I can't believe it. I've only been blogging about three months and already I'm almost to 1,000 pageviews! Apparently, someone out there likes me.
I have to admit, when I started blogging, the idea of 1,000 pageviews was ridiculous to me. I would have been happy with 10 this whole time. Instead, I got 100 times more than I hoped. Thank you, everyone.
I'm getting ready to return to Seattle at the end of February. Sometime in March, I'll be starting a separate blog about the little hole in the wall restaurants I enjoy visiting. I wouldn't say I'm a foodie. I just want to showcase some of the hard-working kitchens that deserve more publicity for their delicious meals. You know, places you might have seen but thought "ewwww."
Lastly, I'm working on a special project and requested input from you readers. I'm sorry to say I haven't gotten any responses on that. However, I'm not deterred. It just means that I have to figure it out on my own. I'm only disappointed because I know many of you have information on cool gatherings and locales. One of my friends told me about something called the Rainbow Family Gathering. (It's going to be in Washington State this year.) Someone else told me about an event called "Barterfest", which I'm considering. And then, there's the Telluride Mushroom Festival I'd like to attend.
This is the end of the free Internet. Lieberman wants to give power to the Executive to shut down parts of the Internet or en toto. Of course, it's for our protection. Do you really believe that? BTW, do you remember about me posting the article about how Obama wants to issue National Internet IDs to American citizens?
Tell me what answer you get when you add 1+1.
Thanks to Sheye Blaze for the link to this Huffington Post link. Click on title to read the vomitous details.
I've noticed over the last several weeks that I don't wait for my alarm clock to ring before I get out of bed. It's true. I am beating the alarm clock by almost half an hour. And I feel great. I hope this is a continuing trend. I have no reason to think otherwise.
I hear from a lot of people who struggle to get out of bed everyday. They moan and groan when the alarm goes off. They hit the snooze button three times or more. They lay in bed, mumbling "It's time to get up," over and over again. They wait for the very last second to get out of bed. Not very long ago, I used to be one of them.
These days, I'm hopping out of bed, well-energized, and looking forward to my morning.
What the heck happened?!?
What happened is I got a little respect - some from my co-workers and my manager, some from myself.
I see now how my life for the last thirty years has been ravaged by depression which stemmed from family upheavals, a toxic religion, and unpleasant work environments. I didn't even realize it was happening. It felt normal to be dragging all the time and I blamed it on my narcolepsy. Now, I realize I was wrong.
At my present job, I've been given a gift over the last three months. As the night manager, I have great responsibility, yet few demands. I've been able to rest and relax with little stress. My manager listens to me and respects my decisions, treating me as an actual manager and not just some monkey who checks people in after midnight. I've re-learned that I can trust myself. I think I'm feeling happy. (Geez, it's been so long since I've been happy, I'm not sure!)
About five years ago, I asked one of my closest friends "What's wrong with me? Why does nothing I do work out? Why does nothing I do make me happy?" I was frustrated and discouraged. What was wrong? I didn't like or trust myself. I let employers bully me around. I let a toxic religion tell me that I didn't have any value. I let my acquaintances walk all over me. Anyone would be depressed after years and years of that.
A little respect is great medicine. It's both an antidote and an antibiotic. It makes you stronger.
This video was brought to my attention by Matthew Chase of Seattle on Facebook. I'm not normally into drag queens but this is wonderful political satire.
Can you help me? I'm working on a little project and I'd love to get your input. Do you have any favorite festivals/celebrations and/or regularly held arts and craft shows that you enjoy attending in the United States or Canada? Do any of your friends? Can you ask around and report your suggestions back to me?
Here's a sample of what I'm looking for:
chili cook-offs anywhere
the Rose Parade in Portland, OR
Folklife Festival in Seattle, WA
Razor Clam Festival in Grays Harbor, WA
the Chicken Gizzard Festival in Pottersville
the University District Street Fair in Seattle
the Telluride Mushroom Festival in Colorado
the Solstice Parade in Fremont, WA
the Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, WA
barter faires anywhere
Quirky is good. Out of the way is wonderful.
