The Weight of Indifference is Crushing

"And if you cannot remain indifferent, you must resolve to throw your weight into that balance in which the fate and condition of man is weighed." -- Lajos Kossuth
 

Strong words old Lajos said. They seem to have a particularly strong significance during election time. And WOW, the whopping lies that are being told to us. I don’t have enough time in the day to try to truth-check what is coming out of the mouths of people. I think that this is how anarchy starts to take root and grow.

Indifference is something that I am never accused of, but I have never really sat and contemplated what to do about it. I have actually wished to have that type of attitude—one of not being indifferent--lifted from me, because it appears to be joyful at times to be free of having to care about some things and some people. Serial killers, fracking, telemarketers and such. Forgive me if you fit any of those categories and please don’t call me to help contribute to your defense, election or other fund. Especially over the phone at my dinner meal time.

There are times that I definitely feel that “my give-a-damn” is broken but it is only spotty and random times. I have had to grow more quiet and contemplative recently, practicing placing the tongue on the roof of my mouth as to prevent me from speaking my mind which lately leads to much grief (try it and you will find it a fascinating technique to achieve and maintain a state of silence but do it with your mouth closed or you look pretty stupid).

All this need to be, do and say is leading me to a life of constant, silent acquiescence, where I don’t talk much anymore because I feel I have said all that I have had to say. Or all anyone wants to hear from me at least. I feel myself brooding and even tell the wife when she asks me that “I am brooding.” And no one seems to be really listening anymore and that is a shame. Part of the reason I suspect people have quit listening is that they are always being shouted at rather than being spoken to politely.

So I need to find a way to find that “resolve to throw your weight into that balance in which the fate and condition of man is weighed” part of the equation. My big problem with it is it tends to be a way of forcing my opinion of right and wrong on others. I believe everyone is entitled to their own unique stupid opinion.

So which direction to throw my resources at? I need to just find the right lie.

 

Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (aka Lajos Kossuth; September 19, 1802 – March 20, 1894) was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of Hungary in 1849. He was widely honored during his lifetime as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe.

Eclipse

“All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.”-- Victor Hugo

Note: The recent blue moon, death of astronaut Neil Armstrong and the recent full moon of August led me to finish a journal entry from a few years back

 

August 28, 2007 

The alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I went out on the front porch to see if the scheduled lunar eclipse had started. The moon was about 30 degrees above the western horizon and the shadow of the Earth had begun it’s creep down along the top of it. A few clouds paraded by, briefly blocking the view, but in all actuality enhancing the scene, animating it with a misty overtone. More beautiful it seemed than if the sky had been empty of clouds.

The night was breaking away and the blue moonlight and the approaching dawn were competing at illuminating the silhouettes of trees and lawn and house. It was strangely incandescent as well. The glow from the objects that surrounded me seemed to be emanating the light, not reflecting it.

A cacophony of animal and insect sound--tree frogs, locust and other creatures rustling in the dark—mixed with the rustle of leaves moved by the gentle breeze. More of a quiver of movement to the musical creature noises orchestrating the scene. The air that touched me, that slight breeze, held an Autumn feel to it on this August evening. Refreshing compared to the often still, hot summer evenings of late.

How strange the world seemed to me, almost as if I was looking out on another planet. I felt a bit like an intruder to the pre-dawn twilight that was so foreign to my awake patterns. I was a specter to the sunrise.

Above me to the east, the stars were bright and clear yet billions of miles away yet seeming to be close to the Earth, dancing in and out of the clouds, forming and reforming their patterns in the void.

The wife joined me at my side as we sat on the porch steps to watch the moon slowly lose itself in the Earth’s passing shadow, darkening to a shadow of its former self. I wondered to myself what primitives must have thought when they stood in witness to this draping of the moon above them. It would be as nothing they were ever familiar with. Would it fill them with dread? With Awe? With joy perhaps? Would they see it as a sign or omen?

