The habit of truth telling (#1065)

Just like telling lies, telling the truth will become a habit. Only as opposed to lies, you will always be better for it. My experience with lying was a real eye opener. At first I saw tangible benefits for myself and it made me feel artificially important, however, as time went by the lies began to grow to enormous proportions and I could not keep straight all the lies I had going. As they began to be exposed, the earlier benefits I reaped from lying began to fall away and my friends and family looked upon me in disgust and betrayal. From being popular to being a pariah. The stigma of being a liar also followed me for awhile. I got it, the it that was lying was no good for me regardless of it's seemingly prestigious advantage. Now this is the point where I began to realize that telling the truth was at least honest and didn't necessarily lose me respect. I quit my days of lying, embellishing and omitting truths and began a steady program of just telling the truth in kind and decent ways. I formed a habit of truth telling. I can say that I have not since had many days of being special in my actions or thoughts but when I have they were mine and they were truthful. Sometimes I think lying is more about not wanting to see and live in the world the way it really is. An escapism that has at least some illusion of more than there is. However, as I learned many years ago, living in lies is an illusion and one that is assuredly doomed to failure. Although my life is simple and plain, it is real and has at it's core an honesty that makes me feel good, despite all the chaos and injustice surrounding my everyday experiences. Most important, besides how I feel, is how I act and react to the world and that is the real deal.

The herd being herded (#1064)

I have lived long enough to be able to understand how a perceived acceptable behavior gets hung on us as a way of to conform. We are steered into a method of thinking and reacting, herded if you will. Now some of societies morays are important and necessary for us to maintain civil order, however I am talking about thoughts that are allowed as acceptable and thoughts that are not. Fear has always been a big motivator of how we behave and for much of that, like just stated, that is good. What I am referring to is the contraction of possibilities for our imaginations. The one obvious area is religion. Granted we all should find some connection to our souls and have a foundation of values and principles we apply to our lives on a constant basis. But not some ordered program of genuflections that are supposedly ordained from our fears. It seems that we as a species, regardless of culture, prefer to be in conformity with even the near unbelievable in order to maintain some semblance of security. What we trade away in life for a set of hoped for outcomes beyond life is astonishing. There is no reason for our lives being born into this existence except suppositions that pass as reasons. Instead of facing the reality that life has given us no clues as to our existence, we instead search for the most handy opinion to help us escape our reality. I know this much about the human species; we care enough about our offspring to nurture, provide for and improve their stock as best we can. We also are a curious learned lot despite our medieval fears of what makes up the unknown. From these two instincts we have within us, we should be able to overcome the childhood fear of our boogeymen and treat the unknown with the respect it deserves without the security blanket of some ideological/theological salve used to assuage the fear that can and should be defeated through the normal boldness of courage.

What do we leave behind? (#1063)

The one sure thing we all have in common is that we all will leave life eventually. I know from history that some have passed through life and left huge monuments as a testament to their lives. Others have simply left a marker as the only physical sign that they once existed. Today's world is different and leaving behind some indicator or our existence is not as important to most. However to some it still is and that they still think in terms of the fear of being forgotten is sad. The mere fact of our existing at all is a place in time that is all our own. For there to be some unique remembrance should be serendipitous to our living and the only testament should be to our destiny as such it is known. This always leads back to respect. When those of us in this world are acknowledged for our lives it should be because we have shared our lives in inescapably profound ways. Not because we accumulated obscene wealth and built monuments to ourselves. That kind of thinking is premised upon living an artificial life, not a real one. I know this much about what life isn't, it isn't a game to be played. What is most important for me to leave behind is that I loved and was loved. Most everything else flows from that one simple foundation. What is left that doesn't, is my curiosity about all that exists within me and outside of me. Life is real simple in it's actual reality. Care and wonder. That is what I leave behind, no great imaginings nor profound accomplishments, just the simple understanding that I get it and live it. Even my little written musings about life is just a bunch of words always centered around being better and more human so that my life can be lived without the chaos and confusion of fearful ego. What I leave behind is a peace about how I live, not that I existed and need to be remembered for doing so.

Finding my center (#1062)

I know I have written on this before in an earlier post but it has been so long ago that I feel the need to write about it from today's perspective. Life in this existence has no real schedule or purpose for us that is obvious. We must look at all the things around us and try to make sense of life. Still then, we are not given a blueprint for our behavior or in what way we should base our intuitions and ideas upon. We have the concepts of good and bad, right and wrong and so forth but in all the little ways we live there are, seemingly, no clear paths. Yet I have found something to rest all my considerations upon, honorable principles. Is this my purpose in life? For me the answer is yes, but even more it is a method, a process for which I can continue in life with dignity and my own self-respect. For me it works since I know in my soul, spirit or whatever, that being in a state of doing or thinking right and good things makes me strong and happy. Now that is what I want from my life, to be strong in my actions and thoughts as well as happy to be doing such. That is my purpose, to be ready to do what needs to be done in the most successful way. That is my center. I have to have a set of principles to live by, not rules or regulations but an ethereal concept of being the greatest me possible. Virtues that I can infuse into my day to day life. Will I ever know why I feel the need to be as good a man as I can be? Maybe not, but that I do feel that tells me that my trust in my own instincts is well placed. Never have I felt so human than when I am being in a state of principled honor. I would suggest that we all live as the most honorable we can be and see if that doesn't fix all the ails we find ourselves in need of fixing. Having a purpose is key to survival, without a purpose we are adrift in life with no honest sense of worth or accomplishment.

I am still excited to wake up every day (#1061)

I know that some days are worse than others but still, all in all, life is good to be in regardless of my circumstances. Over time I have watched others leave this world and considered how I would feel to be permanently gone. I would trade most anything to continue seeing the sunrise and the moon and all the natural beauty in between. That does not even account for all the people in my life I have met and have yet to meet. Yes, I am still excited to be alive and a part of this existence. I am one of those people who can survive in any condition as long as my health holds out. My will to live is indomitable and a close ally. Not surprisingly, everything else is just a bonus. Whatever comes my way or I travel toward, is a new experience just waiting for me. I am just another entity in this existence, however, just like all of us human beings, I have the ability to reason and react to the environment. This makes my life unique, like all of ours, when compared to all other forms of life here. That in itself is powerful and motivates me in a humble way out of gratitude. I can never say this enough, I have been given the gift of life and survived it for this long so far. Not an easy task when compared to other humans both present and past. The remarkable consideration is that I still have that young wide-eyed wonder in my thoughts about what I can or yet could still do. As each day dawns for me I am reminded that possibilities are not what I think in my head but what I live in my life. When I leave possibilities constrained only to my thinking I deny myself the actuating of them. But when I live my possibilities the chance or degree that they may come to fruition is enhanced. My living is still going on and as of yet has not been shelved for some lesser concept that makes me feel less human and preparing to quit on life before it is over for me.

Harvesting from my experiences (#1060)

I am reaping from what I have sowed. Not in the sense of physically harvesting like with an annual crop but from the bank of knowledge I have accumulated over time. I have had a varied life based upon measuring my possibilities and flights into my imagination. I have allowed a sense of wonder to establish my baseline thinking and from that my imagination and motivations have been the better for it. I do not think of myself as a tool to be used in areas of limited applications, on the contrary, I think of myself as an endless possibility just waiting to happen. I am beyond the form of structure, I am possibility. Certainly I am a human whose form is recognizable as such but my point is that I am not limited to within that form. I think beyond myself with imaginings. From the experiences I have had in the past and even in the most recent present, I mix and mold thoughts both old and newly original to myself in an ever changing osmosis. Who I am is inside me and that is where I conceive my physical actions and my analysis of my thoughts. The outside physical trappings of vain-glory and vaunted appeal are not much of a priority in my life. Being clean and somewhat presentable is mostly enough. It is inside me where all the effort at being good and great are of the highest priority. When I have value within me and it is reflected back out to the world to see then I am at my most peaceful. My soul yearns for a peace with a happiness that in it's purity, dissolves time into a nothingness. At least in the importance of realization. I see a paradigm that includes life in existence that can be the best potential for all humans to find harmony. Raising above the petty differences we find with each other to a plane where our differences are our strength and are honored as such.

Respect is lived (#1059)

How do I respect others? by living it. Every moment is another opportunity to share my life with someone. When I do share my life I get to choose how that sharing happens. Sometimes it is just being quiet and listening other times it is taking action that not only shows my respect for the person(s) but also my understanding of in what form the the respect is given. Many if not most people look to being in charge of something as an advantage to themselves. I am not of that thinking, I rather look to see how I can make a good of what I have been given charge over. As unusual as it may seem I also do not look to gain financially from such privileges. I am one of those who like to share the wealth of an endeavor done well. Even to being one of the lowest paid in the labor of an accomplishment. You see, the highest person of authority does not have to be the highest paid, he can, in many cases of my own experience, pay himself the lowest. Remember, we are talking about respect, not advantage for other purposes. Now I know I am the exception in a society that prides itself on wealth accumulation, however, I choose to pride myself on how well I apply respect and the form of justice that respect best fits the situation. Leaders, are ones who put others before themselves in every way that is possible. I make decisions based upon what I see the realities are, not on some set of conditions generally applied that always seem to cost those who are lead. You may question what the pay-off is for me when I want to be selfless, well I will tell you that those who are respected are closer to having a peace in their soul. That is my pay-off, a peaceful soul and the knowledge that I was not in the mix to only enrich myself and gain some false sense of respect out of it. For me respect is earned and kept by being real and living with my own way of making decisions about how respect is lived.

