Happiness

I was driving back to Tybee this afternoon on Highway 80. I saw a car headed toward Savannah with a dog. He had his head stuck out the window looking something like this.

It made me think about my Buddy Mike and his recent blog post about Whiz Bang the Dumb Struck Wonder Pup bounding through the tall grass. Both dogs were just full of unbridled joy. I thought about how wonderful it would be if we, as adults, could accomplish that level of happiness. It seems that level of joy is lost to us sometime in our youth. Perhaps our teen years. Hormones and peer pressure? In adulthood we are concerned with car payments, mortgage, our spouses and children. Our joy is tempered by our responsibilities. Maybe the closest we get is riding a motorcycle.

Relax a little over the holiday weekend and try to find the joy that dog is experiencing.

Walking

I walk every day. Sometimes with intent to get some much needed exercise. Sometimes it is just to give our fur kids Rose and Lily an opportunity to take care of their needs outdoors. I enjoy walking. It is an opportunity to enjoy nature. Feel the wind on your face. The sun shining on your skin. Hear the bark of a squirrel. The barking of another dog. The wail of an ambulance siren. I use a couple of different ways to track my walks. When I take the dogs out for their needs my steps are measured by my Fitbit. So far Fitbit says I have worn my trackers for a total of 14,972,382 steps, or 7,556.06 miles. It also says I have climbed the equivalent of 13,138 floors of stair steps. I'm currently on my third one of their trackers. Sweat and dirt are not the trackers friend.

When I take my long walk I use an application on my phone called Map My Walk. It utilizes GPS technology to track and map where I have walked. I haven't used this application as long but I do like the mapping feature. It did have one feature that I have finally turned off. It is able to provide voice coaching. So every quarter mile it would tell me how far I have walked, my pace during the walk and the total time elapsed since I started. It finally dawned on me that the voice feedback was ruining my walks. I wasn't listening to the birds in the trees. I wasn't feeling the sun and wind on my face. I wasn't paying attention to Rose and Lily. I was doing math problems in my head. How much faster does the next mile or quarter mile have to be so that I was walking 3.5 miles an hour? I would get irritated if the dogs wanted to stop and investigate some smell or pee for about the 100th time on that walk. Why can't they both go at the same time? We walked 10 feet and you want to pee again? Come on I need to make some time here. Every second I stop just makes getting my time right that much harder. Walking wasn't enjoyable. I'm retired. What's the rush? Ok the walk takes longer. The other day we walked about 5 miles. Map My Walk says it took me over 19 minutes to walk each mile. It wasn't chirping at me every quarter mile and I really enjoyed my walk.

So, what is the lesson here. I guess for me it was gaining an understanding that technology should not be something that interferes with our enjoyment. When a device, or a program or a characteristic of an application becomes a problem we have to be willing to pull the plug. Make some changes. Technology should enhance our experiences not rule them. Now I walk in blissful silence except for the music that plays in my head. I have one Christmas song I enjoy, Burl Ives singing It's a Holly Jolly Christmas. The other day while I was walking that was stuck in an endless loop in my brain. While it was playing in there amid the sounds of Tybee I thought about how strange it was. When I hear it in my head it is not my voice singing it that I hear it is his. Mike here is where the question becomes philosophical. Are we really dead if someone remembers us? Did old Burl stop by and have a walk in my brain? I think both happened. It's okay, he's welcome any time. Maybe after Christmas he will change the words a bit for me so it is a Holly Jolly day on Tybee.

Thoughts on Thursday

I probably shouldn't make fun of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions but I am. Anyone who thinks Donald Trump could have been, is, or ever will be a good president deserves to be ridiculed.

I usually think the Super Bowl halftime shows suck. I would watch Weird Al. 

I refuse to use self check lanes. The other problem is I'm thinking about dropping Amazon as well. Seems to me that when you are a company valued at or above a trillion dollars and your major shareholder is the richest man on Earth you shouldn't need taxpayer dollars to fund the location of your new headquarters.

Surprised that stalker Santa isn't in that lineup. I hear he knows when you're sleeping, knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been good or bad. Sounds like a window peeping stalker to me.

I showed this to someone yesterday because I thought it was funny as hell. The picture doesn't mean anything if you don't understand praying mantis mating habits.

I've been to Ohio and I understand why they would all head for Michigan.

