First Blog

It's that gifting time of the year. So, I thought to take a closer look at the gifts I have already. Not just the kids, car, house, and health, but the real gifts, as in those I was born with. They are many, so many it is troubling why I have them. Among them is the gift of problem-solving. Another is the gift of curiosity. This article  is about them all, with a closer look at faith.  December 20, 2022 Gifts to Humankind by G Donald Allen Upon us now is the season of giving. Just as important is to inventory those gifts we have been given. And they are many. At Thanksgiving, we count our blessings. Today we travel well beyond counting to those wondrous gifts given to us at birth. These gifts co-mingle, coalesce, contravene, and entangle to make us what we have become. Not material, nor theoretical, and without position or location, they are undeniable. They are within the domains of psychology, chemistry, and sociology, forming our very human foundations. Evolution or design

  Russian Proverb: You live as long as you are remembered. This is life’s extension beyond the beyond.   You can continue, but only those if celebrated can you enjoy this post-beyond.   Nationally, this is the point of Memorial Day, President’s Day, Religious founders, and so many more. These are reminders of the best of us, the most honored.   Every great nation remembers how they came to be. Forget the past at your peril. Personally, though, these are milestones from our own lives. Not birthday parties, but solemn occasions, these commemorate personal memories, for personal reasons, and they are no less important. If we cannot remember those near to us now departed, how can we celebrate the more general days of Memoriam? Indeed, many have been convoluted from their original meanings.     By keeping our loved ones proverbially alive, we sustain their lessons and meanings to all.   I believe we should remember those we have personally loved on their special day in some way.   It

The best any parent can do is to teach the three L's. They are    Live, Love, and Learn Community, family, and teachers all play an essential role in this equation. In rare cases, the parent can teach all three.  No surprises. In fact, the three L’s are the principal factors of every life.   ·         To live: This is the scope of your time on earth. It includes all you do, all your relations, all your dreams, and all your works. For example, you can live in a gossipy world of others or live in your personalized world of events. ·         To love: Love is the highest order found in living. It is that emotional feeling toward your life and its relations.   It is essential for the full realization of living. Many lives have no love, and without it, the life has less enrichment, stunted from higher possibilities. ·         To learn: Learning is the engine of life. It guides us toward fulfillment, improvement, and enlightenment. Too many seek the comfort of relying on early

You want to be wise, the pride of your family or at the workplace.   So do I.   How to do this is a good question, but one that has a ready answer. You simply invent it.   Here we give methods with examples, all cooked up at home, none from the literature. We call it… Do-it-yourself wisdom .   You, too, can be wise with words. Recipes are available, and we take up a couple here.   For words, just pick two of them and mix in a counterbalance.   Or use one phrase to amplify another and then reverse.   Alliteration helps. Assiduity is not the goal.   Loose construction is better.   How the mind fills in what the words leave out is remarkable - and to your advantage. Think of a poem with just one line.   For example, let’s use “love” and “liberty,” and a few others. “Love is far less without liberty, and liberty is far less without love.” “The spirit enriches reason just as reason enriches the spirit.” “Knowledge needs intuition even more than intuition needs knowledge.” “Pray

Always have hope! Hope is like a tiny battery deep inside you that must not fail. If it fails, you fail. Did you wake up this morning?   Have a little breakfast? Have a home to live in? Have a few dollars? Have some family?   Be thankful.   It could be a lot worse. Many a reporter is concerned more about constructing a complete sentence than about what’s in it. Politicians are concerned about neither. Is it true those with the greatest capacity for hate also have the greatest capacity for love?   Hmm.

Love life and it just may love you back.

In negotiations, your opponents would rather have you for lunch than invite you.  ------------------ Tariffs are like bad sex. You do get screwed. You just don’t like it.  ------------------ Important it is to reflect on every day.   Look for progress, love, and happiness. These give lasting pleasure. All the rest come in second.

Can you forgive?  It's not easy, you might agree.  If you wish to read a good article on forgiveness, please see   https://theunboundedspirit.com/forgive/ This article emphasizes that forgiveness requires strength, love, wisdom, and an open heart. My response.  While forgiveness requires energy as the article posits, failure to forgive implies maintaining a "resident" animus. This requires even more energy. It requires an action in life, an interrupt in daily living, and a vigil against intersection.  It requires the maintenance of a catalog of transgressions.  It loads the mind and soul with unneeded baggage. To be unforgiving and hateful both are a burden. I have found that of the binary possibilities, "forgive and forget,"  to  forget  is the easier.  Not up to the activity of forgiving, it relaxes energy requirements on the system and calms the mind. In a way, it resets a relation with only a small "black flag" attached. I use it a lot

When I grew up, we were all told and believed that love conquers all. In the last decades its antipode has reared its head.   Yes, HATE.   It has walked in the room, ordered drinks, and is working its magic on all.   Now we have so many hates and too little time to enjoy them. Hate is has never been more popular. These days we have… Muslims hate the Infidel. The Turks hate the Kurds. Saudis hate Iranians. The Democrats hate the Republicans. Blacks hate the Whites. Socialists hate the Capitalists. Climateers hate the Deny-eers. Hamas hates the Israelis. Atheists hate the Believers. Walmart hates Amazon. Remember the simplicity of the Kingston Trio lyric? “They're rioting in Africa, They're starving in Spain. There's hurricanes in Florida, And Texas needs rain. The whole world is festering With unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans, The Germans hate the Poles; Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch, An

