Told ya I would continue it.

d. In what ways are you bigoted?

Because trust me, you are.

We all are. That doesn’t mean we are all bigots. A bigot is someone who consciously and openly has bigoted views.

And while few will actually admit to it^[1], there are plenty of actual bigots in the world.

But most people aren’t one. How ever, we all have bigotry in us. It can’t be helped. we soak it up through our culture and it ends up seeping into the deepest parts of our minds where no mere conscious belief can reach it.

We cannot merely delete bigotry from our minds.

All we can do is remain vigilant so we can suppress it when it inevitably shows its ugly head from time to time. And that means being honest to oneself about the fact that you, too, have bigotry inside of you.

And so do I. And so does everyone else.

So I ask again… in what was are you bigoted?

Because only by admitting that we might be can we ensure we are not.

e. Do you have enough?

Related to question A.

Do you have enough of everything? Hell, of anything?

No, right? And everyone feels the same way…. even those with far more than us. We are all programmed by society to constantly want more, more, more.

So is it even possible to ever have enough? And if it isn’t, what is the point of getting more? It’s just a short term treatment for an acquisition addiction.

And what if we did decide we had enough. What if we told society and the world, “No more for me, please. I’m good.”? What would happen then?:

Nothing, right? Words can’t change fate. And yet saying so rouses the same powerful irrational superstitious fear as the money question. As if saying we have enough would guarantee we got less than we could have and that is the worst possible thing ever.

And yet we wonder why even the billionaires are constantly grasping for more. Having enough is not even presented as an option in Western consumerism.

Name one example in popular culture of someone besides an Eastern religious figure or teacher who says they have enough.

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

f. What will we tell our kids when they ask why we didn’t stop climate change?

We’re headed for global disaster. Everyone knows it. The weather will just keep getting worse all over the world and eventually it will be more than our technology and our economic systems can handle and everything will fall to flaming ruin.

What will we do when all the food dies?

Billions will die. You are going to be one of them. So is everyone you love and care about, as well as your enemies, your acquaintances, your neighbors, your peer groups, your pets, and most of everything else.

And one day children who grew up in a world on fire will ask us why we did not o absolutely everything in our power to stop this from happening.

What will we tell them?: Because there was “nothing” all seven and a half billion people could do to stop a hundred billionaires from killing us all? Because saving the world would have been seriously inconvenient? Because we didn’t want to make it a whole “thing” that would be just, like, so much hassle?

Better start working on our answers now, during the last of the good days.\

More after the break.

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I almost died

Twice. Sorta kinda.

Let me explain.

But first : I am not trying to assign blame or make anyone feel bad. I just have to write about this in order to process it.

OK, on with the show.

We were on our way to the Sav-on at Ironwood where I do my weekly Sunday shopping. We had the radio on and we were chatting and laughing and life was good.

We pulled into a T-shaped intersection and Julian yelled out to Joe and Joe pulled back and put on the brakes just in time for us not to be hit by some large white vehicle that rightfully blared its horn while it passed inches from the front end of our vehicle.

Then there was silence in the car as we resumed our journey. Joe mumbled something about not having seen the lights of the oncoming vehicle and also said some other stuff that I don’t remember.

I was kind of freaked out at the time.

For the next little while, I just sat there in the passenger seat, feeling my heart beat against my ribcage as I processed the shock.

I was very worried that the scare would set off a negative cardiac event.

That’s what I mean by I could have died twice (sort of). The crash might have killed me or the shock and scare of it might have given me a fatal heart attack.

I didn’t say much for the rest of the trip to Sav-On. I was pretty mad at Joe.

I’ve been in three car accidents while he was driving. One was totally not his fault – some idiot teens decided to park their vehicle on a VERY busy road.

Another was nobody’s fault. One of those moments in driving where things happen at just the wrong time for everyone involved.

But the third was totally his fault. He pulled into an intersection early while going “aaaah!” all jokingly and ker slam.

So I felt that this was more in the spirit of the third one. But I am not sure. It all happened too fast for me to know.

But I still have a tiny touch of PTSD from the previous accidents. Sometimes I will be in a car or a bus and some vehicle will be turning in our direction or easing into an intersection as we pass in the perpendicular direction or passing us in the next lane and for a split second I will completely panic because I know the vehicle is going to hit us.

That was before tonight.

It’s bound to be much worse now.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.