Musings

Apropos of nothing, here are a few observations /opinions / things I've come to learn over the years.

- Money is necessary in order to live, but I am wary of people who tout the acquisition of wealth as some type of achievement. If you're constantly talking about the money you make, then something is fundamentally wrong.

- "Lose" and "loose," and "quiet" and "quite" are not the same words, nor do they have the same meaning.

- We are constantly inundated with terrible news, every day and every hour by the media. While there is no denying that those things are happening, we must not lose sight of all the awesome things -- both big and small -- that are occurring in our world, every day and every hour.

- Climate change aside, I am not convinced that the world is in worse shape than it was, say, when we were younger (which seems to be the generic standard most folks use to measure these things). With the proliferation of, first, the 24-hour news cycle, and then of course the Internet, cell phones, etc. is that we are much more aware of everything that's going on, and therefore things seem to be worse. Example: if a home inspector finds termites in your house, then your house isn't worse off than it was before the termites were discovered. They were there, you just weren't aware of them. 

- If you find yourself arguing with strangers on the Internet -- stop. I may be guilty of doing this, and should follow my own advice. 

- Not everyone holds the same view on things as you do. That doesn't necessarily make them awful and sub-human. And, it really doesn't matter how many people you believe share your same view(s) -- there will likely be just as many, perhaps more (?), who don't. Ultimately, that has nothing to do with the rightness or morality of those views. I wish more people would be cognizant of this. 

- Horoscopes and the zodiac aren't real. If you want to follow them for fun, then sure, have at it. But whenever someone starts spouting off in earnest about them, I tend to tune out. (Seriously, they're not real).

- If you want to know where you stand with someone, never go by what they say, but how they treat you. That's where you'll find the real truth.

- A lot of people have issues with the world's oldest profession. Some will decry the act of a human being "selling their body for sex." Now, if you have some high morals about sexual intimacy, that's one thing, but someone selling their body shouldn't make you aghast. Pretty much everyone who works for a living is selling their bodies in some way. If you agree to do a job that requires manual labor, then while you're on the clock, you have agreed to sell your body for money. Same goes for someone working a white collar job in front of a computer all day. During working hours, your body is expected to be sitting at a desk, thinking, and click-clacking away on the keyboard. You have agreed to use your body for whatever compensation has been agreed upon by you and your employer. 

- People like to invoke the 'If you haven't been in someone's shoes, then you shouldn’t judge them,' mantra, and then proceed to judge a fuck ton of people whose experiences they've never had. In the end, just try and have some empathy.

- People will often joke about being addicted to their cell phones but, really, it's an addiction. And it's not all that amusing. Just try old-schoolingi it for a day, or even just a few hours. If you go to a meeting, leave your phone at your desk. If you go the movies, turn your phone completely off. Heck, leave your phone on the charger at home and just wing it for the day. You know, I'm old enough to remember before there were cell phones (or at least before they were so ubiquitous), and people managed to walk around, drive around, and just generally exist without them. Somehow, we survived, and even prospered. We talked with one another, and were engaged. Completely unrelated -- remind me again why it seems like people aren't getting along with each other these days?

- I've watched talk shows where African-American activists/guests have decried any attempts to tie racial discrimination with discrimination based on sexual orientation. Their reasoning is that "black people don't choose to be black!" I would love to be a guest on one of those shows, and ask them to just sit with what they said for a moment, perhaps even say it again, but slowly, until they realize what they're actually saying. 

- I love going to concerts, but not just for the music. We hear so much about how divided our country is, but I've been to three dozen music concerts over the years (many recently), with thousands of people in attendance, with a mixture of ethnicities, ages, genders, etc., and I couldn't really tell you what the politics were for the attendees. We were all there for the love of the artist/band who was performing. We were there for a respite from our daily lives, and to enjoy songs that we all loved. In those moments I look around and think, 'Are we really that divided?'

Thank you for taking the time to read my random thoughts. You may not agree with all of them, and that's okay. At the very least, I hope the aforementioned musings at least give you food for thought.