Tag: love

Venting

John Corrigan

This weekend I just finished watching the season finale of the most recent season of The Expanse. The Expanse is a sci fi show on Amazon Prime. The show follows the crew of a space craft as they navigate through discovery and a political minefield set in the future. I am a huge fan of space. I love watching and reading about how humanity has been to and is going to space. Rocket travel huge when it comes to getting to space. Rockets provide the velocity to send objects up and out of the earths atmosphere.

Liquid Oxygen is one of the fuels of choice for rocket launching. If the oxygen that has become hot it needs to vent.

If the rocket does not vent it can explode and cause catastrophic damage to the rocket and crew or payload the rocket is sending.

People are the same as rockets, we need to vent sometimes. If we just take all the emotion dumped on us from the world we may explode (especially the negative emotion).

Everyone vents out the unneeded, some call toxic emotions it is how, when, and how long that seems to make a huge difference.

It can be very tempting to vent to good listeners every time we see them, this should probably be avoided. No one wants to be a “buzz kill”. Our relationships are defined by our interactions and even though venting is needed it is also toxic. If we are always venting to that good listener we have inadvertently created a toxic relationship.

Venting takes place before a launch. If you find yourself constantly venting about the same situation and make no changes then you are not really venting in the sense of venting to create action and this is also toxic. There is a fine line between venting and wallowing in something toxic.

Wallowing is when you roll around and relax in something. The last thing we want to do is roll around and relax in negativity.

The trick is to be like a rocket, vent and rise above toxic situations and negative emotions. You can accomplish so much when this happens.

peace

john3c

Everyone should matter to you

John Corrigan

I just finished reading an article on the Inc. website. The article gave some advice to managers on, how one should avoid being friends with any of their employees and exactly how to treat all their employees.

The article used the advice that a 5th grade teacher gave to her students on how to treat everyone.

I think this advice should apply for everyone and should be used throughout our entire lives.

Every person matters and if they do not matter to you then they should and they will if you learn about them. When everyone matters you will notice them, you may not find it easy to be friendly to all of them ( some real a@$$ hats out there), you may also have trouble making room for them, however if you are rooting for them and if you can empathize with them then you maybe able to be more friendly and make some

Of course we will all have special places in our lives and our heart for our family, friends and loved ones however, when we realize how special the act of living is I think then we can find ourselves in a position that will allow us to head the fifth grade teachers advice to her students.

The odds of you me and every person alive being born is 1 in 400 trillion. Some more information here on that math. Basically the odds of you being born are almost zero! Once you let that sink in you should be able to find it in your heart to root for everyone even the a@! hats out there.

The odds were against them even showing up on the third rock from the sun and so after overcoming those odds one has to believe that these folks can and will change right? With some empathy kindness and friends maybe…

The other thing about empathy and friendship is that it beats the alternative. Which is apathy and meanness. when we loose hope in humanity and meanness is a slippery slope. Almost every religious text warns us about being mean. In the King James bible we are warned in provides that a mean person will be paid back with meanness (it really is a vicious circle). With all that in mind there is also nothing wrong with being a friend to yourself first and then others (remember we cannot put the oxygen mask on the kid if we are not wearing our own). It is easy to overlook self care and we should not do that. T

Today lets take care of ourselves, loved ones and everyone.

peace

john3c

Wait what and huh???

John Corrigan

Last year the date was January 6 2021, I was at work in the factory and my watch and phone started blowing up with news and Facebook alerts. The news alerts read like; “Protests unfolding at the U.S. capital” and my Facebook alerts were like; “Republicans should be ashamed of themselves” and “Who says walls will keep people out (this one had a Getty image of protesters turned insurrectionists / terrorists climbing the United States Capital wall)” and “It’s our house (this one on Facebook had an AP image with the protester / insurrectionists / terrorists marching through the halls of the capital damaging public property looking for blood)”. I was knee deep in a work project so the alerts went noticed but un read, about an hour later while on break I sifted through the alerts and thought it was a joke. After I realized this was actually happening and I was basically seeing it unfold in Realtime I felt some of the same feelings I felt on September 11, 2001. I was at work on that day as well and I got the alerts then too. I was stopped by a fellow coworker and told to go to the break room and watch tv with them. On September 11, 2001 I watched the events in Realtime on the breakroom tv with coworkers, on January 6, 2021 almost 20 years later I watched the events on my break from my phone alone. The feelings on September 11, 2001 were that the country was being attacked, the feeling from January 6, 2021 was also that the country was being attacked. My country was attacked my capital was attacked. The difference was that, on September 11, 2001 my country was attacked from an “outsider or groups of outsiders” and my fellow citizens were there with me in the breakroom, on January 6, 2021 my country and capital were attacked from fellow citizens, there was no fellowship or comradery on January 6, 2021 there was only terror and the feeling of being alone.

After the January 6, 2021 attack on the capital, the alone feeling persisted. There was even a debate on who attacked the capital many claimed it was a “false flag” operation and not as bad as people in the media made it out to be. It has been one year since the attack on the United States capital, one year since the vice president was hunted for in the halls of the capital and there is still debate as to who was responsible for the leadership of the terrorists at the capital and why it all happened.

