I had a drink. It was a small act of defiance. The doctors said do this. I did that. They didn’t say have a drink. I did because me, I, my situation evidently didn’t matter. The appointment required hours spent driving during which I listened to a lot of radio. I heard about a lot of more defiance that greatly exceeds mine. I ponder what that means for us, and what that means for me, too.

I mixed the right drink in the wrong glass. I just got home from a medical appointment in Boise, Idaho. (Boise? Yes, Boise. A friend of a friend suggested the out-of-state option.) A couple of liquors to make a mixed drink – which I tiredly mixed in a glass reserved for lots of tonic water. Great drink. Oops.

The doc, actually the doc’s assistant concluded my visit by telling me they couldn’t operate on my bad knee because my blood sugar was too high. OK. No surprise. Two hospitals in my neighborhood by the Salish Sea said the same thing. The surprise, or at least the disappointment was that they already knew that answer, they knew that limit. When I initially called about the situation I asked if we could talk about whether there was a limit. “No.” they said. I had to visit them. I assumed that the visit may reveal more nuances that would possibly enable the surgery. Nope. 1,200 miles of driving, gas, hotels, food, and four lost days of my life for a comment that could have been resolved in a few minutes. I just wrote about Listening. They were polite. The facility was impressive. They paused and nodded when I talked, and they didn’t listen. That’s common, unfortunately. Nice building though.

My naturopath did a more recent blood draw, which evidently was more favorable. Conventional doctors don’t seem to listen to naturopaths, either.

The doctors work by the numbers. The insurers and the hospital administrators prefer that because they are objective measurers of reality. Anecdotes are to be heard, but not incorporated into treatment. They may be worried about court cases and defenses that key off the average person living an average life. How many of those are there?

My act of defiance was to have my first drink in two weeks. 

I may have a beer tomorrow, if I mow the lawn and don’t have anywhere to drive afterwards.

But that’s my situation. I’ll play to their numbers but as a doctor said about me years ago, ‘my body runs hot.’ With ‘high’ blood pressure I’ve done several semi-epic trips. Blood pressure stayed the same. Ran marathons, the same. Had a stressful job, the same. The doctors may be aiming me at a target that is unattainable naturally for my body, which means I’ll be living this way as it slowly degrades. 

Oops. Back to the larger picture. 

I don’t follow politics much. It seems to be a couple of large organizations that make proclamations about what their followers should feel and say – without listening to what the followers actually feel and say. And yet, that is how the game is played. And the reporting treats it in game terms, even though running the world is no game.

My act of defiance was to have a drink. Disensions(sp?) within the parties, within their ranks, and a growing number of voters who won’t claim allegiance to either are positive signs, but not pleasant ones. 

Marches, protests, and memes proliferate, but unless the politician organized it, they may not be there to listen. They may be there for the photo-op, but not to formulate a position. Yet, the citizenry isn’t being quiet.

I’ve written about how I believe we may be heading to a Magna Carta moment, a historical event that redefines a system of government. Like the Digital Singularity, any guesses about what comes next are guesses, not logically supported conclusions except by luck. 

Tomorrow will be like yesterday, until it is not.

So, what to do?

Be adaptable. Be aware. There are historical events that are remembered as anecdotes, not as real. Real? Sure, they happened, but that was then. This is now. Right? Maybe, but history is known for echoing.

Democracy may have started with the Greeks, but really caught on, at least as a meme, in 1776. Monarchy still exists, barely. Communism has redefined itself so much that Karl Marx may get confused. And Socialism has turned into a hot word, possibly simply because it was one of the Ss in USSR. And now, Democratic Socialism is being talked about so much that the press is shortening it to DS. What, too many syllables for today’s audience?

Regardless of the name used, social upheavals can mean monetary upheavals. 

(See, I brought it back around to personal finance.)

Currencies can be revalued, or devalued. Debts from national down to personal can see jubilees (where debts are forgiven and the folks who issued it cry) or called to be paid off, regardless of the hurt. There are calls to make the default currency digital, and possibly not accept cash (which assumes that Everybody has the skills and equipment to handle it, including kid’s lemonade stands). Investing is pulling back from public access and is increasingly being handled by private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, oligarchs, and computers. 

How many times do we need to be reminded of people using worthless bonds as wallpaper or needing wheelbarrows of cash to buy bread? Of course, if paper money switches to digital, … I’ll ponder that for later. 

Just as many hopefully well-prepared citizens living in potential crisis zones, I have cash set aside in case an earthquake or tsunami interrupts ATMs et al.

But as I wrote above, ‘Tomorrow will be like yesterday, until it is not.’

So, the majority of my meager wealth is in digital form, including stocks.

But I keep in mind that society has seen many acts of defiance that were large enough to be significant and memorable. They may even have been unexpected, that is, to those who weren’t listening.

For me, it is back to my normal routine of improved diet and exercise, accepting that the current healthcare system is imperfect, that I shouldn’t expect them to suddenly listen for real and not just to nod their head. And to glance out the window at my yard and wonder if I should mow it tomorrow, beer or no beer.