(After completing everything you see above, I thought to myself 'man, there's a slight possibility that my dad might see a link to this blog post on my facebook. If so, he might think that the post is about him -- as it is titled "dad of the year". Afterall, it IS is birthday today. How sad for him to see the link, think it's about him, and then find out it's not.' In an attempt to prevent that, I've added a part 2 below.)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!
(What a handsome man. Good work, mom.)
:)
I truly would call you the "dad of the year" but that would just be silly, as you'd win it every year.
I love you and I miss you and I hope your birthday is full of friends, good food, and most importantly... good whiskey.
I have never considered (and may never consider) myself politically motivated. Politics confuse and frustrate me and my gut reaction is not to invest time in understanding it, but instead to almost ignore it. Not honorable, but it has so far been my way. My understanding of politics (the campaigning, the decision making, the budget distribution, the national debt, our involvement in the affairs of other countries and what motivates it), is that it's all incredibly complex. It constantly reminds me that there is no such thing as a quick fix, or even a right answer. What upsets most people about philosophy is the same thing that upsets me about politics.
We keep asking the same questions and stumbling upon the same problems decade after decade and rarely can we carve away at the issue delicately enough and diligently enough to find a solution.
Or maybe we do find one. But fast-forward a few years and what once seemed like the perfect solution becomes the new issue at hand.
I wish political decision making could be based purely on moral grounds. Some people might say they are, at their roots. But that's a tough pill for me to swallow. There is too much money, bribery, scandal, and ego involved. (I'd like to clarify: I realize that even if decisions were made purely with the intent of moral soundness, we would still be caught with our heads spinning because there are as many core, moral beliefs as there are slow, aimless wanderers in my path on the streets of NYC when I'm running late to catch the train to work. But I'll leave that qualm for another post.)
I'm still not sure if things are truly as complex as they seem, or if the outlets from which I observe "politics" are more distracting than they are helpful to someone like me.
That's enough of my brief tirade. I guess it's more of a rant. Or even just a concern. I'm too timid to really deliver a tirade, even on the internet.
This is the video that got me thinking about everything written above:
I've never been the biggest dreamer. And I worry that most everyone else is the same way.
All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night
