Fish Out of Water

One of my real talents is beginning things.  The initial idea on any subject immediately attracts my attention.  ‘In the works’ projects are pushed aside as the new idea lights up– beaming and alluring.  Combining this questionable beginning skill with my diverse range of interests has created an interesting hodge-podge of results.

This tendency is very evident in my business career.  I won’t list the jobs I’ve had, but it’s quite a few and diverse.  The real informative mix is in business ventures.  I owned ice cream stores, a concession operation, and shoe stores before I was thirty.  They were formed, fed, and managed with an on-going eye towards innovation—many of those ideas did not work out so well.  I had some success, nothing huge, but I learned a lot.  Now what I describe as innovation someone else might say was a lack of focus and jumping from one thing to another.  I won’t argue that, but to me it seemed to be inspired innovation.  From there I have owned a printing business, real estate development company, BBQ concession stand, CPA practice, consulting practice, and an M&A advisory business.  A couple of those were disasters, some were okay.  That leaves out the ideas that never became a reality and buries in the mud a few that did.

A large portion of my diverse focus was on creative activities.  Painting, acrylic and watercolor, wood sculpting, digital art and, of course, writing.

I think you can see that talent I mentioned in beginning things; what I may lack is an ability to finish.  Admitting a need for diversity is more an excuse for jumping around than a real explanation.  I’ve completed 14 books, but it was an effort—not to start, but to finish.  Currently, I have 4 books in progress. They are at various stages of completion.  That is the same status they have been over the last few years.  Almost every day I have a new good idea for a book, that’s the easy part.  What is hard, at least for me, is finishing those “old” good ideas.

Because it is my weakness, I admire people who can focus on one thing and finish it without jumping around testing new ideas.  Maybe it’s a cluttered mind, or a lack of concentration; but I’m the happiest with several things going on at once. 

One of those ‘in the works’ projects was a book with the working title of “Mr. and Mrs. Sims”.  The story takes place in rural Oklahoma (Indian Territory) in the 1920s.  Hugo, Oklahoma to be exact.  I had been doing some research for a different story (I see a pattern) which had a connection to Oklahoma when I discovered the Newspapers.com website.  This is a site with digital files of old newspapers for most areas of the country.  I found a huge number of newspapers from rural areas including Oklahoma with amazing articles.  Crime and agriculture were prominent in almost every edition.  This distraction led me to the Sims idea. 

Mr. Sims is one of the first people to have graduated with a degree in the new fields of study; criminology and sociology.  At that point in time there was no demand for that knowledge in law enforcement, so he had also gotten a degree in agriculture at Oklahoma State University.  He and his wife have been sent to Hugo to establish an agriculture extension service supported by the school.  Of course, as you would guess, he becomes involved in solving crimes.

This crime solving employs all the new ideas, such as autopsies, dental analysis and bite patterns, eyewitness testimony, fingerprinting, foot molds, footwear identification, handwriting analysis, weapons identification and analysis, and the gathering of evidence at a crime scene.

It’s a fish out of water story with Mr. Sims butting heads with Sheriffs and most everyone who thinks he should stick to seeds and not crime solving.

I thought the story was a great idea but have had trouble finishing.  I’m currently writing on this book again–I think I see the finish. Each of my unfinished books has a problem that I’ve had trouble solving.  Under those circumstances my first option is usually to start a new venture.  Oh, wait; I’ve got a great idea!

However, with the Sims story I believe I solved the problem. It was always about writing. If you stop, you have trouble starting again–the trick is; don’t stop.

Art and Power

Every day the tech world makes life easier and more confusing.  Do any of us really know how this stuff works?  We cannot exist without a functioning internet.  At alarming speed, the basic needs for human existence are food, water, shelter and now electricity.

Sure, electric power has been a human need since the days of Benjamin Franklin, but with the internet it is a vital necessity that would leave us lifeless if it was cut-off.  Whether that is good or bad or somewhere in between is not relevant.  The relevant point is that few of us have considered the risk of losing access to electricity. 

