Not come what may but make what comes! (#1582)

The days of sitting back and letting the flow of life dictate what our lives will be like are over. It is up to us to begin and continue to change our own personal lives in order to reflect what we see as the change we all hope to experience. If we are not changing we are falling behind. Everything changes, everything, so staying the same or doing nothing to choose our change instead of it being chosen for us is inadequate and less than positive. Now the hard part it seems, having the courage to stand up to the old paradigms that despite being wholly unsatisfying are known therefore somewhat ironically, comfortable. Life is not about the journey toward comfort, it is the journey toward knowing and making life better for ourselves and those around us. Comfort is good in short spurts to rest within but mostly comfort is lazy and leads to an ego fueled ideal that breaks down virtue into greed, lust and self absorption. When we lose sight of our shared ideals that should be a beacon to the world we begin to undermine our own perceived standing as an example for others to follow. When avarice nullifies virtue, then nothing changes and changing our lives and the world around to the better has no hope. We are already in a world where avarice is seen as the pinnacle for all of us to reach, even though we know that it's followers are left with unfulfilled hopes to live as humans at peace with each other and the natural world we inhabit. There is only one course for humanity and that course is to change that which is wrong and to make it right.

I have got to do better! (#1581)

Every time I get even a hint that I am doing alright, something happens to remind me that I have so very far to go. Even my little conquests are insignificant in comparison to what I could or should have done. I will certainly take my little steps forward but how much better could all of our lives be if I could just get more in tune with the vibrations of a better life. I am my own worst critic and will always be the first to humbly admit that I am nothing special or different in an egocentric way. Yet I know that I am failing to realize what is better in me. I often catch myself faltering and defaulting back to old behavior that I know is not representative of who I am now. Little things like not taking control over my words and high emotional stress. If I am not the cool headed one during times when I am not obstructed by anything else other than my own force of will then how am I going to effect change where my own control is not enough? I suppose I am still learning how to be a more effective person and the growing pains of that are trials and tests. Most of the trials and tests I do well but some I falter at badly. My passion is the biggest stumbling block I have and taking the idea that my passion is the reason for my caring so much is not salve enough for not being more in control of it. In this regard, being in more control of myself, I do shoot for perfection. It is the one area where I am the one making the choices and if I cannot choose to reflect who I am then I am not what I think I am. At least that is the conclusion I have come to tell myself. As such, I had better get more in control of my passions or they might just be the undoing of my best efforts to be the man I so wish to live as.

We are how we treat others (#1580)

What is the motivation or the intent behind our actions? When we honestly admit the truth to ourselves is when we know who we are. Life is more than just some mystically unknown quantity, it is a reflection of what we are to each other. How we see others tells us what our souls are like. In my heart I know I am an honest decent human being but if my actions do not demonstrate that then I am just deluding myself about who I am. This experiment called life is really very simple to understand, treat others as you would want to be treated. Now go and live a good life! For those who do not treat others as they would want to be treated then hypocrisy on their heads. I have been a hypocrite and deservedly so. Yet I came to realize, just like we all should come to realize, that the actual living of life is the most important thing, not some material or control power that so many seem to lust for. I don't want to live with my back to the wall trying to protect a mountain of things when the only thing that matters is life. I don't want to die from others hating me or not caring enough about me to even respect and dignify my life. I want to die of an abundance of love if I had my choice. Choice, the most cunning action we can make as a species and yet most of us give it little to no thought when deciding what is right for our individual and collective lives. Most of us just follow the flow and try to grab a little bit from life as much as we can while abdicating our power to choose a different reality. It is time to get up from our armchairs and engage in our world so that the choices we are presented with reflect how we want to be treated.

My wandering mind (#1579)

This is a problem I have had most of my life. I get to a point where my mind starts to drift from the subject at hand to other things without me even catching myself doing it. I have to purposely focus my mind on what I am doing or I begin to lose my concentration. I suppose I am no different than many of us as we seem to allow ourselves the distractions out of a sense of missing out on something. At least that is how I see myself concerning the "day dreaming" I do when I should be focused until the end of whatever thing I am doing. Most notably as an example is my work. I have done a lot of rough carpentry and when I start a project I don't just do one thing until I am done, I do many things at the same time as mostly things need to fall into place in some out of sequence order for me. I would be being too overly attached to process if I just did one thing while not knowing how other things were going to affect that one thing. Mostly with carpentry, like building a house, there is some degree of adjustment along the way since nothing ever comes together exactly as how one or many envision it. Nevertheless, I need to do a better job of placing my focus on smaller projects in order to do them better than my less than best effort. I say this in particular about some recreational games I play for fun and learning. Often I will lose focus against really tough competitors due to too many things going on at once. And when I do lose focus I am at the mercy of those whom I am competing against. Shameful on my part since they should be getting my best and most focused
 effort. Anyway, I thought I would share a little battle I have with myself about my less than focused mind at times. 