The Wanderer by Leventep
I'm also looking for:
artists that have a unique style, whether it be painting, sculpture, glass blowing, whatever
interesting destinations (think Niagara Falls, Breitenbush Hot Springs, Grand Canyon)
yoga or meditation retreats
I'll be sharing the why's and wherefore's about this soon in an upcoming blog post. Please email your suggestions to me as soon as possible (within the next week?) to colossal.rob@gmail.com.
Thank you!
This is one of the best articles I've ever read regarding the rise of the atheist's voice in America. It's short, elegant, and eloquent. If you don't get it, ... well ... Click on the title to go to the original Facebook note. Reprinted here, unabridged and unedited, with permission of the author.
Why Can't You Leave Religion Alone?
by The Thinking Atheist on Monday, January 17, 2011 at 10:34am
The protests come every day from the religious, and they go something like this:
"Why spend your time disproving God?"
"Why not just let people believe what they want to believe?"
"Why can't you leave religion alone?"
As one YouTube commenter said recently, "No one can explain to me why it is so important to convince theists to abandon their beliefs."
The answer is simple. Pages like this one exist because religion exists.
Religion permeates our culture, shows up on our doorsteps with literature, scriptures and threats of eternal damnation, influences our science books, contaminates our political systems, indoctrinates our children and postulates that its doctrine must be followed, lest we be destroyed in body, in soul, or both.
Non-believers are simply responding to the avalanche of religious messages that bears down upon us daily.
Religion gets carte blanche to be as vocal as it wants, to knock on our doors and accost us in our homes, in our places of work, in our personal and professional lives. Believers are charged with a life mission to preach, teach, disciple, shout it from the mountaintops and to "go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Religion...is everywhere.
Ask yourself. When's the last time an atheist rang your doorbell with the Good News of Humanism? How often do you find Richard Dawkins books in the dresser drawers of your hotel rooms? When was the last atheist temple erected in your neighborhood? Have you ever attended an atheist revival? Has atheism demanded 10% of your household income? How many dedicated atheist television channels come through your satellite dish? How many atheist verses were you instructed to memorize as a child? When's the last time someone thanked a FARMER (or even the cook) at the dinner table instead of God?
On a more radical front, what's the name of the last atheist who sawed the head off of an "infidel?" Or sentenced a shrouded woman to death for displeasing an oppressive husband? Or strapped explosives to his belt in order to kill hundreds in a public square? Or publicly hung a gay person for his choice of lifestyle?
It's everywhere. Religion is a pounding drum that has gone mostly unanswered for a long, long time. And religion is not satisfied with merely existing quietly in the homes and hearts of the faithful. Its very nature compels the believer to proselytize, preach, promote, convince, convert and prevail. If you play on the team of the religious, your game plan is to stay, always, on offense.
Throughout our history, those who raise a simple hand of protest against these advances have been portrayed as the real problem. Religion has attempted to marginalize and defeat legitimate questions and concerns by indignantly portraying any resistors as misguided, immoral, rudderless, angry, miserable, lost and alone.
And when skepticism challenges wildly improbable (or impossible) stories found in the bible, the Qur'an and other holy books, the religious wail, "Why can't you just leave us alone?"
The irony is thick.
And religion impedes curiosity and inhibits learning, as the much-maligned Creation Museum proves. It stymies critical thinking. It stretches us to believe the unbelievable. And it poisons the foundational teachings we are using to train up the generations of tomorrow.
Pages like mine exist as a response... a counter-argument to ensure that the cacophony of superstition does not go unchallenged. And if your belief system is so undeniable, so factual, so provable, so real and so true, certainly it can withstand the opposing viewpoints presented here and elsewhere. Certainly, it can survive the acid tests.
Just remember. Religion began the argument. It amplifies itself before the world. And it threatens all mankind with punishment upon its rejection.
