Only courage brings about great change (#1431)

I am sick and tired of fear being our solution for existence. Leadership requires hard truths and the courage to fight for those hard truths. There are those in power here in America who are going to hurt us one way or another, so the best way to ameliorate this coming pain is to let it happen and then punish those who caused it. Collaborating with them to lessen the pain is in essence acquiescing to more of the same. The best method for halting such brutish behavior is to let them own their actions and then exposing them for it. I know it is hard to let that happen but unless we are willing to root out the cancer in our ailing society, we will never be free from the effects it continues to pain us with, today and into other scenarios in the future. We must take our medicine and then let fate work it's conclusion. I have much faith in our species' ability to crush those things that harm us when they are exposed to the light of day. But to get to that point the measure of harm that is being challenged to us all must have it's day. We are unable to use the wisdom of logic and common sense prevention as cures so the next best thing is to give nothing to the harm causers and let them show their intent. If they follow through with their nefarious intent, then they own it, if they don't then they will be exposed as the cowards they are in their hearts and be dealt a penalty that unmasks and destroys the notion that less than honorable ulterior motives have a place in our progressing society. We are stuck with what we have in the body of illogical human representation for now, but as is always the case, "... somehow the arc of the moral universe does bend towards justice..."-Dr. King. 

Societal reclamation (#1430)

A do-over if you will. Things are just not working right. We all know it but it is myriad fears that are stopping us from changing much of our current state of affairs. We are trying, some of us, with protests and statements to that effect but the bulk of others of us are not seeing a vision for joining in. The problem is that we are part of the problem by our very existence within society. Which is not unnatural or dishonest, but real. It is what it is so to speak. By that I mean we are the cogs that have this dysfunctional machine moving and if we cogs quit doing our jobs all that we have or will have becomes at risk of losing. So we continue to work our parts in the generalized awkward and dystopian existence we know is wrong but cannot seem to rectify. The lack of our will is more than just ignorance and weakness, it is mostly fear, which has placed our mostly minimal comfort and security at a higher priority than courage and honor as guiding principles. We have bought into our own selfishness as a virtue instead of buying into our civilized rights and justice. We have given into giving individualism, the claim that survival of the fittest is the natural progression of our future, instead of community and family as our duty to protect. Many have isolated themselves within the privileged manipulations that abound in our current chaotic society and have blatantly called it their right above fairness and equality. The examples of illogical societal practice abound and until we mass of citizens are capable of fortifying our honor into principles of rational practice, we will continue to find ourselves ever less able to break the current yoke of dystopia and instead move toward an equitable utopia for all.  

We must face the consequences of our actions (#1429)

Whether we are discovered out by our actions or not, we must deal with them in a way that offers relief for our own conscious. There is a very real burden that is borne by not addressing those actions we have taken and are in guilt or remorse over. We must accept that we are not perfectly logical humans and our actions, at times, leave us with less than honorable outcomes. Our intent for the most part is to advance some desired objectives, however those objectives often become greater than the correct process to fulfill them. Hence we are left with the very real knowledge that we have harmed someone or something in some way. Guilt for those of us with a conscious and for the rest , psychopaths and sociopaths, there is nothing. Most of us though are aware of our own failings even if others are not aware of our failings. We must not dispose of our guilt through dismissal of them since no one else is aware, we must instead find a way to recognize our failings and incorporate that knowledge into improving our character and our judgments against others. Truth really is the great liberator in life. When we remain in truth there is little to nothing that can upset our search for happiness. However, when we let the truth devolve into lies, we then begin our slide down deception and dishonesty as a foundation. And, as is mostly always the case, lies to lead to more lies until the lies are the abundance of our reality. Such is a despairing way to live, never knowing for sure which lie to use with whom. Life will always be more correct and easy to manage when we stick to the truth even when the truth abhors us. We are all quite capable of making tremendous mistakes but those of us who face our mistakes and commit them to the truth of who we are, are the ones who can move past them into a better life.

We must not compromise on sanity (#1428)

When we are asked to do something that has no sense attached to it in order to get what we need, we must not take that deal. It would be better for us to not get what we need than to agree on something that makes no sense. there are times in life when we must draw our line in the sand and vow not to cross it. Such times come whenever they do and regardless of inconvenience and real world tragedy, we must always show that we will not capitulate to the interests that undermine our progress. Surely we must proceed with caution when times are difficult to understand, however I am talking about deliberate sabotage as a strategy to impose some illogical concept toward our own undoing. We see this recently in our politics by one of the ever-decreasing political parties. However they have some leverage left and in a show of arrogance and bloviated tendencies, they propose their will when their will is not the majority. If they don't get their will they act as if destroying the progress of the last century is an option. Their sense of self-justification comes from their limited view that all should be like them and not what they are. A paternal/maternal ideology centered on one set of principles despite the absurdity of most of those principles. I like to refer to it as an insanity since the clinical definition escapes me. Since when do some believe that by morphing their illogical assumptions to fit the argument of the day is an answer instead of more confusion? Apparently it is today, and tomorrow and many recent yesterdays that our society has allowed irrationality to rise to the fore in the place of complex honorable statesmanship. The gravity of this moment is bound to what our future will look like and in that there can be no insane compromise.

The difference between choice and force (#1427)

These two terms don't naturally flow together and in fact they are very different options when situations arise that entail their usage. I am going to come at this from the perspective of the individual who has complexities in their life and can either choose to do something or is forced to do what others would have them do. We have many laws and regulations in our society that direct our behavior as a safety and security concern, however when it comes to individual choices concerning the welfare of our personal state of being and the freedom to do so is where we get into trouble. Forcing ones to do something based upon the morality of another is antithetical to free will and the enlightened natural state of consciousness. As a species, we have evolved to a point in our existence where the vast majority of us know that belief systems and the morality they embody are based upon choice not force. Attraction, not promotion like a self-help program eloquently points out. The same is with anything in life when complex thinking and mass populations are entwined in civilized society. There is no valid argument for forcing others to adhere when that force is not a choice but rather a sovereign demand. Again, I am not talking about rules and regulations we all mostly accept as necessary for our society to maintain safety and security in some balanced way, I am talking about personal choices that we all should be free to choose for ourselves. There are sub-codes of ethics and morays that we mostly use as guidelines but the freedom to experience life beyond those self-chosen restrictions by some should not be an anchor for those who do not choose those very same self-imposed restrictions. We are a melting pot of differences and until we realize that in all ways, freedom to choose and not be forced, continues to be under attack. 

Hope beyond hope (#1426)

I will be the last person to ever give up on hope even if it means nothing much ever happens for me beyond my own self. We all have wishes and dreams that someday may happen for us and to give into the sense that we should move away from them is disheartening. Therefore, I choose not to give in and to a fault not give up on my improbable desires. It is a privilege to even be in a position to want something nearly unattainable since improbable is much better than impossible. And if my will toward consistent effort in my wishes' direction are any indication of whether I actually succeed at them, then I like the odds regardless of whether they are logical. The reason being is that winning a long shot every now and then is not unheard of and each and every one of us knows that perseverance is our only real chance to succeed. It just gets so hard sometimes to chase a dream when I am always being thwarted. Yet, chase I continue to do, as I am stubborn about what I hope for and although I know I deserve not a wit, I continue to believe that we all have something special in this life as a purpose and our road to that purpose is paved with our wishes and hopes. What I have also learned is that sometimes our wishes and dreams are not what they initially appear to be. They often are tweaked a bit after some time has passed and in that tweaking a greater realization forms. The root of what I hope for is the goal, not the exact outcome I had planned. Funny that my best planning is humorous when the story of it is revealed. It is as if I didn't really understand what I hoped for beyond the initial ideal. This life is funny that way and what I do to carry on is not give up on that which I know is what makes me happy, regardless of it's final form.

A day to reflect (#1425)

For us here in America and other parts in the world, this is a great day to reflect on our values. We use this day to honor the Christian tradition but in reality we need to explore just exactly what that tradition embodies. I won't go into a list of examples for all of us have some idea about what is represented, however I will say that all of whatever we chose as our guiding examples they should be anatomically, honorable and heartfelt. The best of who we are should be our goal for not only today but from every day forward until the end of our species, or beyond. When words like magnificence are used I most always feel like they are cheapened by our own lack of knowing what true magnificence reveals. The sublime or more simply, the perfect is not something we see on any consistent basis but still it exists. Why we don't employ such circumstances in our lives that truly touch everyone in the best way is our lacking and our loss. We can do magnificent and perfect things yet we rarely choose to do that with any priority. Today is a good day to reflect on our priorities with a bit of meditation and consideration. Let me remind all of us once again, we get to choose our reality. Yes, we get to do that but it takes our will and our determination to put what is best about our species over and above what is better for ourselves. The two can go hand in hand but the first priority is our species and then the effect of that effort is what improves the world around ourselves. 

