Probe this

Not sure if I ever posted a link to this column published in the Daily Local that I wrote back in August of 2021 titled "Probing the complexities of race and racism", but I just came across it, so I thought I'd add it here. There is one small but significant typo that will be fairly obvious as one reads it and thinks, What what? And then goes back to re-read it to make sure you read it right.

Hats off to those with hats on!

 Weird article in the Times about why men keep wearing baseball caps, missing the actual reasons. 

Is There Anywhere You Can’t Wear a Baseball Cap?

A reader reflects on the proliferation of baseball caps in men’s fashion. Our critic offers an explanation.

She writes: "As to how all this happened, Noah Johnson, the global style director of GQ, attributes it to a combination of three factors: “a more casual atmosphere, an engaged men’s fashion market and a moment of heightened individuality.” Hats, he said, are the male equivalent of handbags, “an easy entry point at the designer level.”

I don't know if this shows how out of touch the Times and/or this writer is or the extent to which New York City is out of touch with the rest of the country.

Top two reasons I think men continue to wear them:

- receding/vacated hairlines

- men trying to still look like boys

Oddly, I remember the first time I saw a man wearing a random baseball cap as an accessory. It was in Kansas in 1982 on my bike trip. I was eating breakfast in a little diner, sitting in a booth next to a table full of farmers (who'd probably already been up for 3-4 hours), and one of the younger guys was wearing a John Deere hat. Not sure why it stuck with me, or even stood out in the first place, but there ya go.

I'll expect a correction to the article the moment they see this post. Actually, I'll guarantee it, since I know they will never do either.

Funny-ish story. The only time I'd ever seen Josh Shapiro in person was when Sherry and I went to a fundraising dinner at the Desmond in Malvern. At some point, I left the table to go down the hotel hall to use the bathroom. As I went to enter, there were 2 big burly guards standing outside the entrance to the bathroom so I asked if it was okay if I went in and they nodded Yes. So, I went in and the only person in there, standing at the urinal was...Governor Shapiro.

Last night, after the rally, Cheryl had to use the bathroom in the arena (I'll bet you can see where this is going) before we started our long trek back to the car. The line to get in went down a hallway where there were entrances to both the men's and women's bathrooms. Just as she got close to getting in, guess whose small entourage came in behind her. (He was able to go right in because of course it turned out the line was for the women's room and the men's room was a walk right in situation.)

Yeah, I know - TMI, but still, just funny enough, I couldn't resist.

All that aside, I thought his was the best speech of the night, though all three were really great. He sure has a great future. How about a Josh Shapiro - Chrissy Houlahan ticket in 2032?!

Insert Twilight Zone music here

Every once in a while, I look at the blogger.com "stats" page to see how many people are viewing this blog. Let's just say that I have a very hard time believing their numbers. 

No, actually let's just say, I do not believe their numbers.

Tonight it says that 294 people have been here in the last 7 days. And 107 of them live in Sweden. 

So maybe they gather around at dinner and read my posts while they eat their meatballs?  

(A request - PLEASE! If anyone in Sweden actually sees this, please comment below). 

And another 54 have read it in Singapore? And overall they list 8 countries with residents who have viewed it at least once in the last week:

Sweden 100

Singapore 54

United States 13

Hong Kong 12

Germany 3

France 2

United Kingdom 1

Russia 1

Other 108

But there's the kicker. After listing the 8 countries, it then says "Other - 108"! 

Other what?!

And if you don't believe me, I can only say OH Evolve!

This is a post that is likely to horrify most of my friends and family, and I'll get right to the punchline:

More and more I find myself questioning the validity of evolution. 

Yup, I said it. I just find the facts used to explain the theory so unlikely...or maybe I should say...just as unlikely or hard to believe as the idea that there is a God or Spirit or SomeDamnThing that created us. (My old theory was that we are all God's science experiment. S/he threw us all together and now is just sitting back and watching, occasionally still getting involved when asked hard enough.)

My belief is that there is most likely an entity we can't even comprehend that is responsible for the world we live in and the consciousness we accept that seems to require us to rely on a scientific or religious explanation for how we got here.

