Letter to Myself

Dear J.P.,

First off, I'm you. Or, more appropriately, one day you will be me. But right now, as you read this, you are a "skinny little boy from Cleveland Ohio" doing very little women chasing, and just a tad-bit too much beer drinking. Yes, I'm well aware that you "make love" to a Michelob keg at Romito's after work, and that you are only 16 (this being only late 1981 / early 1982 for you). But don't worry, you won't become an alcoholic when you get older - though your taste in beer will definitely improve!

I’m writing to you to give you a heads up on what life will bring your way. Before you get too excited, I'm not going to give you stock tips, or a sports almanac (you'll have to wait until 1989 to understand that reference). Yes, you will still be into time travel and all of its fictional goodness when you reach my age, so you have to realize that I'm going to do my derndest to avoid paradoxes. Because, if you change ANYTHING, I may not be in a position to be writing this letter to you, which means you won't have known about anything to CHANGE anything, which means I would be in a position to be writing to you. And no, this kind of thinking never does get easier!

What I am going to give you is more important: hope.

At your age, even though you are a Sophomore dating Juniors and Seniors, you have no desire to get intimate with anyone - saving yourself for marriage and all. I won't tell you whether or not you will be successful in that endeavor; just that "guilt" is a natural emotion that everyone experiences - warranted or not!

You are an intensely emotional person. You have a "weird" sense of humor that you will never outgrow. Oh, your material will get better (can't get any worse!), but you'll find that that humor is both a "mask" to protect and a lifeline to cling to.

You will find yourself wanting to change; to "grow up". Let me assure you, "growing up" is an illusion. Oh, you'll get older. Time marches on and all that. You will find it amazing that those around you seem to keep getting older, but you don't. You see, you will forever be looking out at the world around you through the same "port holes". From your perspective, you are the same person. And you will be right.

Oh, you will grow as a person. You will "mature" in different ways. Your ability to make decisions will develop. Your capacity to embrace hurt will expand. Your acceptance of the world, and all of its religious, political, and distinctive humanness, will go through many cycles - reaching a point at the age I am now, where what shocks others will not shock you.

Why? Because those individuals who you gather around that influence you will continuously change. Some by your own choosing. Some by theirs. And some by the ebb and flow of life itself. And that is the key: life is going to KEEP changing. If I could give you any advice, it's to embrace the fact that change happens. And no matter how much joy or pain you find yourself swimming in, it's not forever. To take a Bible verse out of context, "this too shall pass". When things are going bad, this too shall pass. When things are going good . . .

And that's the hope I want to share with you. Life is going to just . . . happen. And as a time-travel junkie, the most important thing you can do is embrace the present. The future (even for me now) is so full of hope and promise. The past should always be looked upon fondly - no matter what that may entail. It is BECAUSE of that past that you are who you are - and will become. Embrace the "now" of your life. Our life.

And J.P., I have no regrets. Neither will you.

Sincerely,

Me.

©Emittravel 2016

The Future is Now



In 1987, Alex Murphy was taking criminals "dead or alive" in "Robocop". I remember watching it for the first time (oh yeah, many times over the years) and seeing the scene in the Detroit police department locker room where both men and women were in various stages of undress (and no, I'm NOT posting a pic). The reason the scene got my attention, outside of the women in various stages of undress (I admit, I AM a straight male), was that both sexes were oblivious to the fact that the opposite sex was there in various stages of undress. I'll say that again: they were oblivious to the fact. It was normal. Just another day. And I wondered: what would it take to get us from "here" to "there"?

What I mean by "here" is a society that still has difficulty with male and female equality in all of its various forms (think "equal pay", for example), dress codes that determine the length of a woman's skirt and whether or not a man wears a necktie, and what gender "Pat" is.

Then one day it hit me. I finally figured out that unknown bridge: transgenderism.