W e made it through the last election cycle, I think, finally. The balance of power has shifted just a bit.   Yet, it is in no way clear what will happen.   The three preceding sentences could have been written in many years past.   So, we at least biennially get the new crop.   Not chemically enhanced, genetically engineered, nor fertilized, much less vaccinated, this crop is much the same as always.   In the parley of cookery, we call the outcome pot luck .  W e’re at that time of the season to discuss what’s for dinner.   Our chefs are local and we trust their excellence.   Let’s suppose this time we’re preparing a (nice juicy) politician as the main course.   This happens you know.   When families get together, politics may not come from the kitchen but sit there at the table, offering food for dispute, often helping with indigestion.   L et’s make a top ten list of these political birds and what we want to see.   And let’s try to do it without politics.   Maybe that’s

If hate is a disease, it is virile, vile, contagious, and lethal.   It has sanctioned all varieties of murderous activity, including war and the destruction of entire groups, ethnically, religiously, and politically.   This emotion of destruction compels those infected with a single-mindedness overwhelming any sense of propriety.   It defeats normal logic and decency. Associated,   there is a logic, and it’s simple.   Call it the first order propositional logic of hate .  "If A hates B and B loves C, then A hates C." This is also a type of converse transitivity.   Aristotle, of course, would be dismayed. You may say the logic of hate is ridiculous.   Yet, the philosophers have constructed quite an interesting and complete logic of belief .   It even has a name , Doxastic logic. Just Google it. Applications: a. Let A = Catholics, B = Protestants, and C = Martin Luther.   (maybe a little dated) b. Let A= Muslims, B = Infidels, and C = Baptists or any reli

Life in three’s is a broad scope framework of how we live. Three categories usually work, though sometimes two (e.g. win-lose) suffice. Then again for seasons, spring, summer, fall, and winter seem necessary, though seasons are put upon us, not by choice.   Let's get to living and the divisions by three. We think in three’s, easy, reasonable, difficult. We order in three’s, small medium, large. We travel in three’s, slow, medium, fast. We work in three’s, casual, diligent, intense. We play in three’s, fun, sport, competition. We love in three’s, like, love, obsession. Scoring.  For each category, award one point for the first division, two for the second, and three for the third. Sum them all.  The total should range from 6 to 18. If the total is 10 or less, your life is tepid. A total of 15 or greater tells us you're driving hard.  What's your score?

On Love: When citizens stop loving their children, they stop loving their country. When citizens stop loving their country, they reject their future in favor of que será, será . More on Hate: Many authors maintain that hate is contagious. Perhaps.  If it is a disease, it is one from which only a few are immune, and possibly even fewer recover.  Hate does not make best friends, but does create co-haters. A bond built on hate is weak. The hateful person is eventually hated. Some develop a thirst for hate.   Filling an emotional need, it substitutes for love.   For globalists: A. When you put your country second, you put your citizens second as well. B. If you want globalism, you must be willing to redistribute many of your rights. C. When you give away the keys to your castle, you aren’t likely to get them back. D. When you jump into the tornado thinking you know where you’ll come out, you’re either kinda crazy or kinda stupid.

Hate quotes are everywhere.   The Internet is loaded with them.   Many are created by celebrities trying to be clever.   Many more are created by philosophers. Others are biblical.   Some are fantastic; most are stupid. Check them out.   Did you know the usage of “hate” in the literature has tripled in the last twenty years*?   Hate is becoming ever more popular.   Here are few manufactured at my little factory of convolution – except for the Perry Mason quote, which I like. Hate is the swizzle stick of discontent.   (And after it stirs things up, it pollutes.) Some people tend a garden of hatred, fertilizing their crops with coarse and vile thought. “Hate has a taste all its own that fills your throat and chokes you.” --- The Perry Mason Show, The Nervous Accomplice. Hate destroys - the self when internal, others when external. “I hate the weather,” is not hate, but merely a rebuke. They say hate is an emotion, but it is also a fuel. Hate is expected to be a bumper crop

James Comey - former FBI director turned author.  His editor must be tearing his hair these days with new testimony and discovery requiring new chapter versions.  Likely his staff is sub-titling the future book, “Revelations then Rewrite.”  Cheer up, Jim! The truth is there; you may find it yet. For the Dems, it has been a love-hate-love-hate, and now love affair with hate just around the corner.  For the Reps, it’s been mostly hate all the way.  ----------------- On the Trump foreign policy: We may ask if President Trump is taking us to the edge of the volcano to see what’s there, or if he has some plans for quenching the fires down below. In a way, it is good news he has top generals guiding his moves.  These guys understand the horror of war, and do not celebrate “glorious death.”  They also understand that weakness invites reckless adventures by bold despots who themselves are guided by the simplistic policy to “hang on and they’ll cave.” A game difficult

Trust is the currency between peoples.    Destroy trust and you destroy the world. Currently, trust is eroding everywhere, interpersonal, interparty, intercountry, across the world. In the congress, in the press, in the workplace. Trust and love have one common quality.  Once lost, they are near impossible to recover. ---------------------------- Summing up the Reps and Dems.  Problem at hand: Deciding the color of the toilet paper in congressional restrooms.  Solution Reps: Unable to compromise, adjourn for vacation.  Solution Dems: Unable to consider or process request, await decision from leadership. -------------------------- If you watch tennis these days, you will see that every player seems to hit the ball harder than ever, with more spin, and with more skill than ever before. Many come with an entourage of personal coaches.  But the dress is what you first notice, particularly if you’re not a player.  Many of the men dress as though they came to mow the lawn, wor