Morality is a choice (#1217)

Unless you are afflicted with no conscious and have a psychopathic/sociopathic personality, then you are a morally inclined personage. Morality is the ability to differentiate between good and bad, right and wrong. We are mostly all able to do this and as such we make a choice as to how we proceed. We cannot rely on our instincts to guide our morality, we must utilize our instincts but only at the direction of our own reasoning processes. In other words we must think before we act impulsively. Eventually we can train our impulses to reflect our morality by practicing our intentions with vigor and determination. Still, that process involves choosing to do so in order to get at the desired outcome. Each of us has a moral code within us. We do not read out of a book to know how we feel at all times. We instead try to understand how we feel by comparing it to others who have experienced the same thing. We may not always agree on how our morality compares but if our understanding of what is good and bad and right and wrong brings us to a conclusion then that is our choice to make. My thoughts about this correspond with other paradigms of human circumstances, such as my idealism about justice, ethics, virtue, etc...Being alive is the easy part; living as if I am an individual with the free will and the responsibility that goes with that is more difficult. I am a complex human being and as such I do not shirk from that conclusion, instead I embrace it with the optimism of my morality, and more, that motivates me to continue forward into my future with my eyes wide open and my mind ready to build on the knowledge I already have. 

What I will NOT tolerate (#1216)

I am really an easy going type person who believes that all of us should be given the due respect and dignity of our acceptable individualism. Yet, it seems that many do not want to stop at what is respectful, dignified and acceptable and just forge ahead with their ideals with reckless abandon. They wreak their havoc on us in the sense that they think it is good for us. Their ideals in place of our own. Sound familiar? It does to me and it reeks of a paternal/maternal attitude with a large dose of ego fueling it. To those who think we need to be cared for in  a way that condescends to our own individual critical thinking I will say this: Back off! If ever I need help in deciding my fate it will be because I need input, not a predetermined course. I will not tolerate some who think that we need to have them think for us. The type of people who have, in their own minds, decided that they are the elite of the human species and as such are to be privileged with the gravitas of an illusory exceptionalism. How can I differentiate out these types of people? It is so easy, they do not have sufficient humility. That is the one personality characteristic that has escaped them and because of that they often appear disingenuous when they speak and act. Our society has so many things yet to accomplish and wasting time on the egos of those who would be a king of sorts has kept us from any normal efficiency in moving into our futures with hope and expectation. The beauty of life is that we all get to make choices regarding our own destiny within the destiny of our species. One the personal level, we have greater flexibility in discovering our own life pathway and on the larger level, as concerning our species, we have to cultivate the vision that expands our communal strengths and enlightens our evolving possibilities. 

When the liars win (#1215)

When the liars win the rest of us lose. Question everything when given information that doesn't settle correctly with your intuition and basic knowledge. We are all required to think, it is a duty we are given as being citizens of our respective countries and as being natural human beings with natural rights. When liars win, the truth is subordinated to falsehoods which do not benefit anyone except those who are the liars. When liars win, our children are taught that by not being honest they can gain in a societal acceptable way. Who needs to be honest when lying can get you to your goal? What are we teaching our offspring when we let liars win? I guess the question should be WHY do we let liars win? Are we too lazy to care? Do we not have enough of the stamina of will to defend that which we know is virtuous in the face of that which we know is despicable? Have we forgotten the principles of honesty that our country has been founded upon and those brave souls who gave their very lives defending? Could it be that we would rather count our own selves as being above the lies of others and ignore the effect that those lies have on us in total? Maybe we are too busy with our own personal lives to even care about what lies are being promulgated as fact. What I do know is that when lies win, our lives get more and more out of our own control and instead our lives go further toward being controlled by some others. Standing up to lies takes courage, can we say we are courageous when we won't even stand up to a lie?

Prosperity is greater than austerity (#1214)

Some among us have a belief that we should place artificial hardships upon ourselves to make us motivated to achieve. I believe that we have enough real hardships to accomplish the same effect. Life is not about making life harder for ourselves, instead it is about making life better for ourselves so that we can grow and learn even more. I am amazed at how blinded many are about what it is to be alive. We are not a course and brutish lot, instead we are a caring and curious lot. Why would we not elevate who we are as opposed to suppressing that same definition of who we are? No real motive can be sensibly rationalized except a negative one of a punishing existence. Those with psychopathic/sociopathic tendencies may deem placing hardship upon themselves and others as beneficial, but those of us who are free and clear of chronic mental deficiencies do not have to rationalize a lack of conscious as our guiding moral principle. We would rather build our society based upon advancing it toward the unknown and what that may bring in knowledge than to revert to the crass lifestyle of unworthiness. Life is too precious to waste on denying ourselves the senses and reasoning ability we are gifted with at birth. I will for the life of me never understand why all of us don't treat each other as fellow equals with every right and opportunity we would wish for ourselves. Life is not about competition and winners and losers, it is about shared experiences and the unending quest to learn and know more and more.

