Ebay is a pretty incredible website. I just rediscovered Ebay two months ago because of another obsession named pickleball. I wanted a new pickleball paddle and someone at the park suggested I try Ebay. I did and it was an incredible experience. I got a great paddle at an amazing price and then I took a trip and found it! A comic book I had gained in childhood but lost as an adult.
I ordered the comic book. I took the comic book out of its sleeve and as soon as I opened it I was treated with a smell and a journey back to my childhood. The smell transported me to a time when me and Spider man faced villains. That smell of the paper and ink brought me joy and nostalgia.
Scientists are still working out how smell works and why it is lost but one thing we absolutely know about smell is that it has an ability to bring someone back and is one of the strongest triggers for memories. Smell often brings with it some of our strongest emotions. Take some time today to think about moments and the smells from those moements it will be a real treat.
Accidents happen, and the nature of an accident causes changes and damage to the normal day and life that we are living. Often we see accidents happen to others and we wonder what can we do to help.
I remember listening to a country music star talk about how he was shocked when he heard the news about the terrorist attack in the United States on 9/11/2001. The star went on to say that, after the shock he just wanted to help and wasn’t sure how he could. He then decided to write and play music about the event because that is what he knew.
Of course we can and do and should give to charities, money is always helpful to a charity and if you can do it I would suggest giving in a sustainable manner (monthly, bi monthly or yearly). Money as charity is good because it is modular, the charity can use it for just about anything however, we often feel like we can and should do more but what more can we do? That’s a tough question..
Do what you know best; if you’re a runner, run, if you’re a bell, ring.
Ignas Bernstein
Often we work within our strengths, or our work becomes a strength. If you are looking for a way to help a friend or family member (beyond monetary), you should lean into your strengths. You would be surprised at what someone needs when they have suffered damage because of an accident. There was a family in my church that suffered the loss of the matriarch, and I wanted to help out. I on multiple occasions brought the family plates of food and was shocked at how much this simple act seemed to help the family.
We can do a lot of help by leaning into our strengths and helping with as much kindness as we can muster. I think maybe even more important than the action of help is the attitude that we give the help with. Help with kindness in mind, not obligation or pity.
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted
There was this interesting video about a leader on Facebook who, changed a dynamic in his organization by changing the focus of the organization from goals to impacts. The speaker was Brian Fretwell do check out some of his stuff when you get the chance.
The leader would ask instead of “where are we with these goals?’, “What has impacted you this week and how have you impacted others this week?”. The leader said that they received engagement like they had never seen and it helped the company.
The speaker of the video mentions that the change happened because people were not feeling seen or did not feel like they mattered and when the focus of the leadership changed from goals to impact the people felt seen and heard.
I know that this world can be crazy and sometimes you have taken all you can bear. (Yes it is from that song.)
The truth is that you do matter and when you feel like you do not or you are doing things that make others feel like they do not matter it is time to take a breath and remember that, life is precious a gift and everyone with life matters.
The band named Soundtrack of Our Lives, is a Swedish rock band their most popular song was Second Life Replay.
The song is pretty good but I love the bands name. When i was younger I played the pc game Sim City. In the game Sim City you are the mayor/planner/terraformer of a city. You build up land features, zone the land and manage the people on that land through city policy. The one thing I truly loved about the whole process was the music that played in the background of the game. As you built streets, rivers and lakes you were treated to Jazz music. I would listen to the jazz and go to work.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything
Plato
I love all kinds of music. The book titled And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street was Theodore Geisel’s first published book. The format for the book was said to have come from the sounds of an Ocean Liners engine on a transatlantic trip the author took.
“Everything in Life is Vibration”
Albert Einstein
Everything on earth vibrates and creates a frequency. There really is a sound to everything. The right music can make life that much better and the right music is whatever you like at a specific time.
My taste in music is eclectic and I think if people are truly honest that most peoples taste in music is also eclectic. Depending on what headspace we are in or want to be in there is music for that.
This week let’s all listen to a style or genre of music we have never heard before. There was a former work colleague who listened to a heavy dose of Celtic punk music. Until I rode to lunch with this guy I had never before heard of this music now if the mood is right I quite enjoy some Flogging Molly.
My mom took me and my three sisters to church at young ages. In church we went to service Sunday school and bible study. Our church like many churches in the United States taught me and my sister dogma using the scriptures. As I grew up I mistook dogma for data and faith for fact. Later in life with other perspectives I was able to tease out some of the data and definitely understood that all of my Christian belief is faith not fact.
I have been down somewhat of a rabbit hole with consideration in Christian data versus dogma and wondered how did the dogma for the Christian religion become part of the Christian religion.
The rabbit hole lead me to a profession I never knew existed and that is a Christian ethicist. I stole this exert from the Wikipedia page concerning Christian Ethicists “Christian ethicists use reason, philosophy, natural law, the social sciences, and the Bible to formulate modern interpretations of those principles; Christian ethics applies to all areas of personal and societal ethics.”
So at the churches build a doctrine for their believers to live by and to a certain extent each induvial builds a doctrine to live by. We build our doctrine by learning, listening and should include loving family, friends and living sentient beings.
If you find yourself at a crossroads where your church’s doctrine demands you do something that is not loving (like condemn someone who is homosexual) perhaps it is time to rethink that doctrine.
The willingness to change one’s mind in the light of new evidence is a sign of rationality not weakness.
There is nothing wring with change. The big question for change, dogma. laws and actions, should be why.
Why do I believe this doctrine?
What good is this accomplishing?
Is it good?
One major ethical question is always how do I want to be in this world? That one is huge for me when it comes to religious doctrine. I never want to be someone who would hurt or harm or do anything but love others.
