Google My Ass!!

When I hear someone say “Google it” it annoys me then makes me sad. Sad that we rely on an electronic crutch to inform us. When I ask someone for information or a recommendation I’m asking for their knowledge. I want to hear what their advice is, whether it’s expertise or experience. I want to connect to them, not a website. The other worrisome phrase is “Get it on Amazon” a company more ruinous to local business than Walmart, now facing stiff competition from Bezos’ evil empire.

When I want to purchase something, I like feel it in my hands, test it’s dimensions, remote purchase robs us of direct examination.

When we aren’t bitching about the excess of billionaires, we complain about the bother of having to hunt around for things. Like, we always did that, it’s called shopping. Frankly, I get most of my stuff from vintage stores and Bi-Mart.

We are lazy with convenience; sold on the false promise that buying on-line is easier, cheaper and less trouble, but is it really? Without going into a lengthy dissertation on economics, it boils down to money going into their pocket, not circulating locally to support a community, lowers the quality of goods and still guzzles resources with shipping.

I prefer to wander around a store to see what I can find. I’d rather talk to someone about their experience with repair service, where to find a good burger, what is this plant in my yard, or do they remember the name of that actor from The Godfather than sit at a Goddamn computer trying to type in the correct phrase to appease an inhuman algorithm. Jesus, whatever happened to talking to people about stuff, you know like we used to do. Oh yeah, google it is so much better than getting out and meeting people cause staying at home on the internet will bring us closer together.

On that note I’m going to lunch with a friend at a local cafe, then bicycle to St. Vinnie’s without a list and explore.

Get Action!

 

For when you need validations for your anger

You are angry and anxious because you never agreed

to live in a burning house, while the people who should

care pretend the fire doesn't exit.

Distress is a valid emotional response to injustice.

-Nikita Gill

We're crazy when threatened with reality we don’t like. We magnify small changes as existential threat, while ignoring obvious warnings of real impeding disasters.

So how do we respond to a burning house? Not with passive preaching while holding hands and singing Kumbaya (whatever the hell that means). No, a cultural wide shift has to occur to get our attention. Something big to move us, something shocking.

It's happened before, at the end of the ice age with the Biblical flood. The end of the Bronze age—caused by a combination of geo-political and environmental factors. World War One saw the end of monarchies and so on down the line.

There have been massive changes in the environment in the last 50,000 years that humanity has witnessed and still we survive. Empires have come and gone. Society remakes itself with each upheaval. It looks like we are headed to another change of scenery if history and current events are any indicators.

But fear not gentle reader, not all is doom and gloom. We will prevail. We survived the invention of atomic weapons, now used as geo political bargaining chips instead of lobbing them at each other. We survived the protests of the civil/women/gay rights movement to a more inclusive society. We survived disco, shag carpeting and the internet-- ok we’re still working on that.

My point is, we are a tough lot, communities band together when shit gets real. Compassion is practiced when direct experience requires it.

Now is not the time to think, why bother, there’s nothing I can do and give up in frustration. Go to town hall meetings and tell truth to power, make your voice heard, stand up to the injustice done to the least of us. It seems straightforward but being proactive is empowering because the future is decided by those who show up.

Art is Life

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XZ9z6OewR0

Watch this TED talk first. Now, every single one of you that cares about humanity should be creating. Whether it’s music, cooking, drawing, sewing, whatever. It’s what makes us real. In fact, I insist that everyone who reads this provide some personal example or I will hunt you down and make you do something creative.

Kurt Vonnegut, who once said “Don’t anyone tell you differently, we are here to fart around” talked about the importance of art.

“When I was 15, I spent month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes. And he went WOW. That’s amazing!And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at any of them.” And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: And I said oh no but I’m not good at any of them. And he said something I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no had ever said anything like it to me before: “ I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you have got all these wonderful experiences with different skills that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person no matter how well you do them.” and that honestly changed my life because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “win” at them.”

Lots of people have talked about this, but talk is cheap, just do it, you won’t regret it. I’ll leave you with a profound insight by author Neale Donald Walsh.

“Go ahead and do what you really love to do! Do nothing else. You have so little time. How can you think of wasting a moment doing something for a living you don’t like to do? What kind of a living is that? That is not living, that is a dying. If you say, “But, but. . .” I will answer: If you insist that your life is about what your body is doing, you do not understand why you came here. At least do something that pleases you-that speaks of Who You Are.”

Extra! Extra!

 

In films, extras are background people to fill in a restaurant, office, or sidewalk scene. It’s minimal wage (called scale) but it’s way to pay the bills. Whenever I go to a movie I imagine being background just to be a fly on the wall and experience the nuts and bolts of film making. Not a major or supporting role mind you, my chances of being in a big movie are about as good as winning the lottery. At the most, a bit part – they pay you more for a speaking role. So I imagined being in this summer’s blockbuster Superman.

(Scene interior: A woman seated at a desk in a large office at the Daily Planet typing or filing papers. She wears a dress shirt and a ID tag on a lanyard. The phone rings, she answers in business like manner)

                                                        Natalie

Daily Planet, information desk how may I help you? (beat) Clark Kent, he’s in the news room I’ll trans- What? ( listens in growing confusion) You’re kidding? You think Clark Kent and Superman are the same person? (beat, rolls her eyes in familiar annoyance) No, no, not even (beat). I know, because I see him every day and he can barely tie his shoes without adult supervision that’s how. (beat) Ma’am, ma’am ( interrupting patiently) Clark Kent is not that smart and we know Superman is not that dumb, but thanks for calling. ( hangs up phone, under her breath) They don’t pay me enough for this nonsense.

The Magic Wand of Presidency

If I were President and could fix three things, here’s what I would do. Number one, every American would be required to work in a government office at the local, state of federal level for two years with full federal pay and health care. It may sound like a hare brained idea, but if you want to know how government works, you can even as as a lowly civil servent.

I worked as a clerk in the office of the local community college and it was an eye opener to see how dysfunctional management can be. I also worked in the college print shop and near the end of the term I noticed them spending a lot of money. Turns out if they didn’t use their budget it would be reduced, instead of letting the savings roll over to the next term. It was distressing to see frugality punished while waste rewarded. It’s the kind of insight into the working of bureaucracy you don’t see unless you are in it and learn how things operate.

Number two. Most people are hired based on their experience except, it seems, at the executive level. Federal or cabinet positions candidates should be required to have some experience related to that job. Not a TV news show host, a generous donor, or a teenager -someone actually qualified for the position, you know like in real life. That kind of favoritism always backfires and it’s embarrasing.

Number Three. Repeal Citizens United immediately. Get big money out of politics; with hefty pensions, insider information and connections members of Congress can enrich themselves once they leave office but not while they are paid to serve the country as an elected offical.

Lastly, just as a simple voter who wants a change, what we really need is a third party, one that is actually in the center instead of the lesser of two evils we have between coke or pepsi. Unfortunately Democrats and Republicans loath and fear that because they would lose votes. No kidding, why should we vote for your extreme narratives instead of moderation which I believe a third party would create.

Ah, if only I had a magic wand.