The pursuit of happiness

My childhood lessons on how to pursue happiness:

Growing up with the parents I had was a pure blessing. I'm not saying it was easy or all roses. As a matter of fact, it was most likely the difficulties that brought sight to the blessings.

From as long as I can remember I was told that I could have anything I wanted in life. "As long as I was willing to pay the price."

My happiness was not in the hands of any other person. My happiness was my own choice.

It was not the responsibility of anyone else to provide me with anything I wanted.

Rest and recreation were the rewards of hard work, not an entitlement.

If I wanted to further my education I should remember just that: It is "My" education and I should pay for it.

If I allowed anyone else to do my work for me, by natural law I would expect to grow weaker.

Nurturing compassion for others was as natural as breathing but pity for them was selfish.

Loving someone is a forever thing. That does not mean you can be together forever.

Life brings pain, sorrow, heartbreak and other negative events, Do not allow them to defeat you, learn to deal with them. Put them behind you and keep moving forward.

Every day is a gift and not to be enjoyed at the expense of another.

Hard manual labor is equal in every way to any less menial pursuit.

I have done my best to pass that on to others.

Random thoughts, caring and not caring

Just some random thoughts that pass through my mind from time to time.

Bernie Madoff, I don't care that you feel better now that you are in jail. Frankly I couldn't care less that you don't think about committing suicide anymore. I don't condone suicide, I just don't care about you. You cheated your own personal, trusting friends without remorse. You stripped your own family of dignity without so much as a hesitation. Your own son committed suicide out of sheer embarrassment of what you have done. You exhibit no shame or sorrow. Your own wife has to face the public while you comfortably pass the time reading without any concern of where your next meal comes from. By your own admission you have done evil and committed unspeakable atrocities against those that trusted you. Personally, I feel that you are still riding the wave of megalomania because you enjoy the notoriety. I believe the punishment you fear the most is that no one would ever speak your name again, no reporter would seek you out for an interview. Your fellow prisoners would not talk to you. You would be totally alone with your thoughts. You need to be in control and in the spotlight. Some day you will have to face the real consequences of what you have done and it is way more than you could ever anticipate. Other than that, I don't care.

There is a tidal situation in the ocean, El Nino or La Nina or something like that. We, as human beings cannot control it. The weather is affected immensely by it. Snow, rain, wind, heat, and every other form of weather is moving in and out of our comfort zone because of it. Again, we can't change it, we have no control over it, we can't predict with accuracy exactly what will happen and where it will happen. My thought is this: The human race has survived from one degree to another throughout history with far less resources than we have now. Why do we panic so? I mean, complaining is natural but the panic is just way exaggerated I think.

I am so grateful to the people with extreme personalities who are in the news. In my opinion many of their views, lifestyles, perversions and activities are so weird as to defy description or rational explanation. However, without them I would have only myself to look at. Without them I may find fault in my own behavior. Without them I may not feel quite so normal as I do now. We do need a yardstick to measure by. Man, I think a lot of folks in the news are way, way over at the other end of that yardstick and that makes me feel very good indeed on some days.

I am in training for my bicycle trip around Lake Michigan. Things I need to do: Lose some weight. (Isn't that always the case though?) Increase my stamina for longer riding. Strength and weight training for core issues. Develop an eating regimen. Save some money. Build two more bicycles to fit my needs. Map out my route. Arrange for lodging. (I am not about to sleep on the ground like I did the last time) Decide exactly when I am going to do this. Make arrangements to take care of obligations while I'm gone. Keep myself from getting too excited.

Winter is coming, there is much to do. I love the different seasons around here............Joe

Pain of unemployment

A television ad designed to promote a pain reliever for arthritis points out that a body at rest, tends to stay at rest. A body in motion tends to stay in motion. I think most of us agree on that premise. From personal experience I would also add that a body in motion, in most cases feels a great deal less pain. Pheromones or something like that. On the subject of pain, extensive research has determined that artificial pain relievers, if used extensively can cause side effects as bad or worse than the original pain. "The cure is worse than the bite." I think the old saying goes.

There are huge numbers of us that are unemployed right now. It can be an extremely painful experience. The government is doing all sorts of things to help make it better. There is a lot of finger pointing as to who is at fault for the prolonged unemployment. According the the news headlines there doesn't seem to be a lot of introspective thought as far as to just what the curative solutions have done to aggravate the situation.

How about if we compare the TV ad for a pain reliever to the cures for unemployment.:

Pain relievers will offer relief so we can start a little at a time to move again and the movement itself will bring more relief so we need less pain reliever which will help our overall health which will help with more movement and so on and so forth. We become as healthy as we can.

Or; Pain relievers will bring us relief and we will continue to rest and sit and rely completely on the pain relievers which will in turn cause more health issues which cause us to move even less and experience even more pain. Our health continuously spirals downward.

We have a the dilemma:

Completely relying on government assistance to survive and waiting for more assistance and becoming more and more bitter and blaming others for not helping.

Or; Accepting our situation and using whatever is available to get ourselves moving in a direction of providing for our own needs through whatever independent means are available, one step upward at a time.

It's only a theory but definitely food for thought. Unemployment can be devastating. There is no pie in the sky, painless answer. But it's amazing what happens when we use our energy constructively.

Doing a good thing. Why do it in the first place?

I had the privelage of meeting and speaking with a group of young, high school and college guys a few days ago. What a great time it was for me. Listening to people talk about their future and how they will set about changing the world for the better. Some are going to envent something, some are going to improve something, some are going to find a new way to use something, some are going to use old ways to use something new. All of them were set on accomplishing something for the greater good. Most of them were doing it for a similar reason: Making the world a better place for all of us. Of course, a couple simply wanted to make some money or become a super star and get their faces spread across the papers, Tv and the internet but they were in the minority.

I was reminded of the wisdom that has come down through the ages: Doing good should be done for it's own sake. Doing good should be done anonomously if possible without seeking notoriety for it. That's the plan but it's not always easy to do, staying out of the public eye that is. Mother Teresa did a lot of good but wound up recieving a huge reward for it, which she turned over to charity. Ghandi turned down everything to accomplish monumental good. The stories go on and on. The reasons for doing good are as varied as the people who have done it. But what about the rest of us? The ones who will never accomolish some great deed? What is there to inspire us to do good? I've been told that doing good is the beginning and the end combined. Doing good should be done because it's the right thing to do, not because someone else is going to notice. Doing good is fulfilling our own destiny.

Sometimes we do good and absolutely no one else will ever know. Sometimes we do a simple good deed and we get accolades and huge rewards. Does the good change because of the acknowledgement it recieves? The simple answer is, NO!

This group of young guys talked about their reasons for accomplishing good and except for the two who aspired to do things just to get rich agreed to the basic principle of doing good for it's own sake. Even if they were to be humiliated and persecuted for what they believed to be a good thing: Do it anyway! Made me feel kind of good. The world is passing into good hands. At least in this group it is. Just thought I'd pass that on. .......................Joe.........Have a "good" day, eh?