I get to hold myself accountable (#881)

I get to choose if I want to be an honorable man. No one else does this for me and no one else can make do this myself. I get to choose to do it all on my own. When I was younger and in a fog about how life worked, mainly because I was so disillusioned with most everything around me, I just let the flow of life go without caring what happened. Eventually though, the fog cleared up and the world started to make sense. Most everyone is doing what they think they need to do to survive and maybe prosper. People aren't consciously choosing to do the best for all of us, instead they are simply trying not to get left behind. I see this and understand it also, however, I also see the need to do more than just survive and not get left behind. I see the need for me to be an example as much as I can of how to lead. Yes lead. I do this by being accountable. My thoughts and actions have to be disciplined and focused toward the better and best of things. I must matter to myself in a way that reflects my hopes and dreams of a better life for all of us. I have wasted a good part of my life already being only concerned about myself and nothing much more. I cannot get that time back but I can make what time I have left of value. No one has to monitor my motivation, no one has to constantly remind me to keep focus on what I truly want. This comes from within me and is real. I am the master of my choices until I let them be taken from me by either physical cravings or outside mental persuasion. I am truly responsible for who I am today and I either can stand up and present myself as a worthy value or I can dismiss noble principles and go back to being just another entity of resource with little to no value. I have tried both and for me, the choice is one of maintaining and increasing virtue through living and reflecting a principled life that has a core value of being accountable.

The highest value in existence is humanity (#880)

I see nor understand any higher value than us humans. The Universe we live in is irrelevant to us if we are not here. Everything is about how we live in this existence. A big part of that is how we treat everything here in existence as well. I am speaking in terms of physical reality and not to anything outside of that. We have systems for living that we are evolving to find what can eventually work for all of us. In the recorded time that follows our human history, we have shown the ability to move forward toward higher ideals for all of us. However, we have also shown the ability to move backwards from time to time as if we have lost our overall concept of advancing as a civilization. This herky jerky bout of fits and starts is unsettling to those of us who have a vision and cannot understand why it is so difficult to achieve more progress toward it. Although that vision may be pure in it's intent, making the process work for it is not. There are those who value concepts other than the best of human principles. It is this struggle against values of lesser degrees that seems to be the impediment to a smoother advance into progress for our civilization. There should be only one motive for action and that is to not only care for our existence with maintenance but to improve our existence through thought and action. Anything less than that is not productive for all of us. When processes for advancement are used in ways that negate principles of honor, justice, equality etc..., to use an analogy, we are less the wave and more the breaker in our human flow. We are not the creator of existence, yet we have been given the caretaker's role. It is our turn, humanity, to show what we can do as a species with intelligent thought and action, to show what and who we really are.

Just doing what is right (#879)

I don't need an ideology to do what is right. I don't necessarily need to have a belief system in anything, to know what is right. How do I know what is right? Is it positive? Does our world get better through the action? Can I smile in my heart and soul when done? These are good indicators. We all have the ability to know what is right because we all have been in a place where we hoped for something right to happen and seen it not happen, which gives us perspective. All of us have the inclination or intuition to understand the simple forms of right. That is enough! I cannot change the world all at once but I can keep doing the little right things that come up in my path. What that eventually will total, at the end of my time, is for others to measure. I am not keeping score but I am holding myself accountable to be involved in my life where it is needed and not holding back because of cultural, religious or civil restrictions. I have to do what is right in my life even if it causes me distress, otherwise, I am not the man I want to be nor would I be fulfilled in my psyche. Some values in this life are greater than others and knowing how to prioritize them is what I must continue to learn. Most of my opportunities to do what is right are consistently small efforts that produce little bits of satisfying outcomes. It is my place in time to do what I can and not be stuck in the mindset that I can only do right in large scenarios. That is for others and when I do what is in front of me I am doing my best to be the man I want to become. Humility plays a large role in my life today since when I was young I have had illusions of my own self worth. By doing the little things right in my life today, I am fulfilling my need to be a positive influence regardless of my want-to-be inflated ego desires.

Comfortable versus uncomfortable (#878)

I began this blog with the idea that our natures are of a good intent and only in their denial can other less-than good intent natures exist. Obviously, I do not suggest that the world is a perfect place where all of us are happy with what we are doing. There is real struggle in our time and the ones, whom we are struggling against, are of our own species, not some other entity. So looking for a solution to end the struggle is one of the goals of this blog. By highlighting our "true" natures, I can bring awareness to those who are caught up in the cycle of perpetuating less-than natures as a means for survival. Knowing is the key to change and change we must. We hurt only ourselves by acting out in greed, hate and other less-than natures. This mindset that exposes us to the concepts of differences being greater than similarities has got to stop! It is as if we cannot even get on the playing field of life when we are still challenging each others right to exist. Our forms and shapes are mostly similar and our color of skin is only by shadings, yet our togetherness is too often at a level of mistrust and exclusion. I have titled this post as comfortable versus uncomfortable, and the reason being is that for me life needs to be uncomfortable so that I can remain aware of the ever changing and ever diverse reality we are living in. Certainly, I have some areas in my life that are comfortable and I do seek them out, but only as a place to rest for awhile to recharge and get back into the chaotic flow of life. I do not see myself as living in a scenario where my life is dictated by preconceived thoughts. I am best when I am challenged by the events in life and that allows for me to live in my "true" nature of compassion for all and curiosity for everything.

