Republicans prefer racism over morality and ignorance over knowledge (#2739)

     It can only be inferred that since so many republicans are backing Donald Trump that they know what he is about. Donald is a racist and a misogynist but that doesn't seem to faze his republican party https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/feb/01/media-outlets-dare-to-call-donald-trump-a-liar-racist-and-misogynist. Since this coming election is closer than it should be at this point it is obvious to all that his backers are not concerned with these degrading and nefarious traits of their nominee. Which also tells me that they do not accept democracy as their form of government. Democracy demands equality, fairness and opportunity. These folks who back Trump do not.
     They instead demand a form of government that has class systems to it like India http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/28/asia/india-gujarat-caste-protests/. Where segregation is still a part of society that has an intentional purpose. Which is to sever out those who are unwelcome. Republicans embrace this notion of the white race being above all other races. They also embrace the notion that men are superior to women. What is even more troubling than the concept, is that many republican women agree with them. The mindset that there is a hierarchy of human life forms is an old tired concept utilized by the nastier segments of our society to gain control, power and wealth. Since the age of enlightenment however this myth of hierarchy has been shown to be false.
     Yet republicans are not amused by intellectualism. In fact they are disdainful of intelligence as a rule. Republicans have shown us that knowing and being curious are not valued traits. They find that no knowledge nor curiosity is a better life path. The goal of the republican party is to dismantle democracy and replace it with a form of government that favors some, specifically white republicans, and dismiss the rest to irrelevance or worse. This is not some wild tale of fantasy here, this is what is actually happening.

Use logic, it will serve you well (#2738)

     If you have any question about anything at all except maybe an emotional situation, use logic to figure it out. You know how emotional things are, sometimes logic is the wrong approach. :) Anyway, everything else needs to be thought out in an equation form. If I do this then that will happen. If I do that then this won't happen. Everything we do has a reaction attached to it. So it is highly important that we are rational about all things, other than some emotional issues. Take for instance electing a republican who will end Roe v. Wade. What does that mean? Well, it means that women are once again stuck between a hard place and an impossible place.
     Here is the deal, I love our women so why would I want to make life hard on them? So electing a republican is not a rational choice for me. Here is another instance. Republicans want to end medicare, medicaid and social security. think about that for a moment. anyone who is sick or injured would have to find a way to pay for those ailments out of their own pocket. I don't know about you but my pockets have been empty for too long. I am not the only one since nearly 47 million of us Americans live at or below the poverty national poverty level. http://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger/hunger-and-poverty/hunger-and-poverty-fact-sheet.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/.
     When it comes to social security, republicans want to privatize it and make it a risky Wall Street investment tool, or eliminate it all together. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-wellen/whats-the-real-reason-rep_b_815942.html. So I can infer that anyone who votes for a republican either doesn't believe that they will actually take medicare, medicaid and social security away or they actually want those programs to disappear. Now those of us who are defending these programs we have the logical choice to vote for democrats instead who are committed to saving these programs. Logic tells me who to vote for in this current case of the coming election, logic will define how you vote as well. Just know that the logic of choice, whether inadvertent or not, is something no one can hide from.

Never stop trying to make life less hard (#2737)

     What else you doing with your time? Guys like Trump are off playing and enjoying themselves without a care for anyone else. People like me are working and learning of new ways to take some of the difficulty out of survival. The playboys of the world are about themselves and what they can get to satisfy their own egos. Servants like me are about seeing the happiness on the face of someone who hasn't been happy in a long long time. So being a billionaire or pretending you are one and getting all your temptations and desires addressed whenever you want seems like an ideal life. But when you consider the cost of such debauchery and greed you realize for the first time that someone else is paying.
     Not in dollars and cents but in struggle and frustration. So that the wealthy can act like demigods, many others must be under valued. It should be obvious from history that only a few at the top can live a supposed dream life and everyone else must suffer through their meager lives. I won't tolerate that kind of living of life without fighting back. I want us all to have a fair and equal shot at building a better life. I want us all to be the next genius who figures out some answer to some trouybling problem. I want us all together to help each other never fall below the floor of what it is to be a decent human being.
     Guys like Trump aspire to be king of the hill and once they do get on top of the hill they will never let anyone knock them off. That is the nature of the self aggrandizement crowd. They are in it for themselves and everyone else be damned. They could care less about the quality of life others are left with in the wake of their own conquests. The many of us who are not like Donald Trump realize that fantasy is not reality. We realize that the everyday interactions we make with others is the key to happiness in our lives. We are a community oriented species and although some do not or cannot recognize that, the majority of us do.

Finding that which was lost (#2736)

     Okay, another personal post this morning. for the last over 24 hours I had not been able to find a newly adopted cat. I have only had her for 36 hours so it was hard on me to realize that she may have gotten out of the house and wandered off to wherever. I searched the neighborhood earlier yesterday with no luck. So all last evening I started to get the sense that I had lost her. I searched most everywhere that was reasonable to assume she could be. Now I am a single guy who lives in a house that has lots of stored items in it. My brother has recently moved into one of the bedrooms so between the two of us there are a lot of things in here.
     There really was only one place left that she could be if she was still in the house. The den serves to store a lot of items that I need to go through and sort. Yet here I am all these few years later and I have not done that yet. I did mention that I am a guy who has lived alone until just recently right? lol. Anyway, I get up early here on the west coast so that I can stay informed as to early morning news from the east coast. So while I was sitting here earlier this morning I decided to search everything on the one side of the den and make sure she wasn't there, and then move everything over to that side from the other side.
     No easy task since there are a lot of things stored in the den. Yet, with purpose I decided that instead of hoping I could coax her out of the den if she was in there, I would re-stack the den to find out if she was actually in there. I finally moved everything over to one side until I was at the last items, some chests that I am storing for a very good long time friend. I realized that the chests were on little legs and where not directly flat on the floor. So steadily, knowing that if she wasn't under the chests she was not in the den I took my flashlight and looked. Too my heart's content, there she was in the far corner and the absolute last place she could have been. I have found her and now I will let her come out at her own pace. :)

