IMAGINATION..A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE!

The Christmas season is here!  Although they won't admit it, I love to watch my 17 year old and almost 13 (as he puts it) 12 year old really get INTO the animated Christmas specials.  These specials are always marvels of drawings and animation put together on a computer somewhere and as my kids are quick to point out, not REALLY real.  There is always that magical moment in these specials though where the boys really buy into the loveable characters…you can see it in their eyes and their wonderment smiles.  Their imagination is touched and all is right in the world at that moment.

The moment for me growing up was always the colorful Christmas tree.  I remember as a kid just loving to stretch out on the floor next to the tree while enjoying the classical music my parents would put on.  I would get lost in the warmth of the season as my mind would travel to far away places inside the safety of the family while staring into the beautiful lights.  The music would take your imagination in many different places.  I could bask in that aura for hours.  Those moments stay in your memory and they have immeasurable value.

Ironically as I post this on social media…it seems that now more and more I long for world BEFORE social media and media in general.  It seems we have so many agenda driven media outlets now...it has become commonplace. .  As I scroll through Facebook posts on my page I see so many sites extolling virtues….only to see it somehow de-valued quickly by others.  There is little place for imagination as facts are thrown at you to prove anything you can think of.

I am the first to admit, I have an urge to post the cute thing one of my boys did on-line sometimes instead of just savoring the moment myself.  The urge to get responses and approval from others can de-value life's experiences and dull imagination.  This type of need to share everything to everybody is driving us a little mad I think.

Politics and social media cannot be escaped…as hard as we try.    There is always a debate, issue, or event that comes along and we let these issues rob us of our joy.    In a world of social media and 24 hour media, imagination and creativity are manipulated.  Newscasts, movies, and posts have are forced into our consciousness manipulating our imaginations. Seems they thrive on division among us. They become like a drug and it seems we have less love of life and less wonder about it.  Our senses have become dulled to what is truly beautiful in life.

There are beautiful things inside each of us that we need to rediscover.  That care-free and child like place that can be completely soul healing is what I want to rediscover.  Finding the beauty in moments that can renew even the hardest of hearts and….and I believe that is what God wants us to experience.   In keeping with the season, Handel's Messiah comes to mind.  The beauty of that piece can uplift through the struggles and fears of life.  There is no political agenda in that.

My goal as I go into 2016 is to discover more and more of these type places.  Find more of those moments, as with my boys when I can get lost INTO life's beautiful experiences and recapture that child like imagination.  More peace…less strife, more joy…less turbulence,  More beauty…less bureaucracy, More love…less anger.

Merry Christmas to all!   

Do You Love Me?

I couldn’t help but notice an adorable little girl and her grandfather that were sitting across from me at a Great Clip’s Salon while we were all waiting to get our hair cut.  The little girl was hugging a stuffed teddy bear her grandfather apparently just bought for her.  You could tell she loved it and was talking non-stop with her grandfather asking him question after question about “Charlie”..  Her grandfather politely was answering the questions while he was reading a magazine, not paying too much attention. 

Then came a statement that made us both look up and smile at each other above our magazines.  “Grandpa, I want to marry Charlie!”  The grandfather robotically said, “No you cannot marry Charlie.”

“But I love him...” said the little girl

“You have to marry a person,” said the grandfather

 “Then can I marry you?” said the little girl,

“I love you honey, but you cannot marry your grandpa, grandma would get jealous...” replied the grandfather.

“Then I want to marry you AND grandma!” said the little girl.

With this response both of us started laughing a bit. 

The grandfather replied, “Honey, you can only marry one person and we are too old…someday you will find a young man you love and you will marry”

“What if I love a lot of people?” asked the little girl

The questions went on and on and I could not help but feel for the grandfather as he struggled to answer all of them while reading his Time Magazine.  Was he correct in today’s “politically correct” world?  It made me glad I have two boys whom I have never have had this conversation with.  I projected forward to a time when I may have a little grandchild asking me the same questions and how I would respond to the marriage question.  Marriage may look a lot different then. 

As I feel myself getting older, and the rules and values that I and others before me grew up with eroding, I am conflicted.  The current debate over homosexual marriage and the “political spins” on it has become tiring and nauseating to me.  I definitely hear and understand the frustrations on both sides.  The “we are right and you are wrong” groups are just too righteous for my tastes.  Certain religious sects I believe need to look at the plank in their own eyes before passing judgment on the splinter in the eye of their fellow man.  At the same time, I do not equate the gay suffrage to slavery or perhaps Jews in Nazi camps.

