Watch and Learn, Kid.

Loving What You Do

I don’t disagree with the idea that “doing what you love” makes you happier, but I also think it’s partially over-hyped as a symptom of society flailing in search for happiness. The truth is, work is always work. You have to work hard. There’s no dodging it if you want to do good work and it doesn’t just become “not work” in my opinion.

Also, I think at a certain level what you work hard at and become good at, you enjoy more. We enjoy being good at things, and this positive feedback from a natural aptitude can encourage us to work harder, and therefore get better, and therefore enjoy our work more. In this sense, there may be an element of “you like what you eat”, which has been shown to be true in a variety of circumstances (at least that’s what I hear.) I don’t mind hearing people say “do what you love”, but I’d also like to hear some voices in the crowd start saying “Love what you do.”

A colleague summed up what he learned from reading Thoreau’s Walden succinctly: no matter how bad you have it, someone has it worse. Keep your head up.

So yes, go find what you love and do it. But if you’re not in your dream job, it’s no excuse to not love what you’re doing, unless it’s somehow evil and destroying humanity. Love what you do. Love life. Keep your head up. Keep whistling and moving on.

Politicians are people.

I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but let’s be real: politicians are people, too. Celebrities are people. Everybody is a freaking person.

Just because they are in the limelight doesn’t mean your comments are detached from their life and have no affect on them, especially if you are making comments in public.

When you say cruel, stupid shit, you are saying it about a real person who has real feelings.

If you have logical reasons for encouraging the rest of us to not vote for one person, but rather vote for another, share them in an adult manner - not by posting unbacked ad hominems to Facebook. The same applies to any other public figure you happen to not like.

Sincerely,

A Christian asking other Christians, and everyone else too, to act more like Christ and stop saying cruel things about each other.

As Long as Grass Grows or Water Runs

The proper tactic had now been found. The Indians would not be “forced” to go West. But if they chose to stay they would have to abide by state laws, which destroyed their tribal and personal rights and made them subject to endless harassment and invasion by white settlers coveting their land. If they left, however, the federal government would give them financial support and promise them lands beyond the Mississipi. Jackson’s instructions to an army major sent to talk to the Chocktaws and Cherokees put it this way:

Say to my red Choctaw children, and my Chickasaw children to listen — my white children of Mississippi have extended their law over their country….Where they now are, say to them, their father cannot prevent them from being subject to the laws of the state of Mississippi….The general government will be obliged to sustain the States in the exercise of their right. Say to the chiefs and warriors that I am their friend, that I wish to act as their friend but they must, by removing from the limits of the States of Mississippi and Alabama and by being settled on the lands I offer them, put it in my power to be such — There, beyond the limits of any State, in possession of land of their own, which they shall possess as long as Grass grows or water runs. I am and will protect them and be their friend and father.

That phrase “as long as Grass grows or water runs” was to be recalled with bitterness by generations of Indians. (An Indian GI, veteran of Vietnam, testifying publicly in 1970 not only about the horror of the war but about his own maltreatment as an Indian, repeated that phrase and began to weep.)

excerpt from A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

You Dumb Americans

After recently admitting that I like America (crazy, right?), I have to say that it seems the makers of premium tequila are not doing a very good job calling out our general ignorance.

After visiting a tequila bar last night and tasting a round of blanco, reposado, and anejo, ( no mixto!) it’s clear that tequila is not all created equal. But, the general impression of tequila here in the states tends to be that tequila is an awful kick in the face, and the only way to drink it is to shoot it - preferably with salt and lime (which is a gimmick.)

I’d like to see someone run some ads calling out “You dumb Americans, this is how you really drink tequila.” Preferably with Jonathan Goldsmith playing the actor.

Not that I think Americans should all be labeled as dumb, but I think it’d rile some people up and help position whoever does it at the forefront of a fine tequila movement. And, if someone is already doing this, they need to keep their creative strategy and expand their media because I’m not seeing it anywhere.

I’ll shut up now about tequila. If you are a dumb American, go get educated. That is all.

Learning a Language

If you were going to learn a new language, which would it be? Why?