L

L

 

Schools of Thought (Twelve-Step is tried and true)

• Twelve-Step Excerpts (with Twelve-Step List)
• Teachings of Jesus the Christ
• Life-tested Family Advice
• Medical Advice from a Layman
• Just Saying
• Food for Thought ‡

 

Twelve-Step Excerpts

• The Twelve-Step program, Serenity Prayer:

  God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
  the courage to change the things that I can;
  and the wisdom to know the difference.

• One day at a time (ODAT), is a key teaching in Twelve-Step programs.  Focusing on today, we’re not overwhelmed by the future or past.  “We may find in each day a measure of comfort, serenity, and a sense of achievement.”  Al-Anon offers a book entitled: Courage to change : one day at a time.
• Alcoholics Anonymous step 10 states that we continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong, we promptly admit it.

• Here’s the entire 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (although other 12-Step programs, like Al-Anon, for the families and friends of alcoholics, use almost the same, exact, 12 Steps):

  1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.

  2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

  3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

  4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

  5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

  6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

  7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

  8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

  9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

  10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

  11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

• HALT is a Twelve-Step catchphrase: Hungry, angry, lonely, tired.  Halt, when your vices come to roost, when you indulge in what you shouldn’t indulge.

  Two more, Twelve-Step tenets: Live and let live; let go and let God.  With the latter, one lets go and lets God, or their higher power, take over.  There is much out of our control that only God, your higher power, or the Creator, can marshal, or bring to bear.

• Twelve-Step programs discuss a higher power, you are not alone, not powerless, in your struggle:

  “It is frequently stipulated that as long as a higher power is ‘greater’ than the individual, then the only conditions are that it should also be loving and caring, and able to relieve the individual of their alcoholism.”

• Another slogan of Twelve-step programs is: Easy does it.  Or proceed slowly, carefully, and deliberately, calm down, or handle with care.  Keep it simple is yet more wisdom.  Don’t over-complicate matters, especially to your disadvantage.  Here’s another Twelve-Step catchphrase: Progress not perfection.

This too shall pass, is a reminder that whatever difficulties you’re having, they will pass away, as they always have, and always will.  This is just the impermanent nature of all of life, positive and negative.

• Here’s another slogan you hear at Twelve-Step meetings: “Don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all small stuff.”  And another: “Keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll keep getting what you got.”  Yet another: “God doesn’t make junk.”

• If you don’t drink alcohol (or smoke marijuana), you learn to live your life without artificial anesthesia.  Abstinence makes you stronger.

  If you think you might have a substance abuse problem, you owe it to yourself to check out the Twelve-Step programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, or Overeaters Anonymous (to some, gambling and food are much like drugs).  There are also Twelve-Step groups for people who know anyone belonging in AA, NA, or OA — whether they already go or not — such as Al-Anon, or Alateen.

• Look for these four signs of a gambling problem: a preoccupation with it; gambling alone; not being able to stop gambling even when trying to; and feeling compelled to gamble more after losses.

• This is the Prayer of Saint Francis, often discussed in the Twelve-Step programs:

  Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
  Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
  Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
  Where there is discord, let me bring union.
  Where there is error, let me bring truth.
  Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
  Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
  Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
  Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
  O Lord, grant that I may not so much seek
  to be consoled as to console,
  to be understood as to understand,
  to be loved as to love,
  for it is in giving that one receives,
  it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
  it is in forgiving that one is forgiven,
  it is in dying that one awakens to eternal life.

• The suggested Twelve-Step meeting closing is The Lord’s Prayer:

  Our Father who art in heaven,
  hallowed be thy name.
  Thy kingdom come.
  Thy will be done
  on earth as it is in heaven.
  Give us this day our daily bread,
  and forgive us our trespasses,
  as we forgive those who trespass against us,
  and lead us not into temptation,
  but deliver us from evil.
  For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

  Amen.

• Don’t get caught up in all the caustic hate and turmoil in this world.  Here are quotes for a modicum of peace and tranquility.
• You might find this interesting as well: It’s self-improvement, from WikiHow, entitled Be a Better Person.

