Losing friends is never easy, they are terribly missed and the closer the relationship the more painful the loss. I recently lost one of my closest friends, we have been friends as long as I have been an adult. It has been so bad that I have had terrible headaches since the loss. I miss him and I miss everything he represented, to me and to others. He was widely known and much respected. I am not sure if I will be able to adjust my life to work without him in it, that is how important he was to me. I have cried until my eyes were swollen shut and the hole in heart is still there. The hurt is literally tangible, my body hurts because of my loss.
So who this friend I lost, who was he really? He was born in 1959, one year after the Jalopy was built. He lived a full life and brought joy to millions, yes millions of people and yet he was accessible to normal folk, just like me. He and I had become closer than ever in recent years and he was very good to and for me. He helped me get through every day, sometimes it seemed like that help was…. insignificant. That was until he was no longer around to offer support to me. The fact that he was an inspiration to me every day was sometimes taken for granted, I am so sorry that was how I felt some days because now, well now I feel hollow and not at all myself without him in my life.
I scanned back through my blogs to see how often I mentioned his name and was shocked by the results, I have mentioned him in 46 different blogs, and I have only written 211 of them. I scanned back through the 46 and found that I never had a cross word to say about him, not one. But alas, I guess everyone has their day and their time in the sun and his time was up, sad as it was that is the reality of the situation. He had the greatest pet in the world as well, Conchita was the most loyal animal a man could ask for. Conchita did not make it through either, I am almost equally saddened by that, I will miss that mule.
My friend’s name, Juan Valdez and his pet, Conchita the mule, that carried the bags of coffee beans. Yep, I have given up coffee! I am saddened and all that I said earlier is true, the lack of caffeine is giving me a killer headache since I quit. What has brought me to this lowly fate, a couple of reasons really. If you read regularly you know that I have recently started examining myself against the 13 virtues that Ben Franklin created and judged himself against for most of his life. I have been looking at Temperance first and it is eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation. Since I do not drink I decided to look at my coffee intake, which was substantial. Basically over a half a gallon a day with nearly 1000 calories in flavored coffee creamers.
So I was looking at that when Bride got some news from the Doc’s that she needed to remove caffeine from her world. So after that I thought I would, in an act of solidarity, join her in giving it up. Caffeine is HORRIBLY rough on the lining of the stomach and even though i was not having issues – Bride was so I thought I would join her. She is continuing with decaffeinated but my thinking is why bother to drink hot brown water if it does not contain the nectar of the gods? Not worth it to me so I decided to just quit, cold turkey and it has been rough.
So back to the virtues of Ben Franklin I decided to go look a bit at number 5, frugality. Now I get that coffee every day from the Gate station, there were many reasons but I very rarely ever made it at home. We also use Quicken on the computer for our banking, it ties right in and synchronizes up with our bank. Since we enter our receipts religiously and do so with as much detail as possible I was able perform a detailed report. That lead me to make the fateful decision to pull up all the times I bought coffee at gate with my debit card, which would be close as I rarely carry cash. So a couple of clicks and that was the cold, stark reality of my coffee consumption. I was SHOCKED at the amount, in the last 12 months alone I have spent $757.89, on coffee. HOLY COW I thought and wondered why I have never looked at that cost before. I am so glad I only queried the last 12 months and not the last 10 years, yes I keep those banking files in perpetuity sorted by calendar year.
So the bottom line is that while I was working on Temperance and with Brides news to cut caffeine out I was able to make a positive change in my life and make progress on two virtues, Temperance and Frugality. For some reason it does not seem to positive a change yet, I am hopeful that when the headaches subside I will be able to realize the positives of this change. I do not have to worry about it eroding my stomach lining to the point that I start having problems and I will be able to save 750 bucks a year – BONUS. I am now wondering what to do with all the free coffee cards I have saved up. I suppose I will go to gate and break the news to my friends who work there and give them the cards to hand out as they deem fit.
Juan Valdez, Conchita – I will miss you more than I can describe and I will always love you but you are dead to me now!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Well, I am still looking at myself with respect to Temperance – this is interesting!
1. Temperance - Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
Well since I started examining myself I have found a few things that I need to improve upon. Eating is the main one, I love to eat and I eat fast. I think that is a leftover from my days in the Navy, not sure but I think. Both are bad, eating to dullness, stuffing too much crap in my pie hole. Eating fast can not be good for the digestive system either. I have found that it is not even that I am eating bad things, I just eat too much of it, whether it be a salad or a steak or ba-skeddi – I did not even realize that eating to dullness was one of my hobbies. Not until I started looking at it. I suspect that is why I am overweight.
I did see a commercial that other day that told me that being overweight and having extra weight in certain areas was not my fault at all. It has to do with the stress at work and the fact that I am older now and my slow metabolism – what a bonus I thought, my fat ass has nothing to do with my obvious lack of self-control at all and is somehow not at all my fault or caused in anyway by my shoveling food into my face like someone who knew not where there next meal was coming from – shameful!
So Bride and I have decided to change some things in our lives, not a diet per say but a change in lifestyle. There are a number of things we are implementing into our lives and a number of things that we are looking at removing. I think more than anything it boils down to portion control and moving my chubby ass around more. The more movement the more food one needs, the less movement the less food we need. It all sounds so easy but I know it is not.
A couple of years ago I decided I would change my eating habits, I ended up losing about 52 pounds. It took almost a year but little by little the weight dropped off. I was astounded at the ease at which the plan was working, it was not hard. I knew though that when I hit my target weight it would be harder to transition from losing to maintaining. Then on October 24 of 2009 my Dad passed, for reasons I can not really get my head around I completely abandoned my new way of eating. I have pondered that for some time but I stopped eating from the outside edges of the grocery store and packed the weight back on, I was stunned, amazed and ashamed all at the same time. No idea why my Dad’s death would manifest itself in my abandonment of my new eating habits, I had been doing it for a year.
