GreenMan Substack Podcast

I went to a store I hadn't frequented in a long time since I've been a realtor. It was a store I needed more for landscaping. It felt like a step back in time and I was hoping to see familiar faces. One in particular, was a funny and friendly man who I debated politics with before we all did it on Facebook. He was very conservative and I was liberal and we enjoyed sparring. When I asked about him,...

I have been considering a post about difficult people but from the perspective of gratitude. When I look back at them now, I see things differently. It's the old cliche about them being the best teachers. It's true, but I think they're really the best trainers and mentors too. I have been lucky in life to have had amazing mentors. People who helped me intentionally with a skill or with just being...

I hope you enjoy the narrated version with expanded commentary This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit greenmang.substack.com/subscribe

I think of conservatives as being dogmatic. I'm liberal. I think of myself and others as being fluid thinkers, seeing through the eyes of nuance. But that's not always the case. I see the effects of Trumpism as being manifold and deleterious to our political system, as do most in the peanut gallery. But I see a more subtle yet profound effect on our society and the way we speak to and treat each o...

As I watch the news of the day unfold I'm anxious as I see all these protests on college campuses.  I want there to be a Jewish State and for Israel to get rid of Hamas.  I also want Palestinians to be safe and have food and have a homeland of their own with autonomy. And so I understand why lots of protesters want to demand their schools and our government divest from Israel.  It's because they a...

Here’s my newest video about my most recent writings Enjoy and please feel free to share feedback on the video or my ideas. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit greenmang.substack.com/subscribe

Obviously many of us thought the Nation’s highest court was beyond corruption.  With recent revelations about Thomas' and Kavanaugh's character deficits and choices, that idea has begun to erode for many of us.  But let's take this to its logical end.  I think we at least thought these people were smarter than us, more savvy than us, that these men and women were the best of us.  At least 3 of the...

My new recording about critical voice This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit greenmang.substack.com/subscribe

As I delve into topics such as psychological visibility and interpersonal relationships, I've rediscovered a concept from therapy and self-help literature.  The concept is so incisive.  Critical voice is a term many use to describe a stance that is fault-finding.  We can operate from a critical voice most of the time and not know it.  I sure do sometimes. We can look at others from this place: dis...

I like to write about life and shared experience.  I seem to prefer an 'as above so below' micro/macro narrative where I see how the larger cultural contexts affect us on a personal level and vice versa.  I see this leading to a book. I write and think about a host of issues, but I've noticed the bottom line questions I'm working on are: "How and why do we misunderstand?" "How do we shut down emot...

I come back to speaking on psychological visibility more and more.  I keep experiencing how important it is in our relationships and on the world stage.  I often talk about how we need to see and be seen.  We go out, we make friends, we have dates, we join civic organizations.  Sometimes we just people-watch or just go about our night, dressed to kill. Most of us do so for various reasons.  People...

I obviously enjoy discussing politics.  My views are clear—or are they?  It's easy to pigeonhole people into categories that don't necessarily add clarity. I grew up in a reasonably political home.  My parents didn't agree on politics.  We had TV so we saw politics on the news.  I was born at the end of the Ford Administration, was a young child through 4 years of Carter, and then Ronald Reagan wa...

I sense something about the mood and feel of our culture right now.  Righteousness is the preferred state for lots of folks.  Whether it's the indignant or the absolute sureness variety, people like things to be simple, even when they're not.  They like there to be a victim and a perpetrator, even if those labels don't stick or even apply.  And you can guess which character everyone enjoys embodyi...

I spoke to an esteemed friend recently about the state of affairs and our nation's history.  This person is more involved and invested than I.   We share many beliefs but have had dramatically different perspectives based on our experiences.  She is female and Native American and I am male and white.  It was the kind of conversation that I relish and tend to walk away from with new ideas. One key...

I'm always mulling over a next Facebook post. Usually I'm trying to find something that connects the macro and the micro. What's going on in the world at large that is similar or connects to our everyday lives. I take comments, edit and then post on Substack. What we see on the macro level is war, despotism and division. In the middle, we see a populace divided politically and the use of disinform...

I woke up today musing about our interdependence.  Society offers messages that tell us to be fiercely independent.  Don't ask for anything.  Don't need anything from anyone.  That is the hallmark of adulthood in a kind of libertarian fantasy.  And that's a part of America's enduring founding myth: rugged individualism. And we talk of our need for each other in terms that are pejorative like codep...

I was a Junior in High School when OJ Simpson killed his wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and her boyfriend, Ron Goldman, in a gruesome double stabbing. I remember the nation appropriately focused on the Rodney King Trial. It was no surprise that LA erupted into riots when the 4 police officers, on trial for excessive force for severely beating and taunting Rodney King were acquitted in an event that wa...

Conversations about recent terrorist attacks are all too common because such attacks have become normal and regular: both domestically and abroad. Those conversations usually involve self-congratulatory condemnations of the acts and the perpetrators. We wring our hands and share thoughts and prayers for the victims. Then we move on to the next news calamity. We don’t seem to wonder how that group...

I watched Family Ties growing up and loved it. The humor, the heart, and the actors all made it a worthwhile viewing. All these years later, it's on a channel I watch and it hasn't lost a step for me, especially with the laughs. But it was political and topical and that was a risk the writers took. Every character was fair game: the hippie parents, the daughters, and capitalistic Alex. Everyone wa...

I have been stewing on this one for a while because I didn't know exactly what it was about Oliver North that really got me agitated. But I figured it out. Thanks for reading GreenMang Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. When I was a young teen, the Oliver North trial was televised and he did not disappoint. He was the handsome, charismatic, and defiant face of t...

Most coaches promise the world. They will help you lose that stubborn weight. Bring your ex back. Help you manifest this or that. I’m sure some of them can really help in those departments. But that approach misses a lot. It causes us to look externally for the answers. We need a guru for this and a practitioner for that. It’s not empowering. I am not a mechanic, so I know to take my car to a spec...

It's easy to lionize and mythologize JFK because he was killed in his first term in office. He was young, handsome, funny, dapper and well-spoken. We wondered what more he could have done. We can pin our hopes and dreams and fantasies to him and imagine a second term. But he wasn't merely smart. He was absolutely brilliant. His anti-war speech at the height of the cold war was astonishing in its f...

I am musing about tolerance. Obviously, from a liberal perspective it gets a bad name because to tolerate seems to imply that the tolerated are beneath us or at least that one is levying a subtle judgment against the other. In divisive times like these, I say tolerate away. One group and their media apparatus are selling division and vengeance and fear: scapegoating vulnerable classes, immigrants,...