 

Life-tested Family Advice

My grandfather had five lessons for his son, my father.  These proved to be good advice for both him and me:

• Buy land, they’re not making any more of it.
• Learn to box (okay, this was around World War II).
• Do not lend money to anyone, give it away.  If they need money, they likely won’t be paying it back.
• Get an education (or learn a trade), at least until you’re twenty-one years of age.
• Do not drink alcohol.

 

Medical Advice from a Layman

• Pilgrim State Psychiatric Hospital was officially opened on Long Island in 1931.  It has 13,875 beds.  Today, almost all of those beds are empty.  Why?  The introduction of Thorazine in the 1960s.  Before that, treatment could be as harsh as lobotomy.

• The female genitalia is significantly more complex than the its male counterpart.

• You may say that immortality is impossible, and you may be right, yet Methusaleh of the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament lived 969 years.  Did he eat better than the other ancients?  Did he exercise more?  Were his friends all good people?  On this, the Bible is not explicit, no longevity guidance is given, just that this guy, Methusaleh, lived almost a millenium.

• Try not to lose ground in the Battle of the Bulge.  Be vigilantly calorie-conscious.  Choose fruit over cake; poultry over beef; and seafood is a very healthy choice.

• 

  Above is responsible for all life,
  or so we’re told.

  Deoxyribonucleic Acid, or DNA, is collectively the genome, the blueprint for humanity.  This blueprint, the DNA, is a binary encoding of a sequence of two nucleotides, of two pairs of amino acids: adenine/thymine, and cytosine/guanine.

  Somehow, these two pairs of protein create fingers, legs, and most miraculously, our brains, which can think, remember, and reason.  Doesn’t this seem so far-fetched as to be next to impossible?  Yet, the DNA model of double helix laddered nucleotides define all mankind.

  It is just incredible, isn’t it, that the miracle of life is predicated upon a real miracle, binary amino acid encoding.

 

Just Saying (Reflections on Life)

I trudge into my rented-out Brooklyn office (equipped with teletype machine), all set for another day of global news-breakers, that I dutifully report, unpaid, hardly appreciated, and mostly, as an unknown reporter at an unknown blog...

Direct audio feed from my Coney Island office:

I open my window in my Coney Island office, and this is what I hear (no, not the annual, Nathan’s hot-dog contest):

---

I was listening to my stereo out on my deck — classical music specifically, to not annoy anyone.  The birds were chirping.  They seem happy, likely because I feed them birdseed this time of year, and I keep their birdbath full of water.  My family enjoys birding.  Anyhow, just watching the world go by, at 56°, as we get closer and closer to Spring.  2/26/25.

---

I was sitting out on my deck.  It’s a little bit of adventure, it’s 40° temps, and I’m getting on in years.

I noticed something: It all works.  The sun provides energy; in winter, everything rests.  The birds survive, I survive fine.  The trees arc overhead, grow, then shed their leaves, for decades.

Up from the firmament, life thrives without much impetus from me, or wildlife.  It is as if it were all on the Lord’s autopilot.  We all do what we need to to eat, quell hunger and thirst, as well as keep our internal generators generating energy.  Life is just about an impossibility, but it all works.  (My Mom said that about Manhattan once, that somehow it all works.)  1/26/25.

---

Life is a miracle.  Just think about it.  Out of the dust, humans of the present day can: Walk and run, well-balanced; metabolize sugars for energy; talk languages; think in the abstract; do arithmetic, and beyond; remember (sometimes have lifelong memories); have ideas, appreciate (or even play) music; make food of varying complexity; create; procreate; enjoy procreating; gender differentiate; the list goes on forever.

We played no part in our existence on this Earth, although there is the possibility of advancing one’s bloodline to the next generation by having children.  Isn’t this a Creator-blessed miracle, that any of these capabilities exist in a being risen, or somehow sparked, from the dust of the firmament?

Can there be another realm that we pass into at this life’s end?  Given all we were capable of as a living, breathing being, and how miraculous life is, isn’t it possible that there is a hereafter, an afterlife, as well?  A fundamental law of physics is that energy and matter can neither be created nor destroyed, only interchanged.  What then becomes of our life energies and body at the end of the road?  Where does this energy go?  Why can’t there be a spirit world?  4/02/25.

