Tag: living

What is Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation?

Published on April 1, 2026

What is Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation?

That was in the text but not the title of some [there’s a whole lot of mandatory refresher and update style review, testing, demonstrating, and proving] of this year’s annual employee training.

[Be warned: you’re gonna have to pretend you know how to read code to follow the rest of this. If you don’t or simply don’t want to, you’ll need to rely on #ArtificalIntelligence #AI to help you out. Of course, chances are that AI was manifested, conceived, created, implemented, and made come to life, by someone like me. Someone who’s worked in IT for 45 years. LOL. ]

I work at a great [or really trying very hard to be] hospital, where like everyone in healthcare,

[single person, unit, organization, committee, subcommittee, focus group, lobbyist, corporation, initiating, defining, acquiring, executing, monitoring, and closing [see how cleverly I got the #PMI #PMBOK knowledge areas in there? Made you want to either look it up or salute, didn’t it? 🙂 plus all those other governing, regulating, overseeing, and simply interfering but not non-governing bodies [because the bottom line is, we work in #bodies. Vertical and horizontal. In so many shades on that spectrum it really is mind-blowing!]]]

I am exposed to and must make decisions and actions about

[in one way or another, to some end or another, for the purposes of covering my butt and being an exemplary employee, healthcare worker, caregiver, clinical team, administrator, organization or to be a good person, family member, religionist, neighbor, citizen, community, city, county [township, kirk, borough, parish, diocese, and any other damned subregional name you can think of. Go nuts here. You can entertain yourself (but probably not TOO many others – remember, it’s just who’s in your box and immediately adjacent at your share window that can see or hear you well enough to consider being entertained) for HOURS on this one.]

these three topics:

[you may not remember at this point because we’ve gone full stream of conscious by know and like anything else, each moment is only here when it’s here after all. The past and the future only exist in the now, which only lives in our minds long enough to die. It is our minds, after all. And everything else. ESPECIALLY the stuff you try to keep swept up under the rug. #ItWillAllComeToLightOrItAintLightEnoughYet]

Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation.

But here’s the thought.

[after what seems to be an interminably long and protracted but likely completely unnecessary to conveying the point introduction, some of which might have been greatly changed by avoiding all the #ActiveCase #IOweMyOnlineLifeToTheElementsOfStyle. 😉 🙂 :D]

How you define each of those terms describes the society you want to live in.

That’s one part of that society, world, planet, universe, cosmos.

The other?

How much of each of those together or separately you’ll accept, tolerate, or condone.

[#ThinkingFaceEmoji]

Of course, to REALLY be #LiberalFriendly, it must also be subcategorized. Aristotle style, of course. Where would we be as an advanced technological and philosophy power on this earth without at least SOME Aristitotalian real-world application?

So, how you stand on EACH one defines your political agenda, i.e., what particular kind of liberal you are.

[Conservatives, you don’t have to take this test. You’re all the same, really. Anti-Liberal. Sadly, that makes you the victim in all this, in everything. Because the real truth is, NOTHING is inevitable. Absolutely fucking nothing. There is no eternity, no “after”, no up in the sky pristine alpine white (of course, paradise WOULD be white, right OMG STFU). You get a “bye” this round. See you in the championships #HoopDreams #SoLongAsMyTeamWins #TeamSpirit #GoTeam #NoTimeForLosers #WinningIsntTheBestThingItsTheOnlyThing.]

No exceptions. If you don’t tick all the boxes, you won’t vote alike. Not even on the same Democrat. Or to save a Democrat. Or to register as a Democrat. Or even LIKE a Democrat. Or an Independent. Green, Socialist, Communist, #SomethingElse, #NothingElse, #AmIAloneOutHere, #WhatIsMyFlavorAnyway. Or something, that’s for sure.

[So here we go]

Abuse: Drug, domestic, spousal, child, and animal, to start.

[Remember, you must rate them least to most important. Can’t pigeonhole you without that information. Next, on to]

Neglect: Personal, spousal, child, malicious, unintentional.