We are more than just cannon fodder (#1578)

My generation's coming of age, 1973, was one of the first without an American military draft since 1940 and was a major accomplishment in our country's struggle with ending the Vietnam war. Instead of focusing on education and creating solid work opportunities we as a nation were and are more inclined to let our young folks enter military service and flex that strength where politicians deem appropriate. Certainly there are times when the defense of our country, even beyond our own borders tests our resolve to fulfill, however, as a rule the conscription and then volunteer force were more a paradigm where we used our youthful resources for less than what they could accomplish in life. I see it now in today's volunteer force. Where joining to become a soldier is the preferred choice of our politicians instead of improving our educational system and creating equality and fairness in our work environments. It is easier for those politicians to work less at giving our youth a real choice that is more than volunteering for military service if that is not their first choice. The powers that be have to have a vision for respecting the future of our country beyond war. Wars are fought to protect principles that soldiers are willing to die for to protect. What are our current principles? Do we treat and respect our citizenry equally as to opportunity and general welfare? We have many problems here in our country and just going about the status quo is not enough. We need to give our youth more than an opportunity to serve in the military, we need to give them jobs that command respect and dignity as well.

New challenges (#1577)

When King Solomon said "There is nothing new under the sun", no doubt he hadn't envisioned a future like ours. There are more new things under the sun than any person in a lifetime could ever imagine. Surely though the King was referring more to situations of human nature like I like to believe he meant. But back to reality, technology and innovation have surpassed our simple way of living to make things so complex that we need to specialize our civilization into categorically specific areas in order to accomplish achievements reasonably well. For me, so much of my time is spent just on understanding the mathematics and physics around me in order to get some things done and keep myself safe from injury. Our world is a spectacle of incredible function and giving that function it's proper due is wise on our part. Our human species has to adapt to new ways of doing things as a principle of our conquering spirit. We are not a complacent lot, we need advancement to quench the thirst of our curiosity. We also need to keep moving forward into our destiny, which is to explore and examine the space that confines our possibilities. We are at a new age of manifest destiny and instead of knowing being confined to land bordered by oceans, we are now challenged to know the space between and the space confining the ends of our Universe.  

Are we too proud to admit our errors? (#1576)

There is one theme running through my mind this morning and it is all about solutions to problems. We can find solutions to almost every problem we have but it takes the will to do it. Or in some cases the recognition that wealth is not the answer to all our problems. We can do things differently here in America if we so choose. The examples of problem solving exist outside our borders on almost all the problems we face. Many of our problems have to do with income inequality and the conclusions of that fact are plentiful in all of our lives. Yet solutions in other countries are advancing and alleviating this scourge laden dynamic. We can learn from others to better ourselves if we would just start by admitting our current system needs repair. For some reason we cannot find the will to admit we are wrong when all the rest of the world can see it in clarity. Another area of lacking in our society is how we treat our most vulnerable, especially in light of income inequality. We have little health care for those who cannot afford it, we have less and less food made available because in the (lack) of wisdom being forwarded by many of our political representatives due to keeping the wealthy overly healthy while turning our back on the downtrodden. Housing for those who are homeless is not a priority for many of our politicians and is actually not even discussed in honest terms as to it's effect. Our democracy is the greatest foundation of political achievement in modern history and despite that we continue to operate it with a callousness that unravels it's remarkably stitched together connectedness.

I admit when I don't know (#1575)

It is all part of telling the truth. There just isn't right or wrong, there is also I don't know. As beings capable of reason this shouldn't be so hard to understand and employ. We need to utilize our abilities for the purpose they present. We observe and then analyze to conclude and more often than we realize, our conclusions are inconclusive. But that is the point, it is okay to not have an answer when an answer isn't logically attained. Too many people think that they are given rights that supersede the rest of we humans. As if some privilege of unknown origins has bestowed upon them an enlightenment that only they can summon. The illusion of knowing all or most all is a symptom of another psychosis that corresponds to an ego run amok. The ability to have tremendous insight into some general and a few specific areas is more rare than normal. Where most of us dwell is we have a few areas of good understanding and many areas of limited understanding. That is fine and is more in line with truth and honesty, which by the way should trump ego every time, truth and honesty that is. As to why ego is placed in such high esteem with some has more to do with their own insight into their own inadequacies and less to do with them being honest brokers within reality. I don't mind being a fool when I am one and in that I become more human. I am made to realize that I am not what I think I am but instead I am more like all of us with the same desire to be accepted. By sticking with reality and common sense I have a chance to be a part of our society and a positive functioning member of it, especially when I admit that I don't know.