One of my “side-hustles” is advising companies in the electric infrastructure industry.  My advice is financial and has nothing to do with their work.  As a result of that connection, I have a feeling that the whole system is vulnerable.  This is not news.  Most people with any knowledge recognize the great vulnerability of the electric grid system.  It’s not terrorists, although the system is not well protected, mostly it is the overall age of the total infrastructure.

In the 1950s government thinkers (no that is not an oxymoron) decided the largest vulnerability for USA security and commerce was a poor highway system that traversed the country.  From those first thoughts huge amounts of money were spent on designing and building the interstate highway system.  That system may have changed the country as much as anything that has ever been done.

The same approach needs to be focused on our electrical distribution system.  My layman’s advice has been to focus on small units of energy production and improved storage of power.  I won’t go into the details, because they are boring—but believe me this is a big problem that needs attention.

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In the fourth grade Miss Smith told me I was the best artist in her class.  I was a little bit surprised but immediately believed her, after all she was the teacher.  From that point up to my initial year in college I thought of myself as an artist.  An artist who didn’t produce much but none the less; I was an artist—ask Miss Smith. 

I enrolled in college and was immediately told I had to have a major.  I tried to tell them I was only avoiding the draft and was not really interested in much and for sure had no idea about a major.  They insisted.  So, I became an art major.  Of course, that meant I needed to take some art classes.  I enrolled in art appreciation (how hard could that be?) and a drawing class.  After reviewing the supply list for the drawing class, which was going to cost me a month’s rent (which wasn’t all that much) I was considering dropping the course. 

I didn’t drop the class and after only a few weeks wished that I had.  The instructor was never going to be my buddy.  He yelled at people, me included, about artistic sense and how many of us were obviously not in the right class.  He acted offended that we were not better at what we were studying to be better at.  It was a personal affront to his whole being that he had to be around such talentless ingrates.  After a few weeks of this haranguing, I was giving thought to enlisting.

Around the third week, Mr. “I’m So Wonderful” art instructor had to leave school due to some emergency that was never explained.  He was replaced by an older woman who looked lost, scared, and usually didn’t show up for the classes. 

Several people in the class gave me good advice and were instrumental in my becoming a better artist, although I’m sure Mr. I.S. Wonderful would still have given me an F.  Despite Miss Smith’s opinion, that unpleasant experience was probably the first time I was a “real” artist.  If you are required to suffer to become an artist, I was now in the club.

Uncommon Sense

Common sense is defined as “sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts”, by Merriam- Webster.  My mother’s definition was probably different.  In its starkest meaning, it was doing what pleased her.  This was not a judgement of right or wrong, common sense was about doing what any reasonable person would do.  There are guidelines, religious and otherwise, on what is right and wrong, but common sense, not so much.

Common sense involves those decisions that “anyone with any sense” would already know.  No, you don’t jump off the roof.  Yes, you must make up your bed.  Of course, you will take a bath!

Most modern societies have volumes of books that define the “laws” regarding behavior that are not acceptable.  There is ample documentation from religious groups on what is good and bad.  But mothers seem to be the controlling influence on the understanding of “common sense”.  Why?

Because this mysterious common sense is something already known, and your mom knows you know.  “What were you thinking, you know better than to (fill in the blank), have you lost your mind—where is your common sense”.

Common sense is based on logic and experience.  You logically know that stepping in front of a train is not going to be a good thing, experience has taught us that lipping off to Dad is not a good thing—all common sense.

Today we have access to every possible source of information regarding what is right, what is wrong and what is totally subjective.  Every answer you can think of is supported, preached, and ballyhooed somewhere.  We have so much information and knowledge that it has no meaning.  Should I jump off the roof?  Well, yes, that could cause injury, but if it promotes your spiritual wellbeing maybe you should.  No way you should jump off the roof, it is against the HOA rules.

If you want the answer to be yes, there is a source for that.  Want a No answer, yes there is another source.  Ugh! Where is mom?

The best examples of common sense come from people who refuse to answer any question, pick a side, or state an opinion—that is good common sense; the best example of no “common sense” would be politicians.   All successful politicians must have had difficult mothers.  I’m sorry about that but I think it’s the truth—my common sense tells me so.