Dehumanizing human dehumanization, a republican process (#2735)

     When you make it sound like being dehumanized is an actual good thing then you must be a republican. For some reason republicans are hell bent on making the darkest moments of our country's behavior, slavery, seem like a gift to those who were under it's cruelty. They argue that slaves had it better than a lot of folks because they were given meals and shelter as part of their indenture. What is amiss of course is the dark side of the nature of owners who not only abused the slaves, through punishments and sexual acts, but worked them to the bone wherever profit could be found.
     How republicans find it so easy to glamorize slavery as a stepping stone for, to them, a backward culture that needed slavery in order to progress, is mind boggling ignorance. How anyone can think that a human being, regardless of cultural inculcation, could be lowered to the level of a work animal ready for utility as a sub human is beyond me. The super ego it takes to put oneself above another is psychotic. Which to me explains a lot about the leaders of the republican party. Many who are followers of the republican party are not intentionally guilty of psychosis but they are guilty of being ill informed.
     Those who do lead the republican party are desperately trying to dehumanize too many sectors of our human population in hopes that they can trigger the same type of psychosis in our ongoing less informed society. Republicans have done much to destroy our previously thriving middle class and as such have taken down educational growth as well. As our society continues to become less informed and unable to critically think for themselves, republicans have spoon fed this type of dehumanization to replace the true ideal of a melting pot as the gold standard and dishonestly label it as an ill.

When we forge it takes fire (#2734)

     A coming together is what we are accomplishing. Like anything that has a chance to last it must be bonded through whatever process intertwines us the most. When we each become a part of each other in as many ways possible while still being our own unique selves we find that our strengths and weaknesses are shared and valued, not abused or dismissed. We are a society, there is no doubt about that. What kind of society are we to be? One that is always looking over it's shoulder waiting for the fear to arrive upon our heads? Or are we to be a society that celebrates our differences and welcomes new ideas and inspiration?
     It is a question that is all too real today. We are in an election battle for the soul of democracy. Republicans want our democracy to be limited to those who can afford it. Democrats want our democracy to be free and open to everyone. Think about that! You do get that don't you? So if you are one of those folks who see themselves as more privileged or advantaged by birthright then go ahead and vote your best interests. If however you are one of those folks who see themselves as just another human being among many other human beings who are struggling to find happiness in our great country then you are primed to vote for all of our interests, not just your own.
     It is not easy keeping our democracy and right now we are in jeopardy of losing it. Yes, losing the democracy our fore-parents fought so hard to attain for us. Are we to be the generation that cowered when the bullies of the world came to claim our national heritage? Are we the generation that ends up buying the carnival barkers lies? We will soon know come November 8th, 2016. That is the day the votes will be cast and counted and we will know if we are still going to be a democracy or if we are going to be an oligarchy.

Anything can happen (#2733)

     Yes, "Anything can happen". I have been hearing the haunting lyrics of this song in my head for a couple of months now. It is somewhat surprising that a young woman like Ellie Goulding could capture a message so powerful that it has found root in my head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hzgS9s-tE8. I suppose that a recent sudden loss of mine is part of the explanation. But the idea that we can control or even guide with consistency our individual outcomes isn't fully rational. Surely at times we singularly do accomplish goals through our own initiative but much less than we hope. Does that mean we need to stop trying? No, but it does force us to realize that anything can happen and we are not alone the masters of anything out beyond our own skin. Even then, within our skin we seldom rule completely.
     The fragility of life is the one end of the spectrum. The other end of it is our courage to be bold and fierce. We all live somewhere in between these two extremes of the infancy our species. Yes, our species is in it's infancy just coming to grips with who we are and who we can be. The amazing vision I have of our future tells me so. Nothing should be impossible if we, as a group, just keep moving forward in our evolution. Like all species who learn to adapt to their environment, we humans are not only no different we are better equipped to make the necessary changes. We don't need nature alone to force our survival, we can plan and help transition what nature has designed.
     That is the bold and fierce side of us. Our fragile side is our emotional attachment to life and how chaos and serendipity interplay to remind us. Yet our fragile side represents our humanity to the core. It makes us realize that we are not a machine nor an automaton. We are the most unique species in existence and nothing in this Universe can come close to comparing. Surely our parameters now are simple yet they are full. Which makes me understand that no matter the dimension of unknown knowledge we humans, when we are in concert, are more than a match to not only harness it but to utilize it for an even greater future.

My humanity without a sovereign (#2732)

     I don't believe in a God. Yet I am a good person. How is that possible? Pretty simple actually. Inside me I am a good person and I want that person to be the one who reflects back out to everyone else. So I do good things and think good thoughts. Sure, the temptation thoughts come into my mind but I just dismiss them and focus once again on good thoughts. After a while the temptation thoughts don't come around as much and the good thoughts dominate my mind. Practice does make one better after all. So I also have learned what having honor and being noble means. Incorporating those concepts into my personal principles seems to have strengthened my resolve and ability to do good things.
     I don't have to be reminded by others or some God like figure to be a good person, I am already doing that on my own. What else in life is more important than making myself the best person I can be? Too many of us have not learned that lesson and instead rely upon an artificial belief system to keep us "good". The problem with that is that it is just a shortcut. Instead of doing the hard work of making ourselves better persons, we only wear the coat of goodness for a short time so that we somehow make ourselves and others think we are good as a rule in our thoughts and behaviors.
     Like all shortcuts, the end result judges who is truly doing what. Shortcuts are not the answer. Doing whatever it takes to do it right is the answer. We all know this but many of us are just determined not to put in the hard work. Many of us think that we are special and don't need to do what is right like the rest of us. Many of us feel that we deserve special treatment and doing good is only for suckers. Many of us think that life is short so we should take all we can with both hands and never look back. But the few of us who know that life is about humanity have figured out that we are the masters of our own lives and we are the ones who guide it to where we want it to go. I don't need a sovereign God nor a greedy selfish life. I am living a good one.