 

Hopefully, not Pedestrian Fare, but Food for Thought

• If a movie was made of your life story, who would play the leading role?  Would it be an action/thriller, a drama, a dramedy, or a comedy?  If it’s the first one, an action movie, you’re likely a police officer.
• What do you think about pharmaceutical advertising?  Well, it adds to the cost of the medication, and you’re not in a position to evaluate how effective the medication is, only your doctor knows that.  Most medicines are advertised with obligatory mention of its devastating side-effects, so why do pharmaceutical corporations bother?  They want word-of-mouth from you to your doctor, which is predicated on you knowing anything about medicine, and appreciating the ad, with its happy disease-free people, often bouncing up and down athletically.
• “What do you like about yourself?  Is there anything you dislike, or are you perfect as you are?  Have your strong suits changed over time?”
• “I believe in happy endings for those who deserve them.”
• “No money, no honey.  This isn’t always true, but it certainly tends to be true.”

• “The market has to make up a lot of lost ground because of Trump’s trade war.

  “IMHO, this year looks like it’ll be weak for the market, even though, per Morningstar, I really don’t have any underperforming mutual funds.

  “Checked my portfolio, then put monthly auto pay bills into my checking account.”

• “There’s always hope for a brighter tomorrow.  Then again, I’m not African American, Hispanic, or live in the Third World.  Then optimism may be a much dicier proposition.”
• “The wintry weather of January occurs on the same planet as the warmer weather of June (and vice versa in the Southern Hemisphere).  That can be hard to fathom.  It all has to do with the tilt of the Earth, towards and away from the Sun, as the Earth revolves around the Sun.”
• “Most mistakes are correctible.  That’s just the nature of the beast.  The optimistic would agree; the pessimistic would disagree.”
• My Dad had an expression: “If you wrestle with a problem long enough, eventually it will give in.”
• “Ultimately, I think we just want to be treated with respect.  Who’s we?  Anyone that reciprocates this respect.  Trump has an odd take on how to elicit cooperation, not through mutual respect, but mostly through bullying.  We’ll see how effective he is...”
• “What’s not to like about pledge week?  This is when stations bring out their heavy artillery, some of their best programming — yet Trump wants to terminate government funding to PBS and NPR?  I doubt he even knows anything about what is seen or heard on public broadcasting.  Trump does know about Stormy Daniels though.”
• There are all manner of people who live in denial, those who cannot believe events can be so far away from the expected.  There are deniers of: The Holocaust; climate change; mental illness; homosexuality; and the possibility that Karen Carpenter is alive.
• “All that was left of this planet, was artificial intelligence chat-bots, chattering away incessantly with some thread about Trump’s corruption, selecting music apropos of the end of the world, until the electrical supply ran out.”  [I’m not against America.  Hey, John McCain was a patriotic American, and a Republican war hero that Trump denigrated.]
• “Dad kinda emphasized: ‘You’re in school to learn, not necessarily in there for grades.  Although it’d be nice to learn, and get good grades.’  That, and later in life: ‘You’re responsible for the effort, not the results.’ ”
• “The Lord’s Creation has an exceptional track record, having withstood the test of time, of millennium.  For a product of genetic mutations, and survival of the fittest, life is purely miraculous, and virtually indestructible as a species.”
• “I’m still hoping for ‘love, honor, and cherish.’  Not necessarily a walk down the aisle, but a one and only, forevermore.”
• “Don’t put yourself above those who suffer, maybe even those who may have given you grief, because who’s to say you’ll never find yourself in their predicament.”
• “Most anyone can be redeemed before their Lord, their Creator.  Those seeking redemption can find it, eventually.  Anyone can change their tune.  This might exclude really dark characters, who are so far into hurting others, that they cannot ever expect to be forgiven for their earlier ways.  Yet, their higher power may accept them, when no one else will.”
• “Tell it like it is...”

• “You’re just a loser.”

  “From one who knows losers.”

  [Replace “loser” with any hurtful, generic hate speech.]

