Shake It Off

August 6th, 2024

I love Tim Walz. To be clear, when I say “love,” I mean I love him as a fellow dog dad and decent human being, not in some cult-like, vaguely-romantic way.

I want to tell you a story about haters.

I’ve worked in restaurants for a very long time. Maybe since they invented restaurants; I was definitely there when they invented the internet.

In my restaurant work, I have done a good job many times. My restaurant has done a good job many times. And most of the time, after that good work is done, we don’t hear a thing about it, especially on the internet.

Now, once in a while, a person will be upset. Sometimes the person is upset because I (or the restaurant) did something wrong; most of the time the person is upset just because they’re an upset person. When this happens, we anxiously await a bad review, every single time, and do you want to know why?

Hate gives people energy.

Hate gives people energy in a way that decency and kindness and peace do not.

So if you’re on the internet today wondering how a guy who is apparently so disliked by his own state got re-elected to be its governor, well — I just told you.

Haters are generally very ineloquent; they can’t tell you why they hate something (that would take honest work and some introspection which, to be fair, is not everyone’s cup of tea), but wow can they tell you they hate it. They’ll hurl insults and lol derisively and you’ll be amazed that a person can condescend from a gutter.

I like Walz because he’s like me: he does the best he can do in any situation, even when that situation sucks and there is no pleasant way out.

I like him for some of the adjectives I used earlier: he appears, to me, to be decent and kind and smart. He’s a former educator and served in the National Guard; he’s a dog dad (perhaps the most important role a man can have); he’s accomplished a ton and he’s a leader for all Minnesotans, even the ones who absolutely hate his guts, even the ones who can’t articulate their hate but can feel it.

Hey, if you’re hating today, look at it this way: he might not be your governor for very long now.

And at least we’ll be able to agree that that is a good thing.