From the US State Department regarding South Africa:

• Level 4 restrictions
• Do not travel to South Africa due to COVID-19.
• Exercise increased caution in South Africa due to crime and civil unrest.
• Violent crime, such as armed robbery, rape, carjacking, mugging, and “smash-and-grab” attacks on vehicles, is common.
• Demonstrations, protests, and strikes occur frequently. These can develop quickly without prior notification, often interrupting traffic, transportation, and other services; such events have the potential to turn violent.

Before we left:

There was concern. Many of the news sites did what they do, sensationalize and try to get clicks. Still, hearing of changing entry/exit requirements and given the fact that the current requirements were confusing enough, we thought there could be issues returning even if we figure out how to leave. We left anyway.

I’ll use the term township a few times below. Here’s a very quick definition for you if you are like us and didn’t know what they were. From Wikipedia: In South Africa the terms township and location usually refer to the often underdeveloped and racially segregated urban areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of apartheid, were reserved for non-whites.

Setting the table:

My beautiful wife and I have enjoyed the wonderful blessing of travel for a few years now. She coached me up from being afraid to fly over ocean to just yesterday (this was written while still in South Africa so please forgive these references)swimming in the ocean under a black shark flag. Turning to my seasoned Fish Hoek  resident while recently out of the water I asked, “What does that black flag with the white outline of a shark mean”? He turned and said in the most casual tone, “That just means conditions are too rough for the shark spotters to see the sharks.” To that I replied, “They’ve seen big sharks in the bay we just swam”?  Somehow more casually than the first sentence, his second was, “Yeah. Great Whites.”

We’ve traveled a bit, but even the tiny amount we’ve seen of South Africa defies meaningful description and comparison. It is a place where one can find themselves lost in thought often. It inspires contemplation almost constantly where my beloved Caribbean inspires umbrella drinks and naps. The beauty is indescribable in both picture and word. We’ve thought and said multiple times, “How do you take a picture of that”?

South Africa is also a country of extreme contrast. Stunning beauty and opulence far outside our reach paired with abject poverty and hopelessness developed and refined through obvious oppression over centuries. One of my favorite comedians Dave Chappelle described racism he felt in a southern US state as “stewed to perfection”. If that was a crock pot of racism, the racism and oppression here has to be a 5 course, 5 star meal at the finest of locals. I’ve been thankful for traffic twice in my life. The first was during the reopening after the worst of COVID. It was great to be on a morning commute with other people again. The second was yesterday. There was a police roadblock outside the Grassy Park township on our way back to our B&B outside of Muizenberg. This was not a roadblock like we see stateside where basically 100% of the people are stopped and checked. This was almost the exact opposite. Almost everyone was told to drive through. The line of cars that were pulled over were all driven by black motorists and judging from the conditions of their cars, all very poor. Our Cape Town former local turned to us and said, “Random you say?” It was the least random thing I’ve ever seen.

Downtown Cape Town (First couple days):

We gave ourselves a day and a half to recover from the jet lag and spent that in downtown Cape Town. The first thing that struck us was this crazy contrast. We landed in the evening past dark. No checked baggage, flew through customs and the rental car was a breeze. Travel becomes easier when media terrifies people through sensationalism driving reservations for some people we talked to down by 60%-70%. Anyway, driving into downtown was pretty normal except for the left side driving. We made it downtown and started to find our hotel. During this process, we went from driving down a street of a quintessentially international metropolitan city, made the wrong turn and found ourselves in Thunderdome. The transition took half a block. Open fires, people milling about, and two white tourists who clearly made a wrong turn in their rental car was not a good equation for us. A U-turn was instantly initiated and we eventually made it to our hotel. Note: “Right on Red” while a great idea in the states does not readily equate to left hand driving without extreme skill or stupidity. Luckily I excel in the latter with just enough of the former to pull it off.

