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Showing posts from 2016

Relationship Success-What Does Love Have to do With It?

February 14, 2016 The month of February puts the topic of love on everybody's mind?   Millions or perhaps billions are spent reminding us, selling us and then going to buy the goods of Cupid.  The world keeps us moving at a fast paced superficial level if we let it. Most people I ask don't even know how Valentine's day became a celebrated event and what it has to do with love. What is this emotion, feeling, connection and most importantly the virtue we call love? What is its impact on the world?  How can one word have such a broad spectrum of actions and emotions associated with it?  Even to say that some seem to "love evil". In the next 120 plus years six billion or so people will die from all causes. It will happen to someone we love if it hasn't already. No amount of mortal love can or will stop it from happening.  This for the most part happens so subtly and quietly on an individual basis that only a circle of friends or family are affected at a

The Pursuit of Personal Development and Eternal Perspective

February 1, 2014 Personal development is a huge business. Gurus abound.  Most people want to get better at something or reduce stress in their life and need a teacher. Parts of truth can be shared in many ways and by many people.  Sometimes a person just needs to hear how great and unique they really are as an individual.  This can be a stepping stone to understanding one's potential.  The gurus are seeking to unlock performance and free people from the inhibitions that limit them. Life coaches have proliferated in recent decades in part because corporations and individuals must compete in society. All these teachers can do is sell you on the idea of becoming better.  They do this either by using themselves or others as an example.  Some know how to teach certain aspects of it very well.   How well do they apply their own teachings? Success is really so subjective.  A teacher/coach/guru may have unsettled personal relationships yet achieve financial success and social statu

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Freedom in America

Our freedoms are rooted in the values of family life. The generational commitments to being good citizens are taught at home. Do we want leaders that preserve them or not? Trump may not represent the moral high ground but he isn't trying to tear it down or remove it as part of his platform. It is easy to mark a public figure at their worst and hold it over their head and some fanatics will. Trump's lewd confessions and infidelities are not excusable but they are forgivable if he has changed. To not vote for him will give Hillary dynamite and a bulldozer get rid of moral ground altogether.  The Clinton agenda and platform can't be built on such grounds and the eventual removal of anything with the word moral in it is their objective. There are those that judge religious liberty as a hindrance to their agenda and Hillary is their representative. Where do the values of leaders like Hillary and Bill Clinton and many others come from? Who are the cultural tren

Ruminations, Reminitions and 2016 Presidential Politics

How do you qualify someone for the office of president? Can we ever get or know all of the facts about a person's character in an election? It is not very likely. The information overload, biased media reports and planned spinning of events doesn't make it easy to evaluate the effects on freedom by a candidate's expressions and platforms. As I think about this current race for the White House, I remember some past observations I had as I watched other elections. I remember very well when Bill Clinton was running for president. His personal morality was pretty much set forth before the American people in a very public way. Americans would never elect such a person president would they? How could such a person be trusted if he doesn’t have moral integrity? How is it that lying and cheating just seem to slide off the backs of the Clinton's and their voting block doesn't care? When he was elected the second time I was certain that the country and maybe

Politicians, Freedom, Marriage and Individual Rights

Given the loss of private and public morality how do we judge a politician?  Since this country is about freedom, I guess that is where we should go with the discussion.  Does a particular politician represent a "force shift" or a "freedom shift"?  Are they career power seekers or concerned citizens capable of serving for a time in governmental office?  We can and must judge the motives of people that are seeking public office. If they are elected will we have preserved freedom or lost it? A good litmus test of a policy or ideology is to ponder what the results would be if everyone did it.   If somehow the US had the resources to finance every person's basic necessities. What would the result be? What does it mean to be selfish? Taking from the rich or producer and giving to the poor or non-producer?  Is it selfish to take from the next generation and give it to the present? A portion of our society would seek to consider all things as amoral a

What Happens when You set a Realistic Goal

When a "something you want to do someday" converts to a written commitment things can happen faster and with more intent.   Really I only have them once in awhile.  Recently it has to do with my exercise activity.  It has felt kind of good to go easy on the bicycle after trying to ride hard for a few years. Since I tore my Achilles tendon,  I haven't regained my competitive notions. I now ride with no particular agenda. I have had several of those " someday somethings" over the years.  I wrote them down by signing up for the events and then knowing that I had to train to achieve them would become somewhat painful. Who wants to get up at 3:00 in the morning to do a century on the bike to train for a future ride? What is it with this "man against self" mentality? Some people seem to be wired to get motivated by such things.  What about other less "painful" goals?  I want to go to Switzerland too.  Someday I will. There is an element to doi