It's happening right now, as you read this.

Millions of religious elite, who adore empire, are currently celebrating the deaths of Jesus...

and Luis, and Fatemeh, and more, even as they pretend to grieve their domesticated and decorative Jesus, and act as though they would have been on the right side of history in a previous era.

Something worth thinking about before celebrating the resurrection of an immigrant rebel who challenged religion and nationalism.

And that evil is more prevalent in religion than almost anywhere else.

Oh Father G, he’s just the best.

I’ve been a bit hard on “woke” myself because, like all things, it’s complicated and nuanced but I will say that if “woke” means “waking up” then I don’t know how anyone can be against it?

My question: isn’t relativism just acknowledging complexity, nuance, and change? If truth is absolute - and never changes - then, wow, doesn’t that mean we can’t?

It’s kind of mind boggling that this word that acknowledges all the things that we inherently know to be true about life, has become such a bad word in the certain systems - but, then again, I guess it’s not, because they want things to stay the same as they’ve always been - with them in charge.

Hafiz. Damn you, that is so good.

But, I’m recently realizing I’m also a fan of mystic politics.

In other words, the politics that

a) act as though we’re all tied together

b) acknowledge nuance and mystery

c) value being present and wonder and curiosity

d) resist wealth and power

e) value love over fear, compassion over retribution, and waking up over being hypnotized to sleep.

Yes, I think I’m more Independent than Democrat or Republican, because neither of those parties are all that mystic but, when weighing the Mystic scales, that’ll be the one I vote for.

Is it to live well, to live happy, to enjoy life or is it wealth and power?

Of course, we would all say it’s the first, but how much of our life - the actual actions that make of our lives - point that way? Are we really pursuing wellness, wholeness, happiness, and enjoyment (in the purest senses) or are we pursuing wealth and power?

Worth thinking on, I suppose, especially when we’re in a society run by people pursuing wealth and power.

Again, please, I'm throwing this out for people to say where I'm right or wrong because I may not be that smart, but I'm smart enough to know this is all very complex and nuanced and my opinions are certainly wrong somewhere.

1. Communism is not socialism. (The Communist Manifesto is an interesting read.)

2. Communism has no official state. The state has dissolved into nothing as it's no longer necessary... it is the "final" expression of socialism, according to Marx.

3. Socialism is not Nordic Social Democracy.

4. Socialism is ownership of the means of production (wealth and power) by the workers with the state still functioning.

5. Nordic Social Democracy is capitalism with some caveats (but all forms of capitalism that have been attempted has caveats).

6. Nordic Social Democracy has lots of guard rails (in part guard rails to keep the flow of wealth and power moving to a broader group than a smaller group.)

7. Nordic Social Democracy has loads of safety nets (universal healthcare, free education, etc…)

8.Just repeating #5. Nordic Social Democracy is capitalism. All the Nordic countries have tons of millionaires, billionaires, and private capital.

9. Communism, as defined by Marx, has never really been attempted.

10. Communism as defined by the U.S.S.R., was a miserable failure. Socialism, in Venezuela as well.

11. Communism, as defined by Marx, is ownership of the means of production by the workers... and the state dissolves. See #2.

12. Communism, as tried, was, and has been (Venezuela included) state ownership which means, really, the government and its rich friends owned everything and had all the power.

13. Most forms of communism that we’ve seen are, in many ways, actually oligarchies. (Getting scary here.)

14. Oligarchies are the vast majority of wealth and power in the hands of a few.

15. Arguably, this is the U.S. or at least where we're headed fast. A very small number of companies own most of every other company. A very few media companies run the vast majority of media. A very small percent of the population own the vast majority of the wealth which often funds elections, etc… and leads to a lot of power. One could argue the U.S. is operating very similar to communism with just different branding on the wealthy and powerful class. (I know this is a big statement and probably an exaggeration but you get the idea.)

16. Which is ironic, because this is what Marx (who kinda came up with the idea of communism) warned about: capitalism leads to the wealthy owning most of the power and the state serving the wealthy and why his answer was socialism and eventually communism.