Mending fences (#1424)

A lot of life is like this, mending fences. It has occurred to me that most all of us spend the first part of our lives in some chaos and then the rest of our lives dealing with the aftermath of that chaos. Which is to say that we make mistakes that seem to follow us wherever we go. Nothing new under the sun here but that it is part of our lives is what needs to be recognized and dealt with. What I have found through some wise counsel is that when I forgive those who have made a mess within my life I often find that regardless of whether others forgive me of the messes I have made in their lives, I am well and good for being open and honest about my own mistakes. The mending of fences analogy starts with me and as long as I continue to find ways in which to be a better person and mitigate the mistakes of my past, my life is rewarded with a renewed sense of honor and decency that I had previously lost. No doubt, most of us are our own worst critics and for me that is absolutely true. I have to forgive myself long before I ask anyone else to forgive me. This is the protocol regardless of the varying degree of harm we may have done. The process is still the same. Find a way to forgive yourself and then give others a chance to forgive you as well. Life goes on and that we are imperfect souls should not stop us from trying to better ourselves. The older I get the more I see how petty I have been about less than obvious offenses that had been perpetrated against me. How so are the rest of at holding grudges or putting on the face of superiority when we are secretly or otherwise guilty of the same offenses or worse? Life is too short to be less than what we truly are, which is to say a work in progress that never ends while we live.

We all make a difference (#1423)

What will that difference be? Hard to know until we are done and then we can look back and see what our efforts have brought about. My favorite way of going through life is to keep my nose to the wheel so to say and then when it is time for some little break, I can then assess how things are going. But I know that if I keep to my best principles about equality, fairness and causing no harm, I will always be going in the direction that fulfills my purpose. This society of ours was built upon those before us who also put their efforts into being the best they could be without expecting some equal praise or glory. We must be who we are and I say we are curious and caring. All the other things that happen to us in this life are manifestations of what is good and bad about how we live within the incoherent structure of our current time. It is as if all should be able to awake on the same morning and just say this is ridiculous and start to do something different. All it takes from us is the will to change what is wrong toward something more right. By keeping my promise to myself to make this world better for the future I know I am on the right track, how about you? We must have a minimum level of existence for each and every one of us that relieves the fear and desperation that a majority of us feel every day. This is no way to live life, with a constant threat that we are just days away from losing all hope for just food, shelter and clothing. I am sick in my heart over this and embarrassed for our species. Let us begin to realize and effect the type of change for our species we all really would like to have for ourselves.

Trust yourself and then slowly trust others (#1422)

What we all seem to do is to evaluate others on what we do ourselves. We use ourselves as an example of what others will do. This is quite unfair in that many are not grounded enough in who they are to be able to evaluate how others will be. That is why it is so important to get to know who you are as a person and whether you have the decent qualities you expect from others, yourself. In my few years of trial and error on this planet I have found that who I am is really who I have been without realizing it. I was at the beginning of my life a hero-worshiping type person. I lost track of myself for many years and was lucky to have survived my ignorance. Yet here I am now back to being who I have always been and also ready to evaluate you on who you are as well based upon the thoughts and actions I employ. It is all I can do to keep some order in my life. I am not some zealous advocate for belief systems or dogmatic absolutisms, I am rather a pragmatic investigator who is open to the unknown. From that position I can accept possibilities that seem impossible without further evidence, but I don't rely upon them as factual. If you are of a scientific nature about all things, like we all inherently are, then you are closer to being like me and closer to being worthy of me trusting you in steps toward confidence. That is how I roll in life. I have found my path and in that I am very grateful. To those who are on entirely different paths, I can only hope for you success in your abilities to trust others as you would have them trust you. I don't get to make people see the world through my eyes but I do get to trust those in this world through my own eyes and always by trusting myself first.

The creative mind (#1421

Our solutions are not behind us, they are before us. We must choose to look into what can be to see how we live today, not backwards into what was. We use the past as a reminder of how we got to where we are now, but a a guide toward our future, the past is not. What we have is a fresh look at all that is around us and an opportunity to create. Certainly our opportunities are limited by actions and policies of the past, but breaking free from those less than honorable paradigms is part of the solution. We can not only move forward with modernity and enlightenment, but we can at the same time disavow any more connection to stifling and manipulated arbitrariness. Nothing in this world is easy to do so despite the difficulty of change, it is best when the change has a positive effect and not just more of the same mix of good and bad. We can do this as a society when we put down our own selfishness, in the form of ego, and just accept that reality is what is in front of us and not some idea born from fear. The intensity of our imaginings has got to be firmly within the grasp of our senses. We have for too long in our short history of human evolvement been captured to ideas that diminish our senses and instead promote the face of illusion. We have been asked and trained to accept theoretical concepts as fact and have governed on those same evaporative notions. Enough of the myths, mores and folklore of the past. We are the present form of our species, evolved to the point to understand and reason out logic without being mystified by irrationality, if we so chose. Our time is at our beck and call and with the creative mind we all possess, we can build a greater and more reflective existence based upon our naturally sensed abilities.

Doing great things despite resistance (#1420)

This post is about how I feel about those who have the power to change things that fundamentally give direction to our future. Not just picking around the edges to keep the status quo but effectively command a position of leadership through an honorable and decent vision. it seems that what I expect from our leaders and what they are showing are two dynamically different realities. The courage of one's conviction is not just some vague expression of defiance, it is actually standing up in the face of fear for all those who have been beaten down over time without a voice or the leverage to actually fight for what is right and good. At this time in our history of human evolvement we are at a crossroads with doing just enough to satisfy everyone a little bit and anger everyone a little bit or we can take what the majority will of the people here in America have expressed and put enlightenment to it. There are some simple but great changes that can be demanded by those who have the power to do so and that we are not seeing the truth of that in it's clarity is why I am writing this post today. I am confused as to why demonstrable courage is not being expressed by the majorities' elected leadership to advance equality, fairness, respect and decency into every aspect of our present and future policies. Surely the minority has bad intent instilled in many of it's objections but when bad intent is given a voice at the negotiating table we have all already lost. The voices of diminution should be kicked to the curb and if those diminutive voices thwart the present with calamity then bring calamity on for it is the quickest way for us to expose their treachery and put penalty and retribution to their actions.

When fear has it's way (#1419)

I haven't written on fear in quite some time so maybe today is a good time to revisit it and it's effect. Fear is a common reaction in a world that seems to be more chaotic than happy. The uncertainty of circumstances and possible outcomes continues to be a trade-off for the liberty we demand for ourselves. With liberty comes a price and it isn't always a pleasant price to pay. Horrible things happen to decent people just like wonderful things happen for despicable people. Such is the present nature of our society. That is the reality of our situations here in our country at this time. That fear will be present is no excuse to give into it. The only good that can come from fear is when we actually stand up to it and overcome it. We all fear for our lives and few of us are of the mindset to dangerously gamble with the ultimate sacrifice of our own life. Yet at times in our lives, we must prepare ourselves for just that possibility. The one thing that I have had continuously proven to me is that there are no guarantees or deserves when it comes an absolute protection of my right to live. We are asked to potentially sacrifice ourselves in the military for our country, we are involved in enterprises of both public and private natures that have inherent risk of life as part of their protocol. We have desperate and sick people in our society with the sanction of liberties we bestow upon ourselves using those liberties to harm themselves and others. Everything about our society is at times a great gamble and when we realize that  we then understand that life is either viewed with a sense of fear or a sense of courage. I do feel fear from time to time but my response is not to cower, it is to stand up and expect more from myself.

Catastrophe as motivation to act (#1418)

I long for the day when just the simple understanding of logic is enough to move policies forward that advance our civilization. We seem to be real good at listening to illogical rhetoric as a way to procrastinate on issues that beg for our clear minded attention. One of the real dangers of capitalism is that the individual ventures advance only their self interests without putting the greater good in a sovereign position. This is why we need to have capitalism work within a boundary so that the greater good is not abused in the name of someone's bottom line. That we have to absorb devastation as a means to an end is indicative of the trial and error phase of human evolvement, which should be a default position paradigm, only used when reason will not conclude an answer. Not the main process for us to rationalize certain necessities. It is my hope that common sense enlightenment may eventually underpin our motives and motivations in such a way as to foresee the errors in our society and advance away from those errors into solutions without having to wait for a catastrophe to awaken our common senses. I am no great thinker of our time but one thing I am is a person who would rather find logical solutions to problems before problems cause harm to a single soul. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is not some arbitrary abstract thought. It is an intellectual concept that has real effect and should be our sole foundation for initiating policies that protect and serve our citizenry. We cannot foresee many of our problems in this phase of our evolution as a species but we can foresee some and those we can foresee need our attention before another soul has to pay an ultimate price. 

