#383

I would rather grocery shop with M 'n' m than by myself, but I get annoyed when they grab pricey stuff, like the boutique-y brand when the same thing on the shelf below is half the price. It's packaged differently – and on 'Red Alert Savings!' – but it's familiar, it's not generic usually; yeah, I mean recognizable brands overshadowed by alternatives that are organic, vegan, imported, not imported, small batch, family owned, eco-friendly, 'as seen on Shark Tank,' 'all profits go to charity,' whatever, and that's terrific, but I won't buy breakfast bars at eight bucks a box. Then I checkout and... "Would you like to donate a dollar today to children in need?" Ah geez, what kind of supreme asshole says no to that? Well, I do. Sometimes.

I want M 'n' m to be good at something that I, for one, am pretty shitty at. Parenting without hypocrisy, by the way, isn't parenting; they need a parent, not a buddy. And I forget this everyday and act like a buddy. God help me. And forgive me. And God help M 'n' m. Anyway, this is what I want: I want M n m, if they decide not to think about something, to be good at not thinking about it. Sounds simple, right? Well, I suck at it. Obsessive-compulsiveness runs in our family, and probably ADHD, and I'm pretty sure they run in every family now; we are over-stimulated by media that's relentless, ever-present, and often negative. It's more important than ever to block out distraction and limit unhelpful thoughts. We know when our thoughts become self-defeating and cynical in a way that doesn't serve us. But we let 'em get that way, and carry on, especially when things go sideways and we need their help the most. If I could imbue M 'n' m with one skill, it would be the ability to control and steer thoughts. Keep it positive, yo!

"You can't go from mentally broken to mentally fierce. You build it, you build it, you build it. There are a lot of ways to build it. Self-talk, seeing things in a different light, reading biographies of people who had a hard time in life and made it, hearing the stories of other people who had the same problems as you do and made it.... Anytime you have a negative thought, just crush it, destroy it, obliterate it." — YouTube motivation video

I want M 'n' m to consider another idea... the idea that just being human... just being a human being... is extraordinary. It's remarkable. There's nothing else like it in the universe (that we know of, yet). The human body, the human mind, the world... it's all pretty amazing. You don't even need to be on drugs to think so, man – you know, hallucinogenic, psychedelic, bliss-inducing shit. (I'm trying to be clever. I shouldn't do that.) What I mean is: being impressed with your hands, eyes, voice, mind, what it means to be human, what it takes to be human (it's not easy) and all the things accomplished and created by human beings, and expressing this wonder and appreciation, is far from ridiculous. It sounds a little silly and trite, but it isn't; it's fucking impressive! So there. I know that 7.6 billion people exist today (I just googled it) but that doesn't make us boring, common, unimpressive. On the contrary. (Although I love this headline from The Onion: Miracle of Birth Occurs For 83 Billionth Time.) Regardless, I think every person has the potential to astonish the rest of us, and many will. I agree with Ken Burns, the master documentarian, filmmaker, observer of history and humanity: "You begin to realize there are no ordinary people. That's one of the great lessons of 40 years of doing this history business." We're extraordinary. Every on of us. Amen.