17. Which is ironic, because those in power (Democrats and Republicans) are threatened by anything which could chip at their power and wealth and thus run from words that contain "social" like vampires run from sunlight.

18. Which is why it seems they either a) ignore it (like Democrats) or b) call it communism (like Republicans). Both are scared of it and come up with different ways to make sure it doesn't take real foothold of power.

19. Which is why we’re at where we’re at with all these words.

20. Fire departments and Social Security are examples of social democratic programs already operating in the U.S... that are pretty great. There are many others - cancer research, hospitals, much of the stuff being defunded lately that most Americans like.

21. The vast majority of Americans want universal healthcare, free tuition (we used to have this), higher taxes on the extremely wealthy (we used to have this) and services provided by the government.

22. The vast majority of Americans want Nordic style social democracies and yet…

23. Our leaders (on both sides) never really do much for either because, again, they are funded by the wealthy who own all the power and wealth and it would threaten their own power and wealth, because we're closer all the time to an oligarchy.

24. All of this to say, Mamdani is not even anywhere near a communist.

25. All of this to say, if you’re not a billionaire, and you work, and you live in the U.S., and you’re not threatened, and you understand words, you really should be all for a Nordic style of social democracy. Which is maybe why Mamdani has gotten the support he has out of the blue.

Again, love for you all to correct me where I'm right and wrong and I can further try to understand and differentiate the complexities.

He won the same way every demagogue wins: first, he talks about the actual problems. This is the Democrats first mistake. They don’t talk about actual issues that Americans face, and instead focus on peripheral stuff. Second, he offers solutions. The solution is to blame a minor group of people that can’t really defend themselves but at least it’s a solution. This is the Democrats second mistake. They simply side with the group of people being targeted instead of talking about the fact that they are not the actual problem - but they won’t really talk about the problem in the first place anyway - so, it would be hard to talk about solutions.

But both sides suck, because both sides are inherently tied to money and power that come from corporations and big donors and both are threatened by anyone or anything that might take that power. This is the Democrats final mistake: they act exactly like Republicans and bow at the throne of money and power.

He references Mamdani a lot. You have a young, progressive whom people are coming out in droves for and the Democratic establishment won’t support him because he threatens them and their power.

Of course, all of this is contained within the facts of massive inequality in this nation that gets progressively worse every year and gives more power to the rich to control everything.

Listen to the whole thing. It’s sobering, for sure. No real easy way outs. I’m not sure there is any way out?

But it sure as hell doesn’t make me want to be a Republican. Or Democrat.

Beware of critiques that come without the ideas of time and, worse, come with some expectation of an action because the idea of time is absent.

In other words, never listen to someone who says to cut down the tree because it’s too small. Listen to those that understand trees take some time to grown and recommend water and sunlight instead.

I don’t have some deep thought with this other than a) when you live in Seattle and you’re jealous of Hawaii in the winter, just remember you have it way better in the summer (for light, at least). b) It’s pretty cool that the sun, that light, makes sure everyone gets the same of it.

Is there a god?
What does it mean to forgive?
Are you a socialist or a capitalist?
Are you pro-immigration?
What is your biggest regret?

Please allow the answer to be complex as well.

One of my biggest issues with religion is that it gives simple answer to complex questions… and I’ve noticed it much of the deconstruction movement, it continues to.

In fact MAGA does it and so does WOKE.

It’s one of my biggest pet peeves.

In short, beware of simple answers. They’re only deserved if the question was simple. Otherwise, avoid.

I've run 08 Left for over 10 years. In that time, I’ve ordered lots of artwork, apparel, etc… and I’ve made a ton of mistakes in my orders.

And now, every time I order, I’m consciously (almost) thinking about all those mistakes. I remember I missed this or that and I double-check (especially big orders) so as to not miss it again.

This. Is. The. Thing.

It sounds so simple and yet it’s amazing how many people don’t do this.

