Keep Calm & Smell the Flowers | Shimmy Says Ep. 15

Hey everyone, it's shimmy. I've been out LA the last couple weeks. I apologize if you haven't been able to watch.

I, you know what, though? I had an amazing time. I went on a family vacation.

I do that about once a year. We went to Italy and stayed in Tuscany and a villa and did some other things. And you know what?

If, if you can afford it, and if you can get away from work, it's, it really is a good thing to just take some time off, get out of the kind of hamster wheel rat race and try to take stock of, of where you are and what you're doing. As a matter of fact, that that's the theme for today's shimmy says, right? I'm calling it keep calm and smell the flowers.

And boy, do we need that advice today. There's so much going on in our world. I, I'll just tell you on a macro level, we couldn't even do.

Shimmy says live today. It seems Google Cloud has some issues and a lot of the providers that we work with, streamy Yard and Kinta and a bunch of others evidently, are on Google Cloud. So we couldn't even get a a a key live, a live stream into it.

So we're recording this, but I'm not gonna let it upset me or ruin, you know, ruin the mood. As I mentioned, there's so much going on in the world, right? A lot of people here in the US are so angry on one side or the other of things.

We have riots, I don't even know if I'd call 'em truly riots. We have protesters marching in many, many cities. We have an administration calling US troops in to police US citizens.

That's not something you see very often in America. Um, there's stuff so much going on in the world, Iran situation with nuclear enrichment war in Ukraine, and Russia's not stopping. It seems the situation in the Middle East with Hamas terrorists in Israel.

Um, there's a lot to be upset about. There's a lot to be uncertain about the economy. Ai as cool as AI is, and as many different things as we're seeing being done with ai, a lot of us are still worried, is AI going to take my job?

Is it gonna change fundamentally what people do for jobs? It may, maybe not today, but it may certainly in the future. But, you know, I've been around the, the sun a couple of times in my lifetime, right?

And the, and you see patterns and you see things repeating. I was a little boy in 1968. I was probably seven years old the summer of 68.

And you know what, there was a time that was a time of unrest here in the us. The Vietnam War was, was widely unpopular. College campuses were in revolt, but it spread to the cities.

And you know, they burned down Newark and most of the major cities in the US had widespread, uh, protests. And some of 'em got violent. You know, we were lucky.

We were lucky back then. You had people like Dr. Martin Luther King who saw that change was needed, that we had a, couldn't let the status quo go.

But also were big believers in, in peaceful protest, in, in civil, peaceful, civil disobedience. And it probably saved a lot of bloodshed. Unfortunately, I don't see a leader arising today that kind of takes fills in those big shoes of Dr.

King. But I, I'm hopeful that one will arise. That, that we will recognize that violence begets violence, and it's okay to protest and express your freedom of speech.

It's not okay to burn or destroy people's property or the government's property. And no, we we're a country where our armed forces should never be turned against our citizens. This isn't China and it's not the honor and square.

So I, I really hope that it doesn't come to that either. Um, but you know, some interesting information. So that summer of 68, the summer of discontent as, as it was called, gave way.

And it was also a time where we lost leaders like Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy and others, right? And the country and the world was, was shaken to its core, but we emerged outta that stronger and better than ever, right?

And, and the war did end and things did get better. And those protesters, you know what's funny? A lot of those protestors turned into Reagan Republicans in the eighties.

So you never know. The people out there protesting today could be tomorrow's, you know, establishment people. And, and that's the way of it.

But the, a lesson I've learned in all these times around the sun is, it's, it's not, it's okay to be worried. It's not okay to panic. 'cause when you panic or you get too caught up in it, you, you, you do things without thinking them through and that never ends well.

So my advice to you as someone who's been around is keep calm, keep calm this through shall pass. I'm not saying don't express yourself. I'm not saying if you feel compelled to go protest, you know, dragging people of different colors or nationalities out of their workplaces, 'cause they may or may not be here legally, that's your prerogative.

You're certainly free to do it. And I, I support your right to do it. I support your right to free speech.

I just don't think violence or destroying property is, is the way to to, to express yourself there. Um, on top of this though, again, you know, the, go back to my trip to Italy. I saw a lot of very happy people in the countryside of Tuscan, and it's because I think they don't get as wrapped up.

They remember that there are other things that we need to focus on as people focusing on your family, focusing on your career, focusing on just being happy, right? I I think a lot of us are so, and, and me included, I'm, I'm guilty, I'm not saying anyone else is, but a lot of us get so wrapped up in, in what's going on in the world around us. These, you know, war as I said, war and, and nuclear weapons and, and killing and murdering and, and illegal kind of authoritarian activities.

And, and we, we lose sight of the, of the good things in our life. What do you have to, to be happy about? If you have people who love you and, and people who you love?

You're lucky. If you're lucky enough to be able to take a vacation and just get away for a couple days or even a, a weekend, take a good long weekend and refresh yourself and remember, you know, just look at nature, man. I, you know, I come home, I'm home from Italy almost a week, and I, I drive my bike along the beach in the mornings.

I get up at Sun Sunrise. It does such wonders for my brain to just the solitude of driving along the beach. So, again, calm it down, take it down a notch.

Don't, don't get caught up in the cable news. 24 hour cycles showing you cities burning cities in the US aren't burning down. There's a very small area, a mile square maybe of downtown LA where the most of what you're seeing on TV is taking place.

And it isn't all that you're seeing on tv. There are a lot of people demonstrating very and expressing themselves. Peaceably don't, don't buy into all the hype that these 24 hour news channels will, would have you believe.

I think you gotta focus on what's important. And what's important is, is your health, your wellbeing, your loved ones and your family. So that's where I'm gonna end it today.

I'm not going to lecture you on AI or a agentic AI and all of the great things going on there. You can watch text, drunk tv, all weak for that. What I am gonna say to you, shimmy says, keep calm, smell the flowers, hang in there, and this will pass as well.