Life Reprioritized

Three years ago, when people asked what I do, I’d start with a 15-second summary of my four passions: writing, travel, photography & videography — all of which go together quite nicely — and the broad area of tech innovation & entrepreneurialism.  Then, if they had time, I’d talk about a few of my personal projects and where they fell beneath the umbrella of those four top priorities.

Thirteen months ago, all that changed.  Sure, the stage had already been set two years ago, when my granddaughter Vivian left the NICU (newborn intensive care unit) and I started to devote more time to family support.  And in the autumn of 2017, I had committed to serving on the community policing council, to support Albuquerque’s police reform effort.

But it was the election of our evil and obscene president that forced me to review all that matters to me.  My four passions dropped down to become my fifth tier of priorities.  (Beekeeping is way down there, too.)  I experienced a string of epiphanies as I struggled to retain my faith in the underlying goodness of my fellow Americans and to understand their sorrows as well their joys, things that might provide common ground for reuniting our society.

I settled on four new tiers of priorities.  (Yeah, yeah, I hear the naysayers: “Bite off too much and you won’t get shit done.”)  In a nutshell, they are:

1. Family: Kids, grandkids, Jill, daughters-in-law, mom, siblings, and the extended family.
2. NICU: Jill and I volunteer our time every week to “cuddle” the premature (and/or “withdrawal”) babies to ease their entry to the world and support their families as they grapple with their new challenges.
3. Police reform: I first engaged in Albuquerque’s CASA (court approved settlement agreement) activities three years ago.  I’ve served on the Community Policing Council for the past year now.
4. Political “engagement”: This is the HUGE fly-in-the-ointment issue for me.  Suffice it to say — just for the moment — that it is the moral responsibility of decent people to keep evil people from doing evil things.  I’ve held my tongue for more than a year.  That will be changing soon.

Writing!  Ahh, writing.  So easy to procrastinate.  Too easy to just post on Facebook instead.  Not going to do much of that any more.

Copyright © 2017-12-06, Mike Kruchoski, All Rights Reserved.