When You Choose One...

 

Hi.

As we witness what is happening in Afghanistan, the depth of terror these poor people must be feeling is beyond comprehension.  

For those who are refusing to get vaccinated, spit on mask-wearing, and like to scream about their freedoms and rights...

I mean...

Maybe some thought should be put into the difference between rights and privilege. There is a difference, if you can't recognize it, well, that's just sad.

People in Afghanistan are fighting for literal survival from an oppressive regime that celebrates brutality, and sees women as possessions. 

Now, before you jump all over me saying that putting things in place like mask mandates and vaccine passports are the first steps on a slippery slope toward Taliban-type rule, just think about that for a second. 

You are free to not wear a mask. You are free not to get vaccinated. Those are your decisions. Yours. Nobody is forcing them on you. 

And, like any other decision, there are consequences, both good and bad. 

Smoking.

Drinking until you blackout every weekend. 

Driving as fast as your vehicle will go for shits and giggles.

I mean, as a society, we are free to do harmful things to ourselves if we so choose. We do it all the time.

We eat fast food, and ice cream. We hang on to toxic relationships. We work too hard, or not enough. We neglect relationships that deserve nurturing. We buy things we don't really need way too often, and too much. We don't floss enough. The list could go on...

But, all of these, all of them, are privileges, not rights. Rights cover what we need to live, not what we want to make living more fun.

Just as you have the freedom to smoke, those around you have equal freedom to be in an environment that is smoke-free. So... restrictions. 

Just as you have the freedom to drink until you blackout, you are still responsible for your actions while in that state. So... consequences.

Just as you have the freedom to test the limits of your vehicle, you aren't allowed to put others in danger while doing so. So... limits. 

Just as you have the freedom to decide whether or not you get vaccinated, or wear a mask, others, such as business owners, restaurant owners, concert venues, stadiums, cruise lines, airlines, and entertainers all have equal freedom to not let you enter, serve you, or deal with you in any way.

It's not discrimination. It's the same freedom you are enjoying. It seems that you want freedoms you don't want others to have.

In the United States, where they have private insurance for health care, insurance companies are already taking steps not to cover Covid treatments for the unvaccinated. It's fair. The vaccine is free to get. It's readily available. It's been proven worldwide to not only be safe but significantly reduce serious illness and hospitalizations for people with Covid. It's the insurance companies' dime. They won't cover hospital stays for any other illness if there is a vaccine available and you refuse to take it, why would this be any different? 

Just remember, everyone enjoys the same freedoms you do. Period. 

So, stop yelling at people, and trying to force your unmasked, unvaccinated way into places that have mandates in place. Your freedoms don't trump theirs. If you don't like it, don't go. Or get your stuff delivered. Or do curbside pick up. 

Decisions, 100% of the time have consequences. Good and bad. When you choose one, you choose the other. End of story. 

There are limited ways out of this Pandemic. Vaccines and masks are the top two. If you choose neither, then that's on you, but I can't help but worry about the vulnerable around you. What about their freedoms?

Oh, and can you please help me to understand how a horse de-wormer, that does nothing to fight viruses, is safer than an FDA-approved vaccine for humans, designed to prevent serious illness from Covid?

Do the literal horse pills come with a Tide pod chaser? Or maybe bleach? Or just a strong light? 

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May we finally take a victory lap, together we can make it so.

May we finally get this in the rearview, we are close, not far to go.

May those who intentionally misinform be held accountable for the lives they continue to cost.

May those who believe their lies finally see through the bullshit, before more loved ones are lost.

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And Then It Rained...

 

Hi!

Whenever there is drought inevitably, and sometimes almost ironically, it rains.

Where I call home, it has been the hottest, driest summer in 150 years. The crops are almost non-existent, the pastures are depleted. Saying it's not going to be much of a harvest would be pretty much a laughable understatement for most. As much as possible will be salvaged and sold, in one capacity or another. The very best will be made out of pretty dire circumstances, then, because they are incurably optimistic, farmers will plan for seeding in the Spring. Because for farmers, stories don't end with "happily ever after", they end with, "and then it rained"...

The drought, the rain, the hurricanes, the wildfires, the heat, the snowstorms. All reminders of just how small we are. We start wars over borders we create to show domination. We start wars over religion, each believing their beliefs are the correct beliefs. We start wars over racism, sexism, fascism, and nothing at all. 

We create weapons to threaten each other, to keep each other in check, to kill each other, as long as we can provide justification, however hollow it may be. After all, justification is made easy when you cast yourself as the hero in every story. Then "they' are always the bad guys, the perpetual boogie men. We treat each other horribly based on skin tone, socio-economic status, culture, what type of reproductive organs we have, how we choose to use them, and with whom. 

I guess my point is, it seems humanity is more than happy to find any excuse to treat each other like garbage. There are organizations the world over that dedicate themselves to doing just that. The KKK, Taliban, Nazis, all profess to be providing guidance toward some 'correct' way to live. They justify their actions by writing themselves as the heroes. When they tell the stories you can bet your ass they are the good guys. 