Accepting reality is important (#1058)

This post should remind me of what is real. I have a hard time accepting reality when it isn't the reality I think or want it to be. Nothing more than writing this blog post everyday is more telling to me that life is all about change. I want to be comfortable where I am and that is not how life is. Life should be uncomfortable most of the time. Life is in a constant change mode and therefore nothing is as it seems from moment to moment. I don't get to regulate the time/space continuum. As much as I want to wake up every morning knowing everything is alright and have no worries it just isn't natural. For one thing it insulates me from reality outside my small life circle. If I am not abreast of what is going on all around me I cannot ever be effective in helping make a better change for the future. If all I do is seek out the safety and comfort for myself while numbing my mind and soul to what others are dealing with, then I am living an illusion. I have heard the saying "some days I am the bird and some days I am the statue" and for me it is everyday I am both many times over. Nothing in my world is comfortable, chasing money in order to buy comfort and insulation from the world we live in is a cop-out. That is the prevailing modus operandi for so many of us that it is an expected form of behavior. All I am doing is calling it out for being an illusion and a thief of our reality. Selfishness and comfort are not our end-game. There is no end-game, there is only living life within our abilities to a part of it, not separate from it. For most I am just shouting into the wind because we have all been tainted with the discontent of uncomfortableness and our minds have been inculcated to put our comfort above accepting reality as it really is.

The art of wisdom (#1057)

I am at least moving on the road toward wisdom. It is a goal I want to achieve however wanting to be wise alone will never get me there. I must put myself in the position to be humble. Only then can I listen and learn the many different thoughts and actions needed for me to have options for enlightened living. Wisdom normally takes time to achieve, however some very young people have attained wisdom far beyond their years. They get life, unlike me, who had to fumble around in it in order to understand. Now that I am on that road that will help me to be wise in my own life and also maybe in others' lives, I can focus on learning and humility even more since I am not caught up in the previous chaos that had me confused. My life is simple and open now. I don't look for complications that are unattainable. My present life is being lived in the present, not the past or the future. How refreshing! I have given into the concept that fate or destiny are what they are after my life is over, not while I am alive. I am only concerned with how I live my life under the controls I have for my life. Everything else will happen as it does regardless of why or how it does. My previous concept on wisdom was that it needed to be some great mystery revealed when all it has to be is simple. The correct mixture of right, honorable and just seem to be the reoccurring ingredients whenever I stumble across the smartness of wisdom. My thoughts and actions are now steadfast into everything as much as I can of high principled living. Therefore, the less I say and the more I do should reflect that I am moving toward a wise life and hopefully will be an example to anyone watching that I have found a life that brings peace to my soul and a blueprint for others to share and re-invent for themselves.

We are just passing caretakers of each other (#1056)

We have no right to judge whether some have a soul of worthy content without proof of an unworthiness. We have a duty instead to continue providing opportunities for others to express their worthiness. Worthiness is not based upon a persons utilization within an artificial society, worthiness is a natural right and as such can not be determined by any other man. Of course we have rules that define our behaviors for the sake of security, but the underlining premise that a single person anywhere is unworthy is not our call. To demean, instead of teach, is arrogant and leaves a legacy of hatred. The older I get in life the more those younger than I look up to me for guidance and advice, what will I leave with them? Shall I teach them that some people on this planet deserve more than others? No. Shall I take from them their dignity to assuage some ego-based ideal I find soothes and highlights me? No. The idea of privilege has it's origins in denigrating one human over another. We are not Gods and the sooner we tear this fallacious, seductively self-destructive lie from our thinking the better human being we will become. The whole point and purpose of this exercise called life is for us to care for each other, not segregate ourselves out in the myriad and varied ways that we do. When we are caring for each other there are no barriers or boundaries that we need to separate ourselves from each other. Creating opportunities for ourselves and others should be our never ending function. It is all we have control over and still maintain our natural instincts, of which I call compassion and curiosity. We survive because we are here and don't want to leave. Therefore expressing our caring and wondering in the most advantageous ways here on Earth is the perfect peace of living we all should feel worthy to experience.

Life is too short, don't miss it! (#1055)

All the times I have said to myself that I will get around to doing something has not been helpful. I keep putting things off and have since realized that times have changed and I am not the same man I was when I was younger. I am not able to do those things I put off because I thought I could always do them later. I have also since learned that working toward artificial ideals have kept me from making the kinds of friendships and relationships I thought I would have throughout my life. I bargained those things away for the illusion of a better life for myself. I do admit that I was selfish and short-sighted in my opinion of what was best for me. I was able to tell myself that having more and being lauded was a greater virtue than sharing my life as just who I am. I know now that being me is what I should have striven for all this time. I am on the right track now and understand that I missed a lot of important moments and didn't make a lot of important decisions because I was focused on ego-based desires and not just being a human in the lives of other humans. Hindsight in my case has been helpful and telling others of my misdirected life has some closure for me as I move from being driven by the allure of life and not the actual living of it. I am well into the backside of my life and the time I do have left will not be devoted to my ego but instead to my heart. I do not know why I exist as a thinking sensing human but I am one and just being that is all I need anymore. I don't need to prove I belong as a human nor do I need to feel I have the accolades that come with some societal/economical success. I am just another human aware that life is too short and missing my own life is not worth anything this existence has to offer.

We must win the war on ignorance (#1054)

Knowledge is inevitable even to those who only wish for basic survival require knowledge to exist on a planet that is not stable. The simple question of whether there is a war on ignorance implies that knowledge hangs in the balance. For those who are short sighted and only wish for simple times, knowledge is the creature that needs to be tamed and caged into a space where it can have little effect. That is how ignorance will prevail by destroying the idea that knowledge is good. Many wish to have a pre-modern era return as a substitute for a progressive modernity. In the old ways of living, hardscrabble sweat and information voided lives, a reality of ethics and morality may be tightly administered in order to shape the illusory form of the human experience. A surreal attempt to impose a predetermined concept of virtue as the foundation for all our actions. Placating curiosity as a demon of the mind and care as only within regulated constraints. The failed paths of history's attempts to control thought and action by standards created by humans. This ignorance is an alarming undercurrent movement that is taking liberty to expose itself to the light of day. Will it prevail in a society that has advantaged itself already through the attraction of knowledge? Maybe, when we fail to recognize our need to confront and rebuke ignorance, we implicitly advance the very same ignorance. We must all call out ignorance and dispute it at every turn we find it. It is not just someone else's responsibility, it is all of our's responsibility. Make no mistake that we are living in an age of enlightenment that is subtly and overtly being attacked by forces who wish to see ignorance and conformance as our new societal paradigm.

The duty of our natures (#1053)

Being free and having liberty does not automatically equate to intelligence. Our American society on whole has battled and won the premise that we shall be free. But free to do what? We have rules and regulations we must all follow but what else should we be doing? If I am free and yet I can choose to be ignorant, should I be allowed that paradigm? I say no because although we are free and have liberty to be free, there are some duties we hold; to our society that provides that freedom, and to our nature which demands from us to be curious. I have heard so many times others say that they didn't care if they were wrong, they had a right to think whatever they wanted. I have been thinking about that and the thought comes to me that if we are to live in a society together, there has to be obligations and duties of basic thought. I am not trying to tell anyone what to think but that they must think and be accountable for their thoughts. No longer is this the era of doing anything I think because I am free, on the contrary, I am free because I don't do anything I think. My nature is my guide and caring and wondering are the foundation of who I am. if that is likewise the same for all other human species, then learning from my curious nature, intelligent things, becomes a duty I owe, not only to society but to my own self. My obligation to freedom is to apply logic and reasoning to everything so as to be a part of the best for society and not just illogical reasoning to separate myself from what is best for society. I have a duty and obligation to think in rational terms and not in ignorant ones. I cannot choose to disrupt the flow of something that I refuse to understand. I don't have that societal or human right to do that. If I choose to be ignorant then I am hurting, not helping the betterment of our society and it's future.

The heart and the mind working together (#1052)

My first thought on this was that our hearts and minds seem to work against each other more than with each other. The failure of the two working in conjunction is that the mind and heart are pitted against each other with the mind the usual victor. I do love logic and defend it as the best way to find conclusion, however, with that being said, I am also an emotional and caring individual and often times logic may be correct in a sterile, desensitized world, but I don't live there and real life actions have consequences that must be held in a higher light than just what logic would dictate. The perfect scenario is when mind and heart have a parallel purpose and therefore an equality in conclusion. The factor of heart is dismissed as less relevant than that of the mind and all the logic it conforms to express. Then again, this is not a sterile environment. My heart "sees" with a passion for the best of our natures to be lived. I am always at my best when I feel good in my soul. It is how I am. I don't pretend to know what others may feel about this but I am of the human species and therefore, I can conclude that other human species feel similarly. I am not special nor worthless, and as such just normal, like others of our beings. If it "feels" right to me then it should feel right to others also. Now that is an example of the mind working with the heart. Knowing what is right and doing the things that bring about the right is the balance I am referencing. If we take advantage of our strengths while also having the knowledge that using our strengths has a positive expression not only outward but inward then we are in that reality where our futures improve, our presents are happy and our pasts are moments of pride.