• “Your message here...”  (Kidding, kinda.  Times are tough in the blogosphere.)
• “All’s you need is another high and mighty, holier than thou savant, telling you how you’ll hit the big-time, or strike it rich.”
• “A rich man has his power and influence; a poor one has his austerities and integrity, which can be exactly what the wealthy has been priced out of, and wants the most.”
• “If you’re comfortable within your own skin, you can weather most any storm.”
• “The best kind of friend won’t resent your good fortune, they appreciate when stuff goes your way.”
• “Just about anything that goes wrong, can be fixed.  It’s human to make mistakes.  Errors aren’t the problem, quitting is.  Even broken hearts can be mended.  As the saying goes: There are plenty of fish in the sea.”
• “Have you ever been homeless?”
  “Actually homeless, no.”
• “Have you ever had guns pointed at you?”
  “Plural?”
  “Plural.  Then I blacked out — from shock.  Life goes on, don’t it?”
• I donated Fresh Direct grocery bags to the local Helping Hand Rescue Mission.  An hour later, I finished a second errand, and driving home, I saw someone waiting for a bus with the same bag of the slightly pricey delivery service.  That bag is cachet for some people, that means they exist, that they are someone, that they can afford food delivery, and that they should not be ashamed.  (Other Letter is not commercial.  I don’t make any commission for promoting services, profit, or non-profit.)
• I came across this post: “I don’t want Canada or Greenland.  I want PBS, Social Security, and the Smithsonian.”
• Be someone to make your family and friends proud.
• “Reminder: Keep an iron in the fire, keep your hat in the ring, stay in the swing of things.  You’re no quitter, you have a life to live, you have love to share.  You have a few aces up your sleeve.”
• “You can hope or pray for miracles, but I wouldn’t depend on miracles.  That’s not how miracles work.  They’re out of the clear blue sky.  They’re not dependable rescue.”
• “You can pick up the mantle where your parents left off, but for some families that’s not going to happen.  They did really well, with you, with each other, with people at large.”
• There aren’t any side effects, no on and off withdrawal, to abstinence.  Clean living, cleaning up your act, has major advantages over having vices.
• Every day is a gift, our time on this planet is a blessing.  With each day, you can make a difference, however small, for yourself, or for someone else (even picking up litter at the park makes a difference).  Morning brings new possibilities.  It is this: Enjoying this potential, or succumbing to inertia.
• “Take me to your leader...  No, not that one, a sane one.  Time to talk shop...”
• “If I don’t pray to Jesus the Christ, Muhammad, or Jehovah, who do I pray to for hope?  Well, I believe in a Creator imbuing all of us with the capabilities to straighten out matters, either individually, or collectively.

  “Another aspect I consider, is that humanity has made incredible progress in two-thousand-plus years of civilization.  If there’s an issue of concern, it has most likely been addressed already, we would just need to reference the solution.

  “Also, society is, generally speaking, more compassionate today than it has been prior.

  “I can also channel someone passed away, or alive, for guidance — that can work when you know what they might say in a given circumstance.  You don’t have to summon a religious figure from antiquity...”

• Is this just a dated cliché, or does it contain a little truth concerning heartbreak?  “She wanted more than I could ever give her...”
• “What happens when you play a Country & Western song backwards?  You get your wife back.  You get your house back.  You get your car back...”
• “Leave me alone, I’ve had a hard life...”
• “No goofball I.  Where’s your sense of fun and adventure?”
• For senior citizens: How would you like to be remembered?  Outside of being a caring sibling, nice friend, or good person, I would like to be remembered for the Crucifixion eclipse, and resurrecting Karen Carpenter.  Follow the links for the full stories...
• “I’m a romantic.  More than anything, I want a woman on my side, who just likes my company.  That’s all that matters, that’s everything to me.  We can hang out.  Look longingly into each other’s eyes.  Hold hands.”  (As seniors, financial independence is likely, so she’s not looking for a meal ticket.)
• Do you believe in happy endings?  Do you believe your dreams can come true?  I do, that after a lengthy struggle (or a brief one), there can be victory, long-term happiness may await.
• “What do winners do?  In essence, they make things better, they improve things, and they don’t quit, they keep trying.”
• I am not an expert on mental health.  I think giving yourself pep talks, NPR thinks from Blah to Buoyant...
• “You’re good, you’re real good, saying what I do right, and do well.  Your repartee is on, you’re on your game.  You have my number.  You know how to pull my strings, have me on a string, wrapped around your finger, you ring my bell.  You’re too good to be true.  I’m having a grand old time.  You’re the one for me.  You have confidence in me.  You’re irreplaceable, entirely unique.  I’m saved.  I’ll be hearing wedding bells soon.”  Is this infatuation, or is this for real, and even, one for the books, the ages?
• When the autistic hit themselves, do they possess anger (from socialization concerns) that they allay by directing the hostility at themselves?  This would also express to others what is going on internally with their thinking.  I never worked with these tortured souls, but I do a good empath impression.
• “It is a good idea to find some purpose in your life, something you can do to contribute to society, even in small measure.  This purpose, while it may seem insignificant to you, may really help someone else.  Acts of kindness, friendship, family bonding, or even being philanthropic in any sense, large or very small, can make a difference.

