Will This Halloween Offer More Tricks Than Treats?
by Terrence Shulman
September is gone and October arrives. As of the end of September, The U.S. has is closing in on 100 million confirmed Covid cases and we’ve had over 1 million deaths since early 2020. I (and millions of other Americans and others worldwide) did celebrate Halloween in October 202–before vaccines were even on the scene–as well as last year (2021); yet, a healthy vibe of caution still fills the air as we prepare for trick- or-treat time at month’s end.
The vibe is definitely different in some ways. This time two years ago, we were in the midst of a heated national election season and an even more heated presidential election. To many, our democracy literally hung in the balance. And while democracy prevailed–at least in the hearts and minds of about two-thirds of our fellow ountryfolk, we’re still in very uncertain and “tricky” terrain.
This year, while Monkeypox and the Omicron variant of Covid linger, we are steadily moving towards greater vaccination rates but we still have to be careful. And as reproductive rights are being stripped away, our economy still shows shaky signs, Hurricane lan pounds Florida and the east coast, and the post- January 6th Congressional Investigation Committee resumes its televised hearings next week, our country still shows deep divisions among Democrats and Republicans, the left and the right, the vaccinated vs. the unvaccinated, and the masked and the maskless.
Perhaps Halloween is the one holiday where nearly everyone will at least be wearing mask of some sort! And while most of our kids are back in school in-person vs. online this time last year, and most vi children under 16 have been vaccinated, hopefully, Halloween doesn’t turn into a “super-spreader” event. We still need to take precautions when and where we can.
We continue to see much trickery in our politics and in our social fabric. Each side points the finger at the other, asserting lies, cheating, and other shenanigans. One side has to be more correct than the other. But we have met the enemy and it is us. A house divided cannot stand. And our poor children are in the middle as usual.
As The
Peanuts’ Charlie Brown famously chanted from “The Great Pumpkin” TV classic: “I got a rock!”
Love him or loathe him, Donald Trump continues to be “The Great Pumpkin.” And not just because both are orange. Both are elusive and both captivate the imagination and hypnotize the believer both eventually will make you feel like a fool for believing. Ask those whose loved ones have died from Covid after believing his claim it was a hoax. As one family member said: “my father’s only pre-existing condition was believing Donald Trump.”
Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that Trump is the trickster of all tricksters. Tricksters trick people in various ways and they’re very good at it. In just the last month several books have been published which further expose him for who he is. Bob Woodward’s (and Robert Costa’s third and most recent “Trump” book “Peril” further reveals the tricker of Trump. And it appears over the last year that he has seduced his party as well.
Trump continues to be a master snake-oil salesman and uses people for his own benefit and discards them when they are no longer useful. The tickster doesn’t play by the rules. And Tramp appears to be a master or breaking the rules on many fronts. The G.O.P. is in lockstep as voting rights and reproductive rights are threatened anew.
So, while we may take some solace in the coming holiday season, football, baseball playoffs, the start of the NBA and NHL, and the fall colors, darkness is looming and we can’t let Lucy keep snapping the ball away from Charlie Brown. We need to follow Snoopy’s lead as he’s the most normal, wise character of The Peanuts.
We deserve to have treats not tricks and candy-in moderation-instead of rocks. And, certainly, our kids (who are our future) do, too!
Speaking of Tricksters… Addiction is A Trickster! And Here’s a Poem About This Written by a former client and recovering shoplifter, Dee, eleven years ago. Sadly, Dee passed away a year ago.
Mr. Addiction
I had an unwanted visitor today while I was shopping for groceries.
I came around the corner with my shopping cart and saw him lurking at the end of the aisle, mostly hidden by the tall shelves.
I hardly recognized him with his shabby clothes hanging off his emaciated body and a forlorn expression on his face.
But there he was, my ole buddy–Mr. Addiction.
tried going down a different aisle, but there he was again.
I I couldn’t seem to escape him.
When he saw me heading for the check-out, he got emboldened and confronted me.
I told him to get out of my way but he just stood his ground.
I just scooted around him, paid for my groceries, and headed for my car.
But he followed right behind me…and he was pissed, really really pissed.
“Hey you – Dee! You got some ‘splaining’ to do!” he shouted.
“Are you talking to me?” I asked, wishing with all my heart I really did NOT know this dude.
“Who else would I be talking to?
Don’t pretend you don’t know me.
I remember when you needed me.
We were best buddies.
You depended on me.
I got you nice gifts, I treated you well, I took care of you.
And this is how you treat me now?”
“How am I treating you now?” I asked.
“You ignore me.
You aren’t feeding me, anymore. You have shut me out of your life.