Being afraid is not naturally human (#2731)

     Being courageous is just as easy to do as to be afraid. An added benefit of being courageous is that it makes us feel alive. Whereas being afraid makes us feel dead inside. We get to choose which we want to feel. Sure, there is risk in choosing to feel but that is what is natural, risking whatever we are to defend whoever we are. How we end up feeling about the risks we take or don't take is up to us. I prefer being courageous simply because I know the difference between the courage and being a coward. No real life can be had living as a coward.
     But living with courage is where all of life begins. We courageously fought to breathe our first breath of air as a baby. We didn't think about what would happen if we didn't breathe, we just let our lungs suck in the atmosphere around us and began our lives. Such is the nature of courage. We know what is right and good and by doing what is right and good we are experiencing courage. How do we know what is right and good? The result of it causes no harm and actually helps more than just us. Can you figure that out without too much complexity? Life is simple if we do no harm first and then try to make life better for those around us.
     I want our society to be challenged to achieve greater imaginings than we thought for ourselves. I want all of us to have the freedom to choose how we live our lives under democratic rules. Where equality, fairness and opportunity are there for everyone. Yes everyone on our planet. How do we get there? By working hard to show that it works within our own borders. We have to be the proof of the pudding before anyone else will believe it for themselves outside our own country. It takes courage to stand up for a better world but let me ask you this, what else are you doing that is more important than not harming anyone and making life better around you?

My past doesn't dictate my present nor my future (#2730)

     I heard a great line in a movie once, something about we live two lives, one we learn with and one we live after that. "The Natural" I believe. It is a very profound sentence. I have lived two lives, the one I went through all my hard knocks and bad choices with and the one I live now full of patience and wisdom. I have not arrived by any stretch of imagination but I have plateaued to a point where that past life is a distant memory. My present and future are the ones that sustain all my time living in and it is enough to take all my time doing. My past is how I learned to be the man I am now in the present, and the future is what I aspire to be as even more honorable.
     So there is no wallowing about in the mistakes of my past there is only learning grand lessons from it. We are not naturally wise nor honorable. We must learn these behaviors through whatever means allows us to get there with little delay and destruction. The first part of my life, the trial and error part, is where I had to find out what the parameters and boundaries existed for me to function. Society and it's rules and regulations are generally there for the many of us to find that balance between being and individual and being a citizen. I had to be molded into who I am now as a mature adult and I needed the time and space for that to happen.
     So the lessons of my past are not who I am, they were the process by which whom I have become. We all go through our own unique processes to get to being who we are. Most all of us have rehabilitated ourselves from something we started out as. None of us were born with the wisdom and honor of knowing the right way to live. Yet those of us who have learned great lessons and moved forward from them are the ones who have not quit on being better people. So whatever the past mistakes or behaviors we have left in the past they are not who we are but what it took for us to be who we are now.

Acceptance and tolerance (#2729)

     I was thinking of a younger woman who is so full of being unique that she is having a hard time finding a man who can accept and tolerate her uniqueness. She is frustrated that finding and keeping a relationship is difficult. I thought about responding to her statement and then thought better of it. There is no easy answer for her. She has to find a man who is willing to not only accept her as she is and is continuing to become but to also tolerate what ever that may be. A man such as that may not exist at every turn so her patience in looking for such a man must prevail if she is to have any fortune in finding him.
     Our society today is starting to learn to be more acceptable and tolerant but there are not that many of us of the sixties generation on that get it. It takes an inordinate amount of arrogance for someone to think that others don't have the right to be who they are. Yet there seem to be many of those around. It is as if those arrogant ones think that they had some hand in devising existence, instead of being born into it like the ones of us who are acceptable and tolerant. We acceptable and tolerant ones know that it is a miracle that we are alive here and what anyone does with their own life is totally their choice.
     I am on the backside of passing through my timeline here and with that knowledge and wisdom that has been accrued it is all but apparent that we get to make of life what we put into it. Not what we demand of others. I wish I were younger and that younger woman and I were given a chance to be together. Her courage in not being a cookie cutter image and a subservient woman is refreshing to me. We must not as a species try to control what images and actions others portray. We must only protect our own right to be unique as it is our right to do so.

The republican vision (#2728)

     This shouldn't take long. Instead of being good liberals who want to make our society more fair and optimistic for our citizenry, republicans have another way of looking at things. They are the punishing sort. Surely they do reward some for being excessively wealthy and those who are ego driven for power, but after that the line gets short. Republicans see "real" citizens as being white and subservient. The rest of our population are just interlopers taking advantage of the white mans generosity. Even the white women must be subservient to the white men. And as such the rules for white men often change given the circumstance that plays out better for white men. After all, according to republicans, Jesus, therefore God, was/is a white man.
     Republicans see our government as so limited that all it is accountable for is police and military actions. All other laws need to be eliminated as to equality as a rule. Republicans believe that everyone needs to stand up on their own two feet and fight everyday for whatever they can get out of life. The rules don't apply the same to everyone but if you are good at manipulation then the better for you. Let me be clear here! Republicans do not want democracy. They want a privilege and advantage system that heavily weighs toward the men in white race. Their God is also a white man who is lord and master of not only the white women but all the other races as well.
     Republicans are the masters and everyone else is here to serve them. That is the republican vision. They have taken what fits their ideology from religion, social order and economics to forge their destiny upon all the rest of us. Their wild west days are our future. When they say they want to take us back, it is to a time before the American Civil war where white men ruled and all others bowed and capitulated. They long for those days of self importance with no regard for anyone else. No social programs, no equal rights and no chance for anyone other than the white man to find happiness in life.