This is not all there is! (#1574)

Our imaginations won't allow it! Reality is only a snapshot in time and the next change is just happening. Be of good cheer and know that every movement we make toward something better is actually making something better. Life is not horrible per se right now but we all know that it needs to keep getting better. So the purpose of our lives is to add to the betterment in whatever way we are able. That is what each of us has as a duty to each other. Yes, we owe each other the better and best of ourselves, it is only right and proper. So what we see and know today is just the movement of our civilization toward the better, not static or getting worse. Surely we fight against complacency and sabotage by some humans who think they have no duty to society and life on our planet, but they are and never will be nothing more than cowards who pretend to be strong. So off we go about our betterment processes all the while rebuffing and chasing down the cowards who would put obstacles in our way. This is what they will never get as humans, that as humans we have an instinct to care about our species and those species we find dear to protect. We also want to use our imaginations to create things that improve our happiness and grow our knowledge into a greater and more dynamic paradigm. We are curious about life, our planet, the Universe we live in and those are the things that some humans want to manipulate out of our futures. They will not succeed but the rest of us need to stay vigilant in our purpose to be the most intellectual and inspiring species known to exist.

Bending the arc of justice (#1573)

It is our duty as human beings to make our world better. Notwithstanding what we think is right for now but more so for what is better for tomorrow. As well as things may work in our civilization they can always work better. We have not hit the perfect ceiling for how to survive in our Universe and will possibly never do so. However, as it has taken us centuries and yes, even millenniums, to get to this point, we are not done evolving our civilization to the new technologies and innovations within equality and fairness for all our citizens. Everything we have done to this point from the beginning of time can be improved upon. Even old paradigms scrapped in order to provide for the opportunity for happiness we all have coming to us by virtue of our individual existence. No child ever born should have to endure the hardships we presently have allowed for over half our population on this planet. We are to be ashamed for our lack of care we place on our own duty to improve this existence merely through our presence. None of us were born into a perfect world yet when we see the imperfections around us we have to make the decision to not be a part of the equation that allows for it. We don't disassociate but we don't enable it's continuance. This is where knowing our natures comes into hand. We are caring and curious and by that we are not naturally brutish and boring. We have capacities that allow for us to choose our futures with decisions that come directly from us. Our perspectives should be a constant reminder of our goals for our lives. Self-gratification to the exclusion of our duty to life or a life filled with duty that brings about gratification in our striving to achieve our common purpose.

In a relationship versus being alone (#1572)

The age old battle is not quite so clear cut in favor of one over the other. Most will say that finding someone whom they love and want to live together is their priority, yet the effort to actually achieve that seems to wane the closer one gets to achieving it. Some call it jitters and others, like me, call it fear to leave the alone I am somewhat familiar with. For all the promise a relationship brings, it does take from one's individuality in the sense that relationships require compromise and that is the inevitable problem. As a man who has been alone for the better part of his life, a few live in girlfriends several times notwithstanding, the jury is still out as to whether I am willing to commit to a woman whom I love. It would be helpful to actually have a woman whom I loved wanting to have the same with me but even the thought of that is worthy of considerations. I like the ability to do what I want when I want but I miss companionship. The perfect relationship is out there I am certain but not by the evidence I have seen with my family and friends over the years. If truth be known here, I am more inclined to have a relationship as I have had plenty of alone time and although I am not disappointed in being alone, I feel I would be more happy with a relationship. The point of this little rambling of mine is that the weight of either is real. The obviousness of coupling up is not without it's concerns, thus making the right coupling a significant step. Although I will continue to struggle with the advent of either dynamic in my life I look forward to the day when it actually becomes a real choice.

My never-ending care and curiosity (#1571)

My greatest attribute has been my ability to remember my childhood and the feelings I felt during that time. I was just starting out my life and trying to understand so many things happening. Like a lot of children, my first lasting impressions were formed from observing my parents, and although my birth father didn't make much of an impression on me, my mother did. What I saw in her was her kindness and love for not only we, her children, but also for her parents and siblings. There is no doubt in my soul that my caring heart is even further formed from my mother, even the sensitivity to emotion is directly attributable to her. I treasure that as a gift that has influenced my life to this day and beyond. My curiosity has always been part of me. I have wanted to know things since I could first utter the phrase, Why? But why? That was me when I was a child. I wanted to know how things worked, not only material things but we humans. I didn't take me long in grammar school to find the library where I was when I was not out playing games with other kids. I loved to read and fill my mind with answers to questions I hadn't even thought of yet. The school library was like being in a magical place where once I figured out the Dewey decimal system, everything in that library became my new best friend. Both my care and my curiosity are with me today in ways that are different from when I was young but in no less a passionate fashion. It is who I am and will be until I am no more. 

