Risk & Vulnerability Adventurer, Dream Girl, CEO—Bank of M.o.M. Connections expose us 2 risk thru shared vulnerability. I love $$$; I ♥︎♥︎♥︎ Mother Earth more.
Dear Joe,
I wish I could sit down with you face to face and explain why so many of us were offended by the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
For me, it had nothing to do with the UFC or who showed up for the fights. The brand you and Dana have built is a bona fide American success story. More power to you. As for the fighters, in my book, anyone brave enough to put it all on the line in the arena is remarkable to witness. Their dedication and discipline inspire me. I don’t understand anyone who can’t admire that.
And as for the people who attended, I, for one, love Shane Gillis. I think he’s hilarious and brilliant. It was a show. A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to witness it firsthand.
My problem is that I believe some of our public spaces are sacred. And unlike many of the great powers that came before us, these American monuments belong to all of us. Not to whoever happens to hold power at the moment.
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any President. It belongs to the people. To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.
This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants. The White House is the People’s House. This “celebration” could have happened in any stadium within a stone’s throw of the South Lawn. No one would have had an issue with it.
But that was obviously Donald Trump’s whole point. By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is:
“This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze. I’ll tear down the East Wing. I’ll pave over the Rose Garden. I’ll cover everything in gold and marble. I’ll erase the names of all the men who came before me.”
The fights were an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.
The White House is not Buckingham Palace. It is not the Palace of Versailles. It is not the Forbidden City of Beijing. It does not belong to an emperor, or a king, or a commissar.
The White House belongs to us. All of us. The person who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is nothing more than an honored guest. A temporary caretaker.
The President is our servant. Not our Caesar.
Respectfully, Hunter
P.S. Cage match between me and Don Jr.? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.
I am ready for the hard conversations. Anyone and I mean anyone, dare to handle me?
I would cut myself open to prove that I bleed like you. Are you willing to do so?
Intimacy can be defined and redefined and destroyed and defined again.
"Avoidance is incompatible with intimacy. You cannot dodge conflict, dodge vulnerability, dodge hard conversations, and also have a close, trusting relationship. The two things cannot coexist.” @toddbaratz
If reality is relational and emergent, then the future is not predetermined. It is continuously unfolding through innumerable interactions and conditions. The Bodhisattva therefore does not inhabit a static world but a living world.
I am preparing for rest. Astral projection. I will visit those who couldn’t be here. I am so grateful for those who were.
I ate a delicious sausage rigatoni this evening. Appreciation makes food taste better. I’m so grateful for the meal and the person who made it for me.
Before you go to sleep tonight, reflect on the day behind you and bring to mind: one person who supported you, one moment you're grateful for, and one way life cared for you today. Then drift to sleep with a full heart.” ~The Daily Buddhist
"The things we judge ourselves for—the anxiety, the coping mechanisms, the ways we try to escape—often began as ways to survive. And survival is not something to be ashamed of. It’s something to be understood.” ~Matt Little
The hidden survival patterns I mistook for brokenness: https://t.co/rybr6KYGYN