I had cataract surgery last Wednesday. The first of two. Thousands are performed daily so I won’t be looking for get well notes. Easy, peasy. When I got home and the blurring disappeared, a most amazing thing happened. It wasn’t especially the clarity I was experiencing but a whole new blaze of vibrant colors. It was literally eye opening.

When I put my hand over the eye yet to be done the prism in the new one was even more spectacular. On the other hand when I closed new one there was a smog like haze in the old one. Almost a dirty brown. All this years there had been a very subtle growth of a lens that over time clouded what the world looked like. Definitely food for thought. 

I was elated by my new found technicolor. I was jabbering away even more than usual. High on life or some sort of crap like that. The feeling lessened a touch but not gone just yet. It is still very cool a week after. Ah, this should be time for one of my manyfold epiphanies. Not really, but a new appreciation for this crazy machine called my body does exist. 

Google your eyes to speak and you will be blown away by the complexity of the structure. Rods, cones, irises, corneas, retinae, optic nerves. Yikes. Who the hell figured out how to put this all together in the first place? Of course there is no superior being. We just evolved. Really?

The eyes are the window to the soul. They and the sense of sound are our ways of communicating and understanding. We look, we savor, we inspect, we internalize. Taking it all in and drawing a conclusion. We deem things attractive or ugly by a quick glance. The first impression is lasting. Unfortunately they can be  the tools of our bias and affection at the same time. 

There is near sightedness, farsightedness, myopia, crossed eyes and even blindness. Do they all refer to the physical only or perhaps those ailments too have a deeper meaning? Do we have rose colored or dark lenses? I hope that is worth thinking about. 

I got to thinking about vision in a more metaphorical sense. What has my vision of life been and what do I hope it will  be? More importantly is there anyone else with those same feelings? Not so much looking for kindred spirits but rather can we all fit into this world with so many variant views. 

We fantasize or at least I do. I find as I get older that some of those aspirations are not quite as lofty as in prior years. It is not a matter of getting depressed or feeling worthless but pragmatic. There is only so much we can do. More importantly some of those dreams are beyond achievable. 

Today we tell each other non stop of what you need or how happy we we could be if only? The elixir of the traveling salesman is just there for the taking. We paint endless pictures of what could be. The new car. The skinny body. The riches of a mansion. Faraway places. Why can’t that view be simple, bucolic, achievable? 

Unfortunately we are careening towards election time. Parties put together platforms that are more hail Mary passes than a cogent plan. We quiz to see the candidate’s vision of America. We get bobs and weaves and brushoffs so we really don’t know where they stand. You get the picture. 

Of course we have seers and prognosticators. In their infinite wisdom they know what is going to happen in the stock market or warfronts. Globalization is here to stay. The stock market won’t do anything this year. Russia will annihilate Ukraine. China will replace the United States as THE world power. Dewey will win. (Wait, that was too long ago. ) Is their vision flawed or a little too cock sure? Artificial Intelligence? Now that is a wild card one could not begin to define. Or foresee.  

If you have hung there with me on this one I hope I have opened your eyes to just a little. I am right there with you. The overwhelming result of this whole mess has caused me to just look around me. Maybe reexamine how I look at things? Is there another vantage point or even alternative route to this thing we call life? Maybe some adjudged schmuck who  really isn’t that bad after all? Maybe a scorned idea that might make sense? Here’s looking at you. 

As always

Ted The Great

Factoids:

Seeing is so important that it takes up more than 50% of the brain’s functionality.

The most active muscles in your body are in your eyes.

Your eyes contain 7 million cones which help you see colour and detail and 100 million cells called rods which help you to see better in the dark.

It takes just one-tenth of a second for people to judge someone and make a first impression. Research finds that the more time participants are afforded to form the impression, the more confidence in impressions they report. In the first eight seconds after meeting a prospect, the prospect evaluates your social standing.   Be on the lookout!

A true visionary is someone who can see beyond the common, the ordinary, and the expectations that surround them into the great possibilities of what could be.

I had to get an MRI for some back troubles that don’t seem to go away. Thank God the tube has gotten wider and brighter, so this claustrophobe did not have to break into cold sweats. A very savvy and candid neurosurgeon delivered the news. A pretty good dose of stenosis and disc problems meant we would meet again in the not too distant future. C’est la guerre.

The detail was pretty amazing and my thoughts wandered to what if we could give an MRI to this crazy world of ours or at least its inhabitants? With a diagnostic and dispassionate eye what would we find? Geez Louise, we have cancers everywhere. We have had strokes of a sort and torn rotators but somehow we have still survived. Battered but not broken.

There are some parts that are still lean and mean but it seems they are hidden by too much body fat. They try to break through but sometimes they are just overwhelmed. We should probably do massive surgery but we are not sure if the corpus would survive. Chemotherapy? Life style changes? Probably all of the above. 

Where to Begin? The heart or the brain? It would seem to me that large, underutilized muscle between our shoulders is the place to be. Most of us started too many years ago with a clean slate. Baby’s don’t have biases, prejudice or murderous tendencies built in. All of that was inherited not in a genetic way but through our parents, siblings and environs to form our personalities and preferences. I guess that is called upbringing for better or worse. 

In a scary place called adolescence we aren’t sure if this is the way you want to be. A thing called self determination wants to try out things for ourselves. Yet the guard rails of parents and society are flashing,SLOW DOWN, while our hormones are screaming FULL SPEED AHEAD. Dare I defy authority? Tough decision and this starts to define our whole image of self. 

I fear we do not spend enough time at this stage and never really understand its import. These formative years are rife with opportunity and oh so many ways to screw up. We are looking for guidance but also respect. You have some pretty good ideas but too often are shouted down or brought to a screeching halt by a parent’s or teacher’s my way or the highway routine. 

I have three wonderful grandchildren who started in college this fall. I can only imagine what a complex and bewildering place the college campus is today. This is where we have to go back to the MRI  and take a long look at the heart. That is where we fill our body with life giving oxygen or venom. The heart knows best but that damn cranial cavity keeps wanting to make wrong turns. Cholesterol finds a comfy spot in our veins and important parts start to wither. I think those are the eyes and ears. What? I can’t hear you. 