So, we all have common sense, it’s just that for some of us it goes into dormant periods leaving us with only other people’s opinions.  The first rule of common sense is to not listen to other people tell you what you should know, do, not do and so forth.  You must, as anyone with common sense knows, decide those things for yourself with your, of course, common sense.

I write murder mysteries.  The most famous fictional murder mystery detective was Sherlock Holmes—the absolute master of common sense.  Logic leads you to conclusions that you must believe—it is common sense.  Holmes’ approach to solving cases was to gather facts, evidence and to utilize keen observation.  From those facts he had to trust his “sense” that the conclusion was obvious, even if others thought otherwise. 

Holmes must have had an exceptionally good mother.

Happy Mother’s Day

Lost and Found

It’s been a while.  Did I get lost?  No, not really, just stopped writing.  When I’m writing books everything about my day seems to stay in focus.  The book writing tends to keep me engaged and alert in all aspects of my life.  Without that focus I drift. 

So, I’ve been drifting.  What have I found.  I started a new activity.  It’s a website selling stuff.  The stuff is shifting some but mostly it is bags, totes, duffels, some apparel, posters, and some yoga items.  Why.  Mostly because I like to design and play with designs in bold striking colors.  That is my art.  This is some of that, but different—it is using all the tools including AI to create images.  The images are more important to me than the products—so the bag becomes art.  Is it art?  Is it my art?

I really don’t know the answer to that question.  My first reaction to AI creating something was directly related to writing.  I was playing with the tool and discovered it might be more effective at writing than I was.  Or at least faster!  The more I experimented, the more I became disillusioned about my writing.  Do we already have all the knowledge we will ever need and therefore, all new things will just be rehashed from past creations.  AI will learn and spit out the next best seller based on parameters entered by AI “talkers”.  No need for authors.  Fast, easy, and cheap.

I started using AI images to add to this blog.  That was some time ago.  It was amazing.  Enter words and there in an instant an image.  The fascination with the process started to interfere with my writing.  I became enamored with the non-creation of non-original art that was not my art or anyone else’s and was based on past art that was used without permission to teach a computer to create something new.  It was wrong, but the results were so right—and inevitably better than my art, better than my book, better than my blog, better than?

So, I tumbled from the haze into creating bags using my art, and AI generated images.  Probably no logic in that, but it’s a fact; I’m enjoying what I’m doing.

Will I write again?  This post is part of that answer.  You need to write to be able to write.

The web site is www.myusagifts.com.  The company is USA Gifts.  The focus was originally on southwest states and southwest designs.  My fascination with New Mexico continues.  These are printed products based on digital designs.  I’m now creating looks to represent the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Texas, and Oklahoma.  Six states that link southwest designs, Native American images, and Hispanic cultures into a diverse and dynamic grouping of products and looks.

Some recent responses from book readers to new customers have been both encouraging and heartwarming.

It is an ever-changing world, some good, some bad; but still a world we want to be in and find ways to be creative.

Book Ideas?

Someone asked me how I come up with ideas for my books.  While an interesting question, it’s a little difficult to answer.  It has never been a bolt of lightning with a complete story exploding in my head—it is usually many steps of this thing leading to another thing which starts to form a story line.

In The Bootlegger’s Legacy, the idea for the story was based on some people I occasionally shared a few drinks with after work.  Okay, drinking buddies.  These guys were both having some financial difficulties with their businesses.  This was the 1980’s in oil rich Oklahoma, with the oil industry going down the tubes—it caused everyone some problems financially.  One of their not so brilliant ideas was to purchase drugs in Mexico, one of these guys supposedly had a contact in Juarez and sell them to a low life they knew in OKC.  These were businessmen dressed in suits who’s most daring venture had been river rafting.  Of course, the one factor leading to this wild (and stupid) discussion was alcohol.  Nothing ever came of their idiotic, illegal scheme.

