Coming Together

Another interlude. The reviews will continue tomorrow; just pushed 'em back for a day.

Sunday afternoon I had a chance to watch the Seattle Seahawks clinch a Super Bowl berth for only the fourth time in their 50 year history. I've attended three of the four NFC championship games that they won, missing only the game versus the 49ers (when I was residing in Paraguay). The 'Hawks have had a great season, and man, that was a tough game...another time and on a neutral field, the results might well have been different. Skaven are a bad match-up for orks, and the Rams have often had our number since we moved back to the NFC West in 2000.

I haven't written much about the Seahawks (or Blood Bowl) this year, in part because I've been super busy (I don't think we've broken out the BB set since September) but ALSO because...as the writing was on the wall that Seattle was fielding one of the best teams in the NFL, I felt more and more that talking about it might, well, jinx it. And I didn't want to jinx it. I mean, I had to help keep the Pope's streak alive, right?

But now we're back in the Big Game, where I fully expect Mike Macdonald's ork squad to stomp the living hell out of the dark elves. It's not that Vrabel's not a good coach or that Drake Maye isn't a nice surprise this season. It's just that they aren't Bellicheck and Brady...and I trust that with two weeks to prepare Mac will have this team tuned and ready to tee off on the second year QB. This is not the McVay-Stafford-Nakua offense we just saw. Yes, the Seahawks might still lose...but if they do. it's going to be due to some catastrophic system failure. They're just the better team...this year.

I'm thinking something in the 27-9, 31-6 range?

REGARDLESS (that is, win or lose) the streets of Seattle will be mostly empty on Super Bowl Sunday. That I've experienced before. It's always fairly dead on this, our country's unofficial national holiday, but in the city of one of the two championship-vying teams...well, most people are going to be glued to their screens. Or, at least, engaging in some sort of party/celebration with fellow Seattle-ites, regardless of whether or not they have any interest in the game results. That's the power of sport: the power to bring people together. Common ground...a way of making connections with our fellow human beings.

Right now, in addition to the nation-wide blizzard/Ice Age that's wrecking crap all over the country, we've got this whole ongoing issue of federal agents MURDERING PEOPLE in Minnesota. I mean, the current presidential administration has been nothing if not an extensive exercise in corruption and criminality, bribery, kidnapping, lying, extortion, and murder (no, Virginia, the actions taken by our U.S. military in Venezuela and off its coast are not "lawful" no matter what lies the administration spins). But video of masked "law enforcement" officers pumping ten rounds in the back of a prone, restrained, and unarmed individual is FUCKING EVIL SHIT and kind of ANTITHETICAL TO EVERYTHING THIS COUNTRY IS SUPPOSED TO STAND FOR. 

I'd think most of us could find some common ground on that, too. 

Just so people know: I am paying attention. And while the gaming thing is all well and good as a nice little escape from the ho-hum mundanity of daily life (and fun to boot), it's NOT a great thing to use it as an excuse to check out and be apathetic when it comes to real life atrocities being committed in one's own backyard. Yeah, the stuff in Gaza and Ukraine and Iran, etc. are pretty damn horrific. But now our government seems bent on waging war against its own citizens? Any citizen that dares stand up to it? Anyone who interferes with ICE actions by protesting or filming with a cell phone is in danger of being pepper-sprayed, beaten, "detained," and possibly SHOT IN THE FACE. Yeah...no.

Can't stand for that.

However, sadly, unfortunately, the LAST thing, the WORST thing for folks to do, is to fight back with anger and hate and violence. I can already see that possibility on the horizon: revolution. Civil war. Guerillas. REAL "domestic terrorism" where anyone with a mask or a badge is dragged out and lynched and a well-armed America population starts pushing back with bullets. THAT would be the real end of this American Experiment. That would be really, really shitty.

Plus, Trump would just invoke martial law and set himself up as "Dictator for Life."

SO. Be brave. Be resistant. Be engaged. And most of all, be TOGETHER with your fellow Americans. Regardless of the differences you have with them. Build bonds; build connections. Stand and oppose, but do not give in to hatred and violence. If we allow grief and anger to consume us, then evil wins. 

