Morning thoughts:

I tried this morning to think of all the ways the world was a mess. I quickly stopped myself and thought about something I was grateful for instead. I immediately thought about my family and especially my boys, Quiller, Rider, and Silas. I love even simply typing their names.

I’m grateful for their smiles, their laughter. They carry on, like bees in this hive, laboring without a single complaint. Of course, their labor is play. But nonetheless they do their duties effortlessly and with the kind of conviction that is rarely seen.

Sadly, I then thought about how we don’t value families in our society. Buying a home for my family in Silicon Valley was impossible. I work in tech and make, or have made, a tech salary. I don’t understand how any teacher, librarian, day care provider, laundromat owner, dishwasher, or artist could barely keep their heads above water when I couldn’t afford to invest.

The numbers are true. And even worse we’re in a retirement crisis. In 1980 90% of workers had some kind of pension, that’s now below 15% of workers. The workers’ rights have been deteriorating right in front of our eyes. And now we’re on a precipice, because there’s more.

We are living longer. No one wants to talk about it but living longer is actually terrible for our social economics. We have the largest generation in history, the baby boomers, who then had a ton of kids creating two even larger generations. Think about this: In 1970 the world’s population was 3,695,390,336, today it’s 8,100,191,266. (you can always check at the World Population Project.)

Living longer without a plan

We never expected that globalization would light an insatiable fire under the baby boomers to drive economic growth through the roof. Nor did we expect to create the types of luxurious wealth that the Rockefellers building the railroads and stealing land could only dream of.

Now we have the Waltons who alone own full percentage points of the world’s wealth. The ENTIRE WORLD. Remember how many more people are on this rock now? And we’re letting ONE FAMILY dance around like kings in a global fiefdom.

Putin gets it. So do other scary figures. This is the moment that Batman and the Avengers were warning us about. This is destabilization.

The conviction my kids hold for their service is missing throughout our capitalistic system. We’re not convinced that our wealth can cure, heal, and or relieve the world of suffering. We’re building rockets. Like some other rock is going to change our destiny of too many people and too little care.

We all fucking saw this coming

In 2001 Michael Moore makes a movie about how our healthcare system has destroyed 1 in 5 Americans’ economic livelihoods. 23 years later, lives are still easily and quickly destroyed by a broken healthcare system (which also sucks btw when ranked against other developed nations).

Our representatives have been talking about the collapse of Social Security since I was born. Nothing has been done except that time the GOP tied its debt ceiling to inflation which pretty much made damn sure the system would collapse faster by doing so. We’ll never know what their intention was but I’m guessing they had a hunch that inflation would skyrocket as rich people diverted the majority of the world’s wealth into phallic rocket businesses.

These rich people are jerks :rocket:

One rocket man, who I won’t name because honestly why would anyone write his name. He had the animosity to challenge the United Nations that if they could give him a plan to fix world hunger he’d pay for it and then they gave him a plan and he didn’t pay for it. Instead, he’s getting a check from Uncle Sam for his satellite and space station deliveries.

Another rocket man, who I won’t name, built a yacht so big it has TWO HELICOPTER PADS. They couldn’t get it out of the sound it was built at in Washington so they took out a bridge to sail it. The bridge connected a small town to another two. This man’s private boat separated families, kept kids from school and friends, for what? A tan?

Let’s loop back around to gratitude (I really did start writing this thinking it was going to be positive. Whatever.)

My next thought after thinking about what I was grateful for was about how lovely and kind and generous my children are. Even when I fuck up. Which, if you’re a parent, you know what I mean. We make lots of mistakes. My children let me know but they let it go. I mean, just think about that. They tell me directly while it’s happening. Then they tell me later why it upset them. Then they drop it and move on with grace. Anyone who has a therapist knows this process well.

I thought about how these little bodies that effortlessly orbit around my larger body. How this little constellation sees the universe. How they might need my gravitational pull but it’s growing weaker.

I thought about how I could apply their perspective to putting myself out there again and looking for my next employer. I thought about what Quiller would think was cool (he’s our artist). What Rider would think was rad (he’s our race car driver, coolest-kid-on-the-block kid). And what Silas might find funny and cute (because Silas is our family comedian and one of the world’s greatest snugglers).

Just like we do in design. I plan to use these personas. The ones I know so well. To revamp my portfolio for maybe the 3rd time in the last 10 years.

Starting. Now.

~ Jennings

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Photo Credit: Stuart Pearce, YachtShot