The Beach

Good morning, checking in from the beach on my birthday and trying out the voice recognition on the new iPad that my lovely wife brought me for my birthday. It is that time of day, my favorite time of day at the beach low tide or we will set out on a long walk on the beach. Everybody has it on their dating profile, loves long walks on the beach. So that’s what we do in the next half hour. We will walk on the beach with the dog, the sun will come out, Cooper will find clams and Luna will get in a fight with everything within 100 yards. That is known as the beach life.

For my birthday, I get to choose my favorite meal and I’m going with vegan mac & cheese. I remember as a kid, my mother made the best mac & cheese in the world, in my world, utilizing Campbell’s cheese soup. It didn’t matter I liked it very very much until the day my dad introduced kidney beans to the mix. When we were kids I also got to pick a Sweet. My choice was either Boston cream pie or lemon sponge cake. I was more of a savory person before I even knew what the word meant.

but for today I choose not food, not drink but rather a quiet weekend at the beach with my wife and our two dogs.

namaste

From the deep depth of conspiracy theory, from the right, isn’t that where it always comes, says that Joe Biden is going to take away the red meat. My hope here, is that someday that scenario actually plays out.

This country is built on the foundation of special interest, tacked on the lobbyist, tacked on tax money with the underlying mis-treatment of people of color and animals. They are both existential threats to the long term sustainability of this planet we over inhabit.

Taking away the redmeat, will only happen in a dream hatched in a perfect world. Of course, it would do us a world (pun intended) of good to drastically reduce our our red meat consumption. Animals are not here for our consumption. And I’m not getting into any annoying things that it is in the Bible or by the way the framers of the constitution. They had nothing to say about that either.

Absolutely nothing.

I love mis-placed analogies and if the amount of truth correlates to our consumption of redmeat we would cut down immediately. We all know there are far too many people on this planet, so taking steps in that direction on an individual basis goes a long way.

Or we could fight fire with fire, and get a rumor out there that red meat changes your DNA or it will make you consider dating someone of your same sex.

The cows would be happier. The planet would be happier.

Here I sit with no crisis at hand and A meeting coming up in 20 minutes. I sit here and feel like that all my work is complete and I am up-to-date with everything, and still there is the urge to produce produce produce produce produce produce.

Which gives me a little time for this brief reflection. Because somehow someway the work will get done. Trust me on that. As part of working there is also learning which is a critical part of what we do every single day. The learning is exhausting and rewarding and part of what we should do as people and employees. And as alluded to earlier some live to work and most should work to live.

It is when our work becomes an art form where in my opinion it adds value to both employer and the employee. That is using the skills that made you good at what you’re doing, but more importantly the skills that you love deploying.

And within capitalism that is not rewarded and in most cases is a rare occasion. For most we put up with what we do. There are those who relish and love things known as power and control. That’s just not me. Work allows us to be kind and do good work or it’s not work worth doing.

Have a great day

Last week, leaders at the Centner Academy, a Miami private school, sent teachers an email with a stark warning: Skip the coronavirus vaccines or else you’re not welcome in the classroom.

Yes that’s exactly where we have come, or someone is smarter than the experts, watched a YouTube video watched Fox News and made a decision that’s going to affect the lives of teachers and guess what students.

In the picture headline I put a picture of a pack of cigarettes. It is somewhat similar as a user decides to inhale and use cigarettes. For the most part it’s still different, Choice to smoke cigarettes really only theoretically harms the smoker. Of course there is the Issue of litter and secondhand smoke. And it’s not that simple either. Smokers live shorter lives and when they die the grief is passed on to those close to them. So another self-centered decision.

Then again it gets back to supply and demand and good old capitalism. A teacher can choose to work at such a school, parents can decide to take their kids to that school and that is the basis of many decisions in the United States. Of course it’s not that simple,as teachers need a job and they have the ability to make a choice in their lives Albeit with a financial undertone.

Then again, and I repeat, it’s not all black and white. Parents make decisions based on many many factors. I put in my tour of duty, as a parent and making those types of decisions. One attribute I never looked for in a school was stupidity, so we live in a country where parents and women have the freedom to choose.

That is until they don’t