Then the eclipse was total, then it was moving away to normal again. Reversing. I became aware of the night changing over to day at the same time. The geese in the pond across the field began to cackle and rise into the night early dawn sky. The neighbors truck started and went down the road to his early morning commute to Ann Arbor to hang steel at the University of Michigan Stadium renovation. The early dawn gave back the moon after a few moments and it started its race to the western horizon, to appear again tomorrow full in the night.

This morning is permanent ink on my soul. A tattoo of what I have seen. I wish I did not know what had caused the theft of the moon this night. I wish I was a primitive and thought the spirits were stealing my moon. I would like to think that a spirit or a god or my dead ancestors had made it happen. I want that mystery.

You Hear Him Even When You Thought You Weren't Listening

“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong” -- Charles Wadsworth

People need a teacher, to study ourselves, for it is impossible to learn about ourselves. But what is a teacher? Is it always a noun or can it be a verb? Is it a person? Is it an event, tragic or enlightening? A higher being or a great ordeal? I am going to start with what I believe to be the first great teacher. On the occasion of my son’s 26^th birthday, here is some wisdom I would like to share with him and anyone else. These are things that I learned from my foremost teacher, my Dad, which I did not even realize at the time deeply were soaking and embedding into my psyche.

·      Sometimes things are just shitty and you have to deal with it. I probably would have learned this without my Dad, but it sure helped me to prepare for those times. Also, you don’t have to spread that crap to other people to make yourself feel better. Again, deal with it.

·      You can find peace and quiet in nature if you run to it with that purpose.

·      It doesn’t have to be brand new to make you happy, like the commercials try to convince you of. New can be relative. In fact, if you play hard and break things like Dad and I did, it felt less painful when it happened. Which leads to my next point.

·      Learn to fix things. Fix them to save money, get out of jam, use as an opportunity to obtain more tools, impress the lady in your life with your skills or just to learn how things work. After all if it is broke and you can't fix it what have you lost?

·      Have fun with people and tell little flavorful lies to spice up a fishing story or any other tale that needs a little “color” to make it more interesting. It is best to not have pictures or videos of these stories as photographic evidence just ruins them. As you once said to me, you were “very suspicious” of my stories. The wisdom of an eight year old.

·      Admit you are wrong when you are wrong and if it helps to be a bit wrong even when you are right, be wrong. Consider the situation carefully, like one with your spouse. It makes a huge difference long-term.

·      Don’t only have friends your own age. Learn from older men what they have to offer you in terms of history. Have younger friends so you can be reminded of the fact that you were once younger as well. It is incredible how differences in just a few years and a few life changes can make in perspective.

I know you really tried hard to not listen to “Your Old Man” and that was perfectly fine by me. I tried not to listen to my Dad as well. I knew you heard despite you best efforts to not listen. But you will remember my words down the road when you least expect it, like I do now. And Daily. I hope mine will ring a tune that you will remember with fondness.

An "E" in My Spelling of "Phobia"

“One of the most common phobias is public speaking, which is really just a distant echo, a reflection of the Universal Phobia. We fear getting in front of large groups and taking an action that might result in making us a target for their aggression. Again, this is not rational. It is an irrational fear—a phobia.” – Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

I often tell the story of how when I was in high school I would not get up in front of my classmates to give an oral report. I would take an “E” and fail that assignment before I would open myself up to what I perceived as the judgmental gazes of teachers and classmates, dissecting my perceptions, creativity or interpretations of the assignments. Now I am able to tell this story to groups of people that my job requires me to make presentations to, people who are strangers, friends and others who want to see me make a fool of myself (my perception). So I have somewhat been able to overcome the mostly debilitating fear of talking in front of people.

However, I always suspected that there was something terribly, inherently wrong with me, a defect, a character flaw, a weakness. And I thought that way for a very long time and only recently began to look at it differently and to work very hard to try to overcome my fears.

