This Being Human.....

The Rules of Being Human

You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for as long as you live. How you take care of it or fail to take care of it can make an enormous difference in the quality of your life.
You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time, informal school called Life. Each day, you will be presented with opportunities to learn what you need to know. The lessons presented are often completely different from those you think you need.
There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error and experimentation. You can learn as much from failure as you can from success. Maybe more.
A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it (as evidenced by a change in your attitude and ultimately your behavior) then you can go on to the next lesson.
Learning lessons does not end. There is no stage of life that does not contain some lessons. As long as you live there will be something more to learn.
?There? is no better than ?here?. When your ?there? has become a ?here? you will simply discover another ?there? that will again look better than your ?here.? Don?t be fooled by believing that the unattainable is better than what you have.
Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself. When tempted to criticize others, ask yourself why you feel so strongly.
What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you create with those tools and resources is up to you. Remember that through desire, goal setting and unflagging effort you can have anything you want. Persistence is the key to success.
The answers lie inside of you. The solutions to all of life?s problems lie within your grasp. All you need to do is ask, look, listen and trust yourself.

(anon)

Why I, for one, will not be watching the World Series...well, maybe.

It would seem that I'm in the minority when it comes to my view of capitalism. It seems that the further right one travels, you find the belief that we, as Americans, are destined to earn as much money as possible in order to provide for ourselves and our own interests in a game of one-upmanship; and to those that can't seem to climb the monetary ladder of success, well, that's the effect of social Darwinism, if you will. As I've always said, those that can do; and those with all of the eggs will do, leaving chicken fodder for those that can't. May the best man win! But remember the golden rule of Darwinism. Only the strong will survive. (Are There No Prisons? Are There No Workhouses?)

I have long been a Red Sox fan. Living in Massachusetts makes it a requirement for some. But for me, I have supported the under-dog Red Sox against the high paid, looking to buy the World Series, Yankees. The impossible dream of winning of the World Series has been our carrot on the end of the stick. Just always out of reach. I never thought that we would come to a point of. "If you can't beat them,join them."

The salary of the Red Sox DH David Ortiz, Manny and Lowell is equal to that of the entire Rockies team payroll. It just doesn't sit well with me.

Have you ever found yourself in so deep that the possibility of a way out seemed impossible?


That is how I feel as an American.


I believe that on many levels the effect of WWII was a heightened awareness of the intrigue that goes on behind the closed doors of those in political, military and governmental powers.


And we thought that we were the only ones! Christ! Will the scheming of man ever end? The U.S. has had a manipulating finger in almost every part of the world. This behavior is not just an American trait. Its been going on forever.


But this does not make it right nor justify our actions.


There have been those that have called the alarm; and have met with limited success. But how soon we forget.


Frequent readers know that I have often quoted Major General Smedley Butler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler and his book, "War is a Racket.


How about Daniel Elsberg and the Pentagon Papers. The Senate approval of the Iraq War resolution mirrors the Tonkin Gulf resolution of 1964 http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/10/0081208


655,000 Iraqi deaths, as a result of the US led invasion and occupation of Iraq vs the estimated number of Iraqi deaths attributed to Saddam Hussein during his 24 year reign ( between 50,000 and 100,000,depending on your sources) Clearly history has revealed that there is more going on behind the curtain. It is the lessons of history that help me believe documentaries as this one.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2081592330319789254

But...based on my observations, which also attest to the success of the US strategy to help keep the average American uninvolved in what happens in Iraq, no one will watch this video or read this post in full.

Yeah. We're in deep. Up to our necks.

Perspective

The smell of a cow barn is a pleasant experience for some. As you can see, although Brielle is having a great time, I think that one person's pleasure may be an other's pain.That's how it is in life.

Perspective.

Point of view varies depending on a multiplicity of factors.Our response to the world and to that which we experience relies on our personnel perspective to explain and make meaning or some sense our lives. That is the beauty of awareness; you experience - without trying to attach any perspective upon it.

Granted, I am not pleased with the fact that I'm not earning big $$ and that I am no longer the man in charge. But what kind of charge are we really in if it can all change in an instant? I have exhausted myself with job search engines and the amount of change that I have experienced. Since I have tried to rest in what is; mind you, not a sense of laying down and dying, but an active response to flowing with what is...and I've never been happier.

I have less money.

Less time.

Three out of four of my adult children have moved home.

One of them has a daughter (Brielle) who will be three next week.

Bills and food are on a week to week what will be will be.

And I've never been happier.

Take me out to the (ball) game

Well, its that time of year again and I'm a little excited.

