It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here. The days have been busy and undifferentiated. Except in the broader world. That continues to unfold in ways that I don’t fully understand. But then, how could I? I’ve never lived through a pandemic. I’ve never had an encounter with a police officer where I feared for my life. I’ve never lived in a large city where things like ‘national news’ really happened with any frequency. Read more...

Welcome to the Spring of 2020. The Coronavirus pandemic is less than six months along. The economic system is reeling. The US government has responded incorrectly in just about every way and called it a win. And because all that wasn’t enough, everything is political, there’s no room for nuance, and reality is whatever you want it to be. As usual, this will be one of those times where I advocate for understanding the different sides and attempting to solve the problem with pragmatism rather than ideology. Read more...

In our economic system, the lower tier is frequently chastised for a lack of savings. You know the sort of lecture I’m talking about: It’s irresponsible to not be prepared for the unexpected. You should have six months to a year worth of expenses saved, so why don’t you. If you aren’t able to save for those emergencies, then you should go without or hustle more and figure out a way to put aside more money. Read more...

I’m going to point out some possible traps in our thinking. Not because I have a strong sense one way or another of what the truth is, but more in the hope that by being aware we can better reason our way through the questions. Each of the following paragraphs is a thread that outlines some of the traps we should be watching out for. Thinking the pandemic hasn’t been as dangerous as forecasted when it’s only because we responded the way we did that the impact was lessened. Read more...

To say that our lives have been disrupted in the last few months is an understatement. Many of the illusions of safety and security have been stripped away and we are left with a general unease and outright anxiety about where things are going. Our usual patterns of life have been impacted and some of us have felt that more than others. Even so, we’re all in this very historical maelstrom together and the way forward is the same for every one of us - focus on what you can control. Read more...