Fear's soothing elixir (#1570)

I suppose all of us give into our fears after a time and try to ameliorate them instead of facing them and calling fears out. Our civilization and our inculcated human natures are not aimed at, in most general cases, remedying fears, just managing them. For example the end of life scenario where belief systems take on a greater priority because people will reach the end and not want to be subject to the choices they made in life without a life preserver for some believed afterlife. The old, (I am dying, what have I got to lose?) scenario. I find it ironic that considerations for an after life are taken so trivially that it isn't until the end of one's foreseeable life that any choice is made about what scares us about death. Mine is simple, I will face death with the same courage I face life. Simply be myself and be grateful for the time I got to spend in an existence that allowed me to see, hear, touch, taste and smell the wonders that this world presently offers. So instead of looking to salve my fear with a potion of last resort, I live in the reality that is in front of me, not what I want it to be. Of course I am always trying to change reality to the better but that is work not an illusive escape. It has been consistent among we humans as far as I can tell that we live in fear as a default because we don't know how to admit we are afraid nor do we know how to find the courage within us to stand up to fear regardless of it's nature. I write in general terms here because I know that there are exceptions to the rule and thank progress for that. Myths, mores, and customs have their place among our folklore but the momentum of our current era of rational enlightenment, that we all live in, will not be denied by those who still practice compromise with their fears instead of welling up within themselves the courage to overcome fears as they expose themselves.

Criticizing without offering an alternative is shameful! (#1569)

Too often I hear and see written comments about how someone sees what's wrong with a situation and the current solution being provided without explaining to me and others what the alternative solution that would be much better is. The Monday morning armchair quarterback syndrome. They act like they are so understanding of how not to do a thing, to the point of excluding everything others offer, yet they offer no solution themselves. There are hard choices out there in the world that need to be made right now and any solution that at least is focused on ending a crisis or at least curtailing it is better than nothing at all. That is the point of making hard decisions, each decision will always have a drawback to it when it isn't perfect. So those who sit on the sidelines and cast aspersions without offering anything are less to be noticed for having any gravitas on the problem and should be ignored as a rule. I, like the rest of we humans know imperfection and we often are plagued by the solutions we try to find, yet we do try to find, unlike those who only criticize. Their intent may be well meant, or not, but it is counter-productive to remind us all that what we do use for utility's sake is not without it's drawbacks. Instead of criticizing, all of us should be trying to think of better and more efficient solutions to our problems. Not just in treating the problems as they arise but also trying to prevent them before they even happen. Nothing should be sacred when life is weighed on the scale against process or custom. If we are not trying to change our existence to a better place, then maybe we all should just sit back and criticize each other without ever trying to apply a solution, NOT! 

My silence is my point! (#1568)

When you hear nothing from me it is because either I am no more or that I have nothing to say. For now it is the latter. The power of silence needs to never be underestimated. So many times it is too convenient to speak something in order to appease an uncomfortable situation. However, if you did not create the uncomfortable situation, then someone else did and as their strategy, they need to stew in it, not anyone else. I find that even acknowledging irrational or illogical behavior shows a weakness in me that then can be exploited. I have learned to be tougher about what I am willing to do to protect my own integrity. I have to be willing to actually fight for my right not to be influenced nor coerced, either physically or mentally. My right to be silent is a value I will not abdicate to anyone who thinks they can put me under duress for not speaking. Know this though, I am thinking and what I am thinking is mine not anyone's by force to know. If I offer my silence it is because there is not enough information or the common sense of the statement or question is lacking. Either way, my silence should speak volumes as to my opinion, which is I have none which I want to share. It is the same with me when I am waiting for a response about a situation. I, at least, ask for an opinion first before I unload a a scenario of which I need help clarifying. That is to questions, as to statements, I am not a casual soap box orator. I do speak out about things I find unequal or unjust and I am not waiting for an opinion, only a sign that I am being heard. The manipulating bullies of this world do try hard to get us to agree with them but in most every case my silence is my answer to them.

Staying anonymous (#1567)

When I was younger I was thrilled to see people get attention for their accomplishments and one day I had hoped to be one of them as well. As time has gone on and I have gotten older, I find that having all that attention is not some fairy tale occurrence where nothing but great things come of it. On the contrary, even doing the little things in life are susceptible to scrutiny by those who have built a cottage industry off of examining the fame of many. I think about Angelina Jolie and her decision to be proactive with her own health concerns and the backlash that has exposed. To me it is remarkable that a person who wishes to extend their life through the available science humankind has to offer should be the normal, not the abnormal. In Jolie's case a simple decision that has been made and acted upon should just be a footnote in time, not a firestorm that perversely attacks her. Her not being anonymous is the end product of why this happened to her. She did choose to become an actress and then advocate for the rights of desperate children, and as such is not exempt to our current obsession with celebrity. However, surely fame does not give her that exciting feeling I talked about when I was young. On the contrary, fame has left her squeezed into an existence that doesn't allow the good nature within her to openly move about among us and to me, that is our loss. For myself, I have not nor will I attain fame for it's unenlightened allure, because I now know that being special comes from within not through being idol worshipped. Now the random acts of selflessness that I do achieve, are left only for me to know and for that I am not only grateful but a better person for it.