The next 12 hours saw Stef get some sort of stomach bug and was hold up in the hotel. Being that I have almost no ability to relax, I decided to set out on my own and hike the closest hill which happened to be Signal Hill. Knowing nothing, I set out (see comment above regarding stupidity). Later I found out that I hiked through a neighborhood which is one that is best matched with white tourists and daytime. The odds would not have been as good for me would it have been evening. It was an interesting area on the front end of the gentrification curve. I often felt out of place and uncomfortable walking by myself through this part of Cape Town. The obvious reason was skin color. Mine was very much in the minority at times (as in at certain intersections I was the only white person). This was the first time in Africa where I really felt tension in myself. An inability to square my conservative world view with an environment that questioned it. Are my world views right? Wrong? Is there a right view that can be universally apply to post-colonial countries? Can enough nuance be applied as to not destroy the world view? That guy is glaring at me in a fairly un-chill way, I wish this light would turn, and a thousand other thoughts and questions presented with no answers.  The hike was nice, on the way back I saw someone with a needle in their arm and eventually made it back to the hotel with some stories for my sick wife.

Big animals:

We spent one night in Aquila with Stef on the mend. Again, the beauty of the mountains outside Cape Town cannot be adequately described or communicated through picture or video. Cliffs rising thousands of feet all around, rivers, crazy vegetation and baboons on the side of the road. We found out later that my wife was right and we shouldn’t feed wild baboons even though I wanted to know if they would enjoy pringles. She got lucky on that one. As we continued, the mountains fanned out to revel a fertile valley. South African wine country. I’ll describe that in the next section. This is all about the big animals. After the fertile valley we arrived at Aquila. A wonderful cabin with hippos grunting in the “front yard”, which if memory serves is something like 60,000 acres. This is a fairly manufactured event where the workers throw fruit and veg out a bit before the trips so we can “stumble” upon elephants and such. Still we saw all sorts of animals and some completely wild like more baboons. It is interesting to see lions from an open air bus a few feet away. They could have easily killed us all, but I understand they were recently fed. Good thing.

Wine and the worst poverty we’ve seen to this point:

Back to the N1 for our trip to Franschhoek. I saw this on the way to Aquilla, but Stef was asleep still recovering from her stomach issue. I turned to her and asked if she was awake when we drove past De Doorns and she said no. Again as with the stunning beauty, I can’t describe the striking contrast of breathtaking grandeur of South African wine country which in my opinion surpasses anything seen in Napa, that shares a property line with thousands of people living in sheet metal shacks without running water. On one side of a property line there is a vineyard with the grand gates and tree-lined drives. The other side is every bit 3^rd world poverty with tall fences and razor wire separating. If you wish, google “De Doorns South Africa”. You’ll see stories and pictures highlighting the beauty and the wine and make no mistake both of those things are worthy of much being made of them.  Select the satellite view and see what can be seen on the “Stofland Primary School” side of things. You may notice the street view from the N1, “cuts out” for certain stretches. Spoiler alert, this is where the living conditions appeared to be especially horrible.

• There is a sadness here. In talking with Stef and Cole it feels like just as the beauty is not describable there are problems here that are so big that they would require even bigger action to resolve. When talking about those big solutions, it’s amazing how quickly problems with each solution present themselves and make almost every solution a non-starter. I’m 20 pages into a book on the history of land in SA. In the preface, the author outlines a fabulously complicated and subjective 7 step plan for a fair plan to unite SA and provide some pathway out of the crushing poverty so many here endure. Most governments can’t synchronize traffic signals. Feels like a non-starter type of plan to me, but maybe it gets better.
• There is also a feeling of self-consciousness as a white tourist. I would like to have spent more time exploring this feeling while in country, but alas I’m still a US citizen and must return to work and life in the states for now.

Franschhoek may be as close to perfection as can be found on earth if you are white. Since my wife and I are white, we enjoyed UNBELIEVABLE wine that was crazy cheap. Talking $6 for some of the best I’ve had. The scenery was stunning. Huge mountains surrounding us, lush valleys, vines with new grapes starting to form, world-class food, English Premier League on the tele at a time later than 6:00 AM, and the security of being on the right side of tall fences with razor wire. The time we spent tasting wine, reading a good book in the sun and watching Newcastle United get smoked 4-0 won’t soon be forgotten. As good a time as we had, leaving the city and seeing the associated township with mind-blowing poverty is also part of that memory. Questions like, Are we helping to perpetuate this inequality? Are we part of the problem? Is being a tourist helping the country as a whole, or only making the rich richer? Are any of these things actually bad? Would stronger ties to a capitalistic approach help or hurt? Are we bad people for enjoying the “white” aspects of this place? Should we be doing something different? Is it even our place to be asking questions like this? and a hundred other questions bounce in our heads with no reconciliation or finality as we drive to our next destination.

