I'll preface all of this by saying that if you don't agree with me...what the heck do I know anyway? Nothing really. I'm just a guy with zero expertise that wants to get through all of this, together. Nothing more.
Every day I tell myself that I won't thumb down through Facebook anymore. I promise myself that I'll just post a ton of photos of my family having fun, training photos, training videos, and continue to produce YouTube and Instagram content and avoid Facebook...but I've failed every day.
People have continually posted questions and used Europe as their example of either success or failure and every single time that I've given input on what we have seen here in Cyprus I've been hit with wall after wall. Never in my life have I ever experienced racism like I have from Americans in the last 12 months. Last August while in The USA we experienced it at shopping centers, from the people in the glasses store, all the way to the "manager" at the Nashville Airport that told me that my sons could not fly back to Cyprus with me because they did not "Look Greek". After being asked what treatments were available in Cyprus for Covid-19, on Facebook, I was informed that anyone not in America is a "Marxist and a Muhammad Lover". I'm still not sure what that really means but I'm not for sure why someone feels the need to argue with me about where I live. Literally...yelling at me that "No, you don't live in Europe..."
Ignorance is a word that has been given a bad wrap and I think as I grew up thought that being ignorant was a bad thing. But somehow I thought that we, as lifters, came to an understanding that it was just as important to know what you didn't know than it was to know what you did know. If you don't know, IT IS OK, find someone who does! I only know a couple of people who actually ARE specialists in epidemiology or who are economists. I'm not. I took a couple of chemistry courses in college, statistics, couple of econ classes...and other than that...I lift weights, I write training programs, I manage businesses, I cook foods, I am a father and husband. So what does that mean? It means that it is perfectly fine for me to say "I don't know" when it comes to anything and everything. It is also OK for you to simply say "I don't know" and to understand that it will be tough to do so. Why? Because the moment that you say that you don't know, the next person will CLAIM to know. That said, I encourage you to only argue with people who are your equal.
Tomorrow when you have a conversation with someone, at least once tomorrow, simply reply "I don't know". Clearly say "I don't know" and mean it! I've been married long enough to know that it is less important to win than it is to come to the right decision together. The way that we will all get through this, and we will get through this, is together. But the moment that you begin any conversation with an insult towards the other person, the conversation is over and you are now a bigger part of the problem than you are the solution.
Tomorrow I'll be back with some cute photos and videos of me training with my family...no more of this controversy stuff...back to stuff that I actually know about.
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