So I am going back to a better way of eating, less of everything. I do not plan to cut anything out per say but just reduce the intake. I will I think slow the intake of beef in the process but the reasons for that have nothing to do with losing weight. Bride picked up come cookbooks that are geared towards a diabetic because that is a very good way to eat, regardless of whether one is diabetic or not. I am looking forward to seeing some of the master pieces she will be creating. I am also going to continue to watch my intake, I know I am not going to be perfect but if I slow down long enough to just look at myself and what I am doing I know that will help he curb the intake. I usually eat so fast that I never pay attention to volume.
I really never even noticed it before I started looking at Temperance, it really amazed me to start analyzing my behavior. I have not really been pleased with what I am finding out about myself but as they say, problem recognition is the first step to problem resolution.
The other part of temperance is not drinking to elevation. I do not drink so I decided to look at the coffee intake. I drink a cup from Gate every morning, and most days I go get a second cup before 10am and then most days Bride and I go to the park on the river with another coffee to watch the sun go down. Doesn’t seem to bad right, well considering that each cup is 24 ounces, or 72 ounces total for the day. That is over a half a gallon of coffee a day – holy shit that is a lot of coffee and of course in that coffee has Irish Cream flavoring. Now that stuff has 35 calories per tablespoon, and get this – I just measured it out and I put 8 of those bad boys in each cup. There is a little pattern on the inside bottom of the cup so I filled the cup to that mark with cream then filled the rest with coffee. That is 840 calories a day in coffee cream for petes sake, I have run off the rails on that.
So the other day Bride had some scoping work done and we met with the doctor a few days later to go over the results. He indicated the stomach lining was problematic and asked, do you drink caffeinated coffee, yes was the answer. He said that has to stop, coffee was OK - but she was to stop the caffeine part. So Bride is obviously not happy about that. A bit of research quickly told me that caffeine is not good for the lining of any stomach. That has lead me to, in an act of solidarity, stop drinking coffee for a while. If I do have some it will be decaffeinated. I am somewhat scared, tomorrow is my first day. The last time I stopped drinking coffee was when I stopped smoking. It, along with Mt. Dew were triggers and I never have picked the Dew back up but after a month or so I brought Juan Valdez back into my life.
I have pondered the why a lot lately. Why do I eat like I do not know where my next meal is coming from? Why do I need more than a half a gallon of coffee a day? I am not sure of those answers, I did determine that I think it is getting worse. I pondered that as well. Maybe I do not know where my next meal is coming from, not the very next one but with the economy the way it is…………. So I ponder that and looked back our evolutionary arc. Back when Homo ergaster was roaming the eastern and southern parts of Africa back in the early Pleistocene he would pack on the weight when the times were right. Food was short and they, along with all the other quadrupeds migrated around to where and when food was available. Maybe an evolutionary protection and survival gene has kicked in to insure that I persevere, again I thought – NOT MY FAULT.
I have wondered about that and many other explanations for the way I am. It could have something to do with the MONSTROUS portion sizes that we have all been lead to believe are normal. We used to need a lot of calories when we were an agrarian society, we were not sitting our overgrown asses in office chairs, we were working the land for the food we were eating – and that work is NOT easy. It is not just the fast food joints, most everywhere you go to eat serve you WAY more food than is needed, supersize it please. That goes back to the marketing that we are bombarded with, if we buy in we are doomed. Even a healthy choice frozen meal is more food than we need.
It is not easy to find all the answers but I am still looking for them. Without the answers to the why, it makes it hard (at least for me) to understand my own egregious actions and if I cannot understand why, how can I commit to the why not. Not sure what the answer for me here is but I know I want to ponder it a bit more. I am in no way perfect and I am not any delusion that I will be able to fix all these problems I have with food and drink but if I can train myself to look closely at it each time hopefully I can at least make a conscience effort to control it – that is really what I am hoping for. I hope anyone who is working on this with me is getting as much as I am from it.
Well since I started examining myself I have found a few things that I need to improve upon. Eating is the main one, I love to eat and I eat fast. I think that is a leftover from my days in the Navy, not sure but I think. Both are bad, eating to dullness, stuffing too much crap in my pie hole. Eating fast can not be good for the digestive system either. I have found that it is not even that I am eating bad things, I just eat too much of it, whether it be a salad or a steak or ba-skeddi – I did not even realize that eating to dullness was one of my hobbies. Not until I started looking at it. I suspect that is why I am overweight.
I did see a commercial that other day that told me that being overweight and having extra weight in certain areas was not my fault at all. It has to do with the stress at work and the fact that I am older now and my slow metabolism – what a bonus I thought, my fat ass has nothing to do with my obvious lack of self-control at all and is somehow not at all my fault or caused in anyway by my shoveling food into my face like someone who knew not where there next meal was coming from – shameful!
So Bride and I have decided to change some things in our lives, not a diet per say but a change in lifestyle. There are a number of things we are implementing into our lives and a number of things that we are looking at removing. I think more than anything it boils down to portion control and moving my chubby ass around more. The more movement the more food one needs, the less movement the less food we need. It all sounds so easy but I know it is not.
A couple of years ago I decided I would change my eating habits, I ended up losing about 52 pounds. It took almost a year but little by little the weight dropped off. I was astounded at the ease at which the plan was working, it was not hard. I knew though that when I hit my target weight it would be harder to transition from losing to maintaining. Then on October 24 of 2009 my Dad passed, for reasons I can not really get my head around I completely abandoned my new way of eating. I have pondered that for some time but I stopped eating from the outside edges of the grocery store and packed the weight back on, I was stunned, amazed and ashamed all at the same time. No idea why my Dad’s death would manifest itself in my abandonment of my new eating habits, I had been doing it for a year.