Muizenberg/Fish Hoek/Cape Point:

We left Franschhoek and had a lovely drive planned along the coast. Taking the R45 to the R310 down through Stellenbosch to the coast. Then over to Muizenberg. We planned on taking our time and stopping as the views of the ocean provided their photo opportunities. As we crossed the N2, anticipation for ocean views was starting to percolate. We came over a hill, I don’t remember where, and caught our first glimpse of the Cape Flats. I’m not going to describe it here as with the other townships, I know nothing of them other than perhaps a bit of scale. What little I thought I knew about townships with regard to scale was redefined in an instant and I was back to knowing nothing, and a feeling of sadness mixed with some concern for safety. Our backpacks were placed in a location acceptable for wine country, but not for here, and the smash and grab concerns heightened.

I write this from the pool area at our last B&B. Colona Castle. This is less a castle, and more a multi-suite B&B with wonderful staff and a view that is again completely indescribable. Giant mountains to the left, giant mountains further away straight on and to the right. A lake in front with downtown Cape Town beyond and the ocean to the right. Oh, also a huge cliff behind. This is where we met up with the aforementioned Cole. He took us to Cape Point on one of our first journeys. Unbelievable views. The most amazing view by far was 10 baboons on top of a white SUV ripping off bits of rubber and windshield wipers. Also making love on the hood. While I feel bad for the owner who will return to their vehicle to find no windshield wipers where there were windshield wipers just a few hours earlier, scratches and defecation, it was also one of the most Africa things we’ve seen on this trip. I have a video.

We met a local family who Cole and his family have known for years. We talked and prayed with and for them. It was a wonderful evening. The Eastern Food Bazar was fantastic and something we would have never seen but for our friend. Many other memories have been made on this all too short trip.

Thoughts:

I’m very glad to have a few minutes to document these memories and feelings while still in the country. I don’t want to shake the feeling of sadness and lack of understanding. I have made zero progress trying to square my tendency toward the pull yourself up by your bootstraps US mentality with the in your face results of centuries of racism and oppression. We took lots of pictures, but none of the townships. It’s fun to try and capture beauty and positive memories in picture and video no matter how poor a substitute for the experience. Trying to do that with the townships felt disrespectful in the moment and triply-so thinking back on it. A picture or video could never capture any meaningful percentage of what these places are. As I wrote that last sentence, the questions come again. Why am I projecting the idealization of what I think life should be on others? Is that racist of me? Is this an elitist view I have? Who am I to think I have a single answer to any problem I don’t understand in the first place? and a hundred others pour out like a river with no good answer other than the answer for every problem in this world. Never before have I seen the hopelessness of humanity illustrated so plainly and the truth that the only place of true and lasting hope is in Jesus than I have in this trip to Africa.

To vax? To not vax? Anti-vax vs. Pro-vax. I had a conversation yesterday with people whom I respect who also held views that differed from mine. It was an exchange where each party simply sought to understand the other’s viewpoint and the reasons for it. Sort of like a free exchange in a marketplace of ideas protected under the 1^st amendment. In other words, the exact opposite of social media. In addition to being one of the better conversations I’ve had recently, it’s started me thinking again about what is good and bad for my body and what should go into it.

It seems as though the world has very strange lines drawn around what is legal (acceptable) and illegal (unacceptable). Picture these two scenarios.

Scenario 1:

A retired couple. The man wakes up and has a couple cups of coffee (caffeine) while catching up on the news of the day. Eats an apple, tells his wife “bye” and heads off to the gym. Pops an edible (THC) before heading in and doing 30 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of lifting; maybe a quick swim. He stops off by the deli for a turkey sandwich (Tryptophan), comes home and takes a nap. Wakes up and maybe reads a book or goes on a walk. Comes home and pops a couple beers or a nice sipping whiskey (alcohol) while reviewing his investments and planning short- and near-term strategies. Goes off to bed and with a couple melatonin (not an externally derived substance I know). Reads and drifts off to sleep.

