Restrained Emotions

Good Evening, Playtime Folks! I’ve been a bit over-busy these past many days and out of town on the days I wasn’t busy. Makes for a difficult time writing. But, I’d like to share some thoughts with you, if you don’t mind. See, I try to have a positive outlook, but I also try to be a realist, and sometimes I just feel like ‘what’s the damn point’. I just try to keep it to myself for a bit, go one with the day, and so I’m often slow with a response to a news item. Other times I realize, despite my unwillingness to open myself to the wrongness of the event, I have to speak on it if for no more reason than to keep myself sane – ish.

I love music. There have been times in my life where all I had was the comfort that a favorite song could bring me. I’ve never been much for making music. I can’t sing, and you truly don’t want me to prove that, but when no one can hear me I try to let out the hurt, the loneliness, to feel the sunshine and the aural hug. To hear the sorrow, the joy, the heart-bared vulnerability and intimacy that music can share and can bring out of us occasionally overwhelms me.

When dummkopf drumpf made himself chair of the Kennedy Center, when he turned an organization dedicated to performances of art and poetry, of creation and majesty, he did more than tarnish, he cheapened it. The Kennedy Honors are meant to magnify great devotion to craft, to exemplify great performances, to be about the best things of us as a species – and now it is cheapened. That has made me sadder than I know how to express.

The Fall

Growing up, my father had a number of sayings that I did not always appreciate. One that sticks with me to this day is when he saw me waxing my first car. Admittedly, it wasn’t a great car, but it was mine!, and I was proud to have it. So there I was, rubbing away at it like a bum on the beach caressing a dented lamp hoping a Genie would pop out and make it a Mustang or something, and I saw him, leaning against the wall watching me use up his good wax and I grinned at him. “You know, son, there’s only so much you can polish a turd,” he said, then walked away as my grin fell.

Value is subjective, determined by the amount of life we deem it to be worthy. One of the most dangerous things you can do is stand between a man and what he believes worth everything for he will destroy anything to protect it.

The second most dangerous thing one can do is to overvalue something, for you will willingly destroy yourself and everything you love less in the pursuit of that item. This is the fall of Mike Lindell, Michael Cohen, Rudi Giuliani, and so many others. Obsessed with a conman and addicted to the koolaid, they laid prostrate upon the dark alter of Trump and sacrificed their wealth, career, future, loved ones, and perhaps their very soul for that which is objectively corrupt, offensive and untrue.

It is interesting to me to watch the fall of another who thought he could ride the corrupt lies to greatness only to find them as corrosive to ‘friend’ as to ‘foe’. Elon, once the wealthiest of businessmen, began his downfall by attempting to stifle the decency within Twitter in service to his Lord drumpf. He then used his platform to lie and cheat for a conman, buying his presidency and drinking the koolaid as fast as drumpf could make it.

I couldn’t understand why this man, wealthier than many countries, would put all he was and could be on the line like that. A man known for his advances in science and conservation placed himself within the nuclear blast zone of someone who denies science, flaunts his own ideas over those of experts, who embraces ignorance and self aggrandizement, and who denies conservation care for the environment. What drives people like these to destroy themselves? What hold does that Svengali have on them?

In all fairness, I don’t think I need to shed a tear for Elon. He is a big boy and will just have to suffer the consequences of his self-immolation. It is the curiosity of seeing it happen live, to see the startling half-realization that hate has consequences and seeking the shiney value, the loud and obnoxious clown above all that has real value, has begun his destruction. I can’t help but to wonder where he will wash up.

Hate is a Horrible Word

Good-Day Playtime folks!! Not sure how I felt about being back to work today. I often do enjoy my job. I enjoy finding the solution to problems, working with people that are, quite frankly, smarter than I and coming to an understanding of an issue and seeking a solution. I enjoy the creative process of fabrication. What begins a draft on paper ending as a usable and well made product is often magical, in my mind. Ok, I’m a cheap date, I get it.

Many of the people I work with are very much drumpf lovers. I am well known to be not so enamored. In fact, if you asked me, I’d say I hate the guy…. but no, that’s not a fair word. I hate what he’s done. I hate what we’ve become because of this one …. person. Other presidents spoke on Hope and Change, a Shining City on a Hill, Camelot, A Thousand Shining Lights. Drumpf told me I would get to the point where I was tired of winning. I’m there! I lost Camelot. I can’t see the Shining City. Camelot is gone. I am hoping for a change…. But, I don’t hate the man. I was raised better…. ironically by people who are now enamored with the guy. Nonetheless, I don’t hate because I’m better than that. Still, I so hate what he’s done to us.

As I write this I am reminded of a person we had working at the shop who was my senior. He talked a great game, seemed able to manipulate people with ease, was divisive, derisive, abusive even. Somehow I thought he was good for the company despite his faults, despite the internal red flags waving so hard that I just talked myself out of recognizing for what they, for what HE was! In the end, he cost us two big customers, our reputation, and millions of dollars (remember, small business!) We are rebuilding, hoping we survive the cost of his devastating sabotage. I feel foolish for believing this guy. I feel foolish because I KNEW he was a snake, and I FELL FOR IT! I cannot tell you how embarrassed and hurt I am from this asshole.