I'm finding myself excited over the prospects of the Red Sox playoffs and the Patriots kicking ass week to week regardless of the stupid "cheating" charges.

The year after the Sox won the World Series, I threw my glove into the rubbish upon learning of Johnny Damon's signing with the Yankees.

The Yankees!

The team that has bought the playoffs; the trips to the World Series...and every player that would sign for "Mo money." I hate the Yankees. They epitomize everything that is wrong with baseball and everything that stands for "anyone can be bought for a price!" Yay, capitalism - at its finest. May be okay for you - but not for me.

But I got over it. I guess. After refusing to watch a single game last year. I got over it.

And to make things a little better, the Indians are in it. I loved the Indians throughout the 90's. They built the "Jake." They built a team with no name rookies and old veterans. It was about the game and team. I loved watching Orel Hershiser. Washed up? Nah. Loften, the Alomars; and my fave, Omar Vizquel. Big Thome.

But baseball is a business. Sucks, eh? The ever fabulous farm teams were depleted in favor of trades and deals to keep their playoff hopes more secure. They still managed to maintain a payroll that was less than one quarter than that of the Yankees. The Fucking Yankees!!!!

Whoops. Did I say that out loud?

So last night was cool. In the first game of the Indians vs the Yankees, the Tribe whooped them 12 to 3. And Kenny Lofton is back!

And then the Pats!

Sorry Jess - you poor San Diego fan. Come East, girl!

And poor crying loser, Eric Mangini. Wah! We lost because the Patriots stole our signals. Wah! They beat us 38 - 14. I am too great a coach for that to happen to my Jets!

And then the Pats went and beat and beat the Chargers at 38 - 14 as well!

Coincidence, I ask you?

And the Bills, 38 - 7.

And the Bengals 34 - 13.

Next!!! The Cowboys on 10/14. Should be good.

The Colts on 11/3. Nail-biter.

The rest looks like a cake walk.

Did I say that i was a little excited?

When the television dial was much smaller and cable television was just beginning to branch out into our communities, the water cooler topic was often about last night's episode of M*A*S*H* or some other such sitcom. "Did you see so and so on Saturday Night live? Did you hear on the news that Robert Plant's son Karac died? Did you watch 60 minutes lat night?"
Now, with the variety of television shows to be found through the modern marvel of cable, satellite and whatever, there are only a handful of shows that people discuss at work or while out socializing. There is so much on that it often seems that everyone is watching something different. It seems that only those of the baby boomer generation still watch the news. Sure, there are Soprano watchers (or were) Desperate Housewives, and watchers of Greys' Anatomy and such. But there are also some shows of depth and wisdom to be found on PBS or MSNBC, Discovery and The History Channel, just to name a few.
I couldn't find anyone who watched Ken Burns, "The War" on PBS stations.
I find this very disturbing. While it was so easy to be all Patriotic and frothing at the mouth hateful towards those that were in opposition to our entering Iraq, when it comes to enlightening oneself regarding War and government and the reasons that one might go to war, this well done documentary seemed to receive little notice among the usual nightly t.v. viewers.
At the rate of about 1,000 WWII veterans a day dying, bringing their stories with them, the average US citizen knows more about Grey's Anatomy than the war that affected every American citizen's daily life. At home and abroad; within and without the service.
My father, "full of piss and vinegar" crossed the channel into France in July or August of 1944. By mid December, he was a POW in a German prison camp in Bad Orb, Germany. He was "liberated" in April of 1945 weighing less than 100 Lbs.
I inherited a good deal of my Dad's cynicism regarding War and Government. After the "Gulf War' people became more aware of the service and sacrifice of the generation that Tom Brokaw called, "The Greatest Generation." It became fashionable to give High School diplomas to those that left school for war and never completed their "education." At one point, my father was sent a POW medal from the War Department. A few months later he was invited to Boston to attend an event whereby local politicians would then "present" the medals to the POWs. My fathers didn't want any part of their political smoke and mirror shenanigans. Hell, it was only a few years previous that Dole and Rumsfield were helping Saddam celebrate his birthday. Now he's a madman!
We have people who still believe that Saddam Hussein was behind 9-11 and that is why we entered Iraq. With the over 3,300 deaths of our servicemen and the 70,000 plus deaths of Iraq civilian's, who looks like the madman now?
But no one seems to notice. There isn't anyone affected except those that have lost someone. There are no news reels of the daily death tolls and no notice of the flag draped coffins when the dead do return. The government won't allow it.
The greatest generation is dying while the latest generation is already dead.