October 27, 2026
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This is for those posts that we wish to feature here at Deep Sand. It implies that these are a bit extra special.

Culture Deep Thoughts Featured Stoicism 

Oh, The Stories We Tell Ourselves

B. John 41 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Have you ever thought someone was angry with you, disappointed in you, or avoiding you, only to find out you were wrong? Our minds are great at filling in the blanks, especially when the people or relationships matter a lot to us. Sometimes we get so attached to our own explanations that we start treating them as facts.

For years, I worried that I’d somehow upset an old friend whose simple act of love and acceptance had meant more to me than he probably ever realized. When my occasional attempts to reconnect mostly went unanswered, I started to wonder what I’d done wrong. Eventually, I sent a heartfelt note, apologizing for anything that might have happened. His reply showed me how wrong my assumptions were.

Almost 2,000 years ago, the Stoic philosopher Epictetus warned us not to treat our judgments about events as if they were the events themselves. I was surprised to learn how much modern psychology agrees with this old idea. The founders of cognitive behavioral therapy were influenced by Stoic thinking, and years of research show the value of questioning the assumptions that cause us stress. It seems those old Stoics were onto something.

In The Stories We Tell Ourselves, the first essay in my new Ten Lessons in Living Well series, I look at how easily our thoughts can mislead us, especially when love, friendship, and uncertainty get mixed together. It’s a personal story about a friendship that still means a lot to me, and a reminder that not every thought in our minds deserves our belief or attention. Read the full essay and think about how often you’ve worried about a story your own mind made up.

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Featured Stoicism 

Joy in an Unfinished World

B. John 84 Views 2 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

What do we do when good people suffer, when injustice wins out, and when doing everything right still doesn’t give us the results we hoped for? And how do we make space for happiness when so much around us feels wrong?

Those questions were at the center of Rev. Sally Campbell-Evans’ sermon this past Sunday at Hyde Park United Methodist Church. She was continuing a series on Ecclesiastes that Rev. Magrey deVega started the week before. Magrey had mentioned the Stoics, which caught my attention. Sally didn’t talk about Stoicism directly, but as I listened, I was struck by how closely her message matched ideas I’ve been studying and writing about for the past eighteen months.

One statement really stuck with me. “You are responsible for your faithfulness. Yes. But you are not responsible for controlling the outcomes.” That’s very close to what Epictetus taught almost two thousand years ago. We can choose how to act, what principles to follow, and how much effort to give. But we can’t guarantee the world will respond as we hope. I’ve learned that lesson through professional uncertainty, and I’ve encountered it just as often in my civic and social justice work.

But Sally took the discussion in a direction I found especially meaningful. She reminded us that seeing injustice means we have a responsibility to act, even if we can’t fix everything. And while we do that work, we still have lives worth enjoying. We have friends to spend time with, meals to share, everyday moments of happiness, and people whose presence makes hard days easier.

Then she shared a remarkable story from her time in Nicaragua during the Contra War. She was at a gathering of women when news came that one woman’s third son had been killed. The room filled with grief. After a while, another woman stood up and reminded everyone that life was still a gift worth celebrating. She invited them to dance, and they did. For the rest of the evening, those women danced together while grieving a terrible loss.

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Society Education Gay Issues Hate Groups Racism Featured Election 

Birds of a Feather-A New Arrival

B. John 63 Views 0 Comments , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

The flock around Ken Gay just got another member. Former Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback has endorsed Gay for Hillsborough County School Board District 6, calling him a “conservative” candidate in a post on his X account.

Fishback spent much of his 2026 campaign building attention through inflammatory rhetoric. Axios reported him saying, “White genocide is real.” At the same time, other coverage documented his use of “Great Replacement” themes and his support from far-right figures and online communities. He ultimately finished third in the Republican gubernatorial primary with 10.5% of the vote.

An endorsement doesn’t mean Gay shares every belief Fishback holds. But when you add Fishback to the list of conservative figures already lining up behind Gay, the old phrase keeps coming back: birds of a feather. At some point, you have to look at the flock. 

