Today in My Brain

You know, I could have posted yesterday, and thought I probably would, but then completely forgot about it.  I sincerely hope that all of you managed to get through your days nonetheless ...

Today I'm going to share another Three on Thursday post, because why not?  I have three things happening in my brain today so that's a good start.

Thing #1 - I have decided that I am going to work harder to embrace "OK."  I tend to be a perfectionist more with myself than with anything else to be honest.  As a result, I seldom reach the great heights that I think I should, and often end up in the depths below.  Whereas, it recently occurred to me that "OK" is absolutely fine, and most of life is lived in "OK."  If things are OK, it means they are neither magnificent nor dreadful.  So I'm going to try and embrace that concept.  If things head downwards, well, they do; but if they go up, it's just a bonus!

Thing #2 - Unless you have been specifically asked to assist/comment/whatever, the five words you should keep to yourself are "You really should do [this]."  Nothing is more annoying than having an upsetting or negative experience, or not getting the result you'd hoped to get, than having a third party who was not involved and whom you did not ask, say this to you.  Often the SHOULD is not something you could have done/said anyhow, and other times, you have already figured it out yourself.  Think whatever you want to think about what someone else SHOULD do or say, but unless they ask you, just keep it tucked away with the other golden nuggets of wisdom in your brain.

Thing #3 - Everything is political.  I remember the first class I took in Political Science in college.  The professor gave us an assignment for the next class, which was to record every single thing that was political in our day, to see how much each of us felt politics was a regular part of our lives.  Everyone came to the next class with really good contributions, but then the professor took us through his day.  It went something like this:  

I get up at 8 a.m. each morning.  (The time zones are set and agreed to by people in organizations other than myself.)  I brush my teeth.  (Water provison and regulation is set by the town, state, and federal government; toothbrush manufacure follows national guidelines.)  I turn on the radio while I get dressed.  (The Federal Communcations Commission controls what goes over the airwaves.)  

And he went on like this throughout the entirety of a day.  Granted, this was exrtreme in its detail and scope, but what he was trying to emphasize was that for as much as people claim to be disinterested or not involved in politics, or for as much as they think politics should only be brought into certain types of discussions, that politics is in fact everywhere around us all of the time.  And that ignoring politics implies a certain degree of privilege.  Whenever I see someone getting upset because a designer/dyer/knitter expresses a political opinion, and others immediately say, "Keep politics out of knitting," I think of this lesson.  It was an interesting exercise, to say the least.

That's it for Today in My Brain.  I hope yours is keeping you company as well.  😉