In Times Of Uncertainty, Remember The Constants

/ January 18, 2017

My kid skipped home after school today. I tried to get it on video.

I clearly failed to capture the skipping, but do you see what I did capture?

Unless the weather is crappy, I get to see that beautiful mountain on the walk home from my son’s school twice every day. Today it looks especially spectacular, as it received a fresh blanket of snow recently.

It made me consider all the constants in my life – the mountain is one, as is my kid being joyful as we walk together.

Another is my cat, who loves chin rubs.

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Another is how a trendy coffee shop downtown decorates their lattes.

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Another is this:

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Soccer? Well, maybe, depending on where you are in the world. This is a photograph that’s on display at a local museum. It was taken in the 1920’s on my college campus, and the reason I took the pic is that creepy looking building in the background was my freshman dorm. It was built in 1908. I moved in 90 years later.

Friday is Inauguration Day, and judging from social media posts, I know it will be celebratory for some and stressful for others. Many are fearful of what lies on the other side of January 20th. I don’t want this post to result in political battles, so I’ll simply say I’m on the nervous side. No one, no matter which side they’re on, can predict what will happen with certainty. And in times like these, I’ve found it helps to remember the constants.

The mountain will still be there on Saturday. And next week. And next year. And probably for at least the next few millennia.

For the next few years, I hope, my kid will still skip home from school.

The cat will love chin rubs for as long as he lives.

The coffee shop will continue to make art.

And my old dorm will continue to stand, as it has for the last 109 years.

It’s okay to be nervous and also be comforted by the constants at the same time. The constants will be there no matter how things turn out.

What are some comforting constants in your life? 

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19 thoughts on “In Times Of Uncertainty, Remember The Constants”

  1. I’m a college student and I really struggle in these precarious days of finding constants? In school, I had so many constants in my life, a set routine but now it’s so different. I live a life where nothing really is constant and it makes me slightly sad. I’d love to skip the years of youth and have a nice home, family, kids…….

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    • You will be nostalgic for these days later, I promise. As for the constants…I suggest looking for things that connect you to home. For me during college, it was something as simple as using the same coffee creamer my grandma used.

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  2. I’m going to pick on you a little bit here, okay?

    Because I like you and I respect you but I think you’re being a little unfair, and I really found this post offensive.

    It’s not fair to say you’re “nervous” and then say the rest of us can’t post a reply to say why we’re NOT nervous. That’s a subtle way of continuing to be negative about our new president, when he hasn’t done a single thing yet as president, and that’s not fair, either.

    Why are you nervous? All the left wing liberals in the media (90% of the U.S. Media admit to being left wing, according to their own surveys) who are so out of touch with most of America they failed to see half the country honestly suffering? Incomes for the media types are good and their kids’ college tuition is being socked away – but half the country was worried about their next paycheck and watched helplessly as their buying power eroded and they didn’t have money to put away for their kids’ college. The media types and politicians were blind to that. Willingly blind to it. These mental giants were wrong about the pulse of the country, wrong about who would win, and now we are supposed to listen to them? (The whining about the popular vote is like kicking a field goal in baseball – sorry, wrong game) and we are all supposed to believe they lost their bias in the last few weeks? One look at their personal Twitter accounts will show they haven’t changed a bit. I watched their faces on election night without knowing what had happened (certain my guy would lose, I had the TV turned to a movie, coming in late to get the bad news and go to bed). They looked like they were attending a funeral. Actors, they are not. The U. S. media has a 10% approval/trust rating, for good reason. They earned it. They are intentionally shown – by their own ombudmen! – to be biased and report only what often fits a pre-set agenda. But they don’t seem to be changing.

    Are you afraid our IRS will be used to persecute groups who disagree with the president?

    Are you afraid journalists who offer truth to power will be put on terrorist watch lists, have their phones tapped and be threatened with lawsuits and jail time?

    Are you afraid we’ll escalate our military presence in wars and have our children killed needlessly overseas?

    ALL THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED under the PRIOR president that the media loved, Obama – they just agreed with him so they looked the other way. I could not understand how America could be so stupid, falling for a slogan and a charismatic personality – in Obama, with a ridiculously weak track record of prior political and no business experience. I and others quietly waited our turn to vote in a different direction. Now there’s a new slogan and a new charismatic personality – in Trump, with a ridiculously weak track record of political experience but a lot of business experience. (And the would-be madam president’s foundation was so corrupt it has now closed because once there was no opportunity for “pay for play,” they was no more “pay.” Reading a lot about that in the main stream media, are we? No.)

    It goes on and on. Where were your “nervous” posts about that?

    I’m glad you have the luxury to worry about what MIGHT happen one day IF the worst things the media says – and they sure highlight the bad things – about the new president come true. For eight years I lived with real impacts on real lives, not possible threats to what might happen if this or that or the boogeyman. I saw it every day.

