2020

Hope this holiday has been treating you all well. Hope you all received gifts you’ve been dreaming of all year and with that satisfaction, hope you all took it upon yourselves to make someone else’s holiday just as satisfactory. My brother and I received flashlights, so we’re patiently waiting for a power outage any moment now.

As we wave 2020 goodbye, a year plagued by a plethora of negative events and sprinkles of positive outcomes, let us look forward to 2021, a year destined to be such a delight – Oh wait: “News just struck that the new Covid-19 strain has officially landed in California and Colorado. It’s much more transmissive, however; there are no current indications that its virulence has increased.”

WTF!!! Can’t we just catch a break already? – I hear ya. I totally do.

All I can leave you all with is a mindset. And what is that mindset? Knowing that you are still in control of your life. Knowing that you are directly responsible for your own happiness and success. Knowing that you can still carve out something out of nothing. Knowing you can still turn this never ending crisis into an opportunity. Knowing that you are not alone in these trying times. Knowing that there’s a new year ahead of you which may bring good or bad times and you’ve begun to develop a strategy to make the most of it.

SDR Wednesday Memo 11/25/20

Hump day is coming to a close while thanksgiving day patiently waits around the corner. This year has been a year to remember or to forget depending on who you talk to. Many have lost while a plethora of others have gained. Tears were shed. Joyous moments were found. Yet through it all, a good majority of us will be gathering at a dinner table tomorrow to give thanks. What does it mean to give thanks? What does it mean when we say we are grateful?

Recently, the company I work for hired a man in his late twenties to support in the day to day operations. We got off to a good start and ever since, our relationship has matured quite a bit. To describe him as a positive and jovial individual would not do him justice. He constantly walks around with a contagious smile on his face and is always on the prowl to spring a laugh out of someone. Then, one day, while discussing with him the implications of Covid-19 and the nagging feeling of lack of freedom hunting most of the population, he opens up and reveals that he lost his mother to the Ebola virus in 2014. A year prior, his father succumbed from a heart attack. You can imagine my facial expression after his confession. I immediately stopped talking and just listened. He went on for an hour. As I drove home later that evening, I began to ponder the true meaning of gratefulness. I began to question if there’s truly weight to the words “I’m grateful” when spoken into existence. We say and preach it repeatedly, yet at the slightest minute sign of struggle or discomfort, we verbally or physically go off the rails. Are we then really grateful? Or has it become just another unquestioned expression to the likes of “Bless you”?

As we gather tomorrow with family members and friends, I hope we can find it within us to contemplate on the meaning of being thankful and grateful. As someone once told me, it’s not something you inherently possess. Instead, it is practiced every day.
Happy Thanksgiving!

It all sounds GREAT, but what about us?

What’s the biggest popularity contest in the United States? Go on, I’ll grant you ten seconds. Still not enough, alright, twenty seconds. Okay, stop begging for more time you had your chance. Politics! Politics, politics, politics.

I can see you brooding. Don’t beat yourself over not getting the right answer. I can tell you this, you knew the answer all along, you were just too pre-occupied with other thoughts and that’s completely understandable. In this same sense, we can all come to the conclusion that modern politics, especially in the United States has been too pre-occupied for too long with matters that may seem and sound trivial to our survival but in retrospective fall flat to issues that really standout such as the impending implosion of a generation that has yet to reach thirty years of age. Instead, we’re constantly bombarded with celebrity “wanna be’s in suits” who bicker at each other non-stop on national television. Before I go any further, let us take a nose dive at the definition of the word “politics”. The dictionary states – “The activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power”.

Debate? – We get plenty of that.

Conflict? – Don’t even get me started.

Parties hoping to achieve power? – Achieve power in order to create even more conflict.

Was I spot on with my reflection? If you’ve been paying attention to the 2020 presidential race, you’ll have most likely notice the same recurring issues take center stage over and over again. They all spit out the same big and bold statements followed by fraudulent promises which accomplishes absolutely nothing but boosts their egos. Climate change, jobs, equality for all, impeaching Donald Trump, stopping China and Iran, free everything, (Hahaha, free everything? Really?) climate change. (oops, sorry I already mentioned that. I can’t help myself since that’s all I’ve been hearing.)

Now, before you get all agitated and start molding negative thoughts about my opinion, let’s discuss and dig into an issue that trumps all these issues previously mentioned. An issue the majority of “parties hoping to achieve power” seem to neglect. The mental wellness of the future generations of this country.

You can’t have a properly functioning country, let alone a thriving economy with a generation that’s as lost and confused as an unborn child. Why is no one talking about the fact that an ever increasing amount of children are continuously growing up in discombobulated homes where both mother and father are endlessly working whether it be non-skilled or professional jobs? Plenty of evidence prove that without parental stability, chaos undoubtedly ensues. Why is no one talking about the fact that drugs and pornography are easily accessible to kids as young as eleven years old? Why is no one talking about the fact that mental illness is ever increasing in teenagers and young adults alike? The constant feed of information (sometimes meaningless) without proper guidance or explanation lead so many young ones astray. Those young ones who will one day hold professional positions in the working world will be expected to accomplish great feats, start a family..etc. How will they live up to societies expectations when they not only lacked parental advice because mom or dad was too busy working three jobs, but are so ill in the mind and lack any sense of direction? How will they strive to better themselves as human beings when their sense of morality and beliefs are endlessly contorted?

Eventually, in the near future, what you end up with is a society on the edge of a colossal meltdown. Regardless of how many jobs you create, how excessively you push for equality, how free you want to make education and insurance; it’s all futile if the people who are supposed to benefit are mentally ill, lost and honestly do not care.

To end, here’s my slogan for the 2020 election: Create strong minded individuals by making families great again! (Kind of cringe and unoriginal, I know. More reasons I should not be a politician.)

With that said, I leave you with this – Take your eyes away from this screen. Look around you. If you don’t like what you see, then change it. Do not allow them to break your spiritual core as it is the only spark that will set you free!