BETTER LIVING: WHAT TO ADD, WHAT TO SUBTRACT

Better living asks one question: Better than what?

Answer that and you’ll feel better immediately, if not sooner.

Too often the answer is, “Better than the people I don’t like.”

But, that’s the wrong answer. So is, “I want to live better than the people who don’t like me.”

In both answers, the numbers are too big. Who you don’t like, and who doesn’t like you, are not part of the better living math equation.

If that’s your answer, do the subtraction. But don’t forget to add something in their place.

Like what?

Take a close minded bigot, for example.

Start with what it takes to keep up with bigotry. If sounds exhausting.

“a person who is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.”

A bigot with an overflowing need to express their bigotry in new and creative ways will eventually run out of targets to offend.

By the end of their bigot life, all that’s left is going after other bigots. When that happens, they’ve got a lot of explaining to do to their bigot buddies.

“Hey man, stop bashing Asians.”

“Don’t tell me who to hate, man.”

“I’m telling you to stop bashing Asians.”

“Asking, or telling, man.”

“Keep it up and you’ll get bashed.”

‘Oh, okay tough guy.”

Better Living Is A Choice

Without a target to focus on, a bigot is a normal idiot moving from one failure to the next. Stupidity needs help to stay focused.

“I’m taking a Spanish language immersion trip.”

“A what?”

“An immersion trip where I live in a Spanish speaking country and learn the language out of necessity.”

“Why would you do that?”

“To learn Spanish.”

“You mean Mexican?”

“Yes, they speak Spanish in Mexico and that’s where I’m going.”

“To learn Mexican when I can understand you fine right now.”

“I don’t think you do.”

“You come around here like you’re something special, now you’re trying to be blingual.”

“You mean bilingual?”

“I don’t mean bi-anything and you can keep your boyfriends to yourself.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend, I have a wife.”

“Does she know you want to go bi-something?”

“Bilingual?”

“That even sounds nasty when you say it.”

“Eres un tonto.”

“Who are you calling a fool?”

Add A Naked Gym Guy

During the covid pandemic, naked gym guys have had to find new places to parade.

Their biggest problem is context. What is their new excuse to get naked in public and stay that way longer than necessary?

Aside from the locker room, gym guys have had a hard time maintaining their gains. Strong people stay strong by doing strong things, like lifting weights. Though not all weight lifters are that strong, they still look strong.

Strong people find a way to stay strong, but naked gym guy is left out in the cold.

They can’t be Naked Costco Guy, or Naked Safeway Guy. Naked Starbucks guy ordering a Venti Americano with an add-shot? Spill that and you might need an ambulance along with the cops who will be called.

Naked Hiking Guy? That’s a problem before the first step. You think poison oak on your leg is a problem? If you’re found in the woods prancing around naked you might get dragged through a patch.

What fits better, a sweatsuit, or a full body bubbling rash?

The best Naked Gym Guy can do it transition to Naked Garage Guy. Just be careful using a sander. A mistake with a sander leaves a rash, too.

Better Living Role Model

A role model has one job, one role, and that’s to be a good example for the rest of us.

Most of the time the work of role modeling starts with good old mom and dad.

The hard working, dedicated, family duo show early what it means to be stand-up people.

Then dad takes a few days off without saying anything and the wife and kids see him on Jan 6 storming the capitol. And he comes back home and tells his kids he will shoot them if they turn him in.

Doesn’t sound like material for a better life any of them look forward to, but it’s not as grand a fail as Texas Ted Cruz.

With the state that elected him as a U.S. Senator, one of 100 in the country, in the deep freeze without water or power, he needed some time to figure out how best to do the job he was elected to do.

And nothing clears the legislative mind like a run to Cancun and back.

Cruz flew back to Houston Thursday, a day after he and his family were photographed boarding a jet for Cancun and text messages from his wife, Heidi, revealed they told friends they were abandoning the “FREEZING” weather and heading to the Ritz-Carlton resort in Cancun.

At the same time, nothing says “You matter,” better than other elected officials doing work outside their districts to benefit Americans in distress.

“When disaster strikes, this is not just an issue for Texans; this is an issue for our entire country,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. “And our whole country needs to come and rally together behind the needs of Texans all across this state.” 

She added: “That’s the New York spirit, that’s the Texas spirit, and that’s the American spirit.”

Go ahead and add the spirit of better living to the rest of the day.

It can’t hurt.