That's it. Adventure reviews will resume tomorrow.

Nazis

It's early in the morning, and I have a couple hours before I have to get the kid up for his cross-country training, after which I need to go down to the court house to work on...just sad, sad shit that I don't really want to do.

But it's sad shit that I have to do, unfortunately. The last couple-three days would have been wonderful, wonderful summer days spent with my family and our friends...except that I have this serious stress hanging over my head, a cloud of poison that just taints the joy in my life. To be brief: I need to sell my (dead) mother's house in order to wrap up her estate (I'm the executor) but my brother is refusing to move out (I allowed him to stay there while we cleaned it, since he's a hobo) and now is determined to fight me in court. He's a stupid asshole without a legal leg to stand on, but he's just intent on dragging this out as long as possible, making it as time consuming and crappy as possible.

*sigh*

So, I'm up this morning, because this is the kind of stuff that wakes me up at 5am and doesn't let me get back to sleep. And while sipping some coffee and checking through Ye Old Email, I saw a reddit post about some kid (a 20 year old) who believes he's discovered that one of his players (another kid: 18 years old) is a "Neo-Nazi" and wants to know what he should do about it. 

[long, long pause]

There are many humans in this world that I'd prefer to not hang out with or have at my dinner table. For all sorts of reasons. I mean, for a LOT of different reasons, not just matters of "political ideology." There are plenty of people...even people I know, even family members...who I simply have little to nothing in common with and that generate "nothing much" of interest to me and whom (I'd assume) have little interest in what I might have to share with them. 

'Course, that's generally a false assumption...I get dragged into social settings with people I don't want to hang with all the time (this is usually my wife's doing) and...me being me...I usually find something to have a conversation with them, that's a bit better than what the weather is like this time of year. It's not terribly hard (for me, at least) to dig a little deeper under a person's surface facade and find some common ground, some place where we can meet and exchange ideas.

But while it's always "worth the effort" to find commonality and make connections with our fellow humans, a lot of times that 'connecting' is the ONLY thing of any value coming from the effort. Just because I've learned someone shares my love of a good tuna melt doesn't mean I'm going to grow, develop, or evolve in any meaningful way. Making connections aren't the same things as making bonds.

However, over my five plus decades of life, in interacting with all sorts of people (and having a very wide and eclectic social circle) I've drawn some conclusions about humanity, that I'd like to share. 

#1 Humans, as entities, are GOOD. I really, honestly mean that. We are beings of "goodness," by our very nature. I understand that is a pretty difficult idea to swallow when there are countless examples of people who have done (and who continue to perpetrate) really evil and despicable acts. But it's something I've come to believe based on my experience. This is not some belief I have based on my religion (although my particular religion would agree with my personal conclusions)...I just have never experienced the contrary. I have never seen or experienced any evidence of a human that was "born bad" or is "evil to the core." Some might say (perhaps) that I've just been lucky in this regard...I acknowledge that's a possibility (though my religion, which has been around a lot longer than me, would say otherwise).

#2 "Bad humans" are the result of bad choices. I believe that humans have free will...we absolutely do. Nothing "makes us do" the things we do, once we're adults. We have the ability to choose what we do. 

"But I was starving!"

"But my child was going to die!"

"But we were facing an existential threat!"

Bull. Shit. We always have a choice...humans always have a choice. "But they put a gun to my head! I would have died!" We will all, some day, die. ALL of us. Shuffling off this mortal coil is part of our human experience...wanting to prolong our lives (i.e. "survive") is also human nature and totally understandable. But it does not remove our free will. "Coercion" is a subjective thing, influencing different people to different degrees. 

In the end, humans always get their say in their own actions; and it is their actions that define our behavior, good and bad.

What we perceive as "bad people" are people who have made bad choices. I'd guess that all the people reading this blog can look back at times they've made bad choices in their lives...I know that I have. And it doesn't matter the reason or motivation. A "bad" choice made for "good" reasons is still "bad." And if you make enough "bad choices," even if you're making them for "good" reasons, people are going to perceive you as a "bad person."

