reflecting and thanking

it's all about you

A fortnight from today, 19 May at 1200-1300 eastern, Adam Oler will discuss Israel of late. I sent a link early yesterday which you’ll find in Notes or ask me for it. Do invite your friends and colleagues to our Timely Topics online discussions as that’s the goal—to provide another means to expand our measured civic discussions.

You undoubtably wonder what the relationship is between these two pictures. The first was walking through Eastport this morning while the second is the photograph (Floyd’s Diner in Victoria, British Columbia) taken probably closest to when I began ActionsCreateConsequences.

Today is six months to the day since I created this column. I have no memory and am not inclined to search back through 180+ columns to figure what that 5 November topic covered. I remember the second so vividly: it celebrated the passing of a woman I admired and loved dearly but I don’t recall what I first found worth explicating.

I had no idea when I rushed into this how much fulfillment it would provide me. I really enjoy writing to you every day as I am confident you are thinking of solutions and celebrations for the world we live in. Seriously. The tag line is ‘Politix, trials, tributions, & gratitude’ which covers the array pretty well.

I am not trying to replicate what is in the news but to highlight something I think we too blithely overlook or something that has a completely different twist if you reconsider your assumptions or its context. Yesterday was a perfect example as I genuinely think we vastly overfocus on the CCP without recognising we are simply different in many (but by no means all) ways from the Chinese.

Truthfully, ActionsCreateConsequences is my attempt to communicate with other folks, some I know, some I don’t. It’s about you as much as me. I ask periodically what else plagues or tickles your thoughts because I really want this to be a conversation. I am to my core simply an educator which requires interaction rather than one way exchanges to be most effective.

I thank each of you who reads this; I do not take you for granted. I regret when people drop off (I get a note of ending subscription regardless of status) but recognise there are many reasons, not the least is time. As I actually said months back, one of my greatest lessons learned is that time is the most precious gift one can give because it’s absolutely irrecoverable. So, know how much it means that you read this daily, weekly, or once in a blue moon.

I especially thank you for financial support because it’s hard earned money you are sharing. This takes me a lot more time and resources to do this than I considered when I started. I offer the Timely Topic transcripts for you a small token of thanks and as I roll out the podcasts, those too will be for the generous paid subscribers.

I welcome each of you sending me any thoughts, good/bad/indifferent. Would you find a scheduled chat worthwhile? Do you find the footnotes too hard so I you’d prefer I move to ‘general resources’ at the end? Fewer pictures? More photographs? More gratitude and fewer tribulations? Guest columns?

As you think about this, we open a wonderful weekend in spring (I think everyone currently subscribed in the northern hemisphere but I’d love to be proven wrong). The streets of Westminster are bedecked with Union Jacks, irises are blooming all over Eastport, the snow may be(don’t want to jump to conclusions yet) slowing in Minneapolis, and Los Angeles and Seattle probably go back on fire alert too soon. Enjoy the weekend wherever you are. Actions do create consequences and may yours be satisfying today.FIN