What we value (#1417)

It seems that money has taken on the role of what we value. Certainly money is just the vehicle toward attainment, however the attainment of just what is becoming less clear. For many it is just the continual accumulation of money that is the goal not some principled purpose. I know how most of us feel, that if we have as much money as we can get we make ourselves immune to the ravages of the world that are unkind to those who have little to no money. So we begin to act out as animals, who try to get to safety and security with a mindset of selfish behavior over any sense of decent propriety. When the lust and greed of gaining wealth in immense amounts overcome our original purpose to attain it we find that we have become apart from our society in some lacking in compassion, demigod-like, stunted manner. What is it we value in life? For me it is not money or some other means to barter, it is the happiness I find in surviving in a world where I can be of some small service to not only others but to the future. I need to survive myself, however that is not based upon accumulation, it is rather based upon satisfying my own basic needs and maybe a modest hoped for want once in a while. So the real value in life is being with the rest of humanity and sharing in the smiles and laughter that can only be brought about by helping or being helped. A glad heart is the cure for all that ails us and getting to a glad heart cannot be bought with money, it must be received through the actions of giving. 

Being yourself (#1416)

Simple words but it is not always easy knowing who we are. There are complex issues out in the world that have good meaning on both extremes of thoughts and actions. We are asked to weigh which answer fits who we are. it is not just the answer we surmise that we must defend but it is the logic behind it. Sometimes that logic exposes us in ways that we wish not to be exposed. So then we further complicate our decisions based upon appearance and our place within our immediate and general society at large. This is the point I wish to make, that we should not be as protective of our superficial appearance as we are of our core principles. Whenever we do trade off denying ourselves as who we are for the comfort of who we are not, we effectively give over our will for a price. We show ourselves, if no one else can also see, that we are less than what we hoped we would be when we first established that we were free spirits capable of great ideals. We sacrifice our humanity for some prideful thing that in the big picture of happiness is an illusion. Remember, we are here in existence for only a short period, do we really want to waste it being ashamed of ourselves? All the great luxuries of life are not worth one moment of shame. I know it is easy for me to sit here at my computer keyboard and tell you that your goals and ambitions are not worth sacrificing some principles in the short term for some long term safety or security attainment. You would be mistaken to think so though, it is not easy, it is hard. To tell many that they need to quit scheming and manipulating when that is the price for what we call success, is hard. The current protocols and processes are in place and we are just using them like others have before us, but that does not make us right, good or most of all happy.  

The importance of community (#1415)

Too much effort is being forced upon we citizens to be separate from each other. One of our two main political parties has even made the drive for selfish individualism it's core policy. The problems that arise from unfettered liberty to do as one human may think is best based upon few restrictions always leads to harm for others. There is no scenario were one's freedom to do as they please does not constitute some harmful breach upon another. This is why we have laws and regulations. We need to better control human behavior within boundaries that diminish and even halt harm, not the other way around were advocacy for less law and regulation steep our culture in a cauldron of harmful chaos. Never in the history of humanity have we moved so far into civilized behavior and then advocated for less. There is a boiling issue in our politics about behavioral parameters and the only reason for it is based upon greed. Most of us accept the need for boundaries, otherwise our behavior left free to our own whims can and will destroy much around us. We are not yet evolved enough to be free from artificial restrictions. We are not gods who can always think and behave in ways that are perfect. It is why we have to parent ourselves with rules. Some take offense to this idea because of the wealth they have they see themselves as above our needed framework for society out of some delusional sense that they are greater than our species on whole. I am saddened by this illogical debate by the few who think we should be less communal in order to practice out of control individualism. I am also saddened by the desperate effects on those who have been cast aside by society because of this despicable pressure to neuter communal activities that lead to healthier lifestyles.

The worm is turning on Republicans (#1414)

Today's post is going to be directly political but of course it will, like most every post of mine, come back to our human condition. Republicans have assured themselves future irrelevant status by pursuing their current policies of class distinction and emotionless actions. Make no mistake about it, Republicans have not nor will they in the near present leave their mindset of Ayn Rand and survival of the fittest. Not just in economics but in all walks of life except when they deem it appropriate, as it affects them. While the national trend toward equality is on the move forward, the state level action on equality is lagging in many areas of our country. This is where most of the damage to forward progression of realizing equality, universally has done the most harm. What Republicans fail to recognize is that by creating an ever expanding lower and poor class of citizens they are disenfranchising a new generation of citizens who are not them. As their older more conservative base of believers die off they are not being replaced with anywhere near the number of their loss. On the contrary, they are instead creating new opposition citizens to their selfish and greedy policies. This is good for America in that those of us being wronged can see the hope of justice out into the near future but the harm being done now is real and should never be forgotten by history. The ideal that Republicans hold so dear is that we all should have to fight for what limited resources there are and that some who already have advantages and privileges should be able to retain those advantages and privileges despite the principle of fairness. It is wretched as a practice since most are left out of their pursuit of happiness by a few who think they know best.

Less representation and more personal involvement (#1413)

It seems that if we want something done we must all get involved for it to happen. As has been shown through our dysfunctional political system, representation can only do so much. Another problem with representation is that we individuals are left without while specific special interests get their way. I am all for specific special interests if they are actually the interests of the majority of us, however the specific special interests that do wield influence are not trying to uplift our comprehensive attempts to raise standards of living for all. They in fact are only focused on their own group interest and the rest of us can well accept that. Well, we will not accept that! We are the majority in society that find exclusion through collusion and cliquishness unacceptable. That many of our politicians have been relieved of their respect for all American citizens has become apparent, especially in the right wing. So the question thus becomes, what shall we do? We have been shown the way by actions taken in the past to progress our society. We petition our government to redress injustice, we learn the ramifications of the injustices done to us and advocate to any and all what must be done as a remedy, and most importantly, we forcefully resolve within ourselves our determination to vote. We are the ones who need to advance our society. We cannot leave it for just some to do since as we have seen the forces against the will of the people is powerful and manipulative. We are the change that our President has called us to be and in that we can and should sacrifice what little discomfort we may feel for the larger goal of advancing our society to where it should properly go.

False equivalencies with a misnomer (#1412)

Lately the notion in our economic and political atmosphere is a movement of action called "right to work". We all know that the right to work is a given in a capitalistic and democratic society so why would anyone frame an argument on a phrase we all already know is necessary and presently employed? It is because whenever action to change rules of existing practices is exposed as an overall negative, a positive spin on the nomenclature is the strategy. Such is the case in the "right to work" scheme. It only goes as deep as that, a superficiality for sure. When researching the effects of "right to work" laws are concluded, such as lowering of wages and decreased benefits, the truth of "right to work" laws is contained in the following link: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/report/2012/12/10/47554/michigan-right-to-work-bill-is-the-wrong-economics-for-the-middle-class/. As to why these laws are being proposed, the obvious effect is that unions will be dealt a blow to their ability to lobby on behalf of it's members while also weakening the unions right to get out voters at election time. Lowering wages for the workforce is also a tremendous motivator for the business owners and helps them increase their profits from lowered wages to employees, while they dismiss the facts of the lowered  living standards for their employees. Society should reflect our values not our sins. These types of attempts to deny progressive growth in our social, economical, political and scientific genres is abhorrent. The opposite should be happening, instead of fixing problems in our well founded delivery systems, the Republican party is hell-bent on destruction without replacing them. 

Keeping a comprehensive perspective (#1411)

This is where I live. Life would be just too cold and mechanical without some passion brewing within me. There are many things that get me stirred but none more that championing some injustice with a resolute solution. Often times I grow weary because the injustices are rooted and are difficult to cleanly extract, however the weariness is only fleeting and my will to live as who I have become always rises to the top. I look around me and see my own troubles but in the bigger picture my troubles would definitely be luxuries to many unfortunate souls. It is always proper and good to keep a comprehensive perspective about those things that obstruct our perfect paths. Not that any of us have perfect paths but if you are like me, you certainly do have perfect expectations. I care more than enough for myself but it is in the area of caring for the world around me that I need to expand. This is the necessity of seeing the big picture. To be able to see the big picture we must have enough knowledge about how things work and why they work the way they do in a general sense otherwise the big picture is just oh so much chaos and confusion. First, what I do for myself when I even think that I am getting or feeling bored, is to remind myself that boredom is reflective of being at peace. Secondly, I realize that I need to do something that interests me and what has always interested me is learning what I can about the things I don't know. It is too easy to pick up a book or turn on the Internet as a way to find new concepts and ideas. All of us should be champions of this world. We need to take as many turns as we can for as long as is needed until we can all sit back in the true sense of peace.