I probably won't be but any joke involving a Muppet is funny.

The older I get the more true this seems to be.

We Owe a Debt

I'm composing this on Veteran's Day. It has been 100 years since the end of the First World War. There will be plenty of things written and said about the actions of the current American president this weekend. The focus should be on the sacrifices made by those who fought, were wounded or died in The Great War. They thought it was the war to end all wars. Those of us who have followed sincerely wish they had been right. Instead we have spent the last 100 years figuring out new ways to kill people quicker and more efficiently. It is a sad but true statement on humanity and how we have chosen to live on this planet. We look at the vast universe and wonder if there is any intelligent life out in that giant expanse. I look around at what we do to each other and wonder if there is any intelligent life on this world.

My thoughts today were taken to the words of two men. The first, Abraham Lincoln. He spoke at his second inaugural as the Civil War was ending about binding the nations wounds and looking after the veterans of that war and their families.

     "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us
     to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds,
     to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all
     which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

                    Abraham Lincoln
                    March 4, 1865

President Lincoln would die at the hand of an assassin on April 15, 1865. Some 150+ years later we are still unable to bind up the nation's wounds. President Lincoln did make it clear to us what our obligation is to those who serve in our nation's military. It is a debt we owe them and their families that realistically can never be fully repaid. We must do our utmost toward that repayment. 

The second man is Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae the man who wrote "In Flanders Fields" in May 1915 after presiding over the funeral of his friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. He died in the Second Battle of Ypres during World War One.

     In Flanders fields the poppies blow
     Between the crosses, row on row,
     That mark our place; and in the sky
     The larks, still bravely singing, fly
     Scarce heard amid the guns below.

     We are the Dead. Short days ago
     We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
     Loved and were loved, and now we lie
     In Flanders fields.

     Take up our quarrel with the foe:
     To you from failing hands we throw
     The torch; be yours to hold high.
     If ye break faith with us who die
     We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
     In Flanders fields.

The dead pass their torch to us to finish the work they so nobly began. It seems to easy to honor them in word. We should rather work to honor them in our deeds. We know what the right things are to do. So we should work to see them done or at the least with our failing hand throw the torch to the next generation to finish the work we have nobly begun.

Live Longer?

I went to the doctor today. Well, maybe doctor is the correct term. I never actually saw the doctor. I was examined by the physician assistant. I had been having some discomfort in the upper left quadrant of my abdomen and in the center of my chest along my sternum. When you are old and fat, I'm clearly both, they want to check out your heart. So out came the 10 lead EKG. Got all hooked up and it showed no heart problem. One possibility out of the way. Blood pressure was up a bit but it always is when I go to the doctor. I have anxiety about going and it raises my blood pressure.  The physician assistant came in and looked at my last visit there and told me it was the same problem I had complained about a year ago. Had I done anything different or just spent the year doing the same thing and putting up with the pains. So I got the usual list of things I shouldn't do. The things I should stop. No fried food. No chocolate, No beer or other alcohol. No soda or carbonated beverages. Lose some weight. Exercise more. Take some medication to reduce my acid re-flux.

Well, now what to do? I had a very dear friend who got the same kind of advice many years ago. He listened to what the doctor said and then told him: "I may not live any longer if I do this but it will sure seem like it." He lived his life on his terms and continued what he had been doing. Less than 2 years later in his mid 40's he was dead. Time to make some lifestyle changes.

Will I live longer? I don't know. Will I do what they told me to do today? Yes. I may not live longer. It may seem longer. I just haven't done everything I want to do yet. I can live without fried food and beer and chocolate and soda pop. There is more to life than those things. 

Vote? Mickey Mouse? What About...?