The fiery combination of logic and love (#1213)

Life would be so mechanical if we had no passion in our lives. We humans are a grand experiment in the melding of both logic and emotion. As we continue to struggle to inculcate a reasonable and sensible expression of the two we are also given to elevating one at the expense of the other. Like I say, we humans are a grand experiment that is in the throes of defining the two into one. For example, I know it is illogical to continue to love another that hates that love, or having a life that denies love is even real. We humans are trying so many permutations of our two main natures in order to ignore the purity of our two main natures that it has become quite confusing to us at so many different times. I have found that acceptance is the key to admitting that we have these two complex natures. Now that is the logical side of me coming to the rescue! But what remains is the emotional side which must also have a direction to follow. When it comes to the most complex emotion we experience, love, there is only one course to follow. From acceptance I now move to admittance. The form of my love needs to know what I am feeling. That is a courtesy I owe to myself and to the subject of my love. What happens after that is left to the destiny and fate of my life. I have completed the cycle of my logic at, and the love expressed for, and can only wait to see what that may bring. There will always be some who are requited with a similar expression and for the most part many more who will have to live on with an unrequited response. Either way, we have both of our natures at hand, working in conjunction, to deal with what we are as humans in a way that allows us to go forward, regardless the outcome.

Judgments based upon our own personal psychology (#1212)

Our own, personal, human nature is all we have to be able to conclude our reasonings from analysis. When do we have enough information from knowledge to be able to say without a doubt we actually know something? I have never in my life, in my heart, excepting only love and eventual death, been able to say unequivocally that I am 100% certain on anything. Even my own premise for this blog is based upon a degree of doubt, albeit, a very small doubt. So for any of us to demand that others accept what we have determined to be true for ourselves onto others is not persuasive and actually crosses the line into egoistic demagoguery. I am not saying that offering an opinion or policy that may have positive consequences is a bad thing, what I am saying is that what some demand that we accept as their opinions or policies that seem right to them, is wrong. I use myself as a case study in these types of situations when it comes to arguments that have real affects on others. I am not the wisest nor the least informed, yet I can still gather together enough foundational knowledge to know that an unknown elemental factor in almost every circumstance still exists. There is no one-size fits all solution to any complex problem that can be adapted to human behavior with any certainty. If anything, judgments, should as often as possible be withheld as conclusions until we realize that they are better offered as opinions with caveats. Our species is not at a point where we can consistently know that what we are rationalizing will remain rational because of the yet still unknown. We must, with courage, continue to move forward into our present and future but with trepidation and with a real practice of thought and action immersed in humility. 

Democracy must be defended (#1211)

Just like all the wars that America has fought over since it's inception as a country, democratic ideals are at the heart of it's people. We have no higher calling in our American society than to defend and expand democracy. Regardless of what our economic system evolves toward, despite how our religious views are interpreted and most important, despite what laws we place upon ourselves, we must never for one minute dishonor the memory of our ancestors who conceived for us and died for us to have this remarkable model of political equality. We have expanded Democracy into our social experiences as well but we have further work to do in that area as well as in our economic interchanges being more equal. But we have the foundation and it is as solid as a rock. We judge our society based upon on it's benefit to all of us not just some of us. Democracy is every human given the inalienable right to determine what his or her destiny may be within the guidelines we determine to be sufficiently secure while maintaining freedom and liberty. None of us are any less viable as an individual and none of us are any more viable as an individual. This is the beauty of Democracy, the rich man and the poor man each have an equal say in how we determine our collective futures as Americans. The principles of Democracy demand that equality and as such there will continuously remain the opportunity for all of us to strive and hopefully achieve our personal pursuit of happiness. Democracy is an ideal and as such it is given to interpretations that do not foster it's perfect order. That is why each of us American citizens are privileged with the duty to protect Democracy at all costs, just like our fore-fathers and fore-mothers did in it's initial creation and development.  

Individually we are not immortal but as a species we have a chance (#1210)

For those who think that individualism is the best course for our society's function, then consider this proposition. If the survival of our species is our greatest priority, then us working together to achieve it is better than all of us working for it separately. I was considering what we humans define as the nature of divineness, and it occurs to me, looking at religious belief systems on whole, that we always seem to equate our dieties with immortality or more clearly, infinity. Infinity seems to have the same consequence of action as our own will to survive. We may not be immortal but it is within our nature to strive for just such a thing. Simply, none of us purposefully wants to die when all things are equally possible. So it seems that our subconscious is literally, constantly at work, striving to lengthen our own individual lives. Now, as time and history has shown, no none person can make the leap to understanding or learning all things in life without some help from someone or something. Our lives are a lot like a short burst of energy, adding to the other short bursts of energy that, on whole, create a larger and more powerful energy source. In time and eventually, if we survive ourselves and the nature of our somewhat chaotic environment known as the Universe, we may form a subset of immortality together. This subset has already, in practice, begun when we first were formed as a species. Logic dictates that we may increase our individual life spans but not to the point of equating with the life span of our species. My point here is that not only by working together, do we have a real chance of continuing the immortality of our species, but because of that, we shall at least be somewhat fulfilling our natural will to survive.    

