Photographic Reflections: Finally Here
To get a copy, send me $30 (checks and cash only, please), includes shipping and handling.
Rick Gilbert
1233 Harrison Ave.
Redwood City, CA 94062
If Sigmund Freud and Annie Leibovitz had a baby, it would be this book!
Wait Staff at Talk of Broadway enjoying the book.
Christmas
A great Christmas getaway at Sea Ranch. Reading. Napping. Eating. Hiking. Photography.
Seascapes
Learning to Load a Dump Truck
New Year’s Resolution
I never do new year’s resolutions. It is a bunch of “shoulds,” Should go to the gym. Should lose weight. On and on. Why bother? I never follow through. However…this year is different. My NYR: Walk on smooth surfaces and don’t fall down!
Last week on my walk (for health of course), I stumbled and went down hard on the pavement. Banged up my face, hands, and knees.
Many of my age mates (80-ish) talk about fear of falling. We get more unstable and more fragile. The basic fear: down you go; broken hip; into the ICU; pneumonia; dead.
So in 2024, my NYR is, I’ll continue going for walks, but very s-l-o-w-l-y and carefully.
Speaking of 2024…
Trump’s Base: Why They Love Him
What do Trump’s base, the teenage killers at Columbine, and Germany after WW I have in common? They all felt (feel) belittled or “dissed.” People can only be humiliated for so long before they lash out, murderously.
When the Ivy League coastal elites call you “deplorables” in the “fly over states,” you start getting pissed off. Obama dismissively commented how you “cling to your gods and your guns.”
From your view, it is those elites who:
- Crush your unions and send your jobs overseas.
- Want to put minorities and immigrants and homosexuals in line ahead of you
- Stop you from praying in school.
- Take away your guns.
- Force you to wear COVID masks and get vaccinated
- Take away your gas stoves, plastic straws, and hamburgers
As Trump’s staffer Steven Miller says, “Our lives are controlled by a deep state cabal of unelected bureaucrats.”
So at his rallies, Trump says things that make his base salivate:
- Our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom.
- Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxist communists, and fascists indict me I consider it a great badge of honor because I am being indicted for you.
- I will rapidly end crooked Joe Biden’s inflation nightmare, end his war on American energy, and we will drill baby drill.
- I will immediately begin stopping the hordes of illegal alien migrants who are charging across our border by the hundreds and thousands.
- I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or mask mandate.
- I will keep men out of women’s sports.
- They’re going to make all electric cars in our country but not when I’m in there. I’ll end that the first day.
- I will cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.
You gotta hand it to Trump. He knows his audience. His base (60 million-ish) goes crazy when they hear this rhetoric. With eleven months until the election, a lot can change. But if the dems are going to win the election of ’24, they must acknowledge the pain and rage felt by these people. They must give them the respect and hope they deserve. Otherwise, we may see the end of our democracy.
This month’s Atlantic is devoted to how things will change for us if Trump gets a second term. The most startling takeaway for me were these words by Masha Gessen:
“You get Trump once, it’s misfortune.
You get him twice, it’s normal.
It’s what this country is.”
well done, rick….looking forward to seeing and reading your “Photographic Reflections”…..nice image of this little guy loading his dump truck…..we all do it, load up on stuff we don’t want because of where it is, or what it is….our trick all through life is to learn how to empty it…..
Regarding New Year’s resolutions: reminds me of Yogi Berra’s quote, “Making predictions is difficult, especially about the future.” So instead of making New Year’s resolutions for 2024, I like to make “Old Year’s” resolutions for 2023. No “shoulds,” but instead “dids.” It increases your chance of success, and is good for your self esteem. Things like have breakfast with Rick at Hobees at least twice a year, live another 365 days and appreciate every single one, become older but wiser (the first part is easy), spend two weeks in the Canadian Rockies, resume our annual holiday brunch for clients, and many many more.
There, I feel better already. No guilt, no shame. Lots of positive vibes. Thanks, Yogi.
Congratulations on completing this monumental, beautiful project! I love that it is a hard copy!!! My check is in the mail!!! Love the dump truck photos. What you say about T. sickens me, but you are right. Will the Democrats GET this message?
My mother used to say, “New Year’s Resolutions just tempt the devil!”
Quite a New Year’s inspiration, Author Gilbert! You covered it all – from embracing your creativity, to dumping Trucks, Trump and Tidy Resolutions. Thank you once again, and a Happy, Healthy, upright 2024!!