Yesterday was a beautiful day and I had nothing planned. For the first time this year I took a walk for the sake of taking a walk. I didn’t even know where to walk in this area. I like walking through nature. I stumbled on the Bronx River Forest. I love that it’s called a forest. The Bronx River is not much of a river. But walking along the path there were no signs of civilization. I love city living. I would choose to live nowhere else, but I also love the allure of nature. Urban parks are precious. I’m going to have to explore the Bronx River Forest further. I had to cut this walk shorter than I’d have liked because I didn’t want to miss too much of the Met game. I was rewarded for my team loyalty by watching them beat the Rockies 5 – 3. The only fly in the ointment is that the GPS in my phone hit a glitch and had me being instantaneously transported to places I didn’t walk to so I don’t know how far I walked. My guess would be about 2.5 miles. I need to get back to walking four at a time. That’s good for both my physical and mental health. My cardiovascular health is already good; I just took my resting pulse, 65 bpm. If I walk regularly let’s see if I can get it under 60. Did you know that Galaxy phones come with a health app? It can take your pulse and blood oxygen saturation. It automatically counts your steps. It says that yesterday I took 6582 steps and walked 3.15 miles. I also walked around the apartment but perhaps my walk was more than 2.5 miles. Ahh. It added something new, automatically tracking workouts. It says that I walked 1.94 miles. That’s disappointing. But I’m consistent, I walked 1.95 miles the day before. Seeing the numbers works as an incentive.
I’m getting frustrated with my temporary difficulty writing about politics. I’ve been sitting here for 15 minutes contemplating writing on two political topics and I can’t seem to make either work. Here’s my attempt to get through this. I’m just going to write. If it ends up being one paragraph, that’s fine. If it isn’t perfect, that’s fine. At least I’ll get it off my chest.
Most of my friends are liberal/progressive. I have a few that are Trumpeters. Many of my friends have unfriended one that posts things that are particularly offensive. I haven’t. We can’t retreat behind our walls of comfort. We have to all live in the same world so it helps to understand each other. What makes it difficult to stay connected on Facebook with him is that he regularly makes posts whose intent is to inspire hate against progressive politicians. He insults the intelligence of my former congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. You might disagree with her, I often disagree with her, but she is always reasonable; more so than most politicians. Calling her an idiot is idiotic. He also makes ad hominem attacks on Hillary and Nancy Pelosi. It is not lost on me that all of them are women. So how should I respond? Calling him a racist and misogynist would feel good, it might very well be accurate, but it won’t change his mind, or the minds of those who agree with him. Reducing politics schoolyard taunts is to the advantage of those that don’t have the facts on their side. Not those that do. As I choose my politics to fit the facts, not the facts to fit my politics, that means it’s not to my advantage.
I’m trying now to point out that he is capable of reasonable arguments and that making it nothing but insults, is degrading to him. I say the same thing to my friends on the left when they sink to that level. It doesn’t happen as often as on the right but it happens. It makes me even angrier as we have the facts on our side. What is the point of making fun of Trump’s poor attempt at formalwear with the Queen? We will win the battle of facts. We won’t win the battle of mud throwing.
Most people are on neither the left nor the right. They are not politically engaged. They don’t know the facts. We can try to make them blindly hate or we can try and educate them. I believe in education.
This wasn’t brilliant. I have doubts it will change anyone’s mind, but I got it off my chest and it won’t do any harm. My mental health has value. Explaining to you my thoughts has value. And who knows maybe it will help one person be better.
Wise Madness 