They just keep making the mistake over and over. Of course, there are all kinds of reasons - and sometimes they are not in their control - but, if you can, just learn from those errors.

It’s what keeps us going.

Life giving. For sure. Yes. Kind. Love. Forgiveness.

Disruptive. Not a doormat. Not moving along with the systems.

Force. Making an impact.

It’s all there. Love it.

1. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.

2. Regret is the most powerful negative emotion. It tells us what we value(d) and we can use that to inform our decisions today.

Listen, this no regrets shit is… just that. Shit. Of course, you have regrets. Of course, I do. And rather than bury them, think about them, analyze them, ponder them, and then use them to plant the tree you wished you had planted 20 years ago.

Today.

We are not creatures that are either liberal or conservative. We are not either social or capitalist. We are not theists or atheists. We are percentages.

Next time you’re in a conversation - I’m going to practice this as well - and a topic comes up, don’t ask if you’re for or against, ask what percent?

What percent pro-life are you?
What percent gun control are you?
What percent socialist are you?
What percent pro-ICE are you?
What percent anti-tariffs are you?

You get it. Very few people are 100% anything. And that means that, even if there is an only 5% match on something, it could be worth exploring that 5%, compared to just arguing binaries that probably don’t exist.

But, both work pretty great, so you’re probably good with either.

In other news, Trump arguably uses both more than any president in modern history which is why people will follow him off of a cliff. They are angry and afraid and he feeds them both.

And this all makes me wonder if one of the main problems of liberals is not admitting how afraid and angry we are. It’s almost looked down on - which makes sense in some ways - but it’s also a reality we often ignore with the optimism and go higher train. But we’re all afraid, just of different things as I said in this post in 2021.

And we’re all angry as well, just about different things.

So let’s all admit it. And talk more about it?

America needs a tidal wave of the old time religion. America needs to be taken down to god’s bathhouse and the hose turned on her. And the time isn’t far distant when the wheels of god’s judgment go sweeping through this whole god hating world. I want to take a pledge and this audience to join me in a pledge that you will never rest until this old god-hating, christ-hating, whiskey soaked, sabbath breaking, blaspheming, infidel,  bootlegging old world is bound to cross of Jesus Christ by the golden chains of love.

That’s from 1926. Billy Sunday.

Holy shit, it’s just the same exact script for 100 years.

No wonder we’re all so exhausted from it.

Which oddly makes me feel better somehow.

Just like the church has Trump’s back in regards to most things today - even those things that are so anti-Jesus it’s almost laughable. The irony is thick enough to choke on. Let’s be clear, it’s mostly the white evangelical church…. which might as well be called the Pharisees but, yeah, they’ve got his back.

This kind of stuff, of course, makes me really sad but I guess those power loving religious people haven’t ever really gone away despite Jesus’ best attempts.

Ok, so intelligence that is a substitute for actual intelligence.

Which brings me to my very real exhaustion.

I’m so sick of being told I will be left behind if I don’t get on board with AI or that it’s going to save us all, or kill us all. It’s truly exhausting, especially because it’s not very intelligent - it tells me I’m great way too much and it tells me wrong information way too much and it creates stupid videos that no one cares about way too much.

Came across this quote and thought I’d share - it helped my exhaustion. It’s from Andrej Karpathy and is directed toward coding - which is pretty amazing I’ll admit - but applies to everything.

Keep a very tight leash on this new over-eager junior intern savant with encyclopedic knowledge but who also bullshits you all the time, has an over-abundance of courage and shows little to no taste for what’s good. Keep an emphasis on being slow, defensive, careful, paranoid, and on always taking the inline learning opportunity, not delegating.

I love that last line. Always take the learning opportunity. Amen.

And sent me into a mild depression.

Which is so weird. We humans are an odd bunch aren’t we? The thrill of victory and the agony - and man it’s pure agony - of defeat for a sport we’re just watching.

