have to be one way of doing it either. The debate isn’t always about what is the most effective way to influence change.
Sometimes it is about getting started and getting others started. You build momentum that way, learn as you go and adjust.
I had my first colonoscopy a few months after my father died. Doc finished up and said I would need to come back three years later.
Got a letter today saying it is time to schedule my next one. Didn’t seem right at first, could it really be three years.
Hell, given all that has happened since 2016 you could tell me that it has been seven years and I might believe you.
Tomorrow I’ll call the doc’s office and ask them if they can schedule a new spelunking expedition for my GI.
And like last time I’ll tell them I expect to be taken out for dinner first and that if they find any diamonds we can sell it and split the earnings.
Slowly but surely making progress in other areas related to health but learning quickly that aging isn’t for the weak.
Ovid is mostly correct, attitude is of paramount importance. If you let yourself be beaten down by health challenges it can be terribly hard.
But you can’t rely solely upon will nor solely upon the words of those who think they know.
Medicine can be as much art as science so while taking appropriate steps and precautions we have to recognize somethings that work/fail for others won’t with us.
There is a new blog post tied up in actions, thoughts and deeds but I don’t think I’ll lay it out here today.
Have to fulminate, ruminate and cogitate upon it.
That sounds kind of ridiculous, but I sort of like it.
Got a deadline for some stuff of 12/31, time to get moving.
