I’m sitting at the halfway point on my walk, on a Wednesday morning, thinking about halfway points, and Wednesdays, and walking some other trail than this one. Maybe this weekend I’ll head up the road to the nature park, or into the foothills to test myself on some less traveled trail or abandoned logging road? I sigh to myself. Even the most familiar path can have strange moments. This one, for example, now detours around a bit of construction.

[No AI is used in writing or editing this blog. This is human content for human readers.]

What path will you take? Depending on where you are in life, the reply may be “what path is even available?”. The world seems pretty crazy, and more and more people seem to take comfort within the very narrow world of their device, and the apps that feed continuous AI slop into their vacant expressionless face holes. I’m saddened by that; we have so much more potential.

I’ll admit that I’m frankly resentful of, and resistant to, every new observation that yet another company is shoving some half-assed AI or LLM tool into an application or device I had previously valued. Generally speaking, it reliably represents a degradation in my experience as a user. I look for work arounds, alternatives, and sometimes just give up on that thing entirely. I’m not interested in being forced into costly mediocrity in order to satisfy shareholder illusions about user adoption of enshittified tools, services, or platforms.

… I’d rather walk a different path…

I breathe, exhale, and relax. G’damn I’ll be glad when this administration is washed away by time, and our gerontocratic representation finally ages out of the workforce, if only through the finality of mortal human lifetimes. We are mortal creatures. Fucking hell, do better, People. You do realize we chose this? Choose differently, if you want different outcomes, right? We could start with taxing billionaires (heavily – make them give back to the society they exploited to gain their wealth, and make them do it in cash). Another good step would be to strictly require clear ethical standards for anyone elected to office and all judges, and enforce it. No loopholes. Create firm prohibitions against profiting from public office, at all. I sigh. I’m so over corruption and profiteering and greed.

“You wouldn’t say stuff like this if you were rich.” Maybe not. It’s unlikely I’ll ever know; I’m not the kind of person who does the sorts of things it takes to become wealthy. Pull on that thread sometime, really take a look at the history of some great fortunes. Get back to me later on the behaviors and actions of people who build great wealth, and how ethical they were.

I breathe in the Spring air. It smells of flowers and trees and mown grass and damp earth. I let go of my vexation with the path America seems to be on, and sit with this lovely Spring moment. Sometimes that has to be enough. Choose your path. I’ll choose mine. We’re each having our own experience.

My getaway to the coast last weekend really re-energized me and refreshed my sense of things. I needed that restful time. I could easily have enjoyed my leisure for days or weeks, even months. I don’t work for a living because I want to. 😆 I’ve got a long list of things I’d rather be doing.

I’ve made choices in life that brought me to this place, and these circumstances. It’s not a bad life. Honestly, it’s pretty good and I have a lot to be grateful for. I’m fortunate. There are opportunities to choose, or choose differently. I walk the path I’m on, doing my best to make good use of my skills and knowledge, to gain more of each, and to live well without doing harm. It’s fucking complicated, sometimes. I think about the many times the temptation toward greed has complicated my own life. Choices.

Squirrels chase each other around a tree, as I watch. It seems an appropriate metaphor somehow. I glance at my watch and wonder if I’m wasting my time. Anyway. It’s a Wednesday, a work day, and it’s time to begin again.