Connection

While at the beach yesterday, I pulled out a guitar and played an impromptu set for the folks out there. Most people would just smile as they passed by, or stick around for a song or two.

But there were two kids, probably around ages 6 or 7, who hung around, absolutely awestruck. “Mom, Dad, come listen, this guy’s really good!” It absolutely made their day – and mine.

At the end of the day, it’s not about the size of the crowd or the money you make – it’s about making a difference to someone, brightening the world a little, and connecting with people through music.

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Keep Calm And Carry On

Still more horrifying news out of my beloved London today.

But if there is a light that shines through it, let us remember that an imam from the mosque which was targeted showed the compassion and humanity to save the life of the very person who killed a member of his mosque and injured a dozen more.

Let us remember that not all Muslims are evil and not all Christians are good, and vice versa. Let us remember that not all Arabic people are evil and not all white people are good, and vice versa.

And, while I often disagreed with the man, let us remember this quote from President George W. Bush:

“Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples while judging ourselves by our best intentions.”

If we stop judging in this way, there is yet a path to a greater peace.

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Next President

You know what? For our next President, no matter which party… don’t send me a businessman, don’t send me a lawyer, don’t send me an actor. Those are three people from whom (for varying reasons – respectively personal enrichment, ability to spin the hell out of things, and ability to recite pre-scripted lines) I can’t possibly be sure of hearing the truth.

Send me a teacher. That person will know how to manage near impossible tasks while making it look easy, settle internal squabbles with grace, and accomplish their objectives even when their budgets are under heavy squeeze.

Send me a nurse. That person will know how to look at the entirety of a situation and gauge its status quickly, to make hard life-and-death decisions under pressure, to lead with compassion layered over steel layered over more compassion.

Send me a small farmer. That person has what it takes to work their socks off day in, day out, making adjustments as conditions change, standing up to big business when they need to, and managing all manner of all-too-finite resources.

Please. For the love of everything holy. Send me that President.

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We Won’t Always Have Paris

It seems that perhaps we won’t always have Paris after all.

I cannot see the logic in the United States pulling out of the Paris agreement; no matter how much of it we might believe to be anthropogenic, climate change is a real thing, and it’s a thing that is to some degree within our power to address.

At the risk of somehow being a pinko egghead commie socialist about this, surely we have a responsibility to put this issue above some of our domestic concerns. Surely even Donald Trump can see that rising global temperatures and rising sea levels pose a massive risk, not in some far-off brown-skinned country but right here at home?

The few votes you might sway in coal country by doing this, and the profits made by your buddies in the fossil fuel industry, won’t do you much good once Mar-A-Lago is underwater. Wake up and smell the covfefe, Donald.

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