Fluid Beliefs

Today I thought I would make a list of things that I believe to be true.  This is not to be confused with things I know to be true.  For example, I know that 2+2=4 and I know the Earth is round.

For me, beliefs are different.  It's not that I am less certain.  It's more like, I can't punch the data into a calculator and have the truth pop out.  Science is not mandatory. 

First, some small print.  I reserve the right to change my mind with regards to any of these at any time for any reason.

Here we go...

I believe in God but I don't think he/she/it is anything like we imagine he/she/it to be.
I believe power corrupts.
I believe most politicians are self serving first and cannot be trusted to govern fairly.
I believe most organized religions spend a lot of time convincing themselves they are doing the right thing.
I believe all organized religions are wrong about nearly everything although they still provide value.
I believe we underestimate the value of relationships; of our value to each other.
I believe most of my taxes are wasted.
I believe the Democrats are typically wrong but think they are right.
I believe the Republicans are typically wrong and know it, but think we are too stupid to notice.
I believe that financial reform is way past due.
I believe that man's social evolution lags far behind his scientific and physical evolution.
I believe happiness is as readily available to someone sleeping in a puddle as it is to a millionaire.
I believe in UFOs but I have no idea what they are about.
I believe in ghosts but not in the way they are portrayed on television
I believe that Hell is a state of mind that you need not die to attain.
I believe in life after death.
I believe in miracles but I don't think religion has anything to do with it.
I believe I create my own reality but am unable to fully grasp the implications.
I believe George W. Bush is the worst president of my lifetime. 
I believe the bible has truths as well as factual accounts dispersed amongst fables.

Well, that is a pretty short list. Gives me something to think about.

What are your beliefs?


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j

Dream Lalapalluza

I love to sleep.  I am not sure why this is but I have a working theory.  It has to do with my dreams.  I have a lot of them.  Most are way better than real life.

That's quite a statement considering I have a pretty good "real" life.

In most of my dreams, I am a reluctant or dark hero.  I fight the bad guys and I like it because, inside, I am a bad guy as well.  In these "conflict" dreams, I always win.  I guess that's to be expected since I am writing the script.

I sometimes have this dream where I can't find the right uniform to wear.  I went to Annapolis for college and having the right uniform seemed to be important back then.  The dream is always the same.  I have an inspection and when I open my closet, there is nothing there.  I am not sure if this is a dream or a real memory that I am having trouble putting into the recycling bin.

Last week, after having this dream, I went to www.worldgratitudelist.com.  There is a place there where you can write down things you want to let go.  I wrote that I am letting go of this uniform dream.  The next night, I had the dream again.  This time, I opened the closet and guess what...it was still empty.  However, when I turned around, there was a laundry lady there with all of my uniforms freshly pressed and hanging in nice plastic coverings.

Funny how that worked out.

Today, I was at Costco trying to decide if I could eat a lifetime supply of tomatoes before they went bad.  That was the smallest package I could buy.  This reminded me of a dream I had a few years ago.  In this dream, I wanted a pet monkey so I went to Costco.  Made perfect sense at the time.  When I got to Costco, they didn't have any monkeys.  But they did have gorillas for sale over by the dog food section.  They were very affordable.  The only downside was that you had to buy a minimum of three.  

Right now, I am working on my Lucid Dreaming.  This is a dream state where you realize you are dreaming and take control of the wheel.  Once I master this, I may choose to never wake up again.


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j

Road Food

I have made it as far as Kentucky.

It was a nice trip on a nearly empty plane.  I had empty seats on each side of me and spent most of the flight spooning my laptop.

This morning, I woke up in a hotel, nothing unusual about that.  However, my stomach is...disappointed in me.  I have somehow let it down.  I decide to backtrack my diet on my travel day.  If I can find the source, then I can keep this from happening again.

Breakfast was Apple and Cinnamon oatmeal.  I bring that with me to Hungary since it is hard to get there. I love that stuff.  No problems so far.

The airplane food was great.  I am possibly the only person that loves airplane food.  I like it the way my dog likes dinner time.  He gets a small morning snack and is starved by the time dinner shows up.  I could feed him sawdust for dinner and he wouldn't notice.  When the food finally shows up on an airplane, I am so hungry that I scarf it down in huge gulps.  Once I think I sucked down a napkin, thinking it was mashed potates.

Somewhere over the land of volanoes, I got hungry again.  I bought two large bags of Peanut M&Ms - proof that God does exists.  I love those things.  I tried to eat one at a time but, in the end, alas... gone in 60 seconds.

Overall, nothing out of the ordinary so far.

I land in Kentucky.  An interesting side note here.  I had to pass my bags/body through security to LEAVE the airport.  I guess the message is that if you brought any bombs with you on the plane, you need to leave them with the customs officials.  I make a mental note.

The hotel is about 10 minutes from the airport.  I am, of course, starved so I pull out my GPS and type in KFC.  I need some American food.  I love Hungarian cuisine but its time to pay tribute to the land of immediate gratification.  I am surprised to see there are 11 KFCs within six miles of my position.  I think, "I must be near the KFC mother ship." Then it hits me.  I am in Kentucky.  I think the zoning laws here mandate a certain chicken density.

So, I cruse into the nearest KFC and grab a bucket of extra crispy, chicken only.  The other stuff just gets in the way of flavor.  I know it's not a balanced diet but figure I'll take an extra vitamin pill later to fill in the gaps.

I pull out of the KFC trying to resist eating it in the car, knowing I don't have the willpower.  I am reaching for a leg, the easiest thing to eat while driving and what do I see?  There is a Taco Bell only half a block away.  Five minutes later, I am cruising to my hotel with 10,000 calories of grease and carbs in the seat next to me.

Ten minutes after checking in, I fall back onto my bed completely content.  Nothing says "satisfaction" like a bucket of KFC with two double-cheesy burrito backers.

So, my menu review yielded nothing out of the ordinary.

I pop a couple of Pepto Bismo tablets (the cure for everything stomach) and move on.  


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j

Name Day

Here in Hungary, they have this thing called Name Day.  Every name is assigned a day of the year. Since there are more names than days, you will share your name day with other names.  If you have a name that is so unique (i.e. Moon Unit) your parents will dictate a name day.

My brother-in-law's name is Tibor and every year, his name day falls on April 14th. 