Most people, when directly confronted by evidence that they are wrong, do not change their point of view or course of action but justify it even more tenaciously. Even irrefutable evidence is rarely enough to pierce the mental armor of self-justification.
So my hope and prayer is this. I pray that me and all of humanity would be considerate of all life when they make moral and ethical decisions and doctrine.
Last night I watched the movie Oppenheimer, I wasn’t really sure what to expect I am not usually a fan of bio pics but this movie was an amazing piece of work. If you get the chance you should certainly watch this movie.
The movie tells the story of how Robert Oppenheimer became the leader of the Manhattan project and than was involved in warning the world about the dangers of nuclear weapons and was basically kicked off the AEC for his warnings.
It seems impossible to watch the movie and think about how the science that moved atomic energy from theory to reality made a world in which massive destruction can and did happen.
Two cities with high civilian numbers were targeted and essentially destroyed. Low numbers set the death toll from the nuclear weapons at 110 000 people the higher numbers are about 200 000 people. To date the United States of America has been the only nation to ever use this technology in war to kill people. The devastation of these blasts are still felt today some 75 years later.
Today 9 countries have nuclear warheads and everytime one of those countries engages in war the world has held its breath. For 75 years the world has probably held its breath when the United States engaged in any type of armed conflict and there has been a lot of armed conflict from the United States.
In the last 75 years the United States has officially been involved in at least 46 military conflicts. That is 46 times the world has held its breath and waited for the devastation used in WW 2.
All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal,
Steinbeck
To me the villains in the movie and in the history of the world are not the technology or the weapons but the people that use the weapons and wage the wars and armed conflict.
I have started watching my new favorite tv show on DIsney +, Secret Invasion. I have to warn you now that, this post has one only one small spoiler. The tv show follows Nick Fury and Talos as they uncover a conspiracy plot to take over earth.
Talos is an alien and unbeknownst to Nick Fury allowed all Aliens from his home planet (which was destroyed) to come to earth. There is a great scene where Talos confesses to Nick Fury that he has requested his fellow refugees come to earth.
Nick Fury asks Talos what he was thinking. Talos confesses that he was hoping that the aliens and the humans could live in peace. Nick Fury let Talos know that this was probably not possible because humans could not even live in peace with each other.
This scene made me think about how humans have consistently chosen violence over peace.
There is a great article in the scientific journal concerning War and human nature. The major surprise from the article is that war or violence is not human nature. Basically complex societies seem to be the reason for the violence.
I always take issue when humans try to make themselves out to be more than they really are.
We ain’t nothing but mammals
Eminem
Humans are part of the animal kingdom. I was asked by someone why I choose to become a vegetarian and I answered them saying that I don’t see why a humans life should be considered more important than a cows or a chickens.
Society has tricked us into a hubris state bordering on solipsism. This selfish state has justified genocide lives and the destruction of our planet.
Lets start rejecting the lies of complex society today and embrace life.
My dad loves cars. I think that my dad loves driving fast in cars I mean who doesn’t. I have memories from growing, up of my dad working on cars and talking about cars. I remember my dad telling me that it was said that man could not go faster than 40 miles per hour. “People were afraid to go faster than 40, they wore goggles and they just knew that if they went faster than forty bad things would happen. then they went faster than forty and have broken the speed of sound. ” my dad.
So much has been accomplished and remains to be accomplished by humans and life throughout history that, I am inclined to believe nothing is impossible.
When someone tells you what they are going to do and it is big you can do a few things You can support that endeavor. You can ridicule the endeavor or you can watch the endeavor. Of the three options the first one provides the highest risk and teh most reward. The second is just mean and does nothing to make the world better and the third is literally nothing.
If you interact with anyone today try to remember that anything is possible.
So what is it going to be are you in? are you out? Are you just nothing?
“People who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those who are doing it”
There is this awesome podcast called How I Built This. On HIBT the podcast interviewer interviews founders of companies and lets the founders tell their stories about how the company started and is or isn’t functioning right now. I like the show because it gives insight that can really only be gleaned from the founders. At the end of each interview the interviewer asks how much of the companies success was luck and how much was hard work. Almost always the answer is more than half good luck.
The answer is of course layered by the founders and not just a straight forward one. Most founders acknowledge the good luck they received in life through opportunities they were afforded at all stages so far of their lives. The answers got me to thinking about how these opportunities manifest themselves for us and others.
We as a group have a rare opportunity to generate good luck for others through charity and education. By giving our time and talent we can actually give people luck. It has been said before that successful folks make their own luck but I think that statement needs to be changed to ” successful people make other peoples luck.
There is this funny comedian named Anjelah Johnson, my wife and I really enjoy her shows. In one of her shows she mentions how she takes medical advice from anyone wearing scrubs. Scrubs are a type of overalls doctors and nurses wear however anyone can buy and wear scrubs some daycare teachers wear scrubs to daycare.
In 1916 Nathan Handwerker was looking for a way on Conney Island to sell his hot dogs. Nathan understood the respect that doctors garnered on Conney Island and used this to his company, Nathans Famous Hotdogs”, benefit. Nathan hired folks to eat his hotdogs while wearing white coats. Doctors and lab technicians wear these white lab coats quite often. Nathan never really made a statement that doctors endorsed his hotdogs but allowed everyone to assume it. Like scrubs, lab coats can be purchased by anyone. At a factory I used to work out the employees on the floor wore lab coats when they dealt with insulation.
It can be tempting to trust people that we believe have authority however how we authenticate this is very important. a uniform does not make someone an expert their actions and knowledge does though.
Sometimes it is ok to be like someone from the state of Missouri and ask someone to show you how and why they are an expert.
The Corrigan Encore 