The activist and street artist Banksy understands what it means to be human. We have great intentions want the best for others and ourselves but we can get tired.
It is easy to quit but quitting never brought good change. Just yesterday on the phone I told my wife that anyone could do anything if they tried and never quit. I really believe this. I think that nothing is impossible I really do, but I get tired and I need to rest not stop regroup instead of give up.
Sometimes when we are faced with what seems like insurmountable obstacles when need to rest and get another perspective. Rest is definitely not giving up it is reorganizing and sometimes starting over.
Whatever you are stuck on do not quit simply rest and start a new.
This morning I read an article that detailed how 100 leaders promised to end deforestation by 2030. The promise / plan involves money and a plan for sustainable agriculture.
My office is on the second floor and the stairs leading to it open up to an amazing view of a treetop. I know it sounds silly to some but I love these kind of views. The trees are full of life and I feel like I am peeking into an amazing home when I see the view.
Yesterday I came back from lunch and as I looked at the treetop o thought about how odd we humans are. We cut down the trees to provide shelter, and warmth, and the tree itself is a source for shelter, oxygen, food and much more. The act of cutting down the trees to survive is unsound.
In Lebanon there are the Cedars of God it is a patch of land just over 20 acres that house the last of the vast forests of Lebanon Cedars. The Cedars are massive and this remnant has survived the mass deforestation attempts for 100s of years. The cedars are spoken about in the Hebrew Bible. Unfortunately climate change now threatens these cedars.
It looks like Canada, Brazil and the United States are now at risk of loosing their forests as well. Unsustainable “progress” has destroyed countless eco systems in these countries and if this pledge is not honored these nations will be just like Lebanon.
Humanity was given a rich diverse world to be a steward of and so far we have collectively failed to be good stewards of this world. We have destroyed the forests poisoned the water and polluted the sky. The indigenous people of North and South America lived in relative harmony with the world and they have been slaughtered and their harmonious lifestyle replaced by the current destructive one. We took trees and made them landscape material.
Let’s today do our best to be stewards of life. Human life and the life all around us on this earth. If we do not try we will certainly fail and our generation. Is paying a high price now for this failure but our childrens price will be higher
I worked for a short time in the manufacturing industry. Within the manufacturing industry it is very important to safely produce a certain amount of products within an hour. When there is a safety violation or a dip in production for the hour an manager must note why.
A rule in manufacturing is that a person can never be the problem only material or quality. I love that rule however I think that there are something’s that happen that cannot be defined rarely of course but it happens.
It’s not a bad policy or procedure it’s a true unknown. We can do the same exact thing everyday the same exact way and get different results. I have heard people call this luck or chance.
A young girl asked Stan Lee what super power he would want the most and he said Luck. Stan Lee mentioned that luck was hard to define and that’s why he never made a super hero with luck as a super power but he said we need luck more than anything else.
Stan Lee was right. When I was a solider in the U.S. Army deployed to Egypt my commanding officer told me that Many Egyptians will be tardy and I should not be upset or offended because they believe that fate is more important than a time table.
This is pretty interesting to me since arguably the Egyptians invented time keeping with shadows and clocks. I myself try to be on time however I truly do not believe that there is such a a thing as time and humans attempt to measure or define time is kinda solipsistic. I do believe that we should do things and doing things together calls for appointments and time keeping helps keep appointments but when someone is early or late we need to cut them some slack for not being somewhere real at an imaginary moment.
I think life would be much more joyful if we embraced now instead of worrying about the imaginary thing we have named time and we’re grateful for the good luck we experience everyday.
My favorite movies are the back to the future trilogy movies. I love the 80s and early 90s. A movie that is slowly becoming my favorite is “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”.
The major reason I am loving this movie has to be the colorful cast and the positive protagonist, Sonny Kapoor.
Sony is optimistic, when everyone else sees a failing hotel he sees a home for senior citizens. “You see? Profound satisfaction. Such is the inevitable result of a prolonged stay at the Marigold Hotel. To create a home for the elderly so wonderful that they will simply refuse to die. Stare death in the face and say… What are those men doing?
I love going on vacation. Exploring different places meeting new people it’s a true joy. Vacations are so much fun for me I wish everyday was a vacation.
I used to think I could only enjoy life while on vacation but then I realized just how satisfying the world we all love in can be and everyday is like Ava action for me. I try to meet someone knew and learn something new everyday. This gives me a deep satisfaction and often joy.
Life is weird if can feel long and short in the same day. Everyone thinks they want a happily ever after but the thing is that happily is not a destination or is a state of mind. You can be happy right now if you stop and appreciate the moment you are in.
There was a rush as I pushed the pedal to the floor. I felt excitement followed by fear and then more excitement. I was definitely traveling faster than I should have been. The car was on the interstate but 95 was the number of the interstate not the speed limit.
Speeding killed 25 people a day in the United States of America during 2019. Driving to fast or speeding reduces the likelihood that the driver will react in time to something happening on the roadway. Speeding is selfish and reckless.
Speeding is also fun but I am convinced that speeding needs to happen in a safe and controlled environment, as safe as it can be. Racetracks or closed courses are safe because everyone there is going near the same very fast speed and there are barriers protecting pedestrians.
When you speed on a public street or road you are endangering yourself and those around you. Everyone should be traveling at the agreed upon speed and then traffic flows well. When you speed you are an anomaly causing problems for your neighbors.
The book Fahrenheit 451 was set in the future and it was a dystopian one. The writing by Ray Bradbury is amazing and if you haven’t you should read it if you have read it again . In Fahrenheit 451 the people travel at ultra fast speeds on the highway and the cars are described as dangerous and destructive.
