The Price
Every time I see Trump using his power as president to punish people I think of the time Obama humiliated him at the White House Correspondents Dinner. When I saw it the first time I knew it was trouble. When you’re on top you simply don’t do what he did. It always comes back to bite you in the ass. Obama had every right to be pissed about the birther stuff. But when you’re number one, you can’t do what he did. The president has to be above it. Self-indulgence. Not worth the price we’re all paying.
Time
Frank Chimero –
I asked AI what we do with time, and it came back with words that were commercial and violent. We spend time, save time, take time, and make it; manage, track, and save it; we kill time, we pass it, we waste it, borrow, and steal it. We abuse time and it beats us back up, either in retribution or self-defense. It’s a zero-sum perspective of the material of our lives; it makes us prisoners to our own utility.
The AI said nothing about love, loyalty, or enthusiasm. When you wrap those up, it becomes clear that the best thing to do with time is to devote it. That is how you get time on your side. When you are working with time instead of against it, every bit matters, it all counts, even the fallow times, the empty times, the time off the path.
The Summer of Second Chances
There’s something about July that suggests possibility. Maybe it’s the heat, the long days, or the way the world seems to slow down just enough to notice the cracks in our routines. For years, I’ve thought of summer as a time to reset, to try again at the things I’ve let slip—unread books, unwatched movies, neglected friendships, and this blog. The myth of the “second chance” is powerful, and yet, as I get older, I realize how rarely we grant it to ourselves.
Yesterday I blew up the blog. I deleted every post. I still have everything as Markdown files, so I didn’t lose anything. Still, it’s all gone.
Time for a new beginning.
Second chances aren’t about erasing the past; they’re about carrying it forward, learning from it, and daring to hope. The world doesn’t always offer do-overs, but sometimes, in the quiet of a summer evening, we can offer them to ourselves.
The world is crazy. Get the popcorn.