This is the time in life where we become more involved in society or less so. I had a strong sense of family growing up. I was taught to help out around the house or around the town. In college and after I sought out people for camaraderie and probably recognition. Being pretty sensitive myself I was more aware of other people’s feelings. I saw hurt and knew what it felt like. I didn’t look down on people but into them. 

I worry today the that we have become more and more withdrawn. It is about me and not us. We go into silos that get smaller and smaller in size and outlook. We become jaded and intolerant by not even remotely trying to see the other side of the equation. Discomfort turns to anger and then to hate. Hate begets violence. At that point radical surgery becomes the only treatment. Most will say no, I will just keep going even if it kills me or us. 

The other day I just thought about the rest of the world. Look around  at each item in our purview. The chair, lamp, rug, golf ball, car, or airplane we are riding in. Think about how many persons went into each object. The English muffin or egg we eat. Do we really have the balls to say “I don’t need you!”? I am omnipotent and smug. I receive and don’t have to give anything back. We don’t need a God or other world power. I am God. Are we that arrogant?

David Brooks in a wonderful essay last week talked about humility. “Humility is not thinking lowly of yourself; it’s an accurate perception of yourself. It is the ability to cast aside illusions and vanities and see life as it really is.” I would love to find that on my MRI. Are we humble as a people and a country? Dunno. I will let you answer that. 

Our world is not that different from our bodies. If you peek inside us you will find thousands of nerves, blood vessels, organs, systems that work in perfect harmony to keep us living and breathing every day. They help each other out when one gets hurt or disabled. They absorb so many body blows we throw at them and have to figure out a way to keep going. Ditto our big blue marble. Sad but oh so humane true.

MRI’s can be a great way to give yourself a readout about how good or bad you are doing at life. I wish we could build a tube big enough to put our world into it. Unfortunately  when we go into the doctor’s office we may not be excited about our prognosis. Then again it might be a great place to start getting our act together.

As always

Ted The Great 

Factoids. 

It takes about 3400 people and 900 robots to build a car. That is not including various parts and computer systems.

t can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for a person to form a new habit and an average of 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.

The human organism consists of eleven organ systems. They are Integumentary System, Skeletal System, Muscular System, Nervous System, Endocrine System, Cardiovascular System, Lymphatic System, Respiratory System, Digestive System, Urinary System, and Reproductive System (Female and Male).

Your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times. Give a tennis ball a good, hard squeeze. You’re using about the same amount of force your heart uses to pump blood out to the body.

Most MRI machines cost $500-950k

Most scans cost $2-5k 

There are 193 countries in the world with a little over 8 billion people. The US has 50 states, 3143 counties, 19,502 municipalities. Makes you feel a little insignificant eh?

The events of the last week are savage, evil, disgusting and yet another blow to a people who the rest of the world has had it in for over millennia. It isn’t  any different to what is happening all over our world from terrorist organizations, tyrants, dictators, thugs, gangs and mass shooters. Stepping back from this, is it in any way fair?

Fair is a crazy word with so many meanings. A ball can be fair or foul. A judge or jury can render a fair decision or unfair one for that matter. It can mean dispassionate, unbiased or impartial. We have state fairs or hopefully pay a fair price. For many is it an equal playing field or maybe it is just nice weather. But is life fair?  Intriguing  question. 

We are all competitors whether we like it or not. We vie for so many things. A game, job, girl or boy friends, notoriety, acceptability in society. In many cases one person’s success is another person’s failure. We can study hard, stack the deck, put our nose to the grindstone and yet not achieve the desired outcome. Were you screwed or is this just life?

Fairness is acceptance. I worked my ass off but didn’t come out on top. The boss picked an idiot instead of me. If I hadn’t gotten on that train or airplane or got stuck in traffic, “I coulda been a contender!” Maybe they are all true but it did not happen. There is not some Evil Doer that decides who wins and who loses. An ordinary event is the culmination of a lot of things coming together. We are participants but also innocent and helpless observers. 

The tragedy in Israel might have been avoided if perchance their world class intelligence had been more on the ball. This surely should not have happened in anyone’s worst nightmare but it did. It has been studied that the reason we keep watching newsreels of the raid, 9/11 or some off the wall weather event is not our curiosity for gore. We are praying and hoping it isn’t true and maybe somehow we can figure a way out of it. 

I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s. For the most part they were docile times or at least appeared to be. Maybe the less we knew the better and I don’t say that out of hand. I am sitting here in Flalaland on a gorgeous day. Is our physical world any different than 60 years ago? Is the sky, oceans or trees really different or is it just our perception of them. 

We now bisect everything into nanoseconds and millimeters. We have machines that control everything with infinitesimal specifications. We have created and aborted. We have defined every bit of DNA in the human body and now have the hubris to think we can change out the bad ones. Embellish and improve the good ones. We think we are masters and mistresses of our universe. 

And yet with all of this, bad things happen. Computers malfunction. Self driving cars screw up. Maybe not as much but it happens. You have the latest golf clubs but you still have a shitty swing. You have planned out your finances in detail but there is always the unforeseen and you are scrambling. I think the more control we think we have the more vulnerable we are to defeat. 

Why is it so hard for us to accept? You are not the only one who plays  in a tournament, has a brilliant idea in business or buys a Lottery ticket. There are thousands of people out there that are just as qualified as you.

You were not unlucky because luck is one of the more absurd concepts of our existence. Right place at the right time works for you whether you are meeting your true love or securing a job. It really is a matter of chance not predestination. 

Can you stack the odds? Of course. Wealth begets wealth. A highly paid lawyer can get off the biggest scumbag in the world. A bad one can get an innocent man convicted. We bitch and moan and whine but in the end it is just life displaying its randomness and yes callousness. If not for the lucky(did I just say that?) sperm club I could  be in a jungle in New Guinea. And so could you. 

The toughest part of life is reality. We spend so much of our lives wishing the past away. Sometimes I will toss and turn thinking about the many things I could have done better. Irish Catholic guilt? Maybe. But what the hell does that have to do with missing a putt in the club championship at Country Club of the Rockies too many years ago. Yup it is still right up there, center stage. 