For most of my adult life, I was able to hide behind my job and lifestyle. You did not have to speak to groups of people when you run a printing press or sit behind a computer monitor as a graphic artist. I was able to control my interactions to very small groups and one-on-one confrontations and always without me being the center of attention. A listener. A minor role-player. A participant and never, never a leader.

I tried to tackle my fears in my late 20’s when I was a lay reader for the church I attended at that time of my life, but I still remember the scary out-of-body feeling (and not the Holy Ghost kind) that standing before and reading to a congregation felt like. Alone and vulnerable come to mind as how I would describe my state of being. I quickly abandoned that effort and reverted to the comfort of quiet obscurity, existing in the shadows of church life.

Things change however, and I was eventually kicked from the nest so to speak, and told my duties would now entail speaking and presenting to programs to groups of mostly strangers. To say I went about this easily would be most incorrect. I went more like kicking and screaming (all inside my battered brain) into this new, terrifying role. I was given PowerPoint as a tool and quickly learned that it is a fabulous tool but in the wrong hands will bore people literally to the brink of death, if not the desire to commit suicide to have it (the PowerPoint that is) end. Quickly you learn that PowerPoint is a fabulous tool, but without the skills and any idea how to make it work it’s as useless as a drill without a drill bit and a plan on how to use it. A tool is nothing without the skill of a mechanic, contractor or a chef to produce a quality product. So I needed to learn my toolbox, practice and learn to relax and to believe, really believe that people wanted to hear what I had to say and develop a way to make what I said interesting and even add a bit of appropriate humor.

So though I have changed a bit, I am still basically an introvert. Presentations wear me out, but I no longer feel as if I am defective. In a book I recently read called “Quiet: The Power of the Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain, I finally came to understand myself as being OK. Not defective. Not overflowing with character flaws (though I have a few of those). Not an outcast or an anomaly. Not alone in my favored form of existence, which is solitude. I also gained insights from this book that the wife shares the introverts craving of quiet introspection as I do.

I understand more clearly, that I can be a person of strength and still be an introvert. And still matter.

More:

The wife’s post on this subject is here.

Susan Cain talks about introverts and extroverts, TED TV

Quiet, Please: Unleashing the Power of Introverts, NPR

Book review of Quiet, Good Reads

Laugh Away Your Anger

Does anyone remember laughter? -- Robert Plant

Sometimes I laugh at the most inconvenient times. Sometimes I laugh at the most inappropriate things. Sometimes I laugh so I don’t cry. Sometimes the thing I am laughing about will cause my wife to furl her brow at me, as stern a warning needed for me to turn off my internal laugh track. But I also know a secret about her, she can't laugh at the things I say when we run together. She has to stop and tell me "Don't make me laugh." Then she gets a little mad because she stopped running because of me.

The thing that I have noticed is that when I laugh, I do not feel angry. The two are mutually exclusive to each other. Like pouring water on a campfire, laughter extinguishes the flames of angry immediately. With a hiss, all the meanness of your thoughts turn to white smoke and steam.

I have also noticed that laughter—genuine laughter—can quiet shouting voices in a room. Other people upset with you tend to be rendered speechless by a face cackling with laughter. Truly speechless. I have witnessed the jaws go slack and the bile of their words literally dry their throats so they can't make any noise.

Being a storyteller myself (or shameless exaggerator according to the wife), I love to tell tales with laughter in them. It doesn’t matter if the stupid joke is on me or not as long as the words generate laughter. It allows me to look back on my experiences and re-live them and also laugh about them at the same time. Take the many frustrations of my life and weave them into the part of the story that will allow me to laugh about it.

“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.” said the great satirist and author Kurt Vonnegut. I take strength from these words especially coming from someone who suffered much with some of the heaviest of matters throughout his life. So I am going to try to keep laughing to try and keep from crying.

So a Rabbi, a Priest and President Obama walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and with disgust says, “What is this, some kind of joke?”

Did you feel any anger after reading this joke? Even if you didn't laugh.

