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Looking back, Prohibition seems almost absurd.
In 1920, the United States essentially outlawed the commercial production and sale of alcoholic beverages. Breweries closed. Saloons disappeared. Ordinary Americans could no longer legally walk into a bar and order a beer.
The result is now remembered as one of America’s great policy failures: speakeasies, bootlegging, organized crime, corruption, and eventually an embarrassing constitutional reversal just thirteen years later.
They shared the weight of memory. They took up what others could no longer bear. Often, they carried each other, the wounded or weak. They carried infections. They carried chess sets, basketballs, Vietnamese-English dictionaries, insignia of rank, Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts, plastic cards imprinted with the Code of Conduct. They carried diseases, among them malaria and dysentery. They carried lice and ringworm and leeches and paddy algae and various rots and molds. They carried the land itself—Vietnam, the place, the soil—a powdery orange-red dust that covered their boots and fatigues and faces. They carried the sky.
― Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
You can absolutely work on yourself. You can journal, read books, learn about your patterns, sit with uncomfortable feelings, ask yourself hard questions, change habits, and take responsibility for your choices.
That stuff matters.
But there’s a reason therapy isn’t just “thinking really hard about your problems.”
I’m a 20 year old guy, and I was raised to treat women with respect, honesty, and basic decency. I don’t see women as objects or as something to chase for validation. That’s just how I am.
But online, it feels like treating women well gets labeled as “simping.” Somehow being genuine or caring is seen as weak or uncool, and I don’t really understand it.
At the same time, I see a lot of people my age hooking up or sliding into random DMs because they’re insecure or looking for validation. Maybe it makes them feel better for a little while, but it seems like a temporary fix that can mess with your head in the long run.
Take a second and imagine this:
You wake up tomorrow, and suddenly, the invisible scoreboard keeping track of your achievements, accolades, and external validation is wiped clean. Not just reset—completely erased. No one is keeping score anymore. No promotions to chase for worthiness, no Instagram likes to count, no invisible jury weighing your value based on how much you hustle.
What would you do?
5 Historic Photos That Speak Volumes – Ned Hardy
This is a near-perfect everyday pocket knife—compact, smooth, well-built, razor-sharp, and surprisingly premium-feeling for its affordable price. – Amazon
ICE will release body camera video only when seen in the agency’s ‘best interests,’ policy says – AP News
CRISPR Targeted HIV Inside Living Humans for the First Time – Yahoo
L.A. shelter provider has paid CEO who lives in Hawaii $1.6 million in salary, vacation over two years – KTLA
Yale expert shares 5 steps to rewire your brain for happiness with no weird tricks – Upworthy
21 Photos To Remind You That Life Is Beautiful – Ned Hardy
A gooseneck phone holder gives you a sturdy, hands-free way to position your phone exactly where you want it—perfect for watching videos, following recipes, video calls, or scrolling in bed. – Amazon
How to Cut Costs, Ruin Things, and Antagonize People – The Ringer
Johnathan Majors Stars In New Movie That Looks Like the Movie Version of a Facebook Comment Section – Consequence
Guy tried to slam his opponent, got reversed uno! – Reddit
‘Pervert glasses’: Backlash against Meta’s smart glasses grows – Archive.ph
The Argentine ranch where tech CEOs plan to ride out the apocalypse – Archive.is
Host of the “Whatever” podcast gets big mad when a woman calls him out. – Reddit
The Streisand Effect: Luxe travel YouTuber locked out of new $6K-a-night resort as hotel calls the cops on him – NYPost
For most of human history, medicine has worked in roughly the same way: something goes wrong with the body, and doctors try to manage the consequences.
You develop high blood pressure, so you take a pill. Your immune system attacks your body, so doctors suppress it. Cancer grows, so physicians cut it out, irradiate it, poison it with chemotherapy, or help the immune system fight it.
Those approaches have saved countless lives.
But medicine is beginning to make a much more ambitious shift.
My wife and I have a toddler, and my wife recently had a miscarriage. Our toddler was with us at the ultrasound when we got the bad news. My wife was devastated, but she immediately tried to protect our daughter from what was happening. She told her not to worry and promised that instead, we would take her to a theme park she loves. My wife pushed through the whole experience without really showing her grief.
Afterward, she went through multiple rounds of medication that did not work, then eventually needed surgery. The surgery happened during the week we were supposed to go on a beach vacation with my family, so we had to cancel that trip.
There is a quote that hits differently once you become a parent:
“You either face your demons, or they raise your children.”
It sounds dramatic. Maybe even a little too perfect for social media. But underneath the clever phrasing is an uncomfortable truth about parenting: the things you refuse to deal with don’t necessarily disappear.
Sometimes they become part of the way you raise your children.
