Worries

Worry, like anger, is harmful and not productive. Don't do it to yourself. It's a mental kick in the balls. It's the emotional equivalent of poking yourself with a pin. Most of us wouldn't take an lemon peel and squeeze it into our open eye. Don't do the same thing with your scary thoughts.

If you're religious, for God's sake, follow your faith's teachings. They all preach surrendering your worries to God. But that's easy to say and hard to do (for a lot of us). If you're not religious, consider getting one, or fall back on your reasoning mind and preferred wisdom philosophy. They can often fill that hole in your sole. 

Replace your hand wringing with useful actions that address in real life whatever (the hell) you're worrying about.

Worried about your kids getting COVID at school? Educate them about all the things they need to do to prevent the spread of COVID for themselves (and others). Or, home school. Or take advantage of your school's (district's) distance learning option. 

Worried about climate change? Prepare yourself for the possible results: simplify your life, minimize your physical assets for easy mobility if you have to move. Train yourself for survival in the world you imagine might encounter. 

Worried about something else? Think of a solution that will prepare you for possible eventualities, write them down, start taking action and put the pieces in place to deal with it. Whatever your worry, there are knowledge resources to help you get a handle on the solutions.

Upset over some great wrongness in the world? Get involved in the solution in a real way (outside your online world). You can still use your social media to be active, spread awareness and find organizations to work with. But if you don't actually GO THERE and work with people in real life, and spend the time and effort, and/or money, you're not likely to allay much of your worry.

For all these human challenges, remember that at all times in human history, people have faced problems just as bad. Imagine being a Jew in WWII Germany. An American living in the Civil War South. A slave in any of the slave countries. A current Uyghur in present-day China or Rohingya in Myanmar. How about a Black Plague peasant? Most of us live in amazing security and luxury, and many of us in tolerable comfort. When it's our time to struggle, then struggle we will to the best of our abilities. Here are some general tips that best prepare you for ANY potential future:

• Make friends. Be part of a community that you contribute to and rely on in times of trouble. 
• Develop your faith or philosophy that helps you focus on the important tasks and find peace when times are tough. The daily/periodic practice of religion can really help with this if you don't have your own practice that keeps you centered and at peace.
• Plan and prepare, work and build for anything that troubles your thoughts.
• Make friends with death, your own and the death of your loved ones. Spoiler alert: they all die in the end. In American culture, this is not a normal practice, but it should be. Find resources (books, people, etc.) that can help you if this is not something you're comfortable with.
• Be smart. Stay educated. Read and listen broadly and deeply in many topics that give you general understanding of how everything in the world works. Talk about them with other smart people to help process and own your knowledge. Practice doing new things (crafts, building, fixing things, different sports/ activities, hobbies, technologies, interactions with different systems).

Those things help you with general well being and keep you young. The collateral benefits of facing your worries with action is you can often eliminate the cause of the worries. Acting is learning, too. 

In any case, shut-up your ridiculous worries by getting your pusillanimous ass in gear to vanquish them to your personal historical dustbin.

 

Democratic plot?

The Democrats sneakiest plot yet? Are Democrats putting out false information in Right-wing  information outlets making Republicans vaccine skeptics so they don't get the vaccine, and as a result of more of them dying, it will be harder for them to elect Republicans? 

Not funny? Neither is people equating the risk of vaccines with the risks of COVID. Also not funny: the extra deaths from people not getting vaccinated.

In America today-ish:

32 million cases    570,000 deaths.  That's about 1/56 of people who get it die. If our testing is way off (more people actually got it then were tested positive), let's say 1/200.  That's in just over a year. It might go up over time for "lifetime odds".  Or, if you just take the whole population of the US, about 1/580 of us have died from COVID so far. And the portion varies widely by geography and demography in this country. Some communities are hit WAY harder.

211 million doses of vaccines.  7 deaths (maybe) from the J&J vaccine. That's about 1/40,000,000.  That could go up over your lifetime. let's say it goes up by a factor of 10 (exceedingly unlikely). Conservatively, 1/4,000,000

Let's compare with some other lifetime chances of dying....

Heart disease	1 in 6
Cancer	1 in 7
All preventable causes of death	1 in 24
Chronic lower respiratory disease	1 in 27
Suicide	1 in 88
Opioid overdose	1 in 92
Fall	1 in 106
Motor-vehicle crash	1 in 107
Gun assault	1 in 289
Pedestrian incident	1 in 543

But those are just death statistics. We know there are a lot of people who have serious complications and long term debilities with COVID. And we don't know what the longer long-term effects will be, how it will impact long term health and mortality yet.

And, although we also don't know the longer term effects of the vaccine yet, given what we DO know, they are likely to be vanishingly trivial compared to the COVID long-term effects.

Any way you slice it, mathematically, medically, mortally, autopsically (I just made up that word to be morbidly funny -- get it? "slice it." haha), compassionately (for the protection of your fellow humans)... health-wise, the wise health decision is vaccination. Politically, on the other hand, "I'll get the vaccine when they pry the gun from my cold, dead hands.

By the way, the newer strains could be more contagious and more lethal, and not vaccinating will allow them more opportunities to both spread and mutate further, making it all even worse. Please reconsider if you're vaccination shy for whatever reason.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/preventable-death-overview/odds-of-dying/

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

The Obvious Reason the Capitalism Needs a Major Adjustment

 There are certain important benefits to free capitalist societies. There are clear existential threats to capitalist societies. How do we keep the capitalism benefits without allowing it to drive itself into certain destruction?