  “For instance, I find purpose writing this blog, and trying to enlighten others, although you could find it in an infinite variety of ways: Simply by holding the door for someone elderly (or for the ‘womankind’), listening, avoiding snap judgments, or being respectful on the roadway, and elsewhere.”

• Were your parents more concerned about your place in the societal hierarchy, or were they just hoping you’d be a happy person?  Are the two, society standing, and happiness, inextricably entwined?  Well, maybe, if you’re an elite zillionaire, they are the same thing.
• “Have you ever done anything purely on a lark?  Are you glad you did, or were you threatened with an appearance ticket?  Just kidding, because variety is the spice of life.”
• Avoid comparing yourself to others.  You may want to seek personal bests instead.  Our paths are all unique, everyone has different starting points, as well as differing near-term and long-term goals.  We didn’t leave the starting blocks at the same time, in the same race.  Just saying.
• If you’re not grateful for a little, you won’t be grateful for a lot.  Same goes for happiness: If you’re not happy with a little in your favor, odds are that nothing will make you happy.  Just saying.
• “Well, you’re good enough for me, now and forever.”  You can wait your entire life to hear that, but if and when you do, confetti falls from the rafters...
• “How high do you set the bar?  Becoming a senior citizen, I set the bar lower.  If you set the bar too high, you won’t be very happy (unless you’re in some sort of competition); and if you set it too low, you may get sloppy results.  Just saying.”
• “Do you focus more on what you do wrong, or on what you do right?  You probably want to evaluate the results of what you do, but do you concentrate on what went right, or what failed?  Be good to yourself, and don’t be over-critical.  You’re responsible for the effort, not the result.  Just saying.”
• Is your glass half-empty, or half-full?  In transition from pessimism to optimism?  You’re Chicken Little, the sky is falling?
• I wonder if it’s demoralizing being in a symphony orchestra, and not being the virtuoso pianist, like Anna Fedorova, or Khatia Buniatishvili.  I would guess that the real letdown is watching a large orchestra, and knowing you cannot do anything, anyone on stage can do.  Maybe it’s not a letdown at all, maybe it’s really appreciation you feel, and gratitude for a great evening.

• I am serious, I am hardly an active investor:

  “2. Enter as a positive number the total of:
  • Any section 1202 exclusion you reported in column (g) of Form 8949, Part II, with
  code “Q” in column (f), that is 50% of the gain;
  • 2/3 of any section 1202 exclusion you reported in column (g) of Form 8949, Part II,
  with code “Q” in column (f), that is 60% of the gain; and
  • 1/3 of any section 1202 exclusion you reported in column (g) of Form 8949, Part II,
  with code “Q” in column (f), that is 75% of the gain.
  Don’t make an entry for any section 1202 exclusion that is 100% of the gain.”

  WTF?  Hey, Trump, Musk, you want to be heroes, start by simplifying the tax code...

