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Thought That Came Unbidden

Four things I know for certain about Ferguson, MO

  1. Being a police officer is a dangerous, underpaid, underappreciated job.
  2. Police forces in this country do not do a good job of screening out the racist, homophobic, power-drunk assholes who think that having a badge and a gun gives them the right to push people around.
  3. Human beings are extremely bad at assessing both risk and probability, and human males in particular often over estimate their personal power and capabilities in conflict situations.
  4. The only possible way we could ever know the facts of what transpired in Ferguson is if both of the parties directly involved had been equipped with chips that recorded full-color video, stereo audio, and fMRI so we could have a record of what each of them saw, heard, and felt during the encounter.

Everything else is speculation.

Happy Birthday to Me

I'm apparently doing something right.
I’m apparently doing something right.

So 45 has kind of been freaking me out.  I’m not really sure why.  Forty wasn’t really that big a deal.  Maybe it’s because the staff where I worked when I turned 40 included a much broader age range than where I work now.  As I think about it, that’s probably a huge part of it; I have concert t-shirts older than at least two of the people I work with.  I am also the oldest person in my office, admittedly only by a couple of years but it’s still a fact that niggles like a badly sewn sock seam.

Maybe it’s because until you hit 45 you can almost convince yourself you’re still in your thirties. At 45 this thing happens where you realize you’re closer to 50 than you are to 30 and the brain just seizes.  Or maybe it’s all just bullshit and you really are only as old as you feel  regardless of that the driver’s license says in which case I’m about 19 – still just as confused about a lot of things but maybe a little more confident because really other people’s opinions aren’t actually that important.  And according to the Real Age test I’m apparently living right.

Like I’ve said before, New Year’s Day isn’t always in January.

Happy Midsummer!

Yes, I realize it’s been forever since I wrote here but that doesn’t make midsummer any less important.

midsummer-2104

Thus begins the long, slow slide back toward the dark.  Use the rest of your summer wisely for it is far shorter than you think.

 

 

 

What would Kermit do?

Kermit The Frog
It’s not easy being green means recognizing that life is sometimes hard for everyone, but how do you weigh your needs against the needs of others?

Back in the old days (aka: the 1990s) there was a public meme that grew out of the evangelical Christian community. This meme manifested in a lot of paraphernalia that read “WWJD?” (What would Jesus do?). It was, theoretically, a reminder to folks who wore the wristbands, t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, and what have you to act in a way that would demonstrate their love of Jesus and his beliefs. Human nature being what it is sometimes this reminder worked better than others. But that’s not the point of this essay.

The point of this essay is to try to embrace the idea that many memes you may not agree with entirely may still have something of value embedded in them, for what is American culture but a series of rapidly changing memes some of which stick (democracy, meritocracy (even though we don’t really have that)) and some of which don’t (slavery).

The “What would Jesus do?” meme carried embedded a couple of concepts key to American thinking: leading by example and hero worship. These are things Americans say we value. Unfortunately, these values and behaviors when not supported by other key concepts like equality, compassion, and patience tend to lead to the impatient, resentful, harried, fragmented, fractious culture currently on vivid display to the rest of the world.

I feel I should inject at this point that I’ve recently spent a week in Canada, Montreal and Toronto to be specific. Some things I took away from my time in Canada:

  • Yes, Canadians really are that polite, even the native French speakers.
  • Mostly plastic currency is never going to feel natural to someone who grew up handling currency that is made of cotton and linen.
  • If you extrapolate from Montreal and Toronto, Canadians must take a lot of photographs (3 camera stores in Montreal and 6 in Toronto that I saw (that’s 8 more than we have in DC)).

One thing that I found interesting about being in public in Canada has to do with public politeness. Politeness requires one of two things to be in play: social opprobrium or social security. [Read more…] about What would Kermit do?

Better than The Gap

One of the bon mots of the positive thinking movement goes something like “The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with other people’s highlight reels.” As sayings go and as a product of the positive thinking movement, which can go way too far (The Secret Q.E.D.), this isn’t a bad one as its general intent is a reminder that people tend to show their best to the world and if you compare your struggles to everyone else’s best you are bound to come up wanting.

This is not to say that comparing ourselves isn’t a good thing. It’s a human and absolutely necessary thing in almost any endeavor in life. Comparison tells us whether or not we’re hewing to social norms, or by how much we’re missing them. When done constructively comparison also gives a standard to which we want to aspire or surpass.

Comparison is particularly hard to avoid in a stats-driven society. How does this baseball pitcher compare with other pitchers on his team? In his league? To himself the previous year? What was your grade point average last year? Where does it rank you compared to the rest of your class? Numbers control who wins elections and who loses. But comparison happens even when you’re looking at something that isn’t trackable with numbers and stats.

Comparison is how we determine if we, or something we’ve produced, is “good enough” and while in some forms of art comparison is pointless – try comparing a Monet to a Van Gogh sometime and see how far you get – in some art forms comparison is both useful and necessary because it not only helps you aspire it also teaches you. [Read more…] about Better than The Gap