We celebrate name days just like birthdays without the cake.  The are presents and the Name Day Person is the special one for the day.

I have a rather large Hungarian family:
Erika - wife
Bence - step son
Echo - dog (good girl...see picture)
Tibor - brother-in-law
Eva - sister-in-law
Piroska - mother-in-law
Kata - niece
Dorka - other niece
Tibor senior - Father-in-law that I rarely see

Every name day or birthday, we all get together and celebrate the occasion.  I think this is great.  This entire family gets together 1 or 2 weekend days a month and celebrates being a family.  There is a big dinner and presents and everyone lays around for a few hours just visiting.

I love how I am as much a part of this family as any other member. 

Tomorrow morning, I get a 5:00 am taxi to the airport.  Time to return to the States.  Time to enter my "other" world. 

This is not an easy thing to do.  I am use to having my wife around and now I just have my dog.  Once I get use to that, I travel back to Hungary and have to get use to sharing my time with someone else.  It's a constant struggle.  I can usually adjust to my new conditions about as fast as I adjust to the time differences.

Someone once asked my wife, "Why do you do it?  Why do you carry on such a long distance relationship?" 

Her answer, "Because its worth it."

I couldn't agree more.

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j

Photonic Visions

This is my last weekend in Hungary.  I travel to Kentucky on Monday and then on to California (home) sometime later in the week.

We had a BBQ today with a group of my Hungarian friends.  We always try to get together with them when I am in town.    There are 4 couples.

One of the guys is an astrophysicist.  He is, as you might expect, really, really smart.  I use him to bounce ideas off of for my science fiction book.  In fact, I have named one of the characters in my book after him.

Anyway, I like to pose questions to him with regards to Einstein and relativity.  Black holes, light speed and all of that type of stuff has always interested me.

So today I say, "Alright Gyula (pronounced Jula),  suppose I am accelerating on my way to light speed.  I want to go to a star one light year away.  Now, the closer I get to light speed, the shorter the trip feels to me.  As a matter of fact, if I am at light speed, then the trip from earth to the start would appear to have occurred instantaneously although those watching from earth would have seen it take me a year to get there.  Am I right?"

Gyula has a funny way about him.  He is thoughtful, not because the question is hard, but because he is trying to find an answer that someone like me can understand.  Eventually, he says, "No, you cannot travel at the speed of light because you have mass.  It would take infinite energy to accelerate any amount of mass to that speed."

I am ready for this answer and come back with, "Suppose a photon, which has no mass, and is traveling at the speed of light all the time makes this trip.  Wouldn't it seem to the photon that it took zero time to travel one light year?  In fact, couldn't this same photon travel a million light years and have no time seem to pass?  Going even farther, since no time is passing as it makes these trips, couldn't the photon make an infinite amount of trips since they all take zero time?  In fact, wouldn't it appear to the photon that it was in all locations all of the time at the same time?  Wouldn't the photon think it was the only photon in existence?"

Gyula ponders this one for a few moments before answering, "Yes, but it would be wrong."

This, to me, was a hilarious answer.

By the way, today's picture depicts the infamous double-slit experiment.  If you have seen, What the Bleep Do We Know, this is discussed there.  The second smartest man in the last hundred years, Richard Feynman was asked about the results and said, "Maybe everything that can possibly happened has already happened and by observing, we are calling a probabilistic result into existence."

Short blog.  Too much BBQ make Jim a sleepy boy.


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j

The Harder They Fall

I am going to start this one with a disclaimer, much like those I typically bury deep in my blog with colored font causing it to blend in with the background.

I am flawed.

(Pause while the crowd gasps)

Yes, this King of Nowheresville has no clothes.

However, I still intend to cast a few stones.  What's a rock or two amongst the fallen?

I have been sitting at my desk all day lip-synching to CNN.  It's the only English speaking station on the television here in Hungary so I keep tuned in to it all day as I work.  They run the same stories over an over again.

This is why I know, even from my view in the cheap seats, that this is Fire a Bishop month for the Vatican.

I am not a Catholic but it seems to me that a Bishop is pretty high up corporate ladder.  I think two have lost their jobs this week alone for molesting children.  Of course, they did that years ago but, unlike other pedophiles, they lost interest in the activity and moved on to other hobbies.  Now, as they near retirement age, they are offered up as sacrificial lambs.  Hallalluia!  Ah have been healed!!

The church cut out the cancer and now can move on to other things - like balance sheets for example.  I think its great that they have exercised the demons and are now clean.  Unless, of course, their clergy is made up of humans, those beings with a taste for recidivism.

But I am not here to talk about that (well maybe a little).

Today, being Friday, is test day.  So, sharpen your pencils and take the following one-question quiz.

What do the following have in common?


Tiger Woods and dozens of other famous athletes
A few dozen priests and bishops
A disturbingly large percentage of our elected officials

 This is multiple choice so...

A) They are all famous
B) They were all held in high esteem
C) None of them are wearing any clothes (aka got caught)
D) Promised to be good
E) Were believed by us when they did (D)
F) All of the above

If this were the teacher's edition of my blog, you would be able to turn to the back of the book and see that the answer is (F).

Now hand in your papers.


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j

The Absence of Fear

Fear is a strange thing - nothing more than electrical firings across the synapses in our brain.  It is not a real thing any more than any other thought is real.

And yet it controls our lives.

Worse yet, there are others that use it to control YOUR life.

Let me give you two examples: Politicians and religions.

Before you start throwing things at me, let me offer a little disclaimer.  I consider myself to be a spiritual being having a human experience.  I consider you to be the same.  Additionally, this is my blog so I get to write whatever I want.

So, let's start with religion.  I believe that Hell does not exist anyplace other than your mind.  It was put there to make you behave a certain way.  Do this or go to hell etc.  I have a friend who has a relative that once gave a fortune to the church.  As a result, the church granted this person and her family a lifetime of "indulgences."  The church basically said, "We went behind that curtain in the corner and spoke to God.  He said thanks for the cash and all is forgiven - forever."

Really?  People actually believe this?

Sure, I believe in God but I don't think he is anything like the one you learn about while sitting on a wooden pew.  If it makes you angry to hear me say this, you may ask yourself why?  Why does this make you angry?

Religions use fear to control YOU.

How about the politicians?  I voted for George W. twice.  Both times it was because I believed him when he said only he could protect me.  About a week after he won his second term, I began to see that my fear had been used to control ME.