Fair is defined by events as they happen, not our version of reality. Karma is a pleasant thought and maybe it happens now and then. Do I pray for things? Of course. But too often God is either looking the other way or taking care of something a lot more important than me. Try to hit the ball thrown at you. If you have to make a decision there is a fifty fifty chance you re right. 

I closing, bad things happen to good people and vice versa. In our wired world we really have to get that there is oh so much we can not control. It is what it is. I am going to try to enjoy life with all its pratfalls and speed bumps. Shit Happens. It always will.

As Always 

Ted The Great

Factoids:

A noted psychologist says there is luck…sorta. If you feel lucky and optimistic then good things could happen. If you feel unlucky you are probably down about things and in many cases destined to fail

BLAME GAME is a situation in which different individuals or groups attempt to assign blame to each other for some problem or failure. Not me brother. 

What we perceive to be the real world is a construct of our mind. In other words, we do not see the world as it really is, but as our brain has been “programmed” to show it to us. BTW you can change that program if you have the will and desire to do so. 

I do not want to appear glib about the Hamas massacre, 9/11 or any personal tragedy you might be going through. They are cataclysmic and life changing and my heart goes out to you. I can accept it as life but I am sure they will see it otherwise. God Bless!

We all are subject to a number of ideas, philosophies, isms, causes every day. We make decisions on what we hear, which may be no more than just mental notes. It seems important for the moment and then we go on down the road as if it is just another small rural town in our rear view mirror. 

I often wonder why we stop at certain intersections and take the time to look left or right? No play on words.  Is there something down there that is worthy of my attention? Probably not. Just forget about it and move on.  I have more important things to do. 

I do find certain things interesting but the blah blah and constant repetition of facts gets old. I don’t need to hear of Trump’s malfeasances or Biden’s Age or Taylor Swift non stop, 24/7. I turned on CNN just to see if there was any news and was treated to an hour on Trump’s indictments. Learned nothing. Ditto Fox. 

I try to engage in civil discourse. I want hear what you are thinking up to a certain point. I really can get things on the first or second bounce. I had a patient in hospice yesterday that kept going on and on. That’s okay. He is dying. You are not that I know of. KISS. Keep it simple stupid. 

You and I have passions. What is it? An interesting word. It can be an emotion, a love and even suffering. Huh? Yup, getting Biblical we study the passion of Christ.

Some of us have something that is so strong in us that we want to convince the world how great it is. Lastly even old farts can feel that feeling of love and desire towards your significant other. At least I hope that is where you are going. 

I have this crazy feeling that we have certain proclivities that go back to our childhood. You really wanted to do this or that because it was just fun. Trucks, dolls, bugs, doctor, nurse, fireperson. The sky is the limit. Of course in all our wisdom as a society we reined you in, being hit head-on by the reality that one must earn a living or get a good job  like a lawyer. Who ever wanted to pursue the legal profession at the age of 5?

Many of you will say you are too busy to pursue other interests. It takes time to get into something. It can be a little scary. We have never dared to think that way or consider maxims that are opposed to ours. And then what would people think of me? Sorry,I have to watch Thursday night, Saturday and Sunday football. Seinfeld? The Office? Golf? Pickleball? What is a guy to do?

Most of you know my interest in DaVinci. Not so much as an artist but  a thinker, inventor and even philosopher. Michael Gelb has written, “How to think like Leonardo.”

Reading it over and over is a blast. It gets me pumped up every time. It exhorts one to explore all your senses from taste, to hearing, to sight and smell.

Think about that. How many shades of green do you see looking out the window? Turn on the music and tell me it doesn’t get you going one way or the other. Smell the roses and a lot of other flowers. Taste a bit of food and savor it rather than scarfing it down. 

 Most of all it just gets your brain going. It just shows you how interesting your own little world can be. You are encouraged to question every bit of learning you have ever had. Not to toss it out but to see its validity or lack thereof. Start off your day with a blank slate. I dare you!

We are drifting towards the solitary. We like our own ideas and our own set circle of friends. In any outside thought or provocation if it is contrary to our way of life we turn it off. Dismiss it as radical. Instead of expanding our world we want it make narrower and ergo controllable. This is just the way we have done things. 

We don’t get involved because it not only requires work but also a bit of vulnerability. We don’t want to get shot down. We do not want to appear stupid. We have placed an absurd amount of importance to being right. That is why we can never give in. Never compromise. My way or the highway. 

I am most thankful for my curiosity. I have a zillion thoughts going through my mind. Probably ADHD or some other malfunction. I really don’t care at this point. It is fun to think and more importantly to dream. Of course I get sidetracked and have to climb out of my rut. I get down. I get pissed. I say never again. And then I jump right back in and get involved in some stupid cause or project. It keeps me cooking. 

Earlier I said I can pick up things sooner than later. I probably have bored you with my passions. But maybe, just maybe I lit a little fire in you. Maybe you might want to get involved.

As always 

Ted The Great 

Factoids:

There are over 250,000 patent applications every year at the US Patent office. I wonder if some of those are just to invent and not just make money?  

Spotify and Apple Music have 100 million songs in their catalogs, which does not include songs unavailable for streaming.

An estimated 23.2 percent of Americans or more than 60.7 million people formally volunteered with organizations between September 2020 and 2021. In total, these volunteers served an estimated 4.1 billion hours with an economic value of $122.9 billion Are you one of them?

52% of Americans report feeling lonely.59% of Americans say they have a best friend, but 12% say they feel they don’t have any close friends.47% of Americans report their relationships with others aren’t meaningful.57% of Americans report eating all meals by themself. Loneliest cites: Las Vegas ,Washington DC and Denver. Loneliest state, Wyoming. Least lonely. Wisconsin. Get involved. Reach out and touch someone. 

We have just returned from Ireland. After a trip like that I always have new thoughts and different resolves. It wasn’t just golf or touring. It was another of my screwy attempts to get in touch with my soul. Each time seems different. Am I searching for something new or just trying to help that old shoe fit a little better? Dunno.

