What is Real?

overwhelmed and under impressed

Remembering the old saying from my younger days—I’m keepin’ it real, Man. Back then, I don’t think I knew what that meant, and nowadays I certainly don’t have a clue about what is real or fake. Anything someone doesn’t agree with becomes labeled as fake, and people spend hours attempting to verify or refute what should be presented as fact.

So at the risk of adding to the confusion, I want to muse on some things that I believe to be real. For instance, my last post mentioned that I had found the audio recording of “A Rap on Race” with Margaret Mead and James Baldwin from 1970. I read the background of how the conversation took place and was recorded, so I feel mostly confident that what I listened to was legitimately what occurred. Quite a few people commented on the idea that Margaret was bullying in the conversation, and at first she did seem to dominate. But when she called her conversational partner Jimmy, I felt that they were friends. And he definitely hit his stride, held his own, and made very salient points about his journey. Now I have to get the transcript in book form which was issued in 1971. I encourage others to listen to their rap if the topic of race relations in this country interests you.

I also caught up with the recent Supreme Court hearing on the immunity case after I had difficulty identifying the speakers on the radio. (Kind Substack friends suggested watching the video presentations by the networks which identified the speakers as they talked. Very good advice. I keep saying that technology is going to do me in.)

And on another topic of recent interest, I always used to say the you couldn’t pay me to stay home, even after I had my very much planned and wanted baby. As a nursing mother, I managed to run my business from the house (I don’t remember pumping being much of a thing back then) but I hired someone to keep an eye on her at all times. She seems to be doing something similar with her arrangements now that she is enjoying motherhood.

I do feel a sense of urgency to protect democracy, and I am extremely thankful that Substack has provided a platform for so many people with the same aim and probably much wider reach and better skills than I possess. I try to share everything I read that will help this cause, so please check out my Notes section. I’m never sure that I am using Substack correctly, but I keep muddling through and writing on schedule. Having started my day learning a lot more about Artificial Intelligence from a site which I then recommended, I want to spend a bit more time today IRL (I think that means In Real Life but of course I could be hopelessly out of date by now). But some of the best writing I read here comes from my generation, so perhaps we shall overcome after all!