Demanding more from ourselves (#1566)

Not more for ourselves, but from ourselves back out to others. What is really interesting though is that when we do give of ourselves in selfless ways, we get something in return that cannot otherwise be gained. We get a perfect moment of accomplishment that has such a peace to it. I don't know how to describe right now the feeling I get when something from me benefits others in ways that satisfy everyone. It is an inexplicably pure sensation that makes me realize that my life has meaning in ways that I never knew it could. There is a connectedness that is experienced that truly does exist on some higher plane of rationality. We get there by being more open to being a part of life that makes good and common sense. Not just sitting by and watching life happen all around us. Getting out and trying to do what can be done within some sense of reasonableness. That is all that there is needed to be done. Something that is possible toward even being probable. The joy in life is through our emotions and digging down deep into them is where we understand the depth of our existence. We are not just mechanical automatons who do what needs to be done to satisfy our own needs. Rather we are robust sense orientated processors who can live with gusto when we make ourselves available to life outside our own needs. Surely there will always be those who think that serving only themselves is the correct way to live but those people are hypocrites in that they also expect others to serve them. Life is simple and does not need to be about power and gathering, it can be about the specialness achieved when doing for others becomes our favorite thing to do for ourselves.

Reinventing reality (#1565)

No, not by ignoring reality and creating an illusion, but instead by understanding reality and then setting into motion your efforts to change it where it needs changing. Those who cannot or will not have a vision of the future will always be the pawns in a chess match played by others. We have a duty to our individual selves to make our demands on existence while we are a part of it. Even after death, we can leave a legacy for others to follow and build upon. The truth of the matter is that we all need each other in some way or another. By accepting this obvious simple premise, we can then all move forward the idea that life should be about the experiencing of it and not about the drudgery and hardship most of us currently have come to be entwined. Believe me on this, it is far greater living a life with your fist in the air demanding honor and respect, than it is to be whimpering in the dark because fear has it's hold on you. From one or many of us will come a miraculous paradigm shift from what we know now to what we will happily accept. But the initiative to move ourselves from our current status to a better one must start with us knowing where we are now so that we can move from it. I am creating an argument for a purpose for all human beings. A purpose so general that all of us are participants. We must make our world better. There is no other higher priority than to leave a world to our younger generations greater than that left to us by our fore-parents. The focus must not be on ourselves as an end goal but on all of us. Where we see wrong we must step toward making the wrong go away and have right replace it. We know the differences, now it is up to us to have a positive effect on those differences in every aspect of our lives.

I get to choose who is in my life (#1564)

Yes, it is up to me to decide. I am not so tied to anything other than keeping myself alive that I couldn't change whatever it is that is against my personal code of ethics. Regardless of the circumstance, I am me first and foremost and if I ever lose my identity again it won't be because I chose to lose it. I had a friend many years ago who would always remind me that if he had lost everything he had except his underwear, he could walk down the street with his head held high and know that he would be alright. My little illusion of a world that is my daily companion could be uprooted from me in an instant and I know in my soul that whatever came next would be a choice by me to do the next right and proper thing for me. I am well satisfied that the only value in my life is what I hold most dear, that being my honor. My friend also used to say that everything material is just so much "pig Iron". Nothing material is greater to me than my honor and since all the years ago, his words still ring true in my ears. I don't have any privileges or deserves from the beginning of my life since life is a crap shoot to begin with. Those of us who have are all just fortunate enough to have survived our infancy and teenage years to get to maturity. The other material values we drag along with us over the years are just security blankets for our egos. If we are fortunate to have children then the equation becomes more complex but only in that the health, safety and opportunities of our children become our greatest priority. My rights to anything beyond my own welfare are icing on the cake and not to be kept all costs, rather they are to be diminished when greater threats to others can be foreseen. it all boils down to me being a principled man who puts others on the same footing I want to be on. Otherwise I won't allow those who are not so inclined to remain a part of my life.

Nurture leads to care (#1563)

We all start out our lives being nurtured from some degree to another. Therefore we are products of being nurtured, it is how we survived to maturity. Yet, once we reach maturity, nurture is given such a low priority in out general stages of actions. We are taught, at least here in America, to desire for ourselves over and above the needs of our community on whole. Not in every instance but as a general acknowledgement. How utterly antithetical to our upbringing. None of us moves forward into life without nurture yet we dismiss nurture as a high priority to express. I am disappointed that our society doesn't elevate nurturing throughout our lives as a point of emphasis. Instead we emphasize economical and power factors as desirable priorities. It is an illusion to conceive that the reason we even exist has little to do with nurture and more to do with survival skills. Again, none of us makes it out of our infancy without nurture, yet we seem to have lost the idea of that. Whether it is we are profoundly unable to understand the simple reality that care given to us is what sprouted us into maturity or we choose to ignore that because society allows us to accept illogic as a foundational principle. The benefit of being illogical about our species and it's natural progression gives us the opportunity to do things that are unnatural and detrimental to our community of citizens. Greed and avarice become acceptable forms of ethics and try mightily to replace the logic of our necessitating each other for survival. As an enlightened thinker, I am truly frustrated by our species' inability to grasp the reality of who we are and what we should be doing. The purpose of my blog page is to expose that and yell it from the top of my lungs.

