Fun fact of the day:
Locke is of old English and old German origin meaning woods, fortified place, or pond.
Little change here:
So 99% of the time, as you may have noticed over the years, I have been known to use the tools of sarcasm, irony, humor etc to make my point. It's a skill, if such a thing can be considered a skill.
But real talk for a second, whatever your feelings about things are, the world we're in is suffering right now in a number of ways. Most of them we've found ways to rationalize or live with the reality that we've lived in. This one has changed life so completely that at least for me, I've looked at literally almost every aspect of life wondering "What can an ordinary guy like me do to make anything better?"
That has been a tough question to answer. I'm not a medical professional like moonpod. I'm not working in a public place, so I deserve no kudos for that other than that we're OK financially, though not so OK that we could make a major financial impact for the people who need it. I can't really volunteer in a medical way cause even in good health, I hate to be in a doctor's office or hospital for any reason unless I absolutely need it for myself.
Generally speaking in public, I've always tried to be at the very least, respectful to all people who work in some shitty job that are providing a service to me. But tending towards frugality, I've never really been what you'd call a great tipper. Given our decent but not ridiculous income situation, I tip the standard 15% unless someone the service was rude or actively bad in some way (no server will ever suffer for a slow kitchen from me as long as they keep me advised). But have I ever really done anything in any meaningful way to make those folks' lives better?
Not really. Not in any way that would make me feel like I performed an act of good, other than thinking of them as human beings deserving basic human rights and respect.
Given the economic realities of the current situation, I've tried to change that some by tipping in literally every takeout situation as if I was in a restaurant. Plus the extra thank yous and appreciation for putting themselves in harm's way. And that at least made me feel like at least I wasn't an asshole.
Now that we're wearing masks, I feel like an asshole constantly. For starters, there are three basic needs in the mask situation. I can either wear the mask, wear my glasses, or breathe, but I can't do all three. Since the breathing part seems moderately important, I have to make a value decision unless I am safely away from people and reasonably sure that nobody is going to lecture about me having my mask off (unless I do the compromise thing where I pull down the mask so I at least can use my nose and kinda do all 3.
Anyway, I asked a checker a question today and this is what the workers say.
As much as possible, unless they can't be 6 feet away from everybody and not doing any function that mandates they have to have it on (say putting the produce out), they pull it down because let's face it, social distancing is honestly as good as most of these masks are going to be. Their biggest fear is somebody catching them even for a second with the mask down and going into "I know better than you" mode. We exchanged thoughts on the top three things that suck about the masks, then I gave my thanks and moved on about my business.
Anyhow, if you're in a public place and you aren't doing something where somebody working for a living has their mask down but they are a safe distance from you and they aren't doing some aspect of their job that would demand a mask, cut these people a break. Assume that they'd just like to know the temporary thrill of cool fresh air. And if you see someone quickly put up their mask to accommodate you cause they don't want to be yelled at anymore, let them know it's OK. That stuff means a lot now.
On the way out of the store, I told them I was the Human Kindness Fairy and asked what I could do to show them kindness. I gave one elbow to fist bump, one quick convo about what it's like for them, and a thank you. In whatever way feels doable for you, extend that human kindness to someone who has to work for a living in the public right now.
The other thing is that today for the first time, I finally found a way to take my blood and sweat, so to speak, and convert it into something that people need. Which has been hard because my expertise is computers and people have been so reticent to have people near.
But today I helped one of my doctors figure out why she couldn't make her new free HIPAA compliant web client work. And I went to the house of one of my mother's elderly friends, who has no current health issues of note other than age. We maintained our distance, wore our masks a little, and I helped her figure out how to refresh her long dormant PC skills since she last worked for a living.
Anyhow, since we are more or last financially OK, I absolutely positively refused to take anyone's money and said that if they felt like money was the only thing they could do to reward my effort, take whatever money you think is proper for my effort and give it to someone who needs it, wherever you think it would do the most good. Being an elderly grandmotherly type woman, my mom's friend of course had to try and force me to take her money, but ultimately the morality of my cause won her over. Plus she got some in-person socializing and a free hug cause we were both OK with it.
So my message is.
If you want to help and you have a skill that you can give to people in some way that doesn't put you in danger and makes someone's life better, do it. And then just have them pay it forward in some way. Have them use their skill to make someone's life better. Have them give the money you would have normally taken if you don't need it and give it to someone you don't know. Do what you can to make the best of the shit sandwich we've been dealt.
And maybe something good will come out of all of this.
P.S. Don't tell anyone at BI about this post. I'd hate to ruin a reputation built over 20 plus years.
