True Nobility, The Lovely Drug of Kindness, COVID Test Results, Making Sense in a Time of Senselessness

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
— Ernest Hemingway

5:32 a.m. good morning, my brothers, sisters, mothers, lovers, and others; how are you? I’m fine; I appreciate you asking.  Kindness is a beautiful thing.  I shared some news about my little bit of depression, and my friends, readers, and strangers came out in spades.

I got more nice emails, texts, and private messages, thanking me for vulnerable soup; it was an incredible show of support during my “down” time.  The good news is all of that good mojo moved me from where I was to where I am now. I’m in a beautiful place, and so if you did take a moment, I could not thank you enough; words matter.  Kindness is a lovely drug.

I joined my board meeting via Zoom.  All others were in attendance in downtown Denver; I stayed home due to my concern about having contracted COVID.   I must say, saving the drive time was nice, but I missed seeing my friends.  We spoke of loyalty, how to engage the public to share your culture and core values.  We are looking to add to our team; I’m ‘going to play the role of recruiter and find a couple of people that want to join our Rolling Stones of the Insurance Industry band.  If you know a quality commercial account manager in the Midwest, a referral is appreciated.

The meeting ended; I did some work cleaning up email, finished up a couple of projects, grabbed a bite, did some fishing for the new teammates, and then my wife and I headed to get our COVID Rapid test.  We chose the AFC clinic in Littleton; it was quick, painless; I like Qtips, and since we did the anal test, it was not bad.  Oh no, a joke, words meant to elicit a smile, did it work.  As far as I know, there is no anal test; we did the nose Q-tip, and it is painless.

The test took ten minutes, we both had a negative outcome, which means we will be getting on a plane in a couple of hours and flying back east to see our Midwest people. That is the first test I received since getting vaccinated, I wanted to be observant of my fellow passengers, and we will  be doing a lot of hugging and loving; we needed to make sure we were “clean.”

We were asked if we were exposed; here’s a question. How do you know if you were exposed?  If this is as radical of a virus as they claim, shouldn’t we all be stricken with this delta tau delta (for you, Greg) variant?  I mean, here’s the thing, we hosted a couple as we do many nights; unbeknownst to us, the wife was diagnosed the following day and quarantined for 14 days.  She had no symptoms, she didn’t feel the need to scare us, we were feeling great, so two weeks to the day of her visit, we saw her and her husband at our weekend wedding.

We learned of her situation, thought about all the times we have been close or encountered COVID, and thought, this stuff does not like us. So at some point in our history, we pissed off COVID, and she wanted nothing to do with our bodies. I would love to share how to get on the wrong side of COVID, but I honestly don’t know.  All I can say is we have been living our lives with a bent for freedom since May of 2020, living, watching music, hugging friends, not doing what they recommend unless mandated, and we are allergic to that Bat thingy.  If a person should have gotten the disease, it should have been us.

But alas, we did contract COVID last year.  We were heading back to my daughter’s wedding, and my sister was concerned about our relaxed lifestyle and our 81-year-old parents.  I understood; we visited a medical clinic before going home and discovered that we had short and long-term antibodies.  But, we never had a symptom, and we were around many, many people.  No one we knew in our large glorious pod of powerful and loving people was ever stricken, so anecdotal I know, but I’m suspect of the CDC and not interested in boosting something that does not like my wife or me.

Some of you just got angry; I’m sorry, I’m sharing out COVID journey; I know people who have suffered, one of my good friends, Patrick, is a long hauler.  He was one of the fittest men I knew before getting snared. He’s now a long hauler, he can’t be around people, his immune system is pissed off; I pray for him daily, why him and not us?  If we have learned anything, COVID is a picky bitch.

On the way to the clinic, we listened to NPR; they talked about doctors giving misinformation about ivermectin. As a result, they want to remove their license to practice medicine.  But hold on, isn’t their science that shows ivermectin to be one solution to fighting COVID?  Also, who get’s to deem misinformation?  Is the minister of misinformation Dr. Tony the end all, be all.  That guy has flipped more times than worn-out penny. 

We listened to more NPR; I like to see how stories are spun, and since I have logic and a brain, I can counter many things they pose as facts. However, if you listen, they have a framing tool that is a little, well, maybe more than a little slanted. So don’t believe everything you hear, my friends, and for goodness sake, don’t believe everything you read, use your mind, use your brain; God gave you one as he did me, and I’m just sharing my views and ideas on this current state of society.

Well, words that are a little more joyful and engaging, you did this, and I thank you.   Maybe if you sense someone is feeling a little down, you do as my community did and lift them up.  We, humans, are overall a good bunch; I know there are outliers, people that take advantage of others’ kindness, treasure, and other evil beings, but I choose to believe in the good of humanity.  

I’ll be writing from the beautiful state of Indiana tomorrow. So many have reached out to connect; I’ll set up my calendar on the ride home, my time will be jammed with family, friends, clients, and our teammates.  I’ll miss our western community, but I look forward to the peace, love, and understanding of my midwestern possie.  Peace, much love, and thank you’s to those that appreciate the words, ideas, views of this human being.  I’m humbled, and that is a beautiful feeling.  Humility at times is grossly underrated.

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
— Ernest Hemingway