This country is one of the most amazing places in the world. It was founded 234 years ago (an important statistic considering that the average age of any civilization throughout history has been 200 years) by amazing men who wanted a better place for their children to grow up. Men who were self-aware, well-thought, spiritually rooted, and very educated. Men who had not only their minds, but their hearts, totally in tune with the pulse of the majority. These men knew what didn't work in government from experience, not from assumption, and they had seen the repercussions of taking the power away from the people, and allowing the government to make decisions for the people, without consideration for the very citizens they were put in to support.
Our country has slipped away from the very ideals that these men had in mind when they wrote the Constitution, one carefully-considered letter at a time. Our current government constantly neglects the very fundamentals established in the Declaration of Independence. They consistently show us that they have a new agenda, which is no longer based on the principals that America was founded on. These new agendas in the political world have nothing to do with the American citizen, and everything to do with self-gain for the political officials themselves.
We need to take our country back before it's too late. We have become a lazy and complacent society, quick to accept whatever is fed to us, and not to question those who are in power. We should all take time to read The Declaration again...to remember that the very men who founded this great country had decided that what their current government was doing was NOT acceptable. Men who decided that it was time to do something about it, and that it is our God-given right to have a say-so in the decisions that directly affect our lives, our families, our children's future, and our well-being. When will we realize that it is our right, and our responsibility, to question this runaway democracy, BEFORE it becomes a dictatorship? When will we realize that if we don't get active, our country will slip completely away from us, and then it will be too late?
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Lessons Of Life
A very wise, and extremely rich and well-known business man, once said "The man who goes to bed as smart as he was when he woke up, is doing himself a great injustice".
Life is about a lot of things. We have work, jobs, family, friends, hobbies, responsibilities, and the list goes on and on. In every one of the ventures we take part in each day, there are valuable lessons to be learned. The great thing about identifying the lessons in each day, is that it helps us become better than we were the day before. If you want to succeed in life, whatever your personal definition of success might be, it almost always a guarantee that if you learn from your mistakes, from the world around you, and from the experiences you face, you will undoubtedly come out of it more enlightened. Enlightenment can help you with every single aspect of life.
When you wake up in the morning, make it an obligation to yourself to learn something new from the day. You don't have to go out looking for a lesson...they will come to you. Look at the experience of life in a single day, and realize that it offers some of the most valuable lessons of all. When you fail, learn, and move on. When you succeed, examine what you did to make it a success, and use that knowledge for tomorrows challenges. When given an opportunity, don't just take the easy road because of fear. Fear prevents us from so much that life has to offer. After all, the road less traveled is usually harder, but it often times, it is the most rewarding also.
Learning that life is not a set of daily activities, subject to the world's discretion. Life is about new experiences, new lessons, and new possibilities to gain from those things around us, which will make us better human beings. Life is not a constant...it is always in motion. It is either moving in the positive, or moving in the negative. Make your life what you want it to be by pushing it into the positive every chance you get. Take the lessons life offers constantly, and learn from them...move forward, and experience what life has to offer.
Life is about a lot of things. We have work, jobs, family, friends, hobbies, responsibilities, and the list goes on and on. In every one of the ventures we take part in each day, there are valuable lessons to be learned. The great thing about identifying the lessons in each day, is that it helps us become better than we were the day before. If you want to succeed in life, whatever your personal definition of success might be, it almost always a guarantee that if you learn from your mistakes, from the world around you, and from the experiences you face, you will undoubtedly come out of it more enlightened. Enlightenment can help you with every single aspect of life.
When you wake up in the morning, make it an obligation to yourself to learn something new from the day. You don't have to go out looking for a lesson...they will come to you. Look at the experience of life in a single day, and realize that it offers some of the most valuable lessons of all. When you fail, learn, and move on. When you succeed, examine what you did to make it a success, and use that knowledge for tomorrows challenges. When given an opportunity, don't just take the easy road because of fear. Fear prevents us from so much that life has to offer. After all, the road less traveled is usually harder, but it often times, it is the most rewarding also.