I have dear friends and family members whom I love that are gay.  I certainly want them to be happy.  I see no reason for anyone living together in a loving relationship not to enjoy all the advantages and opportunities and be cheated out of the benefits of marriage.….however you will not see me putting and “equal” sign on my face book page.

In issues like this, I feel I must go my historical and Christian beliefs.  We tend to think that only society today knows what is best and discard what people living in the past thought of things.  Where sometimes history is improved, it is not the case many times.  I do think the knowledge of our historical past can make us wiser. .For century’s marriage has been between only a man and women.   Taking “religion” out if it, marriage is a social contract between two people giving them the ability and benefits to nurture children.  To reverse this, means we will probably at some time in the future reverse the other “rules” of marriage (incest, polygamy etc.).  Perhaps I would be okay with Polygamy…a “sister wife” could be beneficial.  However, I believe my wife would want an older sister wife who is a retired matron who cooks and cleans.  I would want a younger wife I think…perhaps 25 and very attractive….so I don’t think it would work. Plus I truly love my wife and don’t believe I could love another.     

My Christian belief states simply marriage is to be only between a man and women.  As a Christian, this is what I believe.  Never having an affinity for anyone with the same plumbing, I cannot imagine what it is like to be judged for being gay or to “walk” in their shoes.  My wife is Hispanic, and it really opened up my eyes to discrimination in simple things that before did not seem like discrimination to me. It was frustrating and demeaning.  So I truly believe as a Christian, compassion should be shown to not judge or condemn anyone.  As before, I feel I need to look at the plank in my eyes before judging anyone for the splinter in their eye.  I feel prayer is needed for ALL issues.  I believe that will open the eyes to all.

I do think that eventually gay people getting married will be commonplace and we will be debating the next group wanting rights of some type.  Whether you are for the issue or against the issue, let’s have compassion on all sides.  I am sure when I have grandchildren; I’ll be struggling to answer all the questions too.        

Baby Boomers..A Wild Ride!

What a wild ride!  I was born in 1964…the last year of the “Baby Boomer” generation.     You know..it’s the generation that describes the big population boom  between 1946 and 1964.  I was a little young to understand the generation, but it must have been fun!  Man, we set the world on fire, didn’t we?  The peace and love generation!   Do whatever FEELS right!  Question authority!  Down with the man!  Woodstock was a blast…there will never be anything as epic as that, right?  That’s when music was good…”Puff the Magic Dragon”…..”Talkin ‘bout My Generation” 

We have always been the “in” generation.  The media targets us making us feel that whatever age we are…it’s THE age to be!  When we were young…it was cool to be young.  When we were in our early adult years, it was all buy, buy, buy and we did so …on CREDIT.  Now we are getting older, we are getting blasted with drug commercials to make us feel better. If you are 60 it’s the new 50, 50 is the new 40…. I remember when I was younger I could not imagine the rock stars of our day getting old…now look at Mick Jagger!  Our parents catered to us in our early years and now our children will probably have to  cater to us in our elderly years.

We had free love and now the world has aids.    We had the feminist movement and now the world has emasculated men.  Our individualism has left the world with many fatherless and/or motherless children.  We had rock stars wanting to be politicians and now we have politicians who want to be rock stars.  We polluted the planet and now the world has to clean it up.  We got high and now the world is paying for our disability and rehab.  We will bankrupt the treasury with our welfare state and retirement.  Our youth movement has left the world with men who have never grown up.  Our “no competition schools” has led to the world surpassing us in education.  The provocative sensationalism on TV and in the arts has numbed the next generation to what is truly beautiful.  Our non stop news propaganda has numbed our next generation to violence and we have forgotten how to love our fellow man.  The lyrics in our music has taken the innocence of our young.  We have taken God out of our schools and now we wonder why youth have no morals and there is violence in school. 

Our parents sacrificed much to build us up a better life.  Many lived through the depression and world wars.  Our parents saved their money and did not go into debt.  They paid for our educations.  They had one car, one tv, one washer/dryer, etc and took care of them for years. They had pride in responsibility of themselves and cringed when others offered help.  They lived WITHIN their budget and respected wealth.  Now we have two or three cars, two to three flat screen TV’s and those must be updated every two years.  Do not worry about debt because we can always go bankrupt and start all over again.  Don’t worry about teaching your kids values…the government has that handled.  