And I didn't like it.  Won't happen again.

I just watched Obama's speech on financial reform.  He basically said, "Here is the evidence of what the current system produced.  Here is what I want to do which is basically make the others tell the truth and take away those toys the financial institutions have proven they cannot be trusted with."

To me, this is a straight forward and simple plan.

I can already hear the counter arguments.  They will not be based on facts.  They will say things like, "This will raise your taxes or create a financial Death Panel or run up the deficit" or anything else that makes you afraid.  My advice is simple.

Don't be afraid.

Let the facts guide you not the rhetoric.  If I hear a sound argument against the plan,  I will change my option.

If I see evidence that God is hanging out behind the green curtain in the corner, I will start tithing immediately.

But I will not be afraid simply because someone tells me to do what they want or bad things will happen.

It has been my experience that our natural inclination is to give an undo higher weight to a possibly negative outcome.  If someone said, there is a 3% chance that letting the government control derivatives will have a bad result, we will panic, forgetting that this means there is a 97% chance that it will have a good result.

I have decided to let fear go.

I am going to take a vacation from those thoughts that are nothing but thoughts with a bad aftertaste.  This does not mean things will be perfect in my life.  But it does mean I am taking back some of the control I have given away.  It means I will stop wasting time speculating about a negative outcome; instead, focusing on those positive things that are all around me.

Like my mustache has nearly grown back...sort of.

http://www.worldgratitudelist.com

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j

Future World - Education

I have always been a fan of Jules Verne, the science fiction writer.  He had a way of looking around at the world and seeing what was going to happen next; not right away, but sometime in the future.

I have decided to write periodic blogs about what I think will happen next; maybe not immediately "next" but soon.

In this blog, I will cover education.

Schools will still be held at school.  The reason for this is much like today - consolidation of resources and socialization.

There will be teachers and coaches. 

The teachers will be responsible for getting out the information that needs to be learned.  Let's take a look at math as a sample class.  There will be a universal set of lessons used across the country.  These lessons will all be digital.  Every student will come to class, put on their headphones and log-in to the math course.  If they get stuck, they can always click the "I am stuck" icon and get a series of helpful sub-routines.  Each student proceeds at his or her own pace.

The book they use is digital as well.  No more spending hundreds of millions of dollars on text books.  The teacher is there to handle outlier conditions.  If a student is having trouble that can't be overcome by the sub-routine, the teacher steps in.

Students receive rewards for progress.  Maybe icons that show up next to their name on a wall or a free movie download or time to pursue non-math online activities if they get ahead.  They can choose their reward.

I mentioned teachers and coaches.  The coach is an adult whose sole job is to encourage.  They teach nothing.  They know every student under their umbrella.  They encourage, praise and guide.  Sure, parents do this as well, but with less than accurate information and certainly not in real time.

Aside from the normal classes, there will be classes in self actualization.  Students are taught how to play and work with others.  They learn the value of relationships.  They learn to overcome internal obstacles and help others to do so as well.  They learn about finances, the arts and sports.

They learn to think for themselves and discover who they are.

A parent can log in at any time and see what is on their child's screen.  They can pop in as a small window and have a one-on-one conference with their child during the school day.

Part of every curriculum is community service.  The idea will be to teach the value of giving as well as the responsibility of having a role where others depend on you to do your part.

And there will be time to play.

What is the cost of all of this?

Probably a lot less than what we are paying now.  Why not have a universal math book that can be accessed online?  How many trees will that save?  How much energy is used to produce and deliver those books?  How much money is spent buying books that wear out after a year or two?  If every student had an Ipad, then no books would be needed.  It wouldn't take long to pay for such a device with the savings.

Why pay to have a teacher spout the same stuff over and over again, several times a day, year after year?  Record it once and use it forever.  Every school in the country would use the exact same presentation.  Fewer teachers means money for coaches.

The coaches will improve the quality of the education by real time encouragement.

I think we could do this tomorrow.

The amount of money spent on the bailout (which I reluctantly support) would buy 150 million Ipads.  This is more than enough.  Spend a billion making the videos of the classes and you are there.

There is one thing left to put in the mix - the will to do it.

I can see a politician saying, "I will support this if you give aid to the pig farmers in my state."

Maybe the way to overcome this is to minimize the government's role.  They provide the money to make the digital classes and books.  Individual states or communities could take on the rest.

So there you have it.  My best guess at the education of tomorrow.

What are your ideas?


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j

Help me to understand

The current Banking  Reform Bill contains a $50Bn fund to help liquidate distressed financial institutions.  It is to be funded by the institutions themselves, not taxpayer money.

Where did this come from and how is it being criticized by those that created it?

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Dodd had this bill.  It didn't contain the bailout fund.  He met with the Republicans and emerged with the fund in the bill.  They put it in there.

Let me be clear on this.  The $50Bn fund was put in the bill by Republicans.

Now, what are the Republicans currently saying about the overall bill?  They don't like it.  All 41 senators in the Republican party each read this independently and each decided that they didn't like the bill.  Why?  It has this $50Bn fund that they say  will create a perpetual bailout mentality and implying that taxpayer money could be better spent. 

They neglected to tell you that is was their idea. 

They neglected to tell you that the fund was not funded with taxpayer money.

Here is the kicker.  They are counting on you to overlook these facts.

Don't.

If you do, shame on us.

By the way, Obama's response was, "I agree with the GOP.  We should take it out of the bill."

Looks like the GOP will have to find something else to be universally pissed about.  Perhaps they should ask Sarah Palin who, a few months ago, said in a conference in Hong Kong that the way to cure the world's banking problem was to increase deregulation - something only the highly (as in high school graduate) educated Glenn Beck could support.  When a Novel Prize winning economist heard Sarah's statement, he laughed out loud during an interview.

But there are muddy waters everywhere.

There are currently 1,500 lobbyists in Washington.  They are not there for the Air and Space museum, although that would be worth the trip.  No, they are there to spend Wall Street money to convince congress not to regulate an industry that did to this country what no foreign army has been able to do.

Wall Street brought us to our knees.

Do not be mistaken.  The money people in this country and the politicians they own are a bigger threat to us than all of the terrorists that have ever existed in the history of the world. 