Learning that life is not a set of daily activities, subject to the world's discretion. Life is about new experiences, new lessons, and new possibilities to gain from those things around us, which will make us better human beings. Life is not a constant...it is always in motion. It is either moving in the positive, or moving in the negative. Make your life what you want it to be by pushing it into the positive every chance you get. Take the lessons life offers constantly, and learn from them...move forward, and experience what life has to offer.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Great Thing About The Truth
If a child is born blind, and has never seen the world, how would you describe colors to him/her? Having never seen the color blue, how would you describe the sky? It would be very difficult for the child to understand. Even thought the child doesn't understand the idea of color, it doesn't mean that color doesn't exist.
If you told the child that the sun, which is vital to their survival, rose in the East and set int he West, it would be up to that child to decide if they believed your statement or not. If the child cares to know the truth, they could ask other family members, whom they trust, and find out if it actually does rise and set as they have been told. Or, the child could decide that since they would never see the sun, it doesn't matter whether it rises in the East and sets in the West at all. Does this mean that the sun's consistent movement from East to West is not true? No...it just means that the child has a choice of whether or not to believe what is told to them.
We are a lot like this child. We have a choice to ask around, investigate, and put forth effort to know if what we are told is true. Some people choose to live in what they believe because they don't want to do the work of finding out the truth. Some people choose to live in their current beliefs because to know different would mean they would have to change their lives, and being the selfish creatures that we are, we want to keep doing it our way. Whether we choose to research the truth, or not....whether we choose to believe what we are told, or not...does not change the fact that the truth is the truth. That's the great thing about the truth...it is, no matter who chooses to believe it or not.
Don't we owe it to ourselves to at least try to gain the knowledge, and the power that comes from that knowledge, in order to gain the truth. Is it better to live in our own false reality, and deal with the consequences of that reality, or better to gain the freedom of the truth and live according to it, so that the consequence becomes a reward?
Isn't it at least worth the effort of trying to find out to avoid the consequence? Who knows, you may be surprised at what the actual truth is once you decide to start looking into it for yourself.
If you told the child that the sun, which is vital to their survival, rose in the East and set int he West, it would be up to that child to decide if they believed your statement or not. If the child cares to know the truth, they could ask other family members, whom they trust, and find out if it actually does rise and set as they have been told. Or, the child could decide that since they would never see the sun, it doesn't matter whether it rises in the East and sets in the West at all. Does this mean that the sun's consistent movement from East to West is not true? No...it just means that the child has a choice of whether or not to believe what is told to them.
We are a lot like this child. We have a choice to ask around, investigate, and put forth effort to know if what we are told is true. Some people choose to live in what they believe because they don't want to do the work of finding out the truth. Some people choose to live in their current beliefs because to know different would mean they would have to change their lives, and being the selfish creatures that we are, we want to keep doing it our way. Whether we choose to research the truth, or not....whether we choose to believe what we are told, or not...does not change the fact that the truth is the truth. That's the great thing about the truth...it is, no matter who chooses to believe it or not.
Don't we owe it to ourselves to at least try to gain the knowledge, and the power that comes from that knowledge, in order to gain the truth. Is it better to live in our own false reality, and deal with the consequences of that reality, or better to gain the freedom of the truth and live according to it, so that the consequence becomes a reward?
Isn't it at least worth the effort of trying to find out to avoid the consequence? Who knows, you may be surprised at what the actual truth is once you decide to start looking into it for yourself.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
An End In Sight
Technology has made life fast and easy in most cases. We have cell phones that do everything for us from our calenders to our photographs. They receive email on the go, text message, allow us to touch the internet at any time of the day and update our status on pages like Myspace and Facebook, so that the people we are not text messaging or calling can know what we are doing. And most phones have unlimited calling so we can talk until our batteries run dead. These are not all bad things. Parents want to get in touch with their children, wives need their husbands, sons and daughters need their parents, whenever and wherever they may be. Cell technology has opened our world up for boundless communication, with of course the exception of the service of the area you may be roaming through at the time.
Think with me for a moment at the way our country has changed technologically for a moment. In the last 100 years, we have seen 1000's of inventions that have improved our life...the microwave, the television, the space satellite, the air conditioner, the copy machine, the personal computer...these are just a few minor ones of history. In fact, Penicillin was found between 1928-1938 and could be argued as one of the better discoveries in the last 100 years. Without it, we may not be here to enjoy all the technology at our fingertips.
