In September of 2018 I went to Erie, Pennsylvania to run the Erie Marathon. It was my final effort to qualify for the 2019 Boston Marathon before the registration deadline the very next day. We had to take a short bus ride from a giant parking lot to the small start area in a nature preserve. While on the bus I met sisters Katie and Emily Funk who had flown in from out of town like I had to run the race. We had a good, if brief, conversation before we arrived at the start area and went on our way. We traded names and promised to connect on social media to see how we all did.
Katie and Emily Funk after the Erie Marathon, Sept. 9th, 2018
After the race we did indeed connect on Social Media. All 3 of us had qualified for Boston at the race and were making plans to connect again in Boston come April. However, one of the quirks of the Boston Marathon is that you can qualify and still not make it in and that is what happened to me. I missed out by 16 seconds. But the sisters made it in with time to spare and fulfilled their dream by running in the 2019 race.
Emily and Katie
Sisters, Sisters
You can see two things by the t-shirt Emily is wearing. One, they live in the neighboring states and two, they love each other a great deal and cherish the times they can get together. This was often when they were running marathons around the country together, always with the hope of qualifying for Boston.
Emily and Katie with the father, Charlie Funk, after the race
Not only are the two of them runners but so is their dad and a third sister, Jennie. Charlie Funk got the idea he wanted to run Boston when Emily went off to Boston College and he got hooked on the idea of running past BC at mile 21. He made it happen in 2008 (and 3 more years). Jennie has run Boston as well. Ever since then they have been a running family.
Painting the Relationship and the goal
Late in 2020 I got an unexpected message from Emily. She told me that they had tried for years to qualify, running 4 marathons together, each time coming up short until finally at Erie they made it happen. And now she wanted to give Katie something that would be a memento, not just of Boston, but of the entire journey they have been on together. So she contacted me hoping I might be available to create something. She sent me some photos of them together and some in action during races. She also sent me pics of the 5 medals representing the 5 races they had run.
After doing a lot of collaging and editing of the various photos I came up with an idea and executed it. I wanted to include the two of them, the 5 medals and the ribbons that held the medals. Here is the final result.
I sent it off to Emily in time for her to present it to Katie when they got together sometime after Christmas. She sent me a pic of them holding it along with all the medals. It made me feel great to have been asked and to be able to produce something that represented their love and their journey.
The world is my idea. Wow, this sounds pretty darn egotistical, doesn’t it? I mean, aren’t I just a mere dust speck in the world? Yes, I am. And that idea of who I am is MY idea of who I am. It is something I constructed in my mind out of all that I have experienced of the world. You however may think you aren’t a mere speck of dust. You might think you are the most important being on the planet. I know some people who think that actually. And that is their idea of the world and their place in it.
My point is, don’t be fooled into thinking that your idea of the world is the world. It’s not. The world is the accumulation of everyone’s understanding of it AND it is well beyond all those definitions as well. So, to be more effective on this planet hold on lightly to your idea of the world. Allow that others’ ideas might have equal validity. They might not as well. Your job is to be open to listening to what that idea is and see if you can learn something from it. Maybe what you learn is that idea is toxic and dangerous or maybe you’ll find out that idea is sublime and healthy. Either way, knowing your idea is just one of many will help you grow and expand your mind and heart.
And don’t be afraid. You aren’t obligated to take on someone else’s idea just because you listen to it.
I drew this last year at my local Starbucks in Oklahoma (before we moved to Texas). I thoroughly enjoy going to cafes and drawing the scenes I find. In this case it was 4 people working away. I got the impression they were all students but, unlike many times, I didn’t go over and introduce myself to them that I can remember.
I had received new watercolor paper as a gift earlier in the year so I brought that along with the anticipation of drawing then returning home to paint. I forgot about the drawing in the fervor of our move and didn’t bring it out again until I had a number of commissions over Christmas that I was doing in watercolor. Once they were done I wanted to continue in that medium and brought this and a few other drawings out.
This piece, and almost all my pieces, are for sale so if you are interested, let me know!
Many people believe all sorts of things that aren’t true. Some of those don’t matter much, for example, a person believing that rubbing keeping his lucky rubber ducky next to his easy chair will make his team win. It’s not true but it does no harm.
We aren’t talking about that. We are talking about lies that destroy and kill. For example, Trump said the Corona Virus was just like the flu and we didn’t have to worry about it. But he was lying, as proven by the recordings of him saying otherwise. That lie cost people their lives because action that wasn’t taken based on it supposedly being true.