There are millions unemployed so a few could have nicer cars.   Trillions were lost in the crash and yet bonuses were still paid to money managers whose analytical skills are razor sharp when it comes to figuring out, "How can I make more money for Me?"

Although they supposedly work for you.

Goldman Sachs got caught doing the acceptable.  They put together bad products and then bet that they would fail.  Acceptable if legal = acceptable.  Apparently, everyone was doing it.  Hopefully, everyone will be brought before congress to testify.

The problem with this is that those in congress that will be on the other side of the table have pockets filled from the Goldman Sachs of Wall Street.  The politicians have taken the bribes and now have to come through.  Our eyes will be opened but the punishment will be muted and life will go on.

Help me to understand how we can ignore the GOP's $50Bn gaffe.  Help me to understand how we can expect Wall Street to be regulated by those they own.  Help me to understand how Sarah Palin has more sway than a Nobel laureate.

Help me to understand how we let all of this happen.

Here is what I believe: We let it happen.  We are letting it happen.  We will let it happen again.

I have a plan.  I take this idea from an old Richard Prior movie.  In that movie, he won an election by asking everyone to vote for "None of the Above."  I am going to do it differently.  I am going to VOTE OUT, everyone that is currently in.  Maybe a baby or two will go out with the bath water but no one is irreplaceable.  They need to know we are willing to do it.

So, I have found my road less traveled...

Won't you join me?


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j

Viva La Difference!

Okay, I think it is time for a short note before my main blog.

Apparently, not everyone agrees with everything I have to say.

Disappointing.

Actually, I am just kidding.  Not about the disagreeing part; but I am far from disappointed.

I welcome the differences in all of us and encourage your to offer your perspective in the comment section of my blog.

I use this blog to just "put it out there."  I know my ideas may not match yours.  I know I am as likely to be wrong as right.  That's the fun of it all.

In my job, I often am asked to offer an opinion (which I have bags full of).  Sometimes, what I think needs to be done is clear; other times, I am less sure.  One thing I always do it take the minority view if no one else is already in that seat.  If everyone is nodding and back-slapping, I will disagree, even if I don't really disagree.  There is a reason for this.

The minority position has value.  Just because most people agree, does not mean they are right.  More often than not, taking the opposing view does not change minds, but it can offer an appreciation for what the world looks like to someone wearing a different pair of shoes.

I am often asked, "What piece of advice would you give us if you could only say one thing?"

My answer is always, "Walk in the shoes of those whose lives you intend to impact before you do a thing."

So, Viva La Difference!

Agree, disagree or change your mind.  It's all good to me.


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j

Consider the source

Every now and then, I will watch a little Glenn Beck, just to see what he is up to.

Last week, he was responding to criticism that he is stirring up hate in an attempt to (1) maintain his ratings and income and (2) well, there really isn't a second reason.

For his defense, he claimed "I am like a doctor telling America it is sick.  Don't you think that a doctor should tell you when you are sick?"

Thank God for Doctor Glenn Beck.

Wait a minute, is he really a doctor?  Certainly someone that has his own television show must have some credentials.  He appears to feel he has a better plan than the top economists, military leaders and educators in the world.  This got me to wondering, "How many degrees does he actually have?"

Well, if you count all of the honorary degrees, undergraduate degrees, post graduate degrees and post doctoral degrees, the sum total is zero.  Well, one, if you count a high school diploma.

What this means is that he is fully qualified to be what he is, an entertainer.

He is not qualified to teach kindergarten - seriously.  And yet millions turn to him for guidance on what to believe.

Okay, so maybe he is an outlier data point.  Not the norm.

I continued my in-depth investigation (aka checked Wikipedia) to see if there were any other posers - someone pretending to know what they are talking about.  I found a couple more examples.

Rush Limbaugh left high school and immediately sought out higher education.  He flunked out of Junior College never to return to the deep end of the educational pool again.

Sean Hannity attended not one, but two universities.  He dropped out of both; no degree in hand.

This is a disturbing trend.  I am not referring to the fact that these men make tons of money with resumes that peak with them making it to the second round of their 9th grade Spelling Bee.  I am not referring to the fact that they gave up on their own education, or in Glenn's case, never even tried.  I am referring to the fact that we listen to them.  By "we" I mean the societal "we" - the "we" that does not include "me."


I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about all of this.  I am glad to see these guys are so unqualified to talk about anything that I can now understand how they say what they say.  They are just making stuff up (kind of like me).  On the other hand, they have an impact, albeit a negative one.  Glenn Beck tears up and says "I just love America."  We respond with a "there, there now Glenn," not realizing that doing so simply pulls us into his Fantasy-land.

These guys are not patriots.  They are entrepreneurs.  They are out to make a buck.  Not so different from all of us.  They are good at what they do, not what they pretend to do.  They are entertainers; actors seeking to make the pretend seem real.  As such, I applaud their success.

And then change the channel.

I am a big fan of voting with my wallet and my remote control.


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j

Mistakes happen

Everyone makes mistakes, right?

How else do you explain the duck bill platypus, or Rush Limbaugh?  See, even God can have an off day.

Why do I bring this up?  Well, I have this friend, let's call him Jim, no, James is better.

Anyway, he has this mustache beard thing that he tries to keep groomed.  Once a week, he runs this clipper over it and calls it a job well done.

Anyway, this "friend" flew into Budapest a couple of days ago.  This is a 9 hour time difference if, for example, James lived in...let's say California.

So Jim, I mean James, decides to do his weekly grooming and takes up his clipper, failing to notice that the attachment which allows him to trip only the longest hairs down a bit, is missing.  It fell off during the flight over.  So, sleep deprived James makes the first pass over his mustache and shaves half of it clean off.

Gone.

So, now he waits.  Half a mustache shouldn't take too long to grow back.  Should it?

Anyway, there will be no photograph in today's blog.


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j

My report on current events

I am trying to find a fall-back position.  Something I can write about even when I don't feel overly inspired.

I actually write every day.  There is a contest I enter on www.writing.com.  It is called The Daily Flash Fiction Challenge.  In this contest, you are given a prompt and must write a story that includes the prompt but is no longer than 300 words.

Today's prompt is that the story must include the words: bridge, cloud and flower.  So far, I have written the first line - "Of course the bridge was the first thing to go."  I don't know what will happen next.  It comes to me in bits and pieces.  I never know what will happen until I write it.  I suppose this will be about war or something.  We'll see.