A purposeful life (#1410)

Certainly we were not born to be parts of a society whose only function it is to ignore any of our abilities. We have our senses and our imaginations. That gets us thinking about what we are actually doing and what we could be doing. That is just the foundation of where life should be lived. I have based this blog off of two natural instincts that I call compassion and curiosity, or in simpler terms, care and wonder. These two make up the majority of who we are. Yet, I also claim a third less advertised characteristic but no less important. That would be our will to survive, or our motivation to stay alive. Most all of us seem to cherish this animal instinct with a passion. It is also where I get my motivations for all that I do otherwise what is the point of being alive if we are not experiencing life without causing harm? This leads me too a philosopher, John Stuart  Mill, who I greatly admire for his laser focus on the principle of "doing no harm". If no harm is done to ourselves or others then life should have no restrictions as to thought and action. This simple concept of doing no harm gives us our foundation from where to live and where to start any activity or thought that may please us. It is from this platform that I allow my motivations to gather momentum. My motivations are clearly generations of my ideals and my purposes. They are are entwined in a whirligig of motion that are directly reflected in my human actions. It is not hard to know peace within yourself when you know from where to start all your thoughts and actions. Caring and wondering with a will to survive, these work perfectly for me and for that I am honored to be a human being.

Necessity, the mother of invention (#1409)

In the human experience this is an absolute. Whenever our species has had a need to progress and improve we have found a way. We are not a static species. What the proof is of my claim is that we can imagine. No matter what new or unknown concept has us perplexed we continue to find ways to confront and overcome them. It is natural for us, like our curiosity has exposed. Imagining is our link to progress, otherwise we would be still stumbling around with luck as our only tool for making life more interesting. That we can imagine is dynamic. It is the destiny of our species to take what we have and create from it. The paradigms of the past are not current for today's never ending merging generations. We simply apply the foundations of what is already known to what we think can become. As we work the research and development of new formulas and materials, entwined with theories and philosophies, we reckon out new methods for not only our ease and comfort in this existence but we are also progressing toward exploration of the great void around us. Stasis is only for rest and then off we go again. So when I hear people say that they want things to be like they were in the past, first, things were never like they think they were and second, the past cannot be attained, so anyone forwarding such nonsense is either unaware of the meaning of their own words or they are trying to sell something no one can have. We have only our present and our future so allowing ourselves to express our natures without causing harm to ourselves or others, is when we will be able to move through time in the most advantageous way. 

Remaining the sentinel (#1408)

Always on guard for those things that abhor modern sensibilities. It is a never ending dilemma that our civilization continues to thwart positive progress. We are a species of divided loyalty. At this present time, we seem unable to keep our twin goals of self and community in congruence. The difficulty lies with our determined approach to treat both interests separately when in fact they are both the same thing. A selfishness toward ourselves over the lives of all of us has infiltrated our psyches and has most of us out of balance in our living. What needs to be drawn on the chalkboards of our minds is that sacrifice by all brings in the best of who we are and how we live. We are not hoarders or psychopaths by nature, we are innocent in our beginnings and have lost the way. Surely the history and evolution of our species to where we are now has been less than proudly illustrative, yet we can change all of that by recognizing that we are as who we were first born. The children of hopes and dreams with the wide eyed expectations of all that is good. It is within all of our powers to be and to live in such an existence. We must demand it from ourselves and present it to others so that they can also demand it from themselves. That is why we cannot "retire" from life in some form of cocoon to whether the storms of the present and future. We must be constantly vigilant in our effort to help create an existence worthy of our first imaginings. All around us there is need for concern about the destitution and mayhem that has become acceptable to those who would think themselves honorable. Our impassioned principles must never subside when harm is prevalent and we have some considerations we can choose to demand.

Emotion and intellect (#1407)

That which is our most human quality is our emotion. We are thinkers for sure and that as well is a quality that is necessary for our species to survive, however it is not why we survive. We survive because we have a will to survive and married to that will is our caring. It is curious that we are able to sense and experience our caring from a bird's eye view and that is where our intellect comes in. First we survive through our emotion and all of it is recorded through our intellect. Now our intellect has also caused us to survive by creating strategies that help us thwart common and uncommon dangers. For the most part though, our emotion is the thread that weaves it's way through every aspect of our being. Recognizing that we exist because we care is the first foundation for our species to build from when we try to understand what a society of our greatest efficiency looks like. There are many ways our society can build it's evolving paradigms but first we must begin from our emotion. Now to say just emotion is not specific enough. Now that we can describe and communicate our emotions we must realize that a civilization based upon the honorable instincts of our emotions is the only great value. Doing no harm to each other prevails as the respectable and noble principle we all should practice. Anything less devalues what great achievement human beings' existence has progressed. What the future holds and why we exist are questions yet to be answered however, putting what is best about us to the fore in our lives is what we know we can and should do, those are answers within all of us waiting out time. Shall we wait no longer?

The ego of the mediocre (#1406)

So many times in my life have I been guilty of this. I have sounded and proclaimed insight and wisdom into varying circumstances only to be proven wrong more times than I wish to remember. I often wondered why I chose to act as if I was something far greater than what I was. If anything being mediocre was a step up for me because I thought all I had to do was put a few concepts together and I could somehow magically claim to be the genius in the crowd. My ego run amuck! Now we have certain folks who have gained positions of authority and their great feat is to act as if they are all knowing. it is disturbing to me now because I can spot them right off. They have the same incoherence to their pronouncements that I did. The ego is a cruel companion when left to it's devices. We all need a modicum amount of ego in order to help us to understand our possibilities but when ego has been given reign over such ideals that transcend normal reality, we are in for some large doses of humility if we are not already immune to humility. Ego can do that too, it can justify in our minds that despite any and all resistance we are right no matter reality or the logic we use in reality rebuts us with. Such is the domineering effect ego can have. That is why it is so important to remember that it is an honor to be elevated in the public and private spheres and to think that beyond our own initiatives and motivations we claim some superior manifestation of intellect is irrational. If anything most of us are really good in a few areas and in the rest we are novices. But don't tell that to the ego driven who have long ago sold their normal sanity to a form of glorified narcissism that only exists in illusion.

Threading the needle (#1405)

How long does it take us to understand the world we live in? For many it never happens in their lifetime. They only get some of the picture and are just content to be confused about that which they don't understand. It is not from being able to comprehend how our society works, it is from some, a strategy of deliberate inaction on their part to make a society that helps all of it's citizens reach a threshold of knowing how the fundamentals of how our society operates. I believe it is because there are advantages for some and those advantages can lead to greater wealth and security. The fear underlining the advantages are enough impetus for those who have advantages to protect them for themselves. They also do not see the big picture of understanding our world. They know privilege and economic abundance but they do not know the simple joys of honor and selflessness. I am all for building things that create progressive opportunities, but these opportunities, while rewarding the creators, must also uplift and grow our world around us, including the ones who process the progressive opportunities. We are all human. We live in a world that provides sensory compilation. We have in common our five sensory retrieval modes, hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling. While we are also gifted with a mind, a mental processing laboratory, able to synthesize the sensed information with alacrity. We are not here for inanimate glorification, on the contrary, we are here to explore and experience our senses within the confines of doing no harm.

We humans have always built upon our past (#1404)

None of us come into this world with knowledge. We accumulate it over the time of our lives. What we learn and understand has been recorded and all we have to do is continue to draw from the knowledge that has preceded us. We add new concepts and proofs as we all continue the human existence but none of us has been able to live life without taking knowledge that has already been established. We all owe our current intellectual condition to those who have passed into death before us. We are amazing that way. We are a progressive species, able to slowly and steadily build from the simple into the complex. No one knows who the next creative mind will be until it happens but rest assured, it will happen. With as many humans as we have on this planet, we have sufficient individuals who will have a perspective unique to creating new paradigms. None of us is a creator unto his or her own. We have all striven to build what we can on the shoulders of those who built upon the shoulders of those before them. For any of us to think that we are, individually, of some greater order than many who have and/or do exist is an egoistic delusion. I am so proud to be a part of this grand reasoned, biological experiment. I am also forthright enough to understand that I have been gifted with knowledge that those before me contemplated and surmised into existence. I am only a link in the chain of life and doing my part without causing to become a demigod is perfectly normal and sufficient for the boundaries of a beautiful and happy life.

Share or be selfish (#1403)

Seems that we have our two opposite ends of the continuum. Therefore we all fall somewhere in between. None of us is so extreme that we are neither one nor the other, we are mixtures of both. If that is the case then my argument is that we should be more sharing than selfish. Why? First, because there are few resources for everyone to be completely satisfied in selfishness. There just are not enough of everything to go around, unless we share and then we will still not have enough. But at least we will be doing our best since we cannot create our own realities while we all exist in the same one. The argument for not sharing and instead being selfish is that somehow a concept of deserves comes into play based upon our previous history in all paradigms of human interaction. We fall back on the model of competitiveness, motivations and ego in order to justify that we deserve while others don't. Obviously this is a simple answering in our minds when the truth of it is that the complexity is beyond our own disinterested attempts at rationale. To find selfishness acceptable we must keep ourselves linked to the survival of the fittest meme and all of it's pernicious outcomes. Certainly we have evolved from crude animal behavior when we were unable to reason with consistency. We attacked in order to survive as a life being. That is no longer the case in our present evolution. We don't need to assess each other as resources to be used. We can now reason together in order to find commonalities and build upon those. The concept of sharing is reasonable since would any of us in our hearts of hearts declare that some human beings are less a human species than another? Are we capable of accepting all members of our species as equal? Yes, and sharing what we have justifies that and creates a new history for us to follow.