One million years from now (#1209)

It is not hard to imagine that we could survive ourselves and all that nature has to offer in order to continue our species for a million years into the future. What will be hard is the actual doing of that. Despite what we will look like and how we will be able to communicate, the practical matters of living in a world with physical dynamics that we now know somewhat the basics of, we should still have the qualities that do make us human. I don't see ourselves as anything less than our physical selves although I am sure we will have evolved with different types of modifications of artificial natures. But our core of humanity should survive all the innovation and technological advances time will give us. For us to have a chance of surviving as a species we will have to build upon the qualities that make us human. Again, our compassion for all things in existence and our wonder about those same all things. I have said this several times on this blog, we are like human data processors, with our 5 physical senses of taste, touch, smell, hearing and sight we examine that which is around us and evaluate it's being. As we move forward into time our planet will become a launching point to places outside our atmosphere and beyond. Like we do here on Earth we will do at other celestial orbs, through our senses, increase our awareness and knowledge base which will feed even greater into our innovation and technology. What we must always be aware of however is who we are and what we do best. To deviate from being human is to disrupt the naturalness and distinctive instincts we have embedded into our genetics. If we remain our human selves and follow our natural instincts we should have a fair shot at surviving whatever we unintentionally do to ourselves and whatever may occur throughout the Universe that may affect us.

We humans are the sovereign (#1208)

No one can tell us what to do except us. We are the sovereigns here in in this existence. There is no other being in existence that sets rules for our society nor for our individual behaviors. We make our own rules to decide what is acceptable behavior, both individually and collectively. We use guidelines like virtue, justice, ethics to guide our morality, through legal and social structure. We get there by passing laws that all must obey or pay a consequence for not obeying. In theory, there should be a universal threshold where no one is given dispensation. We are all the same and all allowances should be applied equally. That being said, my point here is that we are the human hegemon and all that goes with it. We lead to our own developments, innovations and societal course corrections without having to ask for a "by your leave" from any other entity than ourselves. Our high position in this existence gives us a unique ability to control our own destiny. We have the means and the capabilities to establish pathways of learning and discovery that cannot be restricted by anything except ourselves. We have the emotional wherewithall to care for each other in ways that exemplify the best of our species and the long sighted vision for our future generations of offspring. It is all within our own grasp. Nothing in this Universe has shown itself as a greater being of existence to thwart that which we decide to do. Superstitions and myths may hold some of us back but the reality of existence is that we are the sovereigns and nothing as of yet has proven this statement of mine wrong.

Defending what is best about our human species (#1207)

It is with a resolve of never-ending dedication that I bring this subject up. Why I should even have to write about it tells us that our species is off the track in administering our society as a reflection of the best of who we are. Instead of us living in the positiveness of our elements, we ignobly decry our negative aspects and admonish ourselves for being less than who we are. What a complete turnaround from what our outlooks should be. For example, instead of using knowledge and logic to underpin our policies and processes, we instead defer to greed and selfishness as models for determining the quality of life we should all have to experience. We are left to the whims of cheats and manipulators who see the ultimate goal of life as a race to see who can gather the most despite what is left for the rest. There is a great battle going on right now and it centers on two idealistic paradigms, unfettered capitalism and democratic equality. The tension between these two models has separated out clear distinctions about what they both represent. Clearly, our country was founded on principles of democracy that overshadowed all other forms of representation. Capitalism is an economic model that, when left unchecked will eat itself alive striving to outdo all competitors. So a mixture of the two models seems to be what has sustained our society over the last 236 years. We do honor hard and intelligent work with reward but not at the expense of our democracy. The hard and intelligent work could not be sustained without our democracy. So in the final analysis, capitalism must remain viable but only within the principles of democratic equality. Capitalism is a subset of democracy and democracy must eventually out survive every other paradigm of societal implementation. 

We all live from our heart (#1206)

There is no denying the real impetus to our lives. Even the most cold, seemingly inhumane individuals calculate their thoughts and actions from their heart. I may have to exclude some sociopathic/psychopathic individuals who have no conscious, but in almost every individual there is a majority of action that can be directly related to our instinctual compassion. How we feel about the world, people and other animals is how we react. There is an emotional aspect to our species that underlies all that we are. I say this to demonstrate that we all have some commonalities that cannot be changed. What we have that hides all of this from us is the conclusions about how we feel, not that we feel. In opposing view points about public and private policy, the intent is still the same. A form of improvement or betterment is at the heart of even the most illogical solutions. Logic should be able to expose this however, logic is not given it's foundational due like it should so therefore we end up with solutions that have little effect of positive societal influence on whole. For those who refuse to subscribe to the sequencing that logic illustrates, a more passionate alternative thought process forms and begins to dominate because in these instances the solutions are pre-formed, regardless of whether they fit the problem. I have often heard the sentence, "A solution in search of a problem" and that is what we are experiencing a lot of these days. So what we need to realize is that we are all starting out from our hearts to find a better life and to find that better life we all would behoove ourselves by applying our heart's compassion with the truth of logic, aimed at the great priorities of our time.