However, I should probably use more specific language. When I say "bad" I mean "evil," not just "wrong." An evil choice is one that does harm, intentionally. And for it to have been "intentional," the person making the choice must have had awareness and knowledge that the choice would do harm. 

And, by the way, that "harm" includes "harm to ourselves," not just harm to others. If I know cigarettes are bad for my health and will kill me, then deciding to smoke is a "bad choice."

We all make bad decisions, bad choices, over the course of our lives; most of us make a LOT of bad choices. But we also make good choices, too. And many, many of us repent of our bad choices and try to make amends for those bad choices...or, at least, try to "not make the same mistakes" (bad choices) in the future. That's all to our credit. 

What we perceive as "evil people" are people who have made bad choices, and continue to make bad choices, and who seem unwilling or unable to stop making bad choices. And I acknowledge that it can be hard for a person who has spent years or decades of making bad choices to suddenly stop...habits are habits, and habitual behavior becomes identity. And changing one's identity is akin to asking them to dissolve themselves...it goes against that "survival" aspect of human nature, mentioned earlier.

I've seen this in action with my own brother. Oh, he doesn't do "evil" to others, except in minor ways (the stress he's causing me and my family is pretty small in the grand scheme of "harm" one can do in the world). But he has spent years of self-harm with his decision-making, to the point that it has warped his own perception of who he is, i.e. his identity. It has not mattered that he's had other people...good friends, family members, loved ones...trying to help and support him and show him what he could be, or remind him of what he once was. He embraces his current identity, and continues to make the same poor choices and continues to refuse help and continues to blame his problems on external factors...rather than his own decisions.

But he's a 49 year old man. Not an 18 year old kid.

#3 With life and free will, change is always possible. Just because you've been a jerk in the past, doesn't mean you have to be a jerk in the future...nor even a jerk in the present. Of course, once you have a reputation as a jerk, it's hard for people to see you as anything else, even if you're trying to turn over a new leaf. That's just the way things are.

But it's possible. I'm a person who's gone through multiple "transformations" over the course of my life...51 years isn't a whole helluva' lot int he grand scheme of things, but it's still half a life. I went from being a real "goody-goody," to some kind of "tough guy/badass," to a "slacker/hedonist," to an "all natural Peaceful Warrior," to a "grown up / professional," to a "world traveller," to a "stay-at-home dad."  And even the current "role" that I'm playing can be broken up into different chapters, as I've had to evolve and adapt to my kids' stages of development. 

[just a couple days ago I was talking with my son, discussing the importance of our relationships with other humans and the creation of those relationships while still retaining our authenticity...ideas and concepts that will be important as he enters the arena of high school, but very different from what I'd tell him when he was my daughter's age]

These transformations have never been easy, mainly because I'm not a very patient individual and real change takes time; replacing prior habits with new habits is not an overnight process, even when one is focused and dedicated to altering your behavior and identity. In fact, the shorter the time you give yourself to change, the harder it is...gradual change (like the kind that transforms a young man into an old man) is the easiest of all, but it will take a good long time. 

Interestingly (well, interesting to me) I can say that all the transformations I've made have been done out of love; occasionally love for myself, but USUALLY out of love for others. Love for a girlfriend, love for my parents, love for my wife, love for my kids. I think...I think...that for real change, real transformation to occur, a person must be highly motivated. And for most humans (a fairly lazy bunch, when you get down to it), it's hard to think of a much higher motivation than love. Death, I suppose...but as transforming identity is akin to death, it's hard for death to motivate much more than changing (small) aspects of our identity (quitting smoking or changing diet, for example).

Does ostracizing individuals aid them in finding love?

Back to the "Nazi" gamer kid.

I don't make a big secret about my politics: I tend to lean pretty far to the left. Once upon a time, I thought it was somewhat important to not support (i.e. give money to) folks who championed beliefs that were antithetical to my own...especially people who I felt were making deliberately harmful choices with their works or their propaganda or...well, with their lives.

Of course, I never thought once about the people who might be putting money in my pocket, supporting me financially by buying my books, regardless of our "political differences."  