We are living in strange times, today some people who were involved in the attack on the capital are running for public office. I try really hard to post uplifting things here and I have turned this attack on January 6, 2021 every which way to look for some positive spin but I cannot do it. The people who attacked the capital weren’t hungry or living in a country without direct elections like the people in Kazakhstan. The people who attacked the capital were not being shot by police officers or kept out of schools work public places or lynched because of the color of their skin. The people who attacked the protest were upset that their leader did not get re elected, that was the reason the capital was attacked and the vice president was hunted after! See? nothing positive there… So if there is nothing good to say about January 6, 2021 why even mention it at all? Well, I wanted to mention it because there is an investigation into how and why this happened, how is pretty much answered but the why is going to take a long time. The why is very important. Why did a group of people who are not in the aggregate hungry, poor, under represented feel the need to attack the government that works to make sure they are taken care of. I am not sure why but I think that perception is a big part of it. The protestors that became insurrectionists and terrorists’ thought that they were not being represented, and they thought they were poor. The mob forgot that they were part of a nation and failed to see their neighbors and family and friends. In a fit the mob allowed a rally to turn into a terroristic attack.

I think that the why to the attack lies in the fact that no one in that mob cared about their neighbors. I think the positive we can take from the attack is a life lesson. When we fail to consider our neighbor chaos ensues and we get the anarchy of Jan 6 and Sept 11. If either of those groups would have considered their neighbors I am positive they would have acted differently. We should all take a page from the book of the great Fred Rogers.

Even the bible and almost all religious texts demand that we treat our neighbors kindly. Tragedy like the attack on the capital is memorialized best through actions and I think a great action today tomorrow and forever is to be kind to our neighbors and when you think about it everyone is our neighbor.

peace

John3c

Why the Resolutions

John Corrigan

Today is January 4 2022 C.E. That is a fact. I started my work day with my daily list and on the opposite page of that list I wrote down 6 new year resolutions. I have a friend (yes only one (ha ha )), he does not seem to like resolutions. My friends reasons for the disdain of resolutions is the same as the others. Let’s see… no one keeps them, it is just an arbitrary thing, they are stupid, they set you up for failure and so on and so on. I have always liked resolutions and starting over. Ever since I was a child.

I was the kid who would build a city out of legos destroy it and rebuild it. I love the act of rebuilding doing something over and over again with just small changes and for me that is what a new years resolutions is like. I know, I know that we don’t get to reset our lives I realize that we do things that build over the years and time and the things can bring us good or bad results and that is why I try my best to make good new years resolutions and not bad ones. I choose resolutions like read 10 books instead of read 0 books (reading is so good for us!(it really is )).

My wife was speaking with my step daughter about doing something she was scared of and my wife told her that she has regretted things she did not try more than anything she has tried. I know that many of my new years resolutions may not get accomplished however I am a Cleveland Browns fan so I am totally ok with failure as long as I gave it my best shot.

I refuse to let the idea that I will not keep a resolution stop me from making and trying to keep one.

Time is an odd thing. When you think about time is about as abstract a concept as you can come up with and it is almost impossible to measure. Ask any scientist worth their weight and they will tell you the same. Many scientist will tell you that time doesn’t really exist at all. Every scientist will tell you that time is relative at best. I think that there have been some pretty famous papers written on the relativity of time and yet, you should never make it a practice to arrive late for appointments. Arriving late is a good way to upset friends family and get fired. Despite the wibbily wobbily nature of time (wink to all the Dr. Who fans), we all agree on time and try our best to arrive on time and mark time in our own ways. I refuse to let the nature of time to stop me from making a resolution.

Take some time today to create a list of things you want to get done this year and write this list down. 2022 is going to feel long and tiresome when it does look at your list and see where you are at. You may get to scratch something off the list. Oh man I get such an endorphin rush when I do this. I make a list every day of things I want to get done just so I can scratch them off. The year will feel long but it will be over before you know it when it ends and you are staring in the face of 2023 pull out the list and see all that you have done this will also feel amazing

Happy New Year and peace to all!!

Content

John Corrigan

When I was young I learned about Hellen Keller. Hellen Keller lost both her sight and hearing when she was just a baby. Anne Sullivan taught Hellen how to communicate through reading writing and even speech.

Hellen Keller became an author activist and lecturer. She graduated from Radcliffe college with an BA. she learned to speak and became a regular lecturer. Hellen Keller inspired others and still does to this day.

“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.” Hellen Keller

As I grow older I become more accustomed to the creature comforts. I like to prop my feet up and enjoy ice water, however this is not always possible and that is ok too. I don’t know the secret to happiness but it seems that happy people are content gracious and aware people.

Contentment seems to come when we can wonder and learn. Learning is growth and it’s that growth that will bring us contentment or joy or make us happy. Never stop seeing the wonder learning and growing.

That tree outside

John Corrigan

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

By

Not this or that

John Corrigan

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.

Too Fast

John Corrigan

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.

It’s not just you anymore

John Corrigan

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.