Scenario 2:

That same guy at 45 and still working. Wakes up has a cup of coffee on his way to work. Stops off at Hardee’s drive through for a combo meal and a large coke. The work is somewhat sedentary with not much calorie burn. Lunch rolls around. “Insert Hardee’s combo lunch equivalent here.” By the time 2:00 rolls around, the afternoon drag hits. He washes his anxiety med down with an energy drink and makes it home. He plops down in a chair and watches his favorite echo chamber. He gets angry at what the moving picture tells him he should be angry about. He goes to bed anxious and frustrated. Pops a couple prescription sleeping pills and drifts off to sleep.

Which is healthier? When I think along these lines, it’s very difficult to think the 2^nd is healthier than the 1^st even with the 1^st including things that are illegal in some areas. Strange what is and is not legal in this country sometimes. I have a bias here because I’m human. I drew the contrast above to make the difference easier to see and not because everyone is one or the other. We are all a bit of both of course.

The more interesting question is what to think of this in relation to Christianity? The latter half of 1 Corinthians 6 offers some guidance even though it is talking mostly about sexual immorality. It does clearly state that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit as plain as day. What does this mean for a Christian asking questions about what is and is not permissible for ingesting in one’s temple for the Holy Spirit? What indeed.

We live in the country, well, at least by big city comparison it feels like the country. In this countryish locale we also have a gravel drive. My beautiful wife and I moved in a few years back, and one of the first things we noticed was the terrible shape of the driveway. It was recycled asphalt which is this strange crumbly black stuff that looked like someone took a thick gauge cheese grater to a normally paved road. There were very shallow trenches that held more mud than water when the snows and rains came and a straight up hole where the millings met the concrete pad that led to the garage. Being the do-it-yourselfers who we happen to be, we had a few tons of beautiful red gravel delivered, rented a skid-steer, and started smoothing, spreading, and shoveling.

It was a long weekend. For sure. But after those couple days the drive looked quite nice. The clean, red rock of our new drive popped. I still remember the first time I saw the house on Google Earth with the new rock. It looked great. The red made it stand out from the other driveways including the ones that were paved with actual asphalt, because it’s ultimately same stuff as the recycled version.

Fast forward a few years. It looks like crap. The shallow trenches formed again in precisely the same place they were prior to that weekend’s hard work and the bank account hit. The hole? In exactly the same spot. Maybe bigger now. Certainly muddier than I remember.

Seems even if you put lipstick on a driveway, or rocks on a pig it doesn’t matter. Foundations are foundations and they are hard to change. Is change even possible? Rarely seems likely.

   

One of the worst things about this modern world that should be flush with excellent amounts of information is that instead it’s become little more than echoing chambers of confirmation bias.

“Nearly 200 million cases of polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, adenovirus, rabies and hepatitis A — and approximately 450,000 deaths from these diseases — were prevented in the US alone between 1963 and 2015 by vaccination, researchers estimate.” -Science Daily

“The World Health Organization says a new polio outbreak in Sudan is linked to an ongoing vaccine-sparked epidemic in Chad — a week after the U.N. health agency declared the African continent free of the wild polio virus.” -Associated Press

The CDC, WHO and Fauci’s flip flops have been well documented. I tend to give them some slack. I don’t have much reason to think they have nefarious motivations, then again maybe I’m naive. Then you have the anti-vaxxers who do what they do.  Who to believe?

This whole ‘rona situation has become so politicized. People are being pushed to one side or another.

Some complain of potential limitation of freedom if documentation of vaccination is not provided. Many of these same people lose their minds if the idea of boarding an airplane or voting without documentation is allowed.

Others who are more on the pro-choice side of the abortion argument, my body my choice, tend to fall on the more restrictive side of the flow of freedom; seemingly very cool with the idea of the government maintaining and wielding control over the bodies of those who fall under their jurisdiction.

We’ve moved into bizarro world.

It’s starting to feel like as long as we are fighting with each other, we self-corral ourselves into our own echo chambers and recharge for the next fight. This seems unhealthy, but again perhaps I maintain my naivety.

I’m very thankful to God for the beautiful gift of science. A VERY long time ago, I had a tonsillectomy and I’m glad my parents trusted medical professionals to care for me at that time. I tend to lean toward trusting scientists and other people who are smarter than I am regarding vaccines as well. I take a flu vaccine every year, and I’ll take the ‘rona vaccine when I have the chance as well.