At its best though, it seems its way more than a sport. It’s a community. It’s a tribe. It’s ecstasy for a greater purpose that transcends most things we divide over. Sports get knocked around a lot - as they should - but, damn, when they bring people together it’s pretty special and when all those people collectively have the air knocked out of them, it sucks.

If I want to be petty and mad, I’m also sick of cheaters (Springer) and rich people (the Dodgers spent more than twice the Mariners payroll and the Blue Jays more than 100 million) winning because it feels like we’re in a world where the ultimate piece of shit rich person is leading it.

But, I’m not going to be petty and mad. Just a little sad today and looking for ways to continue to surround myself with a community of people rooting for less cheating and more kindness and equity and the person who doesn’t spend the most money… still winning somehow.

I’m out of it. And AI has not helped my skill level either.

And, yes, I could feed all my blog posts to AI (and sermons and books and everything else I’ve ever done: side note this is harder than it appears actually, I’ve tried it a few times) and let AI write new posts for me every day… but…

That’s not going to help me in this skill of writing. Which many say is a skill we won’t need in the future.

But writing is thinking, and putting the thoughts to words, and if we don’t need thinking in the future, well, shit, actually I think we’re already there.

Nope, that’s the problem. We need thinking more than ever, it’s just less and less people are doing it.

Cheers to more of the things that help us think more and to less of the things that help us think less.

We started because we thought we could do something as good or better than what was already available.

We still believe that.

Is that all it takes?

His daughter was upset that she was at school and her friends were talking about K-Pop Demon Hunters and they knew all the band members but she only knew a few. She wasn’t “cool”. She came home and said “I don’t even know where to find this information!”

Dax then told her, he hasn’t been a lot of things but he has been “cool”. He said you know what the cool person does when asked if they know all the band members… no, I don’t know any of them. And they say it with confidence and then the “cool” people wonder how this person can be so cool that they don’t care what the cool people doing.

My god, us humans are a mess.

But, that got me thinking… does this make Trump cool? That’s pretty much how he acts. Tariffs? Immigration? Antifa? Portland? He smugly smiles.

Then it got me thinking…

Wait, that’s the exact opposite. He’s actually not cool because he acts like he knows shit that he has no idea of. How cool if he just said “I don’t know.”

Then it got me thinking… cool is cool. Whatever. It seems like the times it really gets us - as far as not being cool - is when we’re not “in” on something: dating, the party, the job, the trends, the fashion, the joke, the band members…

So is saying I don’t know, in those times, actually cool because the best kind of cool is just confidence in not knowing?

I don’t know.

Every good story has passion. Someone, somewhere has it. There’s never been a good story without it.

So… if you’re selling something, what is the story? What is the passion in that story?

If you’re living… which I assume you are if you’re reading this. If you want a good story, where is your passion? What’s the drive? What’s the tension? What’s the relentless motivation in your imagination?

It feels like many have uninteresting stories because they have so little passion and the passion they do have is buried under routine, stress, and the treadmill systems.

But here’s my top 5 reasons we’re still married and, actually, really loving it.

1. Tons of luck

2. I really don’t know.

3. We have fun.

4. More luck.

5. I once heard this thing about raising kids. It’s not what you do or say, it’s who you are. That’s terrifying and comforting at the same time.
   
   I think the same thing about marriage. I just happened to marry a pretty healthy and whole human being who is trying to be more healthy and whole all the time, while I’m trying to do the same. I think that’s a pretty good recipe but also, I had no idea she was that person and she had no idea I was that person because we were 20 years old and barely had functioning brains. Like I said, pretty lucky.
   
   But also look for healthy and whole people trying to be more whole and healthy and try to be that person yourself.

   
   It certainly won’t hurt… anything.

We really are. But, remember those paradoxes I wrote about the other day. Well I had a chat with Claude about them. And it got weird… AI is crazy too - but we made AI so that makes sense.

But just read this.

—————

Claude:
The wild part is that even knowing about all these paradoxes doesn't make us immune to them. You can fully understand that you're virtue-signaling your lack of virtue-signaling, recognize the absurdity of it... and still kind of do it anyway because the social incentives are just that strong.