I realize perception isn’t always reality.  The generation made great strides with dealing with race and equality.  Most of the thoughts here do not represent the generation as a whole.  I realize the extreme is what gets publicized and it is not reflective of MOST people.  I bring these issues up because I see the country I know changing.  I had a conversation recently with some people convinced we should adopt the Swedish socialism ideal.  I read elsewhere that now almost half of our population may want that.  My parents passed to me a great nation…now we want to abolish it through our own greed.   I am not proud of the socialist welfare state we may be leaving our children.  The socialist thought (as all politically motivated thoughts) work on the ideal that everyone has the good of the state at heart.  It is not always the case.   I believe people know they need to take care of themselves, it is a much more rewarding life than those who feel they do not have to take care of themselves.  As I look at my two children, I can only hope that they can do better than we did as a generation passing the torch.

I read from a good friend of mine (thanks Greg Owens) the following…

"The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more."

Great words to get you to think.  Where do you believe we are in this cycle?  BOOM!   It was a WILD RIDE!

Who Doesn't Like Robin Hood?

Everyone likes Robin Hood, right?  Who doesn’t like someone helping the poor and needy?  The thought of a strong and courageous man risking his life to give those who have little some riches so they may enjoy life more is a good thing.  The wealthy don’t need those riches anyway…it’s only fair.

I would think that Robin Hood’s goal is to make everyone wealthy but, what happens if everyone gets wealthy?   It looks like Robin Hood is out of a job…..and his importance has been significantly diminimished. It stands to reason that the more poor people there are, the more popular Robin Hood is. 

I think in today’s political world we have a lot of Robin Hoods.  The “get elected at all costs” mentality creates an environment where instant gratification trumps long term implications.  Create jobs funded by the government to get people working again and let’s offset part (and a small part) of the funding by taking it from the wealthy because it is “only fair” and they don’t really need it anyway.  Besides, our country could use some beautification projects and better bridges anyway….right? 

The problem is that none of these projects are making money…they are paid for by someone else’s profit and thus cannot sustain themselves.  As Robin Hood undoubtedly found out, these poor people he was helping soon would need him to “steal” again.  When these projects are complete, the government will find out there is no more funding left, and we will have to go “steal” (or tax, or borrow) again to pay for it.   The burden to pay for these things goes on to our children…long after the elected officials are in office.

I think it would have served Robin Hood better if he was not to steal but encourage the rich to make more profit by creating a business that employs the poor.  That way the poor could build their own wealth and perhaps create more profit making businesses of their own.  Perhaps it will serve congress better if it does not take more from the wealthy but encourages them into invest businesses with an opportunity to create more wealth for them and others

Economy is bad....GREAT news for Springsteen!

Country is in the toilet, double digit unemployment, corporate greed, unrest...it all sounds like perfect ingredients for the next Bruce Springsteen CD. Sure enough we will soon be hearing the raspy-voiced, guitar driven rock of Bruce Springsteen's on his recently released "Wrecking Ball" CD spewing vengence on the wealthy while we plunk down money to buy it making him wealthy....another Springsteen success!

I am often amused/angered at American artists who play us play for fools, trash our country at will, trash our way of life, and make money off of it. I love how the late Michael Jackson grabbed his crotch, did pelvic thrusts and sang about how "Bad" he is to sell records, then easily turned around with his "Heal the World" song about his love of peace and saving children. Rihanna who went through a violent relationship with Chris Brown, going on Oprah to say how she is against violence, then singing, "boy can you get it up, IS you big enough...give to me baby like a boom, boom, boom" in her "Rude Boy" Lyrics(that's her grammer not mine). Oh by the way, she is now singing WITH Chris Brown...for profit of course. Sean Penn trashing the US and hanging out with Hugo Chavez, doing idiotic things and we still line up for his movies. Remember the Dixie Chicks?

What a wonderful country we live in! We have the freedom to do apparently anything we want. Do you think we are taking this a little too far? Is Rome beginning to fall again? I agree with vibrant honest debate on all issues. I most certainly do not agree with any idiotic artists views making profit about how they pretend to care....perhaps a boycott on them is in order! I'm sure Springsteen won't mind if I illegally download his CD for free because he doesn't want to be a greedy corporate type trying to make profit at our expense ...right?