So I am going back to a better way of eating, less of everything. I do not plan to cut anything out per say but just reduce the intake. I will I think slow the intake of beef in the process but the reasons for that have nothing to do with losing weight. Bride picked up come cookbooks that are geared towards a diabetic because that is a very good way to eat, regardless of whether one is diabetic or not. I am looking forward to seeing some of the master pieces she will be creating. I am also going to continue to watch my intake, I know I am not going to be perfect but if I slow down long enough to just look at myself and what I am doing I know that will help he curb the intake. I usually eat so fast that I never pay attention to volume.
I really never even noticed it before I started looking at Temperance, it really amazed me to start analyzing my behavior. I have not really been pleased with what I am finding out about myself but as they say, problem recognition is the first step to problem resolution.
The other part of temperance is not drinking to elevation. I do not drink so I decided to look at the coffee intake. I drink a cup from Gate every morning, and most days I go get a second cup before 10am and then most days Bride and I go to the park on the river with another coffee to watch the sun go down. Doesn’t seem to bad right, well considering that each cup is 24 ounces, or 72 ounces total for the day. That is over a half a gallon of coffee a day – holy shit that is a lot of coffee and of course in that coffee has Irish Cream flavoring. Now that stuff has 35 calories per tablespoon, and get this – I just measured it out and I put 8 of those bad boys in each cup. There is a little pattern on the inside bottom of the cup so I filled the cup to that mark with cream then filled the rest with coffee. That is 840 calories a day in coffee cream for petes sake, I have run off the rails on that.
So the other day Bride had some scoping work done and we met with the doctor a few days later to go over the results. He indicated the stomach lining was problematic and asked, do you drink caffeinated coffee, yes was the answer. He said that has to stop, coffee was OK - but she was to stop the caffeine part. So Bride is obviously not happy about that. A bit of research quickly told me that caffeine is not good for the lining of any stomach. That has lead me to, in an act of solidarity, stop drinking coffee for a while. If I do have some it will be decaffeinated. I am somewhat scared, tomorrow is my first day. The last time I stopped drinking coffee was when I stopped smoking. It, along with Mt. Dew were triggers and I never have picked the Dew back up but after a month or so I brought Juan Valdez back into my life.
I have pondered the why a lot lately. Why do I eat like I do not know where my next meal is coming from? Why do I need more than a half a gallon of coffee a day? I am not sure of those answers, I did determine that I think it is getting worse. I pondered that as well. Maybe I do not know where my next meal is coming from, not the very next one but with the economy the way it is…………. So I ponder that and looked back our evolutionary arc. Back when Homo ergaster was roaming the eastern and southern parts of Africa back in the early Pleistocene he would pack on the weight when the times were right. Food was short and they, along with all the other quadrupeds migrated around to where and when food was available. Maybe an evolutionary protection and survival gene has kicked in to insure that I persevere, again I thought – NOT MY FAULT.
I have wondered about that and many other explanations for the way I am. It could have something to do with the MONSTROUS portion sizes that we have all been lead to believe are normal. We used to need a lot of calories when we were an agrarian society, we were not sitting our overgrown asses in office chairs, we were working the land for the food we were eating – and that work is NOT easy. It is not just the fast food joints, most everywhere you go to eat serve you WAY more food than is needed, supersize it please. That goes back to the marketing that we are bombarded with, if we buy in we are doomed. Even a healthy choice frozen meal is more food than we need.
It is not easy to find all the answers but I am still looking for them. Without the answers to the why, it makes it hard (at least for me) to understand my own egregious actions and if I cannot understand why, how can I commit to the why not. Not sure what the answer for me here is but I know I want to ponder it a bit more. I am in no way perfect and I am not any delusion that I will be able to fix all these problems I have with food and drink but if I can train myself to look closely at it each time hopefully I can at least make a conscience effort to control it – that is really what I am hoping for. I hope anyone who is working on this with me is getting as much as I am from it.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Posting the military deaths, in a small and insignificant way, was my way of honoring our Military Hero’s
I started doing this after veterans day last year, I even wrote a note on facebook about my feelings, here it is:
I am a Veteran of the United States Navy. Veterans are people who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It is an oath to protect our way of life here in the United States of America. That oath sometimes requires sacrifices, sometime the ultimate sacrifice. 5772 (Five Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Two) of these heroes have paid that ultimate price in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I encourage you to visit this site (link below) every day to read their stories, look at their faces, mourn their loss and pray for their families - I have and will continue to do so every day – it takes their deaths from being a 15 second news bite to making it personal - AND THEIR DEATHS SHOULD BE PERSONAL for all of us!
http://www.militarytimes.com/valor/index.php
Well, I posted that on November 11th and that was just a bit over two months ago and the count was 5772 (five thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Two) American Military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq since the beginnings of hostilities. If you still, or ever, read the posts (I do not mind either way) you will have noticed that we are 5871 (Five Thousand EIGHT Hundred and Seventy One). One service man or woman away from 100 (One Hundred) more American’s, DEAD because of the wars in TWO MONTHS.
Writing a little blurb and posting them on facebook seems ridiculous to me, it is not enough or the best way to honor them. It has started to take its toll on me as well, I can hardly get through one anymore without crying a little bit. Crying because they have been denied what most of us take for granted, a free life here in America – to live the American dream. That term, the American Dream, means different things to different folks but no matter, whatever it might mean to anyone, these folks have been denied the pursuit of happiness.