The Old Sod is magical. We started in County Roscommon, town of Boyle. My distant cousin Sean and his wife Liz opened their home and their hearts to us. The Irish are that way. Giving rather than questioning or being standoffish. Life is too short to be analytical and calculating. Let’s just have fun and see where it goes.

The “farm” has grown since our last visit twenty years ago. Many more cows, bigger sheds and a big ass tractor that is on steroids. Gigantic! 17 year old grandson Glenn drives it like a pro. There is a jump seat where his girl friend rides while he tills the fields. They took this beast to town to get a burger one night. They were not alone. 

We sat in the parlor that first night after a wonderful repast that Liz whipped up without a fuss. A guitar and Jameson’s set the mood. I sat next to 91 year old grandmother Mae. She lives just across the lane in her own house. A cousin stopped by and the boys were intrigued to see what this Yank had to say. I just wanted to listen to them.

Ireland is one of the top three happiest countries in the world. That family thing is so integral to the ranking. Son Donald came back home after stints in Dublin, dairy farms in Scotland and New Zealand. There was gentle jibing and laughter aplenty. Mae made me sing a song and she performed a slightly off color several minute ditty about City Sue without missing a beat. 

An incredible Irish breakfast sent us on our way the next morning. On the way back to Shannon we got sufficiently lost but it didn’t matter. We were going from one extreme to the other. The golf trip portion brought incredible venues and places to sleep. From Old Head to Waterville and Tralee we battled the wind and crappy golf swings. You couldn’t help but be amazed at the vistas and cliffs that had been there for so many centuries. Man made the golf courses. God gave them the resources. Somehow we tend to forget that sometimes. 

 Adare Manor was the final stop and you could not help but be awed by the beauty and sheer grandeur of the place.  Same green fields but a different script writer. This was a mansion to behold. I can’t even imagine the size of the staff throughout but they do have robot lawn mowers. A tad incongruous. I tried to engage every server and they always had a smile. There was Esther, the matron who brought the coffee in the morning with a clever saying or wink of the eye. Do I have to leave?

The golf group left and Kathy and I were off for Waterford and Wexford and most importantly, the Jameson distillery in Midleton. There was the original grist mill for the barley and copper vats that were centuries old. The came up with ingenious ways to store the malt or brew the good stuff. It really is an art. There was lovely young lady who ran the tour. I asked her if she got a discount? She said yes and I had to ask her then if she would marry me? 

A stay here and a side trip there brought us to Dublin town. A city but not with gleaming skyscrapers but cobblestone streets and a pub never more than a few feet away. This is history without the patina. It is a tad gritty but historic and simple. St Stephen’s Green is right in the center of town with a different variation and feel on each of its four corners

In Boyle we had visited a restored mansion called the King House. It was replete with pomp and circumstance and a wall that kept out the starving while the glitterati danced and feasted inside. As we went through the National Gallery, they weren’t paintings but history in oil. The theme was the same. The Brits were not very nice people. Let me correct that. They were borderline evil. The Irish were boors and lackeys in their eyes. We scoff at their cruelty but are we all that far removed? Makes you think about our world today. 

When we got home The Divine Mrs K decided to turn over a new leaf and clean out closets. Ironically she found a leather bound diary my daughter Lindsey had given me in 1998. There were a few entries to kids and grandkids. There were thoughts I had over twenty years ago on a trip to Ireland. 

As I leafed through and read entries I am not sure if I was disappointed or heartened. They were philosophical about our world back then. They were full of things I hoped to achieve. Not a to do list but a yearning  for how things might turn out to be. I guess you could say I haven’t drifted too far off my game plan. I think that is good, isn’t it?

I have prattled on too long. I am going to write in that ledger on a regular basis. I won’t bore you with all this until I am long gone and somebody picks it up some day. Who the hell was this crackpot? I am sentimental shmuck who is Irish. I love the soul and I love people. With or without Jameson’s. It is a fun way to live. 

As always

Ted The Great 

Factoids:

The Irish will say something  is “grand”. Turns out that means it is nice but but not off the charts. If it is “brilliant” then you know you have hit the jackpot

There are more cows in Ireland than people. The people population is 5 million. It is one of the most successful economy in the European Union.

They export more than 80% of the goods they produce. 

There are incredibly strict standards for milk production. The stainless steel Lorrie picks up 1500 liters of milk every two days from the likes of Sean and others. If your milk has even a small trace of antibiotics the whole load is dumped and you pay for it. $10,000. 

The Guinness brewery in Dublin produces over 2 1/2 million pints of the brown stuff every single day. The original founder was beyond generous as he remembered his servant roots. He also had 21 children by the same woman.

Irish Gaelic is still taught to the kids in schools, where it is a required subject. Irish Gaelic is also still the country’s official language.

The Potato Famine in 1845 resulted in the death of over 1 million people from starvation. Another 1-2 million left Ireland including my grandmother and her sister who came to America by themselves at ages 14 and 16.

We are here in beautiful downtown Flalaland preparing for our journey to Ireland. I am fairly organized which is unusual. We will be visiting cousins, joining a golf group from Harbour Ridge and of course a trip to Dublin and the Bushmill’s distillery. I wanted to start off there but the lovely Kathy wants me to pace myself. 

All this should make one giddy and I am, but the world at large gives me pause. Pictures from Maui are not only devastating but haunting. We walked down Front Street in Lahaina a few years back. This was the heart and soul of the island and it is gone! Not damaged but gone. How do you come back from that?

I look at our political landscape with not only wariness but foreboding. On the one hand we have a choice between Biden and Trump and that can’t be good. It is not just the clash of personalities but such distinct schools of thought on what is good for us. I don’t have much faith in either side. 

We have many serious problems and I wonder where to start.

Immigration jumps right up there. We need immigrants. Hopefully we all know that. Smart ones and not so smart ones. Yet we can’t even put a pen to paper for a solution. It has been over 35 years since we have done anything. It is causing grief to every city in the country. To call it chaos would be too kind. 