But I've grown since those days. For one thing, I've gamed with a lot of different people over the years, from all sorts of backgrounds, none of which ever made any difference to me...even (or especially) when I was younger. Because we weren't coming together to discuss politics; instead, we were there to play games. And we're still there to play games. LOTS of people like Dungeons & Dragons...people of all genders, people of all colors, people of all religions, people of all political ideologies. Are they good at playing the game? That's the real question. Do they get along well with their table mates? Do they respect the authority of the DM? Do they lie and cheat? Do they contribute to the fun of the activity?

I don't make a big secret about my politics, but I'm not expressing my politics when we sit down to game. I may use my knowledge of real world religions to inform the various churches and temples of my world (maybe), but I'm not trying to convert my players to any particular belief system. 

Do I permit and allow and accept hatred and intolerance at my table? Eh. It just doesn't usually come up. When we were kids, it was pretty "par for the course" to make transgressive remarks and shit-talk and whatnot...which is something you find in teens and adolescents of all stripes (in my experience). But I don't allow bullying at my table, and I tend to curb things before people get uncomfortable...mainly just by focusing the action on the game being played. If the players aren't focused on the game, then chances are I'm doing a poor job of being a Dungeon Master.

I play with (and allow) all sorts of people at my table. If a really hardcore white supremacist or lefty radical or whatever came to my table and was uncomfortable about the folks I allowed to sit in I'd say, "you don't have to play." If one of my kids complained about one of the new kids I was allowing into a session, I'd say "you don't have to play" (of course, the new kid would only be there because he or she was invited by one of my children, so this only happens as a 'sibling issue'). 

Let me be clear: I dislike Nazi (and Neo-Nazi) ideology...a lot. 

But there's a LOT of ideology out there I dislike. I've been pretty disgusted by actions the state of Israel has taken in recent months. To me, the war in Gaza has looked a lot like good old fashioned genocide, and the unprovoked attacks on Iran are indefensible. Very bad choices, in other words. Doesn't mean I'm an anti-semite, or that I "hate jews." I don't even hate the Israelis...I'm sure there are many Israelis who share (some of) my feelings. I know former Russians, now Americans, who are repulsed by Putin's invasion of Ukraine, even as they are proud of their heritage. My own government has made (and continues to make) bad choices, sadly, in the name of political ideology.

But hating the bad doesn't transform the bad.

I've gone from being angry (a lot) and hating things to being sad (a lot). Lots of things make me sad. War and poverty.  Dictators and would-be dictators. Children with cell phones. Lots of things. But sadness doesn't create transformation either. I can be sad about the Neo-Nazi gamer kid ("oh, so sad...") or I can be angry about him ("get the hell out of my hobby!") and the end result will be pretty much the same: there will still be one more Neo-Nazi in the world, doing Neo-Nazi stuff. He might not be my problem (not now, not yet), but that doesn't mean it's not problematic. 

And so, in the words of that Jesus guy, we've got to strive to love our neighbors as ourselves (yep, that old saw...). Which, by the way, ain't the same thing as being permissive of asshole behavior (hate speech, racist epithets, etc.). But I wouldn't kick someone from my table just because of how they voted in the last election. I can't change how you voted in the last election (even if I cared)...and that doesn't mean you won't somehow be changing your tune before the next election.

I've known a LOT of stupid 18 year olds that matured into something better than they were in their youths. I was pretty stupid myself...about a LOT of things.

We tend to throw around little "truisms" like flawed humans or nobody's perfect. Over the years, I've become less and less enamored with these phrases...phrases that imply that there's something wrong with the way we were created. In a grand scheme of the universe...if you believe in a primary actor/mover ("God" in the common parlance) setting things in motion...then you will (as I do) be forced to come to the conclusion that we were created a diverse group of individuals on purpose. We are all "perfect" in our own way...perfect vessels for the souls that are within each and every one of us. With our changing technology, however, we have become a far more secular, and far less spiritual species...and that has led us to (a tendency to) ignore or disregard or disbelieve that animating spirit within each of us...that real, actual thing that is the true uniter of us as a species, despite all our surface, external differences. Our inability (or unwillingness) to connect to each other's souls has...more than anything else...led to the polarization and discord we see in the world, even within nations that once had (if nothing else) a shared identity. 

