Author: Seth Werkheiser

Biden Wins, Trump Loses Popular Vote Twice

Not looking for perfect, just looking for an adult in the room. Someone who Tweets less than a teenager.

America has chosen Democrat Joe Biden as its 46th president, CNN projects, turning at a time of national crisis to a man whose character was forged by aching personal tragedy and who is pledging to restore calm and truth after Donald Trump’s exhausting and manic single term.

CNN

Someone who will denounce white supremeicsts. Someone who doesn’t say, “very nice people on both sides.” Someone who doesn’t say, “it is what it is” in regards to 1,000 dead Americans a day from COVID-19.

Removing protections for LGBTQ+ people?
Muslim bans?
Betsy Devos?

Fuck all that.

Now we just need to work together. Like adults.

They Want the Discord

I’ve believed this for awhile about the elections, about the chaos and tension of the current election, emphasis mine:

“This is exactly what our foreign adversaries want to happen,” Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, who is a Republican, told the editorial board. “Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, what they want is they want people to lose confidence in our democratic institutions. They want people to believe our election wasn’t fair.  “They want to undermine our representative form of democracy. They want to undermine our republic. They want the discord, because when people lose faith in our elections, they don’t believe that the elected leaders are legitimate. And that undermines democracy at its core foundation.”

Honor your oath, Mr. President

Our enemies want to see us question everything. Call everything fake. Everyone is out to get Trump. And even when Biden wins, my god, it’s not like things will simmer down. I don’t think America will ever get out of these choppy waters.

Just Keep Running

I met Eddie back in the 90s, when we were in our late teens, playing shows at colleges and tiny all-ages venues. He was raw energy then, playing drums in a band called Bedford.

Many years later (decades), our paths crossed again, this time because of running. Got reconnected via Instagram, swapping comments and occasional DMs.

I remember bumping into him randomly in Philadelphia, a few days before the Philly Broad Street run. We saw each other on opposite sides of the street, waiting for the light to change. He has the best smirk.

Then one day, he disappeared from Instagram. I didn’t have his number, so I couldn’t reach out. I didn’t think much of it.

A few months later I’m working in a coffee shop in Philadelphia, and he walks in. Completely random.

He gives me a big hug. Ed gives great hugs. “Man, you just dropped off the face of the earth,” I said. “Everything okay?”

That’s when he told me his wife died in a car accident a few months back. In a second his life flashed through my mind – those shows in the 90s, the runs, the Instagram photos. I remember the feeling of my heart collapsing on itself, time standing still.

Ed’s been running 10+ miles everyday for the past 250+ days, as a tribute, a connection with his late wife. He ran a 12 hour ultra-marathon. He did the Warrior Run in NYC, from the upper West Side to Coney Island.

The video above sums it up pretty well.

Follow him on Instagram (@ebgiii).

Onward to Sacrifice and Suffering

I cried.

I want to say, “we got a lot of work to do in America,” but really I mean “white people got a lot of work to do in America.” White dudes, come on.

That work comes in lots of different styles, but it’s work to be done, for us white folk to figure out.

Recently I was asked for my opinion about sponsoring a music event. I took a look at the speaker line up and it was all white people. I recommended we pass, and thankfully my input was accepted.

Not writing that for any pat on the back, because either way I made no sacrifice, no loss. Still, trying my best to look past the default white experience in everything, and approach things as if I would have to sacrifice, if I would suffer loss.

The Inbox is Work

Love this, in the most depressing away ever…

… office workers have come to think of email as non-work, or partial-work, or at least work that shouldn’t necessary be compensated, or performed during work hours. In her study of office workers, she hears a similar explanation over and over again for why employees spend their Sunday nights and weekday evenings attending to their inboxes: it would be wasteful to spend the workday emailing, and clearing an inbox ahead of time means the workday itself is less stressful.

how email became work

I make a point during the week to close all my email (and Slack) to work on specific tasks. If I don’t, the allure will be there to check, to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

People will say, “I HAVE TO ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE!”