Out of all the discoveries of the last century, the microchip has got to be the single most influential discovery. It powers everything in our technological world. Smaller that a dime, it is quite literally the brains, the heart, and the nervous system of every digital device on the planet. It allows all things in our technological world to work. Since its introduction in the 1970's there have been more medical, mathematical, and scientific breakthroughs than in any other period of time. With tens of billions of chips running everything from Jumbo jets to stereos, many scholars now rank the microchip as one of humankind's greatest achievements.
I heard something the other month that got me thinking about these advancements of our country over the last 100 years. It said that what we have learned in the last 100 years will allow us to advance 1000 times more in the next 100 years. To think we could advance that much more is mind-boggling. Computer chips installed in every baby born, which will monitor everything about the person until death? Artificial Intelligence that can make life easier or faster for us?
Did anyone see The Matrix? How much easier do we need life to be? Maybe the brains of our society can figure out how to clone the DNA of animals to reproduce them genetically...but does that mean they should? Who will ask the questions that will stop them from putting chips in you to monitor every move and transaction you make. They will know what kind of shampoo you buy at the store, how much you spend in a day, where you go, what you do, and who you do it with. This data will allow them to market to you specifically, strategical plan, and develop a system to actively steer your decisions, and this will ultimately take away our God given right of choice.
Wake up people! Technology can be great, but lets find a cure for diseases like Cancer and Aids. Lets find a fuel source that doesn't make us dependent on oil from countries that are made up of a majority of people who hate our guts. Lets use technology to benefit mankind and the ecosystems of our world, and stop using it to control purchasing habits and make the all-mighty dollar. Where are the people making the decisions around here? We can land a man on the face o the moon in the 60's, we can clone a sheep in the late 1990's, but we can't come up with a way to make our pollution less, and our rain forests remain preserved and abundant? Where are our priorities at people? What good will all this technology, and the ease of life it creates for us, be if our planet is in such bad shape we can't enjoy any of it? How lazy are we that we need more than we have today?
There is a weapon, which is already in existence, called an EMP. It stands for Electro-Magnetic Pulse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse). What would happen if a few of these were targeted at our major power hubs across the nation? What about if the development of these weapons evolves into a weapon with a massive blast radius. Instead of a 50 mile radius, what if it were 500 miles. Three or four bombs could effectively shut down our country. We would go from what we know today, to horse and buggy and candlelight in a matter of minutes.
Who says that the technology of today is here to stay?
Think about it...
Think with me for a moment at the way our country has changed technologically for a moment. In the last 100 years, we have seen 1000's of inventions that have improved our life...the microwave, the television, the space satellite, the air conditioner, the copy machine, the personal computer...these are just a few minor ones of history. In fact, Penicillin was found between 1928-1938 and could be argued as one of the better discoveries in the last 100 years. Without it, we may not be here to enjoy all the technology at our fingertips.
Out of all the discoveries of the last century, the microchip has got to be the single most influential discovery. It powers everything in our technological world. Smaller that a dime, it is quite literally the brains, the heart, and the nervous system of every digital device on the planet. It allows all things in our technological world to work. Since its introduction in the 1970's there have been more medical, mathematical, and scientific breakthroughs than in any other period of time. With tens of billions of chips running everything from Jumbo jets to stereos, many scholars now rank the microchip as one of humankind's greatest achievements.
I heard something the other month that got me thinking about these advancements of our country over the last 100 years. It said that what we have learned in the last 100 years will allow us to advance 1000 times more in the next 100 years. To think we could advance that much more is mind-boggling. Computer chips installed in every baby born, which will monitor everything about the person until death? Artificial Intelligence that can make life easier or faster for us?
Did anyone see The Matrix? How much easier do we need life to be? Maybe the brains of our society can figure out how to clone the DNA of animals to reproduce them genetically...but does that mean they should? Who will ask the questions that will stop them from putting chips in you to monitor every move and transaction you make. They will know what kind of shampoo you buy at the store, how much you spend in a day, where you go, what you do, and who you do it with. This data will allow them to market to you specifically, strategical plan, and develop a system to actively steer your decisions, and this will ultimately take away our God given right of choice.