The first person I wrote about was Marine Staff Sgt. Javier O. Ortiz Rivera, 26 years old. He died on November 16th in the mountainous hell that is Helmand province, in Afghanistan.
If you have ever heard someone describe a distant place as Bum F&^k Egypt, Helmand province is about 2280 miles (literally) on the other side of that.
Javier died in a land that has been at war with someone since humans have been warring. Do you think the training Javier received at Camp Lejeune prepared him properly to perform his duties on the Marine Expeditionary Force? I can not imagine it is possible and it makes me mad and it breaks my heart that he is not with us anymore.
And then I remember Army Sgt. 1st Class James E. Thode, he was 45 – that is how old I am right now. He most likely left a family behind, a wife 2.3 kids, a cat and an old hound dog that loved him like no other. So what are the long term impact on his kids, his wife, his friends. He was in the Utah National Guard, at 45 he was a leader of the younger men and women that served with him – what impact did his death have on them?
Not sure where I was going with this blog, mainly I wanted everyone to know that those little posts are very hard for me to write and the more I do it the more angry I get about it, not angry about doing it – it is the VERY LEAST I can do. I get angry that the media seems oblivious about reporting it and the Governments inability to get us the hell out of there. When was the last time you saw or heard the number 5871 people have died in these wars. I guess I need to find something productive to do with my anger on this matter, writing this has helped. What else can we American’s do to bring this insanity to light and to an END. That is not a rhetorical question, I am looking for suggestions that will be a productive outlet for my anger. Folks we are one hero away from ONE HUNDRED Military members DEAD in a bit over 2 months.
I am a Veteran of the United States Navy. Veterans are people who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It is an oath to protect our way of life here in the United States of America. That oath sometimes requires sacrifices, sometime the ultimate sacrifice. 5772 (Five Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Two) of these heroes have paid that ultimate price in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I encourage you to visit this site (link below) every day to read their stories, look at their faces, mourn their loss and pray for their families - I have and will continue to do so every day – it takes their deaths from being a 15 second news bite to making it personal - AND THEIR DEATHS SHOULD BE PERSONAL for all of us!
http://www.militarytimes.com/valor/index.php
Well, I posted that on November 11th and that was just a bit over two months ago and the count was 5772 (five thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Two) American Military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq since the beginnings of hostilities. If you still, or ever, read the posts (I do not mind either way) you will have noticed that we are 5871 (Five Thousand EIGHT Hundred and Seventy One). One service man or woman away from 100 (One Hundred) more American’s, DEAD because of the wars in TWO MONTHS.
Writing a little blurb and posting them on facebook seems ridiculous to me, it is not enough or the best way to honor them. It has started to take its toll on me as well, I can hardly get through one anymore without crying a little bit. Crying because they have been denied what most of us take for granted, a free life here in America – to live the American dream. That term, the American Dream, means different things to different folks but no matter, whatever it might mean to anyone, these folks have been denied the pursuit of happiness.
The first person I wrote about was Marine Staff Sgt. Javier O. Ortiz Rivera, 26 years old. He died on November 16th in the mountainous hell that is Helmand province, in Afghanistan.
And then I remember Army Sgt. 1st Class James E. Thode, he was 45 – that is how old I am right now. He most likely left a family behind, a wife 2.3 kids, a cat and an old hound dog that loved him like no other. So what are the long term impact on his kids, his wife, his friends. He was in the Utah National Guard, at 45 he was a leader of the younger men and women that served with him – what impact did his death have on them?
Not sure where I was going with this blog, mainly I wanted everyone to know that those little posts are very hard for me to write and the more I do it the more angry I get about it, not angry about doing it – it is the VERY LEAST I can do. I get angry that the media seems oblivious about reporting it and the Governments inability to get us the hell out of there. When was the last time you saw or heard the number 5871 people have died in these wars. I guess I need to find something productive to do with my anger on this matter, writing this has helped. What else can we American’s do to bring this insanity to light and to an END. That is not a rhetorical question, I am looking for suggestions that will be a productive outlet for my anger. Folks we are one hero away from ONE HUNDRED Military members DEAD in a bit over 2 months.
Monday, January 17, 2011
If we actually had everything we wanted, where would we keep it all? This is our largest problem!
We all have way too much stuff, stuff in drawers, stuff in cabinets, stuff in closets, stuff in the garage, stuff in the attic and stuff in the basement – TOO MUCH STUFF. It sometimes seems inverse to me, the poorer we are the more stuff we seem to have. I guess we are poor because we spent our money on all of our stuff. Seems weird doesn’t it?
Here is a perfect example, houses built before WWII did not have a lot of closet space, if any. Why? Because everything they had would fit in the chest of drawers and the dresser. There was no need for 2 car garages and walk in closets the size of bedroom and bathrooms that are so spacious several homeless people would be proud to call the place home. As a kid I had what I thought was a huge of stuff, hot wheels, toy cars and Tonka trucks – what I thought was a lot is dwarfed by the amount of toys that kids have these days.
Where does this new found fascination with stuff come from? Is it driven by the marketing companies that inundate us with the latest stuff? I suspect so but that is driven by our economy, we need to buy and sell stuff so the money is always changing hands, it is the free market and capitalism at its best. So does that mean I blame the very foundations of our country for the need for all the stuff? I do not know the answer to that. AS I sit and look around at all the stuff I can see from this spot I wonder, why do we have that and better yet, why did we buy that in the first place. I can see a set of ugly (my words not Brides words) set of wine glasses on top of a hutch in the dining room. Now neither one of us drink wine so there is that, we got them at an estate sale because they matched a room décor, in a house we sold 10 years ago. So why do we still have those glasses and decanter – stuff, stuff with no use but stuff we spent money on. Hard to figure out sometimes.