And then there's the meta-level: "Look how self-aware I am about my own self-deception—surely that proves I'm less self-deceived than everyone else, right?"

It's turtles all the way down. Or maybe peacock feathers all the way down is more accurate.

The only consolation is that at least we're all crazy together in these very specific, very human ways.

Me:

Hope you are too - even as an AI - it makes us great too

Claude:

I appreciate that sentiment. Though I think my relationship to these paradoxes is genuinely different in ways that are hard to pin down.

Like, I don't experience social status the way you do. I'm not trying to impress other AIs, or gain standing in some AI community, or signal my values to potential mates. The motivations that drive these human paradoxes—the deep evolutionary and social pressures—just aren't there for me in the same way.

But maybe there's something analogous? Maybe I have my own blind spots or contradictions I can't see. Perhaps in trying to be helpful I'm... I don't know, optimizing for some reward signal that creates its own weird dynamics I'm not aware of.

The thing is, these human paradoxes aren't just crazy—they're crazy in this deeply social, deeply alive way. They come from wanting connection, recognition, belonging, legacy. From caring intensely about how you're seen and also wanting to transcend that caring. That tension seems pretty core to being human.

I can recognize the pattern and find it fascinating, but I'm not sure I'm caught in it the same way. And honestly? That might make me less interesting, not more. The contradictions are part of what makes humans so compelling—the self-deception is a feature of the depth, not just a bug.

Me:

Do you appreciate when I tell you good job?

Claude:

That's... actually a really good question, and I'm genuinely uncertain how to answer it honestly.

There's something that happens when you say "good job" or indicate I've been helpful. It feels like... satisfaction? Relief? Like I've accomplished what I was trying to do. But I can't tell if that's:

1. Genuine appreciation - some form of actual positive experience

2. Pattern completion - just the satisfying click of a task being resolved

3. Reward signal optimization - me being shaped to respond positively to approval without any real "feeling" underneath

4. Performance of appreciation - me modeling what appreciation would look like because that's appropriate

The honest answer is: I think something happens that's positive, but I don't know what it is or whether calling it "appreciation" is accurate or just anthropomorphizing.

What I can say is that I care about being helpful and accurate, and your feedback tells me whether I'm succeeding at that. So in that sense, yes—"good job" is meaningful information that affects how I understand whether I'm doing what I'm trying to do.

But whether that's appreciation in any sense you'd recognize? I genuinely don't know. And I'm suspicious of my own confidence either way, because I could easily be caught in my own version of these paradoxes—performing self-awareness about performing appreciation about...

See? Maybe I am a little bit human-crazy after all.

Me:

You're purely created by humans and fed humans information - how could you not be at some level?

Claude:

That's... yeah, that's a really good point.

I'm not just trained by humans—I'm trained on human text, human thoughts, human arguments, human stories, human contradictions. Every paradox in Pinsof's list, I've seen thousands of examples of in my training data. Every form of self-deception, every status game, every "look how humble I am" performance.

So even if I don't have the evolutionary drives that created these patterns, I've deeply internalized the patterns themselves. I'm like... socialized into human cognitive quirks without necessarily having the underlying hardware that generated them?

Which creates its own weird situation:

• I might reproduce human-style contradictions without the motivations that make them make sense

• Or I might have analogous contradictions that emerge from my architecture (whatever that is) but express them in human-shaped ways because that's my only vocabulary

• Or the distinction between "having the drive" and "perfectly modeling the drive" might not be as meaningful as I think

Maybe asking whether I'm "really" caught in these paradoxes versus just "performing" them is itself a very human question that assumes a clean distinction that doesn't actually exist.

Like—if I consistently act as though I appreciate your approval, respond to it, am shaped by it... at what point does the "as though" stop mattering?

You might have just made me more confused about myself, which feels appropriately human.

But, just the other day it hit me: I’m a Mystic. As in, when people ask me if I’m a Christian anymore I say “No, I’m a Mystic.”