Rhythm

“Soul gets lost when life can’t go on its rhythmic way, and soullessness is the ultimate cause of deep dissatisfaction.” – Thomas Moore

Finding a happy rhythm in my life is important to satisfying my soul. When my soul’s rhythm gets disrupted, I feel violated. Sure, I should be able to deal with routine changes—curves in the road—but the straightaways of living are more consistent with moving forward and require much less energy than steering and navigating twisting, bending terrain.

I know, I know, many say “change is good.”  Is it? I have to say yes and no. Yes, it is good when it has a meaningful direction, say steering a ship away from a crashing reef or correcting a course to successfully reach port. Nautical comparisons aside, these types of actions prevent disaster, disarray, and failures. Course corrections can return a person to the mission or journey they were sailing toward. Sorry, left in those nautical comparisons.

Now for the No. The “no” of change is the type of change for the sake of change. I call this another way of battling the boredom that some people have for the types of things that become somewhat routine. We have heard of “shake-ups” at places or “ breaking-up the routine” of tasks. These types of change can motivate and stimulate if they are presented with transparency and input. When it is dictated without any sense of the logical reason or proof (or danger) that a change of direction is needed, faith in that change often flounders and is difficult to embrace. I will listen all day to valid reasons and evidence when given the chance because I want great finishes and successful ends to my efforts as much as anyone. But let me be a part of the conversation for Pete’s sake.

So here is where the soul becomes a tricky entity concerning change and supporting a persons healthy rhythm. Every person is different, not identical parts on an assembly line. In this comparison, you can’t shut the line down, re-tool and start-up assembly again producing a new, different or refined product. The soul is what goes into the creation and it is a very delicate blend of love, faith, hope, dreams, compassion, purpose, devotion, empathy, joy, and good humor.  For the soul to be creative—which by the way, creativeness most always leads to change—it needs to be rhythmically mentored and it is not always the fastest approach that works. “People don’t resist change,’ said Dean Ornish, “they resist being changed.”

Resistance by definition, is a body’s ability to fight hurtful and harmful things. It takes time for me to lower my natural resistance and to embrace and accept change. And with time, even the deepest dissatisfaction may fade.

Stress Is...Painful

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment ~ Marcus Aurelius

Stress is killing me. Literally and figuratively. Now don’t get me wrong, much of it is ordinary stress. Our bodies and our mind as they age are literal victims of the stress of just living and breathing and existing in time. Who would have thought you could have sore muscles from sitting hours in a tree stand hunting deer, at a desk at work or even a long ride in a car or motorcycle? I like to think of this as causeless soreness or stress…even though it hurts literally like a vigorous work-out would hurt. The price I pay for more than a half century of living.

As for the figurative side of things, relief is obtainable if you can find a way to extinguish the triggers that are causing the anxious aches and pains of the heart and mind. As an example, anyone who is a parent has said (or at least thought), “Son (or daughter, substitute at will where appropriate), you’re killing me.” Now they were not actually sticking a knife in your heart, poisoning your food or digging a tiger trap in your path to the lawnmower. But they were definitely contributing to a loss of balance in your cortisol levels. Those Fred Sanford moments. If you don’t remember Fred…Google him. To relieve those chest pains I have a couple suggestions that you can adapt to different circumstances that worked for me:

·     Screaming. At. The. Top. Of. Your. Lungs!

·     Vigorously splitting firewood with a maul and a wedge (I highly recommend this if a specific person is responsible for the stress. Visualization of what you are splitting is delightfully relieving).

·     Refer your stressor to someone who can help or even cares. I remember a specific time I was “being mean” to my daughter and she told me should would call social services on me. I wrote the number down and put it on the refrigerator and told her to call it and I was sure they would be right out to pick her up because I was “mean to her.” Footnote: she never called.