Stuff continues to get cheaper too, allowing even the poor to buy more of it. Some of the stuff we have is not worth what we paid for it, some stuff actually costs us money to have. We have to buy the stuff, then transport the stuff to the house. We then have to take the time to properly clean the stuff, we would not want any cooties from the previous owners to make it onto our house, with our other stuff. Stuff we thought we needed and that we accumulated eventually gets a trip to the Good Will or SPCA thrift shop, it is the way here in our house. What seemed like a bargain at the time of acquisition always seems like a worthless item when it is on the death march to the donation center, we simply did not need it.
Stuff is really only worth the value we associate with it, or the value we derive from it – it is hard to quantify the actual value of stuff. How much money does that stuff save me in the long run, does it protect some other, more valuable stuff for us, then its value is closely tied with that stuff at that point. Stuff if almost the antithesis of a liquid asset, an illiquid asset if you will and in this case I might. The only way we are ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. The problem with that is that if you do not have any immediate use for that stuff, you probably never will and it becomes worthless junk getting ready for the death march to the donation center.
Another issue with stuff is that the more you have, the more it owns you. We have to look at a bigger house to keep all of our stuff from the weather, unless it can bear the weather. Our small houses full of stuff become our bigger houses full of more stuff. Remember when you moved into your current house, wasn’t there some area that you did not have enough stuff for? That extra bedroom with no furniture, the den with only old chairs that should have been thrown away. We will fill whatever space we have with all of our stuff, whether it is a 900 sq foot apartment to a 10,000 mansion, they are all full of stuff that we most likely do not need and or do not use.
I find all the stuff to be tiresome, it takes a lot work to properly maintain all that stuff. Just the energy spent in determining the correct location for it is hard enough. Then you have cleaning and maintenance of all the stuff, this seems crazy to me. I have a garage full of stuff that I need to maintain all the other stuff i have, I have A LOT of tools. Work working tools for that hobby and to repair stuff. Construction tools for remodeling or changing ceilings. Mechanics tools for keeping the Jalopy and the Girl Jalopy going. It is literally a garage full of stuff to keep the other stuff going, shit man my stuff has stuff.
I vow to get rid of one thing of stuff this week, join me friends in dumping some stuff. Although my stuff is stuff, your stuff is shit, according to George Carlin anyway, so maybe I will keep my stuff and you should get rid of your shit instead.
Here is a perfect example, houses built before WWII did not have a lot of closet space, if any. Why? Because everything they had would fit in the chest of drawers and the dresser. There was no need for 2 car garages and walk in closets the size of bedroom and bathrooms that are so spacious several homeless people would be proud to call the place home. As a kid I had what I thought was a huge of stuff, hot wheels, toy cars and Tonka trucks – what I thought was a lot is dwarfed by the amount of toys that kids have these days.
Where does this new found fascination with stuff come from? Is it driven by the marketing companies that inundate us with the latest stuff? I suspect so but that is driven by our economy, we need to buy and sell stuff so the money is always changing hands, it is the free market and capitalism at its best. So does that mean I blame the very foundations of our country for the need for all the stuff? I do not know the answer to that. AS I sit and look around at all the stuff I can see from this spot I wonder, why do we have that and better yet, why did we buy that in the first place. I can see a set of ugly (my words not Brides words) set of wine glasses on top of a hutch in the dining room. Now neither one of us drink wine so there is that, we got them at an estate sale because they matched a room décor, in a house we sold 10 years ago. So why do we still have those glasses and decanter – stuff, stuff with no use but stuff we spent money on. Hard to figure out sometimes.
Stuff continues to get cheaper too, allowing even the poor to buy more of it. Some of the stuff we have is not worth what we paid for it, some stuff actually costs us money to have. We have to buy the stuff, then transport the stuff to the house. We then have to take the time to properly clean the stuff, we would not want any cooties from the previous owners to make it onto our house, with our other stuff. Stuff we thought we needed and that we accumulated eventually gets a trip to the Good Will or SPCA thrift shop, it is the way here in our house. What seemed like a bargain at the time of acquisition always seems like a worthless item when it is on the death march to the donation center, we simply did not need it.
Stuff is really only worth the value we associate with it, or the value we derive from it – it is hard to quantify the actual value of stuff. How much money does that stuff save me in the long run, does it protect some other, more valuable stuff for us, then its value is closely tied with that stuff at that point. Stuff if almost the antithesis of a liquid asset, an illiquid asset if you will and in this case I might. The only way we are ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. The problem with that is that if you do not have any immediate use for that stuff, you probably never will and it becomes worthless junk getting ready for the death march to the donation center.
Another issue with stuff is that the more you have, the more it owns you. We have to look at a bigger house to keep all of our stuff from the weather, unless it can bear the weather. Our small houses full of stuff become our bigger houses full of more stuff. Remember when you moved into your current house, wasn’t there some area that you did not have enough stuff for? That extra bedroom with no furniture, the den with only old chairs that should have been thrown away. We will fill whatever space we have with all of our stuff, whether it is a 900 sq foot apartment to a 10,000 mansion, they are all full of stuff that we most likely do not need and or do not use.
I find all the stuff to be tiresome, it takes a lot work to properly maintain all that stuff. Just the energy spent in determining the correct location for it is hard enough. Then you have cleaning and maintenance of all the stuff, this seems crazy to me. I have a garage full of stuff that I need to maintain all the other stuff i have, I have A LOT of tools. Work working tools for that hobby and to repair stuff. Construction tools for remodeling or changing ceilings. Mechanics tools for keeping the Jalopy and the Girl Jalopy going. It is literally a garage full of stuff to keep the other stuff going, shit man my stuff has stuff.