• Learn how to manage your money.  You can start by going to the websites of your banks and financial institutions, and familiarizing yourself there with their offerings.  Also, you might also want to auto-pay your utility accounts, such as electric, oil, Internet, among others.  Learn how to balance your checking account’s checkbook against the bank’s statement (your checkbook version is more current — and possibly less accurate — than your bank’s statement).
• “There will be wins and losses in life.  This is a given.  No one goes undefeated, not even the storied Kansas City Chiefs.  Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and Babe Ruth didn’t always get on base.  Bill Gates had Windows ME.  I try to learn lessons from losses, if I can (how’s that for alliteration?)  Improvement and success is often incremental, not all at once, although improvement can cascade.”
• An old adage (D.I.):  “Someone you’ve seen at their worst, that you still can love; that’s the one to marry.”
• “Find yourself a keeper, a partner that’ll last the distance.  One to love, honor, and cherish.”
• Who or what are you grateful to have in your life?  Who or what do you have gratitude for?  Life has its ups and downs, but at least someone, or something, is likely on your side, and will stand by you.  Who or what would that be?
• If you were reincarnated, and it were up to you, would you come back as your present race, nationality, religion, gender, and sexual orientation?  I would imagine that White males would want to reprise being White males, along with their other current attributes, as they have all the cards, all the wealth and power.
• “Here’s a reminder.  How best to deal with vices: Enjoy them, or avoid them?  The latter is much, much safer, and serves as a basis for serenity; than the former, which tries to fill an emptiness, but fails eventually.  Trust me on this.”
• “Reminder: Do you ever think that you’re not just a cookie-cutter version of everyone else, and that your individuality can be appreciated?”
• “When I was first in college, I wanted to work in the helping professions, such as social work, medicine, or politics.  That wasn’t such a great match though: with interests (patience for people with many problems); with cost-benefit (eight years of academia); and with abilities (rousing hundreds); but I’ll say it, I am damn good with computers.  Now, however, I’m trying to reclaim some of that idealism from my younger years, and trying to contribute.”
• Aged lament: “At my age, I feel left out of everything.  I just want to feel like I can contribute, contribute to the better good, that I can do what anyone else takes for granted.”
• Reminder: Avoid women who just want their meal ticket stamped.  The one you want will love you for who you are, that you’re good company, not that you can afford baubles of appreciation.  A woman who is financially independent won’t need you for money.  Just saying.

• I was waiting for a roast to finish cooking, so I came up with this sonnet.  It’s about a woman I kinda know.  The gist of this is what I lack in life is much more than compensated by her sweet love remembered.

  When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
  I all alone beweep my outcast state,
  And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
  And look upon myself and curse my fate,
  Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
  Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
  Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
  With what I most enjoy contented least;
  Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
  Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
  (Like to the lark at break of day arising
  From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
   For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
   That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

  I know, nice try.  This is the Bard, William Shakespeare, and his Sonnet XXIX.

• Do you have any successes in life, ones that you can draw on for self-esteem, ones that just make you feel like you’re accomplished, or accomplished something of lasting value.  Successes might include: Fixing or adding utility to something; a tenure at a job; a bowling trophy, hard-fought and won; winning a contest or match; getting anything published; a home oft or well-maintained; or a project you completed.  A long-term relationship can be viewed as being a success as well.  Just getting through life can be a major accomplishment.
• Have you ever taken a wrong turn in life?  Starting a tobacco habit, for instance?  Were you able to correct this, and get back on track?
• The truth can be a very rare commodity.  In divisive times, mass media kowtows to whomever is in power.  It’s majority rules...

• In a relationship, you may want to assess what your friend or relation likes to talk about, and talk more about it, such as: Sports, weather, music, cooking, technology, or home maintenance (there are other topics).  Depending on the relationship, and common interests, politics and religion might get dicey, so test the waters first with those subjects.

  (If you would like to Win Friends and Influence People, check out Dale Carnegie Training.  This is not a paid endorsement, just a recommendation from personal experience.)

• I am not entirely color blind.  Racist thoughts do cross my mind, although rarely.  I don’t like that I am not 100% colorblind, but racism really bothers me, so I know I’m not a racist.  I can sympathize with the centuries-old plight of African-Americans to end discrimination, and how difficult life is when one’s skin color is not white.

  My father, even though he was from old Boston, was 100% colorblind, as was his father from Chatham, New Brunswick.  Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris were never racist, nor are the two, Democratic Senators from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Charles Schumer.  Donald Trump, on the other hand, is not colorblind, he makes assumptions on character, based on race, or skin color.  Witness his comment about Africa being comprised of “sh*th*le nations.”

• Don’t you want to make something out of your life?  Don’t you want to contribute, to making a difference somehow?

• Take pride in what you do.  Give yourself a pat on the back.  Don’t forget that you’re still in the game, that you refused to check out of the game of life.  You’re still getting your ticket stamped.

  My Dad would say: “You’re responsible for the effort, not the result.”  Avoid being your harshest critic, judge yourself accurately, and with a modicum of fairness, as well as kindness.  After all, we can’t be perfect, we’re only human.