The idea of TBL was what if those guys attempted their dumb idea.  It was to be an adventure story and would have lots of humor as these guys stumbled through one mishap after another.  I started writing but it just felt too stupid—no sane person would attempt such a high-risk venture.  What I had was the beginning of a story that introduced the two main characters, but now I did know what it was they were going to do to raise money for their failing businesses. 

All of that led to the idea that the father of one of the guys had been a bootlegger.  He had left a note to his son with details of a fortune from his bootlegger days.  And, if his son was as smart as he thought; he should be able to find the treasure based on the clues. 

So, the idea of TBL was originally not about a bootlegger but a Mexican drug deal.  The backstory about bootlegging in 1950s Oklahoma with connections to Juarez and Las Cruces, New Mexico, was not even part of the original story.

The idea of TBL evolved while trying to write another story that did not pan out.

The idea of Mr. and Mrs. Sims was my familiarity with some of the Oklahoma history when the state was still Indian Territory.  The thought occurred to me that it might be an interesting place and time to interject a “fish out of water story”.  To that end I started doing some research and discovered newspapers.com.  This site has historical local newspapers from the 1920s in small towns of rural Oklahoma.  I found numerous articles that triggered story line ideas.

Since my genre is mystery books, naturally I was attracted to crime articles.  The more I read in these old newspapers, the better my ideas developed.  The core idea was to have a man and wife moving into a small town who were highly educated with the husband having a background in the new science of criminology.  Now all I had to do was develop the circumstances of why they moved there and who they were. 

As you can see in the article below, these newspaper stories have a direct almost impassioned point of view.  All the stories I found in different papers during this time had articles about crime and mayhem and all were facts only.  I found six newspapers in this low-population part of the world but did not see one editorial opinion: just facts and ads.  You could tell the people producing the paper and their readers were direct no BS type people.  These papers directly affected what I have written in this series. 

So that book idea came about doing research with no real objective.  Sometimes I will have an idea and it will lead to research (Vegas Dead End), but other times the research is the source of the book idea.

Santa Fe Mojo was a combination of many sources that formed the book idea.  At one time I was going to write a continuation story from The Bootlegger’s Legacy with two of the main characters moving to Santa Fe and opening a B&B.  This was driven by the success of TBL and some ideas I was kicking around about how to continue with those characters in follow up books.  The result of that process was Dog Gone Lies featuring a character from TBL and I was thinking about other spinoffs.

I had written several chapters for this new idea of the Santa Fe B&B but had hit a brick wall.  Developing the characters, how they arrived in Santa Fe and bought a B&B, was going well, but I had no idea what the book was going to be about.  Murder mystery, mystery of any kind, day to day activities of a bed and breakfast—no ideas would equal no book.

Now here is the ugly part of writing.  I had spent considerable time writing some portions of the never titled B&B book, how could I use that effort in another book.  How about a beaten down private investigator looking for a place to wait for social security checks.  After a difficult and problematic career in tough guy situations, he drops into Santa Fe and helps a young couple get their B&B up and running.  Of course, while he’s at it he helps solve murder mysteries.  Santa Fe Mojo and the Vincent Malone series born.

In case you were wondering, I enjoy the process of writing.  The negative side is the difficulty when things are interrupted or for some reason, that causes me to feel lost in the story and lose my direction.  If I don’t know what is happening next, so everything stops.  It’s a helpless feeling.  The best way to write is to completely lose yourself in the story and ignore everything else.  However, that is not the best advice for a happy household.  Maybe that is why so many writers have been loners with a drinking problem.  Living inside your head all the time does not lead to a stable person.  Those characters do talk to me, I’m not kidding.

Good-by readers, it’s time for me to go back to my characters and see what they are doing.

Normal?

Late April snow in Denver always feels like a shock.  Of course, it shouldn’t since snow is possible even in May.  But due to some nice warm weather we were ready for spring.  The deck furniture was uncovered, the umbrellas were out, trees were budding, anticipating all that spring warmth.  Instead, we got a few inches of cold snow.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the changing seasons.  Even the surprise snow is somehow part of the “real” world of weather.  That world has good and bad consequences, it’s normal.