First, we must understand our natures (#1205)

The only reason for me writing this blog, besides having a place to write what I think, is to affirm that we are compassionate and curious at birth, and then we are changed due to our historically manipulated societal machinations. Society is the structure of how we interact and if that structure has been compromised or is flawed in it's construction and utility, then we must change the flaws and renew the structure with it's amenable applications that serve the public on whole. Society should be a reflection of who we are as individuals who gather and live together as a community of people, and I have been forwarding the proposition that who we are as individuals is our, innocent at birth, caring and wondering instincts. All the other instinctual actions we take and think are a direct result of the denial of care and wonder we need. They are the negative results of not having the positive outlets of compassion and curiosity in every acceptable form. Our society should reflect our positive natures and not reflect the denial of them. So often closed minds choose to limit the unique characteristics of humanity in order to suffer an advantage or to maintain a control for their own selfish interests, which is not a reflection of humanity, and not a reflection of what a human society represents. What open minds should be focused on instead is the production of processes that reflect the best of compassion and curiosity. All of our efforts should be trained on the betterment of the human experiment, in order to satisfy our own natures as well as satisfy the growth and progress of our species. We maintain our individualism by our own efforts but the processes that we utilize have to have our natures at the core and the opportunity for all to apply. 

It is the hard that makes the good (#1204)

No coasting through life when in a position that requires everything of us. We elect people to lead for us and when those people don't lead, but instead act as if they have arrived at some sanctuary, we lose the momentum of progress and frustration sets in. There are so many examples of this I am ashamed to say. Life is hard and some jobs in life are even harder than normal. However, there is never an excuse for not working hard when the position won requires it. Public service is not for the weak at heart. It is visible and full of expectation from those who did the electing. Much work and creative thinking are a constant. Nothing can change for the good for our society if those we elect see getting elected as a destination they have been trying to attain for self-aggrandizement, instead of as a place where they have arrived to roll up their sleeves and work hard until they can no longer put out the effort needed by the public at large. We must elect those who are willing to continue to fight for the foundations we have built and add new, just and innovative, paradigms to them. This is not a glory hunt, it is tireless giving of oneself for others. There is no selfishness in being a public servant. We must change who we elect based upon why they are running and their willingness to uphold our public trust. Regardless of how advertisers and talking heads describe preferences, we, the public, must make clear to those who would lead that we expect everything from them and when they have nothing left, we must elect new public servants who are again willing to do the hard work in order for the good to come about for all of us. We have not arrived as a society yet so the arduous work to get our society advanced and enlightened continues.

We must teach possibilities! (#1203)

So much of what we are teaching ourselves centers on economics instead of building on science and logic. We are so immersed in how we operate our bartering within society, a mundane chore at best, that we lose sight of advancing our minds into the areas that have little information. Are we afraid of the unknown so much that we choose to ignore it in favor of something safe and easily understood? Or are we incapable of the mental work necessary to continue the great enlightenment of the past 500 years? I seem to be of a group of less and less people who see we humans as the great force of the Universe. Evidence contradicts my perception in the fact that so many of us humans choose to give up learning and instead choose to accept ancient paradigms of just coping. Not only are we not moving forward into modernity and progress with enthusiasm, we are reverting to illusory concepts that reverse modernity and create greater hardship. Instead of finding new ways to address our societal problems by thinking outside the boundaries of what exists, we instead tear down our advances in the name of making life harsh and brutish. I am still not convinced that this backward trend is real enough to be sustained but what worries me is that I will be wrong. If the human experiment is not up to the task of fighting through to the knowing of the unknown out of fear or lack of will, then we are not destined to exist into the future for long. Continuing to exist as human beings was and is hard enough without us strategically trying to destroy who we are and what possibilities we still could have.