Fitch brought a wisp of reality to our finances by lowering our credit rating  and it was brushed off as absurd. The Federal government spent $6.5 trillion in 2022 and took in $5 trillion in revenue. That is a deficit of $1.5 trillion. Our national debt is at $31 trillion. 

How did this happen? Probably a combination of factors. It is not just Dems or Republicans. It has been thirty years, of financial crises, pandemics, wars and yes, tax cuts. The last time we were close to break even was while Clinton was president. What do we do now? 

To get the budget in balance we would have to cut 25%  of every department of government, including defense, medicare and Social Security. If you think those areas are sacrosanct then would have to cut 85% of every departmental budget. And we would still have a $31 trillion deficit! 

If we had adults in the room I would not be so pessimistic. The right wants to cut taxes and the left wants to give more to the masses. That cannot work either but they have dug in their heels. And the village idiots go home every Wednesday afternoon only to return Monday. Ah yes we are in a one month summer break for Congress. We have hearings on the Bidens and Trumps but are too busy to get more pressing matters done. This is insane. 

I deal with people at the end of their lives. Many of them arrive at our door, beaten and broken. Not from thugs but our medical system. They have had chemo, procedures of all sorts, replacements, hospital care, home healthcare and pharmaceuticals galore. I honestly wonder if things are better or worse for them. 

That budget item called Medicare is only going to balloon higher as more people retire. Our systems of healthcare and security never could have imagined the implications of an aging populace. I wondered aloud if we should think about rationing some of this. Holy Shiite, did I get pushback. What was I thinking? I can guarantee you there is not a soul in any branch of government that wants to touch that third rail. Am I so off base?

The swamp is great at playing with numbers. Biden tells us he lopped off over a trillion dollars from last year’s deficit. That’s because it was high to start with. Tax cutters will  tell you it’s  great for the economy. Trickle down. Maybe that worked for Reagan but studies have shown people in upper brackets are not spending more but putting it away for their kids. I am not economist but I have had to figure out a way to make this work for the Kenny family over the years. Where are the gurus? I wonder. 

There was an interesting piece on NPR the other day. It had to do with Rust Belt cities.

The question was, “Why do people still live there?” At first I said because they like it. But upon further thought I really wondered what one does with a place that was built around manufacturing, or rail transportation? Now we can live off the government’s largesse and build convention centers or a new home for an IRS office but does this in any way seem practical?  

Now you are saying where is this whack job going with this? My thought is simple. We need some serious out of the box thinking. Not just dreaming. We allocate money to go to Mars and yet we have so much to do here. I am talking about grassroots revolutionary thought. Say the unspeakable. Think the unthinkable. Come at things from totally different direction. 

Elon Musk is part genius, part fruit cake. But take a look at what he has done. Not Tesla. Not X, aka Twitter. Look at SpaceX. They have blown the doors every government sponsored program with the likes of Boeing, Amazon et al. They launch rockets weekly not every quarter. They bring them back to land on a launchpad. They do things differently. 

Simply put I would love to see us look at everything we do as country and say is this really, necessary, efficient and plausible? That goes for everything including the sacred cows. We would need some creative and flexible minds. We would need dedication that would call for 10-12 hour days. In short we would need a different mindset for each and everyone of us. Note the emphasis on us not me. Ok I am out of here. Please come back. 

As always

Ted The Great 

Factoids:

Since found in 2002 SpaceX has had 254 launches,216 landings and 189 reflights. At 394 feet of height and 11,000,000 pounds of thrust it is larger than our Saturn V rocket and anything produced by Russia.

 

Over ten years raising income tax by 50% would bring in $13.3 trillion and increasing the cooperate tax to 35% would bring in an additional $2.2 trillion. Of course this would lower standards of living,GDP etc. This ain’t easy. 

The Medicare bubble will continue as more get older. Right now 65 million Americans are on Medicare. By 2060 that will be 95 million. This eats up 13% of the federal budget and around 21% of what we spent on healthcare. Healthcare costs go up around 5% every year. 

We have five air forces in our Department of Defense. Air Force.Army,Navy,Marines and Coast Guard. All with training, staffing, maintenance, and housing. Maybe we could start there? Silly me.  

I am sitting here in Denver, being held captive by society. The lovely Mrs K and I have found a new friend called COVID and we ain’t going anywhere. On the mend and probably a little pissed off, but such is life. 

When one is cooped up we think of all sorts of ways to amuse ourselves. The plethora of TV channels, podcasts, E books, crosswords and the occasional scotch will pass the day adequately. But then a scary thing happens. I start to think or should I say wonder?

My first bit of revery entails Kathy and me. For the first time in my life I realize there is an end game. At 78 whether it is 10,15 or 20 years from now. We have chatted about it not in a fatalistic but realistic fashion. This COVID thing has brought home our firm desire to not be a burden on our kids and their kids. 

Speaking of children we have three starting off at college in a few short weeks. What an exciting and probably nervous time it is. You come into an environment where you know few if at all. Everybody is sizing up each other. Who will be friends and perhaps soul mates? I have picked this place to be my home for four years. I hope it works.

Our world can be turmoil or opportunity depending on the glass theory. There is so much out there that makes for success or disaster. I hope we don’t arrive at simple conclusions. Our problems are complex. They require thought, wisdom and collaboration to resolve. Forget about blame on how we got here. Egos and mistruths are are distractions. 

It is interesting at this time in our world we are so full of know it alls. Whether locally or nationally the last thing we need is a “my way or the highway” approach. Compromise is a melange of ideas.  A little from there and a little from there. Whether it is EV’s or immigration we have this need to go all in. If you are right that is wonderful. If you are wrong you go down a path that requires a U turn and a terrible loss of time and resources. 

With these critical times I wonder about out ability to govern ourselves. It is more than representatives. It is bureaucracies, municipalities, hospital systems, companies, churches  and armed services. We have failed critical tests in so many ways. 

I find it hard to trust people not for their abilities but for their morality. We have been let down by bishops, CEO’s, leaders of countries, coaches and universities. Am I being too harsh? Can we fall back on ,”We are all humans “ or is there really a disconnect between our definition of right and wrong?

