Trump's Bible and Medal of Honor Scams & Heat Killed 50,000 in Europe Last Year--Are We Next?
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Two people who share the same experience don’t necessarily get the same benefits.
Trump made $300k from selling Bibles - but owes $100m: It’s like an arsonist wearing a Smokey the Bear t-shirt.
Heat aggravated by carbon pollution killed 50,000 in Europe last year – study: Are we seeing our hellish future in the U.S.?
Kareem’s Video Break: This will amaze and delight you—and make you want to get a border collie.
Heman Bekele Is TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year: This could be a major boost to inspiring Black kids to be more interested in STEM courses and careers.
Kareem’s Kvetching Korner: I’m always disappointed when an article praises a woman’s intelligence and then illustrates the article with “sexy” photos.
Proposed Bill Amendment in Iraq Could Allow Girls as Young as 9 to Marry: We could just blame it on a foreign culture—until we looked around at what’s happening here.
Joni Mitchell Sings “Woodstock”: On the 55th anniversary of Woodstock, Joni shows us why it changed the world forever.
MESSAGE FROM KAREEM:
Hey, Friends. I’m taking a short vacation next week so there won’t be any newsletters on Friday and Tuesday. I will return refreshed and kvetching with more news, videos, and music on August 30 in time for Labor Day.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
We had a time.
Rayanne, My So-Called Life
At the end of the first episode of 1994’s excellent series My So-Called Life, best friends Rayanne and Angela meet in the hallway of their high school. Rayanne is excitedly recounting to other students her adventures with Angela the night before, which included attending a forbidden party that was raided by the police. She turns to Angela and says, “I’m telling you, we had a time. Didn’t we?” Angela smiles softly and says, “We had a time.”
It is one of the best and most revealing moments in television history. Those few seconds encapsulate the difference between people whose lives are enslaved to constantly chasing new sensations to give meaning to their lives and those who find insight in experiences that give their lives deeper and more satisfying meaning.
At that moment, the two girls mean two different things. Rayanne had a drunken, meaningless experience which she thinks was one of bonding and fun. Angela dyed her hair, fought with her parents, quit yearbook, cruelly dumped her longtime best friend, fell in love with a druggie, got arrested, realized her new best friend Rayanne isn’t really there for her, discovered her dad was cheating on her mom, and understood all her mother does to keep the family together.
The same events can happen to two different people but to one person those events are merely physical and mental stimuli of no long-lasting consequences except to project an image to others and themselves of being someone who grabs life with gusto. Like those obsessed with posting selfies to prove they have a great life. For Rayanne, the joy is in everyone thinking she’s a bad-ass. That is living life in an illusion, cultivating distractions to fill the day.
For Angela, life is a journey of wonders. The wonders aren’t the activities themselves, but the insights the person has from those activities. Revelation is the greatest experience because it changes how you perceive life and that lasts forever. Grabbing gusto is simply repeating the same steps over and over with no change like being caught in a time loop in which you age but never mature.
Two people experience the same event—they “have a time”—but for one, the pleasure is over the moment the experience is over. They are doomed to wash, rinse, and repeat. For the other, insight opens up many paths.
We all are having a time—it’s what we do with and get from that time that matters.