It is 7:38 AM on Sunday morning on the 26th of September 2021.
I’ve often written that life had sped up an an incredible pace once I reached the mid-30s. Well now it is about three times the speed it was and months really do pass as quickly as I perceived days to pass when I was a child. Pre-COVID the quick passage of time could be blamed on “being busy.” It seemed as though the entire world was ‘busy’ but perhaps it really was more-so here in the USA given a culture centered around money as well as endless work, activity and diversions.
COVID really helped slow down this insanity but it seems that it did not slow down time. The days and months blurred together with no clear markers separating one day from the next as everyone was mostly staying home. The nature of my work also changed. Before it was visiting customers and driving business through face to face meetings. Now, in the absence of personal contact the amount of internal work has increased immensely with reporting requirements and internal meetings. Most people with work like mine are ready to get back out to in-person meetings. We’re not really the type of people who enjoy desk jobs.
In the past couple of weeks we’ve seen somewhat of a return to normality with the kids back in school as well as the karate dojo opening back up. Life has begun to look somewhat like it did pre-pandemic.
Yet, 2019 is gone and the USA continues to go through major changes. Our democracy really is on the cliff’s edge with half the population supporting Trump who really does want to be a dictator. From inciting a riot which left police dead, to putting targets on the backs of Asian Americans, to spreading lies and misinformation about COVID which has left more Americans dead than the Vietnam war or the Spanish flu, the bleating of his sheep seems to only get stronger.
Directly due to Trump and his supporters with their anti-mask and anti-vaccination idiocy, the nation continues to limp through the virus. They wave American flags yet kill Americans with their stupidity. What I believe is not truly realized yet is that America has been irrevocably damaged by all of this. I’ve lost friends and there are even family members I no longer want to contact with. I see a nation on the brink where our entire political system could fail if Trump wins the next election. What was unthinkable only a few years before is now a possibility.
The volatility we’ve experienced in social and political unrest is only going to increase. Given that Trump and his tribe are seriously weakening the country through division as well as destroying America’s international relationships, I see other powers such as China and Russia being able to make even bolder moves and thus the potential for conflict increases.
Therefore, for me the way to navigate all of this is to think globally. This means decentralization of money (cryptocurrency), decentralization of information and the ability to move and live in another country. True freedom means not being tied down in any fashion whether than be monetarily, physically or mentally. Unfortunately, decentralization only solves part of the problem. There is so much noise, so much confusion and decentralization only amplifies this. Which information sources do I pay attention to? Which cryptocurrencies do I put my money in? We’re in a period of great change and it is difficult to divine what the future may hold.