Wake up people! Technology can be great, but lets find a cure for diseases like Cancer and Aids. Lets find a fuel source that doesn't make us dependent on oil from countries that are made up of a majority of people who hate our guts. Lets use technology to benefit mankind and the ecosystems of our world, and stop using it to control purchasing habits and make the all-mighty dollar. Where are the people making the decisions around here? We can land a man on the face o the moon in the 60's, we can clone a sheep in the late 1990's, but we can't come up with a way to make our pollution less, and our rain forests remain preserved and abundant? Where are our priorities at people? What good will all this technology, and the ease of life it creates for us, be if our planet is in such bad shape we can't enjoy any of it? How lazy are we that we need more than we have today?
There is a weapon, which is already in existence, called an EMP. It stands for Electro-Magnetic Pulse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse). What would happen if a few of these were targeted at our major power hubs across the nation? What about if the development of these weapons evolves into a weapon with a massive blast radius. Instead of a 50 mile radius, what if it were 500 miles. Three or four bombs could effectively shut down our country. We would go from what we know today, to horse and buggy and candlelight in a matter of minutes.
Who says that the technology of today is here to stay?
Think about it...
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Over-paid Egos and Over-valued People
It seems that society has a real strong understanding of the type of role models that they want to follow. The only problem is that these role models are not worthy of the admiration they are receiving. People think that financial success, and fame in the public eye, means they can do what they want, and it is not without good reason. From pro athletes to millionaire heirs and heiresses, the culture we live in puts people on the highest pedestal possible with no real substantial basis, and these same people get away with breaking the rules time and time again.
The list of professional athletes which get into trouble is astounding, and then within months, they are placed right back onto the pedestals from which they fell. I have been so excited lately for the NFL, which has acquired a no-nonsense Commissioner who has "been laying the smack down" on these rule breakers. Michael Vick is the first example that comes to the minds of everyone who pays attention tot he sports world and rule breaking. He was the ring leader of a dog-fighting network, and he faced jail time because of it.
And the trend of justice almost started to snowball. A while back a rare case occurred where an athlete accidentally shot himself in the leg in a night club, and it ended in a sentence of three years in prison, for a charge of carrying a non-registered, concealed weapon on his person. This is a no-no in the state of New York, and the lack of responsibility on the athlete's part cost him three years of his life, millions of dollars in salary, and since he was in the prime of his potential, possibly his career in the NFL.
But what about the others who have not been convicted? Are they just innocent victims of the media's distortion of the facts? Big Ben's rape accusation of a young girl is not the first of the decade. He was deemed innocent, but the city of Pittsburgh got a sour taste in their mouth, and they all but banished him form the city until a public apology and a "sincere" repentance got him a second chance. But what about the other rape accusation of the last ten years in which the athlete was not found guilty?
Kobe Bryant went through the same thing years ago, and yet the public has all but forgotten about it. I guess if the legal system says you are innocent of one crime, the other moral crimes you commit don't count against your character. This man cheated on his wife. That's called adultery in my America.And while this may not be a crime worthy of punishment according to man's laws, it is one of the sacred TEN COMMANDMENTS. Apparently, as long as there is no jail time associated with the crime, we don't care to acknowledge it as wrong.
Tiger Woods, possibly the greatest golfing phenom to this point in history, also committed adultery. Although, he has a reason...he is a sex addict. I can't tell you if Tiger has a chemical imbalance or not, but I can tell you that you show me a man who doesn't love sex, and I will show you a woman in a man's clothes. I understand that people have diseases, addictions, imbalances, and problems with will power. But, our society simply accepted his reasons and it's back to the way it was because, "we can't imagine golf without the greatest golfer of all time". The sport took a major ratings hit, and the public tuned out. All I'm saying is that could it not be possible that the Networks and Tiger decided to send him off for a vacation at a sex addiction clinic, come up with an excuse worthy of pity (like a disease), and then get back to business? We as a society just swallow whatever pill the media feeds us, and then call it truth. WAKE UP PEOPLE!
The question is, "do you think the people in high places are capable of doing whatever it takes for greed?"
Personally, I think that question has been answered so many times, it is harder for us to ignore the truth than it would be to accept the truth. Greed, fame, fortune, and success run the world, and the common man has no real understanding of the lengths these guys will go to to make the all mighty dollar.
