How much do I need to know you before I can trust you? I wonder sometimes, lately, if social media has made us more confident of knowing our neighbors and friends than ever before. After all, you tell me what you are thinking and how you feel. I see you exult after the Celtics win, and post the latest anti-Trump articles from Slate or Gizmodo Media. So I know you, right, I know your type.

But I don't know why you like the Celtics. Were they good when you were a kid? Did your dad or brother take you to games? Do you have an embarrassing crush on Brad Stevens? Do you just like green a lot? I have no idea, really.

There is just so much below the surface when it comes to the social media iceberg. Yet I think I know so much, just because I can see everything above the water. It's silly of me.

Whoops, sorry, lot going on. I'll have some sort of interesting update soon. Who has already been to a baseball game this summer?

With a new president, both sides are quickly trying to give that new president as much or as little credit as possible. (And isn't it sad that I say both sides? That we only have two main parties to express our opinions?)

On the one hand, some are trying to credit Trump with the stock market increase, as if the stock market hadn't also risen by quite a bit during the Obama years.

On the other hand, others are trying to blame Trump for every racist or sexist crime.

There are grains of truth to each viewpoint, yes. But here's the bottom line. As a free American, I have perogative to do what's right. My behavior and choices are on me. I can't say "I'm going to care for the poor less because of who's President" or what not. Leaders matter, but I suppose I'm worried that people are trying to use leaders for excuses. Regardless of whom you voted for, work harder and longer to keep America great. Heh.

I've been thinking lately about the role abortion plays in the voting pattern of the Christian citizen. Several of my Christian friends and acquaintances claimed that abortion was the tipping point that made them select Trump over Clinton. (Trump's enunciation of the pro-life position was woeful at first, but he learned the lingo over time. Sigh.)

So here's the problem: I don't think evangelical Christians will ever win on the abortion issue. When the population is divided somewhat evenly, it's hard to go from 50% to 100%. Look at how difficult it was to eradicate slavery, for example. But as long as the Republicans are the party of anti-abortion, Christians are almost forced to consistently support Republicans, if you believe that abortion is the murder of a God-created, God-given life.

So what if Christians became pragmatic and made a national deal on abortion? Suppose something like this: all abortions in the second trimester are illegal. (Only about 10% of abortions fall in this category). Abortions by women under 18 require parental permission. In exchange, Christians support, say, birth control in sexual education, and vote for parental leave, financial incentives/gifts for newborns, and Head Start for the 3-5 year olds. Don't worry too much about the details; they could be adjusted as needed.

If this compromise was passed, it would annoy everyone. Catholics would complain about the support for birth control; Protestants of certain types would hate the hand-outs for new moms. Pro-abortion supporters would complain about the lack of exceptions, and the enforcement of not permitting, say, 13-weeks of gestation abortions.

But would you be willing to make such a deal, as a Christian? Would you have been willing to support civil unions for gays and lesbians, before marriage was made legal? Or Euthanasia in certain cases if all 3 consulting doctors agreed? You get the idea here. What about a universal income for poor people, de-emphasizing the focus on work or proven unemployment to earn government assistance?

It's difficult, right? You're compromising on the principles of your beliefs. It looks bad. But are these state-by-state battles a mistake, where barely any ground is gained, and lots of energy is wasted? I'm not going to tell you the answer here. I want you to be mad at me, heh.

My mom's ok after her surgery. She has been recovering for weeks, and today was her best day yet. I'm excited for her. She hates not being 100%, because she loves to work and move around. I'm not quite sure how I'm such a couch potato in comparison.

I'm still thinking about her surgery, though. I could feel myself being such a perfectionist about it all. "What would the ideal son do if his mother was sick?" isn't really a good question to ask. Because I'm not ideal, and there's no way I'd do EVERYTHING just right. And yet I kept striving for this ideal of perfect sonship.

Let me put it this way. If I would be a pretty decent son to my mom 364 days a year, then I don't think I would have put so much pressure on myself. You can't go from "average" to "perfect" in one day. There are a lot of things I can do to appreciate my mom now, when she's healthy, daily, rather than something grandiose on a bad day. Perfectionism doesn't have to choke us; it can lead to the small improvements we need to make, daily, regularly instead.

Working on it.

My mom is having a major surgery soon. Your prayers are appreciated.

I find it interesting how many people are trying to identify which hero or villain President-elect Trump reminds them of. Here's the problem with that: everything. We're not going to judge who he properly is if we keep seeing him through archetypes, stereotypes, and type-casting.

Yes, we have some good idea of who he is because he's been a celebrity businessman for years. And yes, I too like playing "Guess-the-Trump." But these guessing games come at a cost. We may just have to wait a while until the true Trump is revealed.

Somehow, we Christians never seemed to be able to have a decent debate about Trump and Clinton, and that disappoints me. Because there was a good learning experience there, about how we must consider character of candidates along with ideology. Let me take extremes here, heh, about the type of choices that Christians may face in voting:

*Should we support an imbecile or hedonist who promises to support every last Christian belief?

*An atheist or Satanist who has strong values and self-control, an admirable person in experience and ethics, who differs with most Christian beliefs?

These are conversations that Christian adults need to honestly have in public, because they are not easy questions. Ask the Christians in Iraq, supported and treated well by dictator Saddam, and slaughtered once supposed democracy came to Iraq. Choices might need to be made that hurt Christians and help the country, or vice versa.

But instead, we just wanted to disqualify each candidate with easy cheats. "Well, you can't vote for Clinton, she supports abortion!" "You can't vote for Trump, he lacks self-control!"  We didn't want to have a full conversation; we just wanted an easy answer, or a slogan to shout. I'm disappointed in us for not fully grappling with this struggle in public.

I'm finally making more friends in this area, but much like New York, has taken two years to do so. Two years where I needed to make trips and phone calls and connections to make up for the lack of friends in the area. I shouldn't be angry about this, but I am. It's just so much harder to live a good life without company and good people nearby. Anyway, rant over.

I saw a commercial online that pictured a homeless man and his sleeping child. The man held a sign asking for money. It was an insurance commercial, designed to terrify you into giving them your money so that you would not become that homeless man.

I don't have kids. I have plenty in the bank unless I was unemployed for, say, 3 years in a row. And yet I winced, and felt fear. And it reminded me how money is a god, after all. How I implicitly pray to money to save me, to keep me warm, to protect me from harm...

It's silly in some ways, right? We all have a few friends who would take us in, or family. We wouldn't starve immediately. And are the homeless to be feared so much? But it's interesting, to be forced to confront secret fears unexpectedly....