What we do should reflect what we are (#1051)

I have spent almost three years with this blog trying to promulgate that we as a species have only two instinctive traits, compassion, or care; and curiosity or wonder. Now I do qualify these two traits with a third separate but simple trait, that being survival. However, the thrust of who we are is a species that cares for it's own and others forms we are in contact with and we are constantly striving to learn and add to our knowledge base. This is who we are. We have senses we are born with that help us to "feel" an emotional reaction to our interactions and we have senses that help us in compiling data to feed the hunger of our knowledge. We are sensitive, data processing entities. With these characteristics we also have the ability to analyze, reason and conclude our own information. We are not just probes but an intelligent being capable of assimilating information as a means to progress forward. This is the simple basic structure of who we are and what we do. Now, our system of living should highlight and ease our natures. We should instill into our thoughts and actions only these instincts and the manifestations that they can be structured toward in our daily lives. This has always been at the core of my universal vision. We are the burgeoning force of free will in this otherwise generally static existence. Certainly time and space are important but less so than our species' ability to define both time and space into a concept for investigation. The elements within the equation will never supersede the organism that is questioning it's function. Nothing else in the Universe questions us, we on the other hand question everything in the Universe. Everything we do should reflect our natures and until this simple concept is understood by the majority of human species, we will continue to flounder in other areas that have illogic as their foundation.

Man of Hope is an idea (#1050)

Not just me. I am the one who writes this blog post but the concept of hope is for all of us. I find that hope is all I have some days and even then it is very thin. How our world continues to put priorities of superficial substance that cause less than humane results is not conducive to me and my hope. My hope is like a force within a pressurized container. Sometimes my hope brims with effervescence and other times is barely causes a wave. Such is the roller coaster of emotions I have with my hope. Yes, hope has an emotional component for me. I suppose it is what differentiates me somewhat from others in that I wear my hope on my sleeve right next to my emotions. Now over time I have become inured to showing expressions that are easily read, however do not mistake the simmering cauldron beneath the calm thin veneer I reflect out as not existing. It is there alright and for that I am grateful. My passionate emotion about the hopes I have for life and society are my greatest character traits. Always remember, I care and I wonder. Never do I deviate from those two inherently human traits. Frustrating as it may be to be surrounded by a society that does not necessarily value care and wonder as the greatest of our abilities, nonetheless, I am hopeful, in time, that care and wonder will get to be our foundation for society. I have also moved on past the idea that I can make you think like me. I know that is impossible and in that resignation I find a welcoming peace. However, that I am not surrounded by the company of those who do think like me in the sense that care and wonder should be our highest priority, I am a bit let down. lol. I laugh because if that is my greatest disappointment then I am living a truly fortunate life. Many others face pain and suffering unequaled by most of us and that is far more pernicious and tragic than any of my philosophical longings.

The boundaries of natural morality (#1049)

Intentions, decisions and actions. Morality is a learned behavior we deem proper. These are the terms I find when I look up a definition for morality. Morality is not an inherent trait that is part of our DNA. Although, it is my contention that caring for each other is an inherent human trait. But that we care for each other cannot fulfill the total of what is prescribed to be morality. Funny that us caring for each other is not enough. For some reason other factors must come into play in order for morality to be acceptable. I am not smart enough to understand reasons for making being naturally moral beyond our simple caring for each other and I will never pretend to, however, by making morality more than it naturally is, we have allowed a segregation to divide us. Fear is the instigator and ignorance fuels it. Not only in matters of morality are fear and unawareness used to maintain a status-quo but an illusion that there are some among us who know more about the existence of omnipotent forces helps to buttress the fallacious reasoning that morality is greater than anything as natural as caring for each other. To our great distraction, our species is in a perpetual cycle of half-truths and illusions. The fog of confusion is only temporary though and with a little common sense, we can lift ourselves above it. Always remember that as a human being we are equipped with as many as, or possibly more, 5 direct knowable senses. We are a intelligent knowledgeable gathering species. We also have our own individual filters for analysis and concluding. We don't need others to think and direct our thoughts. We have the ability to think and direct our own thoughts. Knowing that our morality is just as simple as caring for each other, will go a long ways toward tamping down any fear about whether we are being in the "proper behavior".

For love or money (#1048)

I'm a guy who finds it hard to distinguish between the two. For me it is simply not fair for me to love someone and try to build a life when I cannot give her the life I would want her to have. That's where the money part comes in. Now I know there is something not right about how I think but experience has taught me the golden rule of most relationships, no money no honey. lol. Love should really conquer all and I know some who have relationships like that. I am totally envious in a wishful way. However, for me, it is simply a hard concept to overcome given all my previous relationships. Oh well, I am trying to analyze how to change or break out from this conflict I have within myself. It is not easy to have love for someone and know that without a certain level of monetary income the likelihood of building a solid relationship is insurmountable. The same dilemma exists when I have had a decent income, could I ever trust that the relationship was built on love and not on the money? Such are my whirling thoughts this morning. One of the truly great gifts in life is finding someone who wants to share your life with you and you wanting to share your life with them. I know this because because of the relationships I have had in the past that I single-handedly screwed up myself. It seems that when we were young, our futures were ahead of us and hopes still sprang eternal. Now, the idea that what I am will change much more than it has already is remote, which leaves me with my current dilemma. I guess I will just have to keep trusting that as time has gone on for me it has gone on for someone else who may still want to share a life with someone whose monetary achievements are less and his love is more. Still eternally hopeful!

Sharing the secrets of life (#1047)

There is no great mystery about life or death that any of us knows. We are all just living in a place where we have grown up in. The earth and the Universe around it are pretty static for us. What we have here is where we live our lives. We are born, live and then die. Simple enough yet all that living in-between is what is confusing. For some reason or other, no one can definitively reverse our history to a reason or purpose for us being here. Science and theology/philosophy try different variations on theories, however no one of them is conclusive. We get to choose which belief system or non-belief system we deem is right for us. But even then questions still abound as to what and how we should live our lives. Again, no one knows for certain, outside of just believing what we faithfully hope for. Personally, I bypass the whole needing a belief system paradigm and just go straight to living in the moment with the most principled thoughts and actions I can muster. I often fail at this but not out of some ulterior motive. My intent is for the virtue of high honorable principles. It is just that in my own particular brand of humanness, I manage to screw things up unintentionally. lol. But persevere I do and that to me is the secret of life, do my best and when I don't do my best, try again until I do. A simple purpose with huge ramifications for me. I fulfill my need to be a good person, which is a great need within my psyche, and I get to show that not giving up is a way of life, not just an exception to the rule. The concept of time had always bothered me since I knew that death was at the end of my life, but now time is irrelevant for me since I am just doing what I can control and letting those things I can't control dictate their own course.

My inner strength is in my hope (#1046)

We all have dreams and desires, no question about that. Most of the time we are taught, through actions, that our dreams and desires are out of our reach. Of course little dreams and desires are more available but not the big ones. The big dreams and desires are rarely achieved and if they are it is truly amazing. At least in how I look at dreams and desires. For most of my life I have always had to settle for less than the best of what I would like to have achieved. I have settled into a dynamic that accepts modified dreams and compromised desires. I have a sense of being let down by life and that is why I mostly just try to rationalize that some things were never meant to be no matter how much I wanted them. Yet, despite my relativistic fatalism, I still deep down within me hold out hope for the best of my dreams and desires to come true. In my heart of hearts, where all my truth exists, I have a simmering fire that will not allow an extinguishing of what I want despite all evidence of it not occurring. Surely this is a classic case of denial and I admit that. However, there are no consequences to me holding out hope so why not? My reality may paint a mediocre picture but my dreams and desires that still reside within me do not. What goes on within me is who I am, not in the observable world but within the spirit and soul of my being. It is graphic to me in another dimension, my actual sleeping dreams. I can do most anything and my hopes within me take on a life that is alternative to my conscious life. If my dreams and desires can exist inside my sleeping dreams then there does still exist a possibility for them to exist in my conscious life. At least that is my theory of course. lol.

No time for fair weather friends (#1045)

I have more respect for those people who find a way to stand on good principles regardless if I find those principles less good than mine, over those who say they have good principles but do not show those good principles in times that try them. Principled people are keepers when it comes to having friends. Now if a person is principled in dishonest or illogical theories then I will make my case to them and if they still cannot understand that their idea of logic is false then I let them go and move on with others who do generally see what I see. I am not the arbiter of objectivity and I cannot spend all my time with those who will not accept generally accepted concepts as a rule. I bring this up because there are more than enough people who like to debate with me, yet offer no alternative, about my vision for a society designed around my idea of the nature of humanity. I care about life and I wonder about all the things in the Universe. Very simple foundation for me and from that, all of my principles for living evolve. Life is not a competition, on the contrary, it is a sensory experience that we all can and should take part in. We don't need a system for living that has a lesser motive for our participation. I will not judge the intent and worthiness of anyone else's soul based upon artificial factors, especially when those artificial factors are gamed in favor of some subsets of humans over others. Life is real, raw and emotional and to strategically envelope our lives in a statistical form with a cost benefit/attached is the same as using a template of square holes and trying to fit everyone into them. We are not the best of who we are when we accept the many and discard the few nor vice/versa. We are however the best when we look at the most fragile as our greatest duty to society. Life is not a macro-micro/economic formula, it is a combination of humans who want for others the same as they want for themselves.