[Remember, these are all about accepting, acknowledging, understanding, condoning, observing, participating, and/or facilitating. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the Exploitation part later. Of course, how you accept that decision on my part ALSO helps define how and what kind of liberal you really are. Good so far? And finally…]

Exploitation

Personal, sexual [consensual and/or not], child [but also young adult, adult, elderly, etc.], race [or ethnicity], accident, intentional

[again, see how important your intentions are? If you think about it, it’s not really WHY you did something that matters. Because that’s the true benchmark, right? It don’t really matter what the law says. You gonna do something you think is right whether it actually IS right or not, ain’t ya? Damned right. Every time. And only YOU make that decision. Every single FREAKING time. Of course, MOST of the time you get lucky, because what the current [fleeting like everything else only temporary and probably not as stable as it looks] culture and “nation” you were pushed out into feels strongly enough about to adjudicate on, you’ve been carefully and ever so cautiously but firmly educated, indoctrinated, spoon fed, and weaned on. THAT’s your mother’s milk, ain’t it? And like everybody REALLY knows, there is no way to get that in a formula. For better or worse. #BreastFedIsBestFed 🙂 and also + , ]

malicious, profitable, pleasurable, etc.

[It gets darker, sicker, and more twisted the further you slip down THAT rabbit hole.]

So: you take your ratings from all of those, and it gives you a rating from 1 to 100. Now, THAT is a useful number. There’s probably a way to tie that to all KINDS of metrics to figure out what kind of person you are.

[person, leader, boss, gender, personality, intelligence, guppy, partner, child, parent, adult, sibling, co-worker, friend, lover, henchperson, lackey, employee, zodiac sign, religious nut, liberal, my heavens THIS could go on forever. No wonder we can’t seem to get control of politics in this country!!!! OMG IRL WTF #TheUglyTruthAintIt]

Anyway, your number. That gives you coordinates on the game board. Think of it like that, and you’ll still manage to retain some hope of winning. Of course, that’s an illusion and seriously only fleetingly temporary at best, and if you’re lucky, you’ll remember some of the best parts. Most people don’t get as lucky as the lottery commission would like you to believe. Any gambler could tell you the odds are in the house’s favor. Or there wouldn’t be a house. #RememberYouAintTheHouseYoureJustLivingInIt #ItAintAGambleIfYouKnowYoureGonnaLose 😉

That NUMBER puts you in the right #LiberalBox. Remember, there’s really only ONE #ConservativeBox [just anti-liberal, remember], but you’ve got a lot of choices.

[Actually you don’t have a choice. your number dictates where you’re going to go. Of course, you CAN change that number, but then you have to take the above test ALL over again. And whose got that kind of time, right? How about…]

There are a lot of possible end points. And that number tells you exactly which one is yours. Then you find out who is IN the box with you [it’s usually pretty damned lonely], whose boxes are NEXT to yours, and whose are next to THEIRS? It’s turtles, all the way down, isn’t it?

ANYHOW. Your box determines who you can and are willing to talk to, agree with to a degree, cooperate with, compete with, tolerate, stand, deal with, antagonize, bully, belittle, jeopardize, marginalize, and #AllThoseIZEGuys.

So how’s the view? What’s on the idiot box? How’s your world looking [either in, around, out, or beyond]? What books are on your shelves? That’s kind of way to #VennDiagram us to figure out where we connect, if at all. These

Books

[and the medium by which they are transmitted, be that oral, chiseled, scratched, printed, scripted, typed, voice-generated, completely computer-generated (there’s that #AI again) are the way ideas pass between brains that insist on thinking of themselves as individuals. Clumsy, for sure, but #YouWorkWithWhatYouGot, right? So the books]

that you and I both draw from (either from direct experience or via somebody else telling you what’s in the book [like sadly MOST religions] and especially the #BooksWeOwn are critical to determining whether you and I are gonna share anything more than a brief, fleeting, single moment in time.

And so we imagine, define, join, celebrate, reinforce, perpetuate, indoctrinate, educate and promulgate, our own special #PoliticalParty. As if that organization bereft like every other single other thing in the universe, is horribly #impermanent, #outsidetime, #transitory, #mortal, and otherwise #NowAndOneTimeOnly.

That’s why the world is the way it is.

How you define abuse, neglect, and exploitation. And why. And what that does to either you or anyone else. Ever. Permanently. Insofar as #NothingIsReallyPermanentOrInEvitable. Right?

Now back to your regularly scheduled program #AlreadyInProgess. See, it took MUCH longer than #TwoAndTwo to get through this. But it was worth it, right?

[Next episode will probably be about Worth, Value and Saving :)]

Accept what you think is love and make sure to give it back. Don’t settle for anything else, less, more, other. #NoSubstitutions #MustBePresentToWin #WereInThisTogether #AbsolutelyCompletelyIrreversiblySoYouMightAsWellBeWillinglyInterdependent.