On to current events.  I flew to Budapest yesterday from Kentucky.  I stopped in Paris along the way.  Budapest is a surprisingly small airport.  There are no direct flights to here from anywhere.  Anyway, I am watching CNN Europe, one of the only English speaking channels here, and I see that the Paris airport is closed.  A volcano in Iceland is the culprit.  Apparently, jet engines don't operate well in dense clouds of ash.  Imagine that.  I am lucky that I made it through.  I had no idea at the time that a cloud was chasing me.

I saw that Obama and friends have decided to collect all nuclear material and put it in a safe place.  This will keep terrorists from using it, unless they find a way to make their own (i.e. Iran's department of nuclear proliferation).  Here is the thing.  This group has given themselves 4 years to collect all of this stuff.  It kind of feels like it must be littering the landscape everywhere.  I half expect to see a barrel labeled Uranium 238 sitting out behind a gas station or something.  Before this announcement, I would have thought collecting all of this together would have taken a phone call and about an hour to load it onto the truck.  Now, it feels like they said to each other, "That sounds like a good idea.  Let's see if anyone knows where we left that stuff."

Onward.

The Catholic Church (don't wish to offend you Catholics but this is too big a target to miss), has announced new tighter rules for pedophiles.  They are going to use extreme measures from now on.  If a priest gets caught, the new policy is to turn him into the police.  This is a big change in direction from the old policy of wagging a finger in his direction, often with a disapproving scowl.

Is it just me or is the world coming to an end?  For the last year, I have scoffed at my mom's insistence that 2012 means more than, I turn 54 that year.  She has been predicting earthquakes and such and now it all seems to be happening.  What surprises me is that I am finding this...interesting.  I am not afraid of an 8.0+ earthquake.  Why should I be?  Those things always happen somewhere else.  It's just that when nature demonstrates its power, I get excited.  I don't like it when it rains, generally.  But I love it when it storms.

Hockey and basketball are starting their playoffs.  I only mention that in case no one else noticed.


Time for me to get back to my story.  I want to see where that bridge went.


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j

An adjustment of expectations

It has come to my attention that people are actually reading this blog.

Hmmm.

I have mixed feelings about this.  As an aspiring writer, I am encouraged by the idea that someone would actually want to read something I wrote.  On the other hand, I am writing this more for me than for anyone else. I am basically talking to myself - a condition where low expectations are often the order of the day.

So, if you are peeking over my shoulder, and you are more than welcome to do so, be prepared for some sub-Hemingway output.

Several people commented on my last blog as being "deep."  I took this as a compliment although it would have meant more to me had I actually noticed it was getting "deep."  I just ramble.

Today, I will be shallow or less deep.  The hope is that I don't come to be known as "deep Jim"; the clueless guy that dispenses wisdom in spite of his lack of same.

So I will tell stories of pets that I have owned.

Bear was a dog I once had.  He was huge, about 125 lbs.  He one time ate an entire London Broil without breaking stride as he casually meandered through the kitchen.  Another time, he went into this "pre-barf" heaving that dogs do from time to time.  I glance over just in time to see an entire block of cheddar cheese pop out.  He looked a little embarrassed and tried to act as if it was already there when he walked into the room.  I now have Bozley, same breed as Bear and proof that, at least for dogs, reincarnation exists.

I had a pot bellied pig named Sweet Pea.  She was a good girl who was fairly certain she was a dog, just a lot smarter than most other dogs (i.e. Bear).  She loved to eat.  I once put the dog food up on a small platform so the dogs could eat it without the pig pushing them out of the way.  I popped into the garage unexpectedly to find the pig had pushed a "step" over to the platform and was in the process of climbing up to claim her prize.  When she heard the door opened, she froze in place under the false assumption that I might not have noticed her.  I could tell she was trying not to even breathe as she looked at me out of the corner of her eye.  Another time, I found her passed out with only her feet showing from the open end of a 50 pound bag of dog food.  I nudged her awake.  She took a couple of bites from the food pile her head was in and passed out again; without even opening her eyes.

I (we) once had an African Grey.  These are really smart birds with an intellect comparable to a high school freshman.  Anyway, he could make any sound he wanted.  He liked to bark like a dog and then watch as the dogs ran around the house looking for the other dog.  Many a time I would put something in the microwave and then hear a "ding" way earlier than I expected.  I would check to find the microwave still running and the bird pretending to be watching something out the window.  If you picked up the telephone, he would start in with, "Yes, uh-hu, okay."

I (we) had a Moluccan Cockatoo and a Cocker Spaniel.  The bird would walk around on the floor and the dog would try to get the bird to play with it. One time it took a ball and set in on the bird's back, hoping for a game of fetch.  The bird just looked back at the dog.  You could see it was thinking, "What a dumb dog."

Okay, there you have it.  Jim-light.

I may not post tomorrow as I have an 18-hour travel day ahead of me.

I would love to hear your stories about pets that you have owned.  Feel free to post them as comments to this blog so that others can read them as well.


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j

Experiential Confusion

If someone were to ask me, "Do you think that you have a soul?" I would answer, without hesitation, "Of course."

Now, if I were to allow a follow-up question and that question was, "What is your soul?"  I would have to give it a bit of thought before answering, "I haven't a clue."

Well, maybe I have a clue but I am far from certain what a "soul" actually is.  This is one of those things that is probably so far beyond my comprehension that I probably wouldn't understand it if God handed me book called "Souls for Dummies"

But there are clues.

At least I think there are clues.  For the last few years, I have been using my emotions as road signs telling me what my soul wants me to do.  If I feel bad about something, either before or after an event, then my soul probably wasn't interested in that experience.  If I feel good about it, then the soul was getting what it wanted.

Some people refer to this as rowing upstream and downstream.  Going upstream is hard work because your soul wants you to go the other way.  Downstream is easy as the soul clears obstacles from your path.  Now, if I am right, and I am certainly not, then the soul is guiding me to experiences that it wants to experience.

Using this idea, I have found that my life goes along nicely.  Sure, things happen that I don't want to happen but the answers always seem to be close at hand.

So why today's title?  What is experiential confusion?  It's a term I made up about five minutes ago.  I sort of took it from this exercise program that they are advertising on television.  This program promotes "muscle confusion" as a way to boost muscle growth.  The idea is that you lift differently every day, not allowing your body to get comfortable with a routine.  I know a guy that followed this program and he said it worked for him.