We are atheists. We are moral. We are reasonable. We are thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate, happy, fulfilled and well-informed.
And as long as religion insists on fixing human beings who are not broken, we will respond with the evidence that we are not the problem.
"I was called by the hotel next door, warning me about these people. They are violent and abusive, among other things, and we don't want people like that for guests. So, could you please ..." and I made shooing gestures towards the people.
Don't you love coming in on the action?
Looky what I found!
As some of you know, I'm the night manager at an economy (NOT budget) hotel in Coeur d'Alene, ID. My primary responsibility is the safety and security of the hotel during the graveyard shift. I do it every evening; I don't get any nights off. Last night, around midnight, my front door buzzer starts blowing up. I quickly throw on my shorts and t-shirt and run upstairs, thinking that there is a potential guest at the door. It wasn't. It was a policeman. Oh, and five other police cars. I'm thinking "Oh, great. What NOW???" because I've had to call the cops two or three times over the last two months.
Having the boys in blue at your front door with their lights all ablaze is not great advertising for any hotel. Especially at this frequency. And SIX cars? Holy crap!
I open the door and he starts, literally, pushing past me to get into the lobby. I stand in front of him, slightly indignant. He may be a police officer, but he owes me an explanation why he's at my door.
"Excuse me, officer. Is there something I can help you with?"
He looks at me, slightly confused, and says that I called for police support. (Um, I can vouch that this poor fellow isn't really the brightest bulb in the lamp.You know the type - as soon as they open their mouths, their level of intelligence is so glaringly low that Hollywood couldn't have hidden it with computerized special effects.)
"No. I'm the night manager and I didn't call anybody. Did one of my guests call you?"
One of the other cops yells something in the parking lot and he turns around to look. He abruptly walks off to get in his car. "Sorry to bother you," he shouts as he gets into his car. All of them speed off. Well, thank goodness it had nothing to do with my property.
Yet.
About a half hour later, my front door buzzer is blowing up AGAIN. I'm like, WTF is it with people tonight?
This time, it's a young black kid. I open the door and can tell he's a little agitated.
"Do you need a room for the evening?"
"Yes. Do you have doubles?" he asks. He is standing ramrod straight, fidgets, and won't look me in the eye.
This is where I need to learn to trust my gut response, especially after working in the prison system in Texas. A person becomes highly sensitized to odd behavior in that kind of environment. But we are taught in this country that we shouldn't make snap decisions about people, which I agree with. However, we are not taught how to make a distinction between a snap decision and recognizing danger signals.
I told him yes, we did have rooms like that available. He tells me he'll need two rooms and he's going to get the rest of his party. He leaves and I wait in the lobby for about ten minutes for him to return. I almost gave up on him coming back when I get a phone call from the hotel next door to me.
"Have you had a group of black people show up to rent any rooms?"
I look out the window. "They just drove up."
The desk clerk on the other end says "Don't rent any rooms to them. They are violent and are very high on drugs. We just had the police come and evict them. We saw them driving in your direction and wanted to give you a heads up. But don't tell them that we called you because we don't want them coming back and causing more trouble."
Oh great. And now the kid is knocking on the front door, wanting in and a van full of his posse (I counted at least seven people) is parked in our portico.
"No problem. I'll tell them I got a call from the police warning me about them."
I hang up the phone and go to answer the door. Now there is a policeman standing behind the kid.
I open the door and the kid starts frantically yelling at me. I look at the officer and ask if I can speak to him privately for a minute. He comes in and this is what I tell him:
"I was called by the hotel next door, warning me about these people. They are violent and abusive, among other things, and we don't want people like that for guests. So, could you please ..." and I made shooing gestures towards the people.
He actually grinned at me. "Hey, no problem," and walks out the door. I scuttled my fat ass back behind the counter - in case shots got fired. It got loud and abrasive outside for a few minutes but quieted down. I saw the van drive off. I took a deep breath and thanked my lucky stars. Disaster averted.