    If I took every action you did every day and wrote them down, only pulling out and talking about only the bad stuff, and amplifying anyone who took that bad stuff and extrapolated it into a hateful screed, I’d paint quite an incorrect picture of you.

    This post is another subtle way of saying the new guy is horrible before he’s done a single thing as president, projecting hyped up fears brought by media types who couldn’t get off their collective rear ends to actually talk to anyone in the country who didn’t already agree with them and their far left views. They were and remain are out of touch.

    You are not that.

    This post is a subtle way of letting people infer if they are happy today about our new president, a new direction, when the old one wasn’t working for them and their friends and their neighbors and their co-workers, that their comments – and by association, they – are not welcome here.

    Don’t foster that.

    You know me. I’m a nice guy. I am charitable and I’m smart and I help everybody.

    I believe the country was headed in the wrong direction and that Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio could turn things around. But you know what? When push came to shove, they kinda toed the old establishment line, and honestly that wasn’t working for me anymore. Hillary’s machine – rarely her personally, but she did it, too – would have ripped them up, and they’d be “too nice” to return fire, because we’re “too dignified” for that (Romney, McCain). If they stepped out of line, the money from supporters would be cut off and they’d dry up and blow away (every other republican candidate you’ve ever met in the last 8 years).

    We rallied behind a boorish guy who would fight back (thank you, Twitter = to the people without the fine folks at NBC telling me what he says and doing my thinking for me), who had the money no matter what happened (20 year old video – which the media reported on here but largely dismissed for Bill “boys will be boys” Clinton when he was accused of much worse when he was running for president, all of which turned out to be true and was known at the time; kinda like how the media knew about John Edwards and preferred to say it was gossip, until the facts came out in the National Enquirer and they couldn’t hide it any more. See a pattern?)

    I have known Donald Trump for decades through his books and TV shows, sure, but also through his many editorials he wrote for the past 20 years in places like the Wall Street Journal (the tend to not publish dummies), interviews he’s done, call-in segments to news shows, etc. He’s not a stranger to me.

    Nobody graduates from the Wharton School of Business (at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania) if they’re stupid. Nobody takes a loan from their father – whether $10 million of $20 million or $100 million – and turns it into a real estate fortune worth over $4 BILLION by being stupid. They just don’t. Look at all the athletes and actors and singers and lottery winners who have gotten millions and millions and millions – and go bankrupt after a few years. Look at the children of America’s very wealthy families. I’ve studied them. The vast majority do not go on to be successful.

    He spent less money and won almost 50% more electoral college votes. He outworked his opponents every way possible – by calling in to every news program every day, by using Twitter, by being boorish – but also by plain old hard work, scheduling rallies (without a free concert first, than you).

    All I’m saying is, please: Give the guy a chance.

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    • A little bit? Hmmm.

      I’m allowed to be nervous. I hope all the fear mongerers are wrong and you are right. I would love for Trump to turn out to be one of the most successful and respected presidents our country has seen, because that’s what’s best for our country.

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      • I believe you. I also believe many hope he does fail, and will work hard to show everything in its worst light as they are already doing, because if he succeeds or is seen as succeeding, he will ruin their chances of returning to power (or make it a lot harder). And by “they” I mean the democrats, the establishment republicans, and the legacy media.

        Nobody said you aren’t allowed to be nervous; I just don’t think you should be. I consider this post a furthering of the fear mongering you refer to and thereby furthering the fear even more.

        That said, I do respect you and I respect your politics. We have always been able to broach the subject in a respectful manner and discuss without arguing. I’m sorry this reply and my prior one can be read differently. They were meant to be respectful, but offering a different view.

        And for the record, you have been a comforting constant I’m thankful for.

        Your time, patience and input have always helped my writing, and you’ve always been a supporter of my writing endeavors, no matter how crazy or uncomfortable for you. Your friendship has been awesome to enjoy. I consider myself lucky to know you.

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  3. This idea is so thought-filled and unexpected today. So much change this past year, and today in particular, that I’d forgotten to think about the opposite. Will focus more on the constants. Thanks for the reminder.

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  4. My husband is my constant. He was my high school sweetheart. Married 17 years. My children (though they’re growing up so fast). My parents (though they’re getting old). I guess no one will be around forever, but our love for our family (and theirs for us) is constant.
    Definitely God. God is our constant.
    But if we go micro… then chocolate and Thai food for me! 🙂

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  6. Great post, thank you. I have similar thoughts when I catch a glimpse of the mountains here, or when I’m walking somewhere and the sea appears in the distance. And the cats, of course. We can always rely on the cats. 🙂

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  7. I’m in the confident side! But I try never to be nervous. Family and love are wonderful foundations that I cherish but only God is the constant, right? Oh and I like potato chips too. Thanks for a good post. Loved the photos.

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  8. I’m on the nervous side as well. Beautiful mountain. I live near the ocean, so that’s a constant. The sky and surrounding river that greets me each day as I cross the bridge on my way into the city for work. Beautiful post. Thank you for this much-needed reminder.

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