Happy Friday…
I’m doing it again. A motley collection of thoughts. Like a game of connect the dots, they’ll make sense at the end. (Note: you can read this on Medium, here)
Are we really that lost?
My daughter and I got lost once. We were trying to find a store in a newly developed area and ended up on a road heading out of town.
Of course there was a Starbucks, so we grabbed coffee and used Google maps to get back on track.
GPS is awesome. Punch in where you are and where you want to go and voila — you’re back on track. It’s like freaking magic.
I read an article about the 50 most popular posts on Medium. They were all written by the same 12 men. Men who, incidentally, mostly write “self improvement.”
I have nothing against self improvement. Most of us want to grow as humans. I’ve met a few people who have no interest in growth or change. They’re terrifying.
Yet, I struggle to understand the popularity of generic advice that doesn’t factor in where we are or where we want to end up.
Are we really that lost?
No time, no time!
Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders think the Senate should be spending time working out a stimulus package to help struggling Americans instead of hammering through a Supreme Court Nominee who will help them strip health care from 20 million Americans in the middle of a pandemic.
I know because Twitter told me so.
Time is a funny thing. We say no time, no time. Time management is right up there next to self growth in popularity.
Honest truth is that time is seldom the problem. It’s priorities that get us. We choose what to focus on and then say we have no time for the things that aren’t most important to us.
There’s a self growth secret in that if you care to think about it.
Popcorn, anyone?
According to a leaked document, Exxon Mobile planned to increase its 2021 greenhouse gas emissions by 17% — an increase equivalent to the output of the entire nation of Greece.
Now they’re trying to back peddle. Because it got leaked.
While that was going on, know what was trending on Twitter?
Eric Trump doesn’t know what a vaccine is. Hah, hah! Eric Trump is so stupid. Of course he’s stupid. His father was a millionaire at age 8. He’s never had to think. Why would he?
Someone wrote a post on Medium wondering why there’s wasn’t more coverage of the Exxon thing. Simple. Watching corporate corruption makes us frustrated. We’re frustrated enough already.
We don’t know how to fix it. Which makes us feel dumb or helpless or both. Eric Trump makes us feel smart.
Popcorn, anyone?
Mirror, Mirror on the wall…
Most websites run on algorithms. We see more of what we click on and less of what we don’t click on. Less Exxon, more Eric. Less corruption, more gossip.
I get it. Sometimes, the world can feel tiresome. We feel helpless to change anything. Half of us can’t even pull ourselves out of a hole, much less change the world. They’re putting an anti-feminist in Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.
Problem is, algorithms are like the evil stepmother’s magic mirror.
They reflect ourselves back at us. Mirror mirror on the wall.
We are not the fairest ones, at all.
This is how the world ends.
This is how the world ends.
This is how the world ends.
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Last one…
Doppelgänger
Before the pandemic, I was having coffee with a friend when Dad’s Doppelgänger walked in. Spitting image. Even dressed the same, like he raided Dad’s closet. Took his fleece jacket and black dress pants. Even his brown and yellow ball cap.
His face sent shivers up my spine. Spitting image. Not the similarity that’s kind of close, but not quite. An identical that could have fooled his own child.
According to scientists who calculated the odds, the chance of any one person looking exactly like another across 8 facial features is about one in a trillion. Yet it happens in numbers that defy the scientific odds.
Yesterday my daughter saw him at the grocery store. She snapped a picture when he wasn’t looking and sent it to me. It made her cry, she said. She knew it wasn’t grandpa. Logic and feelings aren’t the same animal.
I know, I said. When he left the restaurant that day, it was like losing Dad all over again. I wanted to call out Dad, wait. Please, don’t go yet.
Of course it wasn’t Dad. He’s gone. Buried.
Missed so much.
Too often, we don’t realize how much we’ll miss what we had.
Until it’s gone. That doesn’t just apply to people.
“Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
What I wrote this week…
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Have a great weekend!
:)
Linda