Checking my motives (#877)

Now this is a never ending process. I have reduced the amount of time spent checking my motives by remaining vigilant about what I actually think and do, but still, I find that my instincts toward some things have a natural appeal that must be weighed, in tandem with my personal principles. In other words, my animal nature, at times, can be influential outside my better instincts. There are other areas of concern as well, like my thoughts about my own predetermined ways of doing things. Then there is the biggest dilemma of all that I face, recognizing and accepting reality despite my own personal objections. Like I said at the beginning of this post, never ending. However, I am well settled within myself that I will never reach a plane of existence that has dominion over these human frailties I have, and I have succumbed to the notion that I can only recognize and correct them when confronted by them. One thing that has not failed me is my objectivity and my respect for it. I have the kind of characteristic within me that holds myself accountable when I am off track and I can readily admit that. There is no pretension of image or wisdom that I am protecting out of some status or egocentric personal obligation. I am fallible and proud to admit it. It means I am human and occasionally without intent, I veer off the course I wish to travel. That is the purpose of checking my motives, to keep myself in line with the principles for living that I will fight to maintain as examples of how I should live. I cannot ever expect to just walk through life without being vigilant about my stride. I may hold principles dear to my soul but unless I am keeping my eye on them at all times, I know I can easily slip into a less than principled mode.

Religious belief systems and natural instincts (#876)

First of all I would like to define what belief systems are. They are a concept of a human construct based upon deity figure(s) and/or principles of afterlife with deity figure(s). There is the understanding that over time these concepts of construct are divinely inspired and given to us as a blueprint for living a just life until an afterlife is achieved through our demise. Existence comes to us without a manual and things like Bibles, Korans and other belief system divinely inspired documents purport to alleviate our fears about being born into an unknown. As fear can grasp us and make us aware that we have no foundational footing, a religious belief system offers us the sanctity of less fear when we can ameliorate a reason or purpose for our existence outside chance. It is a way of dealing with reality when a less than curious and caring mind controls our thoughts. This is where I compare our natural instincts with the belief system process. In a natural state of humanness, we are both caring about each other and curious about all that existence has to offer. In some ways we redeem our caring for each other in ways that bring happiness and resolve to our individual lives. We also continue to be curious about all of nature and the universe in ways that reflect objectivity. No presuppositions, or expectations, just curiosity with a keen sense for knowledge. I find that when I am in my caring and curious mode, I have no time for anything else. I do not need a pretense or a construct to "help" pacify my fears and insecurities since they are non-existent when I am fully engaged in being my human self. For me, and I am speaking for myself here, I do not need to be secure in the idea of an afterlife or have rigid rules to abide to in order to be a "good" person. I have my natural instincts and the ability to reconcile them in the reflection of curiosity and compassionate behavior.

The ideology of human equality (#875)

It should be obvious to all educated and informed individuals that the days of privilege based upon some humans being of a higher classification of human over others is illogical. The argument cannot be made for such a past inclination of thought. For sure there are differences in our abilities and opportunities but not because of biology nor intellectual capacity, our differences are through environment and resource. We are pretty much interchangeable at birth and to suggest that some great difference between us exists is otherwise indefensible. Unfortunately our history has prolonged a segregated view between us based on some form of classification. Our world economic, political, religious and cultural systems have been maintained to a large degree to allow for the perception that some "deserved" more from life than others. In fact, that there is even a "deserve" is an illusion for selfishness, not truth. All of this is leading to the conclusion that given the same opportunities we are very similar. I would even say that we are equal in most every way, even those precious ones who are born into our world with less than the general abilities of the generic human. This is no great mystery, the world isn't flat and it has only been just over 500 years ago that this began to become generally accepted. We are not, some of us, divine by birth or some cosmic anomaly destined to greatness by virtue of being miraculous. We are of the species human being, no more no less. All of us are here in existence that is as unknown to you as it is to me. It is the great experiment and we are just here to live in that experiment. There is no more a need to distinguish ourselves as greater or lesser, we are just human like all of us. That some of us can see that there are no more segregations necessary for our society to operate is appropriate and should be shared by all.

Empathy as a logic (#874)

Sounds peculiar to describe empathy as a logic but still for some that is exactly what it must become. The reason I say this is because there are logics out there that prescribe no empathy as a fundamental principle for living. I, on the other hand, dismiss the "no empathy" crowd as unnatural and instead rely on my natural instinct of caring to help me rationalize empathy as a needed principle in defining who I am. Logically, as a human being, that is part of a species that nurtures it's own, I am instinctively "wired" to feel compassion for a lack of happy circumstances. I do not deny this through some convoluted or twisted understanding of logic used to advance a less than human being agenda. I am who I am and if I was to deny that, I end any hope of being who I really am. This may sound like circular reasoning but simply put, if I choose to ignore my instinctual nature in order to further an illusory one of man-made construction, then I have stepped outside my nature and become an artificial being. I have abdicated my right to "feel" as a human in order to not "feel" at all. I will have changed the definition of my place within the species of humanity to one of an arbitrary thought-based creation. It is illogical to recreate myself into something I would conclude is a better definition of what I want me to be. I am not the creator of myself, I am the by-product of what I am. Through the force of existence I exist as a human being and in that I have what I believe to be two main instincts, Compassion and curiosity, with a third instinct of survival. I cannot reconcile any permutation of logic and reasoning to a non-empathetic human species that is also a normal human being. It is only possible in diagnosis of psychopathology, such as sociopath and psychopath. Without empathy, such is the lot of those who would choose to become only thought-based entities.

