Got an appointment with a guy who is going to stick his hands inside my mouth to give me a crown I don’t want but I suppose it is better than a root canal.
Took the college girl back to her new domicile and pretended not to hear Cardi B being played by someone around there as if I am some sort of prude guy.
But there are boundaries and things that my kids and I don’t need to get real deep into.
Was quite the weekend and finished it by explaining to the younger Mr. Wilner to understand his old man has been exploring and researching opportunities for the second half for a number of years.
“You’re not the only one with dreams and if you don’t work on figuring out how to live them you’ll spend your life watching it pass by.
That is not who I am.
Fail to plan and you plan to fail. It sounds silly but it is true.”
Work Vacation
You could describe the day as a work vacation and I took advantage of time to do some electronic filing and to schedule some meetings.
Got a number of RSVPs and spent a couple of minutes mapping out questions and conversation so that I can continue to exert my influence in a variety of areas or at least try to.
Mentioned to the younger Mr. Wilner that some of my conversations sound like I am winging it and to an extent I am but I usually have a goal in mind and try to direct things.
“Don’t reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to. Take your experience and figure out how to work smarter, not harder.
Figure out how to paint a picture that others can visualize and understand.”
When you spend time polishing your craft and have a certain amount of success you can attribute others not seeing it to one of three things.
- You didn’t do a good job of explaining/describing your vision/concern.
- They just don’t understand the picture you painted.
- They understand and don’t care.
If you have confidence that you did a good job with the first item you are stuck with two other options and I am not sure which of those two is worst.
Cleaning Out My Feed
Been spending more time cleaning out my various feeds of people who I have a limited relationship with who live in a world whose values are at significant odds with mine.
People who keep posting nonsense about how divisive the current president is with the previous one.
If you believe that theft and mishandling of classified documents isn’t serious, that repeated lies about election fraud that didn’t happen, the continual push for a culture war and attacks on law enforcement are ok we’re going to have issues.
You can’t attack 46 for pointing out the dangers in such rhetoric and the actions surrounding them and say nothing about 45’s behavior.
Or you can and I will assume that you’re ignorant, willfully blind and or drunk/high.
The point is if there is no room for civil disagreement and we don’t really know each other I am unlikely to maintain contact because I am not interested in reading conspiracy theory or banging my head against the wall.
I don’t live in an echo chamber and read multiple sources from across the spectrum so I am not worried that eliminating noise will damage my ability to remain informed.
Those who know me well understand I don’t fear challenging my beliefs or engaging in discussions with those who differ.
But if you push the sort of stupidity that sits alongside flat earth theory and Holocaust denial there is rarely if any reason for me to wade into the muck.
Got enough head and heart ache without adding more brain damage.
There is a time and place for sharing your thoughts in and on multiple areas and the wise person recognizes when and where as well the time not to be silent.
I guess I’m the lucky one because I haven’t had to “erase” anyone from my life since January 6th, 2021, and even on that day I only had to eliminate a few people because I’d dropped a bunch earlier after the George Floyd murder, and a larger group before that after the orange guy had been in office for about six months, when the real insanity hit. Frankly, it’s amazing that those folks are in the minority because they seem to act like they’re the majority, and I’ll admit that if I wasn’t living in New York I’d be pretty scared of what could be coming next.
I have weeded out most of the people whose views I feel are reprehensible and are not open to dialogue. But there are a few here and there.
I am not convinced they have any connection with reality not just because of the conspiracy theories they push but based upon voting.
We continue to see that a majority are more moderate than they are but that minority is loud and actively working on trying to hide that and intimidate people.
I think they are a loud minority and that more than a few of the middle are happy to be silent when they ought to be pushing back, but that is me.