It Ain't Easy Being Purple

Your civics teacher should have taught you at some point that George Washington was not a fan of political parties.  In fact, in his farewll address, he said, " However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

How is it that all those years ago, he could see into the future and know what damage this would cause?  He was actually concerned about the hearts of men and what they are capable of.  He didn't need ChatGPT to get a grasp on this.

All the red state, blue state stuff is a movement away from what we are supposed to be.  A purple country.

Recently, there has been a race on both sides to redistrict congressional maps to help create red or blue states.  Some say that it's because Republicans can't win enough seats on their own.  Others say that Democrats have to play this game to win back much-needed seats.  I say both sides are trying to vote for you instead of you voting for them.  This was not the intention of the founding fathers, but rather the power grab of, see above, "cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men."

I am a moderate Democrat who has voted for many Republican candidates in the past.  It's not difficult to look at your candidates and select who you think would be most effective for that particular office.  Being purple means you can dismiss the cults of personality and see your candidates and their views for what they actually are.

It ain't easy being purple these days.  Those cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men know how to separate us and convince us that government isn't about actually governing, but about whose ideas make you the most angry.

Government was meant to work for the people.  Government is about service, and if the shutdown fiasco is teaching us anything, it's that we, the people, are no longer part of the equation.  If we want to be the change, we have to think purple in the voting booth.  It's the only way to send the message.  Being purple means we can take the best parts from both sides and select politicians who will do the same for us when they are in office.

I know this means having to admit that the other side might be right sometimes, and that will be hard for many.  But it also means that we are capable of electing people who are willing to serve.  This is what Washington and our other founding fathers were after all those years ago.

Failing Forward

 

This was the scene at a local library not too long ago.  I was asked to come and promote my new book, Nine Ways to Make Awesome Kids.  I had visited this library for a similar event for my first book.  It was well attended and generated some great conversation.  For this one, no one showed.

This is not the only failure I'm realizing with this project.  To date, it has only sold three copies on Amazon and zero copies on Barnes & Noble.  I have given away ten copies.  The Facebook page I created to stimulate conversation around the book was shuttered very quickly due to low participation, despite paying for boosts and ads.  I even created a wide variety of Reels to share on Instagram and Facebook.  My hopes of creating a podcast around the book also faded when I could not find a suitable co-host.  The gears just never got turning.

I might accept these failures, but I am not happy with them.  I had two offers to publish this book, but I declined them because I did not want to pay a share of the investment to get it off the ground.  Maybe I should have, but I wanted to keep full control of my work.  So why am I telling you this?

Writing a book is hard folks.  When you have something to say and start outlining a project, you go into a strange state of flow that you never experienced when being forced to write in high school or college.  You know, back when you desperately just tried to get to the word count for a paper.  This is different.  You might take an hour to write one sentence or spend an hour writing ten pages.  It's hard to explain the self doubt you may have over one single line but you will stare at it endlessly until it makes sense.  

There is really no money in this, unless you write for a living.  I do not, but I feel I have a set of experiences and a perspective that I think people might want to read about.  So when I see that the book is not selling, I am only discouraged that the message I'm sending is not being received.  You want the work you put in to be read and taken to task.  This is how ideas are exchanged and new ideas take hold.  I truly feel Nine Ways has a place in our current state of parenting and teaching.  Not everyone feels the same it seems.

I've already been asked if I plan on writing another book.  My response is that I am not even thinking about it.  To many, it seems like writing a book is like running a marathon.  Once it's done, it is done and then you stand back and say, "Look what I did."  This is not the case for authors.  You want the work to be read and to endure and when it's not, you can't help breaking it down and being critical of yourself.

Failure is part of this game and I will lick my wounds and go on.  The idea is to always fail forward towards something better and I will keep trying to do that.  The good news is that I have a day job to fall back on.

You can purchase Nine Ways at https://a.co/d/8MwyWaS

You can purchase Leaving Poverty at https://a.co/d/bfxuWb3