Where I find happiness (#1402)

Contrary to some who say that happiness is self evident when it appears, I think not so much. What is most intriguing is that happiness does not come in the form of happiness. For me, happiness appears in some form of distress or uncomfortableness. Often, and in most cases, happiness is a byproduct of something that starts out as inconvenient or requiring me to sacrifice in some way. Funny how that works for others and myself. The theory works like this, you must first give in order to receive. Now I am talking specifically about happiness. For other hoped for pursuits the combination varies. I suspect though that the formula of giving to get generally works across all paradigms. So when I am challenged by circumstances that initially I see as fruitless or of no good outcome, I change my intent to see if I can produce a positive outcome. What I have found is that my mind has been opened up to conclusions beyond my own initial reasoning. It is like I have found complexity where I presumed only simplicity resided. this is just another example of the awesomeness of this existence. Just when I begin to fall into a pattern of self confidence, I find that I need more work on what I can rightly assume is right and correct. In other words life keeps humbling me but in that humbling process I actually find happiness because I get to give of myself and the reward for doing so is satisfyingly priceless. What I can say here is that we are not who we think we are, we are what we do that distinguishes us in honorable ways to ourselves. And in that honorable doing is where we find the secret to unlimited happiness.

Eager or exhausted? (#1401)

A little of both but mostly exhausted. My days bring a lot of hope and promise in my mind but my physicality has been worn down. As fresh as my mind is when I wake up there is still the lingering physical and mental effects of the previous days efforts. I will presume to generalize about all of us in that we seem to do so much during our days that there is little time in our resting to overcome the difference between recharging and just maintaining. We have been inculcated through our societies to push and strive with endless competitive spirit that we have little left over for just the simple quiet stillness needed to reinvigorate. There is always something to do whether we need to do or cannot sit still long enough and instead make things up to do. It is part of how we are conditioned. There is value in all things if we look hard enough for it and for that we are fortunate. However, time will take it's toll and besides, those things we do are at the expense of other things we don't do. For me it is important to understand a personal life purpose for myself. I have my public and societal purpose but I also have my personal purpose and when they are in conflict I must decide which carries the heavier burden. I must keep myself fit and rational if anything important is to emerge from me. What I am finding is that spending at least half an hour just staring out into a pleasant space is like many hours of sleep. it changes my perspective on many levels while allowing my body to just be still. It is a lot like being patient, something for me that needs to be practiced since not being patient has been my previous behavior. 

Another milestone (#1400)

Numbers are just a method for signifying amounts, times, dates, etcetera. But they do have a way of infiltrating our emotions as well. Take for example our birthdays and anniversaries. Numbers can change our attitudes and offer opportunities for us to remember. Such is a day for me today. Nothing too special but significant to me. This is my 1400th blog post. I would say consecutive blog post but there were 3 days in which I was did not post a subject. I did however post 2 blog subjects on the very next day, 3 times, to keep my total up with the one blog per day since the first day I started, January 31, 2009. Regardless of those 3 missed days, I have had a real satisfying feeling whenever I reach a 100 level of blog posts. I guess I am just happy that I have found a forum for expressing my thoughts on varied subjects as they strike me. It is satisfying as well that I don't just let my thoughts go into the ether without spending some time recognizing them. More that anything, whenever I reach a personal milestone like this it reminds me that I have committed to something that isn't always a comfort to accomplish. Sometimes I just have very little to say but when I start typing a thought it amazes me where it leads me. I do try to keep the words down to between 250 and 350 and so far I have been able to generalize and specify within those limits. Not all of my blog posts leave me feeling like I have done something useful but they do leave me with the knowledge that I have given what I have and that is all I can expect from myself. Tomorrow will be just another day but for today I am well satisfied that I have moved closer to whatever limit I may reach. :)

Our human destiny (#1399)

What is our purpose as humans? What is it that makes us worthy of surviving in this existence? Is it our brute force? Is it our kill or be killed fear? If all we were supposed to be is an agile low intelligent animal then we would still be that! Instead we have evolved into a species that has changed what is known about the past into a future with tremendous possibility. We are on the verge of mastering our surroundings and that includes the space around our planet. That we have evolved speaks to our abilities beyond physical force. It speaks to our curious minds and what our minds are capable of. We have learned and stored knowledge in our minds much like the memory of a computer. Not nearly as efficient as a computer, yet we did create the computer so that our minds are free to create new thoughts without the actual burden of having our minds full of facts and figures. We keep those facts and figures at our fingertips in the form of the Internet as a library. Our minds are freed up to concoct new horizons, to improve what is still an awful manifestation of humanity. We are shedding the ways of the past that had served to bring us out of the dark ages of building a civilized society and now we are entering a new phase where all human life in it's glory can have a rational and reasonable expectation of happy pursuits. We humans are in place to move beyond our own selfish ambitions toward laying a foundation that settles our own society into a model for behavior which then allows us to propel ourselves out into the unknown that still surrounds us. We have evolved into a mighty force and with the understanding of our purpose on whole, to care and to wonder, we will continue our evolution into the millenniums yet lived.

Common courtesy (#1398)

This is where we all need to stop with the game playing and just acknowledge each other like we want to be acknowledged ourselves. The cynical outlook most of us have incorporated into our lives is slowly killing off any happiness we may find in this world. Being smart about how we interact is always a priority but not to the point of exclusion through strategy. We are human and none of us is in any way more or less human than anyone else. Our behaviors may vary but not because we are genetically engineered differently, it is because we come from different environments and we are differently inculcated. We must relearn how to overcome such changeable attitudes and actions through being thorough in our welcomes and our by your leaves. Respect is what we need to display and not just the kind that resides on the surface but deep down where our hearts are. We are all guilty of cynicism because we all have been manipulated when giving our trust and have had it most seriously abused. Nothing like that ever feels good and so we throw up protective barriers so that it won't happen again. Yet it is the barriers that separate us from who we should be and who we should become. We are all amazing, all of us. Some are more expressive and reflective of our amazing talents and others are far more subtle and introverted about theirs. No one should ever doubt that we all have some particular talent that is to be admired and respected with at least a minimum of common courtesy. Life has been unkind to far too many and that unkindness has embittered both the givers of the unkindness and the receivers of the unkindness, however, we need to stop with the past mistakes and each of us in our own way need to begin to smile and see the world as what it truly is, a gift.

Building a new society (#1397)

We now have the technology and innovative processes to be able to redesign how our society functions. We have all the components in place to continue to supply information and intelligence on a vast scale to effectively be able to discard old institutional thinking. What I am saying here is that the previous engines of greed and fear or no longer necessary to build a society. We have amazing capabilities now to feed, clothe, shelter and transport our citizens of not only our own country but of the world. We can now initiate sound health practices to prevent our population from knowable maladies whilst also controlling our birth in order to maximize the logistics of eliminating poverty. We have moved into the enlightenment of our surroundings with such measure as to realize that although we come from different parts of the Earth we are all of us still human beings with too many more similarities than differences. The old paradigms of greed and fear have served a mixed bag of purposes and arguments for their continuance have become obsolete. We are greater together than apart and once we all find our way to each other without the negativism that has stirred among us for all of our history, we will prove it. We all have a duty to survive and if surviving is the only purpose then we have achieved that but we are much more than creatures who survive. We are curious and we care about people, places and things. As we continue to evolve as a species in this existential environment, we should now begin our reevaluation of how we move forward into our and our children's bold futures.

Strength should be quiet until needed (#1396)

Those that have to display power as a means to rectify wrong are using their strength correctly. A sort of reserved approach to strength's force. We all have an inner strength that is at times a glorious thing to experience. I try to respect everyone's right to freedom but when their freedom intersects and diminishes mine, I am one solid buttress against it. I hold that power beneath how I reflect myself out to the world. I don't need to show my strength to anyone until it is needed. There are those who feel that if they don't express their strength as a strategy then they are not worthy of respect. That is one hundred percent backwards to expressing their worth. Those who do show their strength are the driven types of people who bully and coerce with the threat of duress. That does not show courage or strength, instead it shows weakness and cowardice. The balance between expressing strength and reserving it is subtle but distinguishable. When harm or denial of basic right is being advanced then the time for girding up one's strength is appropriate. When selfishness and or an illusory greedy gain is the goal then quite obviously using strength to achieve that is inappropriate. Not everything is perfectly distinguishable however most all things have a conscious component that allows us the ability to understand our actions. We must not allow ourselves the option to ignore how and when we use our will's power when experiencing life. We have a duty to our society, we have a duty to our families and friends and we ultimately have a duty to our own sense of right and wrong, to only unleash our strength only when it is rightly regarded by those who are affected by it's application. Respect through strength will never be earned through strategies that harm. The only way to respectfully use our strength, as a force for good, is to reserve our power until it is needed. 

