Month: December 2017

  • To Be

    I had drinks last night with a friend, and as we were catching up, and swapping stories about our kids, we touched on the subject of, “what do we want to do when we grow up?” The great existential question we have been given since childhood, and a question that is truly asking, “Who will you be?” It’s funny that two guys in their late 30’s and early 40’s are still asking themselves this question, but is this just the new version of the mid-life crisis that our fathers went through? I would hope that me and my friend handle it better, and don’t make the mistakes of divorce, sports cars, and dying our hair jet black, because it didn’t fool anyone. (Though I do have an ironic fondness for the mid-life crisis guys who would grow ponytails. Kids in the Hall had a spoof on that type of guy.)

    But at the same time, this question of what to do next with my life is a conversation that me and the wife have been having often, lately. We both make a decent living, and though we both work in the field of our interest, it is best described that we work adjacent to our preferred field. Meaning that we are noting doing exactly what we want, but are close. This leads us to make the changes in our career path to get where we want, but that to a degree might mean starting over, or that’s how it feels… or should we just say fuck it, and go in a completely new direction.

  • Stupid Boomers

    I am not a Millennial… I’m Gen X, and for that, I accept that I am just the middle child of all this generational stuff between Boomers and my younger siblings, the aforementioned Millennials. But if I may stick up for the younger group, there is one thing that Boomers have been saying for a while about Millennials that is, well, just sort of stupid.

    Whenever I hear a Boomer get on the high horse of pointing out what is wrong with the kids today, they hit on the laundry list that all old people use when the complain about younger people; too self-absorbed, don’t value hard work, don’t care about the important things… Now, the favorite one I hear all the time goes along the lines of, “…and they all got participation trophies, and were told they were special, so they don’t know how to deal with hardship.”

    Hey, you dumb shit Boomer, who the hell do you think was handing out those trophies? Your stupid generation came up with the idea of participation trophies. It wasn’t a bunch of five year olds at the final game of their soccer season going, “We really should ask our parents to hand out something that includes all of us, not just the winners.” No, it was you Boomers sitting around, not wanting to feel bad that some kids will lose. Now, all these years later, you have begun to regret that decision, and you have started blaming your kids.

    Maybe our grandparents were right about our parents; they don’t care about the important things.

  • Just a Thought

    I wonder if my liberalism has cornered me into not being able to compromise and get things done?

    This is a thought that has been bouncing around my head of late, which also makes me think that I have become part of the problem instead of the solution. What I feel is important politically keeps becoming more and more redline, and unyielding, and my gut reaction is that I am being pushed this direction by the opposition, not that I want to go there.

    Let’s use climate change as an example. An enormous issue that I feel demands immediate action, and if nothing else, we should make moves to stop making it worse. The conservative viewpoint is that it doesn’t exist… and this is where I say that I feel cornered, because where do I go? If the other side refuses to believe that the issue exists, how do I make progress? Thusly, in turn, I feel that I have to do more and be louder to make the issue be addressed, which in turn makes me less likely to engage with the other side. Wait… I think I just became a victim of my own issue…

    Let me try this another way…

    There is part of me that knows to get things done, I have work with different people who hold different viewpoints, and find common ground and consensus. Then at the same time, I want to give up and say that the other side will never agree with me, so I might as well go full blow for all of my convictions. At the end of the day, nothing gets done.

  • The Tax Overhaul

    I have never understood people that vote against their own self-interest, and I believe that is what people are doing that vote Republican. I try to circle that square, as how someone who is working or middle class, would vote Republican, and then celebrate when that party gives huge tax breaks to the rich and corporations. It is another form of redistribution of wealth, going from the poor to the rich. Yet, Republican voters cannot stand when the redistribution of wealth goes the other way, in their favor.

    Having said that, I do also believe what LBJ said about politics, and I know that I’m paraphrasing here, but it’s all about power; those that want it, and those that don’t want to give it up. It’s a very base and cynical way of looking at things, but in that prism, politics does make more sense to me.

    The tax over haul; nothing but power. It is ensuring that one group get a leg up over the other one. This is an action to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society. Thoes orginal programs were nothing but a shift in power in their own rights. It took the money from the very wealthy and the very few, and gave it to everyone else. It was a power shift that clearly said who was most important to the government.