Entry date: 6-29-2023 – Relaxation (or not) – Letters to My Friends

Dear Friends,

It sure felt good to relax yesterday. The boys and I went to town, of course, and got a few provisions, as mentioned, and then the rain came back with something of a vengeance. I decided to start drinking beer around 5PM or so to speed up the going to bed process. It worked.

I’m pretty sure I was asleep by 9PM EST and didn’t really get out of bed this morning until about 11AM. I feel so much better. Driving the last two days of the trip in the rain certainly didn’t help the days being easier. I frontloaded our days so that the two really long days were in the beginning, but thanks to massive amounts of precipitation, that plan went to the shitter.

I’m not complaining. I was thinking a lot today about privilege after reading how the Supreme Court has taken away Affirmative Action. I am definitely privilege adjacent. While we are not rich, nor close, compared to many others, we are very, very well off. We just stayed in a beautiful place in New York owned by my friends who are closer to being privileged than I’ll probably ever be, and we are up in here in Maine for almost a month in the woods, so life is not bad at all.

I don’t spend a lot of time worrying anymore about what I don’t have and that is a nice luxury. I think carefully about how to make what I do have stretch and last and hope to put a bit away here and there. I want the kids to have a good life and not worry for much, but for the most part, I am just thankful for what I have.

It sucks, though, to wake up to news of us going backwards. As much as I try to wrap my head around the ideas of people who think differently than I do, I just can’t help but think that many people on both sides of the political fracas, for lack of a better term, act like spoiled children. They’d rather take a dump in the well rather than share the water with their neighbors who need a drink.

I didn’t want to write about this shit today, staying with a caca theme. I didn’t want to have a soapbox or agenda. I just wanted to ease into this relaxing life. Maybe go see something beautiful and walk around in the beauty for a while.

Everyone wants an exception. I know this. We want to be exceptional. We want a deal. We want a leg up when we need it and expect it, too, in many cases. Entitlement is a problem, sure, and as I was mentioning earlier, it’s good to let go of that crap and just BE. One side will argue that Affirmative Action has done its job and the university system is capable of making sure everybody gets their 14th amendment fair shake. The other side will argue that the exclusives are just being more exclusive, and education will get set back 50 years.

Regardless of what happens, hopefully it is a wake-up call to everyone under 40 to get out there and vote for the country you want to have. If you want to live in Trump’s World, vote. If you want four more years of Biden, vote for Joe. Get the people you want to run your school boards and towns and cities. Vote for your state senators and representatives. Get the world you want going in the direction you think is best but do it.

I didn’t see nearly as many Trump signs driving across the country this year as the last two years. On one hand, it made me happy, but I also know there are still tons of his supporters out there and many of them are smart enough to not openly endorse someone who has no respect for doing things by the book. Whether you want to gargle the man’s balls or not, you have to admit that he didn’t handle this classified document thing the right way.

Uggh. I’ve said too much about this crap.

Time for something beautiful.

See you tomorrow.

Look at this little Bean back in 2015. Soon another one will be coming along.