So, if it's good for your muscles, and if your soul is looking for experiences, then maybe it would be happiest if your broadened your experience portfolio.  Try new things.  Go left once a week on a road that you normally go right.  Watch something new on television or take a walk down a dark street.  Do something outside of your normal envelop.

My guess is that you will discover something about yourself.  I think you may find something that you really don't want to do again or, something you can't wait to do again.  Think of the butterfly effect if everyone in the world did just one different thing every day.

I have purposely done this before, but not often.  It is hard to get out of that life-groove we have created.

But, I think it may be worth a try.  If my soul-guidance theory is correct, you will feel an emotional tug or push to do more or less of whatever new thing you tried.

I shall finish with a nod to my inspiration for today's blog.  This is the poem, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost:

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked own one as far as I could

To where it end in the undergrowth

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all of the difference. 

Visit http://www.worldgratitudelist.com     Leave a list.  Read a list.  Be happy.

j

Past Lives

Einstein said that coincidences are God's way of remaining anonymous.  If he said it, then it must be true, right?

Anyway, I had a high school reunion yesterday; sort of a past life event.  I think a reunion is a way or reaching backwards and pulling our memories into the present moment.  It was "over the top" fun.  All the girls were still pretty and all the guys were still 12.  It was perfect.

Another thing ties into this subject of past lives.   While driving to the reunion, I heard a song from way back.  It was called "Brandi" by Looking Glass.  It's a story about a guy, a sailor, who comes to a port and has a good time.  He likes Brandi but as he puts it, "My life, my love and my lady is the sea."

I am an ex-navy man and I can relate to this.  This song from my past, as I drove to my past, reminded me of my past.  No matter what exotic port we were calling on, when the ship returned to the sea, a part of everyone on board could feel it -we were going home.  The sea called and we went without hesitation.

It's hard to describe other than to say, it was a beautiful thing.

Now, what do we really think about when we read a title like "Past Lives"?  For me, its a reincarnation thing.  Did I live before?  Who or what was I?

I have this feeling about my own Past Life (one of possibly none or many).

I was in Sweden a few years ago with my wife.  We went to this giant building.  Inside was a ship named VASA.  This ship set sail in 1628 and was the pride of the Swedish fleet.  After it traveled less than a mile, it sank and stayed at the bottom of a bay for centuries.  It seems the king wanted a lot of canons (who doesn't?).  Too much weight caused the ship to tilt and take water into the cannon ports.  It sank quickly.

So, Erika and I go into this giant building where this ship is.  Almost as soon as we entered, we came face to face with this giant wooden ship.  I immediately felt this strange sensation of familiarity come over me.  I knew I had been on that ship before.  So much emotion came up that I almost cried.  Instead, I man-upped and said something like "nice ship."

How did that happen?  Better asked, "What actually happened?"  As we walked around, everything was familiar.  Everything.  Somehow, I either knew that ship or I knew of ships from that period.  To this day, I believe that my stint in the Navy in the 1970's and 80's was not my first experience with My Life, My Love and My Lady...

I think I will add a "Past Life Experience" tab to my website below.


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Universal Truths and MMA (Mixed Marial Arts)

For the purpose of this ramble, I am going to call a Universal Truth, a moral or ethical condition which, when viewed by a rational group, would be deemed by 100% of those doing the deeming, to be either true or false.

For example, in physics, we may call gravity a Universal Truth.  Drop an apple and 100% of a rational (very important condition) audience would agree that it will fall to the earth.

But what about value, moral or ethical questions.  Is there such a thing as a Universal Truth.  Is there something that 100% would call good or bad - right or wrong?

Off the top of my head, I would say no.  Now, many would disagree with me, thereby making my point. For if we agree on the definition of Universal Truth but cannot agree that such a thing exists, then we failed to get the 100% majority in either direction for such a thing to be true.- I'm not sure that made a lot of sense.

Let's try this.  Is it right or wrong to kill someone (I ask diving right into the deep end.)  Opinions vary.  What about stealing or lying?  I bet most of you would go either direction if the conditions were right.  I also bet you can't find a condition that would sway 100% one way or the other.

So, Jim, you ask, what are you getting at?

I am getting at the fact that maybe Shakespeare was right when he caused Hamlet to say, "For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."  I have to admit that I have always liked this idea.

When a Republican votes no and a Democrat votes yes, is either wrong in doing so?  I would answer, "Only if they voted in a way they believed to be wrong at the time they did it."

Overall, I think we are fairly good judges of what is right or wrong for ourselves.  I also believe we are fairly poor judges at doing the same for others.

So where does the MMA come into play?

I had a friend recently mention that she, her adult son and her husband were watching MMA last night.  Now, MMA is basically two men in a cage trying to beat each stupid.  It's bloody.  It's brutal.  It's inhuman.  I love it!  Or at least I use to.  Now days, I prefer something that doesn't remind me that I am no longer as big and strong as I once pretended to be.

So anyway, this friend posts a comment about MMA and her family time on Facebook and BOOM.  Someone takes offense.  She comments on what a shame it is that people let such things into their houses.  She continued on a bit about God and such, I am not getting it perfectly accurate but the point was clear.  Good Christians wouldn't watch such stuff.  At least that was what the commenter was saying.

Her truth, not mine.

If there is such a thing as a Universal Truth, something that maybe we could be 100% of a rational audience to agree on, it might be this, "Your truth is not my truth."

I will have to relook at my list of pet peeves.

There is of course, tailgaters, pretend news people and now Universal Truthers.

http://www.worldgratitudelist.com  Leave a list.  Read a list.  Be happy.

j

A post, a fence and a boy

I am getting ready to head down to my high school reunion in a couple of days.  It will be great to see everyone.  This is actually my second high school reunion in two years.  We decided to make it less formal and thus, easier to put on.  In this way, we can see old friends more often than once every 5 or 10 years.  Also, if you miss one, there is always another one next year.

At least that is the plan.

When I went last year, I was struck by two things.  First of all, everyone got old(er).  This should not have been a surprise since I apparently have aged as well.  When I look at the world from the inside out, I am still 12 years old (more about that in a minute).  When I look in the mirror, a guy with white/gray hair is staring back at me.

Where did he come from?


