PP #39: You Can Still Be A Star
Project: Pioneer #39, June 19, 2024 Wednesday 2pm
We often look back at our childhood dreams to be a rock star, sports star, or a hero—someone important, someone admired and idolized. We wish we’d done more when we were young—practiced harder, whatever. The good news is that it’s still possible, even if you’re old. I’ll tell you how in this post.
Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Most posts are free, more personal posts are to reward our loyal paid subscribers. You can listen to and subscribe to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others).
It’s been big hot here in pioneer-land, like everywhere else, pretty much. I’m trying to provision additional generator fuel (gasoline, propane) in case we have power outages. Although, White House has held up well. Giavana and I prefer fresh air and open windows in our RV home. (Pia, our little Bichon is like, “F dat, put some air on.”) We’ve been able to avoid the AC except for the worst of it (over 90F). We’re using two of these cheap, small, powerful, clip-on battery/USB fans to circulate air and they’re awesome. We’re shaded under the green forest canopy, which helps (and hurts, see below!)
We have August heat in June, not good. It’s bringing the ants that are usually invasive in the dog-days of late summer, so that’s been the latest battlefront. I put down a perimeter barrier in the early spring, and that had held up well until recently. I couldn’t understand how they were getting around it—until I looked up. Yep, the little buggers were parachuting in from the trees overhead. I went up on the roof, and there they were. Roof barrier now deployed! We also use the excellent and effective Terro bait traps at strategic areas inside. Giavana hates the ants, but I tell her to love them, because they’re not spiders. She’d lose it if we had this many spiders.
Back to our topic in this pioneer post. Are you intrigued that you may still have a shot to be a unicorn, a stand-out, a hero and star? Here’s the deal. Here’s your opportunity, and you don’t even have to work out in this heat or break a sweat. That’s crazy, since rock stars and sports stars are very rare breeds, a very small part of society.
For example, my son is a hero, a star in this world. He graduated from a major university, but then decided to go into the Marine Corps as a grunt (not an officer!) and go fight for us as a machine gunner in Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan. The disabilities he came away with cost him his dream of becoming a state trooper. He’ll never be the same, but he’ll always be a hero. He’s also a loving single father to two precious little girls. Hero. Rock star. I see how people look at him in admiration.
These days, there’s almost a complete lack of ethics and morality. It seems virtually non-existent. Sure, lots of people “think” they are, but not even close. It’s all “Imma do what’s good for me,” and “By the way F your feelings, snowflake.” By the way, if hearing someone at the Quickie Mart speak Spanish is triggering for you, you might actually be the snowflake.
It seems the folks we used to hold up as the gold standard of integrity (law enforcement, judges, religious leaders…) are now just as bad as everyone else. It’s exacerbated by the strategic divisiveness tactics carpet-bombed on us as part of the Trump/Bannon strategy of 2015-current. Make no mistake, it was on a slide even before then, but far worse now. It feels like too many people cast aside any semblance of goodness in the race to be rich like Elon. Nobody needs that much money, but we need more ethical people.
It’s the greed, the lust for more, the envy of others that drives much of unethical behavior. Financial stress is the top reason for relationship problems and depression. Want to fix that? Keep an eye on this upcoming book by my fellow Wild Lake author, the guy who wrote Kiss Your Money Hello (and Financial Stress Goodbye).
We excuse away bad acts. “Well, my spouse hasn’t shown interest in me and thus probably has someone on the side so I’m going to go for it.” It feeds on itself, as it’s easier to feel justified and “normal morality” when “everyone else is doing it.” Alcohol and drugs help (hurt).
I’m no saint, at least not in my past. I remember just a few individuals in my bad boy life that always seemed morally and ethically pure. We called them “goody-goodies” and pitied them for missing out on all the fun we were having. Secretly though, I always admired them, and knew I just wasn’t strong enough to be like that. It was easy to excuse away, though. Maybe they had better parents, or had the easy life with money so they didn’t have to steal things or sell illegal goods, or their spouse/partner was so good to them they didn’t have to cheat. That was never it. They were just—good. They were my secret heroes and heroines.
I always knew when I was doing wrong, but thought I was smart and often got away with it. Nobody knew. Wrong. I knew. I hated myself. God knew. You can never escape those two, yourself and God!
Anyway, that’s where you come in. Think about it. Start making little changes. Be moral, be ethical, even in the small things each day. Be a messiah, be a disciple, be legendary. There are hardly any, so you will stand out. Even if you’re already almost there, the difference will be immediately noticeable to everyone around you. Be kinder. Recognize when you’re hating on someone simply because they’re different from you. Help those less fortunate. Give. Be forgiving. Smile at someone who seems to be having a bad day, and ask them if they need help. Walk a mile in the shoes of others in every daily thing. Give up the lust for possessions. Give the benefit of the doubt rather than jumping to conclusions.
Messiah: A leader or savior of a particular group or cause.
Disciple: A follower or student of a teacher, leader, or philosopher.
Imagine if enough people started to at least work on this as a daily habit. A new messiah movement of good! We could reverse the course of our current society and make this world a far better place to live. Imagine all the people, living life in peace. Make small changes every day, heal old rifts. Change is hard, making new habits is hard, and that’s how you can be a star in this life, a standout, someone others whisper about in admiration or quietly respect and aspire to be like. The world certainly needs this right now, to fight back against a seeming tidal wave of horrible, uncaring, greedy, angry, hateful people. This is how we win, this is how we change the world back to goodness and almost paradise.
And hey, if that rapturing happens to happen, you’ll be going in the right direction, movin’ on up. I hope to see you there. Let’s do this. You’ll recognize your fellow messiahs and disciples out there—they’ll be the ones smiling instead of scowling, because being good feels good. Think of being remembered for unusual goodness, as we remember Ghandi, Buddah, Mother Teresa, Dalai Lama, certainly and most of all Jesus.
PS and by the way, my other two kids (daughters) are heroes too. Heroines. They’ve done what was asked of them as kids, got good grades, and they work their butts off in regular, full-time jobs as well as part-time jobs, all while raising young children. My son-in-law as well, who is also a Marine that served in combat with my son. They’re kind, and giving, and loving. Those are heroes and heroines, certainly mine. They’re quiet, unknown rock stars in this world, and you can be too, if you’re not already.
What’s Next?
So many projects, ugh. But lots of stuff ahead to look forward to—summer concerts/festivals, beach vacation. We’re still hustling on our endeavors; Giavana working the dual citizenship, both of us involved in democracy-saving efforts leading up to November, both of us working on backup plans in case the worst happens and that fails. If Trump wins, it’s time to GTF outta Dodge.
If he loses, we maybe wait a bit to see what kind of violence ensues. If things seem safe, and this horrible, hateful period in our history is about to pass and this group of people pushed back under their rocks, we start to focus on taking measures to survive climate. That means investments in big solar, water collection/purification/storage systems for the White House, and more.
I do hope to get that intriguing what-if post done! It requires a lot of thought and research, and I don’t want it half-baked.
This pioneer journey continues… Don’t forget, commenting is now turned on for everyone on these free posts. Let’s interact!
Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness. —Anne Frank
The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness. —Dalai Lama
Goodness is the only investment that never fails. —Henry David Thoreau
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