Hands On

We talk about the education system in the US like it's a really big problem.

We blame teachers. We blame students. We blame politicians. We blame unions. We blame parents, and brothers, and sisters, and the meltdown that's become the family structure. We blame everyone. In short, no one's hands are clean.

It is really a big problem, after all.

But what's the brass tacks issue here?

Everything. Everything is the issue. Life is a big problem that constantly looks like it needs solving, like a Picasso that some straight and narrow still life painter is trying so fucking hard to re-puzzle. To no avail. It can't be solved. It is what it is. You can't solve someone else's problem. Not really. Your mom can do that geometry problem for you, but she can't fix the greater problem that you still don't know math. It adds up, ta da.

To each his own is my thing.

I say, hands off everyone. Helping hands sometimes are the hands that aren't lent. The timeless Marshall motto, a classic: "If it's that important to you, you'll do it yourself." It's been since forever that people have just left each other alone. Maybe it's my Ayn Rand spirit that's coming back to haunt me, or maybe it's just what needs to happen. We need to take responsibility for ourselves. Each person pitching in, making their own lives better in order to better the whole. That's all I really want. All the direction I received during my early years didn't really direct me anywhere except this middle of the road, carving out nicely the crack between success and failure.

We all make choices, and need to be allowed to take responsibility for those choices.