My first winter morning walk toward Starbucks at 4:15 AM seems so very long ago! I was somewhere in my 250s as I looked toward 2024 with hopes of what it might entail. Now at the halfway point of The 38th Expedition, I am on the verge of diving below that 200 lb marker despite my training being stripped from me back in February. I want to get back to my workouts—I do—and I know I cannot even attempt hitting that golden ratio without lifting. I do not know if my killing time for that green light of 179 lbs in August (projected) is the cause.

There has been a philosophical shift—or maybe a highlighting of late. Truthfully, it has always been in me, but buried under a layer of numbing consumerism. I could grab from a stack of posts, but how I feel is how I felt in 2003. Just replace television with telecommunicatons / today's Internet and I nailed it.

There is value in disconnecting from what the world esteems, or pretends to esteem, for in reality, the news cycles shout into echo chambers to drive you to Buy Buy Buy, a less enigmatic version of the NSYNC hit to be sure. The owners have bought into the lie that gaining wealth in lieu of truth is a weightier outcome. Is that not the pursuit of the politician as well? Like a folk song:

Where have all the wise men gone, long time passing?
Where have all the wise men gone, long time ago?
Where have all the wise men gone?
Gone to deserts, every one!
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

While I still feel people generally are dull sheep than agile tigers with sharp eyes, all of this media consumption makes me want to want to append to my analysis: we're parrots. And this Polly doesn't want a cracker.