Remember who you are and please Hold On To Hope as we weather this particular shit storm for this too shall pass and we – as a country, as communities, as families and as individuals – we will have quite the mess to clean up. We will need strong, mature and smart people who can not only speak in complete sentences but who are invested in rebuilding and success. And, just like that snake that I once worked with, we will need to learn from this and NEVER let it happen again. Hugs. Randy

memes, some a bit more serious

Memes make me smile

What the ‘f does it take?

It really says a lot to me, to be honest, that republicans can’t manage to find any outrage or seek any solutions to the gun problem when our children, innocent school kids, are shot where they are supposed to be safe.

The Sad Truth is that politicians are rarely concerned about anything deeper than their wallet. The rare times they seem willing to do the right thing is when something deeper is at jeapardy: Their ass! We saw this in drumpf’s directed coup attempt on the Capital. We saw this in irony when House GOP Whip Steve Scalise was shot playing softball that “No Democrats called for gun control after a republican was short” (insert tears here). Most notably, we saw it when Reagan was shot.

“In 1991, Reagan supported the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, named for his press secretary shot during the 1981 attempt on Reagan’s life. That bill passed in 1993, mandating federal background checks and a five-day waiting period. “Every year, an average of 9,200 Americans are murdered by handguns, according to Department of Justice statistics,” Reagan wrote in the NY Times. “This does not include suicides or the tens of thousands of robberies, rapes, and assaults committed with handguns. This level of violence must be stopped.” Reagan turned against gun regulations in the 1970s, but his views shifted back sometime after he was shot by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981. Reagan’s views on gun control appear to be influenced by his personal experiences with people aiming guns at him.” (Peter Weber)

““The NRA is not there to promote the safety of our children, the NRA is not there to promote the safety of Americans generally. The NRA is not even there to promote the safety of gun owners,” Sen. Warren told me. “The NRA is there to advance the interests of exactly one group, and that’s gun manufacturers to help boost their profits. We have to remember that’s who the NRA represents.” (Shannon Watts)

But, hey. I’m just one of those weak liberals that somehow don’t need a to wave a gun around to prove I’m manly. What the hell do I know. Hugs. -randy

Carl Sagan Calls it.

I have nothing to add. Hugs. -randy

The Protestant Work Ethic

Hello Everyone! I recently told you about taking a small vacation – it’s really a working vacation as I’m going to be opening my parent’s “summer home” up for them as they make their snowbird way back from the Sunshine State. And, as of this writing, I’ve not left yet – but damn! It feels so good to exit the rat race!!

In America many of us, especially in Gen X and before, have been raised with the moral expectation of working everyday and being in early, staying late, working until we drop.

The end result is that we break down our body, our mind, our very soul, sacrifice our relationships and our time with loved ones — our very life! — to struggle up a ladder that seems to be attached to a moving goal with the hope that we are respected by our community, our family, and that God will smile down upon us that we have done so well with what He has given us.

Yet no sooner do I have a bit of money than everything costs more and I realize I now have to work harder and longer just to get where I thought I needed to be to enjoy life again. It isn’t fair, and it never was meant to be. It’s a manipulation, a lie, a tale told to fools and I wouldn’t need a vacation if I was truly doing that which brings me peace, joy, love.

So, I guess what I’m really trying to say here as I get ready to bounce my happy fat ass off to the great white and play in the forests for a while is that I so wish I could start life over understanding that idea that I have only so much time, and I should be spending it on that which brings me fulfillment and actualization rather than just making some millionaire millionairer. Hugs. Randy

What does it mean to be free?

Good Morning Everyone, and Happy Easter! I recently had the opportunity to listen to an interview with the President of Wesleyan University. He spoke on something that grabbed my attention: See, as a listener in this interview I was a bit surprised by the willingness of this man, as a representative of the University, would be willing to be critical of the Drumpf Administration – especially right now as drumpf seems to be driving head long into the abyss of Fascism and Authoritarianism, and he was asked of that. I have to admit, I feel a bit of concern as I write what I write, knowing that I don’t have the power to contradict an arrest, imprisonment, deportation to a foreign land all because the ‘power of the moment’ doesn’t like what I say. How much more is this man in jeapardy, and so as the interviewer’s question sparked my own concerns and therein my attention, I was awarded this statement (para): “It says a lot that you would ask me that question. I mean, where are we?”.

It is striking to me that we are hearkening back to the age of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, only to find that the Red Scare is not Russia and Communism – in fact, they seem to be quite the fan of our current administration and our current administration is absolutely fawning at the feet of them! No, the fear of our administration is that people be treated with dignity, given their Constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms. And, to say to us that believe the Bill of Rights are sacrosanct that we must be treasonous if we demand our people be given those rights and freedoms flies in the face of our Forefathers who fought and died to provide us that freedom – from the contemporaries of Paul Revere and George Washington to the ones we see marching on Veteran’s Day.

Below is a video because I like to give a bit of entertainment along with my clanging sentences of woe and worry. Within are these lines:

‘And the young people ask, “what are they marching for?”, and I ask myself the same question. The old men still answer the call, but as year follows year, more old men disappear. Someday no one will march there at all”

It startles me how quickly we have forgotten. It saddens me the cost of our remiss.

Hugs. -randy

I’m doing ok…

Hello Everyone. I saw this vid come up and wanted to share it with you. This song reminds us that sometimes things are hard, but we are going to be alright. It also reminds us that there are people around us going through hard times, too. I thought it put out a great message, great music, and from a great group that doesn’t use any instruments – Home Free uses only those beats and sounds that can be produced by mouth. They have great harmony.