Resting our minds (#2727)

     Everyday I sit at my computer and put together a couple of hundred or more words to express my opinions and feelings on certain subjects. Today is different. My mind has nothing to offer anyone at the moment except to rest. There are some things I could comment about but they are not important nor enlightening. So sometimes it is best to sit back and listen instead of speak. Which is a bit difficult to do on a page like this. Yet I can meander about here describing my listening in real time. More than anything I am still feeling the loss of my cat since yesterday my next door neighbor found his dog had died during the night.
     All the emotions are coming back after I thought they had started to dissipate a bit. Yet not even those feelings are holding me back from being opinionated today. I just need a rested mind. I keep pushing myself to strain the limits of my endurance and the result, unlike when I was younger and could push through rough patches, is that I hit the proverbial wall. My mind needs a rest. Today will be that day since my fence work is at a completion and there is nothing on my calendar for today to accomplish except to maybe shuttle my friends and brother to the river so they can float down on their kayaks and canoe.
     If my lower back wasn't in so much irritating pain I would likely join them but even the thought of sitting erect is uncomfortable. So doing nothing today except listening to what my friends on the computer have to say about current events or watching something on the television, I expect I will get my wish and have a restful day. I know that life is short and falling behind on anything is a form of procrastination, yet the health of my mind and the refreshing it obviously needs must come first. I hope there was something in all this that makes your day a bit better.

Gearing our minds and bodies toward our next great challenge (#2726)

     No, not politics, but instead outer space. The Universe is waiting for us to catch up to it. It is slowly changing and thankfully that is a bonus for we humans since we are not much faster in advancing our human society to catch up to it. That is the beauty of being a human being, we can imagine the future and how it may be simply by thinking. Yet thinking won't get us there alone. We have to evolve our societies generally toward common goals. We have to take our assets, such as our population and apply knowledge to it at every opportunity. Nothing can be left to chance here. We must teach our children that the final frontier in their lives exists outside our own Earth's atmosphere.
     So their thinking and learning must be focused on the paradigms that allow us to expand and explore beyond our own planet. There are more secrets left to discover here on Earth but they are few. So outer space is where our future lies and creating the manifest destiny to bring it into our sphere of living is our current responsibility. This satisfaction with just surviving and accumulating goods is past history. We are not a sedentary species. We used the industrial revolution to galvanize our populations from living to exist to living for a hope of a more imaginative future. We innovated and created an amazing array of functioning tools specifically designed for an enlightened human race. Which now puts us on the precipice of stepping off our planet, albeit gingerly, and making a case for our interstellar existence.
     Cause and effect couldn't be more clear here. Our species cares and wonders. We have no where else to go but out beyond the boundaries that constrain us. It is in our nature to explore and explore we will when we all get off the selfish and greedy power games that have thus stalled true human interaction with our better futures. It is exciting just writing this about where we will be 500 years from now. The idea that even out beyond our own galaxy there are mysteries waiting to expose themselves to us. How much our infant Earthly society will change given all the new data we will have at our ready. This is where it all starts and the starting is now for us to make so.

Treating karma as if it is real (#2725)

     It has taken me some time to figure out that maybe I don't know a lot. So in lieu of me being in the dark on so many things I have taken to treating karma as if it is the end result of whatever I do. So I don't have to know how things work necessarily to be able to expect a result I would like to see. Now I am no Pollyanna, but I do have a bright and optimistic outlook. I am a good person as well so doing right and good through my thoughts and actions is natural for me as it is. So why not do right and good with no expectation and let the Universe do as it will. This way I am not disappointed nor dejected when things don't go "my way". I don't know if "my way" is what was needed to begin with.
     Remember I said I don't know that much? Anyway, karma, for those who are not sure is a cause and effect relationship. If I do well by others then hopefully well will be done back at me or so we hope. This is how I see it. I can be an ass to others and have no cost for it come back to me. That is a possibility, however it hasn't been my reality. Usually always when I have done a harm or a selfish act, I get back some equivalent of it. It is why I subscribe to the cause and effect theory. My own experiences teach me that.
     However I am but one person on who I rely to convince me that karma is real. I have heard others tell the same type of stories but that is mostly anecdotal. So I only subscribe karma to myself as I know it works for me. It makes sense otherwise since I am a good person who likes to do good things. Even when bad things happen back at me I don't blame doing good, I just recognize that some things need to happen and that is what they are doing, for whatever unknown reason to me. Again, my ignorance of many things is still overcome because I know that my doing good doesn't cause me having bad done back to me. It would happen probably more often if I wasn't doing good. This all may be a bit confusing but to me it somehow makes logical sense.