Now we have seen this on display again, in Washington, D.C. and the U. S. Capitol Building. Trump has said he won the election. That is a lie. It’s not a mistake, or a miscommunication, it’s a lie. And he knows it’s a lie. But he doesn’t care. He wants to win so he’s making up a story that says he won. A story without evidence to back it up. And his followers believe him. They believe him so much they storm our Capitol and ransack it, searching for Senators and Representatives disloyal to Trump, perhaps to make stand trial in a kangaroo court right then. Luckily they didn’t find any officials.
The problem is the mob, a mob who isn’t bound by truth or evidence or facts. They are only bound by allegiance to Trump. And when Trump said to march on the Capitol and his servant Guiliani said to commit violence, they did so. Trump and all the public officials that supported and encouraged his behavior and his words are complicit and should forever be stained with the infamy of January 6th, 2021.
This was going to be my New Years Day post but a flood in my house on New Years Eve got in the way. At first it was just an obvious emergency I had to deal with, then it became the real life lesson that illustrates this quote.
So, about that flood. It was all my fault. Why? Because I didn’t think small, I thought big. Well, not exactly big, but bigger than I should have at the moment. In other words I didn’t pay attention to the small details that were important. REALLY important. Here’s how it came about.
I am a do-it-yourselfer and since we moved to our new house in Texas from Oklahoma I have been doing a LOT of DIYing. The latest project is a remodel of our guest bathroom. Wallpaper has been stripped and replaced, tub has been recaulked, lights have been replaced and old vanity countertop has been removed in anticipation of our new one being put in. All has gone according to plan.
Since the countertop was off and I could get to them easily I decided I would replace all four old and worn out water valves leading to the two sinks. Often times this is a job for a pro plumber since it can take a blow torch and ‘sweating’ and soldering of pipes.
But in this case it looked like an easy replacement by cutting off the old valve and just leaving a clean copper pipe that I could then attach to the new valve using what is called a compression fitting. Easy peasy, right? Yes, if you do it step by step.
It sounds very dorky but I was very excited to be able to do this by myself so I traipsed down to Home Depot and got all the right tools and parts I would need. Then I got right to it on New Year’s Eve day. I used this cool tool that you snap around the copper pipe and just rotate and it makes this perfect cut. And it did. Only one problem. In my excitement I didn’t think through the order of the steps I needed to take. Like the obvious important step of turning off the water to the house BEFORE cutting the pipe. Duh.
Even though there is a very harrowing but entertaining story about the consequences of me cutting that pipe, for now it will suffice to tell you that I created a massive flood in my house before we were able to get the water turned off. A flood that required us calling our insurance company and having a ‘water mitigation’ team come out and deal with it.
It’s now 2 days later and the wood flooring in the living room and two hallways is torn out and will have to be replaced. The carpet in parts of 3 rooms is also lifted up and is drying, most likely needing to be replaced.
All baseboards are removed and there are holes in all the effected walls (below the baseboard line luckily). Those holes have giant loud fans next to them blowing air into the walls to dry it all out. The carpets also have fans on them. There are also two big dehumidifiers going in the house. All of them will be going 24/7 for 3 days.
And why did this happen? Because I didn’t go small. I didn’t pay attention to the step by step details I needed to pay attention to. This is a DIY version of something that happens to us all at one time or another. We think so much about the big plans that we lose sight or skip the small steps needed to make sure the big plans come off as we want them too. It might be travel plans, or Covid19 protection, or gun and hunting safety, or a million other things.
The point is, taking the time to think through and execute the small things well is what will make for a safe and happy big thing.
Delusion is a hard thing to overcome. Individuals believe things that are untrue for all sorts of reasons. Many times they even know inside that what they believe is untrue but they just can’t get the courage to admit it to themselves or others. It really isn’t that uncommon. But what is far more dangerous is when large groups inside a country believe things that there is no evidence for or is grossly exaggerated. This is true in America right now.
Some Trump supporters have gone down a rabbit hole of adoration. They are so enamored of Trump, so invested in him being their savior (from what I don’t know), that they can’t handle the fact that he’s been voted out of office. They want so badly not to believe it that they have staked their faith on lies told to them by people who don’t really care about them. It’s sad to see but really not surprising when you take into account Trump’s methodology of propaganda and disinformation and his legion of media followers who are also so invested that they amplify that message without regard for their duties as journalists or commentators.
It’s sad to see and I can only hope that we find a vaccine for this hysterical delusion soon.
