Teach The Sky

I’ve never really understood patriotism.  I’ve never understand the esteem and emotional vigor so many others ascribe to their geographic location.  It just, it just never connected with me.

Even as a child, I didn’t get it.  I didn’t understand school spirit.  I never owned a letterman’s jacket or a class ring.  I didn’t understand the significance of our mascot or any of that stuff.  My high school was selected based off of geographical location, which was dedicated by racial and economic forces.  There was nothing special about it, nor about my attending it.  So the idea of seeing it as something special?  Yeah, I just don’t see it.  Nor do I even understand how others see it. Continue reading “Permanent Resident”

A whole lot of the life and the world is very similar.

I study exercise recreationally.  I was a personal trainer for a hot minute there, but I gave it up because, well, frankly, used car salesmen are more honest.  But I still do strength and conditioning advise on a regular basis and get the itch occasionally to get back into it.  Neither here nor there.  I read about athletes training programs across the spectrum.  And what amazes me is how often people seem to conflate being the best with being the hardest working with being the top-performing with being the most popular.

Yeah, I know.  There’s a whole lot in there, which takes a second to unwrap, but that’s kind of the point. Continue reading “Stick to the Basics”

What is white culture?

As an American, there’s been a lot of discussion about racial identity in many different groups.  As various underrepresented and underserved groups begin to step forward and get more of the social spotlight, we are beginning to have some long-needed discussions about what role race plays (and doesn’t play) in our collective world.

One gripe that comes from racists is the lack of representation of white people or white culture.  ‘If there’s a black history month, how come there isn’t a white history month’, they will ask.  Turns out there is…sort of.  March is Irish history month.  April is Scottish history.  July is French, September is German, the list goes on.  But these are specific ethnic groups; what about white culture as a whole?

What IS white culture? Continue reading “White Culture”

Weekly, I sit down to write a blog post.

Weekly, I try to think of something fun and engaging to say.  But it always turns into a struggle.  Life is pretty fully right now.  Lots of day-jobbing, lots of writing (and frustratingly little publishing), lots of life.  But outside of all of that, there’s also a metric ton of nightmare.  Shootings have become so frequent, we have more than there are days of the year.  Deportations, concentration camps, mass raids, so on.  And that isn’t even addressing that rampant disregard of climate change, which feels like playing Russian Roulette with five rounds. Continue reading “Don’t Look Away”