Human activities, both good and bad, are probably also “normal”.  The ugliness that I believe is abnormal is violence.  How can humans cause other humans such misery and pain without some sense of remorse?  An easy answer is it’s evil, the devil, demons, something that is not human.

It does seem that a lot of political noise is encouraging violence.  When the people who are shouting about violence are called out, they say they are not encouraging violence, even though they are.  Eventually those people will drop all pretense and just state it plainly, violence is okay.  Why?  Violence is okay because it is directed at people who are not “normal humans”.  Dehumanizing our enemies is how we deal with the contradiction of harming our fellow humans.

The other reason is power.  To have control over other people seems like a common goal for humans.  There does seem to be a genetic need to be the top dog (whatever in the hell that means), and to dictate to others what they will think, how they will act, who they will fear.  Power!

Now we all know this is not everyone.  There is some percentage of our species that wants power, maybe it’s 10% or 70%, I don’t know; but it is not everyone.  Those of us who want power are obsessed by that need.  They will do, and have done, almost anything to quench that lust for power.  Killing your neighbor, not a problem, killing a few thousands evil ones, not a problem, lying about everything, not a problem—well, you can see the pattern.  The lust is uncontrollable.  The end justifies the means.

The odd thing to me is why the percentage of people who don’t want power follow these usually evil people.  I don’t have an answer for that.  At times I’ve thought it is because they are stupid.  Ignorance is a common factor in many human decisions about almost everything.  “I just didn’t realize it would end this way!”  “I guess I thought they would not go that far!”

I’m probably naïve, but I believe most people everywhere want basically the same thing.  A good life, with freedom to be what they want to be, live in peace, have an opportunity to succeed, to care for their family, have good health and wish no harm to anyone else.  I also believe most people are tolerant, forgiving, and caring.  Yes, my name is Pollyanna.

Whether that is the world or not, I will choose to live in the belief that those are the traits of most humans.  Too often the exceptions to those qualities end up being leaders.  Why the worst (occasionally it is the best) of us end up being leaders is a hard question to answer.  Fear, of course, is always a reason for picking the bully to lead the pack, but does it really make any sense?  Most bullies are little people who will only attack the weak, which usually ends of being that leader’s followers in the end.

On those few occasions when we picked the best of us to be leaders, it does not always work out.  A good leader wants to make things better.  Calmer, less chaos.  A good leader wants to help everyone, not just the few with power.  That becomes a threat to the power needy crowd.  Equality is an ugly concept in their world.  That good leader will always rub the power folks the wrong way and, therefore, they will attack, and attack, and attack; until that good leader is gone.

What should we do.  We need leaders, but we need to be more cautious about who we choose.  Respecting all people is the same as respecting ourselves.  Hate is the enemy of happiness.  Somehow, we must find a way to live together without violence and hate.  Those rather common human attributes are too often the driving force that keeps us from achieving the best as humans, love, goodness, tolerance, forgiveness, and common sense.

My mother always insisted that her children were to be polite and respectful.  Now that was not always the case (especially on my brother’s part), but she was consistent in her belief that those qualities were required of everyone.  My mother would say the commonsense thing to do would be to pick your leader based on who is polite and respectful.  Now she did not live in the social media world of anger and inappropriate language, but I would think she would still think it’s best to have leaders who are not jerks.

VOTE FOR ME, I’M NOT A JERK!

New Art

In my recent posts I have been using Midjourney AI illustrations.  Computer generated images based on written input.  My images were generated with a minimum of input from me.  The last two for the writer’s block post were just that “writer’s block” with some additional input regarding mood, such as “dark”.  Many of the images which you can see on Midjourney are being created with a bunch of words.  Much, much greater descriptions than you would think, often with words I’m not real sure I know what they mean—and yet the results seem to please these demanding users—at least they keep making them.

My early creative efforts were originally art.  In my head I still think of myself as an artist, not a particularly good one, but that was what I was.  That person finds this “new art”, repulsive and threatening.  How can a machine create art—well, it can and some of the results are stunning.  The logical me feels like this is just an extension of human activity and while we are having trouble fitting it into or old definition of art, that is what it is.