Our natures demand a positive outlook (#1202)

Lest we forget, we are unique in all the Universe as to our myriad possibilities. We are Human and as such we have the physical and mental capacities to self-determine and put knowledge to the yet still unknown. We are the only entity in this existence that has this prowess. Being at the pinnacle of opportunity, we must therefore understand how fortunate we are to have our destinies in our own hands. How brilliantly lucky we are to be born into an existence where oppression can only come from ourselves. If we all choose not to oppress, there would be none. Our past history has been convoluted with survival mixed with limited information. We do not suffer that paradigm as an only option today. We have advanced to the point where logic and nurture can replace the old paradigms of class distinction and the prejudices that flow from them. I have been consistent in my evaluation that we humans have two main natures, our curiosity and our compassion. Curiosity is fueled by the fact that we are all born into a world that contains us but is surrounded by the unknown. Compassion is evidenced by our care for each other and the emotional attachments that are a result of our care. We are a caring and wondering species. It is who we are and the embrace of who we are is where we find that we have only one rational outlook, that being positive. We are unique and we are trailblazers of our own destinies, which by all accounts, situates us as the leaders of all questions related to knowledge and it simplifies our actions to being specific in how we care for each other. We have no other outlook that expresses our natures so purely; and so perfectly expresses the identifying signature that we are human.

Think, think and then think some more! (#1201)

We are given a brain for more than just occupying space between our ears. The most important concept in human development has been the realization that we can think. I have met and seen so many people who just flat out choose to not think for themselves. Which makes me wonder, what do they do with their time instead of thinking? Are they so focused on their own moment to moment movements that any cognitive awareness out beyond themselves is just a waste of their precious time? Are they incapable of rationalization through logic that they just give in to the defeat of their own self-determination and take the easy way out by accepting safe antiquated thinking, despite it's irrational application to our modern society? Has the fear of losing what little they have overridden their ability to see how manipulated they become to the manipulators? For reasons beyond me I can only guess that those who are against the freedom and liberty of using their own thinking instead of canned thinking provided by those who fall short of rationality, is fear. How utterly, yes I said how utterly coward like and inhuman like. We are each given the capacity and ability to utilize our brains from sources provided by our own senses. It is so simple to think, why do so many not care to try? Thinking is like everything else, go into it with an open mind, absorb that which is new and discard that which is nonsensical. Simple, then analyze the information, reason it out, then conclude your perspective. Don't be afraid to share your conclusions with others so that they may agree or bring new information that allows you to objectively change your own thinking on your conclusion. This is the process of trial and error, which we all go through in order to arrive at an enlightened state. Wake up and think for yourself!

If you can imagine it then it can come true (#1200)

We all have hopes and dreams about how we live our lives or for our loved ones and even for our society as a whole. It is the process of making our dreams come true that we are most in doubt about. The process of turning our imagined reality into a factual reality is baffling at times but I have found, as well as many others, that putting my imagination to work oftentimes gives me direction. I am not talking about doing manipulative processes that are under-handed or unjust, but instead using my imagination to create a process that is honorable and welcome. I value thinking through problems to get to other avenues for proceeding. What I do have that is free to me is my ability to imagine what could be and then work backwards from that to where I am now. We all have this ability and we should all use it at every opportunity. Thinking is not hard, remembering what I think is harder for me so I write things down to help me remember. We don't have to submit ourselves to others because we don't know what to do, instead we need to submit ourselves to our own practiced thinking and develop our own processes for our hopes and dreams. We are each an incredible being with sensory capabilities unrivaled by any other species. We also have the cognitive ability to generally remember what is important to us in our lives and with that memory comes the reminder our hopes and dreams are mostly comprehensive and as such follow us throughout the course of our lives. By imagining what the world around us would be like if our hopes and dreams were true, we get to conceptualize a picture in our minds that may help us to trace back to where we can start.   

A tribute to Mom (#1199)

Mom, thanks for all the care and concern you give me regardless of what life has for me. I know that I have been blessed with the kind of mother many would love to have as their own. For this I am humbled and honored. I think back to all my memories of our time together and nothing but happiness and protection come to mind. One thing for certain in this life is that I know that you love all your children fiercely. That is the one constant in my sibling's lives that there is no doubt about. You have always shared your hopes and dreams with us and yet never let them get in the way of trying to provide a better tomorrow for us. Our upbringing was modest at best but what we lacked in material things and opportunities, we were granted in an over abundance of love from our Mother. Every child needs at least one constant in their lives so that they have a place of safe harbor. That we know your love for us, is that safe harbor. The importance of your kind motherly way will never be expressed with words. That you sacrificed your own ambitions and dreams to not only care for your siblings, their children, your children, and even now your grand and great grandchildren, absolutely indicates the honest virtue that dwells in your soul. Your whole life has been about what you have given to others, not about what you took for yourself. If I can model my life after your generous spirit in any degree, then my life will have a glimmer of the same humility and character you reflect out to the world. Thank you Mom for being the true example of what all of us children need, a loving protective mother who makes sacrifices of her own life in order to make her children's lives better. I love you Mom :)

The beauty of science (#1198)