Making decisions (#873)

I have an internal process that is inconsistent at best. I know that I have to make a decision about something, but it isn't time to do that yet. So for a short while before it's time to decide I have these thoughts in my head about which choice I will make. It is curious that I do this since I know I haven't all the options yet, but do it I do. lol. For me there is a short period of anxiety or nervous excitement just before deciding that is tantalizing. Regardless of the nature of the decision it is still the same. In almost every situation though I do wait to decide right up until the last moment so that I can procrastinate and/or hope for a new factor in helping me decide. All of this is the after affect, and preceding the actual decision is a lot of research and analysis. I try to remain objective as much as possible, however I am human and decisions relative to me do have some subjective interests on my part. Also though is the knowledge that the decisions I make have not just an effect on me but on how I am perceived. Everything I do has a cause and effect as well as all of us do. Making even the simplest decisions tell a story about us that reflects our values and desires. I carry that knowledge of the importance of my decisions as a guide for how I do decide things. That I have a process that amuses me is a bit uncommon but I suppose it is my defense mechanism kicking in. We all must deal with decisions we make and standing up for them is our duty. Otherwise, the illusion of self-will or self-determination is all we are left with. The importance of knowing that is not to be discounted. Not only are we required as sovereign individuals to represent our own determinations but we have a duty to each other to do so. It is the magic of humanity and the equality of us sharing of who we are that is the worth we perceive to give.

Why we should be all inclusive (#872)

Integration is the way to improve our society. It helps to add perspectives, yet comprehended, and it shows that we are all capable of providing positive influences. There is a mutual benefit to inclusiveness that builds cohesion within our species to form fundamental ideals about our combined futures. We are stronger together than apart. Although our differences may conflict from time to time they are worth the effort to ameliorate. Our ability to recognize shared respect for each other helps us to listen to others and their truths as well as speak our truths. It is how we are able to improve ourselves and help others improve. I say this about being willing to share ideals with each other as a contrast to what it would be like if we didn't. The chaos of differing values unable to compromise themselves for a greater good would leave less than desirable living conditions for all. We are not the masters of the Universe and as such we should be aware of our need for each other to learn and grow in knowledge. This is the great fact of the human species, we are able to reason out logic and analysis with comprehension. It sets us apart as a species from our other brother and sister animals. As such we should agree to a fundamental duty to build a society that celebrates the individual person as another important life within the community of lives. By including all humans into our society, we encourage participation and involvement in the necessary functions that maintain our existence. Our shared sacrifices and shared visions have a better chance of making great differences for us on whole then if we were to try such actions on our own. When we are all pulling in the same direction, the resistance is minimal and the progression is maximized. A win/win.

The greater common good (#871)

It is so clear to me how most people only see their little world and how best to moderate it. It is as if the greater world at large is not part of the equation when configuring what to do next. It is mostly all about what is just in front of our noses that we seem to advocate for and defend. I suppose it is easier for me to launch into a perspective about a greater common good when I have no self-interest in lesser goods. Some if not most of us have investments in certain things and pushing for those things to improve become a higher priority to our immediate needs than to a greater common good. Especially when a financial lie has been invested in and maintaining that lie to recoup our initial investment or to grow a profit from it is the greatest concern. I really do try to keep things simple in my life and in doing so I have found that being austere and recognizing my own greed helps me to stay in touch with a greater common good. In my opinion, our society has not yet reached a respectable level as to equality of opportunity or respect as to our differences. These to me are the things I invest my meager wealth and time into. I am not the guy who is out to have the most toys or biggest pile of assets, rather I look to have a peace and contentment in my life that reflects how valuable I see my life. It is a gift given to me by the unknown, and as such I want to respect that gift and understand it. I also know that I am but one of countless others born and died throughout the history of the human species. We all have this in common, we are alive and living on a finite planet. The resources here are for us to use wisely and hopefully maintain the human experience on into the future. This is the greater common good, not how big my portfolio is or how esteemed I can become. I just get to live in a simple fashion that helps keep me wanting to improve on my character and personality and how well I interact with the other gifts of this world.