The typical dictionary definition of art:

“the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

Drop the word human and the AI art is just that– art.  Or maybe, the people who wrote the program are artists, or the people who invented the computer, or the person who harnessed electricity—yeah, this can go on and on.

How about my words “writer’s block”, does that make me the artist? 

In almost all our creative activities, technology has changed how we create.  Is this just another or is this something different?

“producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power”

Maybe that is the defining part; if you like the image and you react to it’s emotion then it is art.  Who created it or how it was created is not important.

While that may be the answer, it still leaves me with an uncomfortable feeling (or maybe it is jealousy, I sure couldn’t have drawn that image.)

It is possible one of the AI writers should have written this post along with the AI illustrations to be read by AI readers; who really liked it.

Strange Case of Writer’s Block

Just finished the 3rd business book, something about planning and budgeting, that has almost zero interest, unless you are starting a new business, or trying to figure out why you are not successful in your current business.  My guess is that’s not you.  With that understanding, it is my last biz book.

Next, I’m going to finish the mystery books I’ve started.  I have four books in the works, Durango Two Step, Doctor Hightower, Vegas Dead End, and Mr. & Mrs. Sims. 

Durango Two Step has been a strange case of writer’s block.  This book was started years ago.  The first half is done, so why did it stop?  I don’t know how it ends.  Okay, I know you are saying, well just make it up and finish it.  Good advice if I could only just do that. 

Writing books has a certain flow.  I will usually have less than 10 “main” characters and maybe another dozen or so support characters.  When you’re actively writing, all those names get stuck in your head; how they interact, who they are, how they fit in the plot and who did it.  Yes, to write a murder mystery it is best to know who did the deed.  If you don’t know the murderer at the very beginning, you can’t drop the appropriate clues here and there that keep the readers guessing. 

You can’t write 60,000 words and suddenly say Jack Evil is the murderer unless you have laid the groundwork in “hints” throughout the book.  The murderer can be a surprise, but it can’t be someone who just showed up!

Durango Two Step is a Vincent Malone book and it follows an on-going story from the other books about several characters and how they are interconnected.  The main plot line is the worst of the worst bad guy is shot outside a biker bar and our hero’s best buddy is accused of the murder.  Sure, we know he’s innocent, but who did it?  I DON’T KNOW!

That problem had me back off that book some time ago and has caused it to sit dormant for years.  It’s possible I’m going with Jack Evil and just end it—if I do that, please forget that you just read that here and act surprised.

Doctor Hightower is in essence done, except for a few chapters telling a more detailed story about Lani Newcastle.  When this book was flowing it was all falling in place, but once again I had a problem in that a certain sequence of events did not make sense.  I stopped.  Worse thing a writer can do is stop writing,  thinking you can return in a few hours, days or years and just pick it up again—no way! 

I think I need a week or two of thinking about nothing else so Hightower can be done.  This is a unique story line that has great appeal to me—so I should just do that; but for lots of reasons it is hard.

Vegas Dead End, kind of the same problem, started and stopped.  But this was because I turned it into an audio drama, which is still out there somewhere unfinished.  This was due to my last business deal, I got sucked into actually working for many months pushing around numbers and lost the ability to think about anything else.  It is a horrible way to lose your mind.  Creativity went out the window.

Mr. & Mrs. Sims is a cozy mystery taking place in rural Oklahoma in the 1920s.  I started this project when I began reading on-line local newspapers from that time in small rural towns.  This is an incredible resource for historical tales.  There must have been ten or more local newspapers in that area during the 1920s full of stories about all sorts of things—including crime and mystery (also the price of live chickens). 

This story was also turned into an audio drama and was moving along with rapid speed when everything stopped.  This project has lots of promise and I can’t wait to get back to the story of these very interesting and unusual people.

The common theme is that for some reason I have been able to start new stories which I really like but not finish them.  Some of this is because other activities have distracted me, but a lot is that I’m easily distracted to the latest new shinny thing. 

A new story idea will pop into my head and I will want to get some details down on paper; and that interferes with what I had going at the time.  There is so much I want to do; I think it all gets clogged up and somehow, I’ve been busy and productive but have only two-thirds of a finished book.

