october 7 etc
A few years after 9/11 when I was first working in print media (yes, I'm old), I read a letter to the editor of some small regional paper somewhere in Washington or Oregon. It was written by an older American gentleman who was critiquing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that were supposedly about "freedom." He explained his belief that when Americans say "freedom" they don't necessarily mean "freedom," but rather "what we have here in America."
I remember reading that and scoffing. "No one actually thinks that way, do they?" I thought to myself. Turns out lot of people did (and still do).
Over the next few years I made a point to examine some of my own perspectives in re: the intersection of the personal and the political. I needed to figure out if the things I said actually lined up with what I believed. I needed to know if I was lying to myself.
Every time I'd examine, I'd find some blind spots and I'd go about fixing them or like... reconciling them. Eventually it was like Whack-a-Mole. I'd patch one mental or emotional mechanism that had been infected by some ___ist or ___phobic malware, and another one would pop up.
A few years later, same thing. Even more "oh damn, I'm still kind of ___ist" moments.
A few years after that, same thing. A lot of "wait, is this just internalized ___phobia?" moments.
A decade after that, same thing. "Wait, what the fuck? Wow I didn't even consider that thinking that is actually rooted in deeply offensive stereotypes. How much of my personality is based on thinking things like this? How many decisions have I made because of this weird internalized bias?"
And so on and so forth.
I'm not writing this to impress anyone or to claim that I'm the only guy in the world who has worked on himself. I'm not. Also, though I like who I am these days, I'm never going to claim to be some paragon of virtue or whatever. I'm just some guy trying to do his best.
I'm writing this to tell you that doing this kind of thing has led to an experience of personal... liberation that I don't think I knew existed before a few years ago.
When it clicked for me, I wrote the following on a Post-it note and stuck it to my desk:
GET FREE
STAY FREE
To exist in our complex and cruel world is difficult, but liberating yourself or otherwise finding paths towards inner freedom doesn't have to be. I think you really just have to know it's possible.
On y va!
ππ I called LinkedIn "a necessary evil" like ten times last week, so I went looking to see if anyone had succeeded in building something better. I found OpenSpot and am considering making an account. (OpenSpot)
π€π€ This generation of human brain is truly cooked, because apparently so many people have been sending AI videos of Robin Williams to his daughter that she has had to publicly plead with them to stop. (Variety)
π³π³ We all know at least one person like this person's mom. (Threads/nennajobs)
π₯π₯ Some friends say they have your back and some friends actually do. (Imgur)
πΈπͺπΈπͺ Ever wanted to look at 75 years of IKEA catalogues? I've got you. (ikeamuseum.com)
π¦π¦ Tag yourself I'm the shark. (Twitter/beetlemoses)
ππ΄ If anyone feels like buying me this jacket, I'd be fine with it. (eBay)
βΎπ This week's sports trivia questions are up over at my sports trivia blog. (oddball.blog)
π² gonna
πΌ go
π± touch
π³ grass
π· now
Be good to yourself.
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