The Wounded WomanThe Unhappy Wife the Moment Her Fences Flew AwayThe Renaissance Room at the MuseumThe Water AngelMother and SonThe Dancer Dancing in Her Favorite Spot During QuarantineThe Sad Queen Just Wanted To Be LovedThe Dishwashing Attorney With Her Bra OffThe Very Popular Exhibition at the Usually Unpopular Art MuseumThe TV Producer Dreaming She Was a BlowfishThe Translator Getting Ready For WorkThe Tattoo Artist With Issues
You ever notice how paranoid people think other people are paranoid? Or how angry people think others are angry? Or perhaps the opposite, the person who wears rose colored glasses thinks everyone else is nice and benign. What is happening there? They are projecting. They see the world a certain way due to their character traits and so they assign those same traits to others actions. They can’t imagine others thinking differently, especially if they are narcissists who never bother to think about others.
Perhaps that’s why Trump thinks those who lost their lives defending America are losers and suckers. Because he can’t imagine people doing anything sacrificial unless they are those things. He certainly doesn’t see value in sacrifice or someone having sacrifice in his or her character. Instead he sees everything as win or lose. If you do something that can lead to you losing (or dying or getting captured in war) then you are a sucker. You let it happen to you because you weren’t thinking about yourself, and that is not the way he thinks. It’s always about him succeeding, getting away with something, escaping something. If he screws someone else in the process, a vendor back when he was a real estate developer, or a supposed ally now that he’s President, then he did what was smart for him and the other person got suckered.
So I ask you, are you a sucker? You are if you think he cares about you or your life. He doesn’t. He only cares about himself.
“If you are easily offended you are easily manipulated”. I heard our Pastor say this in his sermon this week and it resonated with me.
There are two parts to this quote, first the idea of being easily offended. It is what might currently be associated with ‘cancel culture’. You hear something you don’t like from someone, maybe a celebrity, maybe a politician, and you decide they are no longer worthy of your, or anyone else’s attention because what they did or said offended you so deeply. You might go so far as to say they need to be fired or disciplined in some way. This happens in our 24/7 environment of rage almost every day. Now, sometimes the person or company deserves the judgment and the consequence. Maybe they need to be fired because what they did was so egregious so as to deserve that. But often times we either are overreacting to the ‘sin’ or our judgment is based on incomplete information.
The other part of the quote is about being manipulated. Manipulation in this context means being persuaded to believe something or take some action that you don’t realize is based on incomplete or faulty information, or through appealing to an emotion or feeling that becomes more important than the truth about something.
The question becomes how these two are connected. If you are easily offended it often means you are looking for a reason to judge and may not wait to hear enough information to fairly judge. And if you are that primed to judge, you are primed to hear what a manipulator wants you to hear.
To use two recent examples from today’s headlines, first we have the case of the unwanted hysterectomies taking place in immigrant detention facilities. If the headline is, ‘Mass forced hysterectomies performed on immigrant women’ you might think one thing. If the headline is, ‘Whistle blower describes hearing about possible unwanted hysterectomies at detention center’ you might think another. If you were already upset about treatment of immigrants you could be quickly offended and ready to judge and the headline that heightens to infraction is the one you are likely to believe without checking to see if it is accurate.
Another example: You hear about a ‘riot’ in a major US city that happened after a protest. If the headline is ‘Major violence and rioting causes city to burn’ you might think one thing. If the headline is, ‘Car set on fire after peaceful protest’ you might think another. But if you were already upset at the protesters and their message you could be quickly offended and ready to judge and the headline that tells of more violence is the one you are likely to believe without checking to see if it is accurate.
What that means is we have to analyze and double check our information while withholding judgment. How do you double check the information? One is by being patient and letting the story play out. The other is by having multiple avenues of information coming to you. If you are only listening to Fox and Breitbart then you can trust you are not getting an accurate picture. If you are only listening to MSNBC and HuffPost then the same is true, you are not getting an accurate picture.
You can’t trust a single news outlet to feed you a well-balanced picture. It’s your responsibility to wait until there is sufficient evidence and to hear news from a variety of directions. It’s also your responsibility to not propagate information that is nothing more than gossip and innuendo without evidence. Both of those responsibilities are easier if you aren’t so easily offended and thus easily manipulated.
In the book ‘1984’ there were official sayings of the party in control, inscribed on the giant white pyramid at the Ministry of Truth. war is peace freedom is slavery ignorance is strength
This has always been used as an example of a scary dystopian future we in America might see in a place like Russia or China. But that is not how it’s turned out. Instead we are seeing it play out here in the US under Trump. If you doubt this to be true I would submit the words above as just the merest of slices of what he has said that is absurd and untrue in the extreme.
All you have to do is look through a collection of what he’s said over the past 4 years or more to see the truth. If you don’t see it, I think you might work for the ‘Ministry of Truth’.
