A conversation between two friends over coffee and cookies
“Gladys? Why do you have an old black rotary phone?”
“Oh, I’ve always had that phone.”
“But, such phones don’t really work anymore. They can’t do a bunch of things that push button phones do, and I imagine it makes it very hard to do basic tasks like ordering prescriptions, or even ordering pizza. Push button phones cost like 20 bucks. Why don’t you just get one?”
“No. I’ve always had that one. No sense changing.”
“But don’t you see, you are limiting what you can do and forcing yourself to do things that are way more inconvenient and time consuming?
“Yeah, well.”
“What do you mean ‘yeah, well’?” There is absolutely no logical reason to have that phone. By keeping that phone you are willfully making your life less convenient. Hell! You are probably making your life less safe as well. Something incredibly basic like dialing 9-1-1. I bet it takes 4 times as long to dial 9-1-1 on your phone then on a push button phone?
“Well, there’s nothing I can do. The phone is plugged in and working. I’m stuck with it.”
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN?! You could literally go to like any store in town and buy a new phone, plug it in and be done. It is about the easiest thing you could do.”
“Hmm.”
“My god you are exasperating!”
“OK, let’s talk about something else then.”
“Fine. Oh, I just thought of something: Don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour this weekend. It’s Daylight Savings Time. Fall back and all that.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why? It’s fall and Sunday is the day we set our clocks back an hour.”
“Yeah, but why? Why should we do that?
“Because we’ve always done that.”
“But switching the time doesn’t really work anymore, it doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t save energy, it doesn’t save money, it does nothing.”
“That’s just what we do. No sense changing.”
“But don’t you see, switching our clocks is an artificial construct that limits natural light and forces us to modify our schedule which is inconvenient.”
“Yeah well.”
“What do you mean ‘yeah, well’?” There is absolutely no logical reason to switch the clocks. By keeping this ridiculous practice we are willfully making life less convenient. Hell! We are making life less safe as well. Something incredibly basic like driving with less light makes the roads less safe and causes deaths on the road!”
“Well there’s nothing we can do. We move our clocks back every fall. We are stuck with it.”
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN?! We could literally just NOT touch our clocks and keep the time consistent. Doing nothing is about the easiest thing we could do!!”
“Hmm.”
“My god you are exasperating!”
“OK, let’s talk about something else then.”
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Why we love sports
This weekend, my lifelong favorite NFL team played the marquee game on Sunday and my new second favorite team played on Monday Night.
My Cowboys vs. Vikings in America’s Game of the Week and my new found focus Seattle vs. SF for the Monday Night tilt.
Both games were good, entertaining down to the wire affairs. My Boy’s lost a heartbreaker and my Seahawks won a thriller in overtime.
My wife, a long suffering NFL widow did watch a lot of the MNF game with me.
At one point, while I was (for me, fairly good-naturedly) yelling at a ref’s bad call that negatively impacted my Seahawks, she asked: “how is this fun? How is this not completely stress inducing torture? Why do you subject yourself to this?”
And the answer to that question is why we love sports.
The answer is simply this: Sports is one of, if not the only, mass appeal endeavor that a person could care about with 100 effort all the while knowing we have zero percent control of the outcome. The game has us completely in its clutches, while we have absolutely no hand in the result.
We have all the passion, with absolutely none of the responsibility. We can care about our team from early childhood to our deathbed and bare no obligation to its success and failure.
That is, as I said to my dear wife, the point.
In so much of our lives, we bare responsibility for outcomes that often are not in our control. The success of our company, the success of our children, the success of our community. We put our blood, sweat and tears toward doing a good job at work, only to be down-sized or reassigned because despite making our numbers, the corporation didn’t. Or giving our sons and daughters all the best life lessons for their journey into adulthood only to see them join a terrible SKA band and use the college savings for a van and guitars. Giving much of our spare time to rotary, or the PTA or a nonprofit only to watch our community sink further into despair.
But sports? I can live and die on the hopes of a strong-armed quarterback who spots an open receiver in the end zone with the same emotional investment I have down at the office and probably more. Yet, when my Cowboys or Hawks fail – it’s completely on them. I can curse and stomp my feet on a Sunday night and then wake up the next morning with no regret or remorse. That strong-armed quarterback missed the wide open receiver that cost us the game? Not my fault.
It’s so liberating and dare I say cathartic to care so deeply about a game, to clench one’s jaw, yell yourself hoarse, and pace the rug like an expectant father, and then – let it go.
It’s almost like our replacement for battle. All the rage and adrenaline and angst, without the threat of death, injury or PTSD.
Win or lose, I feel relaxed after a game. Sure, I might hold grudges and some anger after a loss, but I’m still much more relaxed.
Sports is riding the roller coaster at the amusement park. Dread and fear and nausea quickly replaced by calm and Zen and a giddy sense that we can’t wait to do it all again.
