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It is OK to be a Realist
It’s OK to anticipate different outcomes and impossibilities. It’s OK to prepare our hearts and minds for potential undesirable results. It’s OK to be a realist. I would hate being called a “negative” for my tendency to reality-check. I mean, why is it that people credit unrealistic positivity more than they do realistic negativity? Rainbows and unicorns are cool, man, but coming down from that cloud and checking in with Planet Earth from time to time is also good. Does a story of denial ever end well? “Stay positive” “Be happy” — I honestly see one of those posts every single day. And, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE optimism.…
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It Is What It Is
Those were the heart wrenching last words a friend dying of brain cancer said to me. It wasn’t our whole conversation, but those words — words of complete abandonment, acceptance, resignation — are the ones that stuck with me. He was a young man, a son, a brother, a friend…a bartender. On his last days, I found myself laughing in his mom’s kitchen as he showed me his mixology techniques. “Come with me,” he said. “Let me make you a drink.” And so I followed him to the kitchen. His movements slow; his words a slur, after a stroke paralyzed a side of his body. Still, he insisted in fixing…