Creative thinking while being honest (#1562)

Things are not what they appear to be. Especially when others tell us that, that is the way it is. Not everything is the way it is until we allow that to be. Life can be hard when there are limited options that are recognizable so that is why we must keep our minds working on ideas that are not normal. We have to release our imaginations to allow for alternative concepts to form. I know this is not easy especially when we are under time pressures and expectations from others to succeed at whatever it is that has us stalled. Yet, no other reality will exist if we accept what is without trying to change what is into something that is not what is. A tongue twister there but the idea is rock solid. We have to think outside our normal allowable understandings. How do we do that? Not so easy but we need to consider what others have done in similar situations to begin with. We need to know the the intent of the problem we are faced with and how we got into it. We need to know what mitigating circumstances have influenced us to the point of limiting our options. We need to reach out with the mindset of leaving no stone unturned for any and all resources our society allows us. And if all else fails we need to commit to ourselves a resolve to move forward despite whatever outcome prevails. I am a fighter by spirit and I know all of us are as well so keeping our integrity intact regardless of how circumstance and fate intersect into our lives is the key. Not all problems will have readily supplied solutions but we can press forward into life and occasionally surprise ourselves with heretofore unknown solutions. But only if we press forward with a clear mind bent toward honest thinking that doesn't limit our possibilities.

The freedom of my conscious (#1561)

From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.". Although it is true in our present reality that these categories do play out like Shakespeare wrote, however for me it is that we are all born great and it is only society and culture that make us less so in reality. The freedom of my conscious is reminiscent of Rene Descartes and his attempt to prove he existed; "I think, therefore I am". Since it is I who think, it is my existence I am thinking from. Mine and no one else's if Descartes proof is correct. I tend to accept Rene's premise and conclusion as logical and therefore, I am an entity of my own free will. I get to free will since my ability to think is dependent upon me, and only me, acting upon it. I accept this as fact for myself and then so by extension I accept this as fact for all others as well. This is how I get to we are all born great. the beauty and genius of the human experience is that we have these five senses, touch, taste, hearing, seeing and smelling. With these miraculous abilities inherent from birth, we add reasoning, analyzing and concluding. Although logic is the main thrust of our reasoning, intuition has it's part as well. Again, I will say it here, we are biological data processors, capable of not only taking in information but studying it to determine outcomes or possible outcomes. Then there is the one other paradigm in our existence that we all share, we have emotion. So that the data we input into ourselves everyday and then conclude through our processes, has an emotional component to it that heightens within us a sense of morality, ethic and justice. We actually care about what we come to know or suspect. We are a complex biological specimen that by default of our abilities, per se, make us all great from the beginning of our lives.

Our indomitable spirits (#1560)

Examples of our persevering inner fortitude are evident in our daily lives, but few more so than like the recent discovery of 3 young women who were held against their will for about 10 years. Right in our normal neighborhoods that we all have come to expect to be free of from such nefarious behavior. Something deep in my soul was so touched by these young women and how they endured a lifestyle that was designed to crush their hope and steal from them their freedom to be natural human beings. Yet endure they did for 10 trips around the sun for our Earth right under the noses of all who would have helped them if only they had known. This story in Ohio is emblematic of the lengths some in our society are willing to go to get what they want at all costs while also being emblematic of how despite the horrible intent of the captor, these women prevailed in the face of such a notorious reality. My soul was so stirred by this outcome and the gift of it's ending has provided me and I can reasonably assume many others as well. The gift of hope coming to fruition despite the forlorn lure of despair. The width and depth of how these young women feel now that they are free from their tormentor is not to measured by anyone such as me who has no real perspective into their experience, however I can relate to the dearness they must now feel to be free again and have a future of their own making if they so choose. I have spent my whole life working to get to a place where I don't have to ask for a by your leave from anyone and now these 3 young women have that same opportunity going forward. 