Peace (don’t get me started) out.

[April Fool’s LOL]

#SomeStuffIsReallyImportantToTalkAbout #Resist #NoKings #NoKingsCrownsOrNobility #ChangeTheBe #MakeTheRightChoiceForAChange

01 APR 2026

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Left of How: English sonnet

Published on May 21, 2025

The world evolves without suspense or trick;
it is and it becomes, with no delay,
both seed and flower’s dried husk, derelict
from newborn babe within each single day.

What seems to be so permanent and cast
in stone, begins to crumble at its birth;
mere nothingness is all that seems to last –
and we know just exactly what that’s worth.

The past and future are both fantasy;
they live both in our minds, and not at all.
You may as well believe you are a tree
to think spring comes again after your fall.

And yet, life is worth living, here and now.
You’re given when and where; what’s left is how.

21 MAY 2025

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There is Singing: cywydd deuair hyrion

Published on May 12, 2025

Listen to the birds; they sing
each morning at dawn’s lifting,
before the dew dries away
as the now becomes today.

Who knows why they keep at it?
Most see no real benefit
in trilling out little tunes;
there’s much work to do by noon.

We sing so little these days,
getting ourselves bent sideways
with the world, so full of fear,
letting beauty disappear

when we could celebrate it.
Each evening is still moonlit,
and darkness is so quiet.
We need a song. Just try it.

12 MAY 2025

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A Song to Sing

Published on April 20, 2025

One of the things that I fear people asking, that I imagine to be the greatest torture in the world to which I can attest with personal experience in the matter, is “What kind of music do you play?”

Ok, so maybe that’s a first world problem. Could be that most people even in the most obscure, bizarre and strangely unusual circumstances would not find themselves needing to consider it. And I’m ok with that if you are. I mean, what I’m not able to communicate will be more than offset by what you’re not able to understand, right? And visa versa.

It wouldn’t be so bad if there really were specific types or genres of music that folks use to clearly define the sounds they hear, imagine they’re hearing, or wish they could hear, when their lives, like a Broadway or Hollywood musical, need some music or a song to get through a particularly thorny plot point or epiphany. But the truth is, those common shared definitions don’t exist. Ask any two people on the street to define jazz. Or punk. Or country. Or classical. Now ask any two musicians. Of the four answers you have, do any agree with your own descriptions?

When I was at Berklee, one of my professors told us that when Duke Ellington was asked that question, he replied, “Why, beautiful music, of course.” I’ve used that answer since myself, but I always feel both a little guilty – and also a bit skeptical. After all, beauty is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. There are more ways to divide the spectrum of beauty than almost any other abstract notion in human history. As my dad used to say about working at the Detroit Department of Sanitation, “It may be shit to you, but it’s our bread and butter.”

The beauty you see, absorb, and reflect in the world, and the music you hear, internalize, and echo back to the cosmos, are in that respect very much the same. In many ways, you find the beauty or song you need at the precise moment you need it. That’s why it makes such an indelible impression. Just like you are not the same person from one set of space-time coordinates to the next, but are constantly if unconsciously evolving into something never before quite finished, you’re never really done with beauty and music because once they’ve touched you, they’re never really quite done with you either.

That’s what makes the question so difficult to answer. Not just because the answer changes, but because it doesn’t. It’s the etudes you first learned to play before you knew the names of the strings on your violin. It’s the first piece you practiced for hours preparing for that piano recital. The song you wrote after coming home from your grandfather’s funeral. The tune on the radio when you stormed out of the house and broke up with your first girlfriend. The last of music you hear before you die, when you don’t know you’ll never hear anything else.

In a brief bio of Sandy Denny, I read, “The mark of a great singer is that he or she always tells a personal truth regardless of the given material.”

So you sing your song or somebody else’s, regardless of who actually wrote it. And that’s the kind of music you play. Because nobody else can.

People will keep asking, because they don’t recognize their own life’s soundtrack. And your answer will never be their moon or its light, or even a reflection in a dewdrop of water. But it may be useful as a finger pointing the way.

20 Apr 2025

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Simple Ways: pantoum

Published on April 11, 2017

Some say that simple ways are still the best;
as we add complication, things decline.
How we live puts that principle to test:
it’s so subjective, what one thinks is fine.

So, adding complication wreaks decline?
Stop making babies; that’s simple enough.
It’s so subjective, what one thinks is fine;
applying principles yourself – that’s tough.

