Insidious Adaptation

Recognition- 1.      the action or process of recognizing or being recognized, in particular. Or, as a move towards favoritism, or to alleviate guilt, one can recognize another. To recognize initially meant to indicate someone did something outstanding, recognizable  more than others, a contributor to the cause. Now, nothing more than a way to justify an organization or purpose, without carrying the weight being "recognized" once held. Now it is a sham of which the receiver is supposed to gain enough. something, to shut them up, have others strive for it, and the organization look good because they, “recognized” or are the “organization willing to give X amount of effort to some cause." Cynic? Look past who gets recognized and the upward to the organization getting the recognition. What are they getting out of it? Something I ensure you. At a job I held for a Medicaid insurance company, it was favorable to give three recognitions per month, almost a mand...

Saturday Night, the first day of Autumn. A cool evening where the patio door to the outside can be left open. One where the crisp air serves as a subtle reminder why we don't wish for too cold of weather too soon. I mean, it is easy to say we want cold in the midst of summer, or the 90-degree weather this past week, but here, there is a chill.  The TV showing Daniel the Tiger, a spin-off from the great Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood. It teaches lessons. This one is about trusting adults to help. I can't remember the words to a song about seeking  adults to help , and I just spent ten minutes for the sake of clarification to find them, all futile. Nonetheless, the communication in the show was from adult to child and vice versa, yet, one thing stuck out when the child talked to the adult, "make-believe."  Daniel presented something he thought of doing through allowing the audience to look into his mind, and see what he was thinking. One of those depictions that shows ...

At one time it was one of the most viewed YouTube videos; a boy and his baby brother playing around and then the baby brother, Charlie, really bites down on his older brother's hand. Watch it Here. Much like in my own experience, a baby's first teeth, and the unexpected force of the jaw are something that go from a pleasure, to a pain, too quick to plan for. Unlike the teeth of a puppy, the razor sharp daggers that break through the skin and an unexpected chomp on a arm, resulting in a smack to the face or butt as a reminder not to bite, we cannot do the same with kids. When a child bites us we have to be so aware of our bodies that we don't smack the kid as a response to stop pain. How many times are we hurting from a child to have a knee jerk reaction to hurt them to save us. Our intent would not be to hurt them, as much as we are trying to avoid pain ourselves. A mother's nipple as a child latches on, and as the pain of breastfeeding only worsened by the form...

Play. I had half a mind to leave the page blank, allow for artistic interpretation to the emptiness that very few things offer these days. To have some sentence at the end about what to make of your own blank page, your own life's purpose etc. However, I decided instead to provoke. When was the last time you allowed the mind to wander? When was the last time you didn't stop or try to control the thoughts? When was the last time you were allowed to actually daydream? I feel sometimes that the phone, the thumbprint, the scroll, the 5-10 minutes wasted, and then the rush to catch back up on work or be present with children, or try to catch back up on the conversation you were missing, prevents us from doing so. I feel as though the mind's ability to be, and explore, no longer exists as it once has. Now, sitting, dreaming, and getting nothing accomplished are not warranted in this world either, nor would that be fulfilling, but everything in the world now seems a way to...

Chemical reaction or a metaphor for life? "Able to dissolve other substances." Or, as a noun, "the liquid in which a solute is dissolved to form a solution." The all-encompassing substance that through osmosis a balance of concentration between inside and outside of the molecule become saturated, is useful for something as simple as making chocolate milk to a diluting a solution's concentration through the addition of a more neutral solvent like water to save a life. The underlying human condition, or as a collective, what makes nations, groups, neighborhoods, the unmeasurable parts of society with it's convictions, desire to assist and grow, and self-sacrifice, is our solvent. It is not measured or given the credit when it comes to the solution. You will not hear someone say, "ah the human condition and the need to connect, really showed up to day to help ol' Betsy up the stairs." No, rather we give credit to the man or woman whom ...

A squirrel runs up a tree, a scattering of tiny claws on bark. Another one closely follows. Ah, a chase is what is happening here. The mind makes a little story, there must be mating involved, maybe a fight. Maybe, that squirrel is a child and there is play. Do squirrels play?  The edges of the mouth, their familiar patters, the lips stretch across the front, curl up at the ends. Cheeks seem to have less room now, and in combination with eye muscles tightening, they are both lifted and pushed out. The face of innocence, for the mind allowed itself to wander to a dimension of childlike wonder. We could turn this into a nature lesson, gain understanding about how squires work, after all my phone is in my pocket and google is pretty efficient. However, no, this moment will stay just like this. Plus, I don’t care that much. “Uh, I can’t do it, it’s broken.” Screams a child doing in her mind what she was told. “Sweetheart, just push down,” As dad lifts his own foot and pushes on th...

