"May you live all the days of your life." - Jonathan Swift

Just had a conversation with my 13 year old.....we were discussing how we should LIVE our lives instead of being voyeurs that vicariously live through someone else. Our nation has become a bunch of lazys that come home and switch on the TV and watch someone else live their life i.e. reality shows. We're allowing pop stars and hip hop stars to be our idols. Our schools are dumbed down, and we're going backwards. When I was young, the coolest thing at Disneyland was 'Future Land,', where they had displays about what the future looked like - things being pushed with a button! And phones in cars! And a lot of it happened.
Where are the inventors? Where are the scientists? The most respectable job anyone could think of in the sixties was a scientist who was working on the cure for cancer. Look back at actor interviews. Many of them said, 'well, it's not like I'm working on a cure for cancer.' What do kids aspire to now? Either a top sports player or a pop musician. What about engineers? What about going into space? What about exciting new architecture? We need to kill the television and not let it steal our lives away. Other countries are far surpassing our country in inventions and intelligence.
China is quickly becoming (or has become) the biggest super power. We lead this world for many years, and allowed capitalism to give incentive to the best new thing. But along the way, we got spoiled and lazy. Too many years of indulgence has brought us to this. We're allowing celebutards like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, who've never DONE anything except have a rich dad, be the benchmark of what our kids strive to be. We're watching regular people like Jon & Kate Plus 8, and wasting our time in all of this. Do we want to be participators or spectators?
I want my children to have a life of adventure. I want them to help people. I want them to be leaders. I want them to live their own lives and not through someone else. Especially these amoral fame whores. Besides, fame ruins 99% of people, and I've never seen the 1%. It's nothing to aspire to. We need to go back and emphasize what really counts, what really contributes.
Do we die and meet our Maker, and when He says, 'What did you do?,' answer, 'Watch TV.' Oh, I hope not....
Now get out and LIVE YOUR LIFE!!

"I'm starting with the man in the mirror" - Michael Jackson

I'm not sure I recognize the America I grew up in sometimes... I suppose the best way to say it is, loss of civility. I don't know when it started creeping in, but now days there is hardly any respect for anything. For men of the cloth. For teachers. For elected officials. For bosses. And maybe in many cases it's because they didn't seem worthy of the respect, but it's still wrong.
A lot of it seemed to go mainstream with Saturday Night Live; most people just laughed and no one was incensed. But it has grown to an unacceptable amount. This week, the TV show, Family Guy, made fun of Sarah Palin's child with Down Syndrome. This is so disgusting... Some people hate her so much that they have resorted to attacking her children - first the older ones, and now the baby. Is THIS what we've come to?! Hate, hate, hate because we don't agree with someone? Aren't we free to believe as we wish in America?
When I was young, it was clearly taught to me, that in our country you are free to do whatever you wish until it infringes on someone else's rights. It's that last part that's the reason we have one lawyer for every five people here in America... But CLEARLY the line has been crossed in these disgusting, mean, hateful rants. And I'm talking about both sides of any issue. Each of us is responsible for saying something when the line is crossed. That means don't laugh in order to be accepted if these kinds of things are said around you. Or write the TV network to complain. They say one letter represents 1,000 people to the media. We CAN do something. The power of One. It starts with us...

"If you're going through hell, keep going." -- Winston Churchill

If you're going through hell, keep going.... Remember, this too shall pass. I only wish my father would have done this... My father committed suicide the week after my mother died. He stuck a gun in his mouth in the backyard. What a terrible ending to a life. We were looking forward to taking care of him after mom died. He was going through hell...

There are a lot of people going through hell right now. I want to be there for them, but life is really hard for me too right now. My paycheck was cut in half today, and I can't make it on the money I was paid... I've got some hard decisions to make and none of them look too good. I wish I was wealthy so I could help my family. I wish I could bring them security in this insecure world. I wish I could take them on a vacation far away, and leave our troubles behind for a week. I wish I could buy random presents to make their day better. Just an 'I love you' gift to leave on their bed like my mom used to do for me. I wish I could stop being so grumpy since I'm so worried about money. I wish I had more faith, because I need it right now. God promises to take care of our needs. He says we're not supposed to worry about anything, but pray about everything. "For my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." It's a promise. I have to stand on it. It's so hard when I can't SEE it. But that's what the definition of faith is. The substance of things not seen. Otherwise it's not faith. Because if you can see it, it's not faith, right? God never promised that life would be easy. He promised to be with us. I have this theory that this life on earth is a test. If we pass, we get to go to heaven. It's our choice. Or should I say our choices, all of the daily choices. When you come to a fork in the road, take the high road. Every time. Do the right thing. Every time. I used to always wonder when I was younger, what ''Rest in peace' meant. Now I know. They had struggled so hard in this life, in this world. But my word to you is, Hang on. Jesus is coming....

"To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven."