To help explain just one of the many reasons why I have a hard time believing that we are all descended from single cell amoebas, I'm going to quote from this column explaining the difference between the human brain and artificial intelligence by my old "friend" David Brooks in the NYT, even though the column only had a little to do with what I am writing about here.

"The Canadian scholar Michael Ignatieff expressed a much more accurate view of the human mind last year in the journal Liberties: “What we do is not processing. It is not computation. It is not data analysis. It is a distinctively, incorrigibly human activity that is a complex combination of conscious and unconscious, rational and intuitive, logical and emotional reflection.

"The human mind isn’t just predicting the next word in a sentence; it evolved (ed. note: did it though? seriously?) to love and bond with others; to seek the kind of wisdom that is held in the body; to physically navigate within nature and avoid the dangers therein; to pursue goodness; to marvel at and create beauty; to seek and create meaning.

"(Our brain has) consciousness, understanding, biology, self-awareness, emotions, moral sentiments, agency, a unique worldview based on a lifetime of distinct and never to be repeated experiences.

"A.I. can do correlations, but that it struggles with cause and effect; it thinks in truth or falsehood, but is not a master at narrative; it’s not good at comprehending time.

"It will compel us to double down on all the activities that make us distinctly human: taking care of each other, being a good teammate, reading deeply, exploring daringly, growing spiritually, finding kindred spirits and having a good time."

When I was in college at Earlham, I took a course called On Death and Dying taught by a visiting Harvard professor, and we were given an assignment to interview someone at what was then called a nursing home, now called an assisted living facility, in other words, to meet with someone who was probably far closer to death than we were. 

I met with an elderly couple and I still remember their rationalization of why they believed in God, and I'll use their description as a further example of why I have a hard time accepting the theory of evolution. They said, "Just take the human hand, for example. Think of all the amazing things your brain can tell it to do. You can clap, you can hold a spoon, or even chopsticks. You can perform surgery, juggle, punch someone, or catch and throw a ball. You can use your fingers for all kinds of things: you can tap them, count on them, pick your nose with them, or even give someone one of them."

OK, so I don't remember everything they said nearly 50 years later, but that was the gist. 

So, yeah, I know we "evolved" over millions of years, and survival of the fittest and all that. And much of it may be true, but I guess I'll go with - two things can be true at the same time. There is room for some of each theory.

And just so my family and friends don't completely disown me, I'll leave with two things most all of us can agree with:

1 - The most ridiculous theories of creation can be found in any given religious text.

2 - If evolution were completely true, how can there still be so many people wanting to vote for Donald Trump?

A close friend who emails me quite often, suddenly had a brain fart and sent some emails (that were actually of a rather confidential matter) to a wrong email address for me, so I googled the address to see where those emails were going and it looks like they went to a Janet McVickar in Santa Fe, NM.

But in the process of googling, about the third hit down on the list of references was this link:

https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2023-10/px-00986-article.pdf 

Brought back a lot of memories, some good, mostly bad, but not awful. Anyway, I just thought I'd link to it here as much for posterity as any other reason. 

Posterity, but a sustained loss of Prosperity. Sorry Cheryl! Sorry, family! (You're welcome, America?)

I spent some time with some folks recently to whom I know I mean a lot and similarly, mean a lot to me. And at some point, being so close, they felt comfortable telling me that they were uncomfortable with my behavior during that gathering, that I hadn't smiled enough and was being too quiet. I tried immediately to work through what was bothering me and felt significantly upset for some time thereafter for having negatively impacted their otherwise good time.

But as I thought about the incident more over the next few weeks, I reflected on the concept that we've been told from the time we are young: Just Be Yourself. So what happens if you're being yourself and it's upsetting to people? Is that your fault for being so unlikeable or mine for wanting you to be more likeable? 

I guess I should be flattered that what they were really saying was that they think of me differently than the person I was being with them and they liked that guy better. Not sure they realized...I sure do too.

But it also helped me understand that I shouldn't be upset with someone I love when they are doing something I don't like. That, I need to remind myself, is a Me Problem, as they say, not theirs. 

After all, as Maya Angelou said: When people show you who the are...believe them.