Unknown before us in the evolution of our species have we been at this stage of knowing. Our species has historically documented our progress so that we continue to build upon knowledge we are instinctual about and knowledge that has arisen from our creative minds. Science has allowed us to leap into our present and future with great alacrity. We now have the capabilities to offer ourselves the possibility of expanding off of our home planet to other terrestrial orbs. Our utilization of science and innovative features that delve from science is increasingly common. More the rule now as opposed to the exception. We rely on science to invigorate our imaginings and expectations for our future visions of reality. What science has been most effective at in our lives is that science gives us purpose. Science opens up possibilities we need to fulfill our curious natures with the expectation that a dream can come into fruition. Our human natures are fueled by an amazing collection of sensed perceptions, in which the fulfillment of, is electric in expression. Science gives us the chance to explore our world and our surrounding Universe with ever-increasing logical precision. We are just at the beginning of an era of a new scientific paradigm to advance out beyond our previously bound parameters. What once held us back from thinking we could ever be more than an Earth-bound life form has been thoroughly rebutted through science and discarded into the waste bin of antiquated thinking. Science will lead us to a new age of discovery that includes not only what surrounds us, but to what surrounds that which surrounds us. 

Empowering ourselves (#1197)

Some of us have difficulty rising up out of the influence of others. Not exercising our own individualness can be very safe for those who fear being in charge of their own destiny. Putting up with others who coordinate and manipulate us is a price many are willing to pay in exchange for some less fearful security. The thing is though, we only live one time in this existence, and the time we spend being in submission to some, leaves us less time to explore and understand this reality. We also lose out on what could be magical for us. Anticipation of some wonderful life experience is worthy of having less security, especially if we have to trade some of our destiny to attain this lesser security. Those that do wield control over others as an addiction, are also lessening their own experiences in favor of one that is tolerated for less than honorable reasons. I am not condemning anyone who chooses to relinquish time out of their quota that is given them, however, if their time is relinquished out of being afraid, then what respect comes their way is equivalent to the respect they show to themselves. First and foremost, all of us born into this existence are worthy of being here. None of us is in any way is lesser as to natural rights and opportunities. Only those who would use manipulation and deceit would argue against any of us being any greater than another. Secondly, we all have the same general goals in life, that being so eloquently stated in the American Declaration of Independence; "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable and as such are for all of us each to define for ourselves. We don't need to trade any part of our own destiny to have them, fear notwithstanding. 

What happens to us after we die? (#1196)

Every single human who has ever lived long enough to have a few thoughts has had this one thoughtful question come into their minds. What happens to us after we die? I know this much, I don't know. What I do know is that how I live could very well have an effect on what happens to me after I die. My physical body will of course come to an end, but what of my spirit self or my being that inhabits this body? There is no known research that can prove that our spirit self actually dies with our bodies. Since the question remains and there is no definitive answer, I choose to think of death as a transitional period of some sort. Which means that my spirit will continue on in a form that is unimaginable to me at this time. What helps me with this as yet unknowable subject is that I try to take the high road and stay away from the dark pessimism of nothing happens, and that our spirits terminate into nothingness with our physical bodies. For me it is efficient to think of myself being in synchronicity with the Universe and it's nearly timeless nature as being correlative. I come from the Universe, I am part of the Universe, therefore syllogistically, I am a characteristic of the Universe. This bit of logic helps guide me to imagine that my life has a purpose not unlike the Universe on whole, and if so, then what I do with my life also has purpose. I choose to consider that I am not just a one-off shot in the dark morass of an unknowing chaotic theory. Therefore, if I am not at an end when this existence stops being a reality for me, then I am hopeful that what I do within this existence and the time frame it gives me is building toward another reality where the comprehensiveness of my being continues to  evolve.

Trust your personal virtue (#1195)

I will begin by saying that we all have both positive and negative thoughts come into our minds at any given time. That is normal. However, what we do when these thoughts do come into our minds separates us from each other. For the most part. many of us ignore our negative thoughts and try to concentrate on our positive ones. This is also normal. How do we ignore our negative thoughts though? I have found that I don't resist in allowing a negative thought to come into my mind. I let it expose itself to my logical mind and then react to it by feeling how embarrassed I would be if I allowed that negative thought to become a reality through strategy or action. This works for me. My point here is that all of us are prone to having negative thoughts in our heads at any given time and it is what we do with them that builds on the overall character and personality we carry around with us in our lives. It will always be a part of our natures to think harmful irrational thoughts, but it is also in our nature to dismiss these inappropriate thoughts to be not worthy of our own personal virtues. This is where we must allow our inner self to be the guide. We must trust that who we are is greater than any idea that floats around in our consciousness. I am a good man and I know it because I have allowed the virtue of my own personal nature to decide the actions I take on the thoughts I have. It is an involuntary control of sorts that allows me to cruise through some aspects of my mental imaginings with the knowledge that my personal default settings are based upon principles I honor and respect. Don't be afraid of having negative thoughts, be afraid of not having the character to trust your personal virtues in order to dismiss them.