• When you have a job, task, or chore to do, you might try dividing it, and organizing it, into subtasks (or phases).  This could help to make it appear less daunting.  If it is tedious, sub-tasking could help to finish different parts, and have a degree of satisfaction that a subtask was satisfactorily completed, instead of only giving yourself credit when it’s all done.

  Making your bed is an onerous chore that might involve three phases: Phase One, putting the blanket in place; Phase Two, covering the blanket with the comforter so it fits at the corners, and at the pillows; then Phase Three, putting out the decorative pillows.

  You can even work out all eventualities of your efforts, by creating a Venn, flow diagram.  At completion of Phase 3, I can ask, is the bedspread entirely intact?  If not, I can bring it to a tailor.  (I’m retired, mostly.)

• “Isn’t the greatest fear in life, that you were off your nasal hygiene game, when the chips were down?  What did people do before Kleenex and handkerchiefs?  (Or for that matter, before haircuts because there weren’t any scissors?)  Makes you wonder...”
• I just hope my parents got what they wanted from life.  They were great people, and deserved the really good stuff in life, such as dreams fulfilled.
• A winner is someone who tries, someone who tries to get things accomplished, who tries to improve their lot in life.  A winner is someone who takes care of business, and gives others the respect that they deserve.
• Do you ever suspect the world, especially America, is devolving, and not evolving?  I do, because I have serious doubts our next President views elected office as public service, and not as a form of reapportionment for the wealthy.  I actually hope he does well, but what he offers, it seems only the rich can buy.
• “Do you ever feel as though you’re a couch potato, spending hours absorbing commercial messages, in exchange for programming content?...  Oh, you have the no-advertiser level of cable-TV access.  I don’t.”
• “What’s the best way to lose weight?  I’d say slowly and deliberately (and permanently), without roller-coaster, fad diets, and with exercise, as well as smart meal choices, and avoiding eating near bedtime.”
• “Much better to contribute as a do-gooder, than damage as an a-hole.” —I may be setting myself up for a Ned Flanders rap (remember the religious zealot on the animated TV show, The Simpsons?)
• If I can, I try to make a difference for the better, essentially by being a good person.
• On the seventh day, God said: “Let there be music.”
• Do you know anyone, money (or fortune) come and gone?  How does this effect the family psyche?  Are they hard up for cash these days, or did they make a successful transition to self-sufficiency?
• Repeal 2A.
• “Someone told me of something I did that mattered, that made a significant, positive difference in someone’s life.  I matter, I matter to others!  I am a person of consequence.  I may sound like a yokel, but some achievements should be held near.  And the fact is, we all matter, we are all significant to ourselves, and others.  A society cannot function otherwise.”
• “When all is said and done, it’s gratifying to think (or upon further reflection, to know) that you’ve somehow positively contributed to others’ lives, if just a person or two.”
• “Make your parents proud of you, if they’re still around, and even if they’re not — they could be looking down from Heaven (assuming the pearly gates awaited upon their passing)...”
• “That’s real holiday cheer, a woman who’s into you, and tells you so.”
• “You want to keep that great guy, or hold on to a really special woman?  Reminding them how much you love them, goes a very long way...”
• Have you ever tried to get a second career off the ground?  If you changed careers, was it a profitable, worthwhile change, monetarily and/or spiritually?  Was this out of necessity, or simply out of preference?

• I was just delivered food by a delivery man with a turban.  The outside temperature is 13.1° F.  The time is 9:55pm, and today is a Sunday.  I said to him: “Thank you very much, sir.”  That takes a lot of fortitude to do one’s job this late in the day, on a weekend, during the Big Chill.  America needs people that can work as hard as this man.

  I understand that before me, another customer told him that he should be deported.  That bigot is not an American, he is just a vicious a-hole.  I also understand that the delivery man was thinking of ending it all, but my estimation of his work was in very sharp contrast, and I really made a difference.

  There can be a nobility to work, to not calling in sick when it is all but expected that someone would.  There is even a holiness to those who deliver food to the elderly, and counter their food insecurities, despite very significant obstacles re rest and weather.

  On the other hand, there is evil afoot cutting one down for one’s ethnicity — essentially during a mission of mercy — just because the hate crime makes the evil-doer sound superior.