These four books must be done—so that is what I will do.  Stop trying to do a hundred things and finish those books: one at a time.

Aliens are Just Like You and Me?

Neighbors having a friendly chat

Alien invasion in the form of balloons or metallic cylinders floating in the sky?  Not likely.  Its just strange human behavior based on fear of other humans.  If Aliens were probing our planet from planets close to our system, we would know about them.  Unless they lived totally hidden on their nearby planet so we couldn’t see or smell them.  (Smell?)

Maybe they are from planets very far away in a different solar system?  Now this incredibly advanced society is sending balloon like things to float around our air space.  Nah, not likely.  That advanced civilization has no doubt been monitoring our activity for thousands of years and sees no value in making contact.  Those earthlings still can’t get along with their neighbors much less a different species.

That could be the biggest advantage of an Alien invasion—we might actually look around and realize that we are all human beings and very much alike.  It might even be possible that we could join up to defend “our” planet.

The reality is human beings think other humans are different.  If you’re Chinese, you are different than Americans.  If you live in California, you are different than Texans.  What nonsense.  Generally, our leaders emphasize the differences.  The truth is that a family in China has about the same concerns, worries, and hopes as a family in Texas.  They worry about money, their health, their family’s future, the stability of competing countries, and happiness.  Priorities are births, weddings, operations, funerals, graduations, hugs, laughter, family history, peace, and other smaller things that really matter.

Too often our leaders are people who seem paranoid, overly aggressive, self-centered, power-hungry, war mongers and totally out of touch with what is really important.  Other countries leaders seem to follow that pattern.  Now some of these people just took power, but many are elected—we picked them.

Why do we pick leaders who seem eager to punch somebody in the face.  We think they will protect us.  To protect ourselves from outside bullies, we elect bullies. Strongmen to defend against strongmen.  My guess would be all of those strongmen are really weak, insecure men who will attack because they don’t know what else to do.  (Keep in mind men also equals women—these leadership qualities seem to ignore gender)

We have known this for thousands of years—if we could get along better, life would improve for all of us.  Generally, our leaders have seen that goal as one based on total domination.  As your leader I will conquer the world and make everyone live like we live—then things will be better.  And if they do not want to live like we live, we will destroy them.  Let’s take the “humanity” out of human beings.

I have little hope we will ever be able to see the commonness in all of us.  If I can only identify with the people who live in my small suburb of Denver, how will we ever unite the entire planet.  We won’t.  We will continue to fight because we feel threatened.  I’m going to punch you before you punch me.  I will win and then you will have to live like me.  Hallelujah!

The only path that would seem to work is if we could celebrate differences.  Humans seem to have the ability to identify the smallest differences in fellow humans and will segregate into groups based on those slight similarities.  That means the slight differences are emphasized and shunned.  And yet, if we will look at the group that is the most important to most of us, the family, we will see all sorts of differences that we overlook.  Within our small group we absorb the differences as nothing and see the commonness.  Why can’t we expand that to everyone?

It’s possible that it will take the Alien invasion in the monster spaceship hovering over the entire state of Wyoming before we can come together and unite.  Threats have always had a significant influence in our behaviors—if we don’t have enemies, we find some.

Grandma’s Farm

I’ve always lived in a city.  Some large, some small but I never lived in what might be called a rural area.  My grandparents on both sides of my family lived in rural Oklahoma.  My parents moved from their rural homes just before WWII to take jobs in the “big” city.  This was the normal pattern during that time as there was huge demand for labor in larger towns. 

Neither of my parents ever romanticized the life they had left on the “farm”, it was difficult and full of hard labor.  Both of my grandparents had small farms—they barely provided for their immediate family.  My mother and father had started working off of the farm long before they left—this was their desire, and it helped their family by bringing in other income.

My mother was a very feminine “girl” and there is no doubt in my mind that hands-on farm labor would not be something she would have done.  My father joined his father in the hauling business working in the oil fields—they were often gone from the farm—it was run by my grandmother.  Making a “living” was the only thing the farm represented—it didn’t mean it was wrong to make a living in some other way, just because you grew up on a farm.

