Everything&Nothing: A Collection of Thoughts

Last night, I stumbled across this video of a young woman responding to a comment about white women getting married before they even graduate nursing school. She didn’t hold back—her take was that a man who proposes to a woman while she’s still in nursing school is just “securing the bag,” plain and simple. In other words, he’s locking down a future nurse’s paycheck while she’s still learning how to stick IVs in people’s arms. She went on to say that she knows all about these types of men because her coworkers complain about them constantly. One example? A coworker who could only take eight weeks of maternity leave because her husband doesn’t make enough to cover the bills. The implication: that dude married her for the money, not the love. Now, I’m not saying she’s wrong. I’m saying, let’s flip this scenario around for a second. Imagine a man making a video telling other men that women who accept marriage proposals while he’s in law school, med school, or on the brink of going pro i...

Art Imitates life and not the other way 'round. People Create art from what we know of the world.  Art isn't showing us something we haven't already seen. Stories can't be written about things never experienced or learned.  Heroes chasing monsters; People falling in love Starry Night or the Mona Lisa. It's all based on what the known universe has already shown us. Strip away the aesthetics of a hero and what's left?  The concept of morality, justice, right and wrong. Strip away the aesthetics of a monster and what's left?  The concept of immorality, injustice, hate, fear, and darkness. All things found within the human condition. 12 different films are based on a real man that perpetrated heinous acts of violence. Ed Gein, for all intents and purposes, was a monster. Photos of war, paintings of flowers, and sculptures of the male and female form all imitate life. Life doesn't imitate are, no, it's the other way 'round.

Life is a funny thing, you know? One minute things are going fine then the next minute there's a five alarm fire in the tiny dumpster you call your life and things seem really dark and hopeless.  Last year, around this same time, I was staying with my dad. To preface this story for anyone who isn't in the know, when the pandemic first started I was working a job in construction staffing and living on my own. At that point in time, my life was finally getting back on track from all the other setbacks and felt like I was going to be alright.  Then Covid made landfall in America and spread like wildfire. It wasn't a huge issue at first because it hadn't spread, but as more and more people got sick and the lockdown looming, I decided that I should hold off on getting a car, I didn't have one, and hang on to that money in case I got laid off.  Sure enough I found myself laid off and collecting unemployment. It wasn't bad because it was a lot of money. The problem cam...

  It's been a while since I've actually written anything, but I came across this article that lit a fire under my ass, so here's my first post for 2023!  I was scrolling through my Google News feed on my walk to the grocery store when I came across this article about a 14-year-old work the register at a fast food joint. Obviously this piqued my curiosity or I wouldn't been sitting here blogging about it, so I gave it a read.  Now, before I assume my position on my soapbox, I should probably mention that I've been working in some way shape or form since I was about 10-years-old. The first job I ever had was cutting grass. I know some people might not think this is a job, but remind me again what it is that landscapers do? Oh yeah, yardwork, so it was a job. I remember my dad taking me outside and showing me how to use the mower. Back then we didn't have the one with a motor. Oh no, we had the one with two wheels that ran on the power of whoever was pushing it and...