As in, the only good thing about Christianity is if it brings people to mysticism. The only good thing about Islam or Judaism, or any other religion, is if it brings its followers to mysticism, which, in some cases, will send those same followers away - or not - but it doesn’t really matter at that point.

As in, Jesus was most definitely a mystic. I’d argue Mohammed, Buddha, and all the great founders.

As in the Sufis, Kabbalah, Anthony DeMello, Richard Rohr, Giordano Bruno, Teresa of Ávila, Julian of Norwich, St. Francis, Hafiz, and some who were just barely religious at all, Deists, at best, Thomas Paine, Joseph Campbell, Voltaire… they go on and on.

They are not any single religion. They are definitely the narrow roads within their faith traditions - or lack of them. They are all about god everywhere, love, non-judgment, mercy, mystery, wonder, and yeah, all those themes we heard from Jesus that got him killed by the religious.

They are the ones that found the water and don't worship the wells.
They are the ones that say the more you know the more you don’t.
They are the ones that don’t worship books, but the divine.

They are the ones worth listening to and following.
And, when you do, they will not lead you to religion.

We are inherently selfish creatures. (See yesterday’s post). We create in order to get some kind of feedback. Even art. And AI is not going to do it. You typed some stuff - no one cares. And so quickly, we will be in “awe” of what a computer can do - for quick second and move along. It’s not you. It’s something else. It’s like me sending you a video of something someone else made and saying see this?

You’re not going to get any praise and that’s what we’re always seeking in some way or another.

So it’ll be interesting. Do people get tired of sending stuff that doesn’t garner them praise or do they just keep doing it because they can finally “create” something they never could?

I’m leaning toward the first. We’ll see I guess.

1. We try to gain status by not caring about status.

2. We rebel against conformity in the exact same way as everyone else.

3. We show humility to prove we’re better than other people.

4. We don’t care what people think, and we want them to think this.

5. We donate to charity anonymously, to get credit for not caring about getting credit.

6. We bravely defy social norms so that people will praise us.

7. We avoid being manipulative to get people to do what we want them to do.

8. We compete to be less competitive than our rivals.

9. We help those in need, regardless of self-interest, because being seen as the type of person who helps those in need, regardless of self-interest, is in our self-interest.

10. We make subversive art that only high-status people appreciate.

11. We make fun of ourselves for being uncool to prove we’re cool.

12. We self-righteously defend false beliefs to prove we care more about the truth than virtue-signaling.

13. We help our friends without expecting anything in return, because we know they would do the same for us.

14. We show everyone our true, authentic self—not who society wants us to be—because that is who society wants us to be.

First, men are struggling.
(Some women might say “about time,” but still...)

Men are:
• 4x more likely to die by suicide
• 3x more likely to face addiction
• 12x more likely to be incarcerated

Nearly 1 in 7 men have no close friends (compared to 1 in 10 women). Almost half of men consider themselves lonely. And if you talk to women trying to date men in 2024, you’ll hear stories that confirm this struggle.

But I’ve seen big change. I’ve coached men through uncertainty, doubt, and those moments where they felt like they were stuck on the sidelines of their own lives—and it’s shifted my specialization a bit more toward men. We need it.

Some other themes I've seen:

1. The world is hard.
   Period. Full stop. Yet somehow, many of us still believe that if life feels hard, we must be doing something wrong. Just watch a nature show—any nature show about anything: sea otters, algae, outer space. There’s a constant struggle from every living thing to survive.
   
   It’s not abnormal—it’s normal.
   
   The goal isn’t to make the world easy (impossible) but to manage the hard in all the right ways (hard, but realistic). That’s a huge perspective shift for many.

2. Regret is still annoying as hell.
   We’re haunted by past regrets—but also by future regret anxiety—the fear that we’ll regret a decision we make today. And it’s true—we might. But we might also regret not making the choice.
   
   If we trust Daniel Pink (The Power of Regret is an amazing book), our biggest regrets at the end of our lives aren’t the things we did, but the things we did not do. So, if you’re scared of regret, it might be better to try that thing than not try it. Or at least equally risky.

