QUESTION: what do elections and keg parties have in common?I don't know about all of you, Friends, but I think I am finally reaching my breaking point with all of the triggering that is going on from the daily political headlines and news. On all sides.Everywhere you turn, there's yelling, shouting, arguing, trolling, grandstanding, tweeting, finger pointing, posting, messaging and resisting. I see very little discussing, learning, understanding, compromising, empathizing, collaborating, respecting, speaking, smiling, or helping. Everyone is demanding that they be heard and quick to broadcast their opinions, but no one is actually listening.And while it seems as though we might have reached peak levels of dysfunction in this country, for a number of reasons that I will not cover here, there is room to believe it could escalate even further. I find it truly exhausting.With these heated midterm elections as the backdrop, I went into problem solving mode. Maybe the recent trip back to my alma mater was still fresh in my mind, but the last time I could remember midterms being this stressful was back in college. In those days, people were all collectively on edge, losing sleep over papers, projects and exams. It didn't matter if you were an English major or Finance major or Humanities major -- everyone was seemingly dealing with their own version of "hell." We all knew it, and for the most part we didn't judge or argue about who's hell was worse or more important. If a roommate was a little on edge for a few weeks because they had a paper due or a major test we suffered through it and dealt with it. We realized that it would be our turn to be stressed out at some point and we would hope they could be understanding friends when it happened to us. Then, like clockwork, when midterms were over there seemed to be just one logical thing to do to blow off steam: go to an old school keg party.And there we would be, usually holding either a red Solo cup or a blue one that we paid a $2 cover charge to get, listening to tales of what had transpired in each other's worlds over the past few weeks while occasionally working our way to the tap to try to get a few swigs of cheap beer before the keg was kicked. Sometimes, if we were lucky, one of our friends got impaired enough to want to do something crazy like go streaking across the quad to the gymnasium. There would inevitably be laughs and agreement all around that it was the "best night ever"....until the next one of course...So I have been thinking: perhaps what this country needs is to come together for a good, old fashioned keg party to help blow off some steam, and put midterms (and our differences) in the rear view. While we may be individually focused on issues that impact our lives the most, we really are all united in just wanting the best for our families and loved ones. And I'm sure we could convince some clown to do the streaking and make everyone laugh. If only it could be that simple, right? Have a great weekend everyone. Some insightful selections this week that I am pretty sure you will like. And, remember to take some time this Monday to acknowledge a veteran for their service if you can.XOXODave