Debate is not a dirty word (#870)

This is the one method of discussion I most enjoy. Gathering up facts and opinions for discussing topics of controversy. It is how I best learn and form new concepts. I enjoy this methodology. Is there a better way to express viewpoints than with facts and visions? None that I know. I would think that local and national debates would be fun and educational at the same time. Why we don't televise such events so that others may watch and learn is curious. Certainly I am not the first one to think of doing this? It seems to me that having conversations about our current and future visions of our country and world would be of a greater benefit to us than some reality show on television that distorts or confuses us instead. I do not control such things and if I did I would have many debate forums on television designed to capture the interest of our electorate when being objectively informed through debate is so very crucial to our destinies. Maybe it is just me but a democracy that suffers from an information deficit disorder, is doomed to continue over time. We need to be entertained but not at the expense of being logically informed. Their are many motives out there that would like to keep us in the dark as to current situations and they mostly have to do with individual greed. Not surprisingly, this is an epidemic that is maintained to mold and forward policies that when studied objectively show the flaws of their making. When decisions that effect our present and future are being made without a healthy debate for their reasonings we are not practicing democracy we are doing less than that. I shall always be an advocate of the mindset of, when we are objectively informed about policies and processes for them we will always come to the correct analysis in the end. We need to have the debates and then make the decisions. It is our right and duty to do it in that order.

The things I can control (#869)

I see examples of the ideals and rights that are defended even to the death. I look at what others in this vast world of our's are doing to maintain their own personal dignity and respect. The lengths they are willing to go, despite the cost, to keep their principles and virtues. I am honored to live in a time when the striving for something is not about the newest toy but about freedom and liberty. Our world is still in the throes of those who do not hold to a conscious decision to make our world better, only to make their own world better, despite the means they use to achieve that. I can do my part by calling out reality to any who would listen. I can also take a stand in my personal life to do more to help those who are being denied basic moral, ethical and just opportunities. All I need to do is look around me and I can find ways to help those who have little to nothing but hope. It is a consequence of my upbringing that I had instilled in me to make my life better and by out-maneuvering anyone who would get in my way. The protestant work ethic combined with a survival of the fittest competition. This all or nothing attitude of "get mine first at all costs" does well in a society that values commodity over human empathy. As a model for innovation and modernity it has it's popular aspects, but as an outlet for compassion to the less able and more unfortunate, it has few uses. A turning point in my philosophy for life came when I was able to look behind me and see the wreckage and those who had been left that despair. A sudden need to have a quality of life based on relationships overcame my desire to have the newest and biggest toy. A maturing of my soul took place and now I can see my destiny involves advancing what I see as the virtuousness of human dignity and respect.

You don't know who we are (#868)

What we are not is worthless or irrelevant. What we are not is chained to that which we know is wrong. We have an indomitable spirit within us that when we recognize it and unleash it we are not anything other than our own free will. Our own free will. That statement is the liberty and freedom that countless generations have fought and died for since the beginning of the human being species. It is the most cherished thought of who we are and what we can do in our lives. Each of us has the inate fire within us to burgeon our own destiny. Conventional ways of society and culture have us restricted in many areas but that is our choice to accept. It may be that the comfort arrived at, that which calculates security, is enough. I, at times, also allow the comfort of security to drive my actions, however, not to the point of abdicating my free will to others for the purpose of obtaining the illusion or false sense of security others would try to offer. My free will has a demand that I cannot deny, it needs it's ability to express and live on it's own terms. Just as that is true so is the logic and common sense of my appropriateness in controlling my own free will. It is unique to me and as such will reflect what I present it as. Letting my free will run on it's own without direction is wrong but so is to live in a society with little to no free will is also unthinkable and I will not tolerate that. Such is my will. When I see others who have to live in countries whose societies deny free will on levels of fundamental expression, I begin to well up with conviction and determination to disagree and pay a price necessary to help expose and possibly stop it. I am only one who has chosen to use his free will to defend and obtain others' rights to their free will, but one is a start and I know I am not alone.

Temporary emotion and permanent emotion (#867)

In the course of my life I have become aware of the difference between emotional feelings. I recognize that some are temporary, not unlike the exhilarations and despairs and the ones in between that are the peaks and valleys that we all experience in the ever moving world of our lives. Then there are the enduring emotions that have found root within me and like a determined will cannot be extinguished on their own. It is important , not only for me, but for everyone to understand this distinction. Until I did I could not make sense of my feelings and certainly did not have a clue as to how to "handle" them. Now the process is quite clear, I let my emotions come and go as they will and the ones that stay I appreciate, despite whether they are happy or painful. Like all things I learn in life, I am able to compartmentalize where necessary and move on into new experiences. The permanent emotions endure with me in my life, the best example is love and how deep that can effect the human experience. The temporary emotions of excitement and disappointment come and go with time, their remembrance of lesser importance. By knowing the difference, I gain that little bit of wisdom toward knowing myself and how I move forward into time and space. I kind of chuckle at myself sometimes, since I reflect myself out as a Car, instead of a as Carl. I see myself as a machine with feelings, my brain is my computer and my heart is my soul, an odd perception maybe but it does help me cope with the vast unknown of this existence. By distinguishing between the emotions that I have through logic I am better able to feel my life in a less chaotic way.