To be loved and then to be right (#1395)

Once we have found someone who loves us unconditionally, within acceptable boundaries lol., then we need to have a purpose. Certainly we can have a purpose without being loved but who would want that? We are a duo entity. We have emotion and we have intellect. Having both of them as our main priorities should be all of our goals. It is my opinion, and opinion for myself only, that finding and settling into a loving personal relationship is the greatest priority. There is something calming and fulfilling about sharing love with one who shares love with you. It sets the foundation for everything else that follows and the most important thing that follows is learning and understanding. Not only about ourselves, within the love relationship, but also outside that about what is good and right about our world. The best of outcomes for the rightness of things is when there is no downside or negative impact on others. A happy world to reflect the inner happiness we hopefully find in our personal relationship. We cannot all find our process of finding love and then applying ourselves to doing good in the world in that order. Some of us must muddle through life with the hope or expectation that love will find us regardless of the time that has already passed. We must keep a vigil for the hope and ride out the present with the thought that an intimate happiness is just around the corner. We all deserve a shot at finding the warmth and caring of being loved and we all deserve a shot at doing in the world the things that are right and good. Life is very simply understood when we find our priorities align with a shared personal contentment along with heroic behavior.

Levels of expectations (#1394)

Their are subtle differences in what I expect of myself and much less from others. I demand from myself certain thoughts and actions as related to my personal health and welfare. We all have some level of expectation as to how we think and act in life. Those are fundamental and don't need much explanation. However the extraneous aspects of my life get a little trickier. Let's start with my level of comfort. I hope to live a life that offers me some basic conveniences like good transportation and actual relaxing living spaces. I also hope for decent attire and healthy food. Like most things of this nature I have some expectation but not to the point that I demand that they exist to the point of recklessness. I place things in motion around me that does seem to help me attain some sense of my proper propriety. As I have gotten older I have been fortunate to live in a country that has opportunities, albeit limited in our current economic climate, that allow for different pathways toward keeping my expectations somewhat hopeful. Then there are the expectations of what a happy life life should look like. I have no control over those things except to participate as a happy person. I have wants and desires that go beyond foundational needs, yet I live to level of what my expectations can properly and rationally achieve. I do not lose sleep over circumstances that don't rise to a hoped for expectation because I have not staked or placed myself into some type of jeopardy regardless of outcome. I get what comes to me and I am thankful for it's appearance. My happiness is not dependent upon an outcome, my happiness is only dependent upon how I shape my outlook.

Greed is not the true motivation (#1393)

This is the problem of our species. We have been told that we can only advance into technology and innovation through processes that are built upon greed. Competition against one another is accepted as the true means for creating better outcomes. I happen to think that we are all curious enough about what is going on around us as motivation enough. I like to learn and put to action new ideas because it is the right thing to do, not the most profitable. It is an illogical assumption to begin an advocating argument with deciding that our society, must be organized around how much we can attain for ourselves, as the only possible pathway. It is incredulous to me that people out in the world cannot grasp the concept that segregating and classifying our lives by how much treasure we can attain from each other is antithetical to enlightenment. We, as a species, like to think we are enlightened but our defense of the reasoning, analysis and conclusions as to how our society functions disproves that notion. We cannibalize our best intentions with the urges and desires of our ancient baser animal instincts that are inculcated with whims of being a demigod. The psychological mess we live in does accurately reflect back on how we implement our societal functions. We don't honor life as the greatest realization, we instead denigrate it based upon social and economic factors. Instead of prioritizing education and health as our greatest legacies, we pass along injustice and illusion as our great gifts to the future. We have sold what is best within us for a vessel of promises which cannot ever come true. We must always remember that we are human beings, not a creating god, and a civilization who are all varied by some degree but never so much that we are greater or lesser than anyone else.

Being afraid of fear (#1392)

To default to fear is to lose before even starting. Why would we do this? Simple, we have a backup plan. We just ignore our loss to fear and pretend it never happened. We actually use logic to lie to ourselves. Well, not really logic but an illogical application of logic. It works so why not continue to live and forget how we live our lives? Again, simply because it is wrong and living in the defeat of fear does nothing to overcome fear and move on in our and others' lives. Another thing about losing to fear before we even start is the irrational considerations we start to have. Like some alternate universe, we misshape reality to fit our comfortable thinking into absolutism. We then defend our illogical truths as the only possible solution to myriad problems. Whenever I hear something that has a non-sequitur understanding, I either laugh, because the use of a non-sequitur usually implies a comedic strategy or I know that the person delivering the irrational message has been subjected to fear and cannot move beyond it. Fear is like that, it is over-powering and can halt us in our tracks, even to the point of taking our breath away. Fear can freeze our physical abilities to the point of incapable conscience movement. Yet fear is a reasoned understanding, as well as a survival technique, that has a direct physical response. We can moderate that, like all things that are instinctual and learned. Our minds are the most powerful force that we know of ever in existence. Ever in existence! We are the holders of a force so powerful that we can actually change the existence we have at our own whim. How can such an ability be possible without us living a sanguine life free from any doubt about conquering fear, whenever and wherever it's form makes an appearance.

Slowing myself down (#1391)

It seems that most of my life has been spent hurrying to either get something done or to get from one place to another. Another aspect of my life, having been athletic in nature, brings the consequential mindset of going hard and fast at physical goals. It seems that pushing my mind to go fast to keep up with my body, has had a residual effect that is not necessarily a good thing. I am older now and the physicality at which I had previously performed at is no longer possible, yet my mind is not restricted by such continually growing resistant evidence. What I have been left with is a need or urge to go fast and hard at things that don't offer prizes for such application, on the contrary, it seems that negative results abound from my absurdity. I am working on slowing down so that I can sense the lives and places around me with a deeper appreciation as well as to make myself more available to those who truly need me. It is a wonderful thing to have had a way of life that endeared itself to me but the losing of that way of life requires me to adapt. Adapting is not such an easy task for stubborn bullheaded persons of my ilk. lol. Yet it is what I have to do. I need to step back from the hurrying and instead plan for a methodical approach that has the best of just being alive and taking in the world around me. It is well past time I grew into a new type of person and put down the old competitive one. I had sold out on the live fast and hard motto but life has me still here and that motto is no longer a value. So slower it is and watching the younger ones use their abilities and mindsets to foster new opportunities and realities is my new paradigm.

Should we live forever? (#1390)

Sounds like a strange question but it seems that innovation and technology may make it so in the future. We all have had or will have death in our close circle of family and friends and of course we wish none of it to have or to happen. I want everyone to remain in my life and inside me I know that none should die. Is it possible then to consider an existence where life continues, even maybe in a "body" that stays strong and vibrant? I think so and with our species' ability to remain curious and full of discovery I actually think that in the future it may well happen. I am not trying to make us out as a god-like creature but the potential is there for us to explore the possibility of eternity on demand. I know this much, as my body wears down it seems that my soul has become tired as well. I don't have the vibrancy or agility I once had and I think that the corresponding physical deterioration I am experiencing is correlative to my spirit also becoming less vigorous. I therefore think that if my body was able to regenerate through some medical advancement or if transferring my soul to another form of body were possible, I have little doubt that I would also regenerate within my soul and feel the lively attributes of my spirit's beginning. I have reconciled to myself that the cycle of life and death with me is a certainty but into the future I cannot say that there is no hope for longer life spans with renewed vigor. We seem to be heading that way as a by-product of our insatiable, and instinctual desire to survive. We are only following our instincts to live forever and that is not in contradiction with what it is to be a human being.

Boundaries and dogmas are killing us (#1389)

The world needs to be one big city. Why do we have such a hard time understanding that we are all citizens of Planet Earth? More than anything else that reality trumps all lesser organizational ideas. When you hear that some are interested in solving all of our problems and they don't start from this simple beginning they are not truly interested in solving all of our problems. It is not that they are intentionally being deceptive, it is just that they fail to understand the word all. Think about it! All of our wars with each other are over national boundaries and ideologies. Can we rationally justify the premeditated killing of humans based upon selfishness? Can we actually say that one person deserves to have opportunities to exist in some parts of the world and others don't? Can we continue to turn our backs on the real devastation and death we allow to happen without having a fierce objection? Are we so selfish in our lives that pain, suffering and death are of no consequence to us because we feel helpless to stop it? I will not quit screaming from the top of my lungs about the injustice we continue to hurl upon others while little repercussion to the act settles upon ourselves. We need to form a society with all humans as it's citizens. We cannot continue to kill each other in the name of lines on a map and words in "archaic" books. I am ashamed at us for not being the 21st century human beings we think we are. We must stop the insanity of treating some as nothing and some as everything. We are all the same and no amount of manipulating ancient ideas as a strategy to continue selfishness is worth one single human death on our heads.