I'm all for second chances, but once you get that chance, you better darn well use it wisely. Vick is still hanging out with thugs, Woods is still hiding something serious, and Bryant is winning so it doesn't matter to anyone right now. Paris Hilton goes to jail but a nervous breakdown gets her a pardon? What the heck is going on when no one stands up and calls this what it is...BULL. If i went to prison, would I get the same treatment? I doubt it.
O.J.Simpson got away with murdering two people. They had tapes from 911 calls where he was literally beating down the door to get to Nicole time and time agian, and n one opened their eyes to the fact that this man has problems. A decade later, he finally gets his due and gets sentenced to prison for armed robbery. God is always just.
Wake up people, and at least take it upon yourself to realize that your knowledge of the greed out there is limited, and that anything is possible in the world we live in today. As long as we put these people on the highest of pedestals, and worship them as great people, they will continue to abuse and distort, hide and lie, and they will continue to do what they can get away with. When will we start to take responsibility for who we admire, and start to change the country we live in for our sakes?
The list of professional athletes which get into trouble is astounding, and then within months, they are placed right back onto the pedestals from which they fell. I have been so excited lately for the NFL, which has acquired a no-nonsense Commissioner who has "been laying the smack down" on these rule breakers. Michael Vick is the first example that comes to the minds of everyone who pays attention tot he sports world and rule breaking. He was the ring leader of a dog-fighting network, and he faced jail time because of it.
And the trend of justice almost started to snowball. A while back a rare case occurred where an athlete accidentally shot himself in the leg in a night club, and it ended in a sentence of three years in prison, for a charge of carrying a non-registered, concealed weapon on his person. This is a no-no in the state of New York, and the lack of responsibility on the athlete's part cost him three years of his life, millions of dollars in salary, and since he was in the prime of his potential, possibly his career in the NFL.
But what about the others who have not been convicted? Are they just innocent victims of the media's distortion of the facts? Big Ben's rape accusation of a young girl is not the first of the decade. He was deemed innocent, but the city of Pittsburgh got a sour taste in their mouth, and they all but banished him form the city until a public apology and a "sincere" repentance got him a second chance. But what about the other rape accusation of the last ten years in which the athlete was not found guilty?
Kobe Bryant went through the same thing years ago, and yet the public has all but forgotten about it. I guess if the legal system says you are innocent of one crime, the other moral crimes you commit don't count against your character. This man cheated on his wife. That's called adultery in my America.And while this may not be a crime worthy of punishment according to man's laws, it is one of the sacred TEN COMMANDMENTS. Apparently, as long as there is no jail time associated with the crime, we don't care to acknowledge it as wrong.
Tiger Woods, possibly the greatest golfing phenom to this point in history, also committed adultery. Although, he has a reason...he is a sex addict. I can't tell you if Tiger has a chemical imbalance or not, but I can tell you that you show me a man who doesn't love sex, and I will show you a woman in a man's clothes. I understand that people have diseases, addictions, imbalances, and problems with will power. But, our society simply accepted his reasons and it's back to the way it was because, "we can't imagine golf without the greatest golfer of all time". The sport took a major ratings hit, and the public tuned out. All I'm saying is that could it not be possible that the Networks and Tiger decided to send him off for a vacation at a sex addiction clinic, come up with an excuse worthy of pity (like a disease), and then get back to business? We as a society just swallow whatever pill the media feeds us, and then call it truth. WAKE UP PEOPLE!
The question is, "do you think the people in high places are capable of doing whatever it takes for greed?"
Personally, I think that question has been answered so many times, it is harder for us to ignore the truth than it would be to accept the truth. Greed, fame, fortune, and success run the world, and the common man has no real understanding of the lengths these guys will go to to make the all mighty dollar.
I'm all for second chances, but once you get that chance, you better darn well use it wisely. Vick is still hanging out with thugs, Woods is still hiding something serious, and Bryant is winning so it doesn't matter to anyone right now. Paris Hilton goes to jail but a nervous breakdown gets her a pardon? What the heck is going on when no one stands up and calls this what it is...BULL. If i went to prison, would I get the same treatment? I doubt it.