Once more up and at them (#866)

The daily grind, or better yet the constant upheaval of time and the motions within it. It seems that once logic has hit it's end-game another rationale for it changes it's purpose. There is the illusion of an end-game, but in reality there is no stopping anything. The continuing battle for the correct or right thoughts are in stark contradiction with other factors. Simplicity is an illusion as behind every perfect thought is a multitude of struggles for something else. I am cynical at times when I see hope expressed in thought and dashed in action. I persevere though because another attempt at correct or right is my force of will. I am like the dog who won't let go of the bone. Anything worth having is obviously not easy to make happen. Although it should be! I often talk on this blog about compassion and curiosity as my two main forces of natural instinct. In a lesser sense, but no less important is my will to survive. Within this will to survive is my consistent endurance. My drive to continue what I instinctively know to be correct and my conscious awareness of what I have reasoned to be correct come as a result of my survival instinct. I do not know the logic of quiting. I know the logic of strategy but not quiting. It is why I can get up anew every day and look at all the ulterior and blatantly exposed manipulations to force logic into another sense of illogic. That is my battle, to maintain the clear line between thought and action without losing the virtue that binds them. The disconnect and purposeful confusion that trades in constantly forwarding motivations devoid of virtue, notwithstanding, I still get up and challenge, to the best of my abilities, those illogic premises and conclusions. It would be nice, one day, to wake up to the genius of the human race and all the glory that would entail.

I refuse to submit to mediocrity (#865)

The line in the sand has been drawn. I will not cross it nor will I allow it to be crossed without me putting everything I have into stopping it. This is what standing up for principles is like. There is a decision made and a decision kept. It is one thing to spout off virtue it is another thing to put your self up as a defense for it. The value of life is measured by our thoughts and actions in combination. We all have crazy and inappropriate thoughts from time to time because we let ourselves be subjected to irrational concepts. Nothing new here but it is what we do with those thoughts when they come into our consciousness. Do we dispose of them and move onto other thoughts or do we languish in them daydreaming their possibilities? Again, line in the sand. The determination to be disciplined in thought and then combined into action is my goal. I know that, in the elevating of my being to greater principles of living, is where I find the magic of fulfillment. As a child who must start at the beginning of life and learning, I am also reduced to the same formula as I move through life. Each day I build upon what I have learned and experienced to better understand what the perception of reality can be. Yes, reality is a fluid concept, ever changing as time moves and motion exists. I can foresee reality as a vision better than tell you what the nature of reality is in real time. it is not for me to define or describe what your experiences and thoughts are but I can describe how I question myself. Do my thoughts and actions rise up to a level worthy of remembering? Can I justify my actions with principles that do our species proud? Have I advanced society on any meaningful level? During those moments when I am the best I am able to be is when I feel the greatest strength of what it is to be truly human.

Our future horizons (#864)

Our actions must further our ideals. Our ideals must stem from more than just the status-quo. We need to define a future we are striving toward. In my ideal future we are conquering physics with more than a motivation based upon wealth, we are conquering physics with a passion based upon our own species survival. I am not saying we are in imminent danger of extinction, what I am saying is that we need to think like we are. I say this because we have no control over the greater environment we exist in. At any moment an earthquake, volcanic eruption or some other universal anomaly of a significant proportion could cause such damage to our planet that our very existence could be in jeopardy. I have always been one of those guys who plans for the worst but hopes for the best. Somehow that suits me perfectly. What this mindset that I have adopted also does is clear my mind of trivial irrelevancies and focuses me on the importance of marshaling our resources, both animate and inanimate, toward a life beyond our Earth. We need more than selfish motivation to move all together, we need a sense of shared sacrifice to do it, all of us. A sharpening of our perspectives toward prioritization. We have survived and gotten to a point in our evolution where we have a firm foundation of knowledge we can grow from. What we need now is a resolve to implement a process that enables us all to share in it. The current chaos of selfish driven advancements has reached it's end time and the new era of the shared knowledge and advancement into outer space is here. We would be foolish if we choose to ignore our opportunities, based upon foresight, without fighting for them. Our new era will not come about on it's own, we must sound the clarion call for all to hear and make known our hope for the future.

The dignity of the human (#863)

I ended yesterday's post with a vision yet shared, namely mine, of how I hope to see the future. It begins with all of us respecting human life and working to advance our human interactions toward those of being family. The distinction escapes when we are able to think that some are okay and others are not. How is it that we think we have the wherewithall to decide based upon ego? We don't have that insightful ability to segregate each other as to our whims and delights. The true sense of humility has not been inculcated into our learning from the day we are born. That needs to change. The family and larger community values we know of nurturing need to be our highest priority. In other words, all of us are little pieces of a huge puzzle, none too important but all necessary to allow for a complete picture. Our future begins with us respecting each other with the same respect for all. Another part of this requires us to value opportunity greater than we value our own selfishness. When all of us are given equal opportunities to be of service to each other we then find those who are truly "wired" for that experience. Some of us are better at things than others, and some of us who are not better at some things are better at other things still. We each need to find our niche. We must operate a society that values openness to all opportunities without restriction of any kind. A free and open society available to every citizen to become a part of. This will shift the previous model of economics toward being a tool for life and not the definer of life. Economics has traditionally been a paradigm used to initially supply commodities to people and as an "ethic" to keep us busy in our lives. We need more than just to be busy, we need to learn from our tremendous knowledge base and continue to expand it, while making economics work as a tool for elevating every human out of poverty and into hope for equal opportunity. Tomorrow I will continue with more of my vision for the future.

