How Do You Cope? Is J.D. Vance Next Up? The Big One. It is Already June 7. She is Chaka!
Quote of the Week: “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” -Maya Angelou
I have agree that the cliche, “change is good” is valid. While some change may be disruptive and take us out of our comfort zone, nothing in our lives improves without doing things differently. This also applies to the business world, where technologies keep emerging, customer expectations keep rising, and the need for efficiency keeps growing. Making changes has never been more important.
There is no doubt that losing someone close to you, being fired, deciding to divorce, and healthcare issues often result in having to adapt to new situations, new environments, and new people. While everyone adapts differently, there are clear-cut benefits of change including personal growth and understanding perspective.
“…Refusing to be reduced by change” can be supported by your past experiences, your resilience, your faith, and family and friends. Advisors, consultants, and therapists concur that focusing on what you can control, keeping familiar daily routines, and staying connected with your support from family and friends can help with the stress of dealing with change. This list is from Psychology Today:
- Evaluate what you can control – put your energy into the steps you can take.
- Maintain anchors – stick to your daily routine to ground your brain and provide stability.
- Feel Your Feelings – acknowledge frustration, allow yourself grace and avoid judgement.
- Take action – avoid focusing on the big picture and focus on your response in specific steps.
- Reach Out – seek an outside/unbiased perspective from friends and family.
Do any of you have good examples of how you dealt with change?
Question of the Week. Last week’s question asked about President Trump and if you felt like he would stay in his presidential role until his term is up, which is January of 2029. Note: as I stated in last week’s post, this question had nothing to do with politics. The question of the President’s health heading into his 80th year was the reason for the question. I will restate that I have no interest in politics.
Here are some interesting answers:
- Trump has lacked the mental capacity to serve as President of this great country before ever holding office, but to answer your question his deteriorating mental condition is such that I can’t fathom him lasting through his second term. If he is allowed to do so I really do fear where we will wind up !!😔
- Yes he will be in office full term! The guy runs circles around people half his age!!!
- No freakin way, is my thought.
- Yes, he is too stubborn to quit/retire. If he could he would run another term.
- No, health reasons.
- Of course he will make it to 2029! I wish he was a bit younger and was able to run again. 😳
- No way in hell Trump doesn’t finish his term, ending it with grand flourish. This dude was born for this stage and be damned if he will relinquish it. That said, Iran has become a quagmire he said he would never get into–Iran is playing him like a damned fiddle. Whether his final days look like a grand finale or a totally failed outcome is yet to be seen.
- Of course he will.
This week’s Question of the Week: Name a movie that you have watched repeatedly? Name a movie actor who you enjoy watching regardless of the movie?
- “The Big One” typically refers to a massive earthquake, meteor, or asteroid hitting Earth. Fortunately, there are no extinction-level meteors on the horizon, according to astronomers and scientists who track and record such activity.
When all seems calm, we get reminded of the sheer velocity and power of a descending meteor. The latest episode happened last week in the New England area with a five-foot diameter meteor, traveling at 42,000 mph, thankfully broke apart at an altitude of thirty-one miles. You would automatically assume that something breaking apart 163,000 feet above the Earth’s surface would be a non-event, but the flaming rock released energy equivalent to 230 tons of TNT, shaking homes from Massachusetts to Rhode Island. Note: TNT is the acronym for the chemical explosive Trinitrotoluene.
For comparison, 230 tons of TNT is the same explosive power as a small tactical nuclear weapon. While it is highly unlikely that a large meteor will hit our planet, there is occasion that a larger object survives long enough to plunge deeper into the Earth’s atmosphere. As it tears through the air, it creates powerful shock waves, much like a supersonic jet. Those pressure waves can travel all the way to the ground as a sonic boom, sometimes heard dozens of miles from the meteor’s actual path.
Last week’s meteor surprise luckily was a non-event. Based on the video below, let us keep it that way.
I Have Questions for the First Sunday of June 2026
- How can a tragedy like this happen in 2026? The BBC reports that at least 49 people have died of thirst in a remote part of the Sahara Desert in northern Niger after the truck carrying them broke down, authorities said.
- Do you have something special planned for America’s 250th anniversary?
- Will the World Cup expansion to forty-eight countries diminish the group stages of the competition, or will the ‘minnows’ come through with some major upsets? We will find out starting this Thursday, June 11.
- The Middle East, led by Dubai and Saudi Arabia, are at in again with the planet’s loftiest high rise. The Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, when completed, will tower above the tallest existing building/structure, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. When completed the Jeddah Tower will have 157 floors and stand at a height of 3,281 feet. Will this end the competitive tower building era?
- The U.S. paid a French energy company $1 billion of taxpayer funds as a reimbursement to the company for wind farm leases it had purchased under the Biden administration. In exchange, the French company will spend that reimbursed money on the development of a new liquified natural gas plant in Texas, helping export U.S. liquified natural gas overseas to Europe. I realize wind energy is not the end-all source of electricity, but this deal seems a bit strange to me. Am I missing something here?
Here is an interesting take on wind energy and the funniest encounter with a rattlesnake ever…
Pure Talent. This winner of eleven Grammy Awards was known as the “Queen of Funk.” In 1970, at the age of seventeen, she started her career as the lead singer of the funk band Rufus, where she became the band’s star attraction, showing off her powerful vocals, stage attire, and sex appeal. Chaka Khan will release another studio album in September of this year. The song Ain’t Nobody and Chaka Khan are Pure Talent.