When the fear time comes (#2724)

     When the fear time comes we know how well we have prepared ourselves to face it. The fear can come in many forms and although we cannot easily be specific in preparing for it we can be generally. First let me tell everyone that fear comes to all of us. No one is immune to experiencing fear. It is the ones who handle fear the best who are the good examples in life. They push past their fear and act accordingly as needed. Which is what we all need to do. How do we do that? By knowing that life is finite and we are all going to have an end. Just knowing that we are not going to live forever helps us to decide how we will live while we are alive.
     Establishing principles for one's own life is how we begin. There have to be some lines we will never cross even if it means our lives become forfeit. Now some will say live to fight another day and that is well and good. But just know your own character and what price you have to pay in order to keep existing. Many who do this later realize that they lost their souls in the trade off. It really always boils down to whether you want to live life with your head up or your head down. I have felt both ennobled and cowardice in my lifetime. None that required me to sacrifice my life for a greater principle but I know both feelings. the ennobled feeling is a powerful one that enriches the experience of living. The cowardice one is hollow and shameful. I know that living a life of a coward is not a life worth living.
     So it is the ennobled life I seek to hold. So when the fear time comes I move past it and stand up for that which will put the fear down. It isn't remarkable or courageous, it is just a choice to do what is right from all of me instead of what may be right just for some of me to survive. The quality over quantity concept. I don't necessarily fear death either, I accept it, though the accepting is very hard when death takes the precious ones away. It is our reality as human beings who are enlightened to know that everything we do is an imprint on who we are. I have chosen who I am and that is who I will defend when the fear comes for me.

Cause and effect on a comprehensive scale (#2723)

     This one was always going to be tough for me to write. Trying to communicate my vision for life and why I am a progressive/liberal. What conservatives see is simple, bad is happening so it must be punished. What I and others see is a system that fails most and bad things happen because of it. If you take the same people and put them into a system that rewards and treats all with respect then the bad that is currently happening will reduce significantly. Conservatives cannot grasp this. They only see what is and accept it. Much like the quote from Robert Kennedy, "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?". We liberals want a better world that not only includes the best of what we currently have but also the best of what we currently don't have.
     Those that stop us from having a better world are those who already enjoy the best of what we currently have. They don't want change, they want things to stay pretty much the same and these folks congregate in the republican party. So it should not be a surprise or shock to comprehend that the republican party is not a party that includes all of us. They are the wealth and  hateful fringe party while the democrats are working to be the big tent party. We must accomplish the goal of being an all inclusive political party if we are going to represent the best of who we are. We democrats care about what the future of all of us may be and for all of us to have the best chance of a society that is modern and enlightened we must wrest political control away from the selfish republicans.
     It won't be easy since republicans utilize arguments focused on the simple minded. Those who don't dream of big and better things in life. Those who settle for little and somehow tell themselves they are not worthy of more. The pervasive ill running through our society must be addressed and republicans will not do it. They are satisfied to keep us all simple minded and wanting. Well that is deplorable and despicable. We democrats want us to be more complex thinkers and creative innovators. We democrats want a world that respects the life and dignity of all human beings.

Humility is a strength (#2722)

     What do I mean by that? Simply, by being humble we get to ease into what really matters to us. If I choose to live a good life I will choose to do good things. I am humbled by the concept that I exist in a place where I had no plan to be. I was born with no idea as to how I came into being, yet here I am able to think and reason. I have this marvelous although imperfect body to carry me around in and a mind that is like a sponge constantly upgrading and expanding. When I really think about it I am in actual awe that I exist. There are no ego trips nor delusions of grandeur where I think I deserve or am entitled to anything except to be alive, now that I am here.
     I get a pass on the being alive thing since it is in my nature to survive. That isn't a delusion, that is a reality. Yet everything else is humbling to me. I am no great thinker or architect of time and space whereas I could have created or allowed to evolve such an existence but I am happy to be here and given the abilities I have I plan on using them to my fullest. It is the least I can do to satisfy my good fortune. Utilizing my physical abilities with my capacities of mental observation and comprehension, I have a starting point. But none of it can be effective in honoring my existence if I don't placate myself to this Universe. I may be full of vim and vigor but if I don't constrain my emotions to a simple form of humility then I won't be respecting what I know is right.
     I am human and know that I will fail to be humble at all times. I know how I have been and how I will be when it comes to certain situations. Yet I continue to improve on my faults. At this age in my life cycle I realize just how short life is when we get busy doing things that only maintain our lives instead of fulfilling them. I am not on some quest for magical understanding of life, I am just wanting to be more humble in my journey. I can do this by letting go of the things that are not good and grabbing onto the things that are good.

Getting older but still feeling young (#2721)

     Yes, I am getting older and it isn't easy with all the aches and pains life throws at us but in my soul I still feel like a child. Fresh to face life and it's challenges with a vigor that hasn't changed. That is the thing with getting older, The physical aspect of it is that we are on the backside of life and our bodies are breaking down instead of building up. It is harder to motivate myself to jump out of bed and smile incessantly at the new dawning day. It is more like roll out of bed with care and then shuffle about trying to find my smile. However inside of me I am full of life but with a much more difficult time trying to express it.
     Makes me think that my soul isn't tied to my body like my body is tied to my soul. My soul stays young while my body doesn't. I will take it though since feeling young in my soul makes life a constant intrigue and helps to motivate me to push beyond the normal limits of my now less than admirable body. We humans are so unique in that we can express what is happening to us and with us in real time and make some sense of it. We surely don't know the why of life and how all of everything makes sense but we at least have the capability to live in our limited time with a hope that someday we may know.
     As I am passing through this cycle of life and getting closer to the end of my days I realize the one thing time and space has not changed, that being my soul. I am that young child who just first came aware, and although I have matured in my eye's mind, I haven't lost the vigor for life I first started out with. I am not the naive one I started out as but I am still that fresh new soul looking at all this existence and wondering everything about it. Nothing has changed from that first concept of what is all this? Except of course the body that carries me around. It is getting older and failing in perceptible and imperceptible ways. Not so with my soul. It is my rock and for that I am amazingly grateful.