• Do you need the exact time?  Use what the U.S. military uses: Time.gov.  Brought to you via the U.S. Naval Observatory, of the U.S. Department of Defense; and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
• If you’re not grateful for little, you won’t be grateful for much.
• “Why do I bother with this website?  I have an unusual viewpoint that some may find uplifting.  Plus, it’s something to do.  It’s proof to myself that I still have irons in the fire.”

• Energy and mass can neither be created nor destroyed, but possibly exchanged one for the other.  This is a fundamental law of physics.  What then happens to the energy from consciousness once we depart this earth, once we pass away?  Life is such a miracle, why would this miracle stop with the living, and not carry over into another realm upon being deceased?

  We only possess instruments that can receive signals which we know about already.  Someday we may have receivers to pick up hereafter energies, as now evidenced only in living beings.

• “Active people tend to not be depressed people.  At some point, it may pay to resist inertia.  Just saying.”
• “In life, you may find someone who really appreciates you, who thinks the most of you.  Hold on to that person.”

• A mental health issue is not much different from any other health issue, except in the stigma attached to it.  Those who try to hurt, or otherwise stigmatize, people with a treatable neurotransmitter imbalance, deserve strong legal sanction.  In America, the mentally ill possess additional rights on the basis of their handicap.  Those with a mental illness Stateside are protected class, the defiler can face hate crime prosecution.

• “It’s important to me to honor the legacy of my parents.  They were very good to me, and if they’re looking down from Heaven, they should know I’m living up to expectations, mostly my own, to be honest.  They were very easy going.  They just wanted me to be happy.  I couldn’t ask for better parents.  I was blessed.”
• “ ‘This guy’s doing right, he’s doing good.’  I like that — a lot.”
• Soldiers’ observation: “There aren’t any atheists in foxholes.”
• My saying: “Keeping the dream alive, until the dream comes true.”
• It is a bit of a privilege, that it is within your wherewithal to have a productive day, and then to have constructive activities to fill a good portion of your day.  During the Great Depression, there was nothing going on, there was little, or nothing, to do.

• Count your blessings — and believe me, you have been blessed.  You’ve likely been blessed: with a family to at least see around the holidays; with the money to afford Internet service; with clean clothing, a place to shower, and a toilet to use; with a home you can call your own, that has climate-control, and is well-heated in winter.

  Count your blessings, because some have been blessed with so little — either in the Third World due to war, famine, or destitution, or Stateside, because of poverty — that every day is a real struggle to survive.  If you have the money, give generously to charities that support the downtrodden.  You cannot save the world, but collectively, we can prevent poverty.

  Also, use your vote to support political candidates who care about those far less fortunate than ourselves, who don’t just give lip service to aiding blighted communities, and who support initiatives to end hunger, and stop food insecurity.

• “You’d think that by now, they’d have figured out how we can all live in peace.”

• I keep hoping for a unified field theory discovery, except not in physics, in philosophy.  Maybe I will find some remarkable philosophical insight, or any incisive lyric to a new song, yet unpublished.  You want some food for philosophical thought?  Here’s my mantra of late: I try to be a good person.  For me, that’s it.  That’s a good catchphrase encompassing good intentions, and — oh, never mind.

  I’m not Friedrich Nietzsche, and this is not Thus Spoke Zarathustra.  There’s an unresolvable, esoteric reference, of a philosopher great.  Nor am I, John Lennon, an inimitable Beatle, saying, “I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it.  It’s just getting out of one car, and into another.”

• Like my family, I try to make a difference in the lives of others.  My mother was a tech editor, first a police blotter writer for the weekly paper.  My father was a manager at an engineering concern, and was well-regarded by his direct reports.  My sibling is involved in facilitating book distribution.  I had an uncle who was a police officer.  My hope is that this blog might make a bit of a spiritual difference in the lives of anyone who discovers it, and enjoys reading it.
• Don’t forget the elderly this holiday season.  Keep your parents in your thoughts, prayers, and plans (if possible), as always.
• Is there a Hollywood celebrity that you would like to be mistaken for?  As I get older that changes from, say, Tom Cruise, action hero; to John Cusack, whose politics I’m not sure I agree with, but who’s a major leading man.  On second thought, I don’t know, I’m comfortable in my own skin.  I just want to continue to be competent in life, and meet all my responsibilities.