In the meantime I have to find a way to unclench my teeth and fists. Stop trying to run from what is chasing me. I was afraid to stop for fear it would catch me, but that may be actually the best plan. Slam on the brakes and get it over with. Let it pile up on top of itself like a chain-reaction freeway accident. 

Then and maybe only then will I be able to survey the wreck, access the clean-up costs and start to repair the damage. Or I could just start by screaming.

Humility's Fall

“The sky begins at your feet.” – Hopi chant

I often forget my humility. I don’t act badly…I take humility for granted. I get so caught up in the tasks at hand, mixed with a little pride about what I am trying to accomplish, and find myself with my head in the clouds.

That’s when I tend to have forgotten the very legs, my own, that I am standing on to be in this position with a view of the top side of clouds. I take my support for granted I even believe that there are those out there that have my back, only to find that they are sawing off my legs at the ankles. And when that happens I feel that reminder of my rump on the earth as I suddenly take a fall. Ouch! On many levels.

I’ve taken a few of these falls more than a few times. I am only grateful that they were not fatal to my goals and were from only a height that could be measured by my own deeds and failings. There have been many men and women who have reached far greater heights than I – reached higher stars – and fell from those loftier positions than I ever will. They fell from a height that could be attributed from elevations supported by piles of treasure, bodies of people who stood in the way or just spoils of earth.

I on the other hand, have only crashed from the height that is measured from the low place where my feet touch the earth to the height of my outstretched arms.

Some powerful and ambitious souls, don’t often survive the crashes that they experience, figuratively or literally when the truth is revealed. After all, if you were standing on my shoulders, what would make me want to put the effort into catching you if you fall? And what would make me just step out of the way and let you tumble to the ground?

 It would all depend on how you arrived on my shoulders.

The picture above is of Hopi Indians and they are performing their traditional "Rattlesnake Dance."

Thin Mints Do Not Need to Help Me be Thin

"Food is an important part of a balanced diet." --Fran Lebowitz

So I wait months for the Girl Scout cookies to arrive. Purchased from my niece, the last Girl Scout presently in the family. I forgo the Girl Scout stands that have been popping up all over town for the past month with those little sashed hucksters trying their best to unload the surplus stock that their troops get stuck with every year. Those remaining boxes that didn't get sold. The broken carton stock. Using my willpower to patiently get the order that I placed with little Girl Scout Alex. Gotta support those troops.

We finally have the cookie drop arranged and the exchange of money and cookies takes place in the parking lot after a family get together. We even helped out by purchasing some of the surplus cookies on top of our already large caloric order. All the more cookies to enjoy and share with those less fortunate or less susceptible to 10-year-old extortionists/salesgirls/fundraisers and their leaders.

Now I need to say right away that anyone that knows much about me can attest to my love of the Girl Scout cookie known as the Thin Mint. I am the kind of person that orders lots of them. They find their way into the freezer at our house and are enjoyed most of the year. And when they are gone short of the time that they can be re-ordered it is upsetting indeed. The last remaining box is usually rationed out like it was all the food left and I was adrift at sea or stranded in the arctic.

So that night after arriving home, the wife breaks open the Thin Mints and we share a few. She's chewing and I'm chewing and we are in different rooms and we are thinking the same thing. What the Hell have they done to the cookies? They have lost all recognition to the lovely, joyful and gratifying taste sensation that they used to be. They are like badly chocolate-mint flavored cardboard with a sidewalk chalk aftertaste. And I am not exaggerating. They have went the same way as Oreo's and Chips Ahoy cookies.

The food manufactures are seriously ruining the taste of life for me. A Thin Mint does not need to be healthy it needs to taste good. That's why I buy them. I don't buy Girl Scout broccoli and spinach cookies. I not only like food but at times (most) I want it to taste good. I don't need to eat a whole sleeve of Thin Mints but too bad if I do. I am the one that lives with the stomach ache and the tight waistband.

So this is my plea...Give me back the great cookies that were. Scout's honor, I will buy an extra box or two for your troop.