We all live in real time (#2720)

     There is no denying it, real time is factual and absolute. It changes from moment to moment and we also have the ability to be comprehensive in our perspectives but the moment now is where we all live. Now many of us are in step with real time and many more of us are not. It is painfully obvious. Here is what works for me. Logic, common sense and democratic principles. Combined is a mixture of truly unique concepts that keep me focused on what is right and good. I don't let my own personal biases or opinions enter into the calculation. So my real time is fair and equal as well as objective.
     Now my perspective is different from many others and that is well and good. I have my own experiences as well as others have their own. Yet there are some commonalities we all share. Logic works the same no matter how it is applied. Democratic principles are unchangeable at their core. Of course common sense is different for all of us but what common sense does share with all of us is an outcome that reflects what is best for all of us and not just for some of us. All three areas of logic, common sense and democratic principles are being abused at a rate that is beyond alarming.
     That I even have to write about this subject is an example of concern I have for our lack of educational priorities and our ineffectual attempts to teach critical thinking. If we cannot instill at the very basic level the idea that democratic principles are essential to the survival of our society then we are surely deep in trouble. If we cannot comprehend that logic is a system for understanding truths then we are not going to be able to be efficient in our communications. If we are at loggerheads when it comes to results when common sense is applied then our most simple method of passing on to our next generations our history and our understandings of the present is in jeopardy.

The truth sets me free (#2719)

     I know I don't know a whole lot. I can admit that. I know that I make mistakes all the time. I can admit that. I know that I am selfish too much of the time. I can admit that. I know that I can be an arrogant ass at times. I can admit that. But I also know that I do know a little, I know that I am unselfish as well and I know that I am kind and loving. I can admit these things as well. I am many things some good and some bad and I can admit that too. So there is no need for me to pretend that I am something that I am not or pretend that I am not something when I am. You see the truth of things is what measures who I am and one thing the truth is, is constant in that it doesn't lie.
     In my earlier life I thought it was important to make myself look good as much as possible regardless of the truth of things. But what I found out is that living as a deceiver is much worse than admitting my faults as they happen. I am not one who can live on lies built on lies. For one thing it is too hard keeping all the lies straight and for another my soul was depressed and sick. The only benefit I ever saw out of being like that was some extra money and maybe some false respect. I found out quickly that I am not one who prides himself on being congratulated for something I don't deserve. I have a hard enough time accepting rewards or congratulations when I have honestly earned them.
     Here is the benefit of admitting the truth about myself and my actions. I have a peace about me that sets me free to feel my emotions in real time exactly as they come to me. I am not busy trying to hide some truth about myself or ignoring it while also missing out on my feelings one way or another. I am not trying to live some false perception so that I can control some situation or group of people. I am living life on my terms. I make my mistakes and then try not to make them again. I learn from them and move on to a better moment. The one thing I know about myself, despite my inconsistencies, is that I want to be a better person and I am willing to do what I can to make that happen.

Intelligence is a tool, not a weapon (#2718)

     There are far too many who have given up on learning. It seems that being lazy about the mysteries of the world is easier and more desirable. For me it is like settling for table scraps on the floor as a goal and never getting to the table itself. This blog is devoted to the two main natures of humanity, care and curiosity. So why wouldn't we allow our curiosity to flourish? Why wouldn't we care enough to be helpful? It seems that a pervasive attitude of hatred is beneath it all because why would we not make our world better?
     We all live here and have the same human capabilities so what is the problem? It seems that we are the problem, or more specifically, the different we. An idea of separation based upon skin color and/or ethnicity is of a higher value than prioritizing all of human life as sacred. That defies the fundamental law of intellectualism. We cannot dispute facts, because facts tell us that we are all the same except some superficial differences. Our DNA and our ability to function as most all humans do is the same. So why would we stoop to such a low concept as segregating and classifying ourselves based upon illogical assumptions?
     The idea that our society is functioning properly is wrong. If our society was functioning properly we wouldn't have such painful nonsense captivating the minds of our citizenry. There is an inherent flaw circulating through our society and for me it begins with poverty. Why we keep an economic system that stresses and strains the majority of our population while doing little to alleviate that stress is an obvious factor. Another is the lack of care we exhibit toward our educational systems. We need to demand more from education so that we can demand more from our students. We need a society that thinks beyond the illogical and out into the proven facts of life and nature. Intelligence is a tool that can used to elevate our consciousness beyond that which is hateful and used to demean and demoralize us.

Loss is so damn hard (#2717)

     I know, he was only my cat but he was mine and I loved that feline. I had him for 13 years and we grew together. I can only imagine what it must be like to lose a wife, husband or child. But if it is harder than me losing my cat it must be horrible beyond words. To give of oneself to another whether a person or an animal requires one to open up their heart and let someone or something in. It is not easy to do since we all know what pain is waiting when things go wrong. I have thought about that pain and yet I still try to love. It is in my nature as a human being so it should be something we all share as human beings. I know there are a few in our society that are currently ruining life for many who cannot or will not allow themselves to care but for most of us it is real and happening.
     Considering not having someone or something to share love with is unthinkable. I cannot see how it is done and still live a happy life. So suffering from loss is part of the deal and I can say it is the worst part of the deal. I am over a week now into my loss and it is as if it just happened. Spending a lot of time together forms a special bond of knowing each other and it seems that we are so much a part of our routines that everything we do is a constant reminder that the one is not with us anymore. I am constantly reminded of how my cat would snuggle up into the crook of my arm and just lay there until he was satisfied. I hear an phantom meow every now and then like when he needed me to do something for him. Everywhere is a reminder.
     I know that time will eventually allow me to move on from the vivid reminders of my little cat but the memories will always be there and let me say this now, the memories are both good and sad. I will remember the bond we had but I also feel the sting of his loss. I have my little dog now to occupy my time but even he is not the same since Carter the cat passed. I won't write about this anymore but I needed to do this today as a way of finding closure and moving on to another reality that might include starting all over with another little cat.

