This is a brilliant 1-minute TikTok on The Paradox of Tolerance by user @TheHistoryWizard.
Here is the key part, “We must be intolerant of intolerance… racists, sexists, etc. are intolerant of people.” As opposed to being “intolerant of ideas that are intolerant of people“.
This is an important distinction. These two things are not on an equal footing. Being intolerant of intolerance holds a moral high ground that intolerant, ignorant people do not hold.
I was in our local drug store yesterday and they were taking walk-ins for the covid-19 vaccine. People just needed to be 55 years old or older to get it. I’m a year and a half too young and so I couldn’t get mine. It was wonderful to see, but also so frustrating that I still have to wait. I know it’s not a quick fix, I know I work in schools where students will not be vaccinated for quite some time. I know we will have strict protocols right through the end of June, and potentially when we start up in September again. I know all this, but I feel like I’m in perpetual limbo waiting for my turn to get the vaccine.
I also wonder about all the people choosing not to take the vaccine. Vaccines are not perfect, but neither are countless over the counter drugs that people use every day. For instance, ibuprofen is a drug many people take way too frequently and can be very bad for you. Here is some information about ibuprofen:
“Regular use of ibuprofen may eventually cause:
And, “NSAIDs such ibuprofen can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke in people with or without heart disease or the risk factors for heart disease.”
In a global pandemic, no vaccine is going to be perfect, but the fear mongering and paranoid opportunists have pushed the anti-vax stupidity to what would be comical levels if the consequences of their stupidity weren’t spreading so quickly. I’m frequently surprised by people sharing concerns about the vaccine who seem to have very limited understanding of what research has been done, people who confuse RNA with DNA, and people who cherry pick their information from biased news sources and spout their bias as ‘facts’.
All this leads me to think that when I finally get the vaccine, while I’ll sigh a little sigh of relief, and while I’ll do a little happy dance… I just might find myself in the same limbo a while longer. I’m not sure it’s going to bring me as much comfort as I would like it to.
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Meanwhile, as a PSA… Keep taking your Vitamin D! (See ‘Vitamin D and Covid-19‘ and ‘Vitamin D could save your life‘.)
Here are some missed opportunities in naming things that are absolutely hilarious. TikTok continues to be a 1/2 hour break in my day that is far better than any TV show I can think of.
This silly minute-long video made me think a bit about some bigger missed opportunities. I wish I travelled more when I was younger. I wish that I took up martial arts when my aunts and uncles did. I wish I learned another language. But then there are many things that I can think of that I ended up doing, like moving to China, starting and sticking with water polo, despite sucking at it to start, and more recently, starting archery, because I’ve just always wanted to do it.
Overall, I like to think of myself as someone who grabs at opportunities rather than letting them go by. That hasn’t always been the case… and maybe it still isn’t in some ways… but I think that believing that I’m someone who seizes rather than misses opportunities is a better belief system to have.
Grab that opportunity that you know you’ll miss later, if you miss it now that it’s here in front of you. What are you waiting for?
Got an email from the district to send to parents about the new Covid-19 rules in effect when we return to school on Tuesday.
The big changes for our school bolded:
o All students Grades 4-12 are required to wear a mask inside schools both within and outside their learning group.
o All staff K-12 are required to wear a mask inside schools both within and outside their learning group.
Essentially, students and staff will be wearing masks all day, as opposed to having the option of removing them when at their own desks. This is important information, and as instructed, I’ll send it off to parents (and students and staff) tomorrow.
Since reading that email, my brain has been on work, and on the pandemic. Things to do, and things to be concerned about. Sometimes I can’t let things go. I can’t relax. Today feels like it was a work day, even though I didn’t go to work. It’s going to take a bit to get back into holiday mode. I want a few more days of holiday brain before work brain fully takes over.
As of midnight last night, we can no longer eat in indoor restaurant seating (again). I get why: Coronavirus numbers in BC are high, and greater restrictions need to happen to stop the spread. But these restrictions came with very little notice. I can’t imagine being a waiter now, and finding out shifts will be dropped. I wouldn’t want to be a restaurant owner, knowing that profits are going to take a big hit, and wondering if I could sustain this if the restrictions are extended beyond the scheduled three weeks.
There are also stricter mask rules in schools, with older elementary students needing to wear them, rather than this being optional. And the most hard-hit school district is getting their staff vaccinated first (this is wonderful to see), I hope our district gets the opportunity in the very near future.
I wish we could do a lockdown like New Zealand. That we could just put a chokehold on the spread of this virus and get it under control. This won’t happen in BC. Instead we do this dance of quick ‘fix’ restrictions (with little or no notice), while also flirting with new opportunities to gather in small groups (outdoors). We play this ‘push me pull you’ game of experimentation to see how little we can affect everyone’s lives while trying to curb coronavirus spread.
I keep going back to my survival mantra: Things will start to normalize by January 2022. This keeps me going, keeps me vigilant. I see timelines suggesting that things will happen faster, but I can’t hold on to these false senses of comfort. Promises of normalcy make added restrictions like this feel crushing… small losses with a promise of small gains. I can’t handle the swings if I think things will start to get better sooner. So, while restrictions are being added, I see them as part of the agenda to normalize by the new year. Until then, bring in the restrictions! Maybe make them tougher now, maybe lay out a plan that people can prepare for.
