📍 Location: In transit between Redwood City and San Jose riding the Caltrain
Current Media
Currently reading: The Golden Thread - How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Claire
I cannot recommend this book more. It’s an interesting look at fabrics that frankly I didn’t know I would enjoy. But, having read Kassia St. Claire’s other book about color, I knew I was in good hands.
Personal News
We bought a house! I have a note about the home buying process I want to blog about at some point. My latest newsletter talks more about this.
There’s been a flurry of projects I want to get off the ground. They have been paused by the home buying and moving projects. It’s looking like 2025 is going to be a big year.
Election Woes
Everyone is feeling depression from the election. The sweep of bad outcomes and polarization of the country really make me feel depressed. I’m sick of hearing the reasons people feel one way over another. I can feel my rigid thinking defaulting the election decision of keep calm and carry on vs chaos. We elected turbulence, and for selfish reasons. In my mind, America would rather favor personal gain over keeping with the status quo, which is not what either party stood for. Instead the fractured feeling I have is one of unhopeful malaise when it comes to civics.
On the opposite end, this is another awakening for personal and collective calling for creating a better life, despite civil unrest. Yes, our rights are being stripped from us. But it takes resilience and a calling of refuting the next establishment to make a life we all want. And sometimes, that means reaching across the aisle, not despite of it.
I think revisiting Vi Hart’s video post-2016 election is important.
Then, there’s this video from Adam Conover about why he isn’t worried about the election.
I have some conflicting emotions about the message. Part of it certainly feels right where the change we make with others is more important than who we elect while acknowledging the harm the Republican ticket has. Yet, there’s also the changes we have seen as a response to the upset, like the sweeping changes of the 2018 election. While I foster a lot of hate for the president-elect’s racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, anti-democratic, and violent rhetoric, of which there is a lot, there is a path of moving forward and carrying on, despite the setbacks.
What we know is, things will get absolutely worse, especially for women and minority communities. We know the little things we say in public can be overblown on the National stage. We know we need to be nicer to one another and foster humility, like being able to point the finger back at ourselves.
This long rant just to say, while I don’t think things around us are going to get any better for the foreseeable future, we are the ones who will make an impact. There’s enough hate in the world, and I would like to think there’s some glimmer of hope in the future. For everything else, it’s up to us. If Victor Frankl’s taught us anything, we need to think of how the future can be better in order to survive the perils of today.
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