When I catch myself speeding like this morning o think about the paradigm. Me speeding is selfish, I feel that where I need to be is more important than all my neighbors so much that I can break our contract and speed. Even though speeding may bring me to my destination quicker it will always result in a broken contract and often destruction and ultimately death for others and me.
Selfish acts when brought to fruition harm everyone to include the person that is committing the act. We do not live in a bubble and helping others is as the champ Muhammad Ali put it “service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
Simply not breaking the law and traveling the speed limit is a good start to being a decent person and considering others as equal to you.
Let’s start being good people through simple acts like following the laws.
I was walking into an elementary school media center the other day and noticed a sign at the entrance it read “Nothing changes if nothing changes.” That visit was two days ago and the poster is still resonating for me. I absolutely love this poster.
Watching the news can make one feel despair. The anomalies make the news stories and the anomalies are not great. There is famine war and accelerated climate change however there is hope with change we will see peace, abundance and a healthy planet.
That change though will only happen if it happens. The phrase Nothing changes if nothing changes might be called an epizeuxis by some English professors. I almost failed English class so I could be totally wrong but I think right go ahead and google epizeuxis and see.
I am sure that you want peace, abundance and sunny and 70 days just like me but for this to happen. You and me have to change. plant a tree, show kindness, and share.
I started a new job this week. I am now the network engineer for a local organization. The work is close to my house and the organization is an important one.
Throughout my career most of my work has been code development. Create an app, website I was your guy. I know how to manage and navigate on a computer network however, doing this professionally is new for me.
Being new to this experience I bought a book and just started reading through it today. In the books introduction the author mentions that a personal computer when hooked up to a network is no longer personal. Your computer is now a resource on the network.
Somedays I want to hide in my backyard away from the world but I can’t and neither can you. Love it or hate it humans are not personal. What we do effects everyone on the planet. We are all networked together, we share air, water and land.
It can be easy to forget this and act selfishly and without compassion but, the damage that acting this way has and continues to do is horrible.
I was watching the news this morning and saw that a gang in Haiti had kidnapped some missionaries and was demanding ransom. Immediately my mind wandered to the Chuck Norris Sheriff character getting justice and “cleaning” up Port Au Prince but see that’s not network thinking or solutions. Love it or hate it me you and the gang members are connected. A better place to venture would be the place I imagine the missionaries came from when they visited Haiti in the first place. A place of empathy, compassion and understanding .
Instead of destroying the network I should work to help all its members. Learn what compels the gang members to do harm and break the laws. Is the law of Haiti doing good or harm? Why are the gangs so influential? It’s not a quick
or easy fix compassion and love but, I think it might be the only fix.
I grew up on the looney tunes. I loved watching the animals that spoke and acted like humans. One of my favorite skits or troupes even was the one with the hound that chases a fix and actually asks the fox for directions.
When I started this blog I had planned on writing once every weekday and then life happened. It was a great plan but the universe laughed at me.
I haven’t posted to this blog in a week and it feels like I have left but I didn’t. I am still here and my plan hasn’t changed. I still plan to post once a day and will I just didn’t do that for the last week.
We should of course make plans but we should also be flexible
A flexible plan is paramount to being a happy healthy person.
If you run into some things that do not fit into your plan just realize that life is and should be messy and we should forgive ourselves for not sticking with our plans.
“Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”
― Vince Lombardi
Happiness is? Subjective right? I mean a memory from Sunday school growing up was the youth pastor explaining heaven. “My dad imagines heaven as a farm in the country and I imagine that heaven will be a beautiful city with sidewalks.” – youth pastor Block (courtesy of Johns childhood memories)
Heaven is like happiness. My happiness and your happiness probably do not line up. I don’t know many people but there are some that do not enjoy petting a happy dog (I know crazy right?)! Our idea of happiness changes as we live our lives too.
When I was younger I was happy at my friends house watching his snake in the aquarium, now the snakes kind of make my skin crawl a little. I saw one on a walk with my dog two days ago and nearly jumped out of my skin.
Some say that being happy is a choice. I am not sure about that. I can choice to pursue things that I believe will make me happy however if I do not receive these things will I still be happy? Also, what things will make me happy? Lots of questions no answers.
I find joy in the unknown and the search for the truth. I really do. I think that this is good because I spend a lot of life with unknowns and looking for truth. If we are completely honest with ourselves well all do.
Enjoy every moment as much as you can because we never know when we will not be here anymore.
In most western religious texts, folklore and fairy tales darkness equals evil. Evil that surrounds and infiltrates.
I was a father at a young age (at least I thought it was young). I watched my kids grow up and while growing up I saw them face obstacles, in school, at work, within their friend circles. The obstacles were in form of rocky relationships, steep learning curves, and physical ailments.
The kids and myself were quick within rocky relationships to label people good or evil but that is reductive thinking that I tried to avoid. My dad told me that the most important thing and only thing I could do to make a difference was to do the right thing.
We cannot make someone do good or bad. People have freewill and autonomy. All that we can do is steer our own ships. When we begin to try and influence others through deeds that are not good we risk allowing the darkness to fill us. Darkness is funny that way. We can do bad things in pursuit of good outcomes and then we are the darkness we were attempting to drive out.
In the Christian bible text John 8:12 we are taught that only light or good can drive out darkness. I think a lot about war when I think about light and dark. In war we use harm and force to try and drive out darkness. It seems foolish to assume that war would create good or an end to darkness.
The written book “Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies” is thought by scholars to be, part of our civilizations knowledge base. It is a very important book that seems to have guided our society and in it the author says “Only the dead are safe; only the dead have seen the end of war.” — George Santayana
When we work and use darkness we only get pain and death. Darkness is funny that way it does not heal, mend, build, or give any life. Lets make a promise to ourselves today, lets promise that we will not use darkness even if it seems like darkness is the right way. Lets promise to only use light only do good.
The Corrigan Encore 