It is election day. I hope you take the time to vote. I hope you think about what the candidate you vote for wants to accomplish while he or she is in office. One of many problems I have with elections and candidates is the tone and content of political advertisements. It seems so much time is wasted trying to tell me what a worthless, low down, lying piece of shit your opponent is. That information has absolutely no value to me as a voter. I need to know what you want to accomplish if you are elected. What do you see as our greatest needs? How do you want to address the high cost of healthcare? Drug prices continue to rise seemingly out of control. Do you have a plan to address that issue? What is it? The budget deficit has risen dramatically due to the tax cuts and increased defense spending. How do you intend to address that issue? Do you plan on cutting social security and government subsidized healthcare to reduce the deficit? Where do you stand on the Mueller investigation? Should it continue? Should there be more oversight provided by Congress on the actions of the current president? How do you plan to address immigration? Is it appropriate to send our military to the southern boarder? Those are some of the questions I think the candidates should answer. I'll use healthcare as an example. Those folks running for office say they want to protect preexisting conditions and expand healthcare. What they don't say in their advertisements or on their websites is how? Don't give me broad strokes of policy wishes. Tell me what, when, how, cost, benefit. As I was always taught, the devil is in the details. About now you are wondering what the hell Mickey Mouse has to do with this. Good question.

Sunday night, two days before an election, ABC broadcast a special celebrating Mickey Mouse's 90th birthday. Really? This is how we want to spend our valuable broadcast time, celebrating the birthday of an imaginary mouse. Those of you who know me are aware that I have no love for that little rodent bastard. I understand the economics of the broadcast. ABC is owned by Disney. Clearly since Disney raised worker wages they need to encourage more folks to attend their theme parks. So, while we should be focused on an important election, we are watching a celebration for a rodent. You see a mouse on your floor in your house. Do you wonder when his or her birthday is so you can plan a party? I think not. Time for glue traps, snap traps, and poison. Maybe wack that son of a bitch with a broom. Mickey Mouse- please just go back in the wall and eat that cheese on the snap trap.

What about? Don't be distract by bullshit. I keep hearing about this invading caravan of immigrants traveling through Mexico headed north. It has become the center theme of what the president has had to say. Think about what is going on here. They are over 600 miles away. They are walking. If they walk 20 miles a day they are still a month away. They are mostly women and children. They are not, as best as we can tell now, trying to cross illegally. They are coming to seek asylum from the horrible conditions in Central America. Conditions that our government's actions helped create. It is another distraction from the real issues that we need to address as a nation.

Today, go vote. Know who you are voting for, what they stand for, what they hope to accomplish. Then take time to follow up. Did they actually do those things. Are they working to earn your support in two or four years? Make them accountable.

We Should be Proud of Them

Just read the article.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/11/05/since-parkland-weve-been-demanding-action-now-its-time-join-us/?utm_term=.4b0efc2243e8

Leadership

Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging. So it wasn't one day it was several. Today's post will be somewhat political so if you don't want to read that just move along now. I stopped commenting and posting about political issues on Facebook. That does not mean I'm stopping here.

I recently read an article on leadership. It addressed 10 characteristics of leadership. I'm going to list them all but not comment on all of them.

1. Vision
2. Motivation
3. Serving
4. Empathy
5. Creativity
6. Thoroughness
7. Managing
8. Team Building
9. Taking risks
10. Improving

Vision. I don't think there is any question that the current president has a vision of what he wants to do and where he wants to lead America. The other part of having a vision is that to accomplish that vision you must inspire others. There is no doubt the 40 or so percent that follow him and agree with him are inspired. The problem is team building. There seems to be no effort to reach out to anyone outside of those who are true believers. We have become a nation divided. It is increasingly clear that one of the major drivers of this is election district gerrymandering. Why? If we use computer modeling we can determine those areas that are solidly one party or the other. It allows political parties in power to create safe districts for their party. If you can ensure the opposition party has no chance of winning what happens? Effectively when you are elected the only way you can lose is in your party primary election. You lose because your party's voters have determined you are not sufficiently conservative or liberal. Compromise becomes impossible. You want to remain in office to affect the change you think will help America and compromise means you can't be reelected. Change is generally incremental and not revolutionary. Republicans understand this and it has driven their opposition to the Affordable Care Act. It was a step in a long process toward universal health care.