A vision of our future (#862)

I listen to a lot of people talk about current policies they like or don't like and how we would be much better off if one thing happened or another. The world is full of ideas about what to do or not to do next. What I don't hear is the reason for their thinking the way that they do. Sometimes I wonder if that is a secret they wish not to share or that they have no vision of what our society in the ideal should look like. Regardless, I hear little to nothing on the end result just a lot about the means to get somewhere to get somewhere else without a destination. I know life is about change but to just change without having a destination is like a dog chasing it's tail, lots of action but no result. Is it that hard to know what our visions of what our future would like? Why is that we can only describe what we think is right in terms of what is right in front of our faces instead of what is down the road a piece. Again, I suppose it is either that we are not wanting others to know the difficulties associated with our policies and the form they will become or that we have no clue and are doing only that which we have been programmed to think about how life in the immediate should be. I am one of those "long-view" types and the policies I hope we employ, will help to bring my hope around. Sometimes it is a simple as always doing the right and kind thing, you know, being helpful, being as selfless as possible, smiling at everyone with a genuine wish that it brightens their day. You know the things that we can do that no one else can stop us from doing. But just as important as those things is having a view of what our society should mean and present to all the new generations that follow us. I cannot go into much more detail here about that but in the next few blog posts I will try to present my vision of what we the human species should reflect back out to all the Universe.

Keeping a positive outlook (#861)

This is a subject I really work on. It isn't as hard as it used to be for me since I have changed the way I let myself think. Yes, I get to control what I think. I do not get to control what comes into my head but I get to dismiss it immediately if it is negative or wrong. By keeping the positive things in my head and thinking about them, I become positive through that experience. Not all the time but far more now than in the past. Also, a good piece of advice that I use, is to discipline myself to focus on the here and right now instead of letting myself daydream about the past or to future-trip. There are enough individuals in our society who cannot help themselves in being negative doom-sayers. I choose not to be one of those people. My nature is to discover and learn, which being in a positive mode, helps me to be better at it. The other benefit, outside of being pleasant to be around is that I get to experience lots of fun. There is much to be said about having fun and being happy. Life does not seem to be such a toiling, drudging, please don't make me do it thing. lol. Instead it is a pleasure to look forward toward. For me, life is an excitement that elevates my senses. I know that there are many wrong things in the world and I am diligent in my being aware, however, given that I am also in the world, what I reflect out from me is what I can control for the most part. Being positive and living in a positive way, is my contribution to our society and anything more I can add is a bonus. [I get to choose], is a human conceptual reality that has unlimited possibilities to transform into. By choosing to be positive about our world, I get to live a great life and help make our lives together that much better.

Our insufferable egos and fears (#860)

We are the only thing holding us back from being the enlightened species we were meant to be. If it isn't our wrongheaded egos, it is our fears about the unknown. The wide disparity in how we function with our mindsets is disturbing. If we are not scared we are invincible. What we should be is neither of these illusions. Life is a gift and no matter how many times I see us use it otherwise, it will always be so. The failure of many of us to take advantage of our curiosities to learn greater possibilities is coming back to harm us. If we are not lording over ourselves and others with a demigod personality then we are hiding in some sanctuary afraid of our own shadow. How can this dynamic be so popular in an existence so full of discovery? The frustration I am tempted to feel is not worth my efforts since it serves me and others no practical purpose. I do however reserve the right of life to speak out about it. Learning is not a hardship to be avoided at all costs, even to the point of defending archaic rationales. Our natural instincts are forcing us to be in a state of awareness and intuitive compilation. Our brains have the ability to logically analyze circumstance and actions within nature to help us understand the awesome ability to learn and reason out new dynamics and paradigms. I, for one, am in a place of taking and adding to the wealth of knowledge in my present and future. I am not hindered by concepts that restrain my boldness to find new and unknown ideas and quantifications. This is my life to be lived with the realities nature has supplied. If I choose to bind myself to conventions that ignore objective discovery then I am not fulfilling my natural instinct toward a curiosity built upon humility.

The importance of community (#859)

Togetherness is more important than aloneness. This may seem obvious but at this time in my life I rather prefer aloneness. However, my preference is not the control here and it is just a way of me isolating into a comfort zone where I don't have to be accountable to anyone, even to myself. As comfortable as this may make me feel it is wasteful on my part and speaks to a laziness I still have to confront. I know, through experience, that I get to grow as a human and actually feel better in my person when I am a part of something that includes others. It is in the "making an effort" that I get to elevate my earnest curiosity into an experience. I find that when I give opportunities that come my way a chance to become events I change not only my self-introspection but my outlook on the world around me. I do enjoy a word Shakespeare used in a play I saw. The word being, whirligig, it does describe life when all of us are active within it. A whirligig of motion, much like an orchestrated event with no clear meaning. But within that magical motion is a harmony of activity that allows for new insights and concepts. I need the community of us to be in my life more so than I need the sublimity of aloneness. There is a symbiotic relationship I feel I must maintain in order for the community to remain in existence. I must be a part as well and offer what I have to strengthen and grow our community as it requires. As I nurture and grow my responsibilities within the community I, in effect, preserve what nurture I receive from the community. It is like a bank in a way, I contribute to the whole while also receiving from the whole when needed. What are the real values in life? For me, they are interactions with life that bring newness to my mind and heart.