I couldn't sleep all night, worried that they might come back and break windows, smash guests cars, or who knows what. Thankfully they didn't so, now, at 8am, I might be able to get a couple hours of sleep.
A few weeks back, I posted a conversation that I had with a guest at my hotel who I referred to as "Left For Dead" (LFD), because they had been beaten to the point of being unrecognizable and left to die on the side of the road. LFD has been a regular guest since my tenure here as the night manager but had been absent for the last several weeks. I've been curious about their situation.
I found out that LFD stayed with us last night. I was just coming on-shift and we crossed paths. LFD is doing well, I'm happy to say, and preparing for trial against their attackers.
In our conversation, I happened to mention that I was feeling a little homesick for Seattle. LFD said "Just remember what you told me," and proceeded to instruct me in the same method of stress relief I had coached them on many weeks ago. To say the least, I was flabbergasted.
"You remembered all that?" I asked.
"Oh, absolutely," said LFD. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be able to sleep most nights."
I don't know about you, but it's not very often I get feedback from people telling me how much I've helped them. It was touching to know that I had helped LFD in a meaningful fashion. I almost started crying.
LFD says "I would hug you, but I know you are a manager and that wouldn't be appropriate."
"A hug? You've done better than give me a hug. You've given me a sense of worth when I needed it most."
About fifteen minutes ago, a drunk came through the lobby of my hotel, wanting a room. It started out as a regular check-in until I misspoke. I asked him a second time why he was going to be staying with us.
Yes, he told me right up as he was coming through the front door that his alternator was out on his car. But when you are in this kind of service business, sometimes things become automatic. So, when I got to the part of his check-in where we normally ask why they are staying with us, of course I asked. Immediately, I realized I made a mistake and was about to joke about it, like I normally do. But he flew off the handle, yelling at me.
"Shit! You don't listen worth a damn, do you?!? Did you go to college?"
"No, I didn't," I said.
"Yeah, well it shows."
What I'm thinking is that I've done pretty damn well for myself, having not gone to college, you redneck- drunken- fucking-jerk-spazoid-inbred-mongrel.
Then, I had to ask him what state his license plates were registered. He starts waving his driver's license in my face, quite belligerently, shouting "Can't you see? Can't you see? You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Fact of the matter is that I see lots of Idaho licenses from people that have plates from Montana, Washington State, even Oregon.
At this point in time, I'm ready to kick him out. I'm not paid to be abused, belittled, and insulted. There is a point where my ability to endure someone else's shortcomings collides with my sense of self-esteem. Oh, I know that my bosses would say that it's just part of the job and that I need to be nice to the guest, but the guest just crossed a line with me. When I was a bartender, I've 86'd people for this kind of behavior. Fuck the guest.
A couple of nights ago, we had something called a "110% Meeting" at work. The idea is that giving 100% is just doing our jobs. But, of course, that's not enough. We are supposed to go above and beyond (even though we don't have any true incentive to do so). Basically, like many service jobs out there, we are supposed to allow the guests to run us around and walk all over us, oh, and if need be, go lay down on the traintracks because they come so far before our own interests. Can I hear a big "SCREW THAT"? This guy is a prime example of why I think customer service is so fucked up in the US.
I have a friend who has been checking groceries at a major supermarket for many, many, years. Admittedly, his stories are much more sordid, nauseating, and unbelievable than what happened to me tonight. When I hear him talking about his own experiences, all it does is cement in my mind how I feel about customers/guests/clients. They aren't always right and it's wrong to allow them to behave badly towards the service agents that are trying to assist them. Service agents should never put up with it. I say call them out on their bad behavior. If they want to act like 4-year olds having a tantrum, I say show them the corner and send them to time out. If that doesn't work, show them the door.
I told you. I'm pissed.
Be nice to your desk clerks, waiters, taxi drivers, etc. Most of us really are trying to do a good job for you.