Out of the ashes of the failed comes the successful (#1044)

I give credit where credit is due and in the overall progress of humanity towards a better society I do feel a sense of optimism about where we are going as a species. We still have the same old problems of deception and manipulation but they are harder to conceal and our society is getting more intelligent with each passing generation. The ebb and flow of the past millennium has brought us to a place where ego-based tried practices of the past have shown themselves to be incompatible with human life to the point of being null and void. In other words some things we have tried are worthless. Moving past the worthless to new ideas and aligning them so that humanity can mesh in a mostly seamless way is our future. Reevalution of life and how to structure society is within our abilities and more important our destiny to reshape. There will always be root problems from our previous attempts to civilize our society but what we can do now will hopefully make the transition to a new paradigm in how all facets of our society function as painless as possible. Change will occur and those who would obstruct change are not only doing a disservice to themselves but to their offspring and every other living soul. This rock we live on and the space that bounds it are not permanent nor static. Change is our destiny and anyone who thinks we are beyond change and that everything is as it should be is only being in denial. Our species is a pleasure to be a part of and fulfilling that pleasure and continuing to increase opportunities for those who are less than fulfilled is our duty. As our lives are cycled in and out through death and birth so are the principles we continue to instill in our wake. We do make a difference and how big or small that difference is will be determined by what we accomplish from what doesn't work to what does work.

The anxiety of uncertainty (#1043)

The unknown and what it could mean has always had me on edge since I can only suppose what might be next. Not knowing is something we all should be familiar with as an idea and emotion. I actually have so much experience at not knowing that I can reasonably predict how I react before I find out the unknown. I have a protocol of behavior that I have become accustomed to displaying as a default. I try like hell to stay calm and open my eyes real wide, either physically or metaphorically, whichever the situation dictates. It is similar to when I end up squaring off in a fight that happens all of a sudden. My eyes open wide and my focus and attention to every detail around me becomes so intense that it seems like time actually does slow down. This behavior of mine has served me well in both the actual physical fights and in the intense moments of the metaphorical ones just before an unknown becomes a known. Much like a tightrope walker, the focus on every little nuance is critically important, as is the control of anxiety when it manifests itself in my life when things are critical to what happens next. Instead of just anticipating and being caught up in the anticipation, I channel that anxious energy into a hardening of my stature. I spread that nervous energy throughout my physical self as a means for preparing myself for the outcome. Uncertainty is something none of us can ever escape, regardless of financial, personal, health, political etc... preparations. We are all going to have to deal with anxiety and how we deal with it is what helps us find ways to overcome it's effect or to become a victim to it.

Appropriately, forgetfulness! Make-up for day (#1042)

This is what happens when I put off doing something for too long, I forget. lol. On day #3 and on day #622 I also forgot to post a subject and now day #1042 gets added to an increasing list. Why did I forget? I tried to think of a subject early in the morning and nothing came to me, so I put it off for an hour or so and then didn't remember until later in the morning. When I did, I immediately did something else and all thoughts of my blog slipped out of my mind until first thing this morning. lol. I know better than that since I know how forgetful I can be. Normally, my mind is focused on doing this one thing everyday that it just becomes instinctual for me to write my blog everyday. Apparently yesterday proves that my instinctual ability to remember is only as good as how hard I try to remember. Oh well, it does disappoint me when I have a break in the chain but what it does also is remind me that I am not a machine and I am prone to being out of any sequence on any given day. I take pride in looking on the bright side of things because not to would be an awful alternative. Plus, who knows in the grand scheme of life maybe the subject of forgetfulness was supposed to be my subject all along and what better way of writing about it than when I am actually experiencing it. :) Anyway, this will be a good reminder that I need to keep my focus and my guard up if I want to accomplish a consecutive day posting a subject on my blog, then I had better find a better system to making sure that happens. I will work on that and in the meantime the disappointment I feel in myself will serve to keep me on my toes for a short time. I love writing everyday but I guess even that love of doing something gets sidetracked when life comes at me unexpectedly and other things dominate my thoughts. I am no different than anyone else and once again I get these little reminders to prove it.

The will to fight (#1041)

We are all faced with times in our lives where we must stand firm and defend our principles. Whether we actually do defend our principles is another thing. Just knowing we must fight does not necessarily translate into the actual doing. Here is the thing. All of us have to pass into a stage that requires us to make a decision to fight. it is a lot like enculturation toward independence. Hopefully early in our lives we will get the opportunity to test the mettle of our convictions. We cannot have convictions that are worthy unless we have at some time had to defend them. Now if it takes physically defending something we know is right or physically fighting to prevent a harm from happening, either way we will have to stand for what is right with force. In other areas like mental and verbal defense, we must also be prepared with the logic of our arguments when debate occurs. We can either describe how our convictions align with the vision we have for our species or we can remain silent and fail to defend, and lose by not defending that which we hold as true. It really is true for everyone, being silent is an acquiescence of agreeing by default. This life does not afford us peace of mind by not standing and fighting for our convictions. There is not always someone else who will do the defending while we do nothing. We are all obligated by our standing as individuals to enter into the discussions and actions that require our participation. All of us need to be accountable to express how we think and feel about whatever the subject is at hand. That takes a fighting spirit. Not as a bully but as someone who has something to say. It is our duty to contribute to our society and all of us must be informed and ready to offer our principles on all the ideas of the day. Freedom and liberty require us to protect our natural right to life and to pursue that which makes us happy.

What is good? (#1040)

I have been trying to encapsulate what good is since I first thought about why it was what I wanted to be. Some of you may find this odd, but since I was 6 years old I made the choice to be good over everything else. Yes, I chose to be a good person at that time. I remember playing on the floor and thinking about good and how it made me feel. Granted that I was very young and quite limited in what I could define as good but feeling what I knew about good was real. I was no different than many others of my time, starting out in life in the mid 1950's. America had, within a generation, just come out of the Great Depression and World War II. It was a time when large families were commonplace. Our family had 8 children and many times our acquaintances had even more children than that. I was fortunate that I was the third child, third boy as well, in a tightly spaced age sequence because I got to see how life was going to be for me within a few years. I gained by watching my older brothers and developed a lot of my abilities from their actions. I can honestly say that my older brothers played the greatest role for me in how I was to become. They did not know this at the time but as we got older I was able to convey to one and I am still able to convey to the other, my deep appreciation. However all of this is to lead into my point about good. The struggles of my young life allowed me to see the varied differences of good and bad. The bad never had any type of feeling to it that satisfied anything within me. I knew, even back then that bad was not right and it only hurt those it happened to. Which left me with good. Good always made me feel like I was special and worthy. Especially the worthy part since our lives were hard, the feeling of not being worthy was a constant affliction. But deep within me I knew that by being good I could escape unworthiness and live in a world where my head was held upright and not with head bent over, hiding my eyes from the world so that no one could see into the window of my embarrassed soul.

Natural rights versus survival of the fittest (#1039)

If we are constantly worried about how we will survive day to day it is hard for us to learn to know who we are and how life could be. I sometimes think it is a strategy on the part of some who wield significant power to keep the majority of us unbalanced and struggling to survive so that we won't confront the absurdity within our society. If we are afraid of retribution then we are being coerced. I know it is just my opinion but regardless my sense of it feels real in my life. I do not like that if I don't conform to illogical ideas outside my own logical ideas I will have to pay for it by being punished in ways that are not devoid of ulterior motives. Being sanctioned in ways that stunt complaint and expressions of grievance. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are all interconnected now. There is nowhere anyone, without the financial means, can go to not have to place themselves and their futures into the hands of those who are not influenced by our agendas but by their own agendas. Life, before a more modern society was less safe and harder to survive in so there has been some progress. However, with that progress we have allowed ourselves to be corralled by fear of losing out within this closed system. It is like we have to sell a piece of our soul on a continuing basis just to maintain what little we have. Is it worth it? Hell no, but we do it just the same. Fear, my friends has captured our thinking, unfortunately, we now see our future by not what we can grow towards but by how we don't lose what we have. Is this just the price we have to pay for future generations to overcome and grow from? I don't see the point when we have the capacity and know how to do this ourselves. We can create a society based upon natural rights to survive and not upon survival of the fittest. This great battle of wills is being played out and until it is won by those of us who promote natural rights, fear will play a growing everyday occurrence in our lives.

