thoughtless | The Direction of Intention

See Beyond The Numbers [on saturday morning smack-dab.]

Posted on May 28, 2022 by davidrobinsoncreative

200. The number of mass shootings in the United States this year to date. Heck, it’s not even June. Of course, I’m writing this a few days ahead so, at the very least, by the time you read this, 222 more people will be dead from gun violence since we are averaging 111 people a day.

What’s remarkable to me is how many bar charts and line graphs are available. How much data we keep and information we track, all made easily digestible through smart visual analytics and colorful charts. Murdered children and teachers and church goers and concert attendees and folks who simply went to the grocery store – reduced to an abstraction translated into a visual that’s easy for us to consume. Apparently, we’re adept at making the carnage-numbers pretty and consumable but not so accomplished at seeing the numbers as people – children and elders, parents and friends. Scrub it. Nothing personal. That way our leaders* can offer a few more antiseptic thoughts and prayers and we, for some reason, vote them back into office.

[*I wonder if our representatives were required to go to the morgue every time we have a mass shooting and actually see the damage a military grade weapon does to a human body, especially a small child’s body, if they might see beyond their personal ambition and lobby dollars. They might see murdered children and teachers with names, and parents. I know, I know, a stupid idea. Were they required to experience the reality, they’d have little or no time to legislate. 200 morgue visits in 5 months would certainly be a full time job. With ample time to lead or no time at all, it seems the result is the same.]

read Kerri’s thoughts on this saturday morning smack-dab.

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Detach and Dream [on saturday morning smack-dab.]

Posted on July 31, 2021 by davidrobinsoncreative

Here’s the truth. I hardly ever have trouble sleeping. Where sleep is concerned, I am easily detached. Thought-less. When I awake in the morning, I pass through a phase that I lovingly call, “The Garbage Layer:” all the thoughts and worries and lists and…stuff-of-the-day. It’s the stuff I left behind when slipping into sleep. I’ve come to realize that the garbage will be waiting for me in the morning so there’s no need to carry it with me to the world of my dreams. I suppose that’s a guy-thing though 20 assures me that he rarely sleeps through the night.

If I’m awake at night it’s because Kerri has poked my shoulder, asking, “Are you up?” My thoughtless and detached male response is always, “Yes. Are you?”

read Kerri’s SMACK-DAB thoughts.