O.J.Simpson got away with murdering two people. They had tapes from 911 calls where he was literally beating down the door to get to Nicole time and time agian, and n one opened their eyes to the fact that this man has problems. A decade later, he finally gets his due and gets sentenced to prison for armed robbery. God is always just.
Wake up people, and at least take it upon yourself to realize that your knowledge of the greed out there is limited, and that anything is possible in the world we live in today. As long as we put these people on the highest of pedestals, and worship them as great people, they will continue to abuse and distort, hide and lie, and they will continue to do what they can get away with. When will we start to take responsibility for who we admire, and start to change the country we live in for our sakes?
Friday, July 9, 2010
Control - Reality or Illusion?
I have come to the realization over the last few years, that I need to gain some sort of control back in my life. I had looked down every alley, opened every door, rambled through the cabinets, and dusted off the memories files away in my mind searching for the control that I had lost. After a few weeks of searching every avenue possible, I came to an astounding conclusion…Control is an illusion. Man’s need for control, from the earliest days of men, has caused him to conjure up the idea that he could buy, learn, train, prepare, retain, detain, or delay in order to gain control over his situation. We need control to feel better about our individual situations. It makes us feel like the unexpected is not a reality. If we can control life, we can control destiny, and this control leads to security and comfort. The reality I found is this…we can control three things in our lives.
First, we can control what we take into our bodies. There are four categories of bodily consumption. What you see, what you eat, what you hear, what touches you. You can eat healthy, or you can choose to ignore the quality of food you consume. Most likely, no one will ever stuff a Big Mac or donuts into your mouth. What you eat is purely your choice...a decision that is totally in your hands. Even though we have control in this area, it is not without its exceptions. Did you know that a food manufacturer can grind up a cow hooves, cartilage, intestines, etc. and make a hamburger patty out of it, and our FDA allows them to stamp this patty with a 100% Beef label because it all came from a cow’s body. Very little beef we purchase from fast food establishments is actual meat/muscle tissue by majority.
The air around you touches your body internally and externally. Unfortunately, unless you live in a controlled vacuum, you are forced to breathe the air around you daily. This air is not as pure as it could be, due to pollutants; therefore we are forced to breathe it as it is available to us. We can choose to live in less polluted cities, or at elevations where smog is not as present, but it is still our option to care about what we breathe. Our society has become one of acceptance when it comes to this. There are plenty of Green organizations that are fighting to clean up the air of our planet, but the fight is a tough one when the numbers of people who are active against the quality of air, which has developed over the last 50 years, are so few.
The third issue of control falls in the category of what we see. Our society has based its structure on the visual. The colors and designs of everything in our world have come to matter to an extreme sense. Cars are sleeker, clothes are sexier, tanned bodies are better than pale ones, women and men need to look like movie stars in order to gain the successes of the world. This concept of the visual appeal trickles down to the even smallest areas of life. When you go into a convenience store to purchase a drink, you make a choice based on several things. What flavor does your mouth tell you to buy, what color of liquid appeals to you, which is the most cost effective for your situation, and believe it or not, which bottle shape do you like the most. Coke has changed the shape of the plastic bottle of their product several times in the last 15 years in hopes to find the most effective style to appeal to the public. We can’t change what shows up in front of our eyes, but we do have control in one way…we can choose to learn to see the forest instead of focusing on the tree.
What we hear affects us as much as what we see, if not more. At the conception of music, it was very limited in comparison to today’s selection. We have Country, Rap, Hip-Hop, Gospel, Bluegrass, Blues, Jazz, and on and on and on. Each musical style has been influenced by another style, and artistic expression has taken music to an all-time boundless entity. We also hear other people on a daily basis. The words others use, the dialects we hear, the terms and phrases, and the audible attitudes around us, all affect us even when we are unaware of it. Have you ever started a new relationship with someone and noticed that after a few months of being around them, you started to use phrases that that person uses on a regular basis. Have you noticed that when a northerner moves to the south, they eventually lose their northern draw and pick up a southern one. What we hear is out of our control. Unless you are unfortunate enough to be deemed deaf, our ears work regardless of the circumstance. We hear a lot in a single day, but what we listen to is a different story. The definition of listening is “to give attention with the ear; attend closely for the purpose of hearing; give ear”. It also means “to pay attention; heed; obey”. But to truly understand how to listen, I think it takes and understanding of the three separate definitions combined. The third definition gives us a little more insight into the passion and soul of listening…”to wait attentively for a sound”. Attentively is the most important attribute of listening in my personal opinion. We can choose to listen to the things that are truth. We can choose to listen to things that educate us, and make us more aware of the truths around us. If we can learn to see the forest instead of the trees, we can learn to hear the truth in the world.
