When I meet people, strangers actually, the following conversation usually takes place.
Me: Hi! I am Alexis McBride and I am famous!
They: Really?!?! Why are you famous?
Me: I write a blog. B L O G and thousands of people from all over the world read it.
They: What do you blog about?
Me: That is complicated – lots of things. I am funny but then can be trivial so I go serious and do lots of research, then that is boring and they say bring back funny. So I do.
They: I might read it. How do I find it?
Me: It is just my name OR here is my blog card (if I can find it).
The blog of today is no exemption to the rule. It is not very funny but two topics are discussed A proverb and an article from The Atlantic that speaks of the sudden raise in the crime rate.
This Proverb from Aesop’s fable was mentioned in a prior blog but ,for some reason, or another, it was not possible for me to get on Google. A subsequent search was fruitful.
“Kill not the goose that lays golden eggs is a popular proverb in English that is rooted in this story. When we use this proverb, we mean that anyone who feels entitled to, and tries to get more than he is already receiving, is most likely to get nothing at all in the future. Read the following example: Young Johnny had a very kind and generous uncle. Every time Johnny visited him with his parents, he was given five cents. One day, Johnny thought of buying a bike. The next time he met his uncle, he asked him for 50 dollars. “50 dollars?” exclaimed his uncle. “That is a lot of money!”“Well, you can afford it, and I want to buy a bike,” said Johnny. “You don’t have any children, so you should have a lot of money.”Johnny’s uncle was very angry. He did not like Johnny’s attitude.Johnny did not get 50 dollars. He did not get his five cents also any more.He had killed the goose that laid golden eggs. If he had been wiser, he would have at least got his five cents.Sometimes, we are not content with what we have, and wish for more. Such discontentment always results in unhappiness, and regret.”
What is hilarious about writing this blog is that there have been several selfish “Young Johnny’s” in my life, basically saying to themselves: “Well, you can afford the money, you do not have any children and you should have a lot of money.” What they discover, too late, is that there are no more five cents for them. But where the blog enters into the situation is a slightly known fact – some of these usurious persons read the blog and so they can read and digest what happened to their former Lady Bountiful. Now they may be deep in denial (which is not just a river in Egypt) but it may get through to them. Wise Man said onto me:
He: Alexis, you can be too generous. People can, and do take, advantage of you. So you should guard against this.
Me: I prefer to be trusting and most frequently it is fine and people are generous with me. But when it is evident that I am being used by someone or something I just cut them off and out.
He: I can see that you can do that. When you are done, Alexis, you are done!
Me: Indeed I do! Usually I do not get confrontational at the end, just sort of disappear from view. Sometimes they know not what happened. You saw that happen here recently.
He: I did!! And did remark even before you realized it: “He is done”
Me: No wonder I pay you the big bucks.
But thinking of this fable, finding it on Google and including it in my blog is really rather clever. Readers of the blog who killed this goose, or families of the perpetuators who might read the blog, may just come to understand what they did. Murdered the goose that laid golden eggs. Then I return to my usual motto: Living Well is the Best Revenge, and life goes on.
But onto a different topic. My sense of timing leaves something to be desired – timing related to my return to the USA. This from The Atlantic, an interview featuring Patrick Sharkey speaking about the surge in the crime rate. ”Americans are experiencing a crime wave unlike anything we’ve seen this century. After decades of decline, shootings have surged in the past few years. In 2020, gun deaths reached their highest point in U.S. history in the midst of a pandemic. In 2021, although researchers can’t yet say anything definite about overall crime, shooting incidents appear to be on the rise in many places. We have also already witnessed several mass shootings, including the murder of spa and massage workers in the Atlanta area and a grocery-store massacre in Boulder, Colorado. Americans can no longer say, as we could 10 years ago, that we are living in the safest time in our nation’s history.”
Sharkey continues: “This is the analysis I’m doing right now. It’s always been true that violence is concentrated in a small number of communities. The current increase in crime is not evenly distributed, either. Most of the increase in violence is highly concentrated in neighborhoods that are segregated with high poverty. Many of these neighborhoods have experienced disinvestment for generations, for decades, and it has made them more vulnerable to violence. Their public spaces have not been maintained. Their schools are underfunded. Their parks are not maintained. There aren’t functioning community centers or after-school programs for children.In research shared exclusively with The Atlantic after we spoke, Sharkey calculated that Chicago had 267 more fatal shootings in 2020 than the previous year. This was by far the largest numerical increase in the country and more than double that in any other city. New York City, Philadelphia, and Atlanta saw fatal shootings increase in 2020 by more than 30 percent. But in several other major cities—including Miami; Las Vegas; San Jose, California; and Honolulu—fatal shootings declined, according to his data.Thompson: Do we know if certain groups are suffering disproportionately from this crime increase? There have been several news reports of increased harassment and crime against Asian Americans, even before the Atlanta-area massacre. Is there anything your data can tell us about whether violence is increasing for some ethnic groups more than others?A lot of books and stories have been written about the great crime decline in the U.S. over the past 30 years. Now that this decline seems to be on pause, I wonder how you think some of these theories hold up, or don’t. Sharkey: So much research and journalism on violence gravitates toward single-cause explanations. And that’s just misguided. We know that violence is incredibly complex, but we consistently seek out counterintuitive explanations. Take lead exposure, for example, which was a popular single-cause explanation for the decline in crime. Look, lead matters for crime. But you can’t show graphs of how violence rises and falls within the 2010s and say this is purely explained by a change in lead exposure from 20 years ago. That’s simplistic and incorrect.” Goodness knows what will happen but I am quite safe as I live in a safe and affluent county, live in a safe and secure apartment complex, the Central Marin Police Department one saved me from a mad man, promising to keep me safe AND I do not go places I should not go.
This is the first blog written on my new computer. I LOVE IT and it is not just the color (gold). I can type even faster than before.
Me: When you are hot, you are hot!
Kim: And when you are not, you are cold.
Me: And I am hot.
Tomorrow’s blog will feature a surprise photograph which may lead several men to suicide. Well, that is a slight exaggeration. Slight! Hahahaha
Photograph is the the third finger of my left hand. Holly my manicurist, said that I have great hands for a woman of my age. The nail polish matches the rings. Story about the rings at a later time.