Here is the second thing that struck me.  After I met each of these old people, they began to get young again.  It was like being in a Stephen King novel.  They became the people I remember.  By the end of the night, we were all kids again.  I didn't see bald heads and gray hair and wrinkles.  I saw the kids I grew up with.

This brings me to the pole, the fence and the boy.  When I was 12 years old, I remember thinking very deep thoughts and I wondered if others did the same.  I decided to do an experiment.  Down the alley, at the end of my street was Mr. Mill's house.  He taught me math in junior high.  At the back of his yard, he had a fence.  Just out side of that fence, about 2 feet away, was a telephone pole.

I stood between the fence and that pole and thought thoughts.  I thought about God, about my friends, about the passage of time.  I thought about a lot of things that were important to me.  At the time, I thought I was different to think such things.  Now I think that we all questioned things and thought deep thoughts even when we were 12.

Once the thoughts were "thought," I made a big effort to remember that moment.  It would be my reference point.  Periodically, I would recall that moment and ask myself, "What has changed in me."

The answer is surprising.  The answer is "Nothing."

Today, I am the same person I was 40 years ago.

Sure, the guy in the mirror looks different, but that is not who I really am.  I hang out on the inside where I am still  a 12 year old boy looking forward to playing with my friends when I see them again at the reunion.

I have a friend, Wes, who reads the morning comics like I do.  He is a Charlie Brown fan.  In one of the Charlie Brown comics, Lucy says, "Charlie Brown, you are the Charlie Browniest."

This is how I see my friends.  Jay Wedel is the Jay Wedel-iest.  Middy Wolf is the Middy Wolf-iest.  When I see Monya, I am certain she will be the Monya-iest.

As for me, I will still be 12.  I will watch as everyone shows up old and then grows young.  All of the girls will still scare me to death although I will pretend otherwise.  The guys will talk of glory days but I will see the truth in their eyes.  I know that old men are looking back from their mirrors as well.  They know that the past is gone and yet still part of them.  We will talk of glory days, not to relive them, but to just tell the other, "I was there and so were you and I am glad it happened that way."

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j

The Glenn, Ed and Oprah Show

One of my favorite things to rant about, (yes, I am preparing to rant) is news shows that are really "opinion" shows.  Take Glenn Beck, for example.  When he first came on TV, I remember thinking, "This guy is pretty good.  He's not afraid to tell it like it is."

Then time passed and I changed my mind.

Glenn Beck is an entertainer.  He is Oprah with a chalkboard.  He is not reporting the news. He is reporting a point of view that is controversial and thus, attracts viewers.  To him, words like "tyrant" and "socialism" equal job security.  These scary words reflect nothing that actually "is."

To support his position, he brings on others that share the same views and then refers to the circular pat-on-the-back session as a debate.  Pat O'Reilly is the same way.  They aren't news people.  They are entertainers.

So, I sit here smugly and think, "Is this really the best the GOP can do?  Do they really think that no one can see how biased this is?"

And then yesterday, I watched The Ed Show.  Ed is to MSNBC what Beck is to Fox News.  They are each other's evil twin.  As much effort as Fox News spends tearing up Obama, MSNBC spends an equal amount of time tearing down the GOP.

Neither side is without sin and yet, they seem to be quick to cast stones.

Anyway, back to last night.  MSNBC is very pro-union.  As for me, I am indifferent.  If someone thinks a union is helpful, then more power to them.

So, there was this mine explosion in West Virginia.  At least 25 people were killed.

Here are the facts as reported by the ED Show.  25 dead, non-union, 400+ safety violations in the last year.  Now, his only guest was the president of the United Steel Workers who said, if this had been a union mine, those workers would have been able to refuse unsafe work.  The circular pat-on-the-back routine began.  Both Ed and the president implied that this would not have happened at a union site.  "Implied" is the key word.  Neither actually said that but the message was clear.

No one from mine management or MSHA (mine safety org.) participated.

Here are the facts that they failed to report.

1. No miner at any site, union or non-union, can be forced to work in an unsafe condition.  When asked, one of the miners from this very site said, "We all know working in any mine is dangerous.  The company treats us well and you can't point a finger at anyone." 
2. All mines, union and non-union, are subject to and follow the exact same safety regulations.
3. While 400+ violations is a lot, there are operating mines with more than twice that amount.  The implication was that non-union mines have high numbers and union mines don't.  Simply not true.
4. Over the years, mine safety has improved while mine union membership has dropped.

So, Ed made his point, at least to me.  That point being, he may have a news show but he is clearly biased and not interested in doing any research before going on air.

Interestingly, he started that show by slamming Fox News and then CNN for not reporting fairly.  Then he joined the game.  He is a poser - an entertainer.  He is another Oprah, but without the sofa.

http://www.worldgratitudelist.com  Leave a list.  Read a list.  Be happy.

j

Have a hat full

I was reading the morning headlines, something I do right after reading the comics, and saw that North Korea has its own software for its computers - sort of like Windows 7 except with a communist twist and probably technologically closer to earlier versions of DOS.

Anyway, it got me thinking.  How can an entire nation live, voluntarily, in poverty and fear?  The people of North Korea can just about peek over a fence and see the promised land.  I think there are two reasons they don't peek.  First of all, I think they shoot people that peek.  Secondly, and I am just guessing here, having wealth and being happy are not the same thing.

They can wake up with their families and that is enough.  I know it would be enough for me.  Everything else is like the sprinkles on a cake; nice but not mandatory for me to enjoy the cake.

I actually like the fact that they are not rising up against their regime.  It means that they found contentment within.  Or at least, it's not so bad that they would risk it all to overthrow.  In the United States, we have television people that want to overthrow the government simply because it improves ratings on their shows and they make more money.

Now, I may sound critical but actually, I am celebrating.  I am glad that people watch and read the same things I do and reach different conclusions.  If we were all the same, I think I would be either really, really bored - or maybe really, really scared.

There are Muslims that kill because they think they are right.  Within the last week, a family of Christians was apprehended because they wanted to kill - because they thought they were right.  Also, a man was sentenced to jail for killing an abortion doctor, thinking he was right.

I hear that there are universal truths - things that are clearly right and clearly wrong.  I wonder if this is actually the case.  There is a lot of evidence to the contrary.  People think Glen Beck is the best thing on television.  I think he should be in jail.  Who is right?  Both?  Neither?

