A few stories from last week

Observation and judgment.

I ride a train to work. My 15 or 30 minutes on that train is sometimes the best 15 or 30 minutes of my day, or if not the best, the most interesting. I'm free to judge, only for the sake of my own experience. The other day, what stood out to me were the white vehicles with the blacked out rims. The lifted hummer. The 1970's era hearse. The train I rode.

Effort into getting to know ourselves, others, and our relationships.

I spend a lot of energy trying to massage words and information that simply does not matter. I am creating wealth for myself by working towards a goal that no one shares with me. What if we could this kind of effort into understanding ourselves, each other, and the relationship we have with our surroundings?

Passion around ideas, love, society, rights, ideals, and complacency. "The grudge."

"There are books that are banned - there are books that aren't allowed in schools or libraries."

A girl I respect told me this on Tuesday or Monday morning, at work. My brain went into a tailspin. To me, this was like saying the sky is yellow, we drive dinosaurs. It's just not true. But more than it not being true, it awoke my inner 8 year old. In class, in school, when I was 8, they told me about banned books. They told me how people might not want you to read certain books, but it was up to you what you read. They told me about the first amendment and they told me about censorship. I understood that censorship was wrong, as an 8 year old, like most 8 year old kids do. We all knew that. I would have written about it on my 4th grade blog. "Banned books equals nazis" I would have written.