The law of inverse proportionality (#2716)

     When there is a constant, the constant remains the same regardless of how unequal the constant is apportioned among the variables. We have limited resources and if one group receives more resources it is natural that another group will receive less. In many ways this law of inverse proportionality can be spread out over many paradigms. From happiness/sadness to wealth/poverty. When one side has more the other side has less. the greatest example of this I can give is also right now our nations biggest problem, unequal wealth. We have a massive wealth disparity between those who have too much and those who have way too little.
     With those who have too much the problem is that there are very few of those and those who have way too little there are way too many of them. The scales of justice when it comes to wealth by a few weighed against those who have way too little is heavily weighted on the too little side. In fact so heavily weighted that there are fewer and fewer in between those two degrees of wealth. The same can be said for happiness. When only a few are experiencing unlimited happiness, there are many who are experiencing unending sadness. Happiness can be quantified by the measure of wealth. When too many cannot afford to exist properly then the sadness/anger can be measured as well as those who have way too much their happiness/glee can also be measured.
     What we need is metaphorically, an even keel, economic plan with opportunity for all, that can be enjoyed by the majority instead of just a small minority. Our society's economics have gotten out of control to the point of causing real harm and despair. This despair needs to have an outlet and almost always the outlet is even more damaging. We must get our society back to having more happiness in it if we are to reverse the current trend of sadness and it's effect. This is not rocket science folks, it is just plain common sense and as we should all know by now common sense is one of our greater human virtues.

No dignity no respect (#2715)

     Those who have sold their soul to make money will get no respect from me. I have no sympathy for those who calculated a reward for doing something wrong. There are many out there who eventually get burned by their choice and then come about complaining that they were treated unfairly. Well, the price for choosing to put money over dignity has a price and that price for me is no respect. I am not a cynic, in the sense that I will go along with the crowd because everyone else is doing it. If it is wrong then no one should be doing it. So complaining about the downside of the reward obtained is like ordering a crappy sandwich and then complaining about it.
     What is even worse is the effect the decision to sell one's dignity has on others who are unaware of the deal. Those who seek profit for doing bad things are a scourge and if they are treated badly because of their decision to lie, cheat or steal then so be it. Privilege is not an excuse, it is a harbinger of why our society is so ill. No one deserves to be above the law as well as no one should be rewarded for discarding noble principles. I don't care what walk of life anyone comes from or who anyone thinks they are. Everyone is judged by their character and the choices they make.
     For those who sell their souls for profit there is a price extracted from them. It is their dignity and without dignity, fame and/or wealth is little to nothing. There is a better way and it requires us to solve the dilemma of those who actually pay others for their loss of dignity. The ill that exists where lots of money can be made for dishonorable service has two components, the seller and the buyer. That we have many who are desperate enough to sell their dignity to those many who are willing to buy it from them is despicable and both need rectification.

The era of republican brutish condescension must come to an end (#2714)

     Nowhere else in our American politics is brutish condescension more visible than in the republican party. Not only brutishly condescending to the world at large but to we Americans who are not wealthy. The republicans have had their run at leading our nation and the results are harmfully dismal. Never have I seen such a disdain for the backbone of our nation like what republicans exemplify. From their disparaging of our constitution through racism and sexism to their underhanded attempts to rewrite our constitution altogether to favor plutocrats and corporatists. They have even vilified the poor and elderly as the problem, not as needing solutions created by the wealthy and their greedy hoarding of resources for themselves.
     They, republicans, have redistributed our nation's wealth toward the wealthy and lied to us about why they did it. They said that supply side economics, (trickle down) would make us all enriched, when in fact the opposite occurs, we the non wealthy become even more poverty stricken. Republicans have showed us that they do not believe in diversity nor equality but instead blocking legislation that would make our nation more equal and diverse and have tried to pass laws that would make us less diverse and equal. Republicans have tried to destroy our medicare, social security and our ability to bargain for our wages as a group.
     Nothing republicans have done has been a positive reinforcement for our struggling working middle poor class. Nothing! In fact, they instead have made our lives much more miserable. So the era of the republican party leading our nation must come to an end if we are to improve our nation's future. We democrats have shown, like in the state of California just how effective we can be as leaders who put the working middle poor class first. It is time for the era of the republican party leading our nation to come to an end and begin again with democrats who not only want to stabilize a good life for all but who want to uphold the ideal that our nation is one of democracy, not greed and theft based upon advantage and privilege.

Time is the great healer (#2713)

     Nothing about what hurts is fixed by anything but time. I have found this out the only way it can be found out, by experiencing it. As we continue with our lives we are occasionally reminded of just how fragile life can be. Much of it is out of our control and that is what we need to work on to change. The part that is most frustrating though is the much that is in our control but we are unable to make the common sense decisions to make it better. This is why I despise those who confuse and manipulate common sense away from it's natural conclusion to a false one which only benefits the detractors.
     The carpet bagging propagandists who can only live as psychopath/sociopaths do in not caring about our society's betterment over their own advantages and privileges. So needless harm, pain and suffering continues without being addressed. Instead we are given illusions of it's "natures way" or "God has a plan" platitudes instead of just making our reality better ourselves. But there is hope. The one thing the thieves in reality cannot control is our ability to reason, analyze and conclude. Our enlightenment as a species is not going backwards from here, it is going forwards. So no matter how much the few who would stall our modern progression as a species in order to make their own lives enriched, destiny will have it's way.
     What cannot be ignored though is the damage done before we get past the under handed tactics we now must endure. Soon we will as a whole break the fever of greed and selfishness and find ourselves truly united as a species working toward all of our futures not just a few of our futures. Time is the arbiter of our breakthrough, much like the alleviation of our pain, it is the one true salve that allows us to move beyond our despair and the ulterior motives of the worst of our species.

