It’s Friday, my friends, which is usually a light-hearted day at Apex Money. But I’m not feeling light-hearted. My heart is heavy watching the deep divisions in the U.S. manifest themselves as violence.
On Facebook, I’ve been vocal about calling for my liberal friends to listen to conservatives. I’ve been vocal about calling for my conservative friends to let go of their crazy conspiracy theories. As you might expect, both sides think I’m nuts. Each side thinks that it holds the moral high ground while the other side is dead wrong. Both sides think that I’m a fool for trying to get people to talk to each other.
This is the way the world ends.
I’m not joking.
Fortunately, I think that most Americans want the country to survive. We don’t want revolution — not even those who support Trump. One of the things that gave me hope this week was Arnold Schwarznegger’s amazing (and spot-on) video response to the Capitol violence.
Here are some other things that give me hope…
Resources for taking care of your mental health and wealth. [Dear Debt] — “What we’ve gone through this week with the siege of the U.S. Capitol is traumatic and unsettling…I wish I had something amazing or profound to say to help us get through. But I don’t. What I do have are some tools and resources that may help you take care of yourself during these difficult times (and any time).”
1273 people share their best life lessons from 2020. [Mark Manson] — “A couple weeks ago, I reached out to my email list and asked, ‘What have been your biggest lessons from 2020?’ Over a thousand people replied…After spending the greater part of a week combing through the emails, some major themes emerged.”
112 bits of good news that kept us sane in 2020. [Reasons to Be Cheerful] — “You could be forgiven for thinking that 2020 was little more than a slow-motion train wreck broken up into 365 individual units..Yes, it was a most difficult year. But it was also a year of problems solved, hopes sustained and seemingly insurmountable challenges met.”
Why we can’t stop longing for the good ol’ days. [The Wall Street Journal, so possible paywall] — “When exactly were the good old days?…The most popular answer seemed to be the 1950s, so Mr. Feifer asked historians whether Americans in that decade thought it was particularly pleasant. Definitely not, they said. In the 1950s, American sociologists worried that rampant individualism was tearing the family apart. There were serious racial and class tensions, and everyone lived under the very real threat of instant nuclear annihilation.”
And that’s it for this week in money. We’ll be back on Monday. We hope you will too.