November 21, 2022
I’m listening to Jenny Lawson’s book Broken and have listened to others by her. Like me, she has anxiety issues and thinks weird thoughts. I’m enjoying it. It turns out I enjoy hearing other people’s weird thoughts as much as writing my own. I like people I can relate to. I can’t relate to an author who has an impressive resume of literary works, but I can relate to anyone who talks about stuff most people don’t think about. Flaws are relatable. I learned long ago to celebrate my flaws because they are what make me interesting and unique. I’m interested in people who deal with flaws they are born with rather than problems they brought on themselves.
People who become addicted to things bore me silly. I care about people, but I don’t give a crap about their addictions. Addictions remove the personality of the addicted. Patti is a truly exceptional person, but her addiction to cigarettes makes her boring. I am an equal partner to her until she starts smoking. I instantly become an afterthought when her addiction kicks in. We must put any fun we were having on hold. I’ve spent a lifetime being a sidekick to most of my friends. It has forced me to do many things I wouldn’t have done on my own. Now there are things I would like to do (like stay in a non-smoking room), but I am tethered with the restrictions of the addict I love. Just like competition, addiction ruins everything.
If I can’t call people midgets, what am I supposed to call them? That, of course, is a stupid question I say to point out the problem with people who think this way. Calling people midgets was demeaning from the very beginning. If you grew up in a household where they referred to people as midgets, you grew up in a household where they normalized sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination toward others. Your belief that you aren’t a bad person is based on false information. If you think any person would choose to call themselves a midget, you’re an idiot. If you’re not an idiot, then you’re a butthole. This goes the same for referring to anyone based on their physical characteristics alone.
November 27, 2022
We just had Thanksgiving here in America and we all know what that means – arguments with relatives. It has been many years since Patti and I have experienced anything but pleasant conversations at holidays because we have been going to her nephew’s house for a few years. We had Patti’s older sister and her husband, besides the regular youngsters. Her sister asked what we thought about forgiving student loan debt and we were off to the disagreement races. Patti’s great-niece got involved in the conversation because she is dealing with student loan debt currently. I joined the conversation in the beginning when it wasn’t an argument yet. When the arguing started happening, I left the scene. I went to the bathroom, visited with a deaf and partially blind rabbit, and commiserated with the non-arguers.
The Thanksgiving argument was a perfect example of how competition ruins everything. They ruined the conversation when people compared their experiences with student loans to other people’s. The person with access to money will have an easier time paying off debts than the person who has no resources. Any amount of privilege you have will make it easier for you to handle the debt. Without a privileged education before you get to college, they may blind you with the promise of money now without understanding the future consequences. In the end, it is far less of a burden on society to help people in the beginning of their lives than to plunge them into debt before their life has begun.
Of course, they would never discuss the underlying issues beyond the simplistic political leanings. The social, economic, religious, and discriminatory practices of the past and present were not really on the table. Patti brought them up, but I thought she went too far when she compared the discriminatory practices to rape. (As I was typing the last sentence, my phone almost refused to type the word “rape.”) The only problem with comparing anything to rape is people will only focus on that one word and not address any valid points you make. These are fundamental philosophical disagreements caused when people stop viewing the world from other points of view. They see the world differently so they disagree about issues about the world.
Thoughts from Life 
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