My own worst critic (#1388)

No one is more critical of me than I. I have scolded myself more times than I will ever remember. Which brings me to another subject, remembering. I haven't a clue where most of my memories have gone but I know this much, I cannot find them. It seems that my memory is on a timer and that timer has gone off more times than I can remember. lol. Circular logic here. Anyway, the criticism I heap upon myself has lessened with time because the mistakes I make now are not as obvious in the sense that they are super important. I make a lot of little mistakes because I don't give enough time to all things that I do. My foundation is good and right but the building blocks upon it are somewhat loose. Kind of like my humor. :) What has happened for me though is that by being my own worst critic, I have adapted very nicely to my conscious. I have a conscience and the emotions within it, have matured to verify that fact. None of us is without doubt about ourselves but it is in how we approach that doubt that we find real differences. Some of us have gotten it in our heads that we don't forget and what we think today is a comprehensive compilation of all we have learned or intuitively know. I can testify to the fact that we are not all comprehensive in what we remember and furthermore, we are not likely to remember most of what we have learned. Our memories are not perfect and can be a cause of consternation for those of us who place heavy reliance on them. I have admitted to being both critical, and forgetful, of myself into this post, well done me! I don't beat myself up for being imperfect, like I used to do when I was younger. Getting older is showing me that what has passed me in the past is likely to stay there and what I keep myself doing today is what is most critical, even when I screw it up. :)

Controlling our urges (#1387)

This is what is the great achievement of the human species, we can control what drives us. Our motivations, mental and physical, can be harnessed to be unleashed when defined by civilization to be appropriate. All of us are still working on those definitions of civilization but we are very able to do so. It is usually intentional when we don't control our urges. We are animals and prone to animalistic instincts and of that we will never be free of if we remain in our natural state. But modifying what we act upon as animals is our duty if we are ever going to participate in the progress of our societies. We all have the foundation for reason. We can understand consequences based upon experience and knowledge. Nothing is so difficult as to be impossible to figure out. Instead of focusing on ourselves as the highest priority in existence, we need to see a more panoramic view of what is happening in the world to all of us. Certainly, we are individually responsible for a duty to ourselves but not to the exclusion of the basis for our civilization, which is to maintain a semblance of order while allowing for opportunity to all who can participate. We are fortunate to be born into a time when most of the hard struggle for our civilized structure has already been achieved. We now need to look inside ourselves and find those areas where we need improvement. Like controlling those urges that are fleeting and often denigrated once applied. We are not the prehistoric creatures that it took for us to evolve. We are a more advanced species for our mistakes and rectifications. We have more room to improve and that is the next step in how we advance our destiny.

Actions have consequences (#1386)

It is important to understand what a little sensitivity can do for oneself. If what I am doing to others is not considered when evaluating my future action, then I have some work to do. No one can rationally justify making decisions based only upon the outcome to themselves. There are others out there who feel the impact. That is why a little sensitivity to how actions prevail a cost upon others is necessary for fair human interaction. Some of course could care less if they exact a cost upon others as long as they get what they want. That is a strategy they employ as a rule and their inability to function in normal healthy relationships is less important than the attainment of some, ambiguous or otherwise, goal. That is not a healthy relationship to keep. Those who keep to a pattern of complaining when they are harmed yet inversely, are unable, or are unwilling to see themselves as the harm makers, are the ones of which I write. The irony is thick to say the least. If a person wants empathy from others then they need to know what empathy is. Not just the cold clinical definition of empathy but the nurturing effect of the return of that kindness when it is needed. In other words, do unto others that which you would have others do unto you. There is nothing magical here but in a practical sense it does seem to require magic for it to be understood. Just kidding, all it takes is some awareness and modification of behavior. Simply, think a bit before reacting. We all can accept what the whirligig of life brings us if we are all aware that it could, and more than likely will, happen to all of us. But for the grace of whatever go I.

Never stop wondering! (#1385)

All of us at some point in our lives have given up wondering what all of this existence is about and have instead focused on how we operate our society as a means to an end. We place ourselves, strategically mind you, into positions that help us to live modern and abundant lives. There is nothing wrong with this type of plan, except it is just marking time, not moving forward. Certainly we need some essential things in our lives like food, shelter, clothing and means for transporting, however once we have secured these, most move further with making these needs and adding special wants. The default position as I like to think of it. We settle for what we can do instead of using what we are naturally given to question all that is around us even to the point of sacrificing the quality of those oft needed essentials for living. If I am not clear let me put it this way. We have given up on our wondering what this existence means to us and have instead decided to play a role within society that revolves around just security and limited freedom. Our main priority has become to keep improving on the level of the quality of our needs instead of just securing our needs and then questing to find answers to the mysteries of existence. Just going about being a statistic within society and maintaining a level of comfort we have decided is the most important priority to ourselves. A neutral existence within an unknown. I personally could care less about the quality of my needs, I care far more on knowing why I even need them to begin with. I have questions about existence that no human can answer so it is incumbent upon me to wonder and seek any and all means to my ability to discover. I will not come into this existence and just allow myself to spend the time I have been given settling for anything less!

Get out of your head! (#1384)

It is so easy to think what is going on in the world than it is too actually know what is going on in the world. I know in my brain, assumptions abound galore! lol. It isn't until I get out and actually converse and interact with folks that I find that my assumptive thinking is mostly wrong. Of course my intent is always good but the outcome of my assumptive thinking usually leaves me less than where I really am. I somehow conjure up in my mind, scenarios that tend toward our less than better instincts and then the conspiracies begin. As if I am important enough for others to conspire against. I do have an imagination and when I leave it unoccupied for any lengthy period of time it goes into overdrive with possibilities. Thus I need to get out of my head and out into the world where all the real living is taking place. No one has earned the right or deserves to be able to sit back and make decisions about others when they don't allow themselves the necessity of being involved in life on a personal level. I know sometimes I just sit back and calculate what should be from my previous experiences, but what I have come to realize is that I cannot do that. Life is ever changing and the facts continue to modify with every second that ticks off the clock. None of us is so knowing that we can displace living our lives with each other with just logical theories. Life is too complicated because of our increasing knowledge base and because of the panoramic effect of our emotions. There is no formula that can apply to so many of us. So get out of your head and quit assuming, it is what I tell myself and it seems to be sinking in for me.

Changing attitudes to find common ground (#1383)

Well, here we are in America, needing to figure out a way to move forward despite our different approaches to what society should look like. We have just had an election and the will of the people has been heard. Now that a general direction has been given a majority, it would seem that those who backed another general direction would need to accept the will of the majority and at least begin to see the framework of the approved direction. Hiding one's head in the sand because a defined direction was overruled, is not doing one's part in progressing our democracy. All of us need to apply ourselves to the will of the country when choices have been made. Now it is about filling in the edges of policies so that they may be implemented and either found to be helpful or found to be wanting. Life should be about the actual living of it and not so much about past theories that have been renounced. There are real problems that need immediate solutions and gearing our efforts toward those problems should be our course, not squabbling over what could have been. We are all honorable humans and as such we need to honor ourselves by becoming involved in creative solutions while not creating new problems. History has shown us that we are much stronger when we ameliorate our differences in lieu of finding common ground. Such is that time now. Our country needs all of us to accept the outcome of our national election and move forward with that will. Remember, we all want a better life and that is the goal here, not to destroy any chance of obtaining it.

The effect of curiosity (#1382)

What is my curiosity? My curiosity is a desire, a want, a need to know that which I don't know. It is a driving sensation that I can actually feel within me. It has a spiritual connection to my existence that is real and starts the engine of my motivations. I need to know why! Why is the greatest question in my life and knowing why is my challenge. You may ask what question of why am I referring? The greatest of all why's is why am I here? Why do we exist? I know that the answer to that particular why may never be known to me but still, I need to know the answer. It is who I am and how I am made to exist. I have said this before and once again I will say it here, we are like data processors, we need input gathered from our 5 senses, and yes, even from our innate intuitions. We gather information we need to not only to continue to exist but to better help our existence. We gather information so that we can continue to gain insight into questions not yet considered. We are a marvel and I want to know why. There are also the hows, whats, wheres, who's and whens, but for me the why is the key. I subscribe to the idea that everything has a purpose. That nothing about all of things is random. There is chaos and confusion all around us but that is because we are not able to sense out all the factors yet. That is why it is so important to continue to question all things that are unknown. If however not everything has a purpose, then why not? If nothing has purpose then why do we exist? Still questions with no answers, regardless of the final verdict. My nature is to know things, it is what I do as a human being. Just existing is not enough!