But you’re not available when you’re at the dentist. Or in a work meeting / zoom call, right? When you take your animal to the vet. When you’re driving.

Those are all things where you need to be fully present, yet doing our work – the thing we get PAID TO DO, to earn a living – we allow ourselves to be semi-present, constantly being distracted by incoming notifications.

Lockdowns

Well, England is locking down again. Germany is locked down.

The COVID-19 virus is rampant, cases up everywhere, things are very much not “back to normal.”

Twice in the last week I’ve seen totally unmasked people in my local grocery store. SIGH.

I told the cashier I kept my distance from the one person without a mask, and she replied, “does that even work?”

“Well,” I replied, “I’m not in the hospital, so I’m gonna stick with it.”

Oh, and this: ‘More than 2,500 new COVID-19 cases reported in Pennsylvania‘

The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed an additional 2,510 positive coronavirus cases Saturday — bringing the state’s total to 208,027. Officials said the state’s daily increases are now the highest they have been since the pandemic began.

Too Fucking Much

Is there such a thing as a new-event fatigue? I mean, every time I glance at my social media feed there’s a dozen new announcements for virtual conferences, events, races, and live streams.

Adobe Max just did a thing, with a bunch of great speakers, and it was all free, and like, I just did not have the bandwidth to pause for an hour and watch something… in the middle of the day. I guess I could go back and watch, but there’s probably 13 new things for my eyeballs to ingest in the past hour.

I’ve signed up a few virtual races and every one of them is a nervous vomiting of emails, with links, dates, codes, and mystical instructions, some of which include screen shots (like a fucking WikiHow article).

Emails about signing up for new health care, too.
And I think I need to renew my car registration.

Oh, and I think I need to plan for a coup, too? And stock up on survival gear, and a AM/FM radio in case civilization collapses next week.

Wait, will that interfere with that virtual 5K I signed up for?

Will Philadelphia burn the ground?
Will another Black person be gunned down by police in the next 12 minutes (probably)?
Will more disinformation spread? Will any of this shit get better?

Gotta stay on top of my inbox, though. Good thing I signed up for a virtual seminar for “Staying Productive While Your Country Implodes Upon Itself Like a Dying Star.”

How Do We Recover?

This is madness:

Medical professionals have publicly called on the president to discontinue his rallies. Seventy-five doctors led by the Committee to Protect Medicare, a health-care advocacy group, signed a letter last week asking Trump to cancel one in Erie. And on Monday, Meaghan Reid, an emergency physician in Drexel Hill, hosted a virtual news conference again asking the president to stop.

Trump blitzes Pennsylvania with 3 rallies as coronavirus spikes lead to calls for him to stop

Seventy five DOCTORS – people who went to school for a zillion years, paid a boat load of money, working long hours, made so many sacrifices – got together and said this!

I think the biggest thing I keep coming back to during these *unprecedented times* is this; there was a time when you could go to bed at night knowing grown ups were running the show, and watching out for everyone. Sure, there are policy differences, but we still listened to science.

“We cannot rely on herd immunity,” (Pennsylvania’s health secretary Dr. Rachel) Levine said. “That is not a good public health strategy.”

Like, we’re seriously not wearing masks. And then when a vaccine is available, there’s going to be so much disinformation out there on how it was developed by liberals, or aliens, or Hollywood elites.

I mean, 2,751 case today.

No Quitting

Timely words from track and field Olympian Tianna Bee:

“Whatever it is you’re facing-whatever the adversity or the obstacle- there is a solution. Yes. There is. The question is- are you going to take quitting off the table in order to free up the space needed for the creativity and new perspective to find it.”

Unbroken

During this season of a maddening political world, a national shit show during a pandemic, racial injustice, poverty and about a million other things – quitting isn’t an option. Not for Bee, not for any of us.

There are days of rest, tears, and eating cake out of a baking tin at 9pm on occasion, but then it’s back at it.

Quitting is off the table.