How can various nations hope to get along if the people within those nations cannot even get along?

I am neither a politician, nor a lawmaker; my actions take place on a much more limited stage, a much smaller scale and scope. And yet, I understand that my actions...my choices...still make a difference. And I'll be even more specific than that: I believe playing D&D with human beings makes a difference. Yes, a silly game about fighting monsters and finding treasure. Outside of kids' sports teams (which longtime readers will know I'm a big fan of), there are precious few formal ways we have of interacting with other people in a cooperative (non-competitive) fashion. Of making human connections. On a larger scale than a romantic couple or even many (most?) nuclear families. Especially for adults...adults who have so many worries and stresses in their lives. 

We need to make human connections. As I wrote waaaay back at the beginning of this post, sometimes the connection itself is the only thing of value from socializing. That was not meant to disparage the act...we do not do this enough in our current society. And with D&D gaming, you have an automatic "in" to connecting with a fellow human on a deeper level than their surface identity.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

I've been thinking about it a lot, and yet I haven't known how exactly to express it. This seemed like an opportune time. With regard to the Nazi gamer kid, I could have simply kept my fat mouth shut on the matter, but... (*SIGH*) I have a voice, I have an audience. And I do think it's important. 

Yes, it does matter that you're a damn stupid Nazi. That's a bad, bad choice. But as long as you're respectful or the game and of myself and of the other players at the table, you can play D&D with me. 

We really need to stop hating the fuck out of each other.

Politics -- One Last Time

This one's going to be long, meandering, and a bit all over the place. If you want something shorter (and lighter), you can check out yesterday's Blood Bowl nonsense.

SO...let's start with my health. Was sick as a dog over the weekend...had to miss pretty much everything on my schedule and felt like crap to boot. Turns out I had (and still have...despite few remaining symptoms) COVID for the second time. Such a weird illness...it affects different people differently. For my daughter (who was also down) she mainly complained of a sore throat and sniffle. For me, it was non-stop cough...much like the chronic bronchitis I used to come down with every year for the first 12-13 years after I quit smoking. Oh, and constant sweating without fever. Just weird.

Now it's got my wife (she's coughing, too, though not as bad as I was), and my son just woke up achey with a sore throat (though he's still testing negative). Second time round for all of us, and mainly just a pain in the ass. Which, I'm sure, sounds pretty dismissive to people who saw friends and loved ones DIE to the damn thing during the first wave of the pandemic. But that's where we are now. I didn't contract COVID (the first time) till sometime in 2023 and...I'm guessing due to the multiple vaccines I've taken...I've never had it worse than a bad cold. Hell, I've had walking pneumonia (and the aforementioned bronchial infections) that taxed me more and lingered longer. Heck, I've had bog-standard sinus-infections that I found more irritating and inconvenient (since I find it impossible to carry on my normal life blowing my nose every five minutes). But still...yeah. COVID still sucks.

Yet the "forced break" in activity did give me a chance to reflect and reset a bit (hey! look! two blog posts in two days!). I've actually been reflecting on a good number of things the last couple-four weeks, but stopping to breathe (*ahem*) has allowed me to coalesce some of those reflections. 

With regard to politics (uh-oh!) I've found myself shifting in the way I think and approach the...mm..."messy" political landscape of the day. Perhaps this comes from not having much interest in the current Presidential race. I mean there's literally nothing I can imagine happening that would cause me to shift my vote (nor prevent me from voting) so the speeches and debates have about as much impact/interest for me as the advertising/propaganda...i.e. about the same level of curiosity as a car wreck on the freeway, something to cast a quick glance towards as I speed along to my actual destination. 

And, yet, I've found myself watching multiple interviews and discussions with actual Republican constituents discussing, candidly and thoughtfully, their reasons for supporting their party and their candidate...interviews and discussions that weren't full of crazy and/or conspiracy stuff.  And I find my stance towards these people...towards Republicans...has softened considerably. And not in a high-minded, "pitying the ignorant or misinformed" bullshitty way. I mean, I appreciate and...in many cases...agree with their beliefs and values which echo so many of my own. 