Always question the question (#1381)

Simply akin to the Socratic Method. Asking a series of questions which allow the listeners to formulate their own answers or understandings. I like this method of learning. It allows for us to use our own reasoning based upon our own knowledge base to define what may be right, good or true answers. Most of us have similar knowledge bases however our perspectives are not as similar as one may opine. I am not a contrarian by strategy but it does seem to fit my modus operandi. So much in life is rationalized as a given and I refute that foundational assumption. Certainly there are known truths and facts that I accept but not as many as there are promoted. I do question most everything and when I am questioned about more complex issues I find that returning a question as an answer helps me to understand the nature of the questioner and their motive. Not all questions are asked for the purpose of true honorable enlightenment and distinguishing between the few that are and the many that are not, is done by answering questions with questions. Once I have established that the questions are legitimate questions of honest inquiry, I then like to answer questions with more questions as to help the questioner realize the scope of the question being asked. If I can enlarge the panorama of the possible answers, I have then given the questioner more possibilities of seeing their initial question with a deeper understanding. Most answers are simple and general to be sure, but if we can breakdown the subject of the question into it's varying parts, it helps the questioner realize they have the answer within them already but just need a process for retrieving it through their own logical sequencing. I would rather teach someone how to reason for themselves than to spoon feed them answers without them having to do reason, analysis and conclusions on their own.

If we survive our life lessons, we can begin to live (#1380)

I vividly remember a line in the movie, The Natural, where the actress, Glenn Close said, paraphrased, that we live 2 lives, the first we learn with, and then the life after that. I couldn't agree more with that sage counsel. I struggled mightily to learn what life meant for me and until I had experienced so many differences, was I able to see who I was and what I wanted out of life. I am and have been in that second phase of living for many years now and the clarity I have now is a reversal of the chaos and confusion I was experiencing before. All the hard lessons I learned were well worth the time since it is what has gotten me to where I am now. I only wish that I hadn't spent so much time but it took what it took as the saying goes. My life today truly is a beautiful thing in my eyes. I don't have doubts about my intentions. They are clear and for the most part highly honorable. I am human and prone to making mistakes regardless of how hard I try not to not make mistakes so the times I fail I don't get discouraged, I just get it right the next time. I have order in my life now and priorities fill my day. What I also get is the ability to see the same set of values and principles in others. What this does for me is to be able to trust like I have never been able to do before. Trust requires a stable foundation and now that I have one I can see those who also have a stable foundation as well. There is so much hope for all of us once we get past being our own obstruction. It will take whatever it takes and the best hope is that the lessons we learn are not too devastating as to prohibit us from moving into a better plane of living.

Keep moving forward (#1379)

What is fascinating is that my future is being defined right now by how I live my present. Everything I do right now is shaping how my future will be. I know that external forces play a major role in my future and in most of those external forces I have no control whatsoever. Knowing that however, gives me the opportunity to choose how I will live in the present, which then translates to my future regardless of events outside my control. What I have found to be most helpful is the notion that I understand what has happened in the past but I don't look backwards for my guidance, I continue to look forward toward my goals. Life really is all about whether we choose to be positive or negative about our futures. I cannot continue to advance forward when the past keeps harping in my ear the older and getting old ideals that have less to do with progress and more to do with restriction. I am not living in a bubble or isolated from reality. I have as a duty to this existence to remain cogent and logical about what is going on around me, not just in my limited sphere but in all areas of human survival. I have said this before and I will say it here again, all of us are individual data collectors and information is the means we use to fulfill our curiosities. I will not blunt my natural inclination to know by abdicating my reason over to a finite set of principles based in myth and superstition. I owe myself and my fellow human being species' the best of my ability to data collect and then the process of reason, analysis and conclusion.

Winning is a mandate (#1378)

I suppose I will have a couple of more posts regarding our national election and this will be one of them. Our President won his re-election handily but yet the opposing party is desperately trying to portray our president's win as inconsequential for his policies. They have been sounding the alarm that since he didn't overwhelming win the down ballot elections as well he has not been given a mandate to follow through on his policies. I disagree. First off, the mere fact that he won justifies him having a mandate, even if he only won by 1 vote, instead of the more than 2.8 million votes he did win by. Second, since a formidable opponent ran against him and lost, who had a totally different set of policies to offer that reflected the opposing party's view, we can deduce that the opposing party's views were rejected, leaving only the winners policies as acceptable. Now the down ballot races in the House of Representatives did skew toward our President's party in a handful of races overall, 8 to 9 more precisely, yet the opposing party did maintain control. By the mere fact that the opposing party lost seats in it's majority is being used as a less than clever argument that the opposing party still has rejected policies that overrule our President's policies, is nonsense! The opposing party is having problems with losing on the ideological front and they are pulling out all the stops in order to somehow ameliorate their rejected vision. It won't work, as people as simple as myself see through their strategy. Our President does have a mandate and he will wield it to move our country forward despite the opposing party's last gasp to make itself relevant in the face of it's diminution.

Last night, inclusion won out over exclusion (#1377)

Here in America we had our presidential election that culminated yesterday. What can be discerned is that the party that went out of it's way to include many different groups won the day. The contrast was stark between the two parties and should now be a model for our country as we ever more diversify. A paradigm shift has been made and counting on just a few groups, as the base for claiming election success, has proven unsuccessful. We truly have become the melting pot that we have over the decades thought ourselves to be. Holding onto segregating ideals out of fear or advantage has shown itself to be unworthy and self defeating. What was proved last night is that without a careful consideration of all of our needs together, we cannot help ourselves govern with any authority. Integrating ideals won the day yesterday and for that I heave a delighted sigh of relief. We deserve more from our society than self inflicted hardships when we can better survey the landscape of society and see where pulling us all together includes shared progress and opportunity. We are not immune to selfishness, look how the other party promulgated measured equality from different starting points. Hardly fair or equal. However, when we build our society with the idea that all of us can and should share in it's prosperity, we elevate the consciousness of our citizens to a place where we all feel like we are important parts of our own future. There will always be graduated levels of participation because we all have different motivations, but to assign some of us to lesser because we don't fit nicely into a pre-ordained group is disrespectful and as last night proved a losing strategy.

Courage on display, patriotism for truth (#1376)

It is curious how courage can manifest itself. I know I don't have the final results yet but I can already feel it's empowering effect. Today's election will take place today and already tens of millions have already voted for the candidate that didn't have most of the, money and lies, on his side. You may very well say hey, when someone lies it is easy to vote against them. In most cases that is true but when vast amounts of money are used to obfuscate or camouflage the truth, it is not always simple to distinguish truth. Especially when the messenger is subtly and deliberately adept at delivering the lies. What has been truly remarkable, and I say this from past experience, is that when a convincing illusion is spread with an abundance of money behind it, the illusion usually prevails. The truth gets muddled and lost in all the manipulations around it. I fully expected the same scenario to play out but it didn't. I know I am premature in my expected analysis, but in my soul and my gut, I feel like we have triumphed over the past status quo and have allowed for the truth to overcome both, money and lies. How were we able to do this overcoming? In my mind we mostly did it through the Internet. The inter-connectivity we now have through this medium, throughout the whole world, is amazing and judicious. We can be far more elaborate in our new method of communication with our understandings in simple and complex ways that have never been possible before. The real time logical fact checking and references with citations has made revealing lies and false claims as simple as writing a short note. I say courage on display to recognize all of us who have given of ourselves to promote truth over lies when it comes to our national reputation and the health of our country. Patriots all!

This election cycle (#1375)

2008 was an election of firsts. In the primaries on the Democratic side there were two individuals asking to become our national leader who represented a woman and a man of color. Neither has a woman or until 2008, a man of color ever held our highest American office. So when the man of color won out a tight primary race against the woman, a predictable emotional surge followed. Regardless of whether the man of color won or the woman had won, the emotional surge was fairly certain to follow. It just happened that it followed the man of color, which he rode all the way to the White House. 4 years later the emotion of electing the first man of color is no longer a surge following this election so the election has now moved from our emotion to our intellect. Rightly so, and because of that we have to look at performance and not the making new history. When President Obama was elected in 2008, his ideas were quite strong and in conjunction with the emotion of the moment, was plenty enough to elect him. Now we only have his ideas as a purpose for re-electing him and it is in the ideas that we are seeing the stuff of which he is made. He carried us through emotion and now he is carrying us through with intellect. President Obama is no straw man, someone propped up into place that others control. He is his own man and his election in 2008 was not just based upon his skin color. His election in 2008 was despite his skin color and was really all about his love for our country. Today we get to see that love through his policies to strengthen our society in areas of equality and justice through fairness. Quite an accomplishment for a man who was thought more a sensation four years ago than what he really is, a statesman with gravitas.