I am writing about people over 50. Making stuff more complex is “weightlifting bros”, back row very fit young men armed with tons of data & skepticism of health sciences forged from yrs of doing their own thing. They buttress anti vaccine crowd despite very different risk profile
(For those asking, no I myself won't be getting a booster. Since I got a rather un-fun, & rare, side effect from the original vaccine)
Another way of thinking about all this is, "If all someone feels they have to hang their hat on, identity wise, is a reckless personal move, then that is really sad"
Which is the ethos I wrote about in my book, in the chapter titled "Respect, Recklessness, and Rebellion"
PS: 55 comments on the piece already, way more than any of my other Substack pieces. I want to respond, but ack! 55 comments! Thanks to everyone, but I am not sure I can read all of them!
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As someone who has literally been walking around country, I can tell you Virginia wasn’t a fluke. Unless something radically changes (mostly with a Covid crisis they can’t control), Dems gonna get crushed in 2022
Not sure there is really anything they can do about it though. 1/
It isn’t that anyone particularly loves GOP, they mostly don’t. It is that the country feels “off” & stuff feels “weird”. Again. Most of this is about a Covid crisis Biden pitched the electorate he was gonna get under control & return us to Normal. But normal hasn’t returned 2/
Also a lot of people jumped on team Biden because he wasn’t Trump. They never loved him, but he wasn’t Chaos, ranting, & volatility. He was a normal dude promising normal stuff. But That hasn’t, in their minds, materialized. Stuff is still crazy, weird, & wrong. 3/
I get the downtown renovation project (good!) has a bench every x feet requirement (also good!), but could you have thought a little more about placement. And maybe sat in them first
Current view is kinda nice because the idling garbage truck & F450 filling up, are gone
So begins my 17 miles across Orlando. In a McDonald’s with a homeless guy & fashionable Japanese tourist. Different place (grew up near here) then where else I walked so far. Less planned, more ad hock dealing with growth
If I make it will end up somewhere north of here tonight
Post coup, Official name is now Democratic People’s Republic of Chocolate
Man. I just wanna be kept dry & out of sun. Not part of some art project to pretend most of the area doesn’t have the feel of an airport grounds
Had my Substack for a month, & so far got a lot of nice feedback
When i started it didn’t known where exactly I would take it, but now I do
I am going to focus on the walking America series & since I do more in these towns than just walk expand it from just short essays 1/
So in addition to a short essay about what I saw/thought walking across X, I will add some things like “best dive bar in X” & “best strip mall ethnic food in X”, best McDonald’s
My tastes are not about best food or best IPA, but about best vibe, “ambiance, & community 2/
I don’t want it to be a normal travel thing, but I am a traveler, so. It can’t be entirely not that
Also, I will be expanding to stuff outside of US, as COVID restrictions lesson. Like walking in Quito, Istanbul, & Bucharest. And hopefully eventually a long walking in Vietnam 3/