As for the problems with vaccines of the past, a quick duckduckgo search reveals the following with my highly clinical commentary:

Cutter incident (1955. 65 years ago)- Always the first one. A polio vaccine that had live polio virus instead of whatever type of science stuff it should have had. Causes problems of course.

Simian Virus 40 (Around 1960. 60 years ago)- Usually the second one. Another polio problem and probably a coverup associated with the CDC.

2017 dengue fever vaccination program. This was run by the French. Enough said. They should never be trusted with anything other than food and wine, which by the way they should be trusted completely.

RSV, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (1960’s. 55 years ago)- Obscure problem from the ‘60’s. 2 died.

It’s kind of hard-to-find other issues with vaccines. There are claims of autism and pieces of glass in other releases, but that’s getting a ways out there. Besides, I always look for the flow of money and who is raking it in. Vaccines don’t make manufactures much money at all. Never have. Anyone think ticker MRNA trades anywhere near $155/share this time next year? I for one will be shorting the crap out of this in a couple weeks.

One aspect of all this does interest me. If the hospitalization rates plummet, ICU capacity comes back to normal, patients are all receiving the excellent care they deserve, positivity rate drops along with the R value and restrictions are still maintained at a draconian level keeping abused kids in heartbreaking conditions, people in need of procedures out of the hospital because of fear and destroying family’s ability to provide for themselves; that’s when my views will shift in a direction.

Big day in the country to many, and that shouldn’t be minimized. In fact, now is a pretty good time to write about why putting hope, trust, and faith in things of this world rarely results in satisfaction even in the short term. As for the long term, eventually the actuary table of political efficacy for even the best and most well-intentioned politician fades to zero. The biggest problem my country now has from a political standpoint is that the idea of free and fair elections has been destroyed, but you already knew that. Elections in the United States of America now mean boarded up stores, violent voter intimidation, and legal battles to let lawyers and the courts decide elections.

Stores

Intimidation 1 // Intimidation 2

Courts

Sometimes Canada seems nice.

Take a quick glance in your mind’s eye at the world. Lots of countries and lots of organizational structures. Now think, at least in theory, of the ones where there are no free and fair elections. Violence, bloodshed and loss of life accompany transitions of power, and institutions rather than the people install figureheads (be they courts of military). Make no mistake, this is where we are in the US now and no D or R will change that.

We all know the arguments, and this list could be far longer.  

• Claim- Person X on the other side is bad and evil and will destroy the country, therefore destroy things and/or the system.

Result- The powerful are happy with this as it seeds polarization and tears down power structures that prevent them from taking more power.

• Claim- Don’t concede the election to Person X on the other side under any circumstances, therefore start litigation.

Result- See the first one.

The result and the people seeking it are always the same.

NOT TO WORRY! There is good news! If your hope is in this world I really think the US has a few more solid generations left in it even after we take a couple steps back from our Top Dog status (Think EU). Sure, we’ll have to continue to give up some rights here and there. It won’t be terribly painful if we just go along with it. The name of this game is incrementalism and we’ve seen it for years. We’ll barely feel it.

To stay in the temporal for one more paragraph, there is a way I think we come back quickly from the disaster this day will be. I think, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, it is #YE2020. If he can bring in real numbers and run in 2024, he could really shake things up in a positive way. If you listen to his JRE podcast, he has some system changing ideas in addition to being the most entertaining.

Even better than Ye? You guessed it, Jesus. Romans 10:13 says “…for Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

If you find yourself sad, depressed, anxious, worried, angry or frustrated about the election, there is a better way and His name is Jesus. If you are a Christian and you feel this way tonight, look to the hope that you have within and be comforted. If you aren’t known by Jesus, pick up a Bible and read the book of John. Think about your views on death, life, and where we came from and where we are going. Don’t let the distractions of this world steal your life in the now and the later. Your eternity quite literally depends on it.

#YE2020

I made a mistake today. Twitter was open on my phone for more than 60 seconds. Normally, it’s a quick tap, scan for stock picks or Norm posts, then off to a happier item like schoolwork. The lowest of low bars to be sure, but certainly better than what social media has become.