Stop making babies; but that’s not enough.
End all this mad charade of cheating death.
Applying principles yourself is tough;
it’s work that needs more effort than just breath.

End all this mad charade of cheating death!
The purpose of this life is growing old.
it’s work that needs more effort than just breath;
those simple ways, if possible, are best.

11 APR 2017

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Nothing But Us: echo verse

Published on March 3, 2017

What happens at the point the point
when we get in our lives in our lives
where decisively, we choose we choose
something to believe in to believe in
much greater than ourselves, ourselves,
and with surprise we find, we find
instead of a great something something
out there, giving us a sense of worth, worth
that we waste our lives seeking, seeking:
nothing but us. Us.

03 MAR 2017

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14. See the World, Part 2

Published on February 15, 2017

A lot of people proudly claim to love the city they live in, or the one they’re originally from. In general, I am not one of those people – and having lived a lot of places across America, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to make that visceral connection. Yes, I’ve appreciated the history, architecture, planning, flora, and fauna of physical places. There is something about the way a place smells, the way its natural element presents themselves both visually and orally, its latitude, altitude and distance from large bodies of water, the way the stars (including the sun) are arrayed at specific geographic locations, that make each village, hamlet, town, city, and metropolis different and unique.

I understand a deep and abiding connection with land. I’m of Swiss, German, and Irish stock. That connection is part of my heritage, part of my cultural consciousness. I recognize this, in part, because when I traveled to Bern Canton in Switzerland, where my paternal grandmother’s family originated, I recognized a landscape I had never before seen, experienced a “homecoming” if you will, a sense of deep understanding when I walked down narrow city streets, crossed Alpine meadows, and stared up at snow-covered Alps. I’ve not really had that experience anywhere else; I’ve not traveled to Strasbourg, Germany, Cork, Ireland, or any other family originating points for comparison. I’ve had other physical memory of places: for example, I was born at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. Watching a movie about Jack Kevorkian almost 45 years later, I felt a physical sensation of recognition when they showed scenes at the hospital. I’ve also felt a sense of loss, rather than belonging, when happening by former addresses in Ohio, California, Boston, Memphis, Seattle, and New Orleans.

But that doesn’t seem to me what people feel when they say, for example, that they “love New York”. Maybe it’s a PART of it, sure, but I don’t believe just connection to a physical place is the whole of it. That’s like saying that the physical act of sex is the whole of loving a person.

There are a number of factors that tie us, directly or indirectly, to a place’s physicality. Logistics, convenience, knowing where things are, having the interstate system memorized, understanding and appreciating landmarks necessary for navigation, social interaction, and safety – these are indirect physical attributes of a place. But honestly, I’ve accumulated systems encompassing these factors for most of the places I’ve ever lived. Yeah, some places are better, or easier, or faster, in terms of their layout and features. But usually some part of that set compensates for other parts. It all balances out, in the end.

The rest of what makes a place a place, though, is its people. The actual individual people who live and work in a city. The infrastructure supporting those people – the education, culture, spirituality, politics, diversity, and so on. And that infrastructure affects still another set of indirect factors contributing to love: security, privacy, safety. Those things are indeed derived from a place’s people, not its physical attributes.

I’ve liked and loved a lot of people, wherever I’ve lived. And whether they were natives or transplants to those locations, a lot of what they were was the result of how they grew into or adapted to those locations. Some of those people, if you moved them somewhere else, would not have been so lovable or likable. Others that I didn’t really appreciate where they were, might have become MORE interesting. I’m definitely not sure that if you took everyone I loved across the world and put them all in the same physical location, that they would either get along, thrive, or survive relationship with me.

Have I been different people, in each place I’ve lived? Sometimes, sure. It’s a social necessity to adapt, to conform to certain norms in order to establish each two-way definition of equality required to affect communication between people. Are these mere externals? I’m again not sure. Like when you move where a different language is spoken, you have to learn to think in that language to really absorb it, sometimes the energy of a place, by changing the way you do things (e.g., travel, shop, eat, split indoor v. outdoor time, entertain yourself or others), can change who you are – or at least who you THINK you are.

The point is that where I’m at in my life, right now, what attracts me to a city, a physical place – other than its striking physical beauty, particularly if its a geographical experience I’ve not had before – is less WHAT I can experience there, as much as WHO I experience it with. And the presence or absence of that connection (including the presence or absence of the possibility of connection) is what makes a place alive, to me. To find the right balance, to seek beauty that is alive, and life that I find beautiful: that is the quest, right?

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