One thing I forgot to cover here is the whole case of Luigi Mangione. If you haven’t been living under a rock, there’s no way you missed it. And yeah, I obviously don’t condone murder and all but this thing right here is interesting. There’s a lot to uncover there. First of all, the fact that the killer is a young white man (can’t stress enough how different the whole narrative would have been if he wasn’t) from a wealthy family is key here. He’s also neither extreme left nor right. He’s an Ivy League University educated guy with a strong opinion on the U.S. healthcare insurance system. And he decided to carry out an extreme act. But the fascinating part was the public response. The guy immediately became a hero for pretty much everybody on the whole wide political spectrum. People celebrate him, people adore him, people share horror stories of their family members suffering and dying because the insurance company in question (which is seemingly the fucking worst of them all) wouldn’t cover needed healthcare. They deny a third of all claims and make the process so complicated and horrific that it can take years for people to get down to anything. People selling fucking houses, going bankrupt, breaking families… Just to help a family member or a friend in need. And on the other side of the fence, you got people like the gentleman who got killed. People who award themselves with million dollar bonuses, who buy yachts, who are getting so rich of all the people they fuck, it makes you nauseous. It nicely illustrates the grand scheme of things. But this situation right here might be a historical moment. It’s very difficult to push anti-corporate and anti-capitalism agenda because people in power also usually own media and because in the age of social media it’s very simple to blame immigrants, gays or single moms for everything. But with this assassination, it seems people from all different backgrounds got together. Now, I’d like to live in a world where things like this would not happen but I guess things have to get worse before they get better. As one of my favorite comedians put it: “A killer killed a killer.” Let’s see what happens next and if there’s any lesson to learn here.
Okay, back to this thing. I’m a bit delayed with this one because my time in the Czech Republic has been flying like crazy. It’s all been pretty overwhelming in the best sense of the word. Monday Evening, my dad took us to this concert. We did the same shit last year and so it’s slowly becoming a tradition. It’s his friends’ band, they’ve been around for about 50 years, they are all really good musicians (I honestly don’t know many Czech ones better than them), it was all very pleasant. Tuesday afternoon, I attended my nephew’s performace at his kindergarten. That was a shit show. Very cute shit show. The kids were sitting in line attempting to sing Christmas carols with some of the teachers accompanying them on musical instruments. And boy, did they have a hard time doing so. Some kids sang double tempo, some sang super slow, some forgot they were there and just starred into a wall, everybody was off key. It was beautiful. And it also made me appreciate the teachers. Dealing with 15 of those devils full-time gotta require nerves of steel. I hung out a bit more after the show, had a nice talk with one of the teachers (about many things including psychedelics) and then I hopped on my bike went home.
Wednesday evening, I reunited with three of my close ones. Thursday afternoon, I went to a swimming pool with one of them to do some laps and Friday, I went to the same spot (Kraví Hora) for some wellness. That one I did by myself and it was great. Love the place, love all the saunas, love the views.
Saturday morning, I was on a bus to Prague to spend the weekend with one of my day ones. Lotta catching up, good food, trips to very remote places, music, movies. Happy we managed to make that happen. I returned to Brno Monday morning and immediately jumped into it again. Another of my closest friends had gotten in town so I caught up with him, I did a coffee with some more of my people and in the afternoon, I went to yoga with my sister. Which was interesting as I had never done yoga in Czech before. The studio (Lidická) isn’t bad. It’s a lovely spot in the center, it’s all nice and clean but since it’s in the basement, it has no natural light. We came in the evening tho so there was no natural light anyway. What I didn’t like was that they schedule classes one after another. So there’s no space for you to stretch out or try some things before it all starts and there’s also no way to stay there for couple more minutes after it finishes. It all feels a bit rushed. In The Hague, there are 30-45 minute breaks between classes specifically for those reasons. The class itself wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t bad neither and I was honestly just happy I was back at it. After that, me and a friend of mine did another sauna session in Lužánky and then we both went on to say hi another friend of hours who happened to be around.
And then there was Christmas Eve. I went to my sis’ around noon, we hung out with the nephew and then we all headed to my dad’s. Me and nephew split on the way as my sis needed to prepare some things for the evening. My nephew still believes in Baby Jesus bringing presents so it’s better for him not to see all the people working their asses off to make it happen. So I did a tour around churches for him to show him all the Christmas decorations and all. It was a bit of a trip. Last time I had done it was when I was like 10 and that was with my dad. He would take me and sis out for the before things got ready at home, too. Being in a position of the adult in this scenario felt nuts. We had a good time tho. My nephew is in his “why” phase so you get a lot of that. And the thing is, if you as “why” over and over, you eventually get pretty deep into philosophical shit no matter what the initial question was.
The evening was lovely, too. Lotta great vegan food, lotta vegan sweets, the core family plus kids of my dad’s partner some eventually some other people. My nephew being hyped about all the present. Some singing, shooting jokes… Really good vibes. Around midnight, I got out to say hi to some of my people in a bar nearby but I didn’t stay long. Was good being there but it felt a lot like an alcohol-powered night and I’m not really into that.
Brno is cute around Christmas. Apparently, we have won a prize for the nicest Christmas markets in Europe and it does look nice. And that’s coming from a guy who doesn’t really give a shit about Christmas. And these past 10 day have been awesome. Still not ready to live in this country (which might totally change) but always happy to come back. I do have a very solid base here and I’m super appreciative of that. So shout out to everybody! It’s really all love.
I also managed to make some doctors’ appointments which went well. I’m getting old so I gotta make a bit more of those but apparently, I’m still pretty healthy. Oh, and I’ve been also working out a lot and even managed to do a run. And I'm walking my dad's doggo here and there again. Yay! It’s almost 9am, it’s Christmas Day and I have another yoga class ahead of me. One of my friends wanted to go so we’re making it happen. Different studio, hot yoga, 90 minutes. Let’s see how that goes. It’s nice not working too much these day but it’s always a bit of a double-edged sword for self-employed. You got some time off but you get no money. It’s all needed tho. Hope you guys are having lovely holidays. Sending love everybody out there, shout out to all my readers and extra love to all my vegans. One!
Highlights:
- My people.
- My people.
- My people.
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