How many Likes Replace a Hug
June 6, 2013
“I’m not sure there’s any number of Facebook likes that can replace a hug.” ~ Seth Godin
I’ve never been a fan of Facebook, nor have I joined the masses, and public pressure to join it. Early on it was because I heard too many stories of electronic stalking, and time wasted trying to “keep up with friends”. I see the value of connection and sharing with your tribe. The problem I see with it is that it seems like you can’t limit it to your tribe. You information is out there for anyone trolling cyberspace to lock into. Movies like Catfish only confirmed my reservations. As I’ve watched the progression, I’ve held onto my instinct. Simplify your life, decrease drama and live life in the real realm, not an electronic one…
Honesty without judgement
June 1, 2013
I recently reached out to my sister to help with our mother whom had put herself in a bad place through some poor decisions. After I related a story of how I’d been wronged to her and was filling my wife in on the conversation. She said “that never happened”. I realized I had been hanging onto a story that fit my need to be right.
This article really hit home with me.
being honest without judgement
Get Drunk
May 29, 2013
Always be drunk.
That’s it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time’s horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
“Time to get drunk!
Don’t be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!
On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!”
By Charles Baudelaire
Give to Get
May 22, 2013
We all have it. That feeling of being lost, feeling like what we do and who we are doesn’t really matter. Do you ever wonder if you ceased to exist would anyone really notice? You are one of many employees in a big company, one of the 7 billion people on this planet, and a mere speck in the universe. Still we all need to matter. The best way I can think of is to find what matters to you, and to also find a way that you can give your uniqueness to that cause whatever it is. True, you are one of many, but another way to look at it is that there is only one you. Celebrate that and then get busy giving your gifts to make a difference. Happiness will follow…
Giving is the new getting. Exactly!
Perspective on a Monday
May 13, 2013
“There was an old Taoist who lived in a village in ancient China, named Master Hu. Hu loved God and God loved Hu, and whatever God did was fine with Hu, and whatever Hu did was fine with God. They were friends. They were such good friends that they kidded around. Hu would do stuff to God like call him “The Great Clod.” That’s how he kidded. That was fine with God. God would turn around and do stuff to Hu like give him warts on his face, wens on his head, arthritis in his hands, a hunch in his back, canker sores in his mouth and gout in his feet. That’s how He kidded. That God. What a kidder! But it was fine with Hu.
Master Hu grew lumpy as a toad; he grew crooked as cherry wood; he became a human pretzel. “You Clod!” he’d shout at God, laughing. That was fine with God. He’d send Hu a right leg ten inches shorter than the left to show He was listening. And Hu would laugh some more and walk around in little circles, showing off his short leg, saying to the villagers, “Haha! See how the Great Clod listens! How lumpy and crookedy and ugly He is making me! He makes me laugh and laugh! That’s what a Friend is for!” And the people of the village would look at him and wag their heads: sure enough, old Hu looked like an owl’s nest; he looked like a swamp; he looked like something the dog rolled in. And he winked at his people and looked up at God and shouted, “Hey Clod! What next?” And splot! Out popped a fresh wart.
The people wagged their heads till their tongues wagged too. They said, “Poor Master Hu has gone crazy.” And maybe he had. Maybe God sent down craziness along with the warts and wens and hunch and gout. What did Hu care? It was fine with him. He loved God and God loved Hu, and Hu was the crookedest, ugliest, happiest old man in all the empire till the day he whispered,
Hey Clod! What now?
and God took his line in hand and drew him right into Himself. That was fine with Hu. That’s what a Friend is for.” ~ Taken from The River Why by David James Duncan
Who is John Galt?
May 10, 2013
Have you ever wondered where the dollar sign came from?
Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged said
“The dollar sign? For a great deal. It stands on the vest of every fat, piglike figure in every cartoon, for the purpose of denoting a crook, a grafter, a scoundrel—as the one sure-fire brand of evil.”
“It stands—as the money of a free country—for achievement, for success, for ability, for man’s creative power—and precisely for these reasons, it is used as a brand of infamy. It stands for the initials of the United States.”
Many suggestions have been made about the origin of the dollar symbol $, one of the commonest being that it derives from the figure 8, representing the Spanish ‘piece of eight’. However, it actually comes from a handwritten ‘ps’, an abbreviation for ‘peso’ in old Spanish-American books. The $ symbol first occurs in the 1770s, in manuscript documents of English-Americans who had business dealings with Spanish-Americans, and it starts to appear in print after 1800.
Here is the full wiki scoop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign
Greatest Hits
May 10, 2013
In the final episodes of season 3 of Lost Charlie knowing he’s about to die, puts together his list of the top 5 greatest moments of his life. My list of greatest hits goes like this
My first date with Deena
The day each of my kids were born
Fly-fishing with my son
Walking Shannon down the isle at her wedding
My 51st birthday when I reconnected with my son
The day each of my grandkids were born
Becoming President at DAKCS
Reconnecting with my Father
Being with Tracy when he passed away
When I caught the 26″ rainbow on the third channel
Dancing with Sheena at her wedding
The day the music died
June 12, 2013
I have read that a democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.
From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
“From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage.”
Dr. Alexander Tytler, a Scot professor, wrote a scholarly tome, from which this concept comes, called “The Athenian Republic” which was published shortly before the thirteen American colonies gained independence from Britain.
“One man wakes, awakens another
Second one wakes his next door brother
Three awake can rouse a town
And turn the whole place upside down
Many awake will cause such a fuss
It finally awakes all of us
One man wakes with dawn in his eyes
Surely then it multiplies.” ~ Leeland
The awaking has begun at 237. Sounds about right