Wrong call

Are we responsible for our neighbor? Well yes and no. 

They are subject to their own life choices and must suffer the consequences or regale in their joy. What is hard to miss is that society is falling apart and more people are falling off the grid. 

It would be tempting to think that this is the result of increased laziness among the population which would be patently untrue. 

When I began my career we would work slower but more methodically. It took time to train people and we preached patience and quality. Contrast that to the frantic pace of today and the shoddy lack of preparation of young professionals and its obvious why the results are of mixed to poor quality with huge cost overruns. 

When we jumped at globalization we decided that efficiency and profit would dominate over a good work environment which encouraged team spirit. We didn't need to preach it as much before because we had it. 

Today we preach bullshit slogans to employees to make up for the fact that it eludes us. Work/life balance is extolled as we work overtime to correct more and more errors of judgment. We decided that a healthy society would take a back seat to a smaller amount of people owning more wealth. 

It was the wrong call.

Before liberals became corporatist they used to preach compassion for the downtrodden which eventually just became lip service. By the time of my retirement, the buzzwords just made me sick to my stomach.

You may have noticed...

You may have noticed that this isn't a transgender blog. It is instead a blog which happens to be written by a transgender person.

A subtle difference, but a difference nonetheless.

Salt of the earth

When you don't have the overall best interest of the population, things are bound to go wrong. This is the new GOP's problem which contains numerous factions within it of self-interested crazies with often divergent agendas. All are contained within a bizarre cult of personality which boggles the mind of most rational thinkers. That Trump is an imbecile plus a criminal makes it all the more galling.

What is sad is that some of the people most eager to vote for Trump are the ones who will be hit the hardest. Already getting by on lower wages and very minimal benefits, Elon Musk and his phony DOGE department will be looking for "waste" expenditure at the bottom rung as his own taxes continue to plunge. 

Oligarchy on steroids.

Many MAGA supporters were interviewed at rally lineups barely able to string coherent sentences together. If you got to know them, they might be salt of the earth types, however the knowledge they need to defend their own interests escapes them which is a shame. 

Nevertheless, regardless who is in charge, there are no quick fixes for late stage capitalism other than to let things crumble and start over with a new and improved philosophy.

Here's hoping it's not more painful than it needs to be.

Walking

I walk a lot and I feel the benefits...

Is this real?

I love the Romano Report but he is going to drive himself crazy trying to understand why the population of the world contains so many ignorant people or those with malignant intent.

I couldn't agree with him more. Computer simulation indeed.

He might be forgetting that sometimes cruelty is the point then add lack of critical thinking skills for good measure and voila...

Our choice

I've written about choice a million times because it is crucially important. How much choice we are exercising and our ability to recognize it will make all the difference in our lives. 

For example, dysphoria isn't a choice however failure to address it can be, no matter how altruistic we believe our reasons to be. Some forms of gender variance are based entirely or primarily on choice. The point being that we strive towards balance, wellness and lack of distress. 

Exercising choice can have either benefit or consequence depending on our situation. As the correct choices are made, we can use the metric of increasing peace and stability as our guides.

Purpose

We can spend much of our lives in fruitless pursuits because we don't know any better or because we are afraid to face reality. Life is often difficult and anything which soothes the discomfort becomes a welcome escape. 

If there is deeper meaning to our existence it isn't immediately obvious and by the time we figure out how to properly navigate life,  our time is up. 

If I wasn't sure why I shouldn't complain I get daily reminders as I move about the city. Many people are lost and struggling to make ends meet devoid of sufficient basic necessities. 

I have more time than ever to reflect on the irrationality we espouse as panacea for what ails us which is steeped in the uncertainty of why we are here; our lack of confirmation of raison d'etre if you will.

Frustrated

Rather than get frustrated with extended family, the best thing for older transgender people is to work on our internal fortitude. We aren't going to convert everyone to the extent that we would like not to mention that the connection might not have been that strong to begin with and not worth being overly concerned with when it suffers even more. 

It's like you have lived two lives. One was the younger version of yourself they got to know and now you need to reintroduce the person you always were underneath but couldn't reveal. That process can be difficult because you have enough trouble dealing with your own psyche but must also navigate the opinions and judgement of others to boot.

Let it go Joanne

At this point it's obvious poor Joanne needs some trauma therapy and maybe we need some too for what she continues to do...

Not a blue rectangle

If I took a random sampling of 100 people and asked them what the term transgender meant I would get very varied answers but why? 

Well, besides the obvious lack of education among the general public which would invite and yield some ludicrous responses, even some gender variant people would find different ways to define it based on their own assessment of self. Some would say the term didn't fit them at all.

It's not like asking someone to describe an object. I have a blue rectangle in front of me which measures 4 X 6 inches which everyone would agree on without exception (unless they were color blind). 

My point is that definitions on matters which involve much subtlety are open to interpretation because they deal in greys. Therefore the definition doesn't mean as much as it could given that it also does not provide any guidelines about how to live. It is a descriptor which doesn't necessarily offer us an authenticity only we can provide. 

We first come up with our authenticity plan and then, if we like, come up with a label to match it.

Or not.

Unapologetic

Fair taxation will never return to the US which will be its downfall before the big reset happens which pays for the sins of globalization. Consider that in the 1950's you could be a millionaire but paid hefty taxes as a percentage of your earnings. Today the country does the reverse and money flows upwards while Rome burns. 

It is an unapologetic oligarchy. 

MAGA voters, who are largely ignorant, and thought the idiot Trump would lower the price of groceries are in for a very rude wakeup call.