As I had said I was going to do last week, I took a week away from social media, newsfeeds, and news shows. Even being away, I heard some of the major news through friends. I know we have a new American Pope and a former Supreme Court Judge has died. After a week away, I’m trying to decide to what degree I want to return. Is ignorance truly bliss, or is being informed safer?
During this week, being away from current events let me concentrate a little more on some personal projects I’ve been working on. Things, which I think is universal for humans, that need to be done, but are easy to put off by other distractions.
My youngest was in town with their fiancé. I was able to spend a little more time talking and getting to know the fiancé. Did a little more cooking and a little baking for both of them. It was a nice time to find out who my youngest is planning on spending the rest of their life with and what they are about. There was even a mini advice session, which was a little surprising. Time, as always, will tell if it will be listened to or not.
The hubby and I are working to clear clutter out of our house. It seems we are like koi in that we have grown to fill the space we have. There are also boxes we’ve not opened since moving into our new house, which has now been several years. It would be nice if we could just say since we’ve not opened a box, let’s just trash it because obviously we haven’t needed whatever the box contains. Experience though has shown us there just might be that one precious picture of our kids in that box, that if tossed would be a travesty.
Opening the boxes and going through them has been a time of reliving experiences. There was a picture of me with my one of my best friends and confidante at a principal meeting I had forgotten about. Found a report in which a friend had observed one of my kids before the kids came to be with us. A picture of me and one of my kids at Niagara Falls I had to share with them. I also found many thank you notes and letters from former students and colleagues I had received, which helped remind me of the good I did in schools as a teacher and as a principal.
Then there are the pictures. It is amazing, even with digital pictures being the norm now, how many photos one can accumulate. There are pictures of trips with the extended family. Pictures from when both the hubby and I were young. School picture days and class photos. Graduation, funerals, weddings, and everything in between. Just so many kept, even the blurry ones, and what to do with them. We did get rid of the blurry, fuzzy, dark ones, and ones where it is hard to know why the picture was even taken. Still, we will have a large project at some point of scanning all of these photos to create digitals images to share with both of our larger families. A retirement project?
It has also been a time to sell, donate, or trash stuff. For some reason we kept a broken rocking chair, a non-working Christmas tree, cabinet drawers for which there will never be a cabinet to put them in, and a whole mess of other stuff. I think we’ve donated enough stuff to Goodwill to open a new branch. Habitat for Humanity has gotten a couple of good pieces of furniture. Half Price Books might also be able to open a new store with the tubs and tubs of books from us. Facebook Marketplace has also been productive overall (Craigslist a bust though), with even selling the treadmill and foosball table, thank goodness. Plus one trip so far to the local dump and overflowing trash cans for the last month or so.
Oddly, sadly, or predictively, it still feels as if we’ve barely made a dent in what should actually go. I’ve been wondering how we could have accumulated so much stuff, with quite a bit of it brought with us when we moved. Wondering too how much of what we have decided to keep might be unnecessary to keep. Is this going to be an exercise that must be done on a more consistent basis? How much does one really need? How much have we fallen for consumerism? When does practicality override sentimentality, or vice versa?
The final thing I was able to make good headway on this week was the starting of a company I had been envisioning for the past four years. I was able to submit, and have approved, an LLC. The week also let me put together a couple of proposals along with cleaning up a few one pagers I had started. The clutter project has taken a lot of my time, but feels like I’m in a much better place with the business. I just have to keep reminding myself it is okay to parse my time into chunks, that it is okay to step away from the clutter to work on building a business that may allow me the freedom to plan my own day, set my own hours, and work towards a goal of a work/life balance that leans more towards life than work. After all, as much as I don’t like to admit it, I’m not getting any younger anytime soon. I’m at the point in my life where I’ve grown weary of work politics, politicians who deliberately or inadvertently are doing harm to my field of education, and wanting a bit of a break from my almost 50 years of being in the workplace.
Remember, it is okay to step away from politics for a bit to concentrate on one’s self. It is all about balance and equilibrium. The process is not easy, nor the same for everybody, but we can find it for ourselves while still showing up for colleagues, democracy, and most importantly our friends and family.
Now, go take a short respite to rest and rejuvenate, then jump back to the work of improving lives from a better personal space.
I’ve often said we all need to be involved in saving democracy in the ways which fit our lives and our comfort levels. These can be blogging, reposting on social media, calling your elected officials, letters to the editor, donating to organizations, and/or marching in the streets. Nothing is too little or too much. Here are some ways to get involved whether from the comfort of your own homes, or on the streets, over the next few weeks:
- Call your U.S. Senator to demand they fight the Republican administration’s defiance of the court in following laws and the Constitution. The switchboard number is 202-224-3121. They will connect you with the correct senators. If you get their voicemail, which I do often, make sure to leave your name and address for your call to be registered as received.
- Call your congressional members and let them know as one of the people they represent, it is past time for DOGE to be dismantled. Call this number and the switchboard will connect you to your representative or senator: 202-224-3121. Even if you don’t know who your members are, they will find them for you based on your address, which they will ask you to provide.
- Call the White House switchboard to express your disappointment in what is happening and that DOGE must go: 202-456-1414 (switchboard) or 202-456-1111 (comments). I recommend the switchboard myself.
- Sign up for General Strike and commit to participating.
- Download the app Five Calls to help let your elected officials know you are paying attention and don’t approve. Website: https://5calls.org/
- Join a local group of Indivisible.
- Participate in the action items of50501: 50 Protests, 50 States, 1 Movement.
- Continue to boycott companies who have bent the knee or no longer believe in equality. Don’t buy from national chains or companies, such as Target, Amazon, Tesla, Walmart and any others who are bending the knee and capitulating to authoritarianism and the billionaire class.
- Write letters to your local papers expressing your disappointment and tell your stories of how the Republican administration is harming your families.
- Please say thank you in some way to the universities, law firms, companies, and organizations not bending the knee and capitulating to the Republican Administration.
- Mark your calendar for the next big nationwide protest, Saturday, June 14.
- Do something, anything, peaceful to fight back!
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 