Prometheus Unbound

Work Release

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, both literally and figuratively, as we have scrambled to soak in the last bits of summer worklessness while also preparing for this upcoming season of uncertainty. As the old saying goes, “all good things must come to an end. But if you really wish hard enough, the end doesn’t have to come.” This saying really hit home, sitting at home with Eliana, watching mama return to working from home in her home office. Sophie started working again this week. She handled it like a champ. We are still working out all the kinks of raising a child throughout the work week, but I see an optimistic depiction of a work/life balance. In the last few weeks, I’ve also made time to build a grape trellis on the side of our house AND do more yoga. Progress, slowly but surely.

Speaking of kinks...it turns out Eliana’s more consistent sleep schedule has been a double-edged sword. She has progressed to consistently waking up only once during the night, which has meant that I don’t have to get up to feed her from the bottle. Great right!? One parent gets to sleep the entire night to be rested for the next day. Win-win! Except it’s not. It’s a win-win-lose.Turns out Eliana got her mother’s...how should I word this...extremely selective and time sensitive preference for food. As such, the fact that she has been drinking almost exclusively from the teat has created this fastidious, infantilized food critic. She refuses to drink from a bottle, claiming that those “silicone parts are made for toys”. This has been problematic during the work day when Sophie is in a meeting and cannot breastfeed. We have tried changing, warming, and adding drops of milk to the bottle tops in vain attempts to lure her in. I’ve tried feeding her while she’s still groggily waking up, no good. The only thing that works is letting her scream for an hour until she gets hungry enough to put that synthetic excuse for a nipple into her mouth and struggle down the “bottle juice”. All of the breast milk in the freezer is starting to look like wasted space...

Ellie in Charge

Despite her lactation preferences, we still love her dearly. She brings so much unplanned joy to us that it’s hard to fathom unless you’re a parent. I had a feeling I’d like being a dad, but I didn’t think it would be so enjoyable. Sure, it’s a lot of work, but I don’t care. I get to spend time with my lil’ Ellie Jo and sing songs with her. We have already written 128 songs together! She has quite the creative singing style and lyrical abilities. Oftentimes I find myself just staring at her, savoring the little moments that are already passing by too quickly. When did I get so sentimental???

A few weeks ago we took the septic plunge into the world of cloth diapers. Both of us were nervous for this transition as we expected it would be much more labor, however, we have been pleasantly surprised by their utility. It took us a few days to get into a working system that didn't leave our house smelling like baby diarrhea, but alas! We have emerged smelling of freshly washed cotton pads. We ended up keeping a bucket in our shower so we can spray off the diapers and fill up the bucket prior to doing a load of wash. At night, we put her in a disposable diaper for convenience. The process takes a little more planning, but we both feel good knowing that we aren’t contributing thousands of dirty diapers to the landfill each year.

Hurricane Beehive

On Labor Day, we had the Undercurrent crew over for a UC reunion/farewell BBQ for my friend and coworker Levi. He’s moving to LA at the beginning of next month and we wanted to send him off right. Despite the covid-inspired reluctance to be close to people, it was great seeing everyone again. I’m excited to go back to work. I’ll be heading back to the drink making factory at the end of the month. I’m feeling ready and motivated given our financial situation. Shortly after the Labor Day party, we experienced a slew of hurricane-force winds. The news alerted us of this possibility but it didn’t seem like something to be worried about. Giiiiiiiirl, was I wrong. 

Winds of up to 111mph ripped through northern Utah, leaving a trail of broken power lines, uprooted trees, shambled fences, and jaw dropped citizens. The pandemonium lasted almost 24 hours and the aftermath is still palpable. We took a walk around our neighborhood to see the devastation and it looked like a scene from a war zone. Of a war between the tree dwellers and the wind gliders. Guess who won? Our garden is...mostly alive. Our gate is...mostly torn off. Our shed roof is...mostly functional. Luckily, we were one of the few households that got power restored after only a few hours. Many of our friends in SLC are still without power, six days later. Cars now parade down our roadways with arboreal riffraff cheering them along from the shoulder. I can’t help but think this is 2020’s poetic, albeit premature, inauguration of fall. And what a fall it will be…

Poli’tictok’ing

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about our current political climate and the state of America. In short, I am saddened and pessimistic. We have never been so divided along party lines before. We have never been so inundated with so much misinformation. We have never been so isolated, self-righteous, and ignorant. It’s gross. Last night I watched The Social Dilemma, a documentary-style film that felt like a harbinger of a long American winter. If you use social media in any capacity, I’d highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend watching it. I’ll give away one spoiler: Want to know why we are so divided right now? Social media. I suspected a lot of the information that the film presents, but it was nice to hear from some of the Silicon Valley professionals about how nefarious social media is becoming. Please watch it. Seriously.