Empathy. This is the issue with the current administration I do not understand. The current president seems completely unable to express or exhibit any significant level of empathy. I watch the near worshipful level of his followers and wonder how they reach the conclusions about him that they do. He understands our struggle. He knows how we feel. I will give you that one. He knows you are angry. That you feel the systems our society depends on don't work for you. He knows those things but only uses them to manipulate you in support of his agenda. It is an agenda that is not in the majority's best interest. He claims his administration is fighting to protect health care for pre-existing conditions. This is while he has worked to overturn the Affordable Care Act and his Justice Department actively supports a legal challenge to that protection. He talks about no cuts to Medicare and Social Security while leaders in the House and Senate push to make those cuts to reduce the budget deficit the tax cut they passed and he signed created. Understands their struggle. Please- he shits in a gold toilet. He has, allegedly, billions of dollars. He doesn't worry about how to pay his bills, pay for groceries, sending his children to college, car repairs or any of a hundred other things that vex every day Americans. He talks about your struggle but he doesn't understand your struggle. He has never lived your struggle. Never laid awake at night knowing that he doesn't have health insurance and is one illness or accident away from financial ruin. He hides behind his shell companies, lawyers and bankruptcies to keep his personal lifestyle. He refuses to pay companies and people who work for him. You are just another piece of shit he steps on while he walks to his golden toilet.

Improving. Leaders create an environment where team members work to improve their skills and the outcomes for their organization. It seems this president is only interested in having people who are willing to kiss his ass. Don't suggest something that is not a part of his plan. He believes he is the smartest person in every room he enters. It is clear, if you are paying attention, he is not.

I have believed for a very long time that a boss is someone who can get you to do your job. A leader is someone who works and encourages you to do your best. When I look at our current president I know that we can do better, much better. 

If you are interested in a good article on leadership here is a link.

www.game-learn.com/what-is-leadership-ways-to-define

Civility and Leadership

I haven't taken time to do this in several months. It wasn't that I didn't have anything to say. The problem was how am I going to say what I think. It has become increasingly clear that we, as a people, as Americans are becoming less tolerant of each other and even less understanding of immigrants and foreigners. What has caused this change? I have several thoughts on this. You may feel free to disagree at any time and choose to stop reading. I will not waste any time arguing with you.

First, the terror attack of 9-11-2001. It seems to have stoked our fears about folks of Middle Eastern descent. Made some of us strike out at Muslims. I can't provide numbers as recent as I would like but the reality looks something more like this. According to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2001 to 2014, 440095 people died in the United States from the use of firearms. This would include deaths from homicide, suicide and accidents. The United States Department of State indicates that during the same time period 369 United States citizens were killed in incidents of terrorism overseas. In the same time period 3,043 people were killed inside the United States in domestic acts of terrorism. This brings the total to 3,412. So, it is clear that you are much more likely to be killed by a firearm in an incident that is not classified as foreign or domestic acts of terrorism. It would seem our fears regarding death in a terror attack are not especially rational. Yet our political leaders are always ready to stoke those fears. There is a "caravan" of Central American refugees walking through Mexico apparently headed for the United States boarder. It has been suggested it is an invasion and contains individuals of Middle Eastern descent or MS 13 gang members. Regular U S Army troops are being sent to meet them at our boarder. Makes little sense to me as they are almost 900 miles away and walking. It will take this group weeks to get here. The only reason to send troops and make a big issue of this is to stoke fear prior to Tuesday and the midterm elections. Big group of non English speaking brown people are headed our way to invade us and steal our jobs. What a huge crock of bullshit.

Second, social media. Take a little time and read the comments on some Facebook posts. It makes you wonder how, and perhaps more relevantly, why you were ever friends with some of those people. I have stopped commenting on political posts on Facebook. I use it to keep up with what friends are doing in their lives not what they think about elected officials. The true horror of media online is reading a news article and then reading the comment section below. Folks hide behind online names and say all kinds of horrible and insulting things to each other. While a zippy insult may feel personally satisfying it does nothing to settle issues or raise the level of political discourse. It is our collective effort to reduce ourselves to something similar to poop throwing monkeys at the zoo. Lots of noise and shit throwing that essentially accomplishes nothing.

Third, personal computers, tablet computers and "smart" phones. We literally have the collective knowledge of mankind at our fingertips. We see some picture of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln. Donald Trump, or Barak Obama with a statement allegedly made by them. It appears to be something they said and it lines up with our current political beliefs so we "like" it or share it on our news feed as if it is true. A simple 30 second check on Google would reveal if it is accurate or not but seriously folks who has time for that. I have done those checks and commented back to the person who posted the erroneous information. All is has gotten me is grief. They don't care if it is accurate they just like what is says. Facts matter.

For me our lack of civility is driven by those factors. Fear, social media being not so social and ignorance. It doesn't have to be true it just has to sound true.

Tomorrow- leadership.