A day of reflection (#2712)

     A perfect day to reflect on the history of our nation. How we started and where we are going with this union. It isn't easy seeing the larger picture of our place in time and space especially since we are an ever evolving nation. Yet the time to do just that, reflect, is here for us to utilize. Today isn't just about remembering our independence, it is about dreaming of our future. What do we stand for? What is our hope for the future? How can we best achieve these goals? How do we teach our youth what it means to be an American?
     It is good that we have this day honoring our nation and it's achievements and also it's failures. We learn not only from our successes but from our mistakes. At least that is how a great nation advances. Although we are who we are the rest of the world is not us in many ways. So our identity and soul as a nation is important for all to see. We must let ourselves not only lead by words but by example. As many already know, the world is a very complicated place but our principles for living should always outweigh the expediency of a hollow solution. I have found that it is in the hard of things that we are truly measured. There are no shortcuts to doing something right.
     Many of us will gather together to spend the day enjoying the freedom to express our respect for our nation and in those many ways we see our nations identity. We are many of diverse and different cultures. We are the true melting pot that our Lady Liberty represents. Our nation was founded on the idea of shedding oppression and persecution. We sought and found freedom to find our own happiness. The best of our nation represents what our future world could be like and the best of who we are need to be the ones who fight to get us there.

Why we must all be eclectic (#2711)

     The dictionary definition of one being eclectic, myself for sure, is "deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad range of sources."To be eclectic one must first be diverse and tolerant. So you see where this is going right? We must be objective with an open mind toward each other. Since none of us is perfect, we must consider the possibility that we can learn new ideas to add to our own comprehensiveness, and, since none of us has arrived at a most excellent life, we can continue to learn from each other in order to continue that satisfying journey.
     Anything less than living an open and learned life is either lazy or arrogant. We see enough of the evidence of that in our society without debate as many have voiced and acted their intolerance and selfishness in brutish and harsh ways. That we are able to appreciate how all cultures and societies interact does not mean that we accept all their practices as our own. But we at least respect those who do live life in a different way than ours if it brings them peace without causing harm. We all have our bad apples in the barrel, metaphorically, but we don't taint all because of the acts of a few. We taint the few and move on.
     Another advantage of everyone being eclectic is that we can help each other when the helping times come. The worst of our emotions are contained to little or nothing thus allowing them to fade into antiquity where they belong. We are a modern society, or at least very capable now of being one and for us to be carrying around the baggage of our long ago past is incomprehensible. Those that do do so out of fear or advantage taking and either case should be either educated away or criminally prosecuted. We are better than we have ever been as a species but we have much further to go in our continuing evolvement.

Keep doing good (#2710)

     I am out of sorts in more than my usual way this morning. But the one consistency I have is to keep doing whatever good is right in front of me. It brings me back to where I can feel at least comfortable with myself. We all get out of sorts from time to time with all the uncontrollable events that come our way and it is important to be able to deal with whatever in a way that doesn't negate or distract from who we are and what we are trying to do. Doing the next good thing is how I accomplish that. I find that if I give of myself to something that can bring about a smile or prevent a frown then I feel at peace.
     Not only do I feel at peace for just a little bit but I am not feeling worse or ambivalent. My life has to matter to me and the quality of my life has to be how I measure it. The more doing good is how I get to more peace. I am a bit older now and having some peace in my life is a great priority. I know when I was younger I didn't care much for peace, I was chasing excitement. But beneath that chasing excitement was a care for doing good at the same time. Now I try to avoid excitement and just focus on the doing good. It allows me to move beyond my present and into my future with greater hope.
     I know this is an odd post this morning but it does reflect somewhat the mixed emotions I have within me. My heart is still sad but my will to keep fighting against the forces that choose to make life hard and sad for others outside serendipity is unwavering. Life is hard enough with it's chaos and uncontrollable knowns, so I remain ever vigilant to rebut what is wrong and to doing right wherever I can regardless of how my own life is playing out. I need to do good things as a therapy for living an acceptable life on my terms.

I fight so hard for the happy moments (#2709)

     Why do I do what I do with the politics, economics, spirituality and social issues? It is because I know what it is like when we are not treated with kindness. I know what it is like when we are treated like we are worthless. I know all too well what it is like when we feel more pain in our lives than happy moments. I fight to stop the unnecessary harm we do to each other. I hear many tell me that we can't do this or we can't do that because things don't work that way. I get that, but what I am saying is that we must look beyond the way things currently work to a vision of how they can work. That is where hope comes in.
     We must break through our fears about our own lives and the material gains we have made. We have to bring ourselves back down to a simple understanding, do no harm. If it destroys what we struggled to attain in an unfair society then that is the sacrifice we each must make. We have to decide if we each are a noble person, relying on our highest principles or decide that greed and selfishness are our true calling and maybe with regret discard the lives that are harmed by our decision. Either way lives are harmed but the difference is that by changing the whole paradigm of how our society operates, the harm is a virtue, whereas the status quo harm is petty and shameful.
     I know I have chosen my path in this life. I forego all accolades, prizes and pats on the back so that I can focus on forging ahead with some fundamental truths. The Internet is an amazing source for molding our perspectives in a much more inclusive way and that is where I practice my art of calling out truths in every way possible. The future of our species is at stake here and if at the beginning of modernity we are not set straight as to our path we will find that straightening it out becomes much harder the further we travel down it. Join me in working toward a better world by not just fixing the problems within it but with finding new solutions that may well improve society by wholesale change without it. Remembering Carter the cat.