With the presidential election right around the corner, I’ve also had some enlightening conversations with family/friends who have different viewpoints. Until recently, I’ll admit, I had a strong emotional reaction to people saying they were going to vote for Trump in November. I couldn’t fathom how they could possibly justify voting for this guy after all of the things he’s done/said/represented. But after spending a few hours with one couple, who shall remain nameless, listening to their rationale and hearing what news stories they were aware of, I was shocked at how perversely skewed the information sources for conservatives and liberals are. Sophie and I were both astounded by some of the news that they didn’t know about and some of the news we hadn’t heard about. It was interesting to hear what stories made the biggest impression on them and by the end it became incredibly apparent how two very different narratives are being perpetuated. Like I said, it’s gross. 

Despite the seemingly large chasm that separated us initially, we did find a substantial amount of common ground. They helped Sophie and I discover some inner peace when thinking about those who will vote for Trump. I also came to a shift in opinion as a result of this conversation. At one point I asked, “Given this two-party system continues to favor corporations, the wealthy, and each respective political party, what can we each do individually to enact change and get the political system to work for the American people?”. I came to the conclusion that this two-party system is fundamentally broken given the state of social media and, as such, voting for a third party is my best course of action. I used to think that a third party vote was a wasted vote; there’s no chance they will win. And right now, that’s true. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. If more people show their disdain for these two bloated political machines, third parties will continue to get more and more votes and eventually become a viable option. It’s not enough to vote for a third party though. It’s equally important to spread the word that you are voting against the two-party system so that others are aware that everyone is not subscribing to the norm.

We need to change the conversation in this country. Social media has led liberals to believe that Republicans are the problem and conservatives to believe that Democrats are the problem. The truth is...we are being suckered into fighting against the wrong enemy. This is going to be a contentious statement so take a swig of water, a deep breath, and brace yourself:

The real enemy in America is unregulated capitalism.

The underlying problems in our society are due to powerful entities that continue to wield their power to gain more and more power. The wealth gap in America continues to widen with no end in sight. To be clear, I have no problems with being wealthy. But there’s a point where your personal wealth becomes a reflection of a faulty economic system. I’ll be generous…it’s DEFINITELY above $10 million/year. You don’t need to make $10 million/year. Hell, you don’t even need to make $500k/year. There’s not enough hours in the day to justify giving one human that much money for the work that he/she does. If I ever create a business where I’m making more than $500k/year, I will not be keeping that money. I will be investing in ways that help other people’s lives. I guess there’s the argument that people will stop innovating unless they know they can get extremely rich…Frankly, if one of your chief motivations for innovation is to hoard vast amounts of wealth, I don’t want to live in your society. That’s just my opinion though. 

On a cultural level, we have been steadily conditioned to care more about our personal accumulation of wealth than our neighbor’s wellbeing. We care more about sustaining a perception of affluence than harboring an abundance of education. So much of our racial and economic issues could be eliminated if we invested in our poorest neighborhoods. If we all demanded that education was a priority to us as Americans, so many of our problems would be eliminated.

That’s what’s so sinister about our two-party system: The elites have twisted the conversation into a political problem, with both sides thinking if they just had more players in the game, they would win and save America. They have duped conservatives into thinking that progressive tax rates are a bad idea and liberals into thinking more government-run services will help the poor and disenfranchised in this country. It’s always the other team’s fault. The truth is that nothing will change until our culture changes. The elites aren’t suddenly going to get a conscience and fix things for us. It’s up to us to take that first step. Start caring about your neighbors, locally and then globally. Start caring about learning and bettering yourself. Start listening to the other side and realize you are on the same side. 

I don’t think Americans today have ever known the true cost of goods and services because they have been artificially lowered by exploiting cheap third-world labor. But our time is coming. Unregulated capitalism has its cost and it will be our children who have to pay the price. Children like our cute lil’ Ellie Jo :)

Oh, the things that are in store for you…

For those who stuck through my radical, socialist, utopian-wishing, money-burning, free love-seeking rant, I commend you, and most likely, love you. I would love to talk more about politics prior to the November election! 

Disclaimer: I WILL try to convince you that voting third party is the only viable option for real change. Trump is a narcissist and Biden is a puppet. Let’s change the conversation.

Until next time,

Michael