The discipline of truth (#858)

If you are going to speak it be prepared to live it. Seems simple but since I have such a short term memory at times it is a task of high difficulty. But like all things I put to logic, there is a solution for me. I change my thought pattern, what you say? Yes, when thoughts come into my head that are not positive or helpful, I dismiss them quickly. If I allowed temptation to linger in my mind I would eventually succumb to it/them. I know this through experience, my own. So by changing my thoughts through filtering them as they arrive, I allow myself the opportunity to change my behavior as well. This is my form of discipline. Practice over and over again until habit is formed. This helps offset my short term memory on some subjects. I was not born an intellectual by any stretch and I have not arrived at a higher plane of reasoning yet either. However, controlling the things that are my own reality is what I can do reasonably well. My reality is the truth of me and being aware of what that truth will be is my greatest occupation. I cannot abide anything less than an honesty about my life and the circumstances surrounding my life. I am not able to abdicate reasoning to others for the sake of my own whimsical ego. I have to be disciplined in the ever present thoughts and actions that guide me in existence. It is a somewhat complete reversal from how I used to think of my presence here in existence. I had the ego-maniacal pretension to assume I was special beyond all others despite all evidence to the contrary. Denial was my tool to help me maintain the illusion of my undeserving greatness. The hubris of youth exponentially mastered by an egoist. I have moved on from those headstrong youthful days to a reality that truly represents humility in the fact that I am fortunate to be in existence through no effort of my own. The truth of reality and constantly being in the present moment have liberated me to just exist and try to make a positive difference.

Hope and it's meaning (#857)

What is hope? I am alive and conscious about the world around me. I also think and sense with my mind and my body. Given that I do these things it is reasonable to assume that I have thoughts and sensations that are both reasonably expected and some that are not. It is these that are not reasonably expected that fall into the hope category for me. As I move along in existence my ability to understand and live within complexity grows. Because of that, I start to believe that some things out of the ordinary may happen. Certainly I am conscious of the possibilities being rare, however, my concept on that is that if it can happen then why not? Of course I am constantly aware that hope is a sought after dynamic with a small degree of probability. So the hope that I have for whatever event or outcome is always tempered with the rationale that it happening would be slightly less than miraculous. It is amazing though that with time and energy, mixed with knowledge and experience, the hope of some of my desires actually have a greater chance of happening. You have just gotten an insight into one of my motivations for living. the chance that a hope of mine may occur is worthy of my working at it with a zest for living. It is really simple for me, in that I must keep it that way, I must remain optimistic about my life or the alternative is unthinkable. So therefore, working toward making a hope come true is noble, honorable and an occupation worthy of my own doing. I do not hope for things that are less than honorable on all levels, which by the way is how I am wired, because being selfish or greedy does not sit at all with me. So hope is a paradigm of possibilities that if to come true would be wonderful and fulfilling to this one human being trying to find all the beauty that exists.

Information concerning our society is the key (#856)

Why do we need to be informed? What information do we need to know? How accurate is the information? It hardly seems worth it to navigate these questions I posed. Isn't it easier to just let our friends and politicians tell us what to do so that we can be focused on other things? Surely that is what is happening now and why we are in such a political/economic/social mess. If you can say that there is not enough time in your day to learn about the society you live in then something is wrong. If you have to work too much and have no time to learn or if you just choose to spend your time on other things instead of learning then that is indicative that our society is not aligned correctly. Our priorities have become skewed. Our society needs to have full citizen participation. We are not children our whole lives who need to be dictated to about what is good for us. We must all input our suggestions about what is good for us. None of us get a pass. It is a requirement of all citizens to be engaged in the democratic process. That includes everyone voting every time there is an election. It amazes me that half of our population will not vote when every decision has an effect on the quality of our lives. The time has come to end passe participation in our society. Once that decision has been made then the process of understanding becomes critical. It can be overwhelming trying to figure out what policies mean to us now and in the future but just learning one thing at a time will eventually make us smarter overall. We must start now and keep learning until we have an idea about what is good for our society based upon our human nature. Defining our human nature is easy, since we get to decide what that is and not what we are told it is. My nature is positive, enlightened through curiosity and compassionate, what is yours? This is where we start!