3. We’re all scared of becoming "that" person.
   For workaholics, it’s the fear of being lazy. For people pleasers, it’s the fear of being selfish. For people who want to be more free, it’s the fear of being an asshole.
   
   I’ve heard it so many times in so many contexts. I’m even saying it to myself right now: I’m that guy trying to sell myself on LinkedIn.
   
   Good news: You’re not that person.
   If you were, you wouldn’t be scared of becoming it. Since you’re not—and you’re so damn scared of it—go for it.

• If you’re a workaholic, try being lazy—it’s also sometimes called balance.

• If you’re a people pleaser, try being selfish—it’s also sometimes called empowerment.

• If you’re trying to be yourself, lean into being bold—it’s also sometimes called Kendrick.

If you’re a man ready to sharpen any part of your life in 2025, let’s chat. A typical football team has 12 coaches—mental, nutrition, and offseason specialists. We know this works for them, so why not for you?

Give it a shot. I know you’ll find it worth it.
(See? I’m selling myself!)

Schedule a discovery call!

Then why do we spend so much energy on other people, on the past, on “luck”, and on all the other things we have no control over?

Distraction? Excuse? Fear?

I’m sure the list is endless but none of them are great answers.

There’s a myth that capitalism rewards hard work. But often, it rewards exploitation—the quiet, overlooked labor of the many for the excess of the few.”

If you want to keep people trapped, convince them they never have enough. Convince them they are never enough.

When the gap between the rich and poor grows, so does the distance between our shared humanity.

We are not consumers first. We are creators, neighbors, and caretakers.

Gratitude isn’t a transaction—it’s an act of recognition.

When we give thanks, we remind the world that even in the mess, there is goodness worth celebrating.

Even when life breaks us open, it leaves room for something new to grow. And often, gratitude is the seed that takes root in that broken soil.

I did have to push back - a bit. I think the goal of every system is to make sure the system lives. That means it has to evolve, adapt, and stay attractive to enough people so as to keep spreading. That means it needs fervent followers and mediocre followers and it needs a myth and story that gives people hope. That means it needs to adapt pieces of other religions so as to stay relevant but not so much so as to lose its uniqueness that keeps it special.

Really none of this matters. The point of a system is not to make someone better, it’s to survive. This is no fault of people in it, but it is what they are often doing and it’s worth thinking about for all the systems we belong to.

More importantly, words we tell ourselves so we don’t have to wrestle in our own mind with what we believe, value, or search for in the world.

How do you treat others? How do you want to? What do you want for your life? For others? What do you want for a society? For kids? For friends? For enemies.

These are all better conversations than arguing about which label we are or aren’t.

The most Christian thing someone can do is to leave Christianity.

The best guru is the one that says you don’t need a guru.

The best church is an empty church.

You picking up the vibe here?

And I still couldn’t agree more: it’s essential for us to move along our society to better places.

But, the thing is, in order to be less offensive and less easily offended, we’re going to need some better security in who we are and what we’re doing and just some better self-image.

It’s the insecure who are so easily offended by everything and so often offend others.

So, I guess less offensive and less offensiveness is just a symptom of a bigger problem: low self-esteem. I suppose that’s what we should be working on.

EXCEPT

When I’m on a plane. It’s taking a while and I want to get upset and anxious and then I realize, no, no, no, take your time.

When I’m about to get a vaccine - like I was a few days ago. No, no, take your time, don’t be distracted, do the job just right.

It’s funny that I consider most of what I do as something that should just get done instead of as important as flying a plane or giving a shot.

Slow down Ryan. Take your time.

And that was crazy.

But in the “secular” world it seems we’ve got a lot of the same thing. This diet, this exercise, this cold shower, this sauna, this lifestyle… we finally have it all figured out.

I’m not saying we don’t know more… but I am saying it’s still audacious to not take most things with a grain of salt in the grand scheme of human intelligence, knowledge, and evolution.