For a few years now, I've had an interest in Buddhism. This arose from a comment someone made to me about a discovery I'd made about myself. She told me that what I'd experienced was a perfect example of a certain buddhistic (is that a word?) principle. When I want to learn something, I like to consult with experts. Why waste time with wanna-bees? So, I've been reading "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts.
Alan Watts
This isn't reading you just plow through like a sci-fi novel. I take in a few pages, let it sit a couple days and then go and re-read it. And maybe re-read it again. Which is part of the problem, no doubt. While I'm trying to process the information, that is contrary to a primary concept of Buddhism. Watts says this: "... Taoism concerns itself with unconventional knowledge, with the understanding of life directly, instead of the abstract, linear terms of representational thinking." You have to live it. I like that.
I am proud to say that in less than two months, I have gained seven people in Denmark (among others) who are regular readers of this blog. Welcome! And thank you!
Why not get to know each other while we're here? If you would be willing to send me a photo and some autobiographical information about yourself, I'd love to feature you on my blog. Once a week, when I change my weekly quote, I'll put a new face in my sidebar for all to see. Email your photo and information to colossal.rob@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from any of you!
Since my original idea for this blog was to post about spirituality and politics, I would be amiss not to comment on the recent shooting down in Tuscon.
First, let me just say that this is a horrifying tragedy.
Second, my sincere apology. I've told people that the way to deal with radicals in politics would just be to shoot them before they ran for the presidency. It was my frustrated response to the insurmountable partisanship in American politics. It was wrong, regardless of the reason, for me to say something like that. Again, I apologize.
There is a lot of room for apology in American politics right now. All of the articles that I've read, all the videos I've watched, the authors have said that all of us need to own up to how we contributed to the shooting in Arizona. Yet, when you read the comments following the articles, almost every commentator is focused on blaming one side or the other, instead of owning up to the universal wrongness in our society that led up to the murder of six people, serious injuries to 14 people, and the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Giffords.
That's where we are, folks. Not on the eve of a national revolution to rid ourselves of oppressive dictators, but dans de la merde, a nation that has gone totally lu-lu. All the legitimate politicians are exiting the scene via death or retirement and what we are left with are a bunch of whack-jobs who won't balance the nation's checkbook, on the take from corporations, and full of hateful rhetoric that stirs up all the other whack-jobs that are listening. Who cares what I say in the political arena as long as it gets me on TV or lands me a book deal? Right?
Wrong. That is a perversion of politics. American politics isn't supposed to be about personal gain or pushing your personal social agenda. It's supposed to be about performing a patriotic service by representing your fellow man. Few people in my generation were taught about having manners in public, much less about good citizenship. How do you expect them to be any kind of decent politician?
Since the shooting, some folks have jumped on the "watch what you say" bandwagon. While that sentiment sounds fine, it's a little too ambiguous and Big Brother to me. Watch what I say? My answer is "Back off, bitch." Why? In my experience, people that say things like that are generally not in the habit of using their freedom of speech. When the only people they talk to are their friends and family (not even their neighbors anymore!), freedom of speech, by and large, goes to the wayside. Don't talk about politics. Don't talk about religion. Don't talk about race. Don't talk about sex. Don't talk about money. (Holy crap. What DO you talk about???) So, telling someone else not to exercise their freedom of speech goes hand in hand with their own failure to take advantage of it. They have little or no connection to freedom of speech because they don't engage in it, therefore lack appreciation of it. If it was taken away, they wouldn't even notice.
Not in my family. Sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, politics, business, religion, ... there isn't a topic we don't touch in a single evening. And it doesn't change in public. So, yes, I'm sensitive about someone saying, in essence, to shut up. If you don't participate in public discussion, you have no business suggesting to someone that they "watch what they say".
How about I offer this, instead: "Certain topics require thoughtful consideration before speaking." See? Reasonable. Civilized. Inoffensive. Responsible. And guess what else? A perfect political statement in a nation gone crazy.
The Obama Administration wants to create an Internet ID for Americans.