The second area we have control is in the area of what we say. We are the only ones who can speak the words we speak. No one can make you say anything you don't want to say, with the possible exception of holding you at gunpoint. But, for us to choose to speak or not to speak, and to choose what words we use when speaking, is completely our God given right as humans. Our founding Fathers knew this when they gave us as Americans the Freedom of Speech. But just because you have the right to speak, doesn't always mean that you should. The one thing that will always be true, is that once you say it, there is no taking it back. You can apologize for the wrong choice, but the words are out there forever. We have control over what we say, and we need to treat this liberty with respect. Society has gotten very loose in the area of verbal communication. America thinks that freedom of speech means that you can say whatever you want without consequence. When you exercise your right to it, you still have to face the consequences of the words. The point is that we do have control over the words we use, and that is powerful in itself. And with power comes responsibility. America, exercise your responsibility and choose wisely.
The third and final area of control is in how we treat others. We can chose to harbor ill will, or we can forgive. We can do for others, or we can expect others to do for us. We can hold onto the thread of self-entitlement that we have gotten accustomed to, or we can willingly do for those who do not do for us in return. We have a choice to curse that driver for cutting us off on the way to work, or we can choose to try to understand that they may just not have seen us. They may be running late for work and this may be their last warning and they may be facing termination. They may be in the middle of tragic circumstance, or a terrible family situation, and they may be in a state of mind that is not lending itself to the drive ahead of them. We can chose to try to walk in others shoes, and understand from their perspective, or we can chose to see the situation from our own perspective and maintain a selfishness that causes our quality of life to deteriorate daily.
We have control over these few things in our life, and it is our luxury to be able to exercise this control for our benefit. I know that I can become complacent in society and accept what it tells me, shows me, or decides for me. But I don’t want to be a circumstance of trend, or society's choices. I choose to look at my life and ask myself if I think that I have to look a certain way, or if I care about what I allow into my body. I have the choice to hear the world, or listen to the truth. I have a choice and a responsibility to live inside my own box, outside my own box, or to live in the confines of the control of the world we live in. We have such little actual control, isn't it our responsibility to take that small amount of control and use it to our absolute advantage? I think so...
First, we can control what we take into our bodies. There are four categories of bodily consumption. What you see, what you eat, what you hear, what touches you. You can eat healthy, or you can choose to ignore the quality of food you consume. Most likely, no one will ever stuff a Big Mac or donuts into your mouth. What you eat is purely your choice...a decision that is totally in your hands. Even though we have control in this area, it is not without its exceptions. Did you know that a food manufacturer can grind up a cow hooves, cartilage, intestines, etc. and make a hamburger patty out of it, and our FDA allows them to stamp this patty with a 100% Beef label because it all came from a cow’s body. Very little beef we purchase from fast food establishments is actual meat/muscle tissue by majority.
The air around you touches your body internally and externally. Unfortunately, unless you live in a controlled vacuum, you are forced to breathe the air around you daily. This air is not as pure as it could be, due to pollutants; therefore we are forced to breathe it as it is available to us. We can choose to live in less polluted cities, or at elevations where smog is not as present, but it is still our option to care about what we breathe. Our society has become one of acceptance when it comes to this. There are plenty of Green organizations that are fighting to clean up the air of our planet, but the fight is a tough one when the numbers of people who are active against the quality of air, which has developed over the last 50 years, are so few.
The third issue of control falls in the category of what we see. Our society has based its structure on the visual. The colors and designs of everything in our world have come to matter to an extreme sense. Cars are sleeker, clothes are sexier, tanned bodies are better than pale ones, women and men need to look like movie stars in order to gain the successes of the world. This concept of the visual appeal trickles down to the even smallest areas of life. When you go into a convenience store to purchase a drink, you make a choice based on several things. What flavor does your mouth tell you to buy, what color of liquid appeals to you, which is the most cost effective for your situation, and believe it or not, which bottle shape do you like the most. Coke has changed the shape of the plastic bottle of their product several times in the last 15 years in hopes to find the most effective style to appeal to the public. We can’t change what shows up in front of our eyes, but we do have control in one way…we can choose to learn to see the forest instead of focusing on the tree.