A fulfilling life (#1038)

Damn all the complications. I know life can be seen as something that needs to be tamed or controlled but really, how is that working out? Would you even have a perspective to know how that is working out? I'm sorry but I am writing this post with a slant of humor because it is somewhat funny that we try to live our lives based on what we think is right and good for us instead of just living life. Being so busy having a life and forgetting to actually live it. What do I mean? Simply that my expectations of what my life should be or could be should have no merit in how I actually live. I get to choose how I see the world. Do I present the face of someone who doesn't always get what they want or do I present the face of someone who is happy to have a life. I have often said that I could be walking down the street without even a shirt on my back and I would survive somehow and be okay. I still feel that way but as I get older it does seem more daunting. Regardless though, I am of a mind that my plans for my life are truly just a waste of time. I mean I can hope for things to happen but if they do fine and if they don't then fine also. What I do in my life is up to me and that includes my own outlook. What is a fulfilling life? Well, for me it is to have a smile on my face whenever it is possible. Happiness, something our forefathers here in America recognized as greatly important, important enough to be listed in a sentence, considered by many, to be one of the most influential sentences in the history of humankind. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The question becomes then what is it that pursuit of happiness thing entail. I guess it is one of those you'll know it when you see it things. For me, happiness is real simple, it is what makes me smile. I am a good man who is humbled by having a life in this existence. That which does not harm you or me makes me smile, which then makes me happy. Simple :)

Science, a process toward satisfying my soul (#1037)

Science is a process of discovery, it is not a destination. My inner make-up revolves around my care and for this discussion, my curiosity. I need to know things and just like everyone else I have ever met. Needing to know things is a unanimous endeavor we all share. What do we use as a template for learning things? We use logic, intuition, and common sense but we must also gather empirical evidence. Science comes into play as a process of investigation. There are many tools like telescopes, microscopes and measuring instruments. We combine things together and separate things apart to form new understandings. Science allows us to see things with a broader panoramic view. Some other things science does is to help us innovate ideas into products or policies. We use science in our everyday lives so much that often we are just unaware of the benefits unless they are pointed out. Science invented the laundry and dish soap I use. The sheets, pillows and blankets I sleep with are advanced scientific products. A lot of the food I eat and the clothes that I wear have the stamp of scientific achievement to them. The air that I breathe and the water I drink and wash in have been sustained purer due to science and it's applications. Science in many ways is like a trusted friend, finding ways to make my life better all the while allowing me to pursue my natural instinct to know things. Without science our world would be crude, unenlightened and much more dangerous. Remember, science is a process, not a destination. Where science will lead us as a species will be determined by our effective utility of the results science produces. It is my vision that science is the catalyst that will eventually move us toward the answer of the greatest mystery of all, the answer to the question, why are we here?

The pathology of greed (#1036)

Yes, I am equating greed to a disease. Somewhere somehow our sense of patience has failed to stall or deny the effects of greed on many of us. Greed has become an acceptable emotional disturbance when applied to economic systems. It is often confused with Capitalism. I am all for capitalizing on an idea that improves and progresses our society toward betterment. I am not for capitalizing on ideas for the sake of increasing one's greed. Motivation for a better way of life is understandable and promoted as healthy minded, however our society has not placed limitations on capitalism in order to keep it within the overall concept of it's benefit to society. It has been allowed to grow into a greater paradigm than actual living souls. That greed has a part in that cannot rationally be questioned. The concept that enough is just where one starts from is being treated as a principled given. Encouraging a system of accumulation as a greater ideal than living in the reality of what that does to all of us. Any promotion of a greed based economy has no long-term life expectancy. If too few have too much and those who are many have only a little there will be a reckoning toward relieving this tension. Life is a gift and as such should not be a burden. Our own natural instincts direct us to care for each other and be curious about our existence. No where in our natures is the need for being greedy, yet we have a system of economics that perpetuates and glorifies overabundance for some and tough luck for those who don't. Like economics is the tell-all of who and what we are. Simply, a system that is rigged toward those with privilege and less principled ideals, economics is just a pattern for the effects of greed to multiply, a breeding ground for the continuation of greed's perpetuation. Capitalism has better pages to write in our history but until it is freed from the grip of greed it will surely continue to suffer the perception of it's greed based ill effects.

Beyond the veneer of my mask (#1035)

I catch myself doing this sometimes when I see something at the picture show that wells up emotion within me and I refuse to let that emotion come out for display. Instead of letting the moment capture me with the sensation of laughter or a tear in my eye I choose to hold back and stop myself from indulging in an emotional experience. I have been taught that boys don't cry or show any weakness of an emotional nature unless that emotional nature is anger. All in the name of the appearance of showing how tough I can be. I am not alone in this as most of us males are inculcated this way. Is it right? Probably not but does it help serve a purpose in toughening us up for what hardships life bring us? Maybe. Either way I am aware of what I do and have slowly started to change that chosen behavior in favor of just letting myself be my true self. It isn't easy since I have all those years behind me of involuntary responses to recognize and subdue, however, I do recognize them and over some short time I am getting better at being able to by-step the learned behavior. I will laugh out loud when I see something funny or I will let a tender moment catalyze a tear in my eye. I am a human with human emotions and I don't need to portray myself as anything different in order to present a veneer or a superficiality that is not true. I am removing the mask that previously had been in place to protect me. I don't need that mask any longer. I have all my strengths around me, my physical skill and my intelligence serve to prove to any who would doubt me as a force to reckon with. I can be free to reflect back out to any what my emotion is in a respectful way and know within me that I am not the weaker for it, contrarily, I am stronger for it. I know my confidence and it is not an illusion, it is real and the living of who I am without the veneer of a mask proves it to me.

The lazy minds of the irreverent (#1034)

I am all for a sense of humor, especially when the wit of the humor is sharp and cutting. However, I am not a fan of the jester, who's only purpose is a raw flippancy toward rationality. To abuse logic for the sake of living life to be callous, wasteful and diametrically opposed to progress is counter-productive. Using humor as misinformation for the sake of an illusory self congratulatory behavior is confusion gone amok. I try at times to debate with logical argument when in the company of the irreverent and end up realizing that regardless of the dead cold facts, the irreverent will never admit to them. Instead, they will only reverse the argument in a humorless way to find a self satisfying witty rejoinder that has nothing to do with the argument and everything to do with not addressing the argument. Always a segue from reality back to irreverency. This is not an uncommon approach by those whose knowledge base is not up to a truthful discussion on merit but instead is used to mask an ideal that cannot be defended with logic. It is disheartening to encounter since it dismisses rationalization as a method and relies on an attitude of outlandish dumbfoundedness. No serious communication can occur when the goal of the other conversant so implies an unwillingness to interact with honest intent about the subject at hand. I am shaking my head now just thinking about some of the conversations I have had that were utterly, and I mean utterly, useless. Although I know we are all gifted with the same abilities to reason and analyze, some have chosen to forsake those gifts and disabuse them in favor of being ridiculous and illogical. I cannot help but think that there is some underlying attribute of a rebellious nature at work but for the life of me I cannot discern it's positive effect. Such are the choices in our lives and making choices is what we all must face, apparently even irreverent ones.

The gift we all share, empiricism and rationalism (#1033)

Epistemology is the who, what, when, where, and why of knowledge. This comprehensive structured, albeit as far as we are able to define, analysis helps us to understand our own world and our own natures. The study of knowledge for me has boiled down to two, empiricism: objective observation; and rationalism: deductive/inductive reasoning. There are two more "schools of thought", idealism: reality as a mental construction; and historicism: which focuses on traditions and time periods. I find these last two are less significant and I will leave them out of this dialogue. I have given very generalized definitions of all four "views" of epistemology as a way to shorten the definitions and allow me more time to make my point. My main function here on Earth as a multi-sensoried being is to gather information and put the information to an analysis in order to create logical knowledge. Both empiricism and rationalism are major components in the equation I assimilate. Naturally I also consider the idealism of and historicism values but rarely do they impact the final conclusion at which I arrive. My senses and my logical reasoning are the tools I use to sustain and grow my knowledge base. If this is how I accomplish my learning abilities then it is also reasonable to assume all the rest of us are as able to do so as well. I like the theme of keeping things simple in how I approach processes for utilization. By being my own laboratory and science lab, I am able to utilize myself for information gathering and objective analysis. My body supplies the senses needed to draw information towards me and my logical mind allows me to analyze, reason and then conclude. What I am trying to relate here is that we, individually, are the best source for evaluating and processing information based upon our own abilities to understand those things that are here in reality with us. We are all that unique!

"Occam's Razor" (#1032)

Occam's Razor; "is a principle that generally recommends from among competing hypotheses selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions."-Wikipedia. In other words, go with the simplest explanation as a general rule. This is one of my guiding principles in life, Just keep doing the next right thing that comes my way. I do not go out of my way to plan some elaborate scheme or machination in order to achieve a previously thought out conclusion. I just, in plain language, let the chips fall where they may. Certainly, I am not some cavalier or reckless person who lives life without any thought to what an outcome may be but I do not plan my existence with a preconceived assumption of how that will come about, or what that "come about" will actually be. Again, doing the next right thing is enough of a plan for me to live life like I desire. Much of my early life was grounded in the competition of scraping with others for what little I could get. It is part of an addiction with many of us when we feel that cynicism and poorly attitudes dominate all of our rationales. I had so much remorse for my actions back then because my actions were done in reaction to my poor outlook. The old "woe is me", "life is not fair" paradigm. It is true that I am woeful, :) and that life is not fair, so true, but it is the same for everyone not just me and my few commiserating friends. Given the turn-around in my outlook, thankfully, I have found that living a simple life with very few expectations has been pleasantly rewarding. Keeping things simple in my life has allowed me to appreciate my surroundings and the effort I put forth has honor and nobility to it. What more could I ask for from myself than to do what is right when right needs doing? The secret to life is loving life as much as you enjoy who you are. For me, Occam's Razor, has provided a purposeful pathway for living for me to think and act upon.

