Weekly Update for January 23rd

Transition time (from me to infinity and beyond)

One feature of my blog will be weekly posting (on Thursdays) discussing the past week through a personal lens as well as with an eye out to the rest of the world. These will be much more informal than some other content on here, but a way to keep me kind of humanized out here in digital space.

I have tinkered around with WordPress for three months, within the limited time I have (I cannot abandon family time to get this moving). The blog is not a finished product, but it will continue to improve in aesthetics and functionality. Pragmatically, one needs to get to a point of just doing something, and cleaning it up as you go. Paraphrasing the writer Kurt Vonnegut, the point of doing things is not to be proficient, per se. Doing things inherently makes us interesting creatures, which creates connection and ultimately happiness.  

  

ARCTIC CHILL

This has been a week for me. Lots of life changes, which is very exciting, but with Michigan (and the country) being so cold, I usually need a lot of physical outlets when I am this anxious. I think clearer when I am moving. Even in the Winter I usually go for a 35 minute walk every day. I have found there are so many benefits for me, from a overall health perspective. There were a few days this week I just couldn’t. I actually got some hand warmers and went for a walk the last two evenings (last night the wind chill was about -20). It was actually delightful with the hand warmers. My only problem in this type of cold is my fingers freezing off… and they were good to go.  

My wife just loathes the cold. And she doesn’t realize that her wrath for Winter has inadvertently made me like it a little more. She has this cute little squirrel nose that always gets as cold as ice, even when she is indoors, and she is always cuddling up to me trying to warm it up. And I love it when I can be present enough to love it. So much better than her sticking those ice picks she calls feet right in between my thighs and giving me a heart attack. She can take that crap right back. Ugh.

In general the more I move, the better I feel. Is this a symptom of being 45? If I sit or lay too long I feel like a mummy who was just discovered after 2,500 years. But… I can move constantly all day, I could walk 10-15 miles, whatever, and I feel like a million bucks. Like there is no cap on how much better physical activity can make me feel.  

But I also see a lot of people my age for whom this is not the case. It is weird trying to reconcile that. I guess it runs in the blood… my dad, uncle and others their age (70s) can play hours of Frisbee any day even throughout the winter and just feel great.

Playing indoor volleyball during the Winter is also an injection of sanity for me. I no longer put on the “Winter 10-20” so I feel so much better in Spring, I more greatly improve my skills playing year-round, and most importantly allows me time with some pretty outstanding friends who get a couple hours to just not have to adult.

My kids, like many of yours, were blessed with a two day school week, due to MLK day and two snow days. They had friends over and laughed and giggled and teased and drove adults crazy and did all the stupid things that kids are supposed to do. My goal in these situations is to relax, take myself less seriously, and just enjoy the simplicity of silliness through the eyes of children. I often struggle with this. I am often too serious.

It has made me reflect on snow (cold) days when I was younger. We would often be drawn to find extremely dangerous hills and attempts to run into a frozen wall at 25 mph and severely injure ourselves. Such great fun. Building snow forts was maybe my favorite activity. Honestly in doing so I would apply concepts from Science, Math and reasoning. Probably learned more doing that then during a regular school day.  

In our poorer days we might have to split wood because our thermostat would be kept at 60 or below because once our propane tank was empty for the season, there was no guarantee it was getting refilled. I may find myself cuddling up intimately with our little space heater and inadvertently burning myself. My sister would have like 12 blankets on her bed (literally). Despite many challenges those were largely great memories.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Preparing for a job change is something I haven’t done at this level for 15 years. Excited and nervous. Tons of energy, sometimes the energy keeps me moving quickly and other times it seems like too much, and I fight temporary paralysis. My wife has been supportive, but we’ve had discussions where she has shared that sometimes she feels I do not consider the rest of the family equally when big life changes like this happen. And once I stop getting defensive and I really mull over her feedback, I have found she often has a point. Growth is so hard during the journey, but some rewarding as a destination.