Locke is of old English and old German origin meaning woods, fortified place, or pond.
Little change here:
So 99% of the time, as you may have noticed over the years, I have been known to use the tools of sarcasm, irony, humor etc to make my point. It's a skill, if such a thing can be considered a skill.
But real talk for a second, whatever your feelings about things are, the world we're in is suffering right now in a number of ways. Most of them we've found ways to rationalize or live with the reality that we've lived in. This one has changed life so completely that at least for me, I've looked at literally almost every aspect of life wondering "What can an ordinary guy like me do to make anything better?"
That has been a tough question to answer. I'm not a medical professional like moonpod. I'm not working in a public place, so I deserve no kudos for that other than that we're OK financially, though not so OK that we could make a major financial impact for the people who need it. I can't really volunteer in a medical way cause even in good health, I hate to be in a doctor's office or hospital for any reason unless I absolutely need it for myself.
Generally speaking in public, I've always tried to be at the very least, respectful to all people who work in some shitty job that are providing a service to me. But tending towards frugality, I've never really been what you'd call a great tipper. Given our decent but not ridiculous income situation, I tip the standard 15% unless someone the service was rude or actively bad in some way (no server will ever suffer for a slow kitchen from me as long as they keep me advised). But have I ever really done anything in any meaningful way to make those folks' lives better?
Not really. Not in any way that would make me feel like I performed an act of good, other than thinking of them as human beings deserving basic human rights and respect.
Given the economic realities of the current situation, I've tried to change that some by tipping in literally every takeout situation as if I was in a restaurant. Plus the extra thank yous and appreciation for putting themselves in harm's way. And that at least made me feel like at least I wasn't an asshole.
Now that we're wearing masks, I feel like an asshole constantly. For starters, there are three basic needs in the mask situation. I can either wear the mask, wear my glasses, or breathe, but I can't do all three. Since the breathing part seems moderately important, I have to make a value decision unless I am safely away from people and reasonably sure that nobody is going to lecture about me having my mask off (unless I do the compromise thing where I pull down the mask so I at least can use my nose and kinda do all 3.
Anyway, I asked a checker a question today and this is what the workers say.
As much as possible, unless they can't be 6 feet away from everybody and not doing any function that mandates they have to have it on (say putting the produce out), they pull it down because let's face it, social distancing is honestly as good as most of these masks are going to be. Their biggest fear is somebody catching them even for a second with the mask down and going into "I know better than you" mode. We exchanged thoughts on the top three things that suck about the masks, then I gave my thanks and moved on about my business.
Anyhow, if you're in a public place and you aren't doing something where somebody working for a living has their mask down but they are a safe distance from you and they aren't doing some aspect of their job that would demand a mask, cut these people a break. Assume that they'd just like to know the temporary thrill of cool fresh air. And if you see someone quickly put up their mask to accommodate you cause they don't want to be yelled at anymore, let them know it's OK. That stuff means a lot now.
On the way out of the store, I told them I was the Human Kindness Fairy and asked what I could do to show them kindness. I gave one elbow to fist bump, one quick convo about what it's like for them, and a thank you. In whatever way feels doable for you, extend that human kindness to someone who has to work for a living in the public right now.
The other thing is that today for the first time, I finally found a way to take my blood and sweat, so to speak, and convert it into something that people need. Which has been hard because my expertise is computers and people have been so reticent to have people near.
But today I helped one of my doctors figure out why she couldn't make her new free HIPAA compliant web client work. And I went to the house of one of my mother's elderly friends, who has no current health issues of note other than age. We maintained our distance, wore our masks a little, and I helped her figure out how to refresh her long dormant PC skills since she last worked for a living.
Anyhow, since we are more or last financially OK, I absolutely positively refused to take anyone's money and said that if they felt like money was the only thing they could do to reward my effort, take whatever money you think is proper for my effort and give it to someone who needs it, wherever you think it would do the most good. Being an elderly grandmotherly type woman, my mom's friend of course had to try and force me to take her money, but ultimately the morality of my cause won her over. Plus she got some in-person socializing and a free hug cause we were both OK with it.
So my message is.
If you want to help and you have a skill that you can give to people in some way that doesn't put you in danger and makes someone's life better, do it. And then just have them pay it forward in some way. Have them use their skill to make someone's life better. Have them give the money you would have normally taken if you don't need it and give it to someone you don't know. Do what you can to make the best of the shit sandwich we've been dealt.
And maybe something good will come out of all of this.
P.S. Don't tell anyone at BI about this post. I'd hate to ruin a reputation built over 20 plus years.
