Returning from ten days spent by the beach with my family. The trip's goal was to disconnect and pause, and in some ways, I succeeded. So well, when I returned to my studio office, the feeling of overwhelm is a distant memory for now.

While on my vacation, my goto activity was listening to an audiobook series by Dean Koontz about the character Kate Shaw who was on a mission to dismantle a Kabal whose mission was to infiltrate all levels of government and use nanotechnology that would quiet dissenters along the way to establish a society that would be peaceful in so it never pushed back to their ideologies.

After season 4 of GOT, I stopped watching because the corrosion and depravity of the story disturbed me. So four years after the show ended, the prequel came up in the options on my air travel to and from my vacation, and I was curious. The thing about me and story is that once I'm intrigued, I'm hooked and, one could say, obsessed. So I finished it and was interested in seeing how the story ended a thousand years later. What was mind-blowing was that nothing changed. The same elite family 'banners' were the key players in all social choices—the select few. Even at the end, when it was suggested that the 'people' choose their leader, the families all laughed. They laughed at the idea that the public had anything of value to offer them outside of following their commands.

I ask you. Look around now. How has anything changed in the last 2000 years? Outside of the apparent technology and infrastructure, our leadership titles have just changed from Kings to CEOs and peasants to civilians, with the structure of those running the party 'banners' still the powerful pulling the strings.

After almost fifty years, I have observed society reach toward humanity and respect others. However, all I see around me are collections of powerful 'parties' pulling us backward because this vision threatens their value.

As individuals, we have more freedoms and opportunities to get engaged and become part of the process, but hot damn! The process and systems are structured so that even the ethical find themselves slowly finding their views and choices nibbled away until only minor adjustments are made while keeping those in power in power.

I'm flummoxed, and 23 out of 24 hours a day, I want to crawl into a hole and hide. Let leaders eat themselves while I survive. But that one hour a day, I am frustrated, outranged, and want to stop what I see with my eyes and heart. Freedom is nothing if one doesn't respect others and themselves.

Education of critical thought is the antithesis of powerful Kabul. What if a "critical thought" Kabul was created to infiltrate and educate? Undermine the mob mentality with love and respect for the person, every person.

As for now, when the choices don't seem like choices, there is one. Which option respects a person's rights to be their authentic self and control the physical body they were born with? Which option values a person over a number? Human rights over 'economy.' There is no economy without a healthy social human structure. Talk about a pie-in-the-sky dream. My dream is a social world where we respect our value and look at each other with kind eyes knowing that lifting each other up is in everyone's best interests.

But yeah, assholery is a human trait that will never be stamped out when it keeps being elevated as righteous. Every person is made up of yin and yang. The constant back and forth of our fears and love. The world would be boring if it were all rainbows and unicorns. Our human experience would be bland, and we'd never grow and learn from our mistakes.

So yeah, the desire to hide is like choosing to sit in the calm as the storm circles around me is strong. The current political shit disheartens me, but I can't deny there are individuals bringing light to the darkness.

Finding a suitable stone to make ripples for change can take time. Not every choice is correct, but sitting back and doing nothing is a choice.

I'm choosing the option that understands financial prosperity for ALL starts with happy and healthy individuals. I'm considering my options to find out who they align themselves with. Are they choosing fiscal conservatism over my and my loved one's health and wellness?