When We Were King*

If only we had sane, country first politicians in office who could run a functioning Congress that could take strategic advantage of the economic woes and geo-political fallout from the heavy-handed bullying and uncivil friendships that China has brought upon itself.

Yeah… if only.

Twenty years from now, if not sooner, when the dollar is no longer king* and the sole international currency of choice and, leveraging all the secrets it has stolen during the past decades from all our previously leading sectors, China has become the world’s leading economy and has manned a military base on the moon strong enough to thwart our dreams of space dominance, we’re going to be kicking ourselves in our bloated and ignorant political butts for missing this window of opportunity.

Or something like that…


Mr. Xi has been trying to stabilize relations with Washington, apparently pressed by China’s economic troubles and a desire to reduce Beijing’s diplomatic isolation. “We have a thousand reasons to grow the relationship between China and the United States, and none at all to ruin it,” Mr. Xi told American lawmakers in Beijing recently.

But with mutual distrust running deep, any easing of antagonism between the two sides could be tenuous.

Behind Public Assurances, Xi Jinping Spread Grim Views on U.S., New York Times, November 13, 2023

*non-gender specific

The smart thing to do?

Israel protest against terror -

I do not regard myself as smart.

Though, I do regard myself as knowledgeable, a condition I attribute mostly to the fact that I am old and have been around long enough to collect a lot of knowable things…

Plus, I read a lot, which enables me to collect even more knowable things.

Yeah, knowing a lot doesn’t make one smart…

Knowing what to do with the things one knows, now that’s smart.

Smart people know how to leverage knowledge in ways that benefit them, however they may define it.

Probably they define it mostly as success, money, happiness, power, etc.

Or so I suppose.

I also suppose the fact that having a lot of knowledge doesn’t necessarily equate to being smart is also why calling someone a “know it all” is usually not a good thing.

Yeah…

But, unfortunately, there are some nuts in life that are so tough to crack that even truly smart people do not know what to do about them.

Climate change.

Trump.

The problems between Israel and Palestine.

Yeah, especially that one…

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Sunday Songs to Spark the Spirit and Summon the Moves of the Dance

Life is all it is – joyful, sad, comprehensive, confusing, peaceful, violent, and on and on and on…

Of course, regardless of what reality tries to tell one, it can only be what one – you, me, each unique individual making up the all of we – says it is.

And no matter how hard we/I try to understand it, to challenge it, to master it, chances are we/I never will; and chances are along the way we/I will alienate those who see reality 180 degrees differently than you/me.

So, understanding our understanding and execution of life will always be incomplete and often inaccurate, and way off kilter to many, accepting that some will love us for what we do and, sadly, some with hate us for the same, will hopefully make it all a bit less painful.

So, we might as smile the best we can and dance.

#embraceyourreality