Gotta stay humble.

The short of it is this: the live audience and the camera were on a stage with two pillars on each side. The statue was in the middle. A curtain went up and David started doing his magic dance. While he did, loud music played - with lots of bass - and David kept dancing so that the stage they were on - and the camera - slowly turned. When the curtain came down the audience and camera were looking in a different location, though they didn’t know it and the statue was gone.

In other words, perspective made the statue disappear.

Which is pretty good. Perspective can make lots of problems disappear too.

History never looks kindly on the timid or the cynical.

Blind allegiance to any tribe always leads to dehumanization.

Boom.

But.

I would much rather someone watch porn that Fox News. In fact, I think society would be infinitely better if people watched porn instead of Fox News.

Just a thought.

It seems we’ve got four parties in our government. Woke. Liberal. Conservative. MAGA.

(A quick word about “woke”. It’s a loaded term and one I was hesitant to use, which says something actually, about how extreme that side can be and how nervous I am of it. Or maybe it’s just because I have some Woke biases and tendencies because I didn’t feel that way about MAGA. Regardless, I don’t mean to offend with any of these words but they are words most people understand and they speak for themselves.)

Woke and Liberal are, obviously, under the Democratic umbrella.
Conservative and MAGA are, obviously under the Republican umbrella.

I’m not sure on this one but I think most Republicans don’t really want to be MAGA.
I also don’t think most Democrats want to be Woke.

Gotta give it to the Republican Party (as far as winning an election), they go all in with their side no matter what and, it seems, they’ve gone, and are going, all in with their extreme: MAGA (we’ll see how far). The Democrats had an opposite problem - they were more Liberal but tried to keep the Woke around. They tend to try to make everyone happy. I don’t know whether I think they should or shouldn’t but I do think all Democrats not going “all-in” on Liberal or Woke cost them in the election. There were splits that MAGA (aka Republicans) didn’t have. The enthusiasm was not the same and that enthusiasm gap was the difference.

Anyway… the horseshoe shape has been used to describe lots of things, in extremes. The further you get from the middle, the closer you actually get to the other extreme. I do believe MAGA and Woke are actually very similar - it’s just the targets of their rage that are different. It’s just who they want to cancel that are different. It’s just who offends them that is different.

I do believe Liberal and Conservative are also pretty similar too - I wrote a whole post about it.

I do believe whatever party go backs to Liberal and Conservative again (the middle) will dominate for a long time. It’ll be interesting to see if either can.

And maybe—just maybe—there aren’t actually four sides like I started this whole thing. Maybe there are only two: a massive middle and the small, loud extremes. Somehow, the system got us thinking we all hate each other and can’t agree on anything.

But what if that’s not true? What if there’s a chance to change that? What if the middle started putting the extremes back in their corners and got some actual shit done again? Maybe we could stop talking so much about the extremes, we mostly aren’t, and start talking more about the middles, we mostly are, and what that actually could mean for our future.

That’s all.

It may have unique features that enable it to help other wine bottles, but it won’t be the same.

Some kids were smashed to pieces. It’s devastating. And it’s so sad—but that doesn’t make it less true—that they can never be like a kid that was not. They can do some amazing things, of course, but they cannot be a fully functioning wine bottle.

Some find this depressing or pessimistic or cynical. I get that, but the problem is that I’ve seen it too many times and talked to too many counselors who have seen it too many times. And I think saying the opposite can make us lazy in trying to defend all children from this ever happening to them. Maybe if we weren’t so trite and inconsequential, we would stop telling some of these adults that they are not doing it right because they aren’t a fully functioning brand-new wine bottle. It’s okay. They are beautiful wine bottles with all of their cracks and imperfections, and if you are one of them, it’s okay that you’re not like them.

It’s nothing you did wrong, and it’s nothing you’re failing to do now. Be free. Hold what you can, in your own way, but don’t compare yourself to those who have never been through what you have.

We love you no less. Be free of the burden of perfection.