I vow to get rid of one thing of stuff this week, join me friends in dumping some stuff. Although my stuff is stuff, your stuff is shit, according to George Carlin anyway, so maybe I will keep my stuff and you should get rid of your shit instead.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Week One – I am looking at temperance and Silence and I have A LOT of work to do!
So in week one I wanted to just observe myself with regards to the first two of old Ben’s plan. Wow, what an eye opener! For those who need a refresher on those, here it is.
1. Temperance - Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation
Just some background, I quit drinking regularly about 20 years ago. I say regularly because I have at least one beer per year and sometimes one drink. I can’t say that I do not drink, I do – a very little. So not to drink to elevation was not going to be a problem for me. I instead wanted to look at how much coffee I drink as well as how much tea I drink, maybe to get a caffeine “elevation”
So wow, I realized on day one that just looking at myself and pondering on these was going to be rough. I am, what I would call a fat boy, I need to lose some weight so eating to dullness is a problem for me, or a hobby depending on how you might look at it. The first instance that I really watched myself was Monday at lunch. A friend of mine from work and I went to Sweet Tomato’s, a salad place. I love the salad bar there and I always have 2 of the little 2x2 inch cornbread squares with honey butter – um, um good. So we get there and I, like always, load up my plate like I can’t remember where my last meal came from or where my next one might be. This is an all you can eat joint, I could come back up and get a second plate but NO, I have to load my plate up till it is 2 inches thick. I did only use one scoop of ranch dressing, which most likely offset ANY advantage of eating the roughage.
I am really not sure why I do that, I have pondered it and will continue to ponder the why on that. I can start to make changes though and the next time I go there I will not do that and maybe one little cornbread square instead of two. I also refilled my strawberry lemonade three times, I could easily get one of those and refill with water. Day one and at a salad bar no less and I was aghast, I was eating to dullness and drinking to elevation. It was kind of disheartening but I have to remember I am not striving for perfection, I am merely watching my actions when placed against Ben’s list. I was not doing well but ya know what, if the next time I go I pile it up to 1 ¾ inches high and have 2 strawberry lemonades I will be making progress in bettering myself.
So also on day one I spent my lunch hour “bitchin” about work, I do not believe I said one thing that benefited others or me for that matter. It was all trifling conversation, that is no fault of my lunch date and I in no way blame her, the work environment is frustrating lately. That does not mean that I have to bitch about it, because that will not change anything, dialog with the folks in charge with creative solutions to some of the issues are what will inevitably make the work place turmoil’s subside. I bitched to three other people later that day and after words I scared myself a little bit. My Mom always used to say “if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all” she had already learned that silence was a virtue and was instilling that in us when we were kids, not that we understood it at the time. Between that and “what if could go on forever” there were some powerful lessons from my Mom, rest her soul.
I am backing off a bit and am going to spend a couple more weeks looking at Temperance by itself, there is more work to do there than i anticipated.
1. Temperance - Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation
Just some background, I quit drinking regularly about 20 years ago. I say regularly because I have at least one beer per year and sometimes one drink. I can’t say that I do not drink, I do – a very little. So not to drink to elevation was not going to be a problem for me. I instead wanted to look at how much coffee I drink as well as how much tea I drink, maybe to get a caffeine “elevation”
So wow, I realized on day one that just looking at myself and pondering on these was going to be rough. I am, what I would call a fat boy, I need to lose some weight so eating to dullness is a problem for me, or a hobby depending on how you might look at it. The first instance that I really watched myself was Monday at lunch. A friend of mine from work and I went to Sweet Tomato’s, a salad place. I love the salad bar there and I always have 2 of the little 2x2 inch cornbread squares with honey butter – um, um good. So we get there and I, like always, load up my plate like I can’t remember where my last meal came from or where my next one might be. This is an all you can eat joint, I could come back up and get a second plate but NO, I have to load my plate up till it is 2 inches thick. I did only use one scoop of ranch dressing, which most likely offset ANY advantage of eating the roughage.
I am really not sure why I do that, I have pondered it and will continue to ponder the why on that. I can start to make changes though and the next time I go there I will not do that and maybe one little cornbread square instead of two. I also refilled my strawberry lemonade three times, I could easily get one of those and refill with water. Day one and at a salad bar no less and I was aghast, I was eating to dullness and drinking to elevation. It was kind of disheartening but I have to remember I am not striving for perfection, I am merely watching my actions when placed against Ben’s list. I was not doing well but ya know what, if the next time I go I pile it up to 1 ¾ inches high and have 2 strawberry lemonades I will be making progress in bettering myself.
So also on day one I spent my lunch hour “bitchin” about work, I do not believe I said one thing that benefited others or me for that matter. It was all trifling conversation, that is no fault of my lunch date and I in no way blame her, the work environment is frustrating lately. That does not mean that I have to bitch about it, because that will not change anything, dialog with the folks in charge with creative solutions to some of the issues are what will inevitably make the work place turmoil’s subside. I bitched to three other people later that day and after words I scared myself a little bit. My Mom always used to say “if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all” she had already learned that silence was a virtue and was instilling that in us when we were kids, not that we understood it at the time. Between that and “what if could go on forever” there were some powerful lessons from my Mom, rest her soul.
I am backing off a bit and am going to spend a couple more weeks looking at Temperance by itself, there is more work to do there than i anticipated.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Why is it we feel the need to keep buying new cars, is the old one broken?