Structuring time for book writing (which in contrast is easy but time consuming), to feeling the weight of the topics I choose to talk about on this blog. So many political thoughts, but I feel the need to sit on those thoughts and feelings and carefully decide how I want to use this energy I have. Overall I want my columns to focus on policy and minimize party talk. I also realize that’s impossible, but I do feel like we need to get back to controlling the narrative, and not the politicians. I feel I have a responsibility to be more thoughtful in this process.  

ETHICS

There is currently plenty of content discussing the new Trump administration, and I while I have many thoughts on the matter, I feel I still need to observe and collect my thoughts further before discussing any plans to discuss it on here.

What I may comment on, from time to time, is ethics-based discussion regarding our current political environment. I had this amazing mentor who helped build my internal ethics compass by the name of Dr. Flora Hoodin. She wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But she was one of those professors who worked you to death, but she did so because you just knew she cared so deeply about equipping young clinicians with skills and knowledge to affect the world in a positive and impactful manner. And thanks to her I often struggle when I see unethical behavior. It grinds me. And it grinds me to see a lot of people who either don’t care or don’t really understand ethics. 

MIDDLE EAST

I have been so drawn to talking about the Middle East, Palestine and Israel. It is complicated, difficult, uncomfortable, and incredibly divisive. Is it a pain in the ass the talk about, and to talk about it a productive manner. Even with the time I have put into trying to better understand the issue, I still know so little. I don’t want to come across as dumb or misinformed.  

It also makes the perfect topic. It pushes me outside my comfort area, and perhaps in doing so it will free some others to grow in a similar manner. I also feel we Americans are somewhat equitably responsible across party lines for what is happening over there, so it is largely a topic that shouldn’t foster excess amounts of bipartisan venom. My hope is to work on a column in multiple parts, the first of which will attempt to demonstrate my understanding of this conflict from it’s origin to modern day.  

I think many people shy away from even trying to understand it because many don’t understand why it’s an issue. Understanding it’s complicated origin is an important initial step. It’s second part will attempt to understand modern day perspectives from both sides (Israeli and Palestinian), which will include discussions with people on both sides, and a final part that will focus on what I feel I should do as a singularity, and what, if any, foreign policy changes we should make as a country. 

MLK DAY

I always get reflective on MLK day, and I shared where my thoughts were this year on Facebook. All I will say here is that the dichotomy of Inauguration Day and MLK day occurring simultaneously was supremely wild, even for the 2025 United States. 

TIK TOK

With the TikTok 12 hour ban in the U.S., it certainly led to lots of discussion about how engagement on the App is really valued, and of course lots of people making fun of users for their emotional reactions to losing TikTok. At the end of the day many of us have our “TikTok,” something that we utilize a lot and pour a lot of our resources into. So I think, while interesting, we should be careful of judging those folks too harshly.  

I do find it interesting how many influencers are so dependent on TikTok for their livelihoods, but honestly Millennials and Gen Xers have largely created the environment we are in and we act like we would behave so differently if we were the generation growing up now. News Flash… we wouldn’t. So let’s be more curious and less judgemental.   

Do you know many Gen Z folks get most of their news on TikTok? It may seem ridiculous, but really is it any worse than getting news from more traditional sources? No. Engagement has changed, the world is so different, we pushed all of these technological advances and we act like we would handle it so differently. We need to work harder to understand.  

I have my “Boomer” moments, and some light teasing of Gen Z can be funny, but I always laugh to myself when Millennials and Gen Xers hammer away about how stupid and misguided and selfish Gen Zers are. First of all, I want to say, as the great Ted Lasso says, be curious, not judgmental. Second of all, WE ARE THE ROOTS IN WHICH Generation Z grew out of. When we trash them, we are just trashing ourselves. Every space of life they pour into was largely created, directly or indirectly, by us.

So we created this different and layered and nuanced world for them, we grew up, and then we pretend that we would traverse that environment so differently. WE WOULDN’T!!! We would be just as immersed in TikTok, we would have similar personality shifts, changes in priority, and grievances with the older generations. And this will continue till the end of time.