Conscience is a crazy thing. Depending on your upbringing it is formed over time. The wardens are parents, neighbors, local customs or laws. The prisoners see a very narrow road or a six lane highway. As you move forward it probably gets wider. You go from black and white to grey in many ways. Many of us go right over the guard rails. Do you take off on an exciting journey or wind up hitting a tree without a seat belt? Interesting question. 

The role of parents and family is so underrated. Psychologists debate the proper way through countless books and articles. Schools often opt for personal freedom before the training wheels are ready to come off. To this day I believe we don’t let kids be kids. Probably we are forgetting to train parents to be parents. It all seems like such a bother. Eat, drink and be merry. 

Money is always on my mind. No, I think Kathy and I will get out the door with some to spare. Our last check doesn’t have to bounce. I harp on what I consider to be obscene wealth. How much does one person or family need? The absurdity of spending thousands on a concert ticket for our kids or the millions for a work of art is not just an observation by me. What is behind it?

Why do we want stuff? We all do to some degree. Some out of necessity. I get that. Some want to pick up their spirits. I will give you that. But upon introspection we do it to look good. We want people to think we are cool. When I drive my Ferrari or tricked out truck down the street I want people to look at me. It’s crazy but true isn’t it? We are defined by other people not ourselves. 

We are social people. We like to fit in somehow. We want to belong but we also want to stand out. We crave creativity but embrace normalcy. I chuckle at how often I ask myself should I speak up? Is this idea too wacky? Is this concept unique or have 15 million before me said the same thing? I think you know the answers to those questions. I don’t have a social death wish but I usually say,”Screw it!”

My biggest worries are homelessness, education, immigration, runaway healthcare costs and our ability to get things accomplished. Not necessarily in the order. I get frustrated by inactivity and foot dragging. I try to do my reading and studying but when it is time to do something I head out. There is hopefully a fifty fifty chance I get it  right.  

These are a few of the things that are buzzing around my little brain in quarantine this Sunday morning. I hope you have many things in yours. We are a great country and wonderful world. I hope we all think about it a touch more. God bless!

As always 

Ted The Great 

Factoids:

A study showed we may have 6 thoughts per minute or 6,000 a day. They can be divided between positive and negative but the latter seem to linger longer and eat at us. We ruminate without seeking an active solution. 

The number of single parent homes has decreased slightly over the last ten year. These are predominantly female single parents. Fewer couples are having children. 

Kathy and I are just two of 692 million people in the world who have gotten COVID. 6.9 million have died from this virus.We have had over a million deaths here the US. Probably 1/3 of those could have been avoided by vaccination. 

Wonder as a noun: a feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar.

Wonder as a verb: desire to know something; feel curious. 

If you are not necessarily religious your conscience can be derived from evolution. Survival has taught us to band together to keep one another safe. Aha! Could this perchance be, Do unto others? 

This week I was getting sliced and diced by my friendly dermatologist for the umpteenth time. I keep waiting for him to run out of things to extract from my smiling face. First we have to numb things up and that of course requires a jab. I asked how many of his patients were afraid of needles?  The answer surprised me. A whole lot are in the habit of cowering. I decided to do some research. 

This fear thing has a lot of variables and sources. Some are real and some are imagined. Some are physiological and some psychological. There is an innate sense of recoil when something threatens us. The rattle of a diamondback sends an electric shock through you. Adrenalin soars and your hairs actually do stand up on end. Now do I stand there and act cool or kick my Hoka running shoes into high gear and get the hell out of there?

After the fact am I scarred for life or just a little wiser? This is where it gets interesting. Some of us will move on and others will never set foot on anything resembling the desert, a mountain trail or a tropical marsh. Kind of limits where you can go on vacation. The fear grows into a phobia and you either seek out a shrink or relegate yourself to your home or apartment during peak season. 

Let’s talk geopolitics. Believe it or not the machinations of Chairman Xi and Putin are driven by fear. Both countries have been through centuries of invasion and chaotic dynasties. The Chinese have put together this production juggernaut that requires safe passage for all those container ships full of stuff. If you study a map of the South China Sea the islands of the Philippines, Japan et al can create quite a roadblock. 

Russia’s is huge but its population centers are right on Europe’s doorstep. The terrain is relatively flat and the only mountains to block invasion lie to the west and places like Ukraine, Poland et al. All were part of the former USSR via the Warsaw Pact. Not any more. NATO scares the crap out of them and each time another country joins the worse it gets. Irrational to us but probably not to them. 

The most interesting aspect of all this is cultural. If word keeps getting out how nice things are in Europe, America or Taiwan the stranglehold of totalitarianism becomes that much more difficult. Then the only way out is to shut down all news of our evil kingdoms. Spread propaganda and eradicate anything contrary to your belief. I hope this all doesn’t sound too elementary because to deal with it we have to understand it. Farfetched? Maybe not.

Think about our own little world. If we were any other country we would be at least ten in number by now. We have the east and left coasts. We have the southwest, southeast, midwest and New England states. We have counties and burghs, neighborhoods and gated communities. What do we fear the most? Change! Some don’t want it to happen and others fear it never will. 

Conservatives say the nomadic hordes that are sweeping the country will ruin everything. They don’t understand history, tradition and the ways that have always worked. Look at their dress and their mores. They do drugs and only want to think of themselves as they figuratively rape and pillage. Repel the boarders!

If you are progressives you have made big strides. You have enacted new and liberal laws to give power to the oppressed. You have unseated titans of industry and challenged every aspect of government. You want reparations and justice of sort. But all of a sudden, some are fighting back. Clean out the bums. Take back authority. That all sounds pretty scary on that side of the fence too. 

Fear is necessary to survive. That is a good thing. It is also irrational in its worst context. It is visceral and in being so evokes incredible emotion. We have had pandemics, shootings, riots and raids on the Capitol. COVID hit close to everyone. The others were distant but then again so close. Block parties, schools, churches and parades are part of our ethos. Is anybody safe?