What we hear affects us as much as what we see, if not more. At the conception of music, it was very limited in comparison to today’s selection. We have Country, Rap, Hip-Hop, Gospel, Bluegrass, Blues, Jazz, and on and on and on. Each musical style has been influenced by another style, and artistic expression has taken music to an all-time boundless entity. We also hear other people on a daily basis. The words others use, the dialects we hear, the terms and phrases, and the audible attitudes around us, all affect us even when we are unaware of it. Have you ever started a new relationship with someone and noticed that after a few months of being around them, you started to use phrases that that person uses on a regular basis. Have you noticed that when a northerner moves to the south, they eventually lose their northern draw and pick up a southern one. What we hear is out of our control. Unless you are unfortunate enough to be deemed deaf, our ears work regardless of the circumstance. We hear a lot in a single day, but what we listen to is a different story. The definition of listening is “to give attention with the ear; attend closely for the purpose of hearing; give ear”. It also means “to pay attention; heed; obey”. But to truly understand how to listen, I think it takes and understanding of the three separate definitions combined. The third definition gives us a little more insight into the passion and soul of listening…”to wait attentively for a sound”. Attentively is the most important attribute of listening in my personal opinion. We can choose to listen to the things that are truth. We can choose to listen to things that educate us, and make us more aware of the truths around us. If we can learn to see the forest instead of the trees, we can learn to hear the truth in the world.
The second area we have control is in the area of what we say. We are the only ones who can speak the words we speak. No one can make you say anything you don't want to say, with the possible exception of holding you at gunpoint. But, for us to choose to speak or not to speak, and to choose what words we use when speaking, is completely our God given right as humans. Our founding Fathers knew this when they gave us as Americans the Freedom of Speech. But just because you have the right to speak, doesn't always mean that you should. The one thing that will always be true, is that once you say it, there is no taking it back. You can apologize for the wrong choice, but the words are out there forever. We have control over what we say, and we need to treat this liberty with respect. Society has gotten very loose in the area of verbal communication. America thinks that freedom of speech means that you can say whatever you want without consequence. When you exercise your right to it, you still have to face the consequences of the words. The point is that we do have control over the words we use, and that is powerful in itself. And with power comes responsibility. America, exercise your responsibility and choose wisely.
The third and final area of control is in how we treat others. We can chose to harbor ill will, or we can forgive. We can do for others, or we can expect others to do for us. We can hold onto the thread of self-entitlement that we have gotten accustomed to, or we can willingly do for those who do not do for us in return. We have a choice to curse that driver for cutting us off on the way to work, or we can choose to try to understand that they may just not have seen us. They may be running late for work and this may be their last warning and they may be facing termination. They may be in the middle of tragic circumstance, or a terrible family situation, and they may be in a state of mind that is not lending itself to the drive ahead of them. We can chose to try to walk in others shoes, and understand from their perspective, or we can chose to see the situation from our own perspective and maintain a selfishness that causes our quality of life to deteriorate daily.
We have control over these few things in our life, and it is our luxury to be able to exercise this control for our benefit. I know that I can become complacent in society and accept what it tells me, shows me, or decides for me. But I don’t want to be a circumstance of trend, or society's choices. I choose to look at my life and ask myself if I think that I have to look a certain way, or if I care about what I allow into my body. I have the choice to hear the world, or listen to the truth. I have a choice and a responsibility to live inside my own box, outside my own box, or to live in the confines of the control of the world we live in. We have such little actual control, isn't it our responsibility to take that small amount of control and use it to our absolute advantage? I think so...
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Interesting Facts about where we are as a Country
Take a look at this statement, unofficially accredited to Alexander Tytler, and decide what you think about our Political situation, and the state of our country...
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship, and then a monarchy.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• From spiritual faith to great courage;
• From courage to liberty;
• From liberty to abundance;
• From abundance to complacency;
• From complacency to apathy;
• From apathy to dependence;
• From dependence back into bondage.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)