Thursday, May 16, 2019
Confessions of a Rookie Vegan
I’m a 52-year-old, red blooded American male and proud omnivore for 51.6 of those years. Yet, for the past several months, I have committed myself to eating an exclusive plant-based diet.
And I’m doing it for one, and one reason only.
First, what I’m not doing it for. I’m not doing it for the animals. I love animals, but I’ve been eating them since I was about two. I’ve even killed a few. No, I’m not some weak-kneed, PETA-worshiping animal do-gooder. Sure, it’s a nice side effect of veganism, the warm feeling knowing nothing on my dinner plate suffered the cruelty of factory farming, but in the end, the animals themselves don’t matter.
Next, I’m not doing it for my health. I haven’t lost any weight or felt any better as a vegan and I have decidedly not discovered newfound energy or a miraculous change in stamina or strength. I feel exactly the same. I’ve been an active person as an omnivore and I will continue that as vegan. I know, like most doctors and nutritionists know, that you can be ultra-healthy as either an omnivore or a vegan. No, health isn’t the reason.
So why?
Simple. I’m a lazy, yet hopeful environmentalist and going vegan is the easiest, yet absolutely most personally impactful thing any individual can do to assist our endangered planet.
Look, I like to try and do all the things a good environmentalist should, but I frequently fail. I drive –often for no real purpose. I shave with the water going, I turn up the heat when it’s cold and I’ll often just throw something out instead of sorting and recycling. And in many cases, my sloth stems from never really being sure that my “green” efforts were making a difference. And for someone as lazy as me, that often means throwing caution – and carbon – to the wind. Basically, I would give myself an A for intent, but a C- for execution and really saw no way of upping my environmental grade point average.
Then I saw the documentary Cowspiracy.
I won’t go into great detail about this film, but the gist of it is this: hiding in plain sight, yet often unspoken, is the fact that what we eat and how we raise it is without question the biggest threat to our planet and if we moved to a largely plant based diet, we would reverse our deadly footprint. Further, the film does a great job of illustrating the positive impact one vegan convert like me can have on the environment - today. For me, becoming vegan is actually an easier way toward green living.
After viewing the film, I felt that embracing veganism would be a giant (relatively easy) form of checking the environmentalist box. By embracing a plant based diet , I can guiltlessly drive without purpose, take long showers, buy fruit with an obscene amount of food miles….and still check the box of being a rabid environmentalist, because I’m doing the single and most measurable thing to help the environment – stop eating meat and animal products. Period.
Here are the facts, painstakingly laid out in the film: “A person who follows a vegan diet produces the equivalent of 50% less carbon dioxide, uses 1/11th oil, 1/13th water, and 1/18th land compared to a meat-lover for their food. Each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sq ft of forested land, 20 lbs CO2 equivalent, and one animal’s life.” I’ve never come across statistics and facts so clearly illustrated. Little old me could make a hugely positive impact on the world – right now.
Wait a second?, you might say. How can completely changing your diet be the easier path toward a sustainable lifestyle? Because, as I found out almost by accident, the only real change I had to make was rethinking the order of things on my plate. As an omnivore and the main cook in our family, I had always been conditioned to think about the meat serving first. From there, I would build out the meal, from there I would construct the shopping list. I credit my wife, who went vegan first, with simply asking the question, “why not think of the veggies first?
Need more proof about the relative ease of veganism vs. other green practices? Here’s what a meat-eating environmentalist would need to do to match my diminished environmental footprint:
- Audit all water consumption and reduce daily us by around 75 percent
- Sell the family car, purchase a bike and/or take the bus
- Purchase thousands of dollars of carbon offsets in order to replace deforested land
- Reduce all home heating and cooling to about zero.
Here’s what I have to do: buy and eat nuts, beans and lentils instead of chicken and beef.
What about taste?!, you might scream. Yes, animals taste great and no, tofu doesn’t seamlessly replace chicken in a perfect stir fry. But again, for me the path toward veganism has really been about simply re-ordering my thought process.
For example, let’s take bacon – the kryptonite of many a vegetarian or vegan. Bacon is wonderful to eat, no arguments here. But what is bacon really? Bacon is just an ideal fat and salt delivery system. And I can get my salt, my fat, and other yummy components like sugar and carbs easily from plants. The satiety from meat can be replaced; bacon replaced by salted cashews and French fries.
In closing, if you don’t care about environmentalism, this little article is not for you and you are more than welcome to grab a burger and forget all about veganism. However, if you are concerned about doing your part for the environment, yet haven’t really found your place in the cause – perhaps the plant-based way is for you. What’s great about veganism is that it offers something very tangible to both sides of the political divide. Of course, liberals can jump on board because of the environmental sustainability, but there is (pardon the pun) red meat for conservatives as well. Meat production is one of, if not, THE largest government subsidized and supported industry in the world. You hard core free market devotees should greatly appreciate a movement which aims to directly end the devil’s bargain between big government and big meat.