The saddest part of all this is we are often paralyzed from moving forward. We worry about our job, our kids, our homes, our future, our climate. We become more rooted and not inclined to creativity. Why try? There is nothing I can do. There is an aura of insecurity and hopelessness. That ain’t good for anybody’s psyche. 

Fear alters your sense of reality. We let our imaginations run wild. We see boogey men omnipresent. Sharks are everywhere. Interest rates are going to soar and wipe out your savings. Your kids are going to be abducted. Your wife is going to leave you. Wait, maybe that is not so scary. (Ha! I just wanted to see if you got this far.) We have lost faith. 

When we fear we are not in control. I guess it comes down to believing in yourself and all of us. The way to overcome it is to stand up to it. It is called flooding. Rather than hiding, you put a toe in the water and then get in with both feet. Hug a leftie. Take an old fart to lunch. You would be surprised. 

We are not weak if we are afraid. We are stupid beyond compare if we don’t address it. It has been around for millennia. It can be overcome but it really takes work. Try it! You’ll like it. 

As always 

Ted The Great 

Factoids:

Major fears. Spiders, snakes, injections(25%), closed spaces, heights, social interactions, public speaking  and germs. I am afraid of heights but skiing and jumping out of an airplane  have gotten me through that. 

Fear can be a pleasure. People like to go to scary movies, test their limits by skiing off cliffs or going to a shipwreck. Better skip that last  one. 

30% of the population now fears being murdered. 18% by someone they don’t know and 12% by someone that do know. Yikes

You can be scared to death. Although it is rare that surge of adrenalin can get out of control and damage your heart beyond repair. 

Around 30% of the people who died from COVID could have been saved if they got vaccinated. Who knows how many were afraid of needles?

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is on every corporation’s and organization’s to do list. I figured since I have such a broad scope of readership, I better make sure I am trying to educate myself. 

One of the main proponents in corporate life is McKinsey, the management consultant firm. There is a senior partner, Bill Schananger, who is their talent expert on getting and keeping worthwhile employees but more on that later. Several of my definitions are taken from one of their articles. 

Diversity is relatively straight forward (no play on words) and consists of different types of people according to gender, age, ethnicity, color, and even what they think. With 7 billion plus on this big blue marble how do you incorporate what each and everyone of us think? But I digress. 

Equity gets a little dicier. If you consider the word equality that assumes we are all created equal. As imperfect as that sounds we have been dealing with this for several centuries but I daresay we have not gotten it down pat yet. Equity is more complex. Your upbringing or familial fortunes may make you automatically better off than a person of equal talent. All interns are equal but if you don’t have to worry about not getting paid then you have a leg up on the field. Interesting point. 

Inclusion means all voices are to be heard with some sort of validity as worthwhile. I guess that means no matter how off the wall you are, you are to be heard and appreciated. I think this is where we create safe spaces in school. I heard recently that a child in school thought they were a cow and therefore could pee and poop outside. Icarus thought he was a bird in Greek mythology and you know where that got him, flying too close to the sun.

This inclusion really gives me pause. If we keep parsing down our identities in absurdly minute detail don’t we really create disunity? There are no rules. There are no standards. There is to be no judgment of accomplishment or achievement. It is not only weird to me but really smacks of an impossible dilemma. Is this what we want? 

Going back to McKinsey if we get everyone involved and proposing ideas then we will create products that everyone will love and be ultra useful. Because it has been created by every color and ethnicity it should appeal to everyone’s morality. Because the workers have been heard, they are happy as clams and will produce more and better. The titans of industry have seen the light and now shower everyone with largesse from their private banks and  the world will live as one. Huh?

Mea culpa! I am taking this a tad too far but is this the new B School curriculum? In a perfect world sure, but as flawed as we are how does this come to be? Take the glass ceiling. In my career I can hearken back to Wall Street in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I worked with some very smart and hard working women. When I put in for a raise for one of them the response was,”She doesn’t have a wife and kids!” I kid you not. 

This wasn’t putting females in places for window dressing. They were fantastic.I will probably lose my male ID card for this but I have often wondered if we would have wars today if women were more in positions of authority. My point is that if we can’t get the corporate hierarchy straight with regard to gender discrimination, how the hell are we going to welcome someone in drag to a corporate meeting? 

I am not in a panic but rather fascinated that we have all of a sudden on every stage, striven to be open, welcoming and yes demanding inclusion. It is not adequate for a school, church or business to say let’s talk about it. If you don’t do it at this very minute we are going to blow your whole idea of heaven out of the water. Just ask Target, Budweiser or Disney. DEI is not a topic to be discussed it is an ultimatum. I have never liked having a gun to my head. 

Do I want a black, Hispanic or Asian or a gay person to have a fair shot at a job or tenure as a teacher? Of course I do, if you have read me for a period of time. Have many of them been screwed over the years? Yes, indeed. But you can’t do a 180 degree turn on two counts. First you are assuming everything we have done and put forth over the life of our country or even the world is flawed and has to be blown up. I appreciate your point of view but I believe you are wrong. 

Secondly, you are now saying to me that I have to accept your credos whether they are white supremacy or rights for every sub category of the human race. Do I want to hear you? Of course, but don’t try to intimidate me or shout me down without a hell a lot of pushback. Today’s negation of any conservative thought on campuses is a bad optic for any thinking American. Is this where we are to learn or just be indoctrinated? 

I abhor the big ass pickups in the Sunshine State carrying Trump and American flags all over town. 63% of Republicans believe the election was stolen. They just won’t listen to reason. When I see speaker shouted down or disinvited at a major university I feel the same way. We have lost our way. 

Be inclusive, equitable and diverse but don’t jam it down my throat. Maybe instead of thinking about how different we are, we could study how alike we are or could be? Maybe that is irrational on my part but it is the only clear path I can see. 

As always

Ted The Great 

Factoids;

Gender is the way someone identifies internally and how they choose to express themselves externally. People can use their appearance, clothing style, and behaviors to express the gender they identify with.

A person’s sex is often based on biological factors, such as their reproductive organs, genes, and hormones.

Cisgender: Someone who is cisgender identifies with the sex they were assigned at birth. 