Protecting our voting rights (#1194)

There are some statewide elections today and this is a good time to be mindful of our voting rights. After the age of 18, any American citizen is allowed to vote in American elections. Allowed is the operative word. Recently, there have been many added processes that need to be fulfilled before an American citizen can exercise their right to vote. These new processes, that have been advanced by an overwhelmingly Republican majority of legislators, have a cost involved as well as maneuverings that are at times almost impossible to achieve. Our democracy was founded upon the ideal that our citizens would be involved on our political visions. When some of us pass laws that actually restrict our citizens from voting on initiatives and on those who would represent us, we have effectively disenfranchised the foundation of democracy. If ever there was a time to stand up in unison and shout down those who would defend restricting voting rights within our democracy, now is the time. Like a slippery slope, if we allow a few to take from us our rights, we open the way for them to take even more of our rights. Fighting for our rights should be as common as breathing, yet we seem to have fallen asleep to the dangers implicit within denying our democracy a democratic process. Their is gain for the Republican party in restricting voters by various obstacles of new and difficult voter registration requirements. Many young/old poor vote Democrats into office and by making it harder financially for them to remain as registered voters, Republicans have effectively shrunk the pool of voters that don't vote for them. This may help Republicans in the coming national elections but what is worse is that democracy is being whittled down to another form of political philosophy antithetical to democratic values.

Who speaks for the poor and uneducated? (#1193)

We all want something for our efforts and that is understandable. When we have made a choice about a particular subject we advance it through communication and action. Which is also well accepted. Yet if we don't have the means to communicate or an audience who will listen, oftentimes we find we become frustrated and give into the hopelessness that lack of a forum or the proper intellect brings. Such is the case for most of the poor and uneducated. Who will speak for them when their interests do not necessarily align with the rest of us who have our own agendas? Perhaps we need to find out. I know I don't do enough for those who are unable to help themselves due to circumstances not entirely of their doing. There are many reasons for why we allow a vast proportion of our American population to become marginalized from birth to death. It is the case that we have come to accept that a percentage of us will be collateral damage at the altar of how we perform and function within our society. We can look backwards and say that we believe things are better than they were 100 years ago or we can console our conscious through the busy application of our own responsibilities, however, truth be told, we only want for ourselves at a much higher priority than we do for others. So who speaks for the others who cannot speak for themselves? What happens to them as the days go by and we don't hear the call for their plight? The Churches of God seem to have put up barriers instead of advancing reforms for more opportunity for those who have little or none. We will always be a disgrace in their eyes and in the children they bring into the world when we don't speak for them.

What is my curiosity? (#1192)

I just have to know! It is within me and a force that propels me in life. The best way to define what curiosity is might be to equate curiosity with a physical part of the brain. The Caudate nucleus, that sits within both hemispheres of the brain is being found to be associated with learning and memory. I know that I am curious by my thoughts and actions and now that it is also being shown to exist through a physical structure of my brain reinforces the high priority our species development has placed upon curiosity. On a lower level of just existing, it is my curiosity that helps me define my environment in order to evaluate some form of security for my continued existence. Curiosity has brought our species this far this fast as opposed to no curiosity and the whirligig of exposure to the whims of outside forces. I continue to say this, we are like organic computer processors, in many ways we receive data and then analyze the data and then react to the data through our, at the time, best conclusions. Our curiosity serves to help us investigate all the matters that we need in our lives. For me, my curiosity is one of two great instincts I am gifted with, my compassion being the other. My larger point about why I am discussing curiosity is that without curiosity, I would not have the vitality of life to learn and understand. My curiosity is a positive force that instills within me my relentless search for the meaning of existence and how it may have come about. Some have used philosophy and religion to come to satisfying conclusions but for me those two paradigms are not enough. Therefore as long as my mind functions and my vitality for life exists, I will continue my journey toward my curiosity about things that are still unknown to me.

Small steps toward each other (#1191)

There is no rush for us to to all come together at once. We need to take our time and be ourselves in order to establish our own identities before we move toward each other and make each others' lives more complex. Because the fact is we must all give of ourselves more and more for us to get along together. This principle is not only valid in our larger society but even more so in our one to one relationships. I say this because I have tried large group relations and personal intimate ones and have found that I was not comfortable as myself and therefore that reflected back out to my relationships, negatively. The only true way for us to get the perspective we need to understand what it is that finds a feeling of home for us is time and experience. Experience can only arrive with doing actions and thinking ideas in different ways. As for time, it just takes what it takes, some need little time, most need more than a little time and a few need much time. The amount of time varies as well as the accumulation of our experiences. What we must remember is for us to just be who we are and do the things that bring us the greatest satisfactions. It isn't always possible to be in control of the things we think and do but when we can we should utilize that practice. Everything we do should be with a plan toward moving closer to how we interact and eventually find happiness in our relationships. Whether true love or bare toleration, we do find what suits us best and how we do that is through small steps, short and effective movements toward our hoped for goals. There is no rushing what the rest of our lives will depend upon, so take it easy and let the pressure of doing something now dissipate, and just enjoy the happy journey of self awareness. 

