Beginning back at the beginning again.

In case you’re wondering I am taking some time to review the things that I have written here to see if my opinions have changed and if so in what ways and why exactly. Also I need time to get some stretching done. It does not do me any good to understand the world if I can’t walk around to see it.


This Blog in Review
Jan 31 2006
So I have taken a couple days to try to glance back at my thoughts over the last month. I have noticed that I have gotten a lot more political than I think I had wanted to. I think my emotional and mental stresses are concerns really about the world and there for myself. I don't know if that is a good thing or not.

I did redesign the layout of the site. Might as well use that large amount of my life I spent learning how to use those programs. I think it has a cold comic book feel to it.

Also I have added a dedication area here, and I think soon Ill be adding an area for something in the real world that needs more than one posts attention. As much as I would like to make money in anyway I just can not bring myself to put in advertising.

Finally, I have put in the disclaimer at the bottom.

I am NOT crazy!

Over the past few weeks a couple things have impacted upon me. I had read my mothers Blog and there is a post there in memory of a woman who was at a time a very close friend of my mothers. I remember this woman from my very young years only barely, but I do remember my mother speaking of her at times and it was always very good. I feel that they were very close friends.

My significant other and I were talking last night and one of the topics that came up was how it seems hard to stay in touch with our friends from where we used to live. She and I have both noticed that it is hard for us as a group to stay in touch.

It is weird that there was a time that we would sit with these people for ours and talk about nothing now seems to be struggling because we are thinking there is nothing to talk about.

Personally I can remember a multitude of names and faces that at one time or another I was young and naïve enough to believe I would be with as friends forever. I would guess that the older you get on average the bigger your list would be. It’s been only in the last 5 or 6 years that I have realized my patterns and only “recently” have I tried to be more active in staying in touch. Until recently I had just accepted that this was a fact of life that I could do nothing about.

I have to wonder, with all the technology out that is meant to help us stay close to friends and family, why is it that we find it harder and harder to stay close? Of course, I have a theory.

Fear

I am afraid that maybe we were only friends because fate had forced us together in location and that thought makes me sad. I am old enough now to know that throughout our lives we have a series of ups and down that we want to share, and many times we want to share it with the people who were there when the dream began, and not just the people who are around when the dream is realized. Because we did not stay in contact with the mundane day to day stuff we feel guilt or shame when we want to call for the “real news”. Let’s say for example something good happens in our life that we would like to share.

“Will they ask me why I have not called?”
“Will it sound like I am bragging?”

An even worse scenario is a time in our lives when something bad happens and we have a need for help and friendship.

“Will they ask me why I have not called?”
“Will it sound like I am begging?”
“Why do I only call when there is bad news?”

FEAR


What is it within me, and I suspect within all of us that uses our fears to make our fears come true? I know that by reading my mothers Blog that she feels bad that she was not able to stay in touch. I know that by speaking with my significant other that she feels worried that she and her friends are growing apart. So, I know that I am not alone.

I am scared that if I feel this way, that it is likely that my friends feel this way. If we feel this way than it is likely that you and your friends feel this way. If we all feel this way then it is likely everyone feels this way. How do we stop it? How do we fix it?

I do not know.

Exit Stage Left

Have you seen this?

Today's Study Materials

First of all let me commend this organization for taking full advantage of their ability to speak loudly under the laws created for them in our countries constitution. Now please allow me to do the same:

I must admit that my initial knee jerk reaction here was to lash back to what I read here. Rather than weigh the merits and demerits of the type of thinking shown on that site I was going to simply to say that they are wrong and I am correct and go on with my day. Instead I think it does me better to study this group and their words used under the same standard that I study others and myself.

As usual vocabulary plays an important part when trying to understand. The word regime does not in itself have a negative definition:

Regime

re·gime n.

1. 1. A form of government: a fascist regime.
   2. A government in power; administration: suffered under the new regime.
2. A prevailing social system or pattern.
3. The period during which a particular administration or system prevails.
4. A regulated system, as of diet and exercise; a regimen.

