Day 137 - conclusion and maybe redemption

Today is the 5th day of the 20th week, the 18th day of the 5th month, the 137th day of 2023, and:

• Brown Bag It Thursday
• Buy A Musical Instrument Day - in honor of the creator of The Music Man
• Day of Remembrance of Crimean Tatar Genocide
• Global Accessibility Awareness Day
• I Love Reese's Day
• International Museum Day
• Mother Whistler Day
• National Aperitif Day
• National Cheese Soufflé Day
• National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day
• National No Dirty Dishes Day
• National Notebook Day
• National Speech Pathologist Day
• National Visit Your Relatives Day
• Send an Electronic Greeting Card Day
• World AIDS Vaccine Day

Quote of the day:

“Nothing pleases people more than to go on thinking what they have always thought, and at the same time imagine that they are thinking something new and daring: it combines the advantage of security and the delight of adventure.”

~ T S Eliot, an English poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic, and editor.   

One thing that I have noticed in the responses I get on posts I make on social media, is the kneejerk reaction of a closed mind is to first claim that the information presented is not "real" and then to actively engage in "whataboutism".  The result is not a discussion, but an increasingly acrimonious exchange of differing points of view that I will attempt to bring to a close with the bald statement of "you believe what you want."  For some reason, this usually excites further discussion in which I am told that it isn't a belief but a fact [so sorry, what you or I think or believe does not constitute a fact]  or that I am refusing to question my own perspective.  

The fact that I cannot find common ground enough to even have a discussion where we can agree to disagree troubles me greatly.   And so, I keep reading the posts, and hoping that at some point we can reach a shared reality.  Thus far, I haven't been successful and I am beginning to think I never will.  But I keep trying, thinking if one person can reach one other person, then maybe as a nation we can slowly knit back together again and we can redeem/heal the whole political system

Oh, and I made a small step for my personal redemption as well.  I hadn't taken the cone out of the trunk where I sequestered it yesterday morning, because I was already feeling regret.  And, after pondering my actions during the evening, I decided before I went to bed that I would return the traffic cone to the place where I took it.  So, this morning I backed into a parking space next to the two other stacked cones, opened the trunk, then put the third cone back on top - and then I went into Starbucks and picked up my order.  

Like Pippin, a thief, but an honest thief, I remain.