Transgender people are throwing all kinds of confusion into "normal" society. Recently, an elementary school hit the news because a boy, who has determined himself to be a girl, has decided that she didn't want to use the teachers' or unisex bathroom, but decided to use the girls' bathroom. Both students and parents were up in arms, and the school made the statement that students are to use bathrooms that match their "plumbing" (my word, not theirs). I know of a business where an employee who presents himself as female, wants to use the ladies restroom as well. That business determined that if the employee is presenting himself/herself as a certain gender, they are able to use the bathroom that coincides with said gender. Part of the decision was based on the fact that the toilets are in stalls with doors, and the urinals have dividers (and I have never seen, in all my 49+ years, another male attempt to look past the divider - ever!): no one sees anyone in any form of undress. And does anyone really care the gender of the person at the next sink washing their hands? Hell, I'm just happy when people wash their hands. Of course, that business hasn't determined locker room/shower room use, but they will have to address it soon.

Having the opposite sex "invade" your bathroom is nothing new. Anyone who has been to a concert at the former Richfield Coliseum (I saw my first concert, Billy Joel - from A Piano Man to An Innocent Man - at that coliseum) has seen women skip the long lines for the ladies' room and grab a stall in the men's room. We guys noticed, but again, the stalls had doors. But now, that "invasion" is starting to become the "norm". (I noticed that I use a lot of quotation marks in my blogs. I wonder what the significance of "that" is . . . )

So for good or ill, trans genders are here to stay, so society needs to adjust.

According to an article by Jocelyne Zablit, "a California elementary school has become one of the first in the country to phase out gendered bathrooms". They are not adding a unisex bathroom; they are getting rid of those male and female silhouette-signed bathrooms.

Society is beginning to adjust.

Ally McBeal was the first to address a unisex bathroom (that I'm aware of), and that was back in the late 1990s. It was a novel idea that became a mainstay in the course of the series. And as has been said, good fiction soon becomes fact.

So, the future is now. We are slowly setting aside our long-held "hang ups" (there are those damn quotation marks again) and are beginning to allow the natural progression of society to become whatever it decides to be. And I think that is a good thing.

First unisex bathrooms, and next: silver jumpsuits!

  

(The above video is a clip from the 2002 Simon Wells film, "The Time Machine". That's right, Simon Wells: the great-grandson of H.G. Wells, the author of the book of the same name.)

© Emittravel 2015

Time to Stop Compromising

(Time for a good rant:)

Now is a really good time to stop compromising. You heard me Washington: stop compromising. Stand for something! Don't do what is politically expedient. Who cares if you lose votes. Do what is RIGHT! Even if it turns out to be wrong, do it anyway.

Everyone knows the old saying: "When your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep becomes your downfall." Everyone knows that, except our so-called leaders in Washington. Congratulations. You raised the debt ceiling. Do you know what that means? It is a breather to give us time. Time for what? Time to fix it, for crying out loud. But do you know what will happen instead? They will outspend that ceiling as well. Guarantee it. As sure as politicians are unable to tell the truth, it will happen.

Do what will probably cost you votes: cut spending. We all know that those "evil" rich people need to be punished for succeeding. But if you take ALL of the net worth of all of those "evil" rich people (according to our leaders, that is any couple earning over $250k/yr) and apply it to the non-existent budget (thank you Democrat-led Senate), it wouldn't even dent it. It's not a supply-side issue. It's an expense-side issue.

And don't cut future spending. Cut current spending. And when all of those living with their hands out start whining, buck up and tell them it's your fault! If you wouldn't have tried to give everyone a free lunch, we wouldn't be starving ourselves now. Tell them you really wanted to make a socialist utopia here in America, but mathematically it just doesn't work, and now its time to stop the gravy train before it derails (or more likely, runs out of track).

We do know that the socialist dream will eventually arrive in full here in America. It’s a given. A shot won't be fired. A war will not be fought. We will simply be OWNED by China. Funny thing is, if it wasn't for capitalist policies implemented in China over the last twenty years or so, China wouldn't be the power it is. Like I said, mathematically socialism/communism/Marxism NEVER works.

So get off your compromising butts and do what is right. We are waiting.

© Emittravel 2011