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2021 motto: If we can’t help each other grow, we gotta let each other go #TimK.…Walk good. 28all. Eya. *JS, KO, SC, WC, PH* The Warm-Up: “While today’s terrible display of terror and meanness shakes us, let’s remember: [Jon Ossoff], Jewish son of an immigrant & [Rev. Raphael Warnock], first Black Senator from Georgia, will join a Catholic POTUS & the first woman, Black + Indian VP in our nation’s capital. God bless America.” ~Stacey Abrams (1/6/21) The Core: “Goals are for signaling. Systems are for winning.” ~Shane Parrish “That which you need will be found where you least want to look.” ~Carl Jung “Nowhere will you find the statue of a critic or the biography of a committee.” ~Banksy “There are two ways to enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.” ~John Adams (1826) “As a child you are a product of your environment, as an adult your environment is a product of you.” ~Brian Norgard “Maturity is learning how to start when you feel like procrastinating and learning how to listen when you feel like talking.” ~James Clear “The nature of knowledge is that it only flows into the gaps created when you admit ignorance. Otherwise it flows runs past you.” ~Shane Parrish “We’re not asking for you to shoot them like you shoot us. We’re asking you to NOT shoot us like you don’t shoot them.” ~Tye Winters (1/6/21) “Words are the least reliable form of communication. Someone’s energy, behavior, body language and silence will tell you more than any other signal. Listen closely.” ~Steven Bartlett “If you refuse to acknowledge the utility of a perspective because you’re afraid to agree with someone unpopular, you may have left high school, but you’re mentally still there.” ~Ayishat Akanbi “No single book, podcast, conversation, travel, investment, will change your life overnight. It takes a decade of intelligent risk-taking, commitment, and good judgement. Integrity is the essential pillar.” ~Orange Book “Free money has consequences. Because it is not free. No matter how well-intentioned, runaway global money printing, and the resulting financial repression, is society’s largest global challenge.” ~Ross Stevens, Founder & CEO Stone Ridge “DC has more police per capita than any city in the country. The Capitol alone has 2,000 officers. They ARE trained for a terrorist attack. I assure you the problem is not training. It’s that when they imagine terrorists, they simply don’t imagine white people.” ~Shaun King “Have heard several folks on TV saying ‘this is one of the most shameful days in US history’…and I guess we read different history books. The nation is literally built on stolen land with stolen labor from stolen bodies. Lying about our history is how we GET days like today” ~Dr. Phil Goff (Wed 1/6/21) “The trillions of dollars of central bank-driven low or negatively yielding financial instruments demolish the dreams of saver and retirees, prohibiting an enormously large & growing group of individuals from meeting their retirement wants, wishes, & —tragically—even needs.” ~Ross Stevens, Founder & CEO Stone Ridge “Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat.” ~James Clear, Atomic Habits “I support it in my hands and cleanse the wounds as gently as I can. I apply intention and salve to heal. I write about these moments so we always remember the power of our actions, so we always remember that beneath the most superficial layer of our skin, we are all the same. In the sameness is our common entitlement to respect, our human entitlement to love.” ~Michele Harper, The Beauty In Breaking Last Set: “Yesterday was not a protest—it was riot to uphold white supremacy. It was allowed to happen. The mostly white insurrections roamed freely and without consequence through the heart of our democracy. The only explanation is that this was allowed to happen because they were white—not Black, Brown or Indigenous people. The white mob that made its way to the dais of the US House of Representatives and the Senate, literally sitting in the chair the vice president had been in minutes before, is the ultimate embodiment of white privilege. We saw two Americas yesterday. In one America we saw record voter turnout driven by Black voters that resulted in the election of the first Black and first Jewish senators from the state of Georgia—our democracy at its best. In the second America we saw a mostly white mob, encouraged by the president, violently invade the seat of our democracy in an attempt to overturn a free and fair election. It was a failed coup—our democracy in peril. Both of these Americas are us. Black and Brown people have long understood this. They’ve been exposed to the white tyranny that was on full display at yesterday’s riot since the founding of our nation. It’s the double standard that undergirds white supremacy in our nation. Both of these Americas are us. How we respond to the events of yesterday will determine which America we will be…” ~Ben & Jerry’s (1/7/21) Food for Thought I: I read this article over and over…Ms. Lauryn Hill Speaks in Depth About Fame, Racism, and ‘Miseducation’ “I always wanted to be a motivator of positive change. It’s in all of my lyrics, that desire to see my community get out of its own way, identify and confront internal and external obstacles, and experience the heights of Love and self-Love that provoke transformation.” “I think my intention was simply to make something that made my foremothers and forefathers in music and social and political struggle know that someone received what they’d sacrificed to give us, and to let my peers know that we could walk in that truth, proudly and confidently.” “The pedestal, to me, is as much about containment and control as it is adulation. Finding balance, clarity and sobriety can be very hard for some to maintain. For example, being yes’d to death isn’t good, and people fear stardom can only result in this, but if the actual answer is yes, being told no just to not appear a yes-man is silly. Never being told no if the answer is no by people afraid to disappoint will obviously also distort the mirror in which we view ourselves. On the other hand, a person with a vision can be way ahead, so people may say no with conviction and resist what they fear only to find out later that they were absolutely wrong… The idea of artist as public property, I also always had a problem with that. I agreed to share my art, I’m not agreeing necessarily to share myself. The entitlement that people often feel, like they somehow own you, or own a piece of you, can be incredibly dangerous. I chafe under any kind of control like that and resist expectations that suggest I should somehow dumb-down and be predictable to make people feel comfortable rather than authentically express myself. I also resist unrealistic expectations placed on me by people who would never place those same requirements on themselves. I can be as diplomatic and as patient as I possibly can be. I can’t, however, sell myself short through constant self-deprecation and shrinking.” “The wild thing is no one from my label has ever called me and asked how can we help you make another album, EVER…EVER. Did I say ever? Ever! With The Miseducation, there was no precedent. I was, for the most part, free to explore, experiment and express. After The Miseducation, there were scores of tentacled obstructionists, politics, repressing agendas, unrealistic expectations, and saboteurs EVERYWHERE.” Food for Thought II: While there is still much to be said about Wed (1/6/21), I will also always remember it as the day my good friend lost his pops. An author commented about my friend’s late father, “Sympathy, compassion and empathy are the key elements of [Inca Woman], and that is why I love his poetry and recommend this book to all poetry lovers.” I think we could all use some more sympathy, compassion and empathy these days. I implore you to do what my friend challenged me: “love, be patient with yourself and others, and live with no apologies and regret.” (I hope the formatting change doesn’t disrespect the integrity of the poem)… Inca Woman: Two long braids / Hung on her back, and / A little baby was pouched like a kangaroo / Or embroidered sweaters were pouched / On her back / Virtuous eyes, / sun-tanned dark skin: My cousin / She was walking all day on the streets of Cusco / in order to sell one or two sweaters made of Alpaca wool. / She was slowly walking all day / like a llama who used to carry the burden / over the Andes mountain years ago. Food for Thought III: John Thompson Was More — Much More — Than a Basketball Coach Preston Brown: Improving Lives & the City of Camden Through Football | NFL Films Presents
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