I had this thing happen tonight-
A few weeks ago, I posted a short video on TikTok calling for a better rail system here in Colorado. Now, social media being what it is, you can imagine that there were responses in the affirmative and the negative. OK, I can live with that.
Tonight an anonymous account started being hostile towards the idea of rail stating that he didn’t think anyone would ever use it anyway. Now, I politely responded that I think the people would based off of my experience in Europe, combined with fact that the history of the West is intertwined with the history of rail. Seemingly inevitably he responded with something snarky and then asked if I was some kind of liberal.
I responded that yes of course I am a liberal. I believe in clean air and clean water, public lands, access to education and healthcare across the spectrum, and I believe in workers’ rights and lifting up the less fortunate. I told him I come from a poor family in Kentucky and I was proud to represent the working class.1
And then, of course he responded something to the effect of telling me to go back home to Kentucky and marry my cousin or something. I can’t remember exactly.
Naturally, this gets me fired up. I’m loaded for bear and ready for war. And then I realize something: this guy doesn’t matter. He’s an anonymous troll.
More to the point, being negative isn’t who I am. Or at least it’s not who I am when I’m at my best. I think in my truest form I’m happy and silly and I want the best for people. And yeah, this means sometimes I get hurt. But I don’t wanna get dragged down into the mud—y’all know that metaphor about pig wrestling.
So I’m not going to. I’ve been really happy lately and that comes from making a choice to be happy. I still hurt over some stuff. But in the words of Frank Costello from the movie The Departed, I don’t want to be a project of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.2
And then I went and bought ice cream.
Thanks for being here and thanks for being part of this community. I hope one of you wins lottery tonight. Mostly I hope I win the lottery but if I don’t, I hope you do. You get the idea.
By the way, and I hope this goes without saying, it’s totally cool if you don’t agree with everything I think or say. I don’t want this to be a space where it turns into an echo chamber. I hope there are people across the spectrum reading this substack. And I hope you know that I’m happy that you’re here regardless of what your beliefs are. Because that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Disclaimer: this substack does not encourage you to become an organized crime leader in Boston. It does, however encourage you to listen to Van Morrison‘s cover of “Comfortably Numb.”
Good for you not arguing with strangers on the internet! The world could be a better place if we could all do that... and if we had better railways.
This is awesome.