BE SMART OR BE DEAD, BLUE BLOOD

“Be smart or be dead,” comes from a cop show I watch with my wife.

It could be any cop show watched with any wife as long as Tom Selleck is in it.

In a recent episode a retired cop stops some shady punk from robbing a cashier by pulling his gun, aiming it at the robber’s face, and saying those magical words.

Just like you and I would do, right?

Don’t all good Americans carry a heater for just such emergencies, the sort of situations that demand a smart action command.

My favorite is, “STOP!”

After doing ‘my research’ I’ve found that the majority of people like to feel they are smart.

It’s a deep belief they share with one another with no concern for evidence, education, or experience.

I’ll save you a click on the research link, and not because I think you are lazy and stupid:

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. Essentially, low ability people do not possess the skills needed to recognize their own incompetence. The combination of poor self-awareness and low cognitive ability leads them to overestimate their own capabilities.

Does this sound a little superior, a little judgy?

Later in Blue Bloods the old man who stopped the robbery said, “It made me feel something. It made me feel relevant again.”

Do all cops base relevancy on their ability to maintain law and order, or just TV cops?

I choose to believe the old cop was glad he didn’t shoot the robber in the face. We know all about splatter-zone from CSI shows.

Be smarter than that.

Messy Life?

Welcome to the show called Real Life, and it’s messy. Calling it Messy Life ruins the fun for everyone.

But you know that. So does the electrostatic duster and Hepa-filter vacuum.

What we never know is the kind of mess we’ll encounter.

“What do I/we have to clean up now,” is a common refrain, sometimes with extra words.

Then there are the other things to clean up, the hard things, the sort of things that don’t take to brooms or brushes, hot water or soap.

You change your mind.

You thought this, then learned it was that. So you changed your mind, cleaned up the raggedy edges of understanding, and took a weight off.

This happens when education, experience, and evidence supplied at the eighth grade level starts to make sense.

Why eighth grade? I like eighth grade. That and:

The average reader can fully comprehend a text with a reading grade level eight. So if your text has an eighth grade Flesch Kincaid level, your text is easy to read and accessible. The most readable web content reaches the widest audience. We recommend aiming for a Flesch Kincaid grade between 8 and 10. 

The smart part of Be Smart or Be Dead is based on ambition, inspiration, and the desire you felt when you started eighth grade, apparently, and left it all there.

The dead part points to the areas in your life that used to be more lively. You don’t get to die on this blog, you’ll just feel dead, or at least deadened.

Get in touch with those deadened parts, the creative fun stuff that adds vitality and excitement to life, and share it with your partner.

Take note of what they enjoy doing on their downtime, the hours away from everything, and how to make it more relevant.

Does that straighten everything up? Clear a little space up there?

It’s only messy if that’s all you look for, white glove.

Be Smart Like The Dalai Lama

Nothing good happens overnight. It’s the long haul of change and improvement that civilizations evolve with.

It starts with changing an attitude, an opinion, instilled by professional communicators.

First it was some caveman insisting the circular wheel was not superior to the square wheel. Down the line it was a doctor recommending menthol cigarettes for smokers’ sore throat.

Then it became celebrity barkers, you know, TV men and women.

They all look better than you and I, the men well dressed, the women a portrait of mid-life perfection.

The men portray the feeling of selling you an important piece to a better life; the women want you to feel the urgency of their words, the absolute necessity of their message. Stay tuned for more.

Then there’s the Dalai Lama tweeting about the education system fostering inner peace, compassion and non-violence.

Let’s agree that the Dalai Lama did not play eighth grade football where some kids had grown to their adult size while others were still fifth grade size.

Kids got crushed and got up and it was amazing.

Peace of mind wasn’t a goal then, but it should be now. Especially after seeing how quickly people can go off.

After weighing the evidence presented by the most authoritative sources available, including Blue Bloods, Jerry, and the Dalai Lama, my feelings of Be Smart or Be Dead has changed.

Changed right now from the intended meaning, to the practical, to the long term. Just like that.

We know a sedentary lifestyle is a killer. Be dead. So is a stressful lifestyle of constant panic to do more and more and more, and let’s go over there and there and there. Be smart.

We know over-eating high fat and high carb food is the road to immobility. Be dead. So is pounding your bones to dust running and running and running and I need new shoes. Be smart.

We know, at least you should know, that stuffing emotions down as far as you can, will eventually come to a head, or a heart.

In closing, let’s agree on one last thing: In America we can change our minds and talk about it.

It’s okay to change your mind and get a covid vaccine and wear a mask. We salute you.

It’s okay to change your mind about Jan. 6 and hold people to the same basic standards you live by.

The big one, the most important thing on a huge picture, is watching who wants to work on voting, who wants to make elections more difficult for voters.

Voter suppression is not an American value. If you didn’t know, now you do. Why?

Because you are smart enough to be smart, smart guy.