Heck, you even changed the locks on the he demanded, and satisfying you became
door to your heart and my key doesn’t fit anymore! me,” he said I’m not feeding you anymore
What gives?
Oh how I wanted So I turned and said, wouldn’t leave. let’s start at the top. “Well, Mr. A,
, his anger rising with every sentence. your hunger is insatiable. The more I fed you the more you a full time job, on top of my full time job. Yes, you showered me with gifts – lots of gifts and you always smiled and told me they were ‘free’ and that
It’s as if you think you are better than to just ignore him but because
It was exhausting.
the supply was unlimited.
Ha! Like hell they were free!
Those ‘free gifts’ cost me my peace of mind, my self-respect, they almost cost me my freedom. You pretended what we were doing was safe and I was stupid enough to believe you, that we were so smart we would never get caught.
Oh, and when the game was over, I notice you vanished from sight, leaving me holding the bag while you ducked out the back door and I took the heat – and paid mightily.”
“We used to be such a great team. I miss you,” he said, casting those big brown Puppy-Dog eyes my way.
“Mr. A, I don’t miss you. Take your ‘free gifts’ offer to someone else, I’m no longer buying what you’re selling.”
“Don’t you love me anymore?” he cried.
“As a matter of fact, no.
I love myself more.
I love my CASA family more, and I’m not going to let myself down because when I do I’d let them down, too.
We’re a team — we’re stronger than you.”
I got in my car and drove home, leaving him crying in the parking lot.
But as I turned the corner, he had already dried his eyes and was approaching an unsuspecting shopper heading into the store…following right behind.
Stay safe and be well. Yours in recovery, Dee, FL 🙂 2013
PAWEL GWIZDALA’S INTERVIEW
with
Subkit’s Evelyn Wiseman on How I Started UNSTEAL.org
Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Pawel Gwizdala, Founder of Unsteal Nonprofit Inc., located in Lakewood, CA, USA.
What’s your business, and who are your customers?
Unsteal Nonprofit Inc. and our customers are users who repay for petty theft when they feel bad about it. Most did not get caught but we can’t prove that. We do not get court referrals.
Tell us about yourself…
I used to shoplift, and I felt bad enough about it to return to one store to repay for one item. The difficulty of forcing the cashier to accept my cash inspired me to make an easier system to repay for petty theft. I can’t be the only person who feels bad about shoplifting an item.
What’s your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Once Unsteal spent 14 months returning a recompense check to a Fortune 500 retailer, sending 7 letters and 4 checks . Being relentless is key in disrupting the retail industry.
What’s one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Working for free without any expectation of any reward is the hardest part of being a business owner.
What are the top tips you’d give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Recruit help creatively leveraging the internet to find people interested in your mission.
- Ask more questions because you never know when you are speaking to a gatekeeper you didn’t even know existed.
- Write down goals, evaluate your progress every month and be open-minded to changing your goals.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Make incremental progress with timely reviews, in my case, monthly. Just the thought of making no progress from the previous month motivates me to continue achieving Unsteal’s goals.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://unsteal.org/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Unsteal
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/unstealnonprofit/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Unsteal_Charity
LinkedIn
: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawelgwizdala/
STDs, Drunk Driving And Quiet Quitting: The Pandemic’s End Is Revealing An America That’s Acting Out!
by Steve Mollman (Fortune Magazine, September 2022)
Not only did Joe Biden say “the pandemic is over” a week ago, but Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair whose hawkishness is roiling markets, said shortly afterward that the economy is now moving towards a “new normal.”
STDs, Drunk Driving And Quiet Quitting: The Pandemic’s End Is Revealing An America That’s Acting Out!
by Steve Mollman (Fortune Magazine, September 2022)
Not only did Joe Biden say “the pandemic is over” a week ago, but Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair whose hawkishness is roiling markets, said shortly afterward that the economy is now moving towards a” new normal.”
If you grant that the pandemic is ending and that a new normal is here, what does that look like? The early signs are: not very good.
The pandemic forced many Americans into constrained ways of working and socializing. Interactions generally became more limited, outside of Zoom and occasional confrontations over mask policies.
Americans now really are interacting more and holding back less, proving both Biden’s and Powell’s words true, and the results aren’t so pretty. From the remote-work wars to “crisis” levels of automotive violence and new STD infections to the well-documented sense of “burnout” inside and outside the workplace, the pandemic is pulling back to reveal an America rife with bad behavior, coming apart at the seams.