It's like Mother Nature, Mother Earth, the Universe, a Higher Power, God, Allah, whatever your belief is, it's like the planet on which we tread keeps throwing things at us that should make us come together. That should bring out the best in us. That should make us set all else aside to help each other. The crazy storms, the wildfires, the heat, the drought, the earthquakes, hell, a pandemic, for crying out loud... These are, individually, cataclysmic events that we don't get through alone. Any one of these requires help and cooperation to recover from. All of these gargantuan things are happening simultaneously, and humanity's response?

It should be easy.

Wildfires, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, you send more firefighters and rescue workers from all over. You send equipment. You send supplies.

Drought, adjustments will be made, damaged and scant cereal crops will become feed for livestock instead of feed for humans. Supply and demand will shift for a time, shortages may happen for a bit, but then it will rain...

Pandemic, the lifelong, international epidemiologists, and infectious disease specialists do the work and come up with a plan. Those of us who are not experts follow the guidance provided, we control its spread until vaccines can create herd immunity, and said pandemic becomes irradicated. 

It should be easy.

Wildfires... an actual elected official says out loud, in public, and on purpose that some sort of Jewish space laser is to blame for a lot of them. 

Drought... farmers, and consumers will take the hit. Prices will rise at the stores, consumers will pay it because they have to eat, the rising prices never trickling down quite far enough to reach the farmers' pockets. 

Pandemic... becomes a race for gold in the idiot Olympics. I know that may sound harsh, but at this point in the arc of things, I really don't care. The feigned oppression, the intentional spread of misinformation for power and profit with complete disregard of human consequence. The utter idiocy that completely defies logic.

It should be easy.

It seems that the lack of rain isn't the only drought right now. There seems to be a drought of critical thinking, logic, and common sense.

Unvaccinated people are filling the hospitals with covid cases. The cases are becoming more widespread and more severe in young kids who are too young to be vaccinated. It's up to those of us who can to get vaccinated to help protect those who can't. And I do mean can't, not won't. 

If you are not getting vaccinated because you are leary of the fact that the vaccines only have emergency approval, just know that a lot of the treatments used in treating severe cases of Covid only have emergency approval as well.

When you get seriously ill, you trust your doctors, specialists, and medical community, if you trust them then, why not trust them now?

When I tell this story years from now, this story of the common sense drought of the early twenties, I look most forward to the end... "the clouds became heavy with logic and critical thinking, aching to drench those below with peaceful reality... and then it rained."

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May it rain, may it pour, drenching us in peaceful reality.

I can't wait.

In A Blink...

Hi!

Soooo, this week was my eldest daughter's 35th birthday.

The anniversary of my initiation into Momhood. 

Having spent the past weekend at my Mom's house with my sister, knocking things off of her well-thought-out and thorough honey-do list, watching the Olympics, and having some spirited discussions on well-worn subjects, the realization of just how fast our futures become our pasts almost gave me whiplash. 

In a blink, I went from a little girl getting in trouble for getting into my big sisters' things to grieving both of them. 

In a blink, my little sister went from riding my hip, chasing gophers, and teenage shenanigans to a wife and Mom with a satisfying career.

In a blink, my three brothers went from boys making a career out of finding a million different ways to torture their sisters to men. Husbands and dads, each successful in their own way.

In a blink, my hubby and I went from baby-faced newlyweds to parents and grandparents with faces that tell the stories of our lives. Faces where the laugh lines outnumber the worry lines, eyes that have seen their share of hardships, more than their share of joy, and look forward to seeing whatever may come next.

In a blink, our four little girls went from our babies, learning the world, to grown, confident, kind women who walk through it with purpose. 

In a blink.

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In a blink, society has gone from a horse and buggy world to one driven by megabytes and cryptocurrency.

In a blink, we've gone from news taking days or weeks to reach across an ocean to live-streaming globally in seconds. 

We've gone from phone book to Facebook, from boob tube to youtube, from comic strips to memes. 

In a blink, our world has gone from impossibly expansive and unexplored to barely a leaf left unturned. 

In a blink, our humanity has gone from making fire, to making art, to making war. 

In a blink, we will be somewhere new, somewhere we can't imagine from where we are right now.

In a blink, we will be gone, leaving behind for our great-grandbabies, a world. What kind, is as yet to be determined. 

In a blink.

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Until next time...

May we let go of the hustle long enough to savor time.

May we see that being busy isn't the same as being fine.

May we take a beat, and take stock of the last couple of years.

May we hang on to the lessons learned, let go of the anger, the fears.

May we walk forward with understanding, kindness, it's more important than we used to think. 

May we see nothing is permanent, we control little, and things can change for both good and bad in a blink. 

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Is It Just Me Or....

Hi!