So if you want to help save the planet but don’t want to abandon cars, central heating and your hair dryer, consider eating your way toward a greener tomorrow.
And I’m doing it for one, and one reason only.
First, what I’m not doing it for. I’m not doing it for the animals. I love animals, but I’ve been eating them since I was about two. I’ve even killed a few. No, I’m not some weak-kneed, PETA-worshiping animal do-gooder. Sure, it’s a nice side effect of veganism, the warm feeling knowing nothing on my dinner plate suffered the cruelty of factory farming, but in the end, the animals themselves don’t matter.
Next, I’m not doing it for my health. I haven’t lost any weight or felt any better as a vegan and I have decidedly not discovered newfound energy or a miraculous change in stamina or strength. I feel exactly the same. I’ve been an active person as an omnivore and I will continue that as vegan. I know, like most doctors and nutritionists know, that you can be ultra-healthy as either an omnivore or a vegan. No, health isn’t the reason.
So why?
Simple. I’m a lazy, yet hopeful environmentalist and going vegan is the easiest, yet absolutely most personally impactful thing any individual can do to assist our endangered planet.
Look, I like to try and do all the things a good environmentalist should, but I frequently fail. I drive –often for no real purpose. I shave with the water going, I turn up the heat when it’s cold and I’ll often just throw something out instead of sorting and recycling. And in many cases, my sloth stems from never really being sure that my “green” efforts were making a difference. And for someone as lazy as me, that often means throwing caution – and carbon – to the wind. Basically, I would give myself an A for intent, but a C- for execution and really saw no way of upping my environmental grade point average.
Then I saw the documentary Cowspiracy.
I won’t go into great detail about this film, but the gist of it is this: hiding in plain sight, yet often unspoken, is the fact that what we eat and how we raise it is without question the biggest threat to our planet and if we moved to a largely plant based diet, we would reverse our deadly footprint. Further, the film does a great job of illustrating the positive impact one vegan convert like me can have on the environment - today. For me, becoming vegan is actually an easier way toward green living.
After viewing the film, I felt that embracing veganism would be a giant (relatively easy) form of checking the environmentalist box. By embracing a plant based diet , I can guiltlessly drive without purpose, take long showers, buy fruit with an obscene amount of food miles….and still check the box of being a rabid environmentalist, because I’m doing the single and most measurable thing to help the environment – stop eating meat and animal products. Period.
Here are the facts, painstakingly laid out in the film: “A person who follows a vegan diet produces the equivalent of 50% less carbon dioxide, uses 1/11th oil, 1/13th water, and 1/18th land compared to a meat-lover for their food. Each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sq ft of forested land, 20 lbs CO2 equivalent, and one animal’s life.” I’ve never come across statistics and facts so clearly illustrated. Little old me could make a hugely positive impact on the world – right now.
Wait a second?, you might say. How can completely changing your diet be the easier path toward a sustainable lifestyle? Because, as I found out almost by accident, the only real change I had to make was rethinking the order of things on my plate. As an omnivore and the main cook in our family, I had always been conditioned to think about the meat serving first. From there, I would build out the meal, from there I would construct the shopping list. I credit my wife, who went vegan first, with simply asking the question, “why not think of the veggies first?
Need more proof about the relative ease of veganism vs. other green practices? Here’s what a meat-eating environmentalist would need to do to match my diminished environmental footprint:
- Audit all water consumption and reduce daily us by around 75 percent
- Sell the family car, purchase a bike and/or take the bus
- Purchase thousands of dollars of carbon offsets in order to replace deforested land
- Reduce all home heating and cooling to about zero.
Here’s what I have to do: buy and eat nuts, beans and lentils instead of chicken and beef.
What about taste?!, you might scream. Yes, animals taste great and no, tofu doesn’t seamlessly replace chicken in a perfect stir fry. But again, for me the path toward veganism has really been about simply re-ordering my thought process.
For example, let’s take bacon – the kryptonite of many a vegetarian or vegan. Bacon is wonderful to eat, no arguments here. But what is bacon really? Bacon is just an ideal fat and salt delivery system. And I can get my salt, my fat, and other yummy components like sugar and carbs easily from plants. The satiety from meat can be replaced; bacon replaced by salted cashews and French fries.
In closing, if you don’t care about environmentalism, this little article is not for you and you are more than welcome to grab a burger and forget all about veganism. However, if you are concerned about doing your part for the environment, yet haven’t really found your place in the cause – perhaps the plant-based way is for you. What’s great about veganism is that it offers something very tangible to both sides of the political divide. Of course, liberals can jump on board because of the environmental sustainability, but there is (pardon the pun) red meat for conservatives as well. Meat production is one of, if not, THE largest government subsidized and supported industry in the world. You hard core free market devotees should greatly appreciate a movement which aims to directly end the devil’s bargain between big government and big meat.
So if you want to help save the planet but don’t want to abandon cars, central heating and your hair dryer, consider eating your way toward a greener tomorrow.
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