And don't let me get started about what the Boy Scouts have done to their popcorn.

Wellness By My Definition

"Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon." -- Doug Larson

In our pursuit of wellness, what is the defining goal that we are seeking?  When I look back at the interesting and varied blog entries that my wife Karen has provided on her blog, The Wellness Writer, I can't help but suspect that the answer would be...many goals for many different people! 

Wellness to some of us may be beauty and spirituality that comes with meditation, yoga and communing with nature.  That feeling of achieved mindfulness that delivers calming waves to spirit and soul.  Opening our eyes by creating that stillness in our former busy brain.

It may be finally understanding how to cope with a particular dilemma in our diet, or how to feel good about the food we eat and truly need to live with energy, vibrancy and long-term health.  Karen great advice and references help navigate us through the storm of information and misinformation that is in the news, on the internet or sold to us as truths by the people that we encounter.

You may find your definition of wellness in the way you feel mornings when you wake, after a walk, having coffee with friends or when you leave church after a satisfying Sunday service.  It may be losing a bit of weight unexpectedly or without any real dieting decision and noticing that your clothes fit a little looser (better!).  Climbing those same stairs and not feeling so winded when you reach the top.

Feelings of wellness may also sneak up on us expectantly.  Look around at the everyday things you do and the places that you do them.  I personally believe that we often undervalue the simple pleasures that are just “there”.  We expect a struggle, sacrifice or loss to achieve wellness goals.  Couldn't wellness be how you feel having the quiet corner office at work?  The quiet empty house all to yourself?  Listening in the car to the music it seems only you can stand?  

Wellness can be long term achievements...but it may also come in hundreds of  brief moments.  Don't fail to realize those instances and enjoy them

Mitch's Surefire Wellness Ingredients  

This recipe should be adjusted for personal tastes and fun.

Coffee every morning (sometimes into the afternoon)

Fishing

Running for exercise (with Karen, who keeps me motivated, but she says I keep her moving)

Officiating football

Reading books to expand and contract the mind

Music (from Johnny Cash to Phillip Glass)

My aquarium continues to astonish me

Hugs with the ones I love

Drawing (or doodling during work meetings)

My 1962 Nova restoration project

Asking questions of everyone (even strangers) for I am naturally curious

Having the best Registered Dietitian for a wife (all foods fit)

I Like Erasmus

Principles. Not the principals that govern our schools. Principles that we guide our lives by. How do we write them and how do we live by them? I don't always know. I sometimes do things and I realize later that those actions were guided by an underlying principle. Maybe given to me by parents, teachers or just life's lessons. I think I will attempt to capture them in words like Erasmus did someday. He was oft accused of taking the middle road in his lifetime, and I would share that habit.

But then the middle road is another route to the destination and at times it is the way to proceed in my humble opinion. But when you are faced with the long, curvy, steep paths that we force ourselves down and through, it will be our principles that deliver us safely like Job and the whale. And like Job, spit out on a beach somewhere where we didn't really hope to find ourselves, but that is our destination. Our purpose. Our glory.

Wipe off the whale spit and keep moving with integrity.

Below is the entire twenty-two principals of Erasmus. Agree and disagree with him and perhaps write your own down.

ERASMUS' TWENTY-TWO PRINCIPALS ON HOW TO BE STRONG WHILE REMAINING VIRTUOUS IN A DANGEROUS WORLD

First Rule
INCREASE YOUR FAITH.
Even if the entire world appears mad.

Second Rule
ACT UPON YOUR FAITH.
Even if you must undergo the loss of everything.

Third Rule
ANALYZE YOUR FEARS.
You will find that things are not as bad as they appear.

Fourth Rule
MAKE VIRTUE THE ONLY GOAL OF YOUR LIFE.
Dedicate all of your enthusiasm, all your effort, your leisure as well as your business.

Fifth Rule
TURN AWAY FROM MATERIAL THINGS.
If you are greatly concerned with money you will be weak of spirit.

