Monday, January 30, 2017

Hyper Panic


For what seems my entire life, the Simpsons have always provided me with the context to be able to bridge and understand the complexities of real life events. To be honest, this goes beyond the Simpsons and spans almost every form of pop-culture and entertainment I have consumed in my life, even to this day. So, given how things are going and fires are being lit left and right, causing all this disarray, I got to thinking about which Simpsons episode best sums up what's going on right now. "Much Apu About Nothing" is the 23rd episode of the 7th season, back when the show was still golden. It's the one about immigration. The episode still holds up and the fact that I'm older only helps me pick up on things I missed previously, like how the episode was inspired by the fallout of Prop 187. Everything comes around in circles.

I mention this episode because I dug the analogy Lisa used when explaining the faulty logic behind the line of thinking that how believing in one thing will/won't necessarily have an effect on something else. You know, like building a wall to keep immigrants out or banning people from coming to the US from specific countries. To the same effect, everything that pendejo has done up to this point has had the same result on those who would be impacted and those in solidarity. What has been tripping me out over these last few days as I've been chewing on the fat, is that while all these different situations seem to be repeating themselves more or less, I can see everything playing out, more or less.

Wednesday, January 04, 2017

2016 Was A Good Year


It sucked for society all around, but personally, it was one of my best years of my life. *knocks on wood* Most of my end of year reflecting has been on the traveling I got to do this year and my continual growth as an individual in all the different spaces/identities I hold down. The year flew by because I was always doing something, whether it was working or volunteering, there were times in which my day was spent being in meetings or on conference calls planning more meetings/calls before the actual event that was being planned took place. At one point, I had to literally stop everything I was trying to do all at once and refocus my priorities on what needed to be done in order to continue being employed. I didn't like that feeling, not just because it was exhausting, but because I got caught up in the moment, thinking I could take on anything and everything. An experience that looks different for everyone, but the lesson is universal, we can only do so much before it all becomes too much and everything breaks down.

Since my time was devoted to other responsibilities, it meant that I wrote less here as well. I started the year by reflecting on the last 10 years of keeping up this block and then shifted my focus because no one wants to hear me whine and pine about being in meetings and planning. I still wrote here and there, but for sure this has been the first time in a good while that I haven't kept posting regularly. I reflected on that in a post and that's just where I'm at in life now. Thank baby Jesus I'm a lot more mature than I use to be and still have much growing to do, but at least I'm not where I use to be. I also haven't had the existential crisis' I had when I was younger, nor drama, which meant less writing it's in writing that I work out the wrinkles in whatever I'm chewing on.

Hell, even the personal relationships I've had with individuals have changed drastically this last year for a multitude of reasons. For one, this last year was filled with announcements of babies, buying houses, marriages, and folks settling down into adulthood in general, myself included. It's not like it use to be, in which I could put a call out to friends and go on a midnight bike ride to the beach with no regard to having to work the next day or having to catch up on rest from working so much. As much as things pick up in other aspects of life, others slow to a crawl or just completely stop altogether. Some for the better and others not. I chewed on that line of thought throughout 2016 and at one point, thanks to an older than me homie who shared life wisdom, I realized he had a point. Nothing was new or exciting anymore or rather like it use to be. Which again, another universal experience that comes with growth and older age, that you don't go out to get fucked up drinking. Sure, they'll be exceptions here and there, but I'm not about that life. Nor am I about the life in which I go to events and see the same people I see all the time. Not to say that there's anything wrong with that, but it gets to the point where I know what'll happen and in my decision-making in contemplating on whether I should go out or not, I decide not and caught up on movies/tv/reading/video games/getting lifted. I became a homebody is what I'm trying to say and putting on clean clothes in order to go out in public became a chore. Yeah, gross, I know.

Overall, 2016 was a good year for me. I still had a few downs here and there, but damn was it a fun ride. 2017 is looking to pick up where things left off and taking a dive into a dumpster fire. That's cool, I've weathered worse with less than what I have now and I survived. I'm blessed to have an amazing support network and blessed to be gainfully employed. I have no plans on changing that anytime soon, so it's just a matter of taking things as they come and continuing to move forward. I won't get into dribble on what I hope this new year will bring or the fights that are coming because I'll just keep doing more of what I've been doing. Growing on the positive and leaving behind the toxic the best I can. It isn't revolutionary or life changing, but its been working thus far.