When my non-crazy patients worry out loud about being or seeming crazy, I often say, “You’re not crazy, and I’m the expert on crazy.”
The expert on crazy thinks the President of the United States is crazy.
The expert on crazy thinks this is driving many people crazy, including me.
The crazy expert on crazy, in attempts to remain sane, captured these images yesterday.
The expert husband of the expert on crazy made a crazy good risotto yesterday. I would have been crazy not to marry him last December, before things got really crazy.
There are 40 days and 40 nights until the USA election day, and I’m bracing myself for hell, with no end in sight, because of Donald Trump’s hellish words and behaviors
Some of my readers may disagree with what I write, but hell is also a place where no disagreement is allowed. Hell, let’s just agree to disagree, okay? But do I want to hear defenses of Donald Trump these days? Hell, no.
Hell is where the adults act like children and the children have to act like adults, and Hell is living near the ocean when climate change deniers are in power.
I love this 2018 tweet the late U.S. Representative John Lewis made about trouble:
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
What kinds of troublemakers do you see in my latest photos?
I hope I didn’t make trouble by presenting so many pictures together in that photo montage. To see any of those more clearly, you need to go to the trouble of clicking on them.
These are my favorite photos from yesterday, so I’m taking the trouble of enlarging them for you:
That was actually no trouble at all.
Because so many people are making trouble for each other on Facebook, I reposted this message there recently:
Reposted from a friend.
Just a note for my right leaning family and friends from my left leaning self as we near voting day:
They say we want to disband police departments (and that we hate the police): we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to weed out racism and unnecessary police brutality and for those who abuse their power to be held accountable.
They say we want to release all prisoners: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to weed out racism and ensure the punishments match the crimes and to deprivatize prisons.
They say we want open borders: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want asylum seekers to be given their chance to seek asylum. We want to help people who are coming from unimaginable terror and poverty help to give them the chances we have. We want to ensure children aren’t separated from their parents and that nobody is kept in cages. But we do want proper vetting.
They say we want to take away your guns: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want logical gun control to help prevent mass shootings.
They say we want to wage a war on Christianity and Christian values: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want people of all religions to be able to practice and worship freely.
They say we want to get everything for free: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to work hard and make sure that healthcare and education are affordable for all.
They say we want a war against traditional marriage: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want people of all sexual orientations to be able to love freely, no matter whom you love.
They say we want to destroy or rewrite history: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to recognize the ugly parts of our past and do everything we can to say “that’s not okay, let’s not honor those aggressors, let’s not let those things happen again”.
They say we want to take away your constitutional rights: we don’t, that’s a lie. We choose to believe science and wear masks and try to prevent the spread of this disease.
They say we hate America: we don’t, that’s a lie. We just recognize our faults and want us to do better, be better.
Please stop with the us vs. them. Stop with the straw man arguments. Our position is one of empathy, compassion and logic. Stop believing the hype. Stop with the division. Just because we want equality for all doesn’t mean we want to take anything away from you.
***Please copy and paste***
If there are any troublemakers from my high school who insist on talking politics at our upcoming Zoom reunion, I’m going to the trouble of making breakout rooms for them to do so. I’m hoping that, for one night, we can focus on easing each other’s minds, not further troubling them.
No matter what kind of trouble I’ve made in these blog posts, I always make room for gratitude at the end, so thanks to all who helped me create this “Troublemakers” post and thanks to YOU for taking the trouble to be here!
Wherever it is that you are, welcome to “Wherever it is that we are.”
Wherever it is that I am, I am wondering what my next blog post is going to be. Initially, I was planning on calling this post “I’m not here” because of this …
But apparently that was neither here nor there, because then I found today’s title in this captured image from The New York Times online:
Wherever it is that we are, as expressed during the first night of the U.S. Democratic National Convention, is a place that is
desperate,
hopeful,
united,
determined,
grieving, and
laser focused on November 3, 2020.
Wherever it is that I am, I know that election day in the United States is November 3, 2020.
Wherever it is that I am, I am taking photos for this blog.
Wherever it is that I am, I see astonishing things, like somebody seeming to walk on water, people celebrating important events like graduations, family members cooking with love, somebody exercising their right to vote (in an early local election), and creatures being wherever it is that they are.
Let’s look at the meaning of today’s title: “Looks can be deceiving.”
looks can be deceiving/deceptive
idiom
—used to say that something can be very different from how it seems or appears to be
The restaurant doesn’t look very appealing, but looks can be deceiving/deceptive.
I think many things and people can be deceiving, especially these days. I wish that those who are commenting on the deceiving people would focus less on their looks and more on their deeds. For example, I’m tired of hearing how
Rudy Giuliani looks like a ghoul or a vampire (even if these observations are appropriate to the season) and
Donald Trump looks like a cheeto or something else orange.
