Thanksgiving, ISIS and "Us vs. Them"

"I get so tired of this 'Us versus Them' mentality."

I overheard this statement while sitting at a sports bar surrounded by other men in a variety of team jerseys all rooting for their teams to defeat one opponent or another.

"God do I hate the Cowboys."

"The Packers suck."

"Why does Jacksonville even have an NFL team."

So much for hating "Us vs. Them" eh?

From our formative years we are taught to pick sides and compete in an "Us vs Them" format.  Whether it be Pee Wee sports or video games or a simply backyard football game on Thanksgiving day, we are conditioned to identify some other group as our enemy and to attack them based solely on this "Us vs. Them" way of thinking.
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While I can't disagree with hating the Dallas Cowboys or the Green Bay Packers, I did have a moment of harsh realization as another television set buried in the far corner of that same sports bar displayed yet another terrorist attack overseas.

The ultimate "Us vs. Them."

Given a few days to consider all of this I have come to the following conclusion:  we as a people don't really want "World Peace."

Let that sink in for a second.

Sure we all say that we want to see World Peace in our lifetimes...then we take our children to their youth football or soccer leagues and coach them from the sidelines to destroy the opponent.

Now don't get me wrong, there are many positives to youth sports...this post is not an attack on organized athletics.  My point here is that as a society we often perpetuate this "Us vs. Them" strategy into every walk of life.  I've seen it in the workplace, at clubs and social gatherings, heck even at your own church.  Our competitive natures get the best of us and the next thing you know friendships are damaged or even worse.

We all have that relative we try to avoid for this same reason.  That may not seem like a competition but too often it is one.

So I say to each and every person who is reading this blog, let us take this coming Thursday, this Thanksgiving to truly be thankful for each other and set aside our competitive differences and just enjoy our loved ones.

Let's all take a day off from "Us vs. Them."

Or...at least until kickoff...

Laziness, Donald Trump and my morning walk.

A year ago I committed myself to losing weight.  I weighed 265 pounds, the most I had weighed in several years (for the record, my official high was 280 ten years ago.)

After several months, I was down to 240 lbs and felt better than I had in YEARS.

Fast forward to yesterday.

Yesterday I had my annual med check with my allergist.  The nurse asked me to step on the scale.

257.5 lbs.

Not quite 265...but close enough to give me a moments pause.  I immediately began to think of all the reasons I had put the weight back on.  Then it became clear to me that my list was not a list of reasons but a list of excuses.  There was only one reason.

Laziness.

A few days ago a coworker asked if I could ever see myself voting for Donald Trump.  While I consider myself to be politically active and informed I realized that I could not answer my coworker's question because I had no idea where the Donald stood on several key issues.  I knew all the soundbites from recent weeks and all of the commentators and reporters that Trump was feuding with but I had no idea where he stood on issues other than immigration and other hot button topics.  In the information age there was only one explanation for my lack of knowledge.

Laziness.

Almost a year ago I completed the first draft of the sequel to my detective novel The Worst of Times.  That first draft remains unedited.  I have written and self published three other books since.  None of which, in all honesty, sold a tenth as many downloads as The Worst of Times.  It seems clear that the adventures of Patches O'Brien and friends has a much wider audience than anything else that I have written.  Yet the sequel, Stranger Times, remains unedited.

Laziness.

I wish I knew the solution to my problem.  I wish I had all the answers.  I could easily blame my day job.  That is if my day job began before 3 pm and I didn't have the majority of my mornings entirely to myself.  When I look back over the past week I realize that I have spent hours upon hours watching preseason football and random baseball games on cable.  While I have always enjoyed sports, there is more than a bit of irony in the fact that I sat on a couch and ate pretzels while watching athletes in top physical condition perform.

Laziness.

This morning I forced myself to walk around my neighborhood, not just once but twice.  Now I stand in front of the kitchen table typing this post.  I have two and a half hours before I have to clock in.  I wish I could tell you that I was planning on doing something earth shattering that would change the course of human history.  The truth is I'm planning to boil some chicken for a chicken salad.  Not the worst thing a person has ever put into their body, but nothing to be proud of either.

I write this today for myself as much as for anyone who might be reading these words.

Something has to give...something has to change.

I'm not happy with what I see when I look in the mirror.  And being overweight is just the tip of the iceberg.

I hope this post will serve as a wake up call both to myself and to others.

It's time to stop being so damn lazy.


It's time to do something better.