The fight to expose the truth (#1031)

That I even have to write on this subject tells all of us that there are forces out there who do not want us to know the truth. They would rather we know lies or distortions or nothing at all instead of letting the truth be known. I am in a constant struggle to root out the truth in whatever subject that comes to me. It is my nature to be curious and my curiosity demands the truth, regardless of how uncomfortable or demeaning it may make me or anyone else. We are never going to change our thoughts and behaviors until we are all dealing with the facts of things and not the illusions of them. There can never be a circumstance where the truth of a thing is deemed to be less important than a lie or silence. I know there are some things in life that need discretion due to lack of understanding or simply a way to explain, however the time it takes to allow ourselves to understand a difficult truth is far better spent than a lie used to hide or convolute it. Sunshine is the best disinfectant and when the truths of things are exposed to the light of day we all benefit. Where truth is used there is less room for lies or confusions. I have spent a majority of my precious time here on Earth just trying to catch up from all the distortions that I have been inoculated into believing. How terrible is it for those of us who have been manipulated by untruths? Obviously it is not such a big deal since our society has taken no real steps to eradicate the free distribution of lies as a practice. We only live here in this existence once as who we are and to make the most of it would be to simply have telling the truth be a foundational principled requirement. The right to open up our dialogue to truths and admissions of doubt where no truth can be proved is my goal and something I deem worth fighting for.

A misnomer about liberals and religion (#1030)

I get the sense from many conservatives that they think being liberal is godless. I find that humorous in the sense that surely there are many liberals who are atheists, but many are also god-fearing believers. Being liberal is not about having any morals, on the contrary, it is a mindset of freedom to choose one's morals. If one chooses to a life of religiosity they are exercising their right to believe as they see fit. Same with those who choose to see the world without a god. The point being is that being liberal makes no difference in the choice. Liberalism is: "(from the Latin liberalis) is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights."-Wikipedia. I would even take that one step further and say that liberalism is the natural progression of the importance of equality and liberty. Now, for anyone out there who may say that liberals are not principled or that they are lazy worthless users, then they are just factually wrong. I am a liberal and I am proud of it. Not only am I keen to improve my own life but I have a duty to myself to help improve the lives around me. I do not confuse competition with ego or privilege, additionally, I admonish those thoughts and actions which dispel community and selflessness. How the term liberal has been attacked by those who cannot understand what it is to be liberal is shameful and ignorant. Being liberal includes all individualism that wishes to exist. How can a Democratic society ever deny individualism as long as it harms no one? Is it Democracy that others wish to attack and not just the ideal of liberalism? I am not sure since the distinction for labeling liberalism as an unworthy ideal is less clear and does not conform to rational logic. Attack liberalism and you are attacking the foundation upon which America has been built.

The better and best of us (#1029)

What is that and what does that mean? Some look at the better and best of us as a proof that we can do anything we want because we see ourselves as right and good. Others see the better and best of us as a goal to achieve, a never ending mission in life. What it really is, is a place of inward reflection. It is a plateau from where to judge ourselves as objectively as possible. From that plateau we can look backwards at what we have done as well as look to the present and see what we are actually doing. What we hope for the future is still at this stage hope but it is worth planning for as a way to go forward. The better and best of us is an ideal we can reflect upon and put into thought and action. The inward part of the better and best of us is contingent upon us knowing who and what we are. If we are still confused about who and what we are then we are only moving forward on our best guesses or worse. This is the purpose of this blog, to point out what I have concluded to be our inward natures and instincts. Certainly anyone can and will disagree with me since none of us can ever totally agree on anything. Yet I have taken my stand on the plateau where I am at and have found my vantage point. I know in what ways and areas where I can improve. I have concluded that compassion and curiosity are the two main instincts/natures we all have and that survival is also a common trait. How can I improve on survival? The ways are endless, but basically take better care of myself. How can I improve on my compassion? Easy, see what is going on around me and help relieve the misery where I can. How can I improve on my curiosity? Easy again, just be open and objective about new ideas and allow for my own beliefs to be challenged.

Denial is not courage of conviction (#1028)

I have seen some very strange things over the course of my life but to me the strangest yet is how we humans will go to any lengths to hold onto an idea, yes an inanimate concept, despite the natural and logical detriment it causes us. It is as if a determined will of a force that cannot be stopped has over taken our ability to see objectively. It is reminiscent of a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, unable to absorb anything beyond it's own demands. I sometimes wonder if it is lack of understanding or lack of knowledge but I am unable to distinguish the reason. Again, where a concept of thought is held in higher regard than actual living beings. Now I do know that some principles are so dear that they must be valued at most all costs, but really, putting a philosophy or belief before an actual living being is absurd. I can only reconcile the thinking I am writing about here as fantasy. The facts that we exist in are not subject to an interpretation that allows for many to sacrifice for the sake of the few. That is the reverse of what our instincts tell us. We protect the weaker by standing up for them. We have a duty to ourselves to treat all life with dignity. I suppose it is just that many are not able to see the big picture and thus allow themselves the illogic privilege of determining how others must be characterized. I am all for the courage of my convictions because my convictions are honorable and noble principles. Unless we have clear living examples of what we have determined as our lifelong principles we won't be able to act upon the reality of life as it is. Our comprehension of what the problems and solutions are will always be incomplete and not helpful. I bring up denial because it is the closest thing I can think of that is so abundantly wrong with many who are promoting, inherently illogical norms as a purpose for living. More to come next time.

We are all accountable (#1027)

No one gets a free pass here. We all need to do more than just look after ourselves. In this really hard economic time it seems futile to ask each of us to do more than keep ourselves afloat. However, it is what is needed and that makes it necessary for it to happen. I myself have already looked at my present and have figured out some ways I can go out beyond my own needs and be helpful to others who have things worse. All of us need to stop and reflect on what we can do for those who are in a bad way. No excuses or blame, just what can each of us do. I know for me and many others I have heard, helping others is a great remedy for what ails us. It all starts with the will to do something other than complain or shut down. There have been better times in our country but not so much better that need was not still prevalent and necessary. We have not yet evolved as a society of ambitious selfless souls, who see need and immediately assuage it. Yet we are capable of such honorable and noble actions. Our intentions at times are indicative of how deep our compassion runs for our species, so the real possibility of us becoming the benevolent souls we have within us is attainable, but only if we are accountable. We must each take upon ourselves the mantle of leading by example. Certainly whatever we can do when we can is the way to start, but start we must if we are ever going to live up to our species' potential. it starts here right now with me writing this post about what we must all do. Where it goes from here is up to everyone or anyone who reads this. I have nothing to gain from this personally, my life is at the backside of it's living. There is no grand payoff for me, however for our species there is and that my friends is what I want most in the world.

Oh woe is me (#1026)

I keep getting little reminders from myself about how sensitive I am to the little harms that come my way. These harms are so magnified in my head, that I often find myself saying, "how come these types of unlucky things keep happening to me"? Like I have a fate that will always be cursed. It takes less than a moment however for me to come back to reality and put my "harm" into perspective. I can do this because my memory is such that I can recall far worse things happening to others. What I do know is that I am very fortunate to have love and care from others in my life when so many are denied these simple human connections. That is my little psychological uneasiness and though it does come around from time to time it has a remedy, that being I just remember that people have it much worse. Now that takes care of me realizing that life is not all bad but what I need to do is try to understand how to make life better all around me. Here is my view of things, I open my eyes and see a world that I would not imagine if I could imagine what I wanted to see. It may seem a bit arrogant of me to think that the world should look like what I think it should look like but my intentions are good. I open my eyes and I don't like a lot of what I see. I feel it is my responsibility to change the world where I can to make it look like something that makes me proud and happy. Now if all of us would adopt this same simple philosophy then our world would be wonderful within no time at all. It really all boils down to what is the priority of every single soul. If it isn't to make our world better by improving it then we are still struggling to find our conscious. Sadly, we are so confused as a species right now that it isn't just as simple as us seeing what we all need but instead it is mostly only seeing what we want without regard to what others need.

The status quo is unacceptable (#1025)

If our society ever gets to the point of the status quo being acceptable it will have hit perfection. That being said, the status quo will never be acceptable. I won't even go into explaining how it is impossible for us to be perfect. It is hard not to laugh at the idea we ever could be. This is just reality and anyone who thinks perfection can exist, here in our existence, is in denial. So change is our purpose for living. The constancy of change is what we are all about. Finding new and different ways to support our lives in this existence. Now some may have ideas about what an existence beyond this one is like and that is something else. In this existence we are tasked with surviving and trying to do that surviving in a way that harms as few as possible. At least that is the common wisdom that we all should share. I know also that there are ones out there who have no such compunction, to our species' eternal shame. Regardless of the psychopaths/sociopaths, who have no emotional attachment to other individual's survival, we must remember that where we are now is just a snapshot in time and not our reality. Our reality is ever-changing and understanding how and why change occurs is our own personal duties. yes, we have a duty to society if we want the best of what humans can be to dominate our interactions. We are all responsible for correcting wrongs and maintaining what is right. As we maintain what is right we are also responsible for making what is right even better. Don't be confused by my terminology, right is good but it will never be perfect, therefore even right can be improved upon. What the history books will say about this time span in human development will be directly related to what we do with our duties and responsibilities as they confront us on a daily basis. What say you?