Of course, they say that they aren't going to create a database, etc.
And we're supposed to believe them.
This is a time to get up and start calling your Senators and Representatives.
Or maybe it's time to move to Canada.
Your free speech - if you are actually using it - is absolutely endangered.
I guess this wasn't really a conversation as much as it was just a short exchange. Even so, it's generated a lot of thoughts on my part.
I was standing in the meat section of Albertson's today when I saw some beef marrow bones, which have always intrigued me. There was a meat cutter a few feet away, putting new product on the shelves. I said, "Hi, I see you have marrow for sale. Have you ever had roast marrow before?"
He says, "Oh, those are just to give to dogs. That's all they're for." He didn't even look at me while he was saying it. I bit my tongue, literally, and went to shop for other items.
And here is where I start to have my meltdown. If you don't know what I'm asking, just say so. I highly respect this phrase: "I don't know." It's efficient. It's accurate. And most of all, it's honest. Yeah, big fan.
Myself, if someone asks me a question and I don't know the answer, I start asking questions. I might not know the answer, but I might know someone that does. Or, even better - for me - I might learn something.
We are living in exciting culinary times in the United States. Many of us that are cooks and foodies are rediscovering dishes that used to be considered delicacies and somehow fell out of favor to the point of extinction, like eating bone marrow. Marrow bones are roasted in the oven till browned and then sprinkled with coarse salt. In older days it was served with toast. You used your marrow fork (yes, there were even special forks for eating marrow), insert it into the bone, twist, and pull out the softened, gelatinous marrow and spread it like jelly on the toast points.
BTW, they are also called "soup bones". Guess why?
All I wanted to know was if this meatman had ever had marrow and did he enjoy it.
Do I expect too much from people? You might be saying, "Well, he's only a meat cutter. Why should he know anything about marrow?" Because he's expected to know the product he's selling.
C'mon! Have some fuckin' interest in your profession!
A conversation with someone I work with prompted me to revisit this subject, but at greater length.
Have you ever wondered why men only live a few years, compared to some of the so-called "lower" animals? My mother's birds are going to outlive her by many years, maybe even decades. Even trees live several hundred and even thousands of years. Doesn't seem quite fair, does it? I used to say this, myself. When you think about it, how damn egotistical is that point of view? What makes us so special?
Let's just pretend that men routinely live 500 years, instead of 70 or 80. Tell me, what would you, yourself, do differently? Do you think that you'd spend more time with your family? You'd work less and play more? You'd go visit the aurora borealis or climb a mountain?
I don't think so. I think you'd be living exactly how you are right now. Sitting in front of your computer, your TV, your desk. Putting off getting married, putting off visiting your grandmother, putting off going to school, putting off having children.
We all tell ourselves, "There's always time." It's tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. We tell ourselves - no, we LIE to ourselves that there is plenty of time to live our lives. Suddenly, we find out that we're too old to have children because we're well past our reproductive years. Or our bodies have broken down so much that we could never climb that mountain. Our eyesight has degraded to the point where we can't even appreciate the stars in the sky. All because we put off enjoying the pleasures life offers us.
"Fear is the mind killer." Dune
I'm sure at least some of this orginates with fear. Fear causes paralysis.
Which of your fears screw you up? Fear of growing up or growing old? Fear of disapproval? Fear of missing out on something? Something else?
Aha. Suddenly I realize my own fear: fear of failure.
"You do it to yourself, just you, and that's what really hurts." Radiohead
Excuses, excuses, excuses. That's what fears are. It's what we tell ourselves to keep ourselves stuck. Nobody does it to us; we do it to ourselves and we do an ingenious job of convincing ourselves that our problems are all external. We had nothing to do with either causing ourselves to be stuck or staying that way. It's the rich. It's the poor. It's the government. It's my health. It's my family situation. It's my age. It's my finances. It's the illegal immigrants. It's my this, it's my that, it's my -OH, SHUT UP.
It's your Own Damn Fault.