Expressing individualism (#1559)

I am so enjoying the later years of my life because I am not trying to impress anyone, not even myself. Sure I am critical of myself and I try to do things perfectly, lol, but when I am the only one who matters to me in what processes and outcomes become, I am easy to please. The stereotypes and cyclical fads of our society are not what drive me anymore. I care more about how I feel then I do about what anyone else thinks. I have a code today that sets the limits of my desires and wants within a very basic framework. I have no great allusions about expectations my mind conjures up as necessary. Instead I have great expectations that I will live a humble life doing as much good as I can to help our world be a better place. I am not the architect of our world but I can be a real difference maker in how I want myself and others to have a chance to be decent happy people. So back to expressing my individualism without reservation to the general acceptances of our day. I am a free spirit who happens to exist in a community of other free spirits. We all have the ability and the right to allow ourselves to express our own individualism regardless of our own limitations on what we think is acceptable. I am no one to obliterate sanity for the sake of doing it but I am one who questions the premise of what we conceive to be reality. I don't have to accept premises and theories that are not logical nor do I have to accept customs inculcated as facts. The freedom of my soul and my spirit lodges within the ability I have to reason, analyze and conclude without restrictions that deviate from the gamut of true omnipresent evidence into a restrictive vision only seen through a tunnel.

The high road (#1558)

I do much better in life when I keep my head and shoulders above the din of complacency and depression. The glass half full analogy is appropriate. I, like all of we humans, need to motivate my mind into action every day I re-awake from my sleep. We humans have so many different emotions that are constantly being triggered by those people and things swirling around us that it is easy to get out of sorts and off the happy track we hope to spend our whole lives enjoying. Our inadequate society allows us opportunities to recognize the despair that co-exists with us but it also allows us to find new and enlightened solutions to those very same dilemmas. Again, the glass half full rationale. Even accepting the default position that to fix a problem is satisfying, the fact that there was a problem that needed to be fixed keeps the elation to a minimum. yet, the high road is still the road for me because hopefully sometime into the long future I hope and plan for our species, we may reach a foundational society that has worked out all the inadequacies we presently endure. Happiness is not so hard to find either when my outlook remains positive. Small in comparison to my wishes but nonetheless, well worth the achievement. Life could be such a beautiful and breathtaking experience if things were not so guided by short-sighted policies and the people who strive to control them. Yet the hope is that we, as a species, continue to learn and mature in facts and possibilities to a point where logical conclusions and the best of our common sense will be how we govern our civilization. I cannot help but be optimistic as I have been privileged to be surrounded by some of the best examples of humanity as a reminder of just how fabulous our species can be. 

Our generational battles (#1557)

Our natures demand that we be free and have liberties. As well as our society has created a constitution that promotes our general welfare and the pursuit of happiness. It is no coincidence that our constitution aligns most easily with our natures. Much effort and consideration went into providing a pathway for our society to follow and protecting the insightful intent of our forebears is our duty and our necessity. Every generation has had to defend these honorable principles instilled through us and our government. There is no lack of those who would take all of our rights to equality and justice and make us less than free. They come in many disguises but you can readily find them easily enough by their actions. Whenever you find advocates for taking instead of giving you have your first clue. We have built upon guarantees provided to us by those who came before us. Those are in the bank so to speak. When we hear some trying to take from that bank, as an excuse to make us better, in order to satisfy some superficial or illusory problem, then beware! The intelligence of a community to balance it's freedoms with security needs is wise. Balance being the key to any moderation in behavior and policy. I think of those who are prone to react too harshly into protecting some of our rights while allowing other rights to be taken without much of a "by your leave", are less genuine about protecting freedom and liberty as they are about some other ulterior motive. Pragmatic understandings and wise thinking will always give us the best opportunity to defend against the folly and harmful policies that are employed by some to subjugate us to a past we have already been liberated from.

The disconnect between what we think is so and what is so (#1556)

I had been plagued by my own sense of control over what others said and did. Not anymore since I realized that the vision of the complexity of life I carry around in my head is just a whirligig of facts, assumptions and hopes, nothing purely true. The world and how we all mix within it is mind-boggling to me now as I have the duty to remember that each of we individuals are many facets of many things. None of us is available to be pigeonholed in some nice easy way. Certainly a lot of us can be superficially grouped into generalized categories, but even then the reasons vary as to those generalized groupings. I have a strategy of not allowing assumptions any particular standing in my analysis'. I try my mightiest to stick to facts that are demonstrable. When facts are not available I am still able to objectively distinguish that no categorization can be made. So, not only do I look for those things that are similar, I look for those things that are dissimilar as well. Some grand panoramic view isn't my goal, but instead a series of smaller interconnected ones are. I also keep the intelligent premise of "life is constantly changing" at the forefront of any calculations I attempt to make when I am of a mind to make calculations. What is the very best remedy for me is to default to my assertion that we care and we are curious. Most all of my conclusions about the things and people in life grow from that firm foundation. As to the varying examples of principled and unprincipled living, I can only know that life is a series of stages we confront and as the trial and error of living follows us throughout our lifetimes, certain points that are snapshots of us truly do not capture the whole of us.