The benevolent heart is needed (#1024)

Where is your peace? Do you have a heart of gold toward life? Is your main goal to justify how you feel despite what others may feel? I have too many questions about how we as a species define our actions when the heart of us is absent. There are some in our current American society who feel that all things wrong are a by-product of each wronged individual. That success is there for the taking and that those who don't are less than worthy. The American dream is more an illusion today than it was when I was growing up. The chances of having a family, home, job and all the perks that used to be available have gotten much worse. Is it because the opportunities are there and the opportunities are not being taken? Is it that a good life is not a welcome hope anymore? No to both questions. People want opportunities to succeed and they want to have families and a nice life with their families. The answer is that there are few opportunities available to be taken. There are 100 million Americans below and just above the poverty line. This is because only a few opportunities for a better life in the workforce actually exist. Why am I going to statistics and commentary to express that a benevolent heart should exist? Because only through looking through the eyes of others can we see the problems and solutions that need to be addressed. If I didn't care about you I wouldn't care to help you have a better life. So I must care about you if I have the natural human instinct I was born with. If I have lost my instinct to care about our species then having a benevolent heart is moot. I have not lost mine however and that is why the benevolent heart is necessary to solve what ails our society, economically in particular. Pushing for a better life for all of us is what those of us with a heart left in our chests must continue to do.

I love my dreams (#1023)

I cannot remember the last time I had a bad dream and even then I was just being me in it. That is amazing for me to know because like all humans I still have some little doubts about how I would act if I wasn't mostly in control of myself. In my dreams I am just me without questioning my actions. It is strangely real to me that my actions and thoughts in my dreams are consistent with how I am when I am awake. The reason I have had doubts about whether I was still just like me in my dreams is that sometimes in my dreams I have super human strength and gravity defying abilities. lol. If that were the case in real life my dreams offer a clue to me that I would still be just me without all the ego I presume would have attached to me. That is comforting! the foundation of my good intentions even cover me in my unfiltered dreams. I know that I am being who I am supposed to be by this validation. I know it sounds like a leap but for me it is personal and justification being verified by the consistency in my dreams fits together in a peaceful way. The logic of it is difficult to quantify but in essence, if I am the man I am in my dreams, where rules and restrictions are not required by others over me, then I have found a core with the rules and regulations in my real life that has overlapped into my dream life. By knowing that I am the same principled person in both paradigms is tremendously satisfying. The best part of my dreams then is the actual happenings and the happily distorted persons I interact with. Quite amusing with a touch of real life tension, enough to make my dreams complex and insightful. I don't know why this subject has hit me like it has this morning but the dreams from last night were powerful and heartfelt. My dreams are important to me and help to continue my life along my chosen path in a most wonderful and inspiring way.

We are just the next set of links in the chain (#1022)

What will we contribute to the human species? This is our window to look through and until it is taken away we have the opportunity to do things that make a difference in how the history of humanity is recorded. This is greater than the country I live in it is about the whole of our Earth and the total population that inhabits it. It seems rather ridiculous that one person could think they could have such an enormous impact, yet there are no rules about who can do what. Certainly, we are all restricted in some form or another, some more than others, however the ideas that come into our heads and how we plan to implement them come from each of us. We have such power over our thoughts and imaginings that to waste them on an inaccurate assumption that we are too less important and not nearly worthy of anything substantial and magnificent, would be to deny our own natures. Like I am always harping on, we have compassion and curiosity constantly at our fingertips as the foundation for all of who we are. To not be able to reconcile our own self-worth through our natures is a waste and unnatural. It wouldn't surprise me if each and everyone of us 7 billion humans are not capable to being the next great innovator of our time. If anyone is looking for a purpose and they are beyond the idea that life is all about them, then the magic can happen. We are at our best when we think of others before we think of ourselves. It allows us to see beyond ourselves and toward the bigger picture of life going on around us. From there it is just imagining how to create a society that reflects our best attributes and advocating for that. This isn't about who can make whom do what, it is about what we can think or see as a vision and offering that with what others see as well. There is no right or wrong when we have the intent to make lives better while building new paradigms for the future.

Doing things right isn't hard, it is fun! (#1021)

Their is no arrogance in doing things right. Not even the old saw about rubbing someone's nose in it, when they are wrong. Doing things right is fun and should be a happy experience, regardless of how others feel about it. For one thing fun is a by-product of an enlightened mind. It isn't something to be looked down upon. Serious things need to have an element of fun attached to them in order to take the seriousness from being a drudgery. It has always been about how we want to feel about our lives. We get to choose what that is. I know we cannot control the day to day interactions we have with each other or the structures of society that must be implemented, however choosing to enjoy our experiences is within our domain. I know that within me is an established choice to be the best good person I can be. To make that happen I have to learn and understand how I can make that happen in a complex world. Such is my ongoing project. But in the process of doing this I am also aware I get to feel what I want to feel about my efforts. I get to decide to enjoy the ride and see what good is being played out or I can remain devoid of emotional perspective and let the river of time flow by me and not have the memories laughter and fun comfort me with. This isn't some magical experience we are living, it is us living it with what we have at our disposal. I always go back to when we were growing up and didn't have "things" like some others and how that made me feel inferior and insecure. Then now when I see the real world and how life itself is treated as garbage for some, I have come to know that everything, whether good or bad has a side to it that I can make better just by my attitude. I am working on that and everyday I get a little closer to really enjoying life despite it's multitude of contradictions.

The beauty of my own insignificance (#1020)

Funny how thoughts occur to me. I know everyday that I will be writing on a subject but what that subject is doesn't normally materialize until I am sitting in front of the keyboard ready to go. However, sometimes the subject hits me in a dream or when I am just relaxing my mind and then suddenly some abstract concept jumps into the forefront of my thinking. This morning is like that in that last night while I was tossing and turning in my half-conscious sleep, I thought about how I can make a difference in life. Mario Savio's speech about throwing ourselves on the gears of the machine to make it stop struck me in a way that soothed my soul. I am just another human who can throw his body on the wheels and levers of the machine to force it to stop and understand that we all need to have our freedom. I can sacrifice myself with pride and dignity without having the fear of losing my life. This gets to what are my principles and how do I represent them. It does take courage to stand up to the unknown and be bold about my intentions. The fear that usually comes with that can freeze the actions of the best of us, however it does not have to if I have the knowledge that even despite death, my actions are of a greater significance. That is the key to defeating fear, understand that it does not matter. What matters is how I live my life. Change can occur and by me being ready and able to stand for it makes me the most alive I could ever be. There are others who have followed this path of giving of oneself for the greater good, maybe not as many as a strategy as opposed to snap decisions, but effective nonetheless. That I know I am insignificant in the big picture fulfills a necessary communal aspect of my soul and thus allows me to be just being another cog in the wheel of justice ready to throw myself in sacrifice upon the gears of the inhumane machine.

Wealth and it's illusion (#1019)

How illustrative is the mental picture of a person sitting in a room full of gold coins, basking in their good fortune with a measure of addiction enough to circulate their endorphins on a continual loop. Not only are the gold coins a work of art but they represent wealth in such a way as to make a person exhibit the real possibility of making fantasy and illusion come true. Such is the making of the demi-god. We have all been raised in our society to constrain ourselves under the principled guidelines of shared sacrifice and restrictive individualism. Most will not ever have the ability or the circumstances in their lives to accumulate great wealth so more pragmatic solutions for living are contrived and accepted. When those who are able to have the "room full of gold coins" are suddenly released from normal societal restraints, another paradigm opens up for them. They are now suddenly heralded and looked upon with envy and awe. So, instead of keeping with the ideal that wealth is just a means for barter, they demand and command an ideal greater than just reality. They move to a place in their minds where justification of their own perceived specialness has overridden normal insightful instruction. Certainly, those who have attained success have a right to their own happiness but when they cannot disassociate themselves from the idea of success in commerce with the idea that somehow they are greater human beings than those with lesser economic prowess, they lose touch with reality and begin to live in an egoistic illusion. Success in life in any area of endeavor is to be applauded and encouraged, however, a duty by all of us is simply to recognize that our actions are not divined, they are human and as such we must take care to appreciate what we have done or can do and not allow a mindset of greed to overcome us. Instead a mindset of benevolence should occur and living as the best of what a human can be or do is of more value.

The war for our minds (#1018)

This is about value and what price we pay for our own ability to define who we are. Some would say that there are only a few choices we can make to define who we are. Yet others say that who we are can be anything imaginable that has the potential to be true. I prefer more options instead of less. I can usually tell when someone is restricting my options by their use of fear as a guideline. None of us has any right or knowledge to dictate what this existence means and how we should be within it, except that we harm no one nor ourselves. Now, reality is that if you do not think a certain way you will be shunned or slighted in ways that inhibit some perceived benefit. I know this as I have almost cut off all avenues to feel welcome in circles that are constrained by ideology and it's restrictive practices. yet I am a free man who has access to information and knowledge that I can objectively scrutinize without being bounded by rules, dogma or convention. I am a truly free human being in that I am not pigeon-holed, denied of possibilities. There is a concerted effort and it has been going on for ages to control what we think and what we do. We are set upon by forces that wish us to be in groups of various kinds so that we are easily swayed by logic that seems to perpetuate a flow toward pre-conceived notions. Thinking outside the box is not what is promoted rather thinking inside the box is. I am often surprised that I am able to disassociate from the group or crowd and still feel an exhilaration toward community and our common benefit. For me the world will always be the great adventure that my abilities will allow me to explore. I am not stuck in the paradigm of the offerings, that the powers that be package to us, in order to control my natural instincts, rather I am a free agent ready to survey the landscape for all of it's possibilities.

