A Shitty Tuesday

It was a shitty Tuesday. I’m a big fan of Monday’s. Always have been. I like being clean shaven and showered Sunday night ready to waltz into the office to some quiet morning hellos and how was the weekend. An organizing day with a sprinkling of work. Tuesday’s though – name me one thing you look forward to on a Tuesday? It’s a day before Hump day so incorporating any fun “Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike” or “Humpppp Dayyyy” is out of the question. Taco Tuesday I think was a fad in 2017 but I’m not sure if that exists anymore. It’s a bit of a blah day and I’m not sure who agrees or disagrees with me, but that’s my very luke warm take on Tuesdays – the worst day of the week.

Today woke up a shitty Tuesday. Monday was 75 and sunny, Tuesday was 62 and cloudy. I woke up immediately on Monday ready to go. This morning, I checked my phone for eight pointless minutes. I know and have read that getting straight out of bed is SO much better for your mental preparedness for the day. This morning, because it was Tuesday, I was less motivated to get out of bed immediately.

One of my colleagues, who I sit next to and don’t know - I’m guessing he’s 38, he wears some nice gafas, and definitely seems seasoned. He exclaims at 9:45 this morning – “Really, SNAP is driving the market. Who cares about SNAP?” It was funny to me, because SNAP(Chat) has always had a special place in my plane of existence. I was at the Snap New Years Party (the original) way back in the day because my cousins’ knew / know the founder from Stanford, and we all talked about the IPO price as a family and whether we should put some puts down and at what price. Anyway, I agreed with his comment. How is Snap driving a whole downward spiral at 9:45 in the morning. It felt blown out of proportion – an omnipresent theme these days.

The day carried on, with an 11am lunch and a forced 2pm workout, half-working and half counting down the hours and minutes I could leave the office and head to the Garden for the Ranger game. Around 4:30 or 5:00, that same guy who made the exclamation about SNAP, yelled across to a colleague about 15 feet away and said “Joe, did you see what happened in Texas? At the school? The shooting?” I wanted to block it out. And I did, until I went to the other side of the floor, called Alex to check in, and saw it on the ticker on CNBC. 14 students dead and 1 teacher killed in school shooting.

The day started poorly and the Nasdaq was screaming red at me all over the office like it has been lately and today because of SNAP, and then a more important story was screaming at all of us. Again. Almost like a dream. Shooting on the Q, Canal Street. The subway I take to work. The subway many of us take to work. School shooting, Texas. Downtown shooting, Sacramento. Supermarket shooting, Buffalo. Club shooting, Florida.

On my walk home from the Ranger game after I had picked up Taco Bell, I checked ESPN and one of the headlines was Steve Kerr. Kerr’s dad was assassinated in Europe when he was in his 20s. He has spoken out about the gun violence historically and given its renewed velocity, has been more vocal. Steve is from Tucson and I went to his house a few times as a kid growing up. Nice family, good person.

These were his words and emotions:

"When are we going to do something," Kerr yelled, slamming his fists on the table. "I'm tired. I am so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I am so tired of the, excuse, I am sorry, I am tired of the moments of silence. Enough!"

When are we going to do something? I want to know. It has always been something I have stressed with my peers and people close to me (for years) and I even get shrugged shoulders from them – “It’s not that easy.” “The gun lobbies are too powerful.” “It’s the system.”

It’s only going to hit the people reading this in a real way when you or me are a victim in a gun shooting. Then the comments will not be “That’s just the way it is” or “we can’t do anything about it.” You will want to do something about. I want to do something about it. I’ve donated to gun control organizations and such, but clearly it’s not working.

We don’t have a leader who can inspire us. Even though Biden says the right thing about the world falling apart and getting frustrated with the acts of gun violence, he is pushing 80 and unable to string 20 words together smoothly. So people don’t / can’t listen.

Tidal waves have been coming in waves. Things are being blown out of proportion. Covid has amplified all the bad and negated all the good. The lockdowns have deeply and negatively penetrated people’s minds. We are a lost America and it is so entirely clear.

Now, being with friends and family again is amazing. Going to sporting events with full capacity is amazing. Seeing 20,000 in unison or 100,000 supporters and feeding off their energy is what makes us go. Wedding season is fantastic, even with all the complainers of “ah, it’s just a lot / I have too many.”

It was a shitty Tuesday, and it pains me to write this 10 days after our wedding and 4 days before my best men’s wedding. But ignoring something as horrific as what happened today would be a crime.

People don’t want to talk about Covid. I get it. I do. People don’t want to talk about politics. I don’t know really know why, but I get it.

Please don’t tell me people don’t want to talk about tragedies and learn from them and implement changes to avoid them from happening. Please don’t tell me that in the 90s in elementary school we were taught about Columbine just because. Please don’t tell me you really don’t think there is anything YOU can do to help avoid these situations, which seem to have skyrocketed in recent years.

At a minimum, I’m talking about it with friends. I’m donating to gun control organizations. I’m thinking about setting up an advanced tent outside the White House and writing short stories on a projector. I’m day dreaming about having a mic and galvanizing a group of people, focusing on positivity. Remembering the good. Preaching good.

I say this sometimes. But if a genie showed up in my life and granted me three wishes, I know right away what my first two would be:

1. Eliminate all guns in the world except for elite SWAT teams or the like

2. Eliminate all social media on all phones in the world – every snap, every tik, every tok, every gram, every tweet, and every post

I’m still trying to come up with a third, but I think with those two, a lot of problems would be solved very easily. Tidal waves would return to their normal waves. And maybe, we would even have some calm waters.

Life is good in many ways. And life is also difficult in many ways. People are craving drama and craziness because that is what we expect. And that my friends, is a dangerous, dangerous game.

Let’s be for each other. And find a way to protect each other.

Watch Steve’s emotion in the video below. That is how I feel.

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=33978954