Goddamnit. They're still Americans. And Goddamnit. So am I.

People who preach fear and hate of the "other" (immigrants, muslims, queer folk, etc.) for political gain or who try to make a buck off peoples' religious devotion...those folks can still all eat a pile of shit. But people wearing MAGA hats and flying Trump flags in their yard? Nah. I get you. I dig where you're coming from. And I'm willing to love and embrace you as fellow Americans. Stay strong in your values. Vote as your conscience dictates. I want you in my nation. 

Two anecdotes (one new and one I believe I've mentioned before) that I want to relate:

Two Saturdays ago, the Washington State University Cougars beat the University of Washington Huskies in a shallow version of the Apple Cup played in Seattle at Lumen Field (the Seahawks stadium). For folks who don't follow college football, this was the first time in 124 years that it had been played as "non-conference" game, due to the wholesale dismantling of the historic PAC-12, aka The Conference of Champions. As usual, I was rooting for WSU because, having attended Seattle University (cross-town rivals in non-football sports), I long ago cast my lot with my many Coug alumni friends, all of whom live in the greater Seattle area, and many of whom grew up here just as I did. 

Despite the game being played in Seattle there was plenty of red & grey in attendance (not surprising given that at least a quarter of WSU alumni live on this side of the Cascades). After the Cougar victory, the WSU fans began chanting "USA! USA! USA!"...a little strange given this wasn't a game between different nations, like a World Cup match or Olympic event. When one WSU supporter was asked the reason for this chanting, the woman replied:

"Because we're from small towns! We're part of the REAL America, unlike this evil fucking city."

That's one anecdote.

The other, which I'm sure I've related before, is regarding my friend Jon. I haven't actually seen or hung out with Jon since pre-pandemic; he and his wife, Maggie, were good friends of ours but we've drifted apart in recent years mostly (I believe) due to the disparity in the ages of our kids (it took my wife and I five years trying before we got our first) and thus a branching of our social circles.

Probably the last time our families got together was a few months prior to the last presidential election, and I'd guess that Jon is thrilled about Kamala Harris being the Dem's candidate for president. Thrilled because he was a strong supporter of hers the LAST time there was a presidential election (before she ended up dropping out). I was not a big fan of Harris at the time, for lots of reasons (mainly inexperience), but she was the "clear choice" for Jon, just as Bernie Sanders had been his "clear choice" for the 2016 race (a race in which I was supporting Clinton). Jon, you see, is a progressive Democrat. He is all about the progressive agenda/platform. He's only a year younger than me and we share a lot in common: we're left-leaning liberals, college educated, pro-union, big sports fans. But he was raised in urban Chicago with a single mother, an estranged father, and no religious upbringing. With regard to Dungeons & Dragons, he has no interest, and never has; he remembers the game being around when he was growing up, but:

"I always got the impression it was only a white person's game."

Now, for the record, Jon is white: 100% caucasian. So is his wife. So are their two kids (both of whom are their non-adopted, biological offspring). But Jon is all about diversity...the more diversity the better. He is all about squelching anything that stands as a throwback to an older, whiter paradigm. Because "old" and "white" does not equal progress. And we must make progress, dammit! That's one reason he insists on his children going to public schools, rather than an elitist, private school like the Catholic one my children attend.

Of course, his kids tested into the Robert Eagle Staff school...a public school that boasts a higher academic curriculum than other (public) elementary schools. It has a 55.6% caucasian student population compared to the 45.4% average of Seattle public schools.  Meanwhile, my kids' "elitist" school is only 53.3% white, though the actual numbers vary from grade to grade: my son's class is only 50% white, for instance, while my daughter's class is only 40% white.

[FWIW my multi-racial son's best friend is a blonde haired white kid that goes to public school. Both kids love playing D&D]

I do not recount these anecdotes to make anyone feel good, bad, superior, inferior, etc. Neither do I recount them to sway you to my side of any "political" argument or spectrum. I am simply sharing stories I have...stories that linger in my thoughts; stories that color my reflections.