A check on power (#1017)

The sense of entitlement and privilege is a validation to most who are susceptible to it's allure. It is a great person who can keep a common sense understanding about them while being economically successful. For the most part economic success breeds a new and distorted sense of self-worth. I have seen otherwise generally decent human beings become little tyrants due to increased wealth. It is a metamorphosis that has it's foundation in the concept that wealth makes wisdom. Instead of humbly relaying their story of success they instead become professorial in how others have "done it wrong". As if each of us and our own unique circumstances are irrelevant. Such is the case in most of my experiences. The insatiable appetite most of us have to some illusory hierarchy we egoistically have framed, is verified when some of us actually do experience success. However, verifying a conclusion that somehow has worked out does not make the initial equation valid. Even fallacies will work despite defying the rules of logic. A false truth if you will. But when scrutinized by the rules of logic there will be found an incorrect assumption that has been relied upon as a premise. Which brings me back to success and power that feeds the ego and mutes any wisdom that might have come from it if value to circumstance and serendipity had been properly assigned. Unfortunately, we can be such petty little creatures when given the opportunity. My sense is that for most of our lives we feel like lesser humans until we can "make our mark". Again though, the rationale for this phenomenon is based in inferior concepts and the willingness to skirt high principles in the name of results. A check on power has never been needed more to keep our sense of our own self-worth in line with good fortune and it's true materialization.

You must save yourself (#1016)

I know this one very well. Nothing anyone or anything can save me but my own desire to do so. Certainly help if I need it does come in handy but without me first deciding to want to try nothing will work. What do I mean by save yourself? Simply everything that seems to be an obstruction to a healthy and fulfilling life. One thing for certain is that there is no blueprint to life and we all must struggle to define how we best fit into the world around us. It is scary and confusing to start but eventually our thoughts and actions help us arrive at a place where some sense of continuity does evolve. However, settling for where we land due to serendipity or coincidence is less fulfilling than actually charting a course of our own based on our own personal intangibles. Chance is a product of disorganization in place of formulating a plan. It is easy to let things happen in due course when the ethic to work at a plan is more difficult. All of us possess tremendous abilities and if shown how to do things most would gladly have that then trial and error. Most of us I say since my own stubbornness didn't allow me the path of least resistance in this area. I have converted and come to the startling realization that my perfect sense of privilege and demagoguery were fascinations of my own creation. In other words I was taught some life lessons that reiterated my true nature of fallibility. lol. Luckily I survived my own ridiculous illogical reasonings of me existing outside logical reality. I am just a human, no more special or worse than any other human and in that, I have come to realize that who I am and what I do is completely within my control if I choose to understand and put into practice the principles that I want to define the best of me. I get to choose and in that I not only save myself but I also get to live myself as well.

Feeding a corrupt system (#1015)

We all do it to some degree because we are trapped within it's process. We have been within it's momentum since we were children and escaping it is akin to escaping from ourselves. Or so it seems. As more and more awaken to the inherent problems we face as we continue to feed the system the more and more we are upset and angry by our own culpability. It will eventually get to the point of living with our wrongs or doing something about it despite the material and professional costs we incur. It hits our population in waves with those most vulnerable effected immediately, while those most insulated through wealth are generally the last to realize change of some sort must happen. But like humans have shown throughout history, we will eventually adapt to a better system for our lives and move on but not without the pains of drastic change. The struggle to deny and refuse the inevitable will put great strains on our ability to live together in harmony, as such we do. The tumult we cost others and the price they pay, for the stubborn clinging to selfishness and greed some fight change to retain, will be the measure in history of how difficult it is to evolve from one system to another. It is sad that humanity has not yet been able to live in enlightenment and instead chooses baser human default instincts to define who we are. While we fight to not only improve our stations on this world with progressive honorable principles, we also take great care not to obliterate our own species in the name of arbitrary philosophical beliefs. That we are in a state of being able to obliterate ourselves tells of the psychological disorder our society has created. Our current system has foundational flaws to it and in my mind is not worthy of being a structure that defines who and what humanity is.

The importance of objectivity (#1014)

Objectivity defined; "Judgment based on observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices.-wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn. Not easily done since most of us see through the lens of our own concepts of right or wrong. Yet it is absolutely necessary for us to see the world through no filters of established thought/emotion or illogical prejudice. The thing is what it is regardless of what we apply to it as a definition. Objectivity gives us the clearest, truest informational starting point. We have what we have before us and the next observable step we take is to understand all the different realities it presents. We are all scientists since we have most if not all of our five senses and the ability to apply reasonable analysis toward a conclusion. We will not always have a definite conclusion but we should be able to move our understanding forward enough to know how to perceive what we are trying to understand. What happens instead is that the thing we are observing has connotations to us through pre-conceived notions or dogma. We stop short of objectivity and instead subjectively apply a category to the thing we have observed. Instead of treating the thing with innocence we have already pre-established a consequence. Most today who do not practice objectivity as a foundational principle have already shrunk their view of the world in order to have some illusory control over it. It is amazing that the appearance of being uncertain is seen as a detriment when in my mind the uncertainty should be seen as a value of being in a state of needing closer scrutiny. The arrogance that masks the subjective model is thin and only used by those who have fear as a genesis.

Faith in the human species (#1013)

It is not easy having faith in us. We are an unpredictable lot at times but we do seem to find our way back on course when we have strayed for a time. I think it says something about our natures and this Universe as a whole. I bring up our environment because we do not live in a bubble and our surroundings serve to remind us of our limitations. It is these very limitations that help remind us that we do not have the control over existence we try to proclaim. Even the most wealthy and powerful amongst us is not immune to a comeuppance. Our natures act as magnets to pull us back from the egoism of our minds and the illusional journey ego takes us on. Grounded in fundamental ideals like our curiosity and compassion will always give us the opportunity of an anchor to reality and logic. It is in reality and logic that we can maneuver the divinations of our own intuitions and foresights, as well as dogma and philosophy of human invention. The easily accepted availability of our own self worth, to ourselves, needs restraint. None of us are "all that and a bag of chips". Yet our potential, when cultivated in a manner of principled objectivity, can be the most amazing equation of concluding the future of our species. All of us on a similar understanding can set forth the progression of processes that not only improve the day to day life of us in existence now but also those of our next generations. I bring this up because we live in a time when logic and superstition minded properties are still waging a war for the soul of our species. Instead of logic and superstition minded properties working in conjunction with each other to promote a greater knowledge base for our souls evolution.

Building consensus (#1012)

I never stop trying to get us to see who we are so that we can truly work toward what is best for us. Don't ever let anyone tell you different, we need to know who we are so that we can build a path toward our future. I will always disagree that we have negative instincts inherent within us. Every time I see a new born child I see the look of curiosity in their eyes. They learn what we teach them and negativity is what they often see. The change in the continuum of status quo must come from us together. We must realize how special it is to be alive and coordinate all our activities around our curiosity and compassion. As the newborn child is innocent so are we in our natures. Again, the only way we get to be negative is when we are denied the positive instincts of curiosity and compassion. The rules of society and religion have not served our better instincts to the highest degree. Most have evolved over time from illogic assumptions and ulterior motives. Yet here we are in the midst of uncoordinated attempts to provide some form of freedom, liberty, justice, equality etc... The radical idea that we can solve our problems and create a society without first understanding who we are as a species is immature. Time will tell long after I am gone whether my conclusion of starting out from who we are before we create a society that reflects what we are. However, wasting time when logic can be used to save it is rather absurd. I have been writing this blog for closing in on to 3 years and not once, not once have I heard any type of rebuttal to my claim that we have three natural instincts, two of which directly go to our personalities and the third, survival, goes directly at our will to live. We care about people and things and we wonder about everything within our senses and beyond. Once we really do begin to build a consensus toward this natural truth of us human beings, then we can build that enlightened society that reflects our true natures.

The sanctity of life (#1011)

In the world we live in today it appears through the evidence, we all live in, that process of society trumps people. We seem to hold greater value in the manipulations of how we do things than in the people who actually perform the process! In other words, process over people. My blog was created so that I could amplify my insight into what the nature of the human being is. The reason for this is to help us understand what we are before we identify how we are going to be. Now, all of the processes for living we have carried forward need to be re-examined to see if they promote the maximum potential for our species to move forward. Just because we are in systems that work reasonably well does not make those systems fair or viable. We need to see the larger picture beyond all of our own lives toward those lives yet born. Our future is our strength as a species and strengthening it to it's best potential is the least we can do. As I continue to set the baseline of compassion, curiosity and the will to survive as our fundamental core, the argument of our future can then come from that genesis. The pure simple truth is if we don't know who we are, we cannot serve our future with it's best chance to survive. This isn't about our individual satisfactions or our differences as viewed by ego, it is about fulfilling our natures natural evolution toward further enlightenment. The curiosity we have and the five senses we use to fulfill our curiosity is indicative of the logic within my notion of what it is to be human. That we care enough to nurture and love is another prime example of our ability to crave emotional sustenance through compassion. That we struggle to overcome, in the face of death, proves our survival instinct. Nothing I offer here is new but that I offer it as our true nature is. To rebut all other expressions of negative nature I assert that the denial of our true natures bring them about. Who we are should determine what we become and starting fresh with this ideal can create new and just paradigms that honor all of us and not just some or most.