My grandparents wanted their kids to leave the farm and seek a “better” life.  Small farmers knew it was a tough, thankless life, full of hardships and many tragedies. 

Today many rural people, often not farmers, are angry about their lives and how they have been ignored or even mistreated by city people and government.  I’m sure much of this is the overall change in our society that has over emphasized high-tech’s dominance in communication, young over-achievers, and some rather in-your-face entertainment trends.  All those trends have deemphasized the contributions by rural communities.  While that can feel like some sort of evil plot, I would guess it is just a numbers game; the rural communities just do not represent a substantial market for companies to sell things to. 

The majority of those big city people will have some connection in their family tree to the rural life and I would be surprised if those people would belittle people who still farm for a living or live in small towns. 

What is really causing this “rural vs city” division along political lines?  There are thousands, if not millions, of people who could answer that question better than me—but I won’t let that stop me.  My opinion isn’t based on extensive research, just a gut feeling.

It’s about the future.  Small towns have declined.  Small businesses have closed, and those businesspeople are no longer engaged in promoting the town and being positive about the future.  Farmers have occupied most of the rural land, but the non-farmer population of small towns has always been larger in numbers than the farmers.  Now many of those people have gone.  This decline has been going on for a long time, with little interest from national political leaders.

One of my grandparents lived in Perkins, Oklahoma.  When my parents and I would visit, part of the trip was to go “downtown” and have ice cream or (my favorite) to visit a small farm on the edge of town and buy eggs.  Everywhere we went, we were all the same people.  The ice cream shop owner and the small egg farmer were most pleased to see us, knew us and our connection to the town.  To them we were a customer and (at least it seemed that way) friends.

My mother took me to the department store downtown where she used to work and introduced me to the store’s owner.  At that time these small towns still had active commerce besides farming.  The community was alive and well.  The mood during this time (late 1950s) was positive.  The future looked bright.  By the 1970s much of that promise had gone.  Farmers were still farming but the support structure in the small towns had changed.  The community of businesspeople had almost gone away. 

The future of those small towns looked very bleak.  Most of the young people couldn’t wait to leave.  Without hope of a better future, almost all of us would turn bitter and look for people to blame. 

Government cannot solve all the problems facing humans.  But Governments have a role to play in the betterment of their citizen’s lives.  I believe the current administration has made a great attempt to make lives better in rural America.  Most of this has been ignored.  It’s not flashy, and if you’re on the other team, you no doubt don’t believe it or think it’s just bullshit political talk.

I don’t believe Democrat’s should always be in power, but this American Rescue Plan (infrastructure) legislation should have gotten a lot more noise than it did and should be celebrated by everyone.  The plan is heavily targeted to rural areas.  A Democratic plan (supported by a small but significant number of Republicans) that spends billions in rural America (currently heavily Republican rural America).  A plan to benefit your opponent’s supporters?  I think most of rural America either does not know about the details of this plan or just don’t believe it.

I’m sure many people who think this will amount to nothing believe the money will be spent on something else and only rack up more debt.  As always things can go wrong, but this looks like a major commitment to revitalize a large part of the country and, if it goes as planned, will restore hope to millions.

One of the problems with this type of legislation—it takes a long time to see results.  Some of the results are more immediate but the actual spending on many of the projects won’t happen until 2026.  Wow, politicians put in place a plan to take the time to spend money wisely, and by the time the results are seen, they most likely will be out of office.  Not sure I believe they did that either.

Everyone should take a look at the FACT SHEET regarding this amazing plan.

I believe in many ways the future of the USA is going to be driven by rural America.  Big cities have their advantages and their disadvantages—soon we are going to start to see with the benefit of technology the increased strengths of rural towns.  Everyone should be proud of this development.

There is no doubt we can disagree about debt, taxes, the role of government, and a long list of social issues; but somewhere in our heart we do need to care for one another—even if we must hide it.

I will still live in a big city, but it would be great to soon visit a revitalized Perkins and talk shop with the egg guy.