In the workplace, bosses and employees increasingly spar over what the “place” should be. CEOs, often from the boomer generation, tend to demand workers return to the office if not straight back to pre- pandemic routines then at least clocking in a few days a week. The “hybrid” approach draws complaints, too, with Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman in June calling it “the hell of half measures” and the “worst of three options.”
Many workers, led by the vocal Gen Z demand fully remote work in response, countering that they’re more productive at home without the office distractions and time-consuming commutes (and much of the working portion of Gen Z only knows a remote work world of work). Middle managers, for their part, resent getting hit by the crossfire.
Trying to be heard over the fray are public health officials worried about the possible emergence of new, dangerous COVID variants. “We have so little experience with coronaviruses and how they play out,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, told Fortune this week. “We’re kind of in limbo land right now.”
Meanwhile headline-grabbing clashes between corporate bosses and union organizers, including at Amazon and Starbucks, enhance the sense of confrontation. In some cases, unions arehelping to fight return-to-office mandates, and Americans increasingly view them in a favorable light This week, federal labor regulators accused Amazon of singling out union organizers for discipline, while the company called the allegations “completely without merit.” And an employee who helped lead a union
campaign at Starbucks accused the coffee giant of forcing her out in retaliation. Workers United accused the company, which denied the charge, of applying scheduling and availability policies in a discriminatory manner against Jaz Brisack, leading to her separation from the company.
Americans are free to move about the country again: Be afraid.
Outside of work, Americans are letting loose more. One upshot is an uptick in sexually transmitted diseases.
“People are feeling more liberated,” Mike Saag, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told the Associated Press this week.
That followed a speech Monday by Leandro Mena of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in which he called expanding STD prevention in America “imperative,” with the rate of syphilis cases last year reaching its highest since 1991. A surge in monkeypox cases further highlighted the worsening problem of diseases spread mostly through sex.
The situation is “out of control,” David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, told the AP.
Also out of control, the National Transportation Safety Board said this week, are roadway deaths in the U.S., which it said are at crisis levels despite a slight second-quarter drop. Nearly 43,000 people were killed last year, the greatest number in 16 years, as Americans returned to roads after pandemic stay-at-home orders.
The agency recommended Tuesday that all new vehicles in the U.S. be equipped with blood alcohol monitoring systems that can stop an intoxicated person from driving. A significant portion of roadway deaths are alcohol related about 30% in 2020, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “We need to make sure that we’re doing all we can to save lives,” said NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy.
Accidents surged during the pandemic as less-congested roads spurred riskier driving. Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, told the Associated Press this week: “What it may be is that we’re seeing an easing of some of the issues that were caused by the pandemic-speeding, open roads, risky driving issues. Traffic is returning to normal [but] the fatality rate is still very, very high.” A mental health “time bomb”
Meanwhile, after years of prioritizing workers’ well-being during the pandemic, some corporate leaders are suffering from “do-gooder fatigue,” as one executive headhunter described it to the Financial Times, adding, “The feeling is, we need to get back to business.”
But overlooking burnout and mental health among employees could backfire. While remote work became the norm during the recession, it also blurred the lines between home and work life, leading to burnout as employees juggled their workload with childcare and other challenges.
Teuila Hanson, LinkedIn’s chief people officer, warned earlier this year that organizations need to make mental health a top priority as employee burnout reaches “historic levels” and the “Great Reshuffle”- workers “reconsidering not just how they work but where and why”-transforms the workplace.
According to research from global recruiter Robert Walters, three major “living crises” will further drive the Great Reshuffle: the rising cost of living a post-pandemic mental health “time bomb,” and the prioritizing of purpose over profession.
“The crucial act here is for employers to listen and play an active role in alleviating some of the personal issues in employees’ lives before they reach that irreversible crisis point,” said Chris Hickey, CEO of Robert Walters North America. “Companies need to be more in tune with the issues impacting their employees if they want to avoid the Great Reshuffle.”
Detecting those issues isn’t always easy. Lime Group, a health insurance firm, has warned about “pleasanteeism,” a phenomenon in which workers, when returning to the workplace, put on a brave face and present the very best versions of themselves. That, says the company, can undermine efforts to promote an open dialogue about mental health in a work setting.
“Businesses are sleepwalking into a mental health crisis,” the firm warned.
“The well-being of employees is central to the bottom line,” Arianna Huffington, CEO of consulting agency Thrive Global, said during Fortune’s Reimagine Work Summit earlier this year. Companies need to be more flexible with not just where, but also when employees work, she said: “We are now beginning to realize that the human operating system is different. Downtime for the human operating system is not a bug, it’s a feature.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
HAVE A SAFE MONTH & NEW YEAR, AND REMEMBER: LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE OF IT!