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Featured Politics Election Society Education Gay Issues Hate Groups Racism 

When the Culture War Comes for the School Board

B. John 172 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series Education
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

The 1776 Project PAC says it is deeply concerned about reading scores. Fair enough. It also wants school-board candidates to answer for CRT, DEI, social-emotional learning, gender policy, and whether they will replace “equity-based” curriculum. Apparently phonics now comes with a political questionnaire.

The group has endorsed exactly one Hillsborough County School Board candidate: Brittany Lyssy. It has also reported nearly $72,000 in Hillsborough school-board spending on texting, mail production, and postage. That is a lot of national political money for a race that is supposed to be nonpartisan.

So the obvious question is not whether the 1776 Project cares about schools. It clearly does. The question is what kind of school board it wants to build here, and what it expects from the only Hillsborough candidate it chose to support.

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Featured Politics Congress Legislature 

Mike Beltran’s Voting Record Deserves a Closer Look

B. John 115 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Mike Beltran wants to represent Hillsborough County in Congress. Before voters send him to Washington, they may want to look more closely at what he did during his six years in Tallahassee. From local zoning and tenant protections to public schools and nursing homes, Beltran often voted for laws that changed what local communities could decide for themselves.

He supported laws that lowered minimum nursing-home staffing requirements, expanded taxpayer-funded private-school vouchers, and required school districts to share more of their local construction funds with charter schools. He also backed limits on what teachers could teach about race and discrimination, as well as Florida’s abortion restrictions. It seems Tallahassee believed it knew what was best for almost everyone.

Meanwhile, Congresswoman Kathy Castor helped secure nearly $1.47 billion in federal grants for the Tampa Bay region, along with more funding for local infrastructure, housing, and community projects. Beltran’s record shows a different set of priorities. If he believed Tallahassee should have so much control over Hillsborough County, it raises questions about what he might do in Washington.

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Entertainment Featured Fun Stuff Humor Deep Thoughts 

Sixty-Seven and Still Under Warranty–I Hope.

B. John 195 Views 5 Comments , , , , ,

I’ve reached that interesting stage of life where I can spend 45 minutes lifting weights at the YMCA, walk a couple of miles, and then need a nap because staying young is exhausting. At 67, I’m probably in the best shape I’ve been in for decades, although my knees seem determined to dispute that claim.

Between Medicare, church committees, Florida politics, and my ongoing attempts to become a better Stoic, there’s certainly no shortage of things to keep me occupied. I’ve even gone back to work, which suggests either an admirable enthusiasm for life or a serious misunderstanding of what retirement is supposed to mean. And somehow, amid all that activity, I’ve discovered something I didn’t quite expect.

Getting older has given me a greater appreciation for ordinary days, good friends, meaningful work, and the people who make life worth living. I’ve had my share of difficult times, and I suspect there are more ahead. But at 67, I’m finding that the view from this particular stage of life is pretty darn good. Even if I occasionally forget why I walked into the kitchen.

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County Commission Featured Politics Society Education Gay Issues Crack Pots 

Stacy Hahn Helped Bring Tallahassee’s Culture War Into Hillsborough Schools

B. John 158 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Stacy Hahn was not just caught up in Florida’s education culture war. She chose a side again and again. She stood with Gov. Ron DeSantis as he called book bans a “hoax,” voted to remove books even when review committees recommended keeping them, and was the only one to vote against a School Board proclamation for Pride Month.

Her record also shows the problem with the phrase “parental rights.” Parents could already limit what their own children checked out. Hahn supported something else: letting some parents decide what all families’ children could read. It seems parental rights only matter until a parent disagrees with Stacy Hahn.

This is personal for me. When I was growing up gay, I had no books to help me understand my feelings or to show me I was not alone. Somewhere in Hillsborough County, a child needs that same reassurance now. Censorship does not feel any softer to children just because it comes from someone with a doctorate and a pleasant smile.

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Featured Places Tampa Politics Election Legislature Technology 

Following the Money Behind Josie Tomkow

B. John 100 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Campaign finance is so complicated that most voters give up before they get to the interesting part. That may be part of the point. Josie Tomkow has a regular campaign account and two political committees, with millions of dollars coming from business groups, health care interests, developers, insurers, political committees, and party organizations—often with names that don’t reveal who is really behind them.