The benefits: innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, freedom to enter. Liabilities: income inequality & poverty (including homelessness, universal access to healthcare, and hunger), environmental destruction, monopolistic effects, worker exploitation.

Are there mechanisms to keep those things under wraps? Yes. Are they used to an appropriate level? No. Why? Greedy plutocracy. How do you solve it? Smart leaders of business recognizing the long-term trends and realizing that if they don't own their responsibilities along with their rights, they will ultimately lose it all, along with the rest of us. Or, enough of the voters understanding the same things and voting in leaders with the political will to enact limitations that can lead to increasing income equality.

Partisanship

 You attribute 30 people coming forward testifying against Trump (knowing the damage it will do to their lives) to a contrived, partisan attack, and you believe any whispered innuendo against someone from the other party. It says a lot about you.

Project ABC: Anti-Bureaucracy Correction

I checked my account. There was an extra $2,400 from the government to help out people suffering from the pandemic financial crisis. There might be more in the future.

Because they needed to get the money out right away to help those who really need it yesterday, they also give a bunch of money to people who are still fully employed. If they had more time, they would have made sure the people who really need it got it (people who need to spend it, not just leave it in savings or put it in the investment account) to provide relief and lubricate the broader economy.

If you know someone who is in dire straits*, or if you know of an organization you trust that is helping those who are struggling to eat or provide shelter, you could hand off your unexpected bonus for its intended purpose! Or half of it? If that seems like a lot, think of the folks who are on the verge of homelessness. You can still remodel your bathroom. Just get the cheaper tile. :)

Not connected to anyone in need or any organizations yet and need some ideas? I recommend somewhere local where you can actually SEE what they're doing or someone you actually know personally. If your company has a program (my school has a process to accept donations to help our students' families in need), this might be an opportunity to contribute a little extra this year!

Here are a few other ideas: 

   https://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/index.php

   https://www.standupforkids.org/

   https://afsp.org/

   Your church's outreach programs

   Or you could head downtown with 100 $10 bills (or 10 $100 bills) and give them to people who look like they need them.

If it's awkward to give it to someone you know who needs it... Maybe something like this: 

You: "Hey, the government gave me this money for the COVID relief but, like, I'm still working and that's wack. It's supposed to be for people who could really use it. Do you mind if I Venmo you some of it? It'd make me feel better. I mean, damn, it's not fair and I'd feel like an asshole spending it." 

Hey, look, I know the multi-millionaires and billionaires could fix the whole "people in need" problem in short order, but seriously, if they were the type of people who thought like that, they wouldn't be uber-rich, now, would they, and we wouldn't have a homelessness problem**, or food deserts, and everyone would get basic healthcare. If millionaires and billionaires felt like fixing it, it would be done by now, and it isn't, so they won't. 

If you don't want to give handouts, maybe you could find a "getting people back to work" like the workforce.org, or supporting PPE for all, or any other things that will stop the pandemic, get kids in school, get people vaccinated. Or be creative and find a cause worthy of your excess bounty!

* Mark Knopfler notwithstanding

** I didn't say there wouldn't be homeless people. But it wouldn't be a big problem. It would be a lifestyle choice which, now, it overwhelmingly isn't.

Reporting Vs. Opinion Text Markers

 Is there a way for news organizations to visually tag their reporting different from opinions, ads, everything else. I'm thinking green? So when people reading can get a feel for facts versus analysis. I know the veracity of what should be GreenPrint and other still depends on the integrity of the organization, but at least it would force the readers, writers, editors to give it another thought. And readers would get in the habit of being critical of their consumption.

In the same article, reporters could even differentiate specifically on what are pure facts and what are assumptions, analysis, rhetoric, etc. In the current quasi-truth word we live in, some efforts to find a way to call it out might be in the best interest of the less-discerning public.

An Honest Reckoning of the Year

 Don't let others define your experience. Face it with unadulterated honesty, evaluate it on your own terms.

This may have been a nasty year for you. If you were sick, if you lost a loved one, or your livelihood, or your home, or your relationship -- like in any year, those should be grieved in your way as your psychology dictates. Get help if you need it and if you can!

This may have been merely an inconvenient year for you personally, and it should be given its due. Your working from home may have been a mildly traumatic change, with its partial isolation. You may have had to forego your favorite outings and events, change a vacation plan, missed a wedding or funeral. Not fun, but not a tragedy.

Some of you may have had a better year than normal, depending on your work or industry, or your home situation. Depending on your need for solitude or introversion, and your resources, and you might even feel a little "survivor's guilt" because you didn't suffer. You can deal with it, and if you did and need some assuaging, try giving until it hurts to an organization that helps those who did suffer greatly. Acknowledge that much of the country (world) has had an excruciating time, and allow them to grieve as they need to. Be a rock for others if you can, be an ear, a helping hand, an angel. Give blood if they let you.

But don't wail and gnash your teeth just because others are. That's their experience, and may not be yours. If you can feel some joy and share it with others, you bring them up a little. Seeing the universal irony and even humor in this crazy predicament is not a sin. Taking your life in stride is a viable defense against the dark forces. But for Pete's sake, feel your own authentic feelings and deal with your own reality.