MacGreg

Happy Friday, DiCsters.

I caught you too late with my PM. No matter, I'm sure you'll have a good time.

Yeah, I know, I just jumped ahead a bunch of chapters. My bad. I only clicked here to take a quick peek and ended up reading it through, because it sucked me right in. Excellent chapter.

Wow, that's quite an eye-opening example of just how detrimental casting judgement can be. I imagine in law enforcement it's extra challenging, because you recognize signs of behavior that follow a pattern.

Currently, I'm working on rearranging my perspective on the homeless camps set up along the river I jog down every morning. Each day, there's a new addition to the ever-growing mess, and each day, I feel agitated. So, that's my personal project at the moment - investing in more productive thoughts on how to help the growing homeless population in my city rather than just being upset by their encroachment on my personal space.

Take full advantage of your opportunity to rest and heal.

That's a good visual.

Good afternoon, everyone. It's a great day here. Hope it is where you are.

People judge me and my lifestyle erroneously all the time. I don't want to do the same. I want to be mindful in my thoughts and interactions with others - especially with people whose motives I don't initially understand. Everyone has a story. Everyone is human. We're all interconnected. Might as well try to find common ground with each other.

Recently, I've been delving into the philosophy of Stoicism - an ancient Greek philosophy that teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions. It refers to living in the moment, retaining emotions, but using logic, clear judgment and inner calm to express and react rather than anxiety and fear. I am guilty of being judgmental. It's something within myself that I work on daily. I no longer want to jump to conclusions or assume a situation is the way it is because it appears to be a certain way to me. There are two sides to every story. I want to approach life with more compassion, less cynicism. Below is a piece from The Daily Stoic, an online community dedicated to the Stoic philosophy. It hit straight home for me this morning. Maybe it will enlighten you, too. We live in a culture where people sit on the sidelines and pass a lot of strong judgements. We look at people we don’t know and decide whether they’re good or bad people. We look at complicated situations and difficult projects and cleanly label them successes or failures—despite having little understanding of what went on behind the scenes. We take an instance of behavior or a tiny interaction—the way someone talked to us at the grocery store or a decision that they made—and extrapolate out who that person is and what motivates them. As we’ve talked about before, the result of these snap judgements is not just misery for us, but an overwhelmingly negative view of humanity and of the world. It’s no way to live. Which is why when you feel that urge to decide—as an outsider or an observer—that you know who someone is or what it means, you should stop yourself. Stop yourself and consider this prompt from Epictetus: “Until you know their reasons, how do you know whether they have acted wrongly?” What Epictetus is not saying is that you should sit there and try to think about why Hitler and Stalin murdered so many people. He’s not saying that right and wrong are relative and that truly awful things can be excused. He’s saying, in the vein of Socrates, that we need to take a minute and really think about what we don’t know in a situation. We need to consider that, with the exception of mental illness, (which is its own kind of reason), most people have a logic for their actions—and that logic is usually not to try to hurt you or anyone else. They are just doing the best they can. David Foster Wallace speaks about this in his famous “This is Water” speech, after several allusions to his frustration with bad drivers: It's not impossible that some of these people in SUVs have been in horrible auto accidents in the past and now find driving so traumatic that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive; or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he's trying to rush to the hospital, and he's in a way bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am—it is actually I who am in his way. And so on. You don’t know that someone acted wrongly or is an asshole or that they totally screwed a situation up, because you don’t know the full story. You don’t know their reasons or their side of things. And what do the Stoics tell us to do when we don’t have all the facts about something? They tell us to suspend judgement.

Hope all is well, A.

Steel your resolve and confront away. Other people need to be shown the bigger picture of what's required of them, when, and why. you got this, girl.

It's a wonderful haiku, Wayne.

Thank you for coming by to read, jp. I appreciate that you've been supporting this story for so long. you're quite right about Travis being Ben's strength - and vice versa. Many people will see/learn that they make a formidable pair. Hopefully, they will realize it themselves! Cheers, my boy.

Happy Monday, subs and DiCsters. Challenging day for me with a sub call-off (subcontractor, that is) but I'm making the best of it. Allowing myself a lunch break at the moment. Hope you all are well.

Homecoming can be bittersweet, especially when you've been away for a while in the big city, and your family doesn't know how much you're struggling - or, in Wren's case - that you're gay. But his mother gave him a nice 'welcome home', and Wren has the opportunity to revisit and reconnect with his home town and his past. Including people he left behind. Another great chapter, Wayne.

Good!

It's unfortunate that you have to be subjected to ridicule from readers who obviously admire you as a writer and love your work but are too selfish to appreciate your right to express creativity in the way you choose. Keep doing what inspires you and f*ck those who can't be decent towards you. Perhaps one positive take-away from this experience is that you've developed a faithful readership, and some of those readers feel so passionate about your stories that they can't help but voice their disdain when something doesn't go their way. As the adage goes: you can't please everybody all of the time.

Sounds good! Enjoy.

Have a good day, molly.

Good morning, subs and DiCsters. For those who celebrate: Happy Easter. I'm still waking up.

It's been a fun ride, so far. Let's see if they can keep the momentum going. I think they might actually have a chance this year.

Thank you, Reader. You, as well!

And here's a couple *smacks* for you.

Enjoy your evening, tim. Please give my regards to Mike.