I could easily write about what sucked me in and challenged my apathetic approach to the news cycle, but it really doesn’t matter anymore. It will be replaced soon enough by the next outrage. Most insidious about this cycle is it is designed to feed off itself, and feed it has. Each story more polarizing than the last. Each one seeming perfectly designed to pit group against group. Human against human. Living being created in the image of God against living being created in the image of God. Groups of people don’t look at “the other side” as being Imago Dei, because groups aren’t. People are. It’s become easy to believe others are enemies. No longer simply people with different ideas, but enemies: not to be mourned when slain, not to be shown compassion when hurt or hurting, and to be crushed by any means necessary. I realize this is yet another post that will annoy…well…everyone, and I’m NOT trying to portray myself as a guy who has all this figured out. In fact, I’m the lowest of the low, often do what I’m decrying (in fact I’m doing it right now) and I’m a hypocrite, but I enjoy writing sometimes horribly constructed run-on sentences like this one about things that interest me, so here I am.

The US has done a decent job with elections over the past couple hundred years, but there have been contested elections in various areas and times before. Try to research them without strategic apathy. Information driven by “Just the facts” died with Joe Friday. The only thing left is articles of commentary. It’s easy to then choose our side’s approved outlets and enter our echo chamber and become further polarized. This makes it impossible to search for truth which almost always seems to be somewhere in the middle, so I just stop. I don’t know what else to do, but to just stop and try to not care.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario where the way we elect our leaders hasn’t already been destroyed. If Trump wins, the other side will not recognize it. If Harris wins, the other side will not recognize it. They’ve already said so. If the election process is destroyed, and it already has been, then what? Russia will be the least of our worries, and more germane to our immediate future will be the question of, “can we be a country?”. Should we be one? Are there stronger powers than even CNN and Fox News pulling these strings? I wonder.

Faith is a large part of my life and I can’t imagine looking at this political hellscape and thinking this is all there is. In the context of all this pain, exclusion, destruction, and loss of life, how much more amazing does Jesus look? The answer is none more amazing. He’s always been and always will be the best thing in the universe. To the 2-3 people still reading, if you ever want to have a kind, respectful, honest conversation about the hope Jesus offers, please reach out. I’ll be happier in that conversation.

Now off to school work…

It’s interesting to see so much of what is important ignored or even actively hidden. Trump has the ‘Rona. Biden has dementia. Ye has no shot, blah, blah, blah. The biggest problem facing this country that will take it from super-power status to one of many will be the buzzsaw of debt we’ve let the horribly incompetent popularity contest winners to run up. The D’s and R’s have coalesced. If Trump wins, money machine goes brrr. If Harris wins, money machine goes brrr. How does a country pay back $30,000,000,000,000?

It doesn’t.

If you look at the chart below, debt has been increasing over time. WWII increased debt because, war.  Makes sense. It’s hard to ignore the parabolic nature of the debt shortly after one of the R’s took us off the gold standard. Is this the only cause, of course not. Does there seem to be a strong coloration? Sure does.

I have no suggestions or ideas behind this other than trust yourself and your own work and raise your own awareness. The dummies are all on the same team which happens to not be the team we are all on as US citizens.

I’ve said before that Gen X, my generation, and ones coming directly after will be carrying a specific and unique responsibility. Gen X has adjusted between many fundamental shifts. Newspapers to the Internet. Rotary phones to iPhones. Grunge to whatever music is being played now. Our last negation will be one of resetting monetary policy from the unmitigated hellscape that is what we have now to whatever it will become.

There is only one person on some of the ballots that can save us from this mess.

#YE2020 . Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger.  I’m not even kidding anymore.

Words. I do not think it means what you think it means.

It is a painful thing how slowly I read. It is because of my slow reading ability coupled with the subject matter that has caused me to be only half-way through the book I’ve been reading forever, The Gulag Archipelago. This is one messed up book and not one I can simply read for all that long without missing the weightiness of the prose. After spending any time at all reading this important work, denying the existence of evil, pure evil, quickly becomes impossible. The twentieth century was soaked in blood. Drenched. Flowing from most continents in tremendous volume. Like a well spun spider’s web, the individual stories of atrocities seem endless as they are interconnected. How does one describe evil in 2020? Hyperbole has become common vernacular, and we are all less safe because of it.