In Hungary, it is considered rude to "sniff in" if your nose is running.  In public, it is better to break wind with gusto than sniff.  When I go there I always take a lot of tissue to blow rather than sniff.

It's just different.

Men are different from women.  Dogs are different from cats.  Cold is different from hot and I am different than you.

So, as I near the end of my babbling, you may be thinking, "What about the title of today's blog?"

Here is the answer.  In the United States, when someone is getting ready to perform, we often say, "Break a leg."  Think about it.  How can such a phrase be meant as encouragement.

In Hungary, instead of "Break a leg."  They say, "Have a hat full."  This is short of the encouraging complete phrase which is, "Have a hat full of shit."

God Bless the differences - everywhere.

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j

The Downside of Blinking

Blinking must be important or we wouldn't do it automatically.  If it were less vital, I suppose our body would leave it to our conscious mind - sort of like saying, "Blink when you get around to it."  But it's not up to us.  Automatic responses are our body's way of saying, "I don't trust you to do the right thing."

So we blink.

However, there is a downside to this phenomena; in spite of the high priority our body gives to it.

When we blink, there is always a chance that we will miss something important.

This seemingly ridiculous topic occurred to me this morning as I considered how rapidly the world is changing and how that rapid change is affecting me directly.

I have been doing the same job for the last 20 years.  I have been married for the last five years but with the same woman, under the same circumstances for the last 14 years.  She lives in Hungary and I live in California.  We are next door neighbors really, if you are measuring distances in light years.

Anyway, in the last 3 months, our company has started offering Webinars.  The idea is that instead of traveling, I get to sit behind my desk.  I like this idea, although it has yet to catch on with our clients.  There are some growing pains and when they are ready, I will be ready.

We are also starting to offer software.  This is software that helps companies manage their workforce using SMS, emails, telephones and social networks.  People say when they want to work and the company looks at what they need.  The software does the rest.  Pretty cool.

Back to the wife.  We video conference for about 45 minutes every day on Skype.  When I get a haircut, she knows about it.  I also talk to her at work from my computer to her desk.  For the privilege of calling any land line in the world from my computer for 12 months, I pay $132.  Here is the deal - the quality is better than if I were using a land line or cell phone.  I can also call cell phones but that costs $.17 a minute (to anywhere in the world).  So, when I call cell phones, I use my own cell phone.  This saves me about $1,500 a year in telephone charges.

I get frustrated with things like politics so what can I do?  I set up a blog, this blog.  It is part of my daily to-do list to write something here.  I call it my "rant and rave" blog.  Although, I seem to be ranting and raving less lately.

I want to publish a book that is just about finished.  Do I need to go find an agent and get a publisher?  I suppose I could if I were completely clueless.  No, I can self publish and self promote over the internet with very little financial risk.  An agent/publisher is just a middleman that no longer offers any benefit unless you consider sharing your pie with them a benefit.

I am going to coach freestyle wrestling this summer.  This is a style of wrestling I am not overly familiar with.  What do I do?  I go to Youtube and start watching instructional videos.

Speaking of Youtube, I got pissed at Sears for failing to give me a promised rebate.  What did I do?  I made a youtube video and sent a link to Sears.

Northwest wasn't going to give me an $1,800 refund.  What did I do?  I bought the domain name www.Northworst.net and told Northwest I would tell the world.  I gave them 4 hours to reconsider and I got my money in 20 minutes.

Things are changing so fast, if you blink, you may miss something.  How we work, communicate, play and complain are all in a state of flux.  I love it.

I have not yet joined the world of Apps.  I must have blinked.

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j

A Tale of Two Boys

Bobby and Jerry were both eleven years old.  They were great students and very popular with the other kids at school.  Both of their parents were very proud of their sons.  Whenever they looked at them, they saw only the best.  When anyone looked at them, they saw two kids that loved life and were infectiously fun to be around.

Then one day, the school decided to hold an election.  By the time the nominations were over, Bobby and Jerry were both up for the job.  No one was surprised.  Everyone was pleased by the choice for the final run off.  After all, no matter which one won, everyone knew their elected leader would do a great job.

Both boys were excited about the election.

A few days before the election, the school newspaper interviewed each boy.  Bobby said he would extend recess if elected.  Jerry promised better food in the cafeteria.  Their positions were published and the students began to discuss the merits of better food vs. longer recesses.

It quickly became apparent that recess was a bigger issue.  While Jerry agreed with Bobby, he couldn't let anyone know because that would be like supporting Bobby.  So Jerry made a poster that said "Bobby wants longer recesses and thinks desert at lunch should be taken away."  Bobby quickly made another poster that said, "Jerry wants more vegetables at lunch and thinks we should have mandatory study hall during breaks instead of recess."

Jerry's next poster said, "Bobby picks his nose."

Bobby responded with, "Jerry kissed a girl last summer."

Jerry -> "Bobby throws a ball like a girl"

Bobby -> "Jerry likes math."

This went on for a while.  In the mean time, a new kid came to school.  His family had just moved in from out of town.  When he saw what was going on, this 10-year-old asked, "Why are they arguing? Why are they putting each other down.  Why don't they tell us why they are a better choice than the other rather than why the other is a worse choice than themselves."

The response was, "Because that is what the adults taught us to do when we want win."

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Off The Hook

Have you ever been driving along and some other driver does something that makes you mad?  Happens to me all the time.  When this happens, I tend to carry this feeling of "minor" anger with me for a few miles.

I have a solution that works quite well when I would rather be happy than "justifiably" mad.

I mentally point at the offender and say, "You are off the hook."

It's my way of forgiving a person that has absolutely no idea they have been offensive.  My experience is that when I do this, the resentment and anger go away.

This is not my idea; I heard it from a friend several years ago.  He said he allows himself to let 3 people off the hook every day.  I have used that rule and have never used up my daily allotment.  I think this is mostly because a part of me likes to spend a little time being angry at someone that didn't use a turn signal.

The point here, is that I have a choice.  I can carry the resentment or I can let it go.  When I want to let it go, this tool is helpful  I don't know why it works so well but it has never let me down.

Remember, having a resentment is like taking poison yourself and hoping the other person dies.  It only hurts you in the end.  That person that forgot to signal has no clue about all of the fuming I am doing over that little thing.  It's all about me.

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