There is nothing new under the sun-Solomon (#855)

I have caught myself saying this phrase many times recently. I do not intend or pre-think it, it just comes to my mind. That, instinctive thought, is always a good indicator to me that it is a correct reaction to a common theme. However I do check the premise but it is usually dead on. I say all of this in preface of what we all struggle with, our deepest secrets. You know the one(s) that we pledge to ourselves that we will never reveal! Again, there is nothing new under the sun. Anything that I have ever done has already been done in some way, shape or form by many others. I am not unique when it comes to thoughts or acts that are embarrassing or guilt filled. The same goes for the ego, I might have done something I consider a formidable accomplishment. I find comfort in that saying of me not being rare or special. I find that accepting that I am just like everyone else and the difference in our different alikeness is in how hard I work at being the best me possible. Our human complexity when it comes to rationalizing our own destinies has many layers of enigmatic paradox's. We are simple yet we are complex. We are singular yet we are multiple. All at the same time. Yet as each of us fights our daily battle to find normalcy, we have underlying conflicts that force us to defensive postures. Everyday I fight the paradigm of maintaining my individualness within a society structured on community. How I grow in life is usually through trial and error and as such I leave myself open to interpretation by others when my errors are most unworthy. thus the need to hide mistakes and judgments that would otherwise be shameful or guilt ridden. this is not a new phenomena and although it is personal to me it is widely felt by every soul at some time in all of our lives. My point here is that we are all okay and even when our secrets have painful memories they do not exist alone. There really is nothing new under the sun.

We must fight to maintain liberty, freedom, equality and justice (#854)

It is right and just to go on offense when defending the concepts of liberty, freedom, equality and justice. There is no dishonor in defeating forces that would take these basic human principles from any of us without our agreeing to it. I mention that as a way to define laws we impose on ourselves to keep society free of intentional harm. I love peace and as such I have had to come to terms with fighting to maintain peace. Peace cannot be achieved by being peaceful only. Unfortunately, there are those who take advantage of goodwill to establish their own distorted sense of governing. It is a duality we must allow within us, to keep the peace we must and will fight. Ironic, isn't it? However, the necessity has been historically shown; and for us to believe we are beyond the reality of our own past is an illusion of failure. Until such time as all of us adhere to equality, freedom, liberty and justice as absolutes, we will continue to need to use force when needed to protect our honored principles. When we see our principles being attacked, in whatever form, we must stop what we are doing and take a stand against it. There is a time for all things and when the defending of our principles is before us we must act to protect them. Fear will visit us when we have to stand up for something, that is a fact. However, not standing up, because of fear, will not only bring more fear it will bring a sense of worthlessness similar to cowardice. The ideal that someone else will take the offensive in defending our principles is wrong-headed as well. All of us who live under the gift of a democracy that values these high principles in it's society, need to know that a duty is owed by all who enjoy it's benefit. The cost of that duty is to take a stand and fight against that which would threaten it.

Our enduring perseverance (#853)

This trait of perseverance is one I can attribute to our survival instinct. It has underlying connections to both compassion and curiosity to lesser extents but it's most primal nature is that instinct us animals all share, survival. I have seen it in most every human interaction as well as in the animal kingdom at large. To go even further, the Mollusk and the exoskeleton species project it as well since they, like us invertebrates, have survived since known time. There truly is a magnificence to being and fighting to remain alive. In that I find the preciousness that we all share. How simple to see that all of life is equal in the sharing of existence. With that simple understanding comes a peace that can be profound as well as justifying. We are all struggling to exist, and by all I also include the non-human species. There is a formula that has yet to be discovered that can and could be the key to why all of life is here on this planet at the same time. It is generally accepted that chaos is the reason for it but logic won't allow me to accept chaos as an answer. Therefore, for me, further understanding is required. Regardless of what the truth is of why all species on this planet have a will to survive, the mere fact of our shared instinct suggests to me a link we all have in common. We are all of the same family at large when we find our similarities. This is an evolved thought and does require us to see our planet as a whole and not as a territory that we occupy and defend. The advantage the human species has at this moment in time is that we still appreciate our reasoning and analyzing abilities. To maintain these reasoning and analyzing abilities we must treat our current leadership position in the species paradigm with reverence and innovative thought. It is what helps us to persevere into the future with the greatest chance of living in existence to our highest potential.

The courage of some (#852)

I am always impressed when I see or hear of someone who puts their emotions on their sleeve and defend or call out those who would cause harm. It is a trait most seen in the military where men and women put their lives on the line to defend each other and our way of life when threatened. Not so much here at home where the safety from imminent death is far removed. But when it does expose itself to the light of day and the real repercussions involve death and or physical injury, it shows that some of us have the fortitude to gamble remaining alive to highlight an injustice. I will not mention anyone alive in particular but I have witnessed the railing against powerful forces. Those who stand up like Dr. King did and put his life on the line everyday in order to correct or at least bring an injustice to our consciousnesses. Others, from our country to other countries, have stood up in courage, spoke up and paid for it with their lives. We should all be aware that there are still powerful forces out there that still define their existence by throttling the throat of real freedom and liberty. Many more will undoubtedly have to stand and fall for the sake of justice and honor. There is little doubt about that. It is to our species' eternal shame that in this time and age of intelligence and ingenuity we are still led by age old paradigms of greed and hate. Until the war on these less than human traits is fought to a final outcome, the few amongst us will continue to rise up and shout their objections to injustice and inevitably will face the harsh sentence of being silenced. I honor those who have given more than any human should have to give and in their wake others follow with a gratitude that will never be diminished and a purpose worthy of what the human species is really capable of accomplishing.