TWO WORLDS, ONE PEOPLE

We live in two worlds, or so it seems.

One world is bright and shiny with hope for the future.

It’s glass and steel with clean, clear surfaces.

Shades of blue light sparkle between the dreams of the builders and us, the visitors.

That’s one world. Looks good, smells good, feels good.

The other world is sepia toned.

It’s dirty and smudged like a coffee table that’s been spilled on over and over and never cleaned.

The spills combine dust and dirt and the odd particulates of life that eventually replace the original finish.

Instead of bright, clean edges, this world is dull and worn.

Think of your single aunt’s house where she lived with four cats that eat on the counter tops and Auntie Grizelda smoked three packs of Phillip Morris Commanders, the long cigarettes with no filter.

The windows are dripping nicotine delivered in sigh after sigh of despair.

Floors are so sticky your shoes make noise with each step.

The furniture looks coated in dark mustard.

Two Worlds In One Head

Buildings, and nations, share a similar look on the way up and on the way down.

Somehow we live in both worlds, or at least accept both worlds, where builders pile up materials and start digging, where wreckers smash everything into a similar pile.

Find a construction site in the early stages and it looks like wreckage to the untrained eye. Stuff gets delivered and set up until their time to go.

Then find a recycle-aimed teardown where workers remove and stack wood and brick for reuse and you’ll see common ground.

2

Scale up and see Oregon as two worlds. One is urban, the other rural.

From the outside it’s hard to compare urban Oregon with states that have more than one city barely above half a million population.

Of the five boroughs of New York City, only Staten Island is close to Portland, while the other four are at least double in size.

Looking in from NYC, all of Oregon is rural, but locals like to use the divide when it suits their purposes.

3

The important part of living in two worlds is to enjoy where you are and don’t judge.

It’s not easy, especially if you moved to a city temporarily and never leave.

People get stuck for many reasons:

They meet the love of their life who will never leave their city.

The life they build together falls apart and one of them is free while the other stuck in a place they weren’t crazy about from the start.

So why don’t they just move? Let’s ask:

“Why don’t you just move if you don’t like it here?”

“That’s your question? The best you got? Well, you don’t know this city, so why don’t you shut up until you do. That’s your answer. Shut up.”

Ukraine and Russia: Two Worlds Side By Side

These are only two worlds in one person’s head, Putin’s head.

Why would this man decide to tell the rest of the world to f#ck off and go ahead with his invasion plans, his siege plans, his war crime plans?

This is a man who sees one world in his head, and he’s starting to implement his vision close to home.

He wants a crushed, demoralized Ukraine willing to do whatever he says as long as he stops dropping bombs, sending artillery shells, and aiming rockets and missiles at civilians in city centers.

To Putin, all of Ukraine looks like your Aunt Grizelda’s house, all dark and murky and infested with Nazis even though the people of Ukraine somehow elected a Jewish President.

Ukraine is such a mess in Putin’s mind that he’s sending in peacekeepers to murder citizens in their apartments, in break lines, and in basement shelters.

Unless it’s one world of kindness and honor and following the rule of law, two worlds, even three worlds, are better than any world planned by someone like Putin, and there are people like Putin.

People Like Putin?

The disgraced former president Trump is like Putin with his Big Lie to go along with all of his regular lying.

Mike ‘Slim Jim’ Pompeo is like Putin, so much so that he’s used on Russian TV.

In the next election cycle we’ll find more people who like Putin.

If you have a republican candidate gearing up for a run, keep a close check on them for living in two worlds.

One world might be sponsored by the world’s most ruthless dictator.

Instead, vote for an American candidate who has our best interests in mind and ideas on how to make them even better.

Start by asking about their platform, and walk away if they can only parrot Trump and Putin and Pompeo and the bevy of politicians whose name recognition goes along with their allegiance to Trump and Putin.

You can do better than that.

The stories and video come from all sources. There’s American news, European news, and Arnold news.

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