[Seth Says] Once More With Purpose
"Did you hit that dolphin by accident?"
"No, I did it on porpoise."
As the great philosopher Pee-Wee Herman once said, "I meant to do that." Turns out, it actually feels good when we do the things we meant to do, and can feel even better when we do the things we were meant to do. (Which is why they call it meantal health.)
Like most of us flawed human-types, I am not always the best at either of these categories. There are plenty of things I meant to do and then don't quite accomplish. And in the larger sense (SENSE)(or nickels?), even if you have an idea of "what you were meant to do", this can often run up against obstacles like still needing to earn a living or not being bombarded with opportunities or simply not being possessed of infinite time, a common lament.
THIS WEEK WAS A GOOD WEEK
(I didn't have to use my AKeek?) I am having a pretty good week because it has been replete with doing what I meant to do and was meant to do, and boy howdy (you never hear about girl howdy; sexist!) does that make life better even amidst a terrible world. First and foremost, September is the month of my annual Alphabetic Boardgaming Challenge with Debbie, so we've been playing a lot of boardgames together which is something I mean to do more of since it always puts me in a good mood.
I've also been fortunate enough to have a few clients recently who want things that rhyme, and while I'm certainly grateful for my corporate clients since those pay the bills, in my heart of hearts I feel more fulfilled when people hire me to write things that rhyme. There's just much more satisfaction when you feel like you're not just doing something you can do competently, but doing something you were meant to do because you love doing it and are better at it than your average bear (a standard 5.0 on the old ursometer)(yes, bears are metric)(but penguins are imperial).
Still feeling a little faily at communicating with fellow humans I actually know but you can't have everything (where would you keep it?).
WHEN YOU HAVE ELIMINATED THE IMPOSSIBLE
Then you've probably stopped believing the president. While megacorps looking for merger approval or tariff exemptions keep kowtowing to Trump and firing even the most mildly critical voices, I have the benefit of working for a smaller newspaper willing to publish critical voices. Not that I'm always critical; this week's column actually provides
6 Possible Explanations for Trump's birthday letter to Epstein
…and in most of them Trump didn't even write it. Here's a sample:
1) The letter was from a staffer and not Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is too busy and important a man to write letters to his friends, so one of his staffers (perhaps John Barron?) could have taken the initiative to submit a letter to the book on his behalf. Trump bears no responsibility for the letter and was not consulted.
The staffer, left to their own devices, would have been forced to construct a letter based purely on their own understanding of what type of letter Jeffrey Epstein would appreciate from Donald Trump - such as a letter celebrating a shared enjoyment of underaged girls.
2) The letter was written by a political opponent.
This type of letter celebrating wonderful secrets and things in common with a noted sex trafficker of minors could obviously be very damaging to a political career. Technically the letter was written for Epstein's 50th birthday book in 2003, long before Donald Trump launched his political career, but anyone familiar with Donald Trump and his ego would have no reason to doubt that he would eventually run for president.
A young nefarious democrat (maybe even Barack Obama?!?) could have written the letter and submitted it to Jeffrey Epstein's birthday book, counting on the fact that Jeffrey Epstein would never suspect anything was amiss because it would look like a letter from his friend Donald J Trump celebrating their shared enjoyment of wonderful secrets.
Leaving aside the fact that Trump is obviously lying when he says he didn't write the letter, I meant this column to address something I haven't really seen mentioned much, which is that even if you take Donald Trump at his word (absolutely do not do this under any circumstances), that doesn't actually make anything better (in terms of the letter)(but also it makes everything else so much worse and I wish people would stop doing it).
And here's last column in the Banner, about
How to throw a surprise party
TOMORROW IS ONLY A DAY AWAY
Sometimes even less! Tomorrow (now today) should be a fitting capstone to a lovely week, as an old friend I haven't seen in too long is coming by to hang out. Probably I should sleep before that, so as always I thank you for reading, will be back in two weeks with another column, and may you find something to do on and/or with purpose in the coming week. (and if there are any typos in this newsletter I will pretend I meant to that.)
Pinging a 5.5 on the old ursometer,
Seth