The power of one.

This blog began with my feeling of powerlessness at where the world was going.  I made some suggestions--I rarely even take them--and I became more aware of what is going on around me.

Now, I'm annoying to many, but my world is becoming populated with other people that are also more aware.  I have windows into the lives of people from other places and people with different experiences.  My job has even become more diverse and less 60-year old working WASP.  And we have survived and thrived under a biracial president and have a democratic socialist running in the current election.

During this time, we have had ugliness in the news, although much of it is more like the pimple coming to an obvious head than like any new ugliness being found.

Our PC is no longer just theater make-up to make everything pretty.  We are having discussions about institutional racism---and while black comedians have gotten a lot of mileage out of  "______ while black" jokes, that is not funny when it is true.  For those of us with our eyes open, we know that stuff happens on a routine basis.  We work with people scared to walk past black men on the street, that expect every Native American to be intoxicated and that never see danger or criminal when the person looks like them.

We have had the influx of immigrants from south of the border that was predicted with such dire warnings in the '70's and '80's that has created a need for hispanic translators--the best I have met is hispanic and born in my home town so she is as comfortable in one language as the other, and we have seen a browning of our population from wars and coups and just plain hate.  They have improved our selection of foods and given us a broader view of what it means to be a good person.  We have seen the growth of the first group of internet children, and they are not quite as easy to lead by the nose.  They can find other sources for their information and they can look at multiple conflicting stories and know that they are not all right or all wrong.  Our schools may not be teaching them good critical thinking skills, but the choices of sources of knowledge is available and being well used by many of them.

So what does any of this have to do with the power of one?  Nothing and everything.

Each of us change and grow individually.  We are all responsible for our own self-awareness.  We are each voting, everyday, every minute for what is right, what is needed, what is good--or not.  And we will all move forward as quickly or slowly as the individuals in the group that is all humans, progress.  I do not allow for us to not move forward, although, I realize there have been time that progress was so slow that it looked like regression.  I do think that I can see some movement.  I think that when an entire planet of souls are causing movement, sort of like Brownian Motion, it is hard to get a clear view of what is happening, where we are heading.

But, I am hopeful.  The people I meet these days generally give me hope (perhaps those that don't have just lost their ability to scare or shock me) and the internet, with its many accesses and sources, gives me hope, and the knowledge that most people, the vast majority of people just want their loved ones to be safe and happy and able to keep living their lives. 

No fear--we just all need to do what we know is right in our souls. 

That is the power of the individual--the power of one.

Thoughts for the coming year after christmas but before its resolution time

I have always thought that the great drive to make a resolution, fix yourself, make the world a better place, was due to the whole symbolism of new beginnings with the new year.  I was sure that is all it was.

This year, I think I'm working on a "reduce, reuse, recycle" plan, that involves only getting and giving gifts that are experiential--you know, consumable (not like consumerism, but like "I can eat it, make something with it, go somewhere I haven't been for a while--or ever, or share time with someone I haven't seen in a while)

I think maybe we are all just consumering ourselves out.  That is like--"I haven't eaten chocolate since I was a freshman at college and there was nothing over a long weekend with the dorm cafeteria closed except my roommates chocolate stash.  Every time I look at it now, I'm nauseated."

Don't get me wrong.  I love getting gifts and giving gifts.  But there is a part of the Christmas season giving that has nothing to do with what anyone wants or what anyone wants to give.  It is more of a panic, an anxious feeling of "oh no, i didn't give everyone enough, I didn't spend enough, I am a failure and my shortcomings can't be fixed"

I looked back at Christmases past, for those trees I remember exploding with gifts, of smiling faces, of great memories and warm feelings, and what I see in photos is not so shiny.  Parents looked tired, kids over-stimulated, trees covered in tinsel and cheap ornaments.  Apparently the memory and the hope for next year being better always kept us trying again.

My daughter, who is cheap, but also right, was aghast that she watched every child she knew receive over $500.00 dollars worth of items, many of them that will be taken to the trash or goodwill next year so that new gifts will not overwhelm the storage of the house.  Many of those gifts will not be touched for months as the amount of free time that children have to play with toys is limited.  Clothes and shoes that are both durable and fun will be better used, but for children that received to many to wear more than once before they outgrow them, also very crazy.