It seems to me that little of anything is actually fixed anymore in our country. When was the last time you took an appliance in for repair, a TV, a telephone or other electronic gadget? Seems that the system is somehow rigged against us, we are not only taught by the marketing folks who inundate us with new shiny baubles but the repair costs often exceed the replacement costs. WHY is that? Well I think it has a lot to do with the fact that most of the items we have were built in China or some other place where labor costs are so insignificant that it is cheaper to buy, financially anyway. Cheaper to pay them to build, build, build and in most cases ignore any and all environmental impacts of their actions, all for the mighty dollar to drive the economic machine of our world. When we need those items repaired we must use a local repairman, someone who is not working for pennies on the dollar, someone who is regulated to death and someone who is just like you and I – searching for more money to buy more stuff.
I say enough of that bullshit! Bride and I have taken the first steps, we have old cars. There are many reasons but mainly we want out of car payments and we want out of costly repairs bills that the newer computer controlled cars bring. If my car is missing or not running right, I know it is the points, plugs or carburetor. I do not need a 100 thousand dollar diagnostic machine to know that, it is inherent knowledge for anyone who knows how a basic 4 cycle internal combustion engine works. The exact same principles apply if I were working on my lawn mower engine. Simplicity, plain and simple. Now some will say that without the computer controls we would not be getting the gas mileage we are now, to which I say bullshit!! My 1958 ford with a three speed manual transmission with over drive, yes they had an operational overdrive system in 1958, gets between 25 and 26 miles to gallon around town. So do not tell me that over the last 53 years no one has come up with a way to improve mileage without a microprocessor and some software.
We also have the old cars because I can fix anything that may go wrong with them, from converting to disc brakes for better stopping power to rebuilding the engine if it needs it. NAPA still has almost every part that I have needed for my Jalopy, and they could order some others and for the ones they did not carry, I could order in more than a dozen other places. We also have them because we love the classic design of the older cars, big, shiny and lots of chrome – they do not make cars like that now. They took a lot of resources to build but it was the of the most abundant resources available, iron ore. To me I would not know a 2008 Maximum from a 2011 Altima which have more plastic (petroleum based resource) than ever before. I can however tell the difference between the 1958 and 1959 Fords. I have enjoyed teaching Bride all the specs on her car as well, she can spout off to anyone who inquires more information than they could know to ask for. She has put more than one man in their place, the ones who thought a car like that would be the husbands pride and joy. A person inquiring of me would ask, what ya got in that car – knowing that I would know what size engine it has. They have and do ask Bride, do you know what ya got in there, assuming she would not. So when she can say, yes I have the 289 with a 2 barrel carburetor, 195 horsepower stock they are most times taken aback. That alone is worth having old cars.
So anyway, enough about cars for a moment. When we are forced to continue to by new and discard the old we have to start thinking about other things. What do I mean by that? Well we have to start thinking about the impact of that on both side of the court. It is (or should be) forcing us to look at and start to understand the supply side of the equation. At the massive amount of resources (some very limited) we are using to create all our things. We are literally moving mountains to get to the natural resources that are used to create all our things. We are decimating our planet at an unsustainable rate while we hunt for and extract from the ground all the things we need. The Deep Horizon oil well was out in Gulf of Mexico because we want the products that resource allows us to have. We will continue to create risky ways of getting to the resources and in turn when the 1% possibility happens we will stand and wonder – why. Well stop wondering as you are watching the story on a TV that was manufactured using more of the resource they were going after than any of the other resources required to make a TV. Our throw aways has created a floating trash pile in the pacific that is the size of the Great State of Texas, items discarded from ships and tossed into the water or storm drains. Ponder for a moment the impact of a floating trash pile the size of the Great State of Texas – boggle the mind to even think about it, at least for me. When I say unsustainable, that is what I mean. The industrial revolution started less than 150 years ago and look at us now. Ponder it for a while and it gets scary.
On the other side of that coin we are forced to replace our items after a finite period of time. I say forced because the manufacturing and marketing machine of world keeps telling us we need this latest thing or that new gadget. We need to stream video at the same time are texting and making a call. I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, I do not need this capability, none of need this capability, we may want it but need NO WAY. We do however feel it is our right to have it, so we create the demand and manufacturing steps in and provides the supply. We think little about what it takes to create that and what the long term impacts are going to be. The period of time that between replacing our gadgets continues to get shorter.
Due to much better manufacturing processes the MTBF (mean time between failure) has improved on everything that is made, why then has our replacement periodicity decreased precipitously? That is so we can be forced to buy new, supply the economic engine of the world. If you start to follow this out a few years it does not take long to see that we are plummeting towards calamity. I am not sure when or how exactly and it probably won’t be in my lifetime but it is coming and anyone who does not think so has their head in the sand.
Bride and I have started to seriously evaluate more of the things in our lives, I hate to use the word carbon footprint because that term has already been high jacked and an entire industry is cropping up around that. But we need to look at ourselves and the impact we are having on our planet. As I sit and write this I did not think this is where this blog was going to go when I started but here I am. Another thing I never thought is that I would take this stance, my life has been a classic example of use, consumption and excess and I liked it. If I had read this 10 years ago I would have written me off as some crazy assed tree hugger and came up with 100 ways to discredit me. What scares me is with China and India coming into their own as economic power houses our planet is in trouble. China is scavenging the planet to acquire the resources necessary to create a United States like environment there. Between China and India there are 8 times the people (2.5 BILLION people) we have here and when you think about how much of the world’s resources the United States has consumed, imagine a rate 8 times that, it is unsustainable.
Not sure what my message is here, I guess I would ask that you ponder a bit on your impact on the world. Take paper or bring your bags to grocery store. Don’t by the apples from Uruguay, imagine how much fuel it took to get them here. Start looking at whether your purchases are biodegradable and are environmentally friendly. What is the projected life span and what will it cost you to have it repaired. And know this, I am not a crazy assed tree hugger. I am just someone who has come to realization that we (planet earth’s population) is on a bad course that will eventually lead to our downfall if we do not change our ways, and that starts with us as individuals.