Progress is a tide that cannot be held back (#1555)

Try as some may, the force of progress is too overwhelming for it to be subsided. As each new day begins so does the vigor and hubris of a human species instinctively motivated to creating and making our world better. For those who are not included in this there are some who just don't care and others who are inculcated to suppress progress for the sake of the status quo, or even worse, the past. The future of our civilization depends on growth, spiritually, logically and yes even materially. As our technologies and innovations continue to be created from our imaginations our viability to succeed as a species also increases. As of now, we, our species, is at the mercy of our environment, unable to control our continuance if forces of nature turn to annihilate us. But as we progress into solutions to advance our species to other universal orbs, we also give our natures the path of exploration. We are such a capable species, endowed with the natural gifts of sensory detection and learned logical mental acuity. Our physiques, along with our scientific advancements, may soon be adaptable to any known terrain that exists in the Universe. Albeit, we know we cannot approach certain areas in space yet, our visions of the future will eventually lead us to overcome those current restrictions. Human beings are amazing and within this existence there is no other species that has shown itself to be as adept and artfully astute. Our future is like our present today, always wanting better and never satisfied with accepting the concept of impossibility. Progress, a descriptive word that has true substance and is panoramic in the lives of our linked generations.

Our amazing world (#1554)

I am feeling kind of chipper this morning and therefore I am letting my sunshine out for a stroll. lol. I keep thinking about our world and the diversities and sameness we share. I wish that I had traveled more when I was younger in life so that I could have seen for my own eyes all the wonders our planet and our cultures have created. I am fortunate to having been born into this era when information and pictures are so widely dispersed that even though I cannot afford to travel to them, they are able to present themselves to me in adequate ways. However, I would much prefer to be in the actual presence of the unique and amazing sights and sounds of our world. Which brings me to the subject of this post, despite the obvious problems and struggles we have as a species, we are truly exceptional at molding our environment to allow for the beauty of life to expose itself. I suggest that it isn't some grand plan we have all been working on since our civilizations began to form, no, it is serendipitous to our natures. We are moving along a species path toward the unknown while leaving a past that has many positive attributes. Of course our race of humans have a mixed bag of successes and failures but the total is not equivocal. Our successes far outweigh our failures in that we continue to learn and know more about what we don't know while we continue to struggle to improve our understandings of humanity and the connectedness we experience with nature. Like our American constitution is emblematic of, 'forming a more perfect union" as our guiding principle. We have our obstacles and wrong steps have been made, but overall, we are the dynamic human species, who mostly put the good above the bad, that we could and should be.

Our memories as motivation (#1553)

The fact that we store memories and then can act on them later as a strategy, separates us from any other living organism. Not that other living species don't have memories or that they don't create strategies that mimic our own, it is just that we are heads and shoulders above the rest of known living species because we rely on our memories in myriad ways that highlight our unique sense gathering abilities. Our human species is not just a member of the animal kingdom, we are evolving into a greater form that has no limits. The advancement of our innovations and technologies will eventually allow us to wrestle with and conquer the laws of physics. yes, we are that capable in retrospect. How we are able not only to do enlightened tasks of life, in the present, we are establishing protocols for future possibilities that found themselves on our instinctual behavior. In other words, As we continue to create small steps into the unknown, we are rightly aware that wherever the future takes us must hinge on our best instinctual attributes if we are to be successful. There is a lot of confusion about our instincts, whether good or bad, but for me there but three that are our foundation. Survival instinct, compassion instinct and curiosity instinct. All others are just default positions when we are not living within the basic three. My memories tell me this through all the years of my information gathering through my senses. Combined with the reason, analysis to conclusion I use as a logical and common sense formula, I know that the beginning of a new era of human evolution into a greater form is just beginning.

Making amends (#1552)

It would have been better for me if I had started an amends process when I was much younger and then stuck to a protocol that kept me from having to make amends in the first place. What I didn't know back when I was younger was that peace of mind and sense of purpose would be my greatest achievements. I was like many who are/were stubborn to listening to others in order to find their nuggets of wisdom and instead considered only my own ego. Such is my fate now many years later having to recount my, at times, ineffective and harmful past in order to find peace in my present and future. My conscious is after all my constant companion and that it is in a state of unease at times is all the indication I need to know that something I have done is still unresolved. So much of my time is now spent in reflecting on my past in areas that I am least proud to have experienced. It is my duty to myself though and therefore I must expose what I was to myself in order to objectively understand and then make the appropriate amends where possible. Let me say this about making amends, it is not a cure all for every situation. It is only a public/private acknowledgement that I have harmed someone/something in some way and it bothers me to carry it around as a secret. Secrets are not for hiding our defects, secrets are for trusting others with things of value. The sooner I admit to myself the errors of my life and turn them around to make them a character building dynamic, the sooner I get to find that happy place in my mind that has a serene and peaceful reflection from my inside out to my outside. Beauty is deeper than our skin and such is the same for the peace I seek for my mind and soul.