Facebook

 I rejoined the facebook after a 10 month hiatus and started a new account with a different email address.  Sure enough, now I get dancing cats in my feed.  

One of the associate pastors from my childhood church lead my moms funeral.  We connected on facebook.  And he posts some of the most profound things...  Here are some of the quotes:

Be soft.  Do not let the world make you hard.  Do not let pain make you hate.  Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness.  Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place." - Kurt Vonnegut

How beautiful is the heart of those who go through the worst storms in life and still choose to stay gentle, silent, patient, kind and humble.

More than ever, I want us to live more consciously and compassionately.  Let me repharese; more than ever, I want to live more consciously and compassionately.

Somewhere out there, someone is listening to brids stead of breaking news - and the world feels a little more hopeful there.

These thought provoking quotes make me stop and think.  My existence has been hard.   At times my heart is dented and tarnished.  I think about the article about self care and how important it is and for people in my generation, this does not compute.  We get a syntax error when someone blurts out self care or something about taking care of yourself.  People participating in self care are soft.  Kindness is soft.  Maybe my perspective is flawed - for these are the people that are changing the world - more aligned with kindness.  How beautiful is the heart of those who go through the worst storms in life and still choose to stay gentle, silent, patient, kind and humble.

What comes to mind for me is defeated.  Crushed.  Dented.  Harsh.  Judgemental.

There sure is a lot to contemplate in the quotes above.   

 

And just like that

Savannah Guthrie's kidnapping vanished from the media. All it took was bombing Iran. Poof. Gone.

In other news, the media is taking a deep dive into Talarico beating Crockett in the primary.  Here’s the thing - no one wants a ghetto talking hoodrat representing them on a national stage.  Jasmine Crockett is highly educated and the only time she manages to pull it together to sound intelligent is when she is speaking with national media.  The rest of the time she talks like a lifelong multigenerational welfare recipient.  She’s not authentic.  Shes a cartoon character simultaneously representing the best and worst of her people.  Drop out and get baked.   

Talarico. He’s 36 years old.  Just to put things in perspective - I’m 19 years older than he is. Wtf?!?

Regular people

Who ever thought putting regular people in advertising was a good idea is either crazy or I'm crazy.

The thinking is regular people seeing regular people in advertising builds a sense of community and commonality between the business and the customer. I'll do business where advertising images show people that look like me or other members of the community. Especially true with minor facial variations or lack of symmetry. One eye bigger than the other… fat people. Different racial profiles. A wonky eye. A double chin. Some of the above. All of the above.

That strategy doesn't work with people like me. I don't want to see myself or other imperfections that I deal with on a daily basis where I do business. Especially in their advertising images. I prefer the warmth of artificial perfection. Sanitized of imperfection.

It's like woke got a advertising/marketing degree…. How's that working? It doesn't work for me and I'm probably an outlier because I contradict their data. Maybe their data is flawed.

Ring Ring

Autozone can I help you

Espanol?

No

Click

Shooting on 6th

3 dead. 14 injured. Not the Austin I know.

Living or dying

They say you're either living or dying. It feels like I'm teetering towards dying. There isn't anything that gets my juices flowing. There's little generating interest. Nothing exciting. Nothing to look forward to.

What I see ahead are years of consistent, steady decline. Nothing will get better. Health will continue declining. Hearing aids. Walkers. Weight gain. Cognitive decline. Loneliness.

All while living in a country in decline. Working not appealing - following someone's policy and procedure for a meager income. Immigrants aren't improving anything. At least the ones I see. If anything they're level setting. Making our country less than what it was while it's an upgrade for them. If anything it's becoming a broader scale of homogenized mediocrity that is on par with the rest of the world. How exciting.

Is there really any goal to accomplish? One child out the door, the other not far behind. Work for what? To have money in retirement? While I get old?
I think about this being the start of a slow slide to dying. And nothing about it looks appealing or even pleasant.

American white male life expectancy is 76 years old. That's 21 years away. I don't think I'm interested in living past 60 and definitely not past 65.

Goals? There are no goals.

Loneliness. Emptiness. Depression. Death. Just find something to make the rest of my time on earth tolerable.  It’s easy to understand why old white men are turning to alcohol and drugs. Used up, torn up and have served their useful purpose of providing for everyone else while living a life of sacrifice.   Just throw us in the trash. Bury us.  Make it go away and make this existence come to an end. 

Third world

Do third world countries have k-12 education? I watch over a hundred people come in the store and speak Spanish to the Spanish speaking employees. I swear half of them are illiterate in their own language and our language because my peers constantly complain about how they don't understand Spanish.
They don't understand English.

Why are they even allowed to be in this country to begin with if they can't read, write or speak their native language or our language?

How do they even exist?

Is it drugs? Construction? Human trafficking?

Are they contributing members of society or leeches on public assistance?