Perseverance is instinctual (#1190)

The older I get the harder it is for me to put all my energy into whatever I am fighting for at the moment. I sense that my hubris and physical abilities are waning. It is true that they are and how I deal with that is I still give all I have to advocate/defend as a rule. I don't push back or forward with as much gusto as when I was younger but my resilient resolve stays static. From around the first moment I drew breath as an infant, I have been fighting to stay alive and more. It is natural for us humans to fight to survive and the fighting aspect of our survival nature is what I carry with me all the days of my life. I don't necessarily fight for breath as my first priority nowadays, despite a good argument that could be made for keeping our air clean, but I fight for other things in life like principles that define my virtues. I get to define what my virtues are comprised of by my thoughts and actions to make them come to fruition. if I could keep a smile on my face all the days of my life it would be because others are also smiling. Living life is so simple yet we were all born into a reality that has many problems which doesn't allow for everyone to smile much at all. So what is there to be done about this? I can change how I interact within society and hope that my expressions spread out to others. I can also advocate/defend for changing how we interact through any medium I can utilize. These are small steps in the right direction but important small steps nevertheless. So regardless of how much energy or enthusiasm I have, I still persevere because it is who I am and what makes me alive.

Human activity is instinctual (#1189)

If I hear one more time "I worked for that" when talking about what one deserves in some great amount I will experience a little bit more disappointment in my fellow species. We all have to do something regardless of whether it is economics or not. Our natures demand that we be active, so why is it that some think that we should be rewarded with great riches when others toil for little more than sustenance to stay alive. Work is work, no matter how you parlay the activity. I would venture to say that the more demanding of work is the rigorous physical motions that produce muscle and bone wear is far more productive than the work that is done in an easy chair with a pen or computer. It seems reasonable that some would differ with me here, however, creating new ways to work are still not equivalent to the actual work being done. What I am trying to express is that we all need to be active at something in order for our lives to grow and mature. We all cannot sit in a cave and meditate on true enlightenment for the entirety of our existences. That our activity is rewarded is an argument for how we barter, not for the necessity of our needs. We need to be active and applying a system of rewards to it cannot so tip the balance that some who work are given too much and others who toil are given far too little. This type of process destroys our human natures and molds us into competitive carnivores who have little to no empathy for our fellow human beings. Again, we all need to be active as a rule, but we need to find a system of barter that equates the real value of our individual activities in light of our nature to be active.

Companionship in life (#1188)

There have been times in my life where for a small period of time, I had found a companion who was in synchronicity with me and I with her. This happened to me a few times during my life and those memories of that bond we shared are still highly appreciated. I have not had a bond with a companion like those earlier ones and for that I am sorrowful. Yet, my relationships today are more and abundant. They are not of the intense physical (passionate) nor psychological (emotional) varieties but they are friendly and caring. I still hold out the thought that at some point in my life a connection will be made again like earlier in my life and this time I will not let a loving relationship escape me, from me, being too selfish. I have learned much over the years and my biggest and most painful lesson has been that I had prized my own risks/rewards above my companions. Ashamed is the best way for me to explain my lack of courage and insight into how to have a true companion relationship. I bring all of this up because I am a single man who enjoys the calm and serenity of personal freedom, yet, my life is lacking the real close contact that I have experienced in the past. Despite my appreciated bachelorhood, I desire more, and hope that more will reveal itself to me in time for me to prove I am deserving of more. Life is not that hard to figure out for a guy like me. Unfortunately I had to learn, through all the stubbornness I could muster, that being loved and loving back is the greatest experience in this existence and always will be.

Whatever happened to not trusting liars? (#1187)

Is our citizenry so devoid of what the truth is that when they hear a lie, they don't know it's a lie? Or is it that many of our citizenry don't care about what some lie about? Truth telling may seem naive, however, truth is what separates us from the insane among us. If we were all telling lies to each other it would be utter chaos. So my question still stands, why do we honor liars? If the current trend continues then I have a little less hope for our species overall. I have always thought of our species as an anomaly among life forms here in our existence. We humans could learn and evaluate with some general agreements about what current facts exist. We would then pass these facts along to our youngsters for them to build upon. But if what we are passing along are lies instead of truths, then we are setting our society up to crumble. We are not building upon factual foundations but instead we are building upon manipulated lies passing themselves off as truths. This is a great time to be alive in our society but it is also a terrible time to be alive. We are reaching the fork in the road, where we must decide as a society if we are going to allow for lies to guide our society or are we going to continue on the path of reaching for the truth, no matter the cost. I highlight some in our political leadership institutions and some who want to lead our society. They have a tendency to say whatever they feel coincides with their policies regardless of whether they are saying truths. They fit lies to their own pre-determined policies instead of letting the truth form their policies. We should never tolerate liars with rewards and accolades when their intent is to undo what good and right we have fought so hard to achieve. It is beneath the human dignity of all of us.