My mother called me out on this over Christmas dinner. Thank goodness she did, too. I had become so mired in my own bullshit that I couldn’t see the way out. I needed someone to slap some cold water in my face. I hope you have someone in your life that cares enough to do the same thing.
"Live, live, live!!!" Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame
Artists have been saying this for ages in books, movies, and other media: Get up and live!
There is a book for young adults, called "Tuck Everlasting". In it, the female protagonist has the opportunity to become immortal. One of the already immortal characters tells her this: "It isn't death that you should be afraid of. What you should fear is the life not fully lived." (My paraphrase. Italics mine.) In the end, she chooses to remain mortal.
"A life lived in fear is a life only half-lived." Strictly Ballroom
In the movie adaptation of "The Lord of The Rings", Elrond's daughter, Arwen, had to make this same decision. Would she continue in the way of the Elves, immortal and aloof, living as children without concern for time, and, ultimately, living meaningless lives? Or would she choose to love who she would love, even if it meant she was calling down her own doom upon herself?
"I choose a mortal life," she says to her beloved. You go, girl.
One final example. Harry Potter, in “The Sorcerer’s Stone”, finds the Mirror of Erised, which J.K. Rowling used as a metaphor for television. It shows the viewer their deepest and most desperate desires. Dumbledore explains to Harry that the Mirror “holds neither knowledge or truth” and that men had “wasted away in front of it, even gone mad”. He ends his speech with wise advice: “It does not do to dwell on dreams ... and forget to live.”
OK, I lied. One more example, but of someone who did it right: the one and only, Auntie Mame.
"Give me hope, help to cope with this heavy load, trying to touch and reach you with heart and soul."
George Harrison
Maybe you have a lack of faith in the future of mankind. I can relate, believe me. With all the problems we have, who wouldn’t be having a crisis of faith?
Don't complicate it. It's just another form of self-sabotage.
Did you know that there are some professions that create with a view to the future and save not a sip for the present or the past? The one I’m thinking of in particular is winemaking. There are some wines being bottled today that won't be ready for 40 years. The people who will enjoy the wine bottled this last season are only being born today.
Consider this animated story I found on YouTube. It’s in three parts and each segment is about ten minutes long. It's a Canadian program called "The Man Who Planted Trees".
If you have children, this is a must-see for them.
The man in this story grew an entire forest without thought of fame or fortune. He had faith in his mission and took small, steady, consistent actions every single day of his life. The result is that countless numbers of people benefitted from his generosity of spirit.
"If you don't find a purpose for your own life, someone else will gladly make one for you." Anonymous
Are you just wasting air and food? Does your life mean anything - anything at all? Mao Tse Tung, the deceased leader of Communist China, is credited with saying to an aide: "It is of no benefit for that man to live and it is no loss if he dies." In other words, Mao declared someone to be a worthless person. What can be said about your life?
It's not the length of the life you have that's important. It's what you did with it while you had it.
"I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing, I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu. And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter, And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying. An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance to live like you were dyin'." Tim McGraw
I'm always trying to find the upside of things. Why not? Make the best of a bad situation, lemons into lemonade, all that. Sometimes all it takes is just knowing that I choose to be wherever, experiencing whatever.
Actually, now that I think about it, I see that it's a way of accepting responsibility. I'm only where I am because of the choices I've made. So, I accept, and thereby am able to be happy wherever, whenever.
Even the female inmates (when I was working at Lane Murray Prison Unit) noticed this. As one officer was walking an inmate by my office door, the inmate commented "Mr. Pickett is so different from everyone else working here. He is so cheerful all the time." The officer replied, "Yes, he's a very happy fellow, isn't he?"
My objection with this article is that the author acts like Hispanics are a new flavor of ice cream in the U.S. The number of Hispanics has been growing steadily and invisibly for years. And, oh, that's right, Hispanics only have large populations in Texas and Florida.
But he is right about languages. Spanish is the most important second language for Americans to learn.