Sixth Rule
TRAIN YOUR MIND TO DISTINGUISH GOOD AND EVIL.
Let your rule of government be determined by the common good.

Seventh Rule
NEVER LET ANY SETBACK STOP YOU IN YOUR QUEST.
We are not perfect – This only means we should try harder.

Eighth Rule
IF YOU HAVE FREQUENT TEMPTATIONS, DO NOT WORRY.
Begin to worry when you do not have temptation, because that is a sure sign that you cannot distinguish good from evil.

Ninth Rule
ALWAYS BE PREPARED FOR AN ATTACK.
Careful generals set guards even in times of peace.

Tenth Rule
SPIT, AS IT WERE, IN THE FACE OF DANGER.
Keep a stirring quotation with you for encouragement.

Twelfth Rule
TURN YOUR WEAKNESS INTO VIRTUE.
If you are inclined to be selfish, make a deliberate effort to be giving.

Thirteenth Rule
TREAT EACH BATTLE AS THOUGH IT WERE YOUR LAST.
And you will finish, in the end, victorious!

Fourteenth Rule
DON’T ASSUME THAT DOING GOOD ALLOWS YOU TO KEEP A FEW VICES.
The enemy you ignore the most is the one who conquers you.

Fifteenth Rule
WEIGH YOUR ALTERNATIVES CAREFULLY.
The wrong way will often seem easier than the right way.

Sixteenth Rule
NEVER ADMIT DEFEAT EVEN IF YOU HAVE BEEN WOUNDED.
The good soldier’s painful wounds spur him to gather his strength.

Seventeenth Rule
ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN OF ACTION.
So when the time comes for battle, you will know what to do.

Eighteenth Rule
CALM YOUR PASSIONS BY SEEING HOW LITTLE THERE IS TO GAIN.
We often worry and scheme about trifling matters of no importance.

Nineteenth Rule
SPEAK WITH YOURSELF THIS WAY:
If I do what I am considering, would I want my family to know about it?

Twentieth Rule
VIRTUE HAS ITS OWN REWARD.
Once a person has it, they would not exchange it for anything.

Twenty-first Rule
LIFE CAN BE SAD, DIFFICULT AND QUICK: MAKE IT COUNT FOR SOMETHING!
Since we do not know when death will come, act honorably every day.

Twenty-second Rule
REPENT YOUR WRONGS.
Those who do not admit their faults have the most to fear.

So Little Time to Sort Through So Much Crap

“The saddest aspect of Society right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” –Isaac Asimov

Once you are done with formal schooling—high school or college or graduate school—scholarly exploration becomes an independent quest to most that are doing jobs outside of our passions. And what is considered scholarly is varied from person to person. Interests range from gardening to the physics of string theory to combat pistol training to needlepoint.  Try to wrap your mind around all the possible interests you could or have explored. I would bet it was a wide and varied lot if you have any years on your skeleton.

Now throw the internet into the mix. With this resource at your disposal, knowledge is literally thrown by the bucketfuls in dizzying volumes, with a troubling mixture of truth’s and falsehoods mixed up like we would make soup.

When I was younger, and I needed to find the facts about a subject, I would simply look it up in an encyclopedia or dictionary or library reference books. From there if I wanted more you would have to seek out experts on the phone or museum or zoo depending on the subject. These books and people tended to carry the weight of truth in them, after all, I felt that the books were at the very least reviewed by peers before they would be published as a non-fiction work as printed on their book jacket. And the people must have been right more than they were wrong to hold their jobs and positions.

Teachers, clergy, books—I never thought to question them—and grew my knowledge based on trust, based on respected forms of authority.

But as of late, so much of society seems to not question what they read on the internet the way I never questioned what the Encyclopedia Britannica printed. Perhaps it is human nature to look very narrowly for answers—often looking for where we will find the answers to our questions that fit our suspicions or beliefs—like the little boy in the old Tootsie Roll Pop commercial seeking the answer to how many licks it takes to get to the center of the sucker.

