“Nobody cares it’s your birthday.” I’ve shared this story before and for many, it’s a cringe worthy but appropriate telling of my view of relationships broadly. You are born alone, die alone and everything in between is an adventure on the way to the box, dominated by as much fun as you can have, success you can achieve and interesting events that punctuate your life story. How you mix the success, fun and interest is up to you because everything in life has trade offs.
As I’ve aged over the longest 14 days ever (it’s still funny), I’ve come to the conclusion that perhaps this view misses out on the most important aspect of the human experience: relationships with others. My previous view featured others as passers by rather than leading characters, each of whom who equally self interested and spoke to my historic under investment in relationships, one that makes sense when convenient but was perhaps net zero in contribution through gains and losses. It was a cynical view from a cynical man and one that I have talked to my therapist at length (and no, we aren’t going to talk about that) and of late, I have been revisiting. It turns out people do care it’s my birthday, I just didn’t want to reciprocate by caring about theirs.
Well, today is my sisters birthday and I woke up thinking about her, in a very plutonic and appropriate way, obviously, but her, nonetheless. In many ways we are similar but in many more, we are extremely different. We look the same, which is funny because she makes a beautiful woman and I make a very ugly one and those that have seen us know exactly what I’m talking about. She is more balanced. And she invests in relationships with people, making a point to visit family members she hasn’t seen in years when she was in their town, going to weddings, calling on birthdays. Investing.
Funny, it took almost 3 years of COVID. 31 months of not being able to cross the Canadian border to see my childhood town of Calgary and our family vacation spot at Christina Lake. No childhood friends, restaurants, and the nostalgia that comes with revisiting your past. I was forced to make a decision between being vaccinated or seeing my family (when the border did finally open.) I had to explain to my parents that if one of them got really sick, I wouldn’t be able to see them. And I was one of the lucky ones.
In Canada and the United States, millions lost their jobs over the vaccine requirement. Landlords lost rent over the CDC eviction moratorium and small business owners lost their restaurants and stores and consulting businesses while Amazon, Pfizer, Zoom and Netflix hit all time highs. 2 of the four have returned to earth and one of them I predict is in for a winter of misery, but I digress.
Midterm elections are 1 month away, and to watch the news and hear the Biden’s and Pelosi’s of the world speak, the Democrats want to make it about Roe v. Wade and put abortion on the ballot. In States like Colorado, it’s legal through delivery, as it is in California and New York. In Kansas, voters chose to leave it alone two months ago. 81% of Americans believe there should be some restriction on it (whether that be 0 weeks or 40 weeks) and many of those who are pro choice really don’t mind the Mississippi law that triggers Jackson v. Dobbs making that limit 15 weeks. This post isn’t about abortion. This post is to remind readers and politicians you might want abortion to be on the ballot, but millions upon millions of us remember the vaccine restrictions and mandates and I am hear to say- we will never ever forgive or forget.
So pretty please, with sugar on top, resign and go F@&K yourselves. A very wonderful happy birthday to my sister, I’m excited to cross the border and come see you in Vancouver. And yes mom, obviously Calgary is on the to do list as well.
Love and hugs,
DRW
Speaking of investment, Monday and Tuesday Ben has states. He enters them as the #2 ranked golfer in 3A coming of a season with 3 wins, 3 second place finishes and a far cry from the 104-105-97 he shot in tryouts as a freshman. Needless to say, I will be there because while I fail in many ways as a human, lack of investment in my kids is not one of them. Send him positive energy!
14 days.... yep, still funny!
Happy birthday to your sister. My brother's is in 2 days.
Please also remember that human procreation is not a political matter. There is NO PLACE for politics REGARDING THIS SUBJECT. How about we just try to get the focus back to basic freedom and respect for MANKIND…the rest will fall into place.