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Sunday, June 17, 2018

A Repeat Performance for Father's Day

Good Evening All.  I don't usually post reruns, but I think what I posted last year for Fathers' Day says it all:

I know that I appreciate my dad immensely.  He'd be pretty humble about it, but much of what I post in the blog is an outgrowth of the life lessons he taught me.

But even more than my appreciation of him, is my appreciation of Him:  G-D the Father.

Now this isn't based on any religion in particular.  It's just an understanding that there is a supernatural being who has a completely rational expectation of us to recognize and fulfill our personal responsibilities.  Our Mother Lady Karma is the One who handles things we can't control, executes judgment against those who wrong us, and pardons us for our errors.  G-D the Father, however, has a very different role to play.

What He does is remind us of what we CAN control, and that we'd better handle it to the best of our abilities.  His message is, "I'm not going to do your job for you."  Should we get started and keep moving, He is very likely to provide assistance, and quite possibly rewards, along the way.  But if we don't work for it, He won't provide it.

Our Father G-D doesn't want us to give up trying after only a few attempts.  He wants us to get our hands dirty and fail again and again until there has to be some sort of success, great or small.  He wants us to rise above critics and nay-sayers, disable our triggers when they are not needed, and to be as disciplined as possible in our thoughts and actions.

He knows that we'll make mistakes.  Honestly, He expects them to happen.  And He also expects us to keep our emotional reactions to a minimum because they'll only get in the way.  Our Mother can kiss our skinned egos to make them better.  But Our Father wants us to heal them ourselves, because we can!

That doesn't mean He's mean or unforgiving.  If He were, He'd be convincing us all to jump off bridges and end it all.  Instead, He wants us to live, and live right.  He wants us to understand that every new day is another chance to get it right, and not to eternally punish ourselves for when we get it wrong.  He wants us to own The Four Pillars, and own them hard!



So, Friends & Neighbors, today I hope you told your fathers how much you appreciate them.  And every day going forward, I suggest we show appreciation to Our Father G-D by making ourselves even better.

DISCLAIMER:  The above message is not an endorsement or a rejection of any organized religion in existence.

RESPECT ALL

BEFRIEND FEW

LOVE ONE

HATE NONE.

I EXIST.

I MATTER.

I BELONG. 

I DESERVE.

EMOTIONAL MATURITY

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Words That Hurt, Words That Heal

Hello All!  Hope you're having a nice relaxing summer Sunday!

Recently, we've seen two celebrities forget to think before they spoke.  One said something so heinous and disrespectful that she lost her job, but the other one appears to be facing significantly less severe consequences.

Roseanne Barr had a sitcom she starred in rebooted (and ret-conned so her husband did not die), and it became a real hit after only a few new episodes.  Aaaand then she tweeted a statement that seemed to indicate that a former Obama senior advisor, who happened to be African-American, was the illegitimate child of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes. 

Not smart.  And it led to job loss for a whole cast and crew that had nothing to do with what was said.  Hopefully the show will be repackaged somehow.

Mere days later, Samantha Bee became so incensed at Ivanka Trump's perceived failure to rein in the President, her father, that she used a word beginning with "C" and ending with "T," which has been universally thought of as the worst thing that a woman can be called.

Not smart.  But her job and her broadcasting segment have been left intact.

It remains to be seen why both instances do not warrant the same consequences.  I've already discussed this with a few other people to understand how the same actions mean different consequences for different people.  Despite the fact that the "C-word" was once considered to be as evil as the "N-word," there is a segment that now believes that it was completely legitimate for Bee to have used this word, most likely because it was used against a member of the President's family.

When we finally reach the Point of Evaporation, the need to use this type of hateful and divisive language will dissipate.  Our high-conflict friends and neighbors will find themselves without a stable of victims, and there will be a dearth of enablers and sycophants to encourage their behavior.  Until that happens, it seems to me that there would need to be the same or similar consequences for same or similar behavior.

"But look what youuuuuuu said!"  "But look what heeeeee said!"  "But look what sheeeeee said!"

NONE of that exonerates what weeeeeee said.  Let's try to own what we say a little more - and hopefully think before we speak so we won't have to next time - and spend less time finger-pointing at their side and making excuses for our side.

Caveat to our friends in Hollywood:  You are here to entertain us, and not to insult us.  You were not elected by anyone to govern us, and you did not receive fame and recognition because of your debating skills.  Please find ways to entertain us without finger-pointing and name-calling.  You might be pleasantly surprised.

RESPECT ALL.  BEFRIEND FEW.  LOVE ONE.  HATE NONE.

I EXIST.  I MATTER.  I BELONG.  I DESERVE.

EMOTIONAL MATURITY.