TRUE love really is a glimpse of heaven.... In this VERY difficult world, the best thing about it IS love. Lord Alfred Tennyson says, "Love is the only gold." Everything else pales in comparison. It's what most songs are about. It's what gives most people a reason to get up in the morning. It's the mortar in the bricks.

Without love, what do we really have?

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." -- Henry David Thoreau

Take this from someone who should've done this years ago.... Sit down and figure out what you REALLY want. Forget about the economy, and what do you really want to do for a job. Where do you really want to live? Do you have a burning passion to do something? You must. God puts it in each one of us. Because we all have a purpose. We all have somewhere we're supposed to be. When you're there, things fall into place. I'm not saying it's easy, but it all just fits like a puzzle. When you're out of God's will, everything is a struggle. You're not under God's umbrella of protection. You feel like you're at odds with everything.
It's sort of like the story of Jonah. God told him to go to Ninevah and tell them to repent. But those folks were uber evil and did baby sacrifices, among other things. Jonah didn't want to go. He wanted them to burn in hell. God will never force His will on anyone, but He can make you very uncomfortable i.e. the fish swallowing. He can turn up the heat to try to get you do to something. But you still have free will.

I think God places certain things in our souls. I think musicians aren't happy unless they are doing music. Artists aren't happy unless they are doing art. Dancers. Writers. You get the picture. We all have a purpose. I've heard that we should go back to what we wanted to do when we were young. Sometimes the dream gets warped along the way, and we follow someone else's dream or we settle or just give up. I think a lot of people fall into something and just stay there. But whatever.

Take a day, a weekend, some quality time. And REALLY think what you REALLY want to do. It's there. You'll feel peaceful when it hits you. You'll know in your knower, or as Oprah calls it, you're 'a-ha' moment.

You owe it to yourself. Warren Beatty says, "You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play." Wow.

Would'n't THAT be nice...

In a great romance, each person basically plays a part that the other really likes." - Elizabeth Ashley

Ok, I admit it. I got sucked into the reality TV show, "The Bachelor," this season against my better judgment. I know it's a 'chic' thing, and I almost always hate reality shows, but this one had, what seemed to be, a really nice Texas boy. He said he'd been unlucky in love, and was looking for his soulmate, his wife. And there were all these gorgeous girls after him, so catfights were sure to happen!
Well, now I know why Jake has been unlucky in love. Like a lot of men, he was only looking at the beauty on the outside. He seemed to let go of many girls who seemed like they would make great wives and mothers. He ends up with his Final Four - Ali (who seemed the most real and relatable), Gia (a 'swimsuit model' - whatever that is - is this a nice way of saying soft porn?) She came across as insecure, sweet, and sensitive, and then you see these very provocative photos on the cover of magazines in the grocery store, and you realize, 'she's not that innocent' (to coin Britney Spears, of course.)

There is also Tenley, who seems pretty innocent at first. She almost seems home-schooled, like she didn't understand the ways of the world yet. She was dumped by her cheating husband last year, and seemed like a victim that wasn't quite over her rejection. She might have a darker side though. And then there's, Vienna. The blonde from Florida. ugh. ALL girls could see through this one. She was as transparent as they get. Goldigger. Looking out for number one. Mother was ex-stripper. Father is tire salesman, and she's an admitted 'Daddy's Girl.' Who says that? On TV? And THIS is the one that is being leaked that Jake chose??!!

I lose all respect for the guy. He seemed to change as the process wore on, or else his true colors were becoming apparent. He now just acts like a player who is in love with four women. He acted like he was a polygamist-wannabe, wanting four wives in his harem. But Vienna?! Ali tried to warn him that she was deceiving and acted totally different away from him. It's like when you tell a child, "Don't touch -it's hot," so they touch just to see. Hmmm, this is a better analogy than I thought.

Here's a girl that has been married before. She married a guy in a rush, and when he was fighting in Iraq, drained his bank account to get a boob job, and left him. Why do guys always fall for these types? It's still a mystery. Or maybe not. Some people enjoy the games. Ali was very straightforward, and didn't play hard to get. Maybe that's where she went wrong... Vienna played Jake like a violin. And evidently she got him in the end.

I'll never understand love. I guess that's why someone thought of Cupid. Being shot with an arrow is as good as reason as I can think of for this match...

Happy Valentine's weekend!

"Money makes the world go round..."

Is it just me, or does the economy seem to be getting worse? It's like musical chairs, and every day another chair keeps disappearing. The music keeps playing and we're all marching around the chairs waiting for it to abruptly stop so we can try to grab a chair. Everything keeps going up except my paycheck. And I'm in sales on commission, so it's actually going down. Everyone I know that has been looking for a job for a long time is still looking. The Ritz-Carlton closed this week in Vegas. Our second grocery store closed in my small town last week... Our newspaper's classifieds are the thinnest they've ever been.
What's going to happen to America? I feel sorry for my twenty-something children... When I was their age, life was promising and hopeful. Now no one knows what's going to happen. It's just plain scary.
I'm going to keep telling myself a few things. "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." And. "I don't know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future." And, "And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age..."