After all, looks can be deceiving. I’m sure there are people out there looking like ghouls, vampires, cheetos, or other odd-looking things who are honest, kind, and effective leaders. Likewise, there are people out there who look great and are deceiving, manipulative, and scary.
… many social scientists and others who study the science of stereotyping say there are reasons we quickly size people up based on how they look. Snap judgments about people are crucial to the way we function, they say — even when those judgments are very wrong.
On a very basic level, judging people by appearance means putting them quickly into impersonal categories, much like deciding whether an animal is a dog or a cat. “Stereotypes are seen as a necessary mechanism for making sense of information,” said David Amodio, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University. “If we look at a chair, we can categorize it quickly even though there are many different kinds of chairs out there.”
Eons ago, this capability was of life-and-death importance, and humans developed the ability to gauge other people within seconds.
Susan Fiske, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton, said that traditionally, most stereotypes break down into two broad dimensions: whether a person appears to have malignant or benign intent and whether a person appears dangerous. “In ancestral times, it was important to stay away from people who looked angry and dominant,” she said.
Women are also subdivided into “traditionally attractive” women, who “don’t look dominant, have baby-faced features,” Professor Fiske said. “They’re not threatening.”
Indeed, attractiveness is one thing that can make stereotypes self-fulfilling and reinforcing. Attractive people are “credited with being socially skilled,” Professor Fiske said, and maybe they are, because “if you’re beautiful or handsome, people laugh at your jokes and interact with you in such a way that it’s easy to be socially skilled.”
“If you’re unattractive, it’s harder to get all that stuff because people don’t seek you out,” she said.
AGE plays a role in forging stereotypes, too, with older people traditionally seen as “harmless and useless,” Professor Fiske said. In fact, she said, research has shown that racial and ethnic stereotypes are easier to change over time than gender and age stereotypes, which are “particularly sticky.”
Since I’m an older woman, I have to work extra hard to prove that I am neither useless nor any other “particularly sticky” stereotype. I’m sure I’m not alone in needing to show that looks can be deceiving.
Let’s see if looks can be deceiving in any of my photos from yesterday.
Because I have the authority to know such things, I can declare that I have never before used the term “authority issues” (or even the word “authority”) in any of the thousands of post titles I’ve issued over the years, here at this daily blog.
I don’t have any issues about that, but let’s see if finding a definition of the term “authority issues” is an issue this morning.
When we say we have issues with authority it means we have difficulty with individuals who wield power over us. This could be our boss, but also someone with higher social status, or anyone who has something we want and the power to withhold it. … The trouble lies in the way we feel about authority.
I remember, years ago — when authority was an issue at my previous workplace — saying to a co-worker, “Apparently, I have authority issues,” and her replying, “Ann! Who doesn’t have authority issues?”
I will say that I have MANY issues with people in authority these days (including the President of these United States). How about you? What are your authority issues? Only you have the authority to say.
Today, I have to deal with two bureaucracies who have “something we want and the power to withhold it …” that is, the Internal Revenue Service (who still have not issued my refund) and an insurance company. Because I have authority issues, I am not looking forward to any of the issues that may arise during those encounters.
I do have the authority to issue whatever photos I want here, because it’s my blog! Let’s see if there are any authority issues in my latest photos:
Who has the authority to say “Michael shows a lot of authority in his cooking” or “Harley obviously has authority over that squirrel”?
Considering the speeches we’re hearing this month, I would prefer stillness.
Therefore, I am not going to make any speeches this month. I’m just going to share all the photos I’ve been taking, looking for better stable geniuses around me. I hope these pictures help you feel better, hear and now.
I will share this: I’ve been hearing better speeches about my Coping and Healing groups during Better Speech and Hearing Month, which makes it easier to share groups I love.
How might you celebrate Better Speech and Hearing Month?
Personally, I’m looking forward to hearing better speeches (and maybe new comedy monologues) from my son, Aaron, who arrives from Edinburgh today!
I look forward to hearing my readers’ speeches in the comments section, below.
It’s better, during any month, to share gratitude, so thanks to all who helped me create all of my blog posts during Better Speech and Hearing Month, and — of course! — thanks to YOU, as always, for hearing me out.
I’m guilty of sharing guilt in my blog lately, as you can see in these photos:
I’m guilty, in my therapy groups, of using this book
to pose questions like “If you were to take a look at the various ‘guilts’ that you carry around with you, which would be least justified and which would be most justified?”
Sometimes I feel guilty when I snap photos. Yesterday, I saw a mangled bicycle in the middle of a busy intersection on my daily walk near work. I considered capturing that sad but compelling image on my iPhone, but I knew I would feel guilty if I did. This story about that bicycle showed up on my news feed a few minutes ago.
I did not feel guilty taking these other photos yesterday:
I’m guilty of holding on to hope even in the midst of death, destruction and national emergencies.