My wife and I differ on the topic of nutrition. She was raised with an environment of “enough” and I was raised in an environment of “excess.” For this reason, I had to learn early on to watch and learn about what I ate, when she had, just enough, stopped when done. It was this background that led me to invest in education about foods.  One thing I found very interesting is that nuts are not always nuts. As my wife exhales, looks away in contempt, I make my next phrase, peanuts are legumes, and other tree nuts, are nuts. Huge difference nutritionally and if you suffer from chronic inflammation, like most people are these days, then this difference is critical for you.   The almond is one of my most favorite tree nuts. I seek them in the store as though I am a hunter searching for a plump wild boar, or a cheetah going after a jackrabbit, or an arctic wolf taking down a wildebeest, or…., sorry, new documentary about animals hunting has me obsessed. Nonetheless, almonds...

One surprisingly-sunny, late-winter day, as my daughter was figuring out her footing on the edge of a sidewalk, down hill, my apprehensions laid in my will aiding her to stay upright. As she continued to place one awkward foot in front of the other, something shiny caught my eye. I looked past her as she stepped down to safety and made my approach, as though it was placed right here, for me. "Hey, what's this?" A rhetorical question, for as I made my approach and the dim silver shimmer informed me that is in fact currency, a significant currently at that. The mind's ability to determine things quickly, on display here as I discounted the possibility of a penny or nickel, even a quarter was too small, maybe a fifty-cent piece? No, not that either, for it was a little smaller than that. "Ah, it's a silver dollar!" I exclaim to my careless daughter and a wife who was too far ahead to take note of what she might have assumed another piece of garbage I...

The topic was open for discussion, I figured I would weigh in. I felt safe enough to present my case, what I had seen and what had rolled around in my head justifying my need to say something. W.-Why  A.-Am I.-I T.-Talking?  An acronym I had seen once on a business meeting room where "serious" meetings were held. I am a counselor, we have no need to, W.A.I.T. for we are in the business of talking, making inferences, spewing our selves and perceptions out to filter the chunks of verbal vomit. Here, in this lesser-sophisticated office setting there is currently a debate going on between a boss and her employee. Luckily, she does not see this difference in rank, she sees a person with a differing opinion, one that she doesn't agree with, yet one she will oblige. For that last part I am grateful, for we all want a stage some of the time. "Damnit Becky, why are you so stupid when things don't go your way..." "Look, I am just saying that wh...

There I was, giving a presentation to a group of hyper-masculine males, more macho than I. By "hyper-masculine" I actually mean, fragile, but fronting. Not yet strong enough or knowledgeable enough to get in touch with their emotions nor safe enough to express them. Putting up walls is what keeps men safe, alive, protected, for if we all just, "let it all hang out," what would be left to hide from? After all, if all people knew all things about me, then they might.... wait. There isn't a thing you could tell me that I don't already know about myself. I know my glimpse of thoughts, my obsession, my sickest fantasies. I know the thoughts that can slip into a mind listening to another talk and allowing the grazing on "better" pastures, disconnecting from conversation. I know that when it comes to poor behaviors often demonized by society are ones that I find myself regularly thinking. When a person in authority gets "caught" for somethin...

In college, living in the dorms was a stimulus overload. Not only was there now access to people 24/7, the access to women, fine women, women of all types. In my high school graduating class of 50 plus, half to 2/3rds were dudes, minus the girls in relationships, really only left a handful to choose from. Not here however, there were plenty, and in the idea of college and newly sanctioned freedom, it seemed as though possibilities lingered around every corner.  What I thought college would be like.  What college was really like.  In my mind, I had to be prepared for interaction at all times, look cool, calm, casual, despite the fact I was anything but those things. Luckily, I had regular attendance at the gym that summer, along with eating food excessively and strictly to enhance my size, enhanced my confidence. After all, the guys in the magazines were big and not all that, “good-looking” so I figured that was a route that would use m...