Insurance stands out. About $92,500 came from companies, organizations, and people involved in property, auto, and casualty insurance. That’s notable on its own, but it’s even more interesting since Tomkow is now running as a candidate who wants to reform insurance, even though her voting record shows support for laws that reduced legal protections for policyholders. Her version of insurance reform has, at times, looked suspiciously like an aid package for the insurance industry.

There’s also at least $94,500 from donors directly connected to data centers, cloud computing, energy, or the infrastructure behind them. Add in big business and development money, plus $50,000 from Publix, and the donor list gets even more interesting. Maybe Publix just expects Tomkow to buy a lot of groceries. The rest of us might want to keep an eye on where the money goes.

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County Commission Business Economy Featured Politics 

Who Is Building Stacy Hahn’s Campaign?

B. John 129 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Campaign finance reports rarely contain a smoking gun. Mostly, they contain checks—and Stacy Hahn’s reports include many from industries most affected by County Commission decisions. At least $63,850, or about 38% of her total contributions, came from construction, development, real estate, engineering, and architecture interests.

There is also the Tampa Bay Rays’ new ownership group. After Commissioner Donna Cameron Cepeda questioned public funding for a new stadium, more than $40,000 was donated by Rays owners and related companies to Hahn, her Republican primary opponent. It seems all those builders and developers decided on their own that Hillsborough County really needed Hahn on the Commission. Sometimes, civic enthusiasm spreads quickly.

Legal contributions do not prove corruption. But campaign money is not charity, either. With roads crowded, schools full, and neighborhoods often asked to make way for new projects, voters should ask a simple question: Can Hillsborough County afford more development-at-any-cost government, and who is paying for it?

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Photo of Tampa Bay Morning
Deep Thoughts Family Featured Friends Fun Stuff Stoicism 

All the Seasons at Once

B. John 182 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

A year and a half ago, a simple text from my pastor, Rev. Magrey deVega, introduced me to two Latin words I’d never heard before: memento mori. Remember that you must die. That short exchange led me to explore Stoicism, mostly out of intellectual curiosity. I had no idea how important those ancient ideas would become when life started throwing surprises my way.

This past Sunday, Magrey preached on Ecclesiastes and once again mentioned the Stoics. It seems he still has more homework for me. His sermon explored an interesting idea about life’s changing seasons. We usually think of those seasons as coming one after another, but what if several show up at the same time?

In the last eighteen months, I’ve grieved while rebuilding my professional life, found moments of happiness amid uncertainty, and discovered how much steadiness can come from ordinary daily routines. Magrey’s interpretation of Ecclesiastes gave biblical words to what I’d been learning through Stoicism. It also reminded me that many religious and philosophical traditions reach similar insights about change, acceptance, and our limited time.

In All the Seasons at Once, I look back at how a simple curiosity became something deeply personal, and how Ecclesiastes added a new layer to that journey. It’s a reflection on finding hope in uncertain times, learning to value ordinary days, and realizing that grief and happiness can sometimes happen together.

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Featured Politics Congress 

Gus Bilirakis: Who Benefits from His Votes?

B. John 125 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

After nearly 20 years in Congress, Gus Bilirakis has had plenty of opportunities to demonstrate whose interests he represents. Now, with Florida’s newly drawn Congressional District 12 stretching across parts of Hillsborough and Pasco counties, it’s worth looking at his record. For residents worried about health care, household expenses, and the rising cost of living, some of his votes raise uncomfortable questions.

Bilirakis supported legislation that the Congressional Budget Office projects will leave millions more Americans uninsured and reduce federal food assistance. He opposed bipartisan infrastructure funding and pandemic relief that provided direct help to families and communities. Apparently, there’s plenty of room in Washington to cut taxes, but far less enthusiasm for helping people pay their medical bills.

Then there’s the campaign money. Nearly 56% of Bilirakis’s direct campaign contributions come from political committees, including PACs associated with pharmaceutical manufacturers, health insurers, utilities, and telecommunications companies. Many of those industries have business before the congressional committee on which he serves. Campaign contributions don’t prove influence, of course. But after two decades in Washington, voters have every reason to ask a simple question: Who is Gus Bilirakis working for?

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