America Manhood..Pull Up Your Pants!

I learned today it is definitely hard to be "gangsta" while trying to avoid getting hit by a car.

I had to chuckle at the effort it took for some young gentlemen to get across a busy intersection while keeping their sideways hats on with one hand and their "gangsta" droopy drawers up with the other. Their vigorous waddle across the road would make any duck envious. I just shook my head and thought "kids". They survived to the other side and as they were adjusting pants, hats and catching their breath, I noticed they were not kids. At some point you would think they would want to grow up.

You would think that too, wouldn't you?

I get the feeling today more and more men want to stay boys, whereas in the past boys could not wait to become men. Some say the feminist movement beginning in the 60's immasculated the man....perhaps. Other say the lack of fathers in todays society...maybe. Could it be TV endlessly portraying the man as a stumbling, bumbling idiot? I don't know. I think it really has to do with all of these issues and others I am sure.

Passage from a boy to a man is really vague in this society. When is the time manhood happens? Some say after puberty. Some say after your first sexual encounter or having your first child. Perhaps when you graduate high school or college. Other says when you get your first job or maybe your first car.

Other societies have passage into manhood. They set aside a definite time and place for their young boys to become men. You probably have seen on television African tribes taking their older boys out to battle an animal or wrestle each other. Sometimes in involves a religious ceremony where the elders in the community come together to pronounce manhood among the boys. It can involve competition of some sort, killing a lion, or perhaps becoming circumsized (ouch!).

Even our past generations it seems did not have quite the problem as we see it today. There used to be a definite distinction between being a boy and being a man. You could see it in behavior...taking responsibility for ones actions. You could see it in dress...how many old baseball films have you seen where every man in the park is wearing a suite, tie and fedora hat? TV shows from that bygone era depicted men as smart, strong and head of the household. Today they are usually the comic sidekick to the mother or the kids.

I believe there needs to be a fundamental shift if we are going to get our "manhood" back. I believe it has a lot to do with basic Christian values. I believe that is the best place to start. The roll of the father has been so diminished in society and today there are so many fatherless children with no one to look up too. I think it is up to every individual as to how to raise their kids. I think America needs to "grow up" a bit and teach taking responsibility for itself. Boys need to know the value of their role as well as the importance of it. Hopefully then we would not have half of our population having to support the other half. If nothing else hopefully we will learn to pull our pants up while running across a busy intersection.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We're all alright!

Why do all of these corporate executives get a bonus while the rest of us struggle? Why does President Obama go on all these elaborate vacations on MY taxpaying dime? This country is being run by corporations and we have NO say in it! The government is bankrupting all of us! The Tea Party activists and Occupy Wherever movements are run by crazy people! I'm worried, you are worried, we all are worried!

I beg to disagree....

In today's world of non-stop news, channels, internet sites, blogs (as this is), etc..you can find a conspiracy theory to just about anything. Depending on what your view is...somewhere there is a article or a story to back up your opinion as well as a host of other opinions refuting it. I have both conservative and liberal friends on my facebook page posting articles and web sites proving their points about how the other side is dooming the country. While I very much enjoy reading these posts...sometimes agreeing...sometimes disagreeing.... I think it is important to put everything in perspective. I don't think President Obama thinks all corporations are inherently evil, just as much as the Republican leadership doesn't think that everyone on welfare is just a lazy person who doesn't want to work.

Part of our existence is the ability to be responsible for oneself. Most of us are taught responsibility as we grow up. At first we are dependant upon our parents and as the years go by, we learn to take more and more responsibility. The goal is to eventually become self sufficient for ourselves. It is the same in the animal world...eventually the young are kicked out of the nest, litter, or den, etc. and fend for themselves in the world.

While I believe some of the problems we face are very real...we can overcome. Do we even remember the crisis issues last year at this time? The key is to take responsibility for yourself. Don't blame others for your shortcomings. Seek good council of course (I would recommend including God in that council) but do not rely on others. If it means downsizing...downsize. If it means spending less...spend less. Help the less fortunate whenever you can.

To quote a friend of mine..."Chins up Americans! Dream. Create. Innovate. Move. Talk. Learn. Act. Initiate. Sing. Dance. Vote ...and most of all ...LOVE! Walk forward ...We're all alright!" HAPPY 2012 !!