This strange exploration of evil has landed in the early twentieth century. One of the chapters I just read today documented some accounts of the plight of women in Stalin’s Gulags. Horrific. My next book will likely be on Unit 731, and it is gut wrenching stuff. Things that will elicit a physical reaction at the description of depravity to which man will sink. Human vivisection without the simple mercy of anesthetic for example. Schindler’s List popped up on my Netflix account, so I went through that 3 hours of documented horror for good measure today. While watching I recalled walking through the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem a few months back observing the crushing progression from ghetto to concentration camp to extermination performed on many by the Nazis.

One of the worst things that will come from the past 5 years will be our collective inability to describe evil. Racist now means “jerk”. Nazi now means, “someone with whom I disagree politically”. To highlight this absurdity, I will recall a story I read in Jerusalem. As the Nazis were rounding up Jews in Poland and moving them into the ghettos, it was not uncommon for them to pick up toddlers by the ankles and slam their skulls into concrete walls then fling their lifeless bodies down on the sidewalk in front of their mothers. One example of endless, and in 2020 akin to voting for someone with an “R” after their name. No difference whatsoever. The Japanese were performing unspeakable atrocities on innocent Chinese. Removing the stomach and connecting the esophagus directly to the small intestine and subjecting “logs” as they were called to such extreme frostbite as to wait until their limbs sounded like a bit of wood when struck with a hammer to see how much the body could take in preparation for fighting the Red Army in the frigid northern latitudes. Because I’m aware it is 2020, it must be said that this list of evil is not meant to constitute the entirety of all the evil that has ever been. Simply what I’m reading now. I’m sure Matt Damon’s character in Good Will Hunting would have me read other things, and I will eventually.

But then again, history has never, ever, repeated itself, so not being able to accurately describe evil shouldn’t be an issue. I’m sure that it won’t be.

Sometimes it’s easy to realize a limit or boundary without looking for it. If I try to make the Denver Nuggets with the dream of dunking on a 7’ center in my first game, that won’t happen, EVER. This is also an example of why people who say things like, “always chase your dreams and never give up” may not be giving the best advice. Some dreams will only ever be realized in that sweet expanse of possibility known as imagination. Now there are those things that are well outside an individual’s comfort zone, but may not be entirely impossible. These seem to be the things worth pushing toward. So rather than working on my reverse dunk, I took my first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class at 6 AM this morning.

I rolled up to the place early. I don’t know if it’s a gym, dojo, or just a place. Also, I’ve been able to figure out the word “roll” is integral in the lingo. Anyway, somehow my water spilled in my bag as I pulled it from the back seat to my lap while waiting for the doors to open and I proceeded to spill water all over myself. So I had that going for me. The professor loaned me a gi and helped my tie my belt and warm ups started. After being last to finish EVERY SINGLE drill, my belt was a disaster, my right hip was barking loud, was out of breath, and quickly realized class really hadn’t even really started yet. I did make it through the warm-up though.

Already tired we begin to do close guard drills focusing on a simple throw and a couple variations on a choke submission. Everyone rolls with everyone to include a roughly 13 year old young man. There I am with underwear still wet, belt tied like a moron, and preparing to try and submit a junior high school individual. As we move into position I jokingly ask, “Now you are going to take it easy on me, right?” his reply, “Maybe”.

Not much resistance since we are working on learning the technique. I get my right forearm on the right side of his neck, and my left on his left. I rotate my wrists and pull him close to apply pressure on those arteries and veins. I feel a little bad, but I also feel a little like Kramer when he dominated in that episode of Seinfeld. As I wait for my opponent to tap, he says with a confident smirk, “A bit more…” I cranked his neck almost as hard as I could, and was able to get a tap more of a conciliatory nature than anything else. Soon after, class ended. Zero doubt in my mind that young man is going places.

Some objective measures: I started off with a wet crotch, was thoroughly exhausted, highlighted how weak and out of shape I am, was handily choked by a female half my size, taunted by a jr. high schooler, was “that guy” in the warm-ups, thrown multiple times by sizeable fellows, popping Ibuprofen by 7:15 and trying to stretch the pain away at work. To top everything else off, my seat in the car was still soaked so I had a wet butt as I walked into the hospital to start the next part of my day.

I can’t wait to go back.