Nonbinary: Someone who is nonbinary doesn’t experience gender within the gender binary. 

Omnigender: Someone who experiences and possesses all genders.

Transgender: An umbrella term encompassing everyone who experiences and identifies with a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth.

I print these because I myself wanted to understand the terms better and there are plenty more. If you read me you know I respect your ability to do whatever you want. I feel people are pushed into things at an inappropriate time. For kids who have feelings from 5-18 of different sexual identification, it  is part of growing up. Some continue and some change. To use hormones or surgical transformation at this age I find objectionable in every aspect. If a child is having a difficult time as a boy or girl they might envision themselves as better as an opposite. As crazy as it sounds it might be an easy way out. They then find out too late that they were wrong. To make this part of curricula presents options that cannot be suggested after a cursory exam or discussion. We find the need to enable every thought or fantasy no matter how young. We want to shield every pain or discomfort, I just feel it is part of growing up to deal with difficulty. Can we really micromanage adolescence and young adulthood?   TTG

If you are not a golfer or fan of golf or perhaps live in a cave you have no idea the upheaval that has been heaped upon the big world of the little white ball. More importantly it has shown just how vapid the titans of industry are when it comes to principle and loyalty. 

In short, the PGA and the LIV golf tour decided to put down the switchblades and see if they could make nice. LIV has been throwing around a lot of money on a few stars and a lot of has beens. They have been getting nowhere in attracting a following and more importantly media and corporate backers. 

On the other hand the PGA was looking forward to endless lawsuits from a bottomless money pit called the PIF or the Saudi Sovereign Fund. Who do you think will outlast the other? Between Greg Norman and the country of Saudi Arabia you have enough villains to really piss off a lot of people. Jay Monaghan of the PGA appealed to the loyalty of the players and the hearts and minds of the 9/11 victim’s families. He is now running for Slug of the Western World. Should be a shoo in. 

If you don’t give a crap about any of this please, bear with me. The long shot of it is that money can buy everything from jewels, to mansions to people’s souls. We have monetized everything in the wonderful world of sport. Trademark bearing uniforms in every sport and perhaps even down to jock straps. You can bet on every aspect of the game from whether the next pitch is a ball or a strike or how long it takes to sing the Star Spangled Banner. All good clean fun. Ha!

And now the beauty of streaming. Whether it is the Yankees or the Boise Bears you can watch your favorite team on a myriad of channels. All the years it has been for free and the honeypot got shared by big TV and owners of the teams. We pause this interlude to let you know that you will eventually pay for each specific game. ESPN, CBS et al are only going to give you access through streaming for a monthly fee of $60-90. What a deal ! In short those gazillion dollar salaries are going to be paid for good old Joe Six Pack or your local gin mill. 

Let’s get off sports for the moment. Prior to the golf menagerie, I have been deep diving into none other than hospice. I came across an article a few months back on the role of private equity in our industry.

 Now private equity is basically a large fund that buys up a bunch of businesses in a field and streamlines them. They cut staff and expenses and up revenue. They do all this by taking out huge loans to both buy and modernize. When things really get cooking a few years later they sell the businesses at a pretty healthy profit. The American way. Always saying they made the industry better and more profitable. Not exactly. 

Enter hospice. Prior to funding from Medicare, hospices were charitable organizations funded by donations. Several were religious or part of non profit hospitals.

They were small and struggling and they had this stupid notion of being a service to the community. Medicare was a welcome respite from sparse funding. As time went on, a few people caught on the notion this could be a gravy train and more and more started to get into the business.  

Whether inept or illegal, the industry does not have a lot of safeguards unless you are big and then they pay attention. Stay under the radar and you can do just fine. Yet watching all these people make money caught the eye of private equity and they started buying. 

Using their SOP they jumped in and decreased staff and increased claims to Medicare. Aggressive marketing put quotas on finding people who were dying and signing them up. They roamed the halls of hospitals and nursing homes. They went out in the backwoods of rural America. They get a per person fee everyday whether the patient is seen or not. They use a lot of inexpensive staff.  It was and is a license to steal.

Now some may say this is just capitalism at its best. Some say they are making the system better. I say BS. Our hospice is  a non profit. Our margins are small and we rely a lot on private donations. We take indigents and tough cases that require a lot of time effort and yes love. I say this not to brag about us but to say this is the way it should be done. I find it beyond distasteful that investors in private equity are making money off people dying. Maybe that is just me. Private equity is the largest owner of hospices nationwide and are scooping up more and more everyday. 

I say all this because big money is into everything from rehab clinics, to treatment centers to pharmaceutical distribution. Just like golf and every other sport. We have created the mega wealthy set. All the players reap absurd salaries and fringe benefits. Now that is fine if you start a business with your own money and nurture it. But at medicine and hospice I draw the line. People, we are the ones paying for all this through Medicare and Medicaid. It is our largess that is so often doled out without oversight. 

I was talking with an old friend who is by no means poor. We wondered who are all the people buying mega mansions, yachts, and works of art? It came down to a discussion about wealth and obscene wealth. We really have lost our way when it comes to ostentatious behavior. I am not at all jealous but saddened. If we can make megabucks from people dying or healing the sick then I think we really have lost our moral compass. Again, maybe that is just me. What do you think?

As always,

Ted The Great 

Factoids:

A major owner of for profit hospices was recently fined $200 million for lack of documentation and questionable claims. Paid as a cost of doing business. There are over 5,000 hospices in the United States. 66% are for profit. It is a $45 billion industry. 

The CEOs of approximately 300 health care companies collectively took home more than $4.5 billion in 2021, according to a STAT analysis of hundreds of financial filings. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals CEO Leonard Schleifer represented 10% of that total on his own, pulling in an astounding $453 million.

Lionel Messi, soccer star is being paid over $400 million a year to play for Miami. Tiger Woods was offered $800 million to play on the LIV golf tour and turned it down. And all they do is play a game.

We purchased almost $100 billion of lottery tickets in 2022. Interestingly almost two thirds of that was spent on instant scratch off games. In 2021, the market size of the casino and online gambling industry worldwide reached a total of $231 billion U.S. dollars.