Ok Boomers, I was wrong...
...about many things
Ok, Boomers, I was wrong. Oh, so wrong.
Today, I am reminded of my bedside lamp. Months ago it stopped working. There were so many more urgent tasks to juggle, I didn’t get around to replacing the lamp, but its lack of illumination capability was an annoyance at critical 3:00 a.m. slivers of time, which I promptly forgot in the light of day.
This was not an expensive item, but bedside lamps come in pairs, so I either had to find the exact lamp, or replace the his-and-hers set. These micro decisions stopped me from handling the task.
This life issue was so minuscule I didn’t think to mention my dilemma to Richard, until the day I did.
“Oh,” he said. “Did you try replacing the lightbulb?”
I had not.
He did.
The lamp works fine.
I am reminded of this anecdote in my post-election fog, as I contemplate assumptions made, without changing a light bulb.
What else am I wrong about? What if I’m wrong about everything?
What if I’m wrong about believing in the Constitution, for example?
I think about my age (74) and how when I was in my 20s, 30s, and 40s, that age seemed ancient. An irrelevant populace of folks who should just move to Florida and play golf.
Am I fooling myself to think my life experience matters?
We tend to hang out with others in our respective age groups, give or take a decade. In my world, my friends, and husband, think I’m a tech whiz because I figured out how to use Garage Band to insert a musical loop before and after my podcast, and can create a website, first in WordPress, but now I’ve discovered it’s even easier in Canva. If you are around my age, you might be impressed. If you are much younger, and a digital native, you might scoff at this false pride in such an elemental accomplishment.
Ah, perspective.
We do not know what we do not know.
As for the election results, I’ve toyed with the same theories you probably have, but in the category of things-I-do-not-get, there is one HUGE question mark I have about something I wonder might have played a bigger role than we think in this election.
Follow the money
Under the heading: One of the Most Under Reported Stories of the 2024 Election:
Bitcoin. Crypotocurrency.
Peter Thiel, a huge J.D. Vance supporter, is a venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal. I don’t do numbers, but his bet on Donald Trump has probably netted him more Bitcoin value than the entire government budget of multiple countries. Thiel’s bet on Vance could run another eight years, or more if the Constitution goes out the window.
Elon Musk is another big Bitcoin guy. We saw pictures of him at Trump rallies, but did anyone ever really explore why? The only reason I read was that Biden snubbed him in favor of US Automakers, and he decided to support Trump out of revenge. Me thinks crypto might have more to do with it than that, under the circumstances.
Thiel and Musk’s wealth, based on a cursory glance at Twitter (X) posts, just leaped into the stratosphere.
I do not know what a ‘cold wallet’ is or anything about what this means, but I sure hope people who are a lot smarter than I am do. I do not understand how algorithms work, but those two sure do. And I’m betting that has more to do with the election results than anything else. Micro-targeting is a thing.
I am admittedly uninformed about Bitcoin. I’ve thought it was more a like a Ponzi scheme than a real thing. Or, like Tulip Mania in Holland during the time between 1634 and 1637 where tulip bulbs became such highly prized commodities, they’d sell for as much as a years wages, until this belief simply collapsed. Check out the 2017 film Tulip Fever.
As for me, right this minute, I’m thinking about getting out my pen and ink set and watercolors. Call it my version of hanging it up and moving to Florida to play golf.
Maybe I’ll create drawings and paintings of scenes from Lakeside Labs and put them in the auction we are going to have during the Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat next year to raise money for scholarships etc.
Save the dates: September 28-October 1. I am now turning my attention to this project, and hoping you join me next year. There’s a story in everyone - that is for sure - and helping others tell theirs still seems like an honorable mission.
Even with a burned out light bulb.
Here’s my new website made in Canva. I have a lot to figure out to make it better, but will in time. The Early Bird discount is significant, so you might want to consider this as a Christmas, birthday, anniversary, thank-you, Valentines Day gift.
Looking for more post election angles? Check out my Iowa Writers’ Collaborative colleagues:
: Waiting and Wondering: Auto Industry Paralyzed by Uncertainty: Can a sitting vice president win election to the presidency? : A Democracy Runs Through It: Election Day MusingsAre you a paid subscriber to any of us who make up the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative? If so, you are invited to a real time gathering on December 13 in Des Moines.
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You are probably far less "wrong" than you are "right". I know my values - and they don't fit with the election results. As noted by Robert Hubbell, it's a good idea to "take it slow" in terms of pinpointing why so many people voted for a felon who tried to overturn the constitution. When I hear words like "elites" as in "elites in the democratic party forgot the working class" - my response is - "trump never gave a donkey's ass about the working class and they have voted for him in droves." The echo chamber doesn't give a wider perspective on what tariffs mean, what losing social security means, what losing health care means. Pundits will espouse all sorts of views pointing fingers. People who voted for him have lots of time now to see his vision, or lack thereof, in action. The best answer I've seen so far is that disinformation was deeply effective - and getting the truth out was not effective.
I took a drive on some gravel roads yesterday, and took a few pictures of a barn and some horses and other things in nature. I am devastated by the election results in Iowa and nationwide. Part of me is angry at the people that voted for him; they voted against their best interests. That’s the hard part. So how to carry on? I’m a realist and believe I know what is coming, and it’s not pretty. I am reminded of the statement “When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross”. We just witnessed this. God have mercy on the United States of America.