Is it just me, or are you finding it a bit weird adjusting to this new way to walk through the world? 

Because of where I live, and the fact that more and more people here are getting vaccinated, we are now allowed to roam around with naked faces. 

It feels weird. Are there still people choosing to wear masks? Yup, and if it makes them more comfortable, they should. Will there still be businesses that require it? Very likely, and they should if they so choose, and... and where it is required, people shall just put it on and shut up, or go somewhere else. There isn't a service industry worker out there who has the mental, emotional, or physical capacity to put up with that abusive crap any more, not even a little bit. You want to complain about how the service industry is finding it so hard to fill positions right now? You want to pretend that the reason is cushy unemployment benefits? No. Just... no. The workers have NEVER in the history of the service industry EVER been paid enough to put up with your crap, the only way they sign up for round two of dealing with mask whiners is sheer desperation. They have had enough Karens to last at least three lifetimes. Don't be a Karen... or whatever the male counterpart would be... I don't know... Chad? Biff? 

Is it just me, or does the energy in public spaces feel tense? Like everybody is waiting to get yelled at for either wearing a mask or not wearing one. It's becoming abundantly clear that adjusting to this new normal is going to take a beat. I think these past months have been more of a mind-screw than we anticipated, or at least some of us anticipated. 

Is it just me, or has your sympathy/empathy waned drastically for the deliberately malinformed? And I do mean malinformed. A strict diet of misinformation devoid of the nutrition of actual peer-tested, fact-based data from well-respected, historically tried, and true sources. It's like living on nothing but fast food and wondering why you feel like crap. Deep down, you know you should throw a vegetable down your throat once in a while, but deliberately refuse to do so because some jackass in a lab coat with a fake diploma on the wall put out a youtube video telling you that vegetables were microchipped or will turn you into Magneto. Your deliberate idiocy is now putting those either too young or too sick to get vaccinated in real danger. Real and actual danger. Personally, I'm done sparing your feelings on this. 2+2 is 4. You can opine that it's 16, you can 'believe' it's 25, you can show me videos of some idiot declaring it's 12 because of space lasers all you want. It doesn't change the fact that it's 4. Will always be 4. 

Is it just me, or are you finding it downright entertaining that the guy who got his ass handed to him in the US election in November... like 9 months ago November, still thinks he's, I don't know.. relevant? Hosting rallies in the middle of Alabama pastures, putting out statements, and doing interviews like his words are good for anything but lining a hamster cage. He thinks by endorsing people he's doing something other than making sure they lose. Yet, the Magnetos of the world still throw money at him. Hey, it's their money, they can burn it if they really want to. 

Is it just me, or does it feel like climate change, if not home to roost, is circling to do so? Where I call home, it's really, and I do mean really rare to have so many days where the temperature reaches 30+ degrees. It's also extremely rare to go soooooo long without rain. I know there are measures in place to try and counter what's happening. It takes worldwide cooperation to conquer a global problem, the pandemic is a lesson in that. Borders are just lines on a map, put there to make colonizers feel superior. Nature couldn't care less about lines on a map. 

Is it just me, or do you catch yourself watching the Olympics wondering just how the hell they make their bodies do this stuff? As a middle-aged, menopausal, vertically challenged person with bad knees, who, granted has always been, physically, a bit stronger than the average bear, I find myself thinking back to when I was very likely at my physical best. In my 'prime', so to speak. The average age of these magnificent beings. Between the ages of 20 and 25. Was I winning medals? Nope. Was I travelling the world testing my measure against others? Nope. Was that an option, even with all of the training, and opportunity in the world? Nope, not with this biology. My Olympics, between the ages of 20 and 25? Cranking out 4 humans who have since become pretty incredible people. I'll take it. Not all accomplishments get medals, but they all take love, commitment, hard work and passion. 

I am incredibly grateful to be living in a part of the world where vaccines are plentiful and free. There are way too many places on this planet where that is simply not true. 

As I get older, it becomes more and more obvious that so much of our health, wealth, and happiness is completely determined by a life lottery. Where, when, and the socio-economic circumstances in which you are born, is so much more responsible for your lot in life than anything you do when you get here. 

It is up to us to do the best with what we are given. Not waste it. 

For me, that means prioritizing people over things. Time over money. Soul shine over shiny things. Embracing getting older, even with all the aches and pains that come with it, as too many are not given the privilege of doing so. But, that IS just me. 

Everyone needs to set their own priorities, set their own goals, dream their own dreams, find their own paths, and then create actions to lead them to where they want to be. 

Every path will be different, as will every destination. Each will have challenges, hills, valleys and curves. This is a given. Also a given, each will be rewarded with its own kind of gold.

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Until next time...

May we give each other a bit of space as we take the baby steps back into the open.

May we do all we can to keep each other safe, give our most vulnerable something to have hope in.

May we, as humanity, vow to never be a Karen a Biff, or a Chad.

May we accept that people of service are beyond every limit they ever had.

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