We are...all of us...unreasonable at times. I certainly am. There are many, MANY times when I get my teeth in some silly argument, some nonsensical side of some truly non-mattering pissing war and absolutely refuse to let go. You see it countless times through the history of this blog. Fighting for one edition of Dungeons & Dragons over another. Fighting for one style of play over another. Fighting for one particular value or perspective over another. And when we are "unreasonable" it doesn't mean that we are without reason (at least, that's not how I intend the term to be used), but that we are unwilling to reason, i.e. to entertain, or even listen to, the reasons of another (reasoning) human being.

And yet, on this blog, I actually do try to be reasonable, more often than not. Most of my "unreasonable moments" occur off-screen, mainly (sadly) with my wife and often (almost always) with later regret. It is a challenge I have, and one I have never really attempted to address...at least not with serious intent (as I've addressed other challenging aspects of my personality over the years). It is only now, with some reflection, that I am even thinking about it: how, in the heat of 'battle,' I cease to consider that other reasoning individuals have reasonable reasons of their own. 

[and how many times have I whined and complained about the unreasonableness of others without addressing my own unreasoning?]

As I predicted at the beginning: this post is long and meandering. But I'm going to try to wind it to a close, for those folks who've been hanging on this long.

Waaaay back in 2021 (just a bit more than three years ago), I wrote a blog post describing how I would no longer allow an individual's political agenda inform my opinion or support of the person as pertains to gaming and game design. There are political conservatives who are one the same page with me when it comes to this hobby, and there are plenty of political liberals who aren't.  Having taken that stance has served me well in the practice of my vocation.

However, with these recent reflections, I've decided I'm going to take a similar approach to people in general. I've never faulted anyone for not sharing my religion (a religion I was born into), any more than I've "faulted" anyone for not sharing my particular skin tone. Considering that my political party is at least as much due to my own parents (both Democrats) as it is to ideology, it's about time I stop faulting people for being part of the Right. I'm just not going to waste any more time/energy getting bent out of shape over how a person wants to vote. Like zero. I like that I live in a country where I get to vote; I've been voting since I was 18, and even voted (absentee) during the years I was in Paraguay. We are LUCKY we are a people who get a say in who gets elected to run this country. I want every eligible voter to vote...not enough people vote! It's friggin' AMERICAN to vote.

Vote how you want. It's fine.

Because, man, O man am I tired of hating people. And for the longest time I just hated Republicans: Hawks and Neo-Cons and Christian Rights and Tea Partyers and gun nuts and conspiracy theorists and...just...all of it. But, heck, I hated a lot of Democrats, too...O So Many Dems, from uber-progressives to spineless intellectuals to clueless braindead hippies to ineffectual Hope-fulls trying to Build Consensus Like A Grown-Up Society Should...and getting nothing accomplished. Oh: and the conspiracy theorists on the Left (that's its own rabbit hole you don't want to delve).

I'm done with it...with ALL of it.  I don't hate you, my fellow Americans. I love you. With all your weirdness. We are a weird group of people, we Americans. We are also a Great people. We are BLESSED to live in a country that not only tolerates but THRIVES on having so many different, screwed up peoples in it. It is what makes us SO POWERFUL. And man O man, we have FUCKED UP a LOT of things over the years...for both ourselves and the rest of the world. But we've also done a lot of good stuff, too.  I truly believe this "American experiment" has been a net positive force for good on this planet. 

Whatever your political persuasion is All Right By Me. I'm going to judge people solely by their actions from now on, rather than their bumper stickers. Strange thing: I've met very few people in my life that I'd qualify as true assholes...and of those I can recall, I don't recall any of them being particularly political. Being a true asshole means being a pretty un-caring individual, and people who don't care are (I've found) disinclined to vote at all. 

I'd rather people care. Even if they care in a different way from how I care. 

So there you go. I don't anticipate having much more to say about politics in the future (I might mention something about the results of the November election...maybe a "yay" or a "boo" depending on the result). Everyone who's read my blog for the last upteen number of years knows how I vote anyway, and I no longer care how YOU vote (I just hope you do vote...). And...as I get my strength/mojo back...you should expect to see more 'gaming related' posts in the future. 

Thank you for today's indulgence.