I’d rather do what’s necessary now than reach December and see my timeline that wrote off all of 2021 be seen as unrealistic rather than pessimistic. I want to be pleasantly surprised to see things get better by then, not drastically disappointed because I need to push the date back further.
I was born near the ocean and when I hear waves, it soothes me. When I see the horizon over a body of water it calms me. When I walk the beach shore, I feel like I’m home.
I love to bodysurf. I feel exhilarated when a wave lifts me into its crest. I love the surge of speed as my body descends the wave. I even enjoy the feeling of the wave consuming me when it can no longer propel me forward.
The ocean calls me. It speaks to me. It tells me that when I’m near, I’m where I’m supposed to be.
I went axe throwing for the first time today. It was a lot of fun. It’s the kind of activity where a little coaching and a little practice can go a long way. I really enjoyed throwing one-handed as opposed to with two hands over my head.
https://daily-ink.davidtruss.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/img_7624.movOne of the coaches showed us an underhanded technique as well. I was far less consistent with most shots going too low, and some too high, but I found the bullseyes a few times with that technique too.
This would be a lot harder if the target distance changed, they set you up at a perfect distance for one full rotation of the exe. But even for archery I do the same thing, shooting again and again from the same distances. I imagine that after 1,000 throws, changing distances would be easy to learn.
For anyone that wants to try a fun activity with an easy entry point, this is a great activity to do with your family.
Recently, I went to a higher end grocery store that I don’t usually go to. I went there because I heard that they put together a food basket I was interested in buying. After looking around I went to the meat counter to inquire. This lovely lady said, “I’m not sure? I think we do something like that, let me check.”
I followed her, and on route to where she was leading me, we passed an older employee, in a bright shirt with a Supervisor button. He was doing something with a small tablet device. The lady helping me said ‘Excuse me’, and asked about my request. The Supervisor looked upset and said, “That’s produce, you know I’m not produce.”
The lady responded, “Yes, I know, I just thought you might know if we have anything like this?”
“That’s produce,” the Supervisor said condescendingly.
“Thank you,” was her response, in an honest politeness that I’m not sure I would have had. She then led me to produce, asked, and it seems they no longer provide this service. The lady helping me apologized and asked if she could help me in any way, I told her ‘no thank you’, and that I appreciated her help.
Next I went to buy flowers instead. I decided to add a couple large Kinder Eggs (hollow chocolate with prizes you assemble inside) for the kids in the family. When I went to the station to have them wrapped, I was told I had to pay first. So I did. I then asked can I get the eggs added in?
“Oh, I don’t think they’d fit.” Was the response. So my flowers were wrapped without the eggs, and when I got to the car it took me 2 minutes to loosen the string on the wrapped flowers and add the eggs in without crushing any flowers. Simple.
What a contrast in service! The First lady was absolutely wonderful. She was polite even when her supervisor was a rude jerk to her in front of me. Whereas the annoyed Supervisor payed no attention to me as he verbally scolded the employee for daring to ask a question about another department. And the flower attendant couldn’t take a simple request without making it seem like I was asking for too much.
I wonder if the nice lady will remain nice in an environment like that, or will the ‘no-can-do’ culture wear her down? I wonder how a supervisor gets to the point where he thinks that behaviour is ok in front of a customer? I’m not going to find out any time soon, that’s not a store I plan on visiting again any time soon.
It’s 10:30 pm and I’m sitting in my hot tub. My phone is in a clear waterproof bag and I’m sitting on the edge with my feet in, to end my session. Usually I listen to podcasts or my book while enjoying my hot tub, but today I put Greta Van Fleet’s second album on and looked up at the sky. The moon is out and bright enough to give me a shadow.
It’s nice to see the night sky, stars, and moon since my last several hot tubs were all under rain or heavy clouds. As I stared up at it, it dawned on me that it is very unlikely that I was the only person on earth looking at the moon at that moment. How many of ‘us’ were taking a moment to look at the same moon? It’s a simple question with an impossible to know answer.
We all race through this stark, empty, and insignificant part of a truly vast universe on a tiny planet… together. The next time you look up at the moon ask yourself, “Who else might be looking at the moon right now?” Do this and the world seems smaller, more connected.
I’m current listening to a book set in the late 1800’s. The protagonist is a 17 year older girl in a poor neighbourhood in London. Life was tough, dirty, and inconvenient. It made me think of how much things have change since then.
After pondering this for a while I got to thinking about a time much closer to now, 2001. Just two decades ago, back when I had a computer in the back of my classroom, but the tracker ball was missing from the mouse. iTunes began, but no one was using it until the iPod came out later in the year. 2001 was three years before Facebook; Four years before YouTube; 5 years before Twitter; Six years before the iPhone. Paper maps were still the most convenient way to find your way around when driving, and my wife and I shared a cell phone.
This all seems prehistoric now. With changes that have major impacts on our lives happening so quickly, just imagine how different our lives could be two decades from now!