I partly blame the media, the advertisings never show crappy plastic toys sitting there doing nothing.  They are animated, and have glowingly happy children playing with them or receiving them with such utter joy in their faces that the toy must be magic.  There are no disclaimers attached to the toy packages or advertisings warning, "this toy was made by small children in a poor country, and there might be missing parts"  no where does it mention that the company made a 1000% profit off the toy or that is contains $0.50 cents in materials and under a dollar in labor, or that the cost of shipping one package to the store, as one of a gazillion items, is also less than a dollar.  They certainly don't want you to know that the people at the top of the toy company made more money than god this season.  And last but not least, they don't mention that the amazing toy either does none of the things the animated version does or that the cheap materials gives it a usable life of 3 hours.

There were some positives this year, more toys that you did something with, made something with, or maybe that is just part of gift-buyers hunting harder for something that made sense.

And I'm guilty.  I now have enough baking supplies to give cookies to every person in my town.

I'm fat.
Everyone is watching their calorie intake and trying to exercise more.
Cookies are not good for you.

What are we all missing?  What are we all trying to accomplish? 

Next year, I'm giving hugs.

Hitler, ISIS, and Donald Trump

What do Hitler, ISIS and "the Donald" have in common--beyond the obvious obnoxiousness?

They have in common the roots of their popularity and success with those people that have been led to a state of arousal---by truly impressive rabble-rousers.

It is not just the actions of these men/groups, but where the most willing followers were before they were roused.  There are old films of Hitler's speeches being cheered, arms waving, faces impassioned.  There are young men leaving their homes and going to other lands with no more purpose than to use themselves as a human explosive for the cause.  And we have that same group, the fearful, the hopeless, those that most want to return to a "better time"  although not one of them has actually experienced that better time/place/world.

They are hate-mongers, war-mongers, and pot-stirrers.  There only enemy is thinking people that can see the holes in their logic.  We need more thinking people.  We need more people that understand history in the context of the people and politics and perspective it was written (this is why no one should flunk history for not remembering the dates of anything, although a chronology is very helpful)  We need people that are self-aware of their own fears and anxieties and understand that the person desperate enough to try to stick a  sirloin steak in his coat is not so much a criminal as he is a desperate, hopeless person.  We need empathy for those whose lives seem to hold no hope, no future opportunities.  And we need to not let big-talking cheerleaders get us all riled up and ready to do something crazy or stupid or horrifying.

"if you friends jumped off a cliff would you follow them?"

Fear must never lead.  We lost so many people to the verbal powers of Hitler, a man that rose as much because of the economic depression that covered the world, making people open to fear and hate due to there own feeling of unfairness, their own need to blame someone for their suffering.  ISIS because of the horrible confluence of world oil grubbing (worse than the gold-rush of 1849), political destabilization by outside powers that wanted that oil, and a euphoric desire to return to the rule of the Caliphate.

And now we have Donald; a man that has risen from  humble beginnings as the son of a very wealthy man, a Hotel Magnate, a man that is not afraid to brag when we goes bankrupt repeatedly since he never personally lost a dime (someone lost, guess they don't count),  and went on to become the older and more masculine version of Kim Kardashian. (you know, twitter feeds, reality tv)   He's became a household name, first via the National Enquirer, then on his own reality TV show.  He flaunts his bad comb-over.  He is loud, rude, and proud to be the son of one of the Leaders of the KKK.

How does this equal hope?  He promises nothing but hate, meanness, and a return to a time when rich white men could treat everybody else like human garbage. And every poor white person I meet is thrilled.  They are thrilled because they can now openly blame their financial strife on immigrants and people of color.  They can shoot someone for scaring them by looking different.  They can go back to being better than someone else based on no personal attribute except their birth.

This country has problems.  Those of us with brains, eyes, ears, need to not let the hysteria bring us all down.

Be an agent of PEACE.