Interestingly enough in the commercial, the boy ends up getting the answer to his question from the owl. But was it the truth. It was in a sense and it wasn’t in another sense. Also, why would we trust an owl? Interestingly enough, the owl was often depicted perched atop the helmet of the ancient Greek Goddess Athena. She was the goddess of wisdom, divine intelligence, architecture, crafts and warfare. How a goddess could hold both divine intelligence and warfare under a single shield does trouble me a bit.

And when I am troubled by something I question and seek. Someday I will find the wisdom that I seek and may be when I close my eyes for the last time and life's light is extinguished.

The Word is Out--It's Healthy to be Good

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." -- William James

While running the trails of Burchfield Park in Holt with my wife one weekend, we noticed a bustling group of people with shovels and other hand implements of labor interspersed throughout the extensive trail system. When we had completed our run circuit and were exiting the trails for the parking lot, I noticed a hand-lettered sign indicating that it was a designated "volunteer" work day for the Michigan Mountain Biking Association (MMBA), to maintain and improve the existing mountain biking trails that meander throughout Burchfield Park.

It made me think about the various organizations that I belong to and the different volunteer efforts I participate in. River clean-up efforts to make rivers navigatible by all. Working on organized kayak floats to insure safe passage by all regardless of their skill levels. Coaching youth sports. I know why I do it but watching those volunteers made me start to think about what benefit volunteering offers besides the obvious enjoyment of doing good for selfish reasons, like enjoying spending the time improving the hobbies and recreation you participate in.

So, I set out to do a bit of research and came across a recent fascinating study by the Corporation for National and Community Service. This study called "The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research, shows a strong connection between volunteering and significant health benefits. It summarized that people can achieve happier and healthy lives by putting in 100 hours of service a year as a volunteer.

"Volunteering makes the heart grow stronger," said David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation. "More than 61 million Americans volunteer to improve conditions for people in need and to unselfishly give of themselves. While the motivation is altruistic, it is gratifying to learn that their efforts are returning considerable health benefits."

These healthy benefits from volunteering may include:

• increased sense of accomplishment an purpose
• lower mortality rates
• reduced risk of suffering depression
• greater physical functionality later in life
• less incidence of heart disease

A fact sheet put out by UnitedHealthcare titled, Volunteering And Your Health: How Giving Back Benefits Everyone, further identified some key elements to health benefits for those who choose to volunteer their time:

• Volunteers agree that volunteering helps them lead healthier lives. They agree that volunteering helps them feel physically better, have an improved sense of well-being and feel that it lowers their stress level. In addition, a lower proportion of volunteers (31%) were identified as obese when compared to non-volunteers (36%).
• Volunteering seems to correspond with higher levels of life satisfaction, including a greater sense of meaning and purpose and higher levels of optimism.
• Volunteering also has significant meaning when coupled with the relationship to work. More people would volunteer if employers encouraged or had in place volunteer activities. Most people also agree that they feel better about their employer do to their involvement in volunteer activities.

A lot of this made sense to me, after all how can you not be healthier and happier when you are participating in something that helps people and the communities we are constantly trying to build and improve. Everything that I have read has indicated that a positive attitude will trigger changes within the body that promote health and healing. Feeling positive about the volunteer work you participate in is a terrific way to support what Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the famous medical missionary commented about altruistic service as "the essential element of becoming truly healthy."

Thomas H. Sander, executive director of the Saguaro Seminar at Harvard University, commenting on social capital research said, "Civic engagement and volunteering is the new hybrid health club for the 21st century that's free to join. This research shows it miraculously improves both your health AND the community's through the work performed and the social ties built." 

So next time you are looking for an alternate way to improve your health without a specific diet element or clever new exercise routine, try seeking out a volunteer position. The intangible benefits alone such as pride, satisfaction and accomplishment may be an important building block to creating a healthier and happier you.