When No One is Watching

December 13, 2021

 I've heard it said that character is what you do when no one is watching. I believe this. I also believe character is revealed when we don't know exactly who has their eye on us.

We had a situation last week. A client came into our place of business, upset about something that had nothing to do with us. An IT situation was affecting 427 of our clients. All of them understood that we were working hard to make our clients' life easier. All except one. 

This poor excuse for a man decided to berate my wife while I was working with other clients. He left her in tears. When I approached him to ask if he'd like to talk to me this way. He said he had nothing to say to me. I (not) very calmly informed him that if he ever spoke to my wife that way again, he would leave this place in an ambulance.

I'm not proud of my behavior, but the fact that I didn't crush his larynx is proof of what a kind and patient man I am.

Why? Because when our security guard approached him and explained that I was angry because I was defending my wife, his answer was, "oh, I didn't realize he was her husband." as if attacking an unattached woman is somehow okay.

I am all for equality between men and women. I believe in equal treatment and protection under the law. But I recognize that we are not the same. Men are stronger and more aggressive. More often than not, in domestic violence situations, it is the man who assaults the woman. A man yells and exhibits violent behavior to a woman, she is likely going to be intimidated.

This man understood this. He chose to be a jerk and scare a woman. I made him eat his own cooking. He didn't like it at all.

We can be equal and still recognize our differences. Men are physically stronger than women. Women beat men at everything else.

The New Timeline

 I am researching stand-up paddle boards. I've been contemplating the purchase for quite a while. The feeling comes and goes. I really want one! Can't live without it! And then something else comes along and grabs my attention and the board idea sinks. I can't be the only one who experiences this. Surely, there are others.

Of course, researching products will inevitably lead you to reading reviews. Reviews can be helpful and, perhaps incidentally, entertaining.

Lately, as I read reviews, the theme I keep coming across is the pandemic, specifically how the lockdown affected people's purchasing decisions. This is by no means a scientific thing, but I can't help noticing how the illegal government-mandated lockdowns affected people.

I won't go into it all as it's been played out. I only wanted to make one simple observation.

Time used to be designated as BC or AD. We are living in AD 2021. The way I have begun to look at time now is a different BC. It's Before Covid. I'd like to believe there will eventually be an AL, meaning After Lockdown, but I have no expectation that the government will ever be inclined to give back its power.

We are living in the Age of Covid. It was nearing its conclusion so the Delta Variant was released. I don't know much about it, but I know that it has already been weaponized by the state. I don't know there will ever be a post-lockdown world. I think we'll just watch Big Brother turn the volume up when necessary. 

I hope I'm wrong, but you and I both know I'm not.

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here.

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A Contactless Future

 The COVID-19 plandemic and its fallout should have become a distant memory by now, but the government would never let such a useful “crisis” go to waste. They made the mistake of giving us an inch, we took a mile, and now the Delta Variant has been unleashed upon the populace.

As I sit here in the early morning gloom of a rainy South Florida summer day, I am browsing articles, investment opportunities, and the like. I keep finding how Contactless features have been incorporated into everything from groceries to real estate transactions. Even as the pandemic fails, the main symptom, which is the fear of coming into close proximity to other people, keeps getting its lease on life extended.

Add this to cancel culture, critical race theory, political correctness, and the general vitriol we are living with here in Don and Joe’s Great American Experiment, and it’s getting harder to feel optimistic about America’s future.

I am a touchy-feely guy, though I save that mostly for my loved ones. I don’t want to never shake a stranger’s hand. I don’t want to be afraid to hand something, anything, to another human being. I am not an island and I don’t want to be. 

Give me contact or give me death!

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here.

The Evolution of Dave Chappelle

Much is being said about Dave Chappelle's  new stand up special available on Netflix. I watched it last week. Never thought I'd find myself writing about it but here I am.

Chappelle had long ago proven that he is a fearless comic. His show on Comedy Central was hugely successful and with good reason. He took a lot of chances and rarely missed. The show was just plain funny. Chappelle has proven time and again that he deserves to be compared to Eddy Murphy or Richard Pryor, two of my favorites when I was growing up.

But with his latest release, Chappelle has claimed new territory. He stepped into a world previously occupied by comics like George Carlin and Bill Hicks. Chappelle now seems to be as interested in making you think as he is in making you laugh; making you uncomfortable is a bonus. The show had funny lines, to be sure, but there were far more lines that seemed meant to push buttons and get people, weak people, foaming at the mouth.

There have been serious opinion pieces calling Chappelle, who is black in case you didn't know, a white supremacist. People are hating on him pretty intensely right now. This is what happens when you have the balls to be honest about your feelings.

I am not trying to defend Chappelle's opinions. The man is quite capable of defending himself. What I will defend is his right to express those opinions.

Chappelle has gone from sidekick (Men in Tights, You've got Mail) to writer and comic performer in his Comedy Central show, to prophet and pot-stirrer extraordinaire in his Netflix special. The man has evolved.

In today's cancel culture, you are not allowed to make a point. You are not allowed to be okay with harsh words. Everything must be sanitized in order to be acceptable. If it hurts someone, it must be eliminated, along with its creator.

Chappelle presents a special problem for the PC police because his is black. He is not afraid of controversy and he's rich enough to tell the world to go to hell.

Lucky bastard.

Note:

I usually write this column to share my thoughts on writing. My opinion pieces appear in other places under other names. The lesson here for an aspiring writer is that you should learn to be fearless. Speak your truth, your opinions. Speak even when you are scared. Don't let yourself be bullied. You are too important; much more important than the feelings of some little pussy who can't handle words he can't agree with. Of course, if you are the little pussy who can't handle the words, kindly fuck the hell off.



Adolfo Jimenez is a writer living against his will in Hollywood, Florida.  His latest release is Scenes from a 1979 Ford Fairmont, a short book of poems. Get it on Amazon!

Check him out here!