The understood meanings and feelings that come to our minds when we hear the word however paint a much darker picture. It is impossible to communicate our own opinions without somehow stimulating thought in the listener. We choose words that either properly describes how we ourselves feel or we choose words that will inspire a thought or emotion in others. I don't know yet how to describe when one might happen and when the other is the goal, but I think that one basic “rule” is in public writing.

The reason I do my writing here is because I know that in public writing I am kept to a more honest standard. To be honest if this were not a public area my initial “knee jerk” reaction would have won and these writings would have a much darker tone.

The writing on the above listed page uses a desperate tone meant to instill desperation in the reader. I am desperate enough as it is and I can easily understand how many Americans can feel like this. My question however what solutions do they offer? I myself criticize here. I feel in my heart that I know what it would take to get to a better world. I just don't think those things are possible.

We can all agree that something is wrong, but to say that ousting Bush will solve the problem is like saying that putting cream on your Herpes will be a cure for AIDS. The two problems are loosely related at best.

Where does “freedom of speech” guarantee that we will be listened too? We can cry all we want to when we get cut but it is not until we understand the safest way to handle a knife that we can stop the problem from happening again. It is unfortunate that popularity can give weight to opinions where understanding and wisdom should be the only tools allowed to build our new world.

Looking at the Middle East we see that there are many organizations which our soldiers are called upon to think of as an enemy. They vary in their beliefs and therefore they vary their methods. Some groups there are quite benign, but it is the extremists that get the attention. It is the extremist that is the mark by which all others are judged. It is the extremist who yells so loudly that he “drowns out” ALL beliefs other than their own.

It is unfortunate that most children do not have the tools to properly argue a point well enough to change a parent’s opinion. It is unfortunate that some parents feel a need to do things in there own way regardless of the wisdom our children might inadvertently give us. I love all children, I try to understand all children, and I think that all children have wisdom to offer us, but I only respect those who can convey that wisdom through either dialect or action. These children are rare, but they are out there.

When is “being heard” not enough?

I think that what follows is more concerning the problems behind The World Can't Wait and less about the actual site.

It is hard for me to stay on just one angle here.

I will quietly say here that this type of organization offends me personally. I can not say that they are right or wrong for anyone else. I am trying here to weigh the good and bad, but I personally believe those who do have a voice (not me) who are trying to work within the system for honest change and growth are going to be hurt by this type of thing. In a world where things are judged as right and wrong this presents a whole new definition of wrong for all in the grey area to be placed in.

A new superpower is defining itself in our countries political forum. More and more people are prepared to misuse the “Weapon of Mass Persuasion.” Some could argue that like the WMD’s, the WMP could be used as a terrorist tool as much as way to avert violence.

Like it or not, the fear of WMD is what defines the credibility of a country on the world’s stage. Will it logically follow that fear of WMP will be expected to define the credibility of our nations stage?

If we allow celebrity status to become our moral compass then we are to be victims of the most vicious type of peer pressure ever put before us. The “cool kids” are doing it, so it must be the right thing to do? We attempt to instill on our children the need to make rational decisions based on reasonable definitions of right and wrong. We expect somehow that they will be able to do this without to much input by us, because they are inherently good. How often do we find that those who say “we can make our own decisions” are the ones working hardest to influence us to agree with their opinions?

I ask myself while standing under the bleachers: “Why should I listen to my parents?”, when the question should be: “Why should I listen to the cool kid?” The cool kid knows how to let you make your own decisions without “telling” you what decision to make. The cool kid is not in the business of giving explanations.

So few people are willing to let there be any neutral parties in this war of public opinion.

In my world of truth and facts I have to look at things this way:

I admit that I don't know.

If it is truth that everything happens for a reason then the things we witness are a small part of a plan and therefore out of our control. If it is truth that all things are reactions to a previous reaction then we are only small parts of the chaos and therefore we should understand that these things are out of our control.

History is full if those whose message lasted throughout time. Few have made it through the rise and falls of Empires to be considered wisdom for generations to come. Of those who have survived and have become respected, none have advocated radical fundamental changes, and all have advocated tolerance.