I say enough of that bullshit! Bride and I have taken the first steps, we have old cars. There are many reasons but mainly we want out of car payments and we want out of costly repairs bills that the newer computer controlled cars bring. If my car is missing or not running right, I know it is the points, plugs or carburetor. I do not need a 100 thousand dollar diagnostic machine to know that, it is inherent knowledge for anyone who knows how a basic 4 cycle internal combustion engine works. The exact same principles apply if I were working on my lawn mower engine. Simplicity, plain and simple. Now some will say that without the computer controls we would not be getting the gas mileage we are now, to which I say bullshit!! My 1958 ford with a three speed manual transmission with over drive, yes they had an operational overdrive system in 1958, gets between 25 and 26 miles to gallon around town. So do not tell me that over the last 53 years no one has come up with a way to improve mileage without a microprocessor and some software.
We also have the old cars because I can fix anything that may go wrong with them, from converting to disc brakes for better stopping power to rebuilding the engine if it needs it. NAPA still has almost every part that I have needed for my Jalopy, and they could order some others and for the ones they did not carry, I could order in more than a dozen other places. We also have them because we love the classic design of the older cars, big, shiny and lots of chrome – they do not make cars like that now. They took a lot of resources to build but it was the of the most abundant resources available, iron ore. To me I would not know a 2008 Maximum from a 2011 Altima which have more plastic (petroleum based resource) than ever before. I can however tell the difference between the 1958 and 1959 Fords. I have enjoyed teaching Bride all the specs on her car as well, she can spout off to anyone who inquires more information than they could know to ask for. She has put more than one man in their place, the ones who thought a car like that would be the husbands pride and joy. A person inquiring of me would ask, what ya got in that car – knowing that I would know what size engine it has. They have and do ask Bride, do you know what ya got in there, assuming she would not. So when she can say, yes I have the 289 with a 2 barrel carburetor, 195 horsepower stock they are most times taken aback. That alone is worth having old cars.
So anyway, enough about cars for a moment. When we are forced to continue to by new and discard the old we have to start thinking about other things. What do I mean by that? Well we have to start thinking about the impact of that on both side of the court. It is (or should be) forcing us to look at and start to understand the supply side of the equation. At the massive amount of resources (some very limited) we are using to create all our things. We are literally moving mountains to get to the natural resources that are used to create all our things. We are decimating our planet at an unsustainable rate while we hunt for and extract from the ground all the things we need. The Deep Horizon oil well was out in Gulf of Mexico because we want the products that resource allows us to have. We will continue to create risky ways of getting to the resources and in turn when the 1% possibility happens we will stand and wonder – why. Well stop wondering as you are watching the story on a TV that was manufactured using more of the resource they were going after than any of the other resources required to make a TV. Our throw aways has created a floating trash pile in the pacific that is the size of the Great State of Texas, items discarded from ships and tossed into the water or storm drains. Ponder for a moment the impact of a floating trash pile the size of the Great State of Texas – boggle the mind to even think about it, at least for me. When I say unsustainable, that is what I mean. The industrial revolution started less than 150 years ago and look at us now. Ponder it for a while and it gets scary.
On the other side of that coin we are forced to replace our items after a finite period of time. I say forced because the manufacturing and marketing machine of world keeps telling us we need this latest thing or that new gadget. We need to stream video at the same time are texting and making a call. I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, I do not need this capability, none of need this capability, we may want it but need NO WAY. We do however feel it is our right to have it, so we create the demand and manufacturing steps in and provides the supply. We think little about what it takes to create that and what the long term impacts are going to be. The period of time that between replacing our gadgets continues to get shorter.
Due to much better manufacturing processes the MTBF (mean time between failure) has improved on everything that is made, why then has our replacement periodicity decreased precipitously? That is so we can be forced to buy new, supply the economic engine of the world. If you start to follow this out a few years it does not take long to see that we are plummeting towards calamity. I am not sure when or how exactly and it probably won’t be in my lifetime but it is coming and anyone who does not think so has their head in the sand.
Bride and I have started to seriously evaluate more of the things in our lives, I hate to use the word carbon footprint because that term has already been high jacked and an entire industry is cropping up around that. But we need to look at ourselves and the impact we are having on our planet. As I sit and write this I did not think this is where this blog was going to go when I started but here I am. Another thing I never thought is that I would take this stance, my life has been a classic example of use, consumption and excess and I liked it. If I had read this 10 years ago I would have written me off as some crazy assed tree hugger and came up with 100 ways to discredit me. What scares me is with China and India coming into their own as economic power houses our planet is in trouble. China is scavenging the planet to acquire the resources necessary to create a United States like environment there. Between China and India there are 8 times the people (2.5 BILLION people) we have here and when you think about how much of the world’s resources the United States has consumed, imagine a rate 8 times that, it is unsustainable.
Not sure what my message is here, I guess I would ask that you ponder a bit on your impact on the world. Take paper or bring your bags to grocery store. Don’t by the apples from Uruguay, imagine how much fuel it took to get them here. Start looking at whether your purchases are biodegradable and are environmentally friendly. What is the projected life span and what will it cost you to have it repaired. And know this, I am not a crazy assed tree hugger. I am just someone who has come to realization that we (planet earth’s population) is on a bad course that will eventually lead to our downfall if we do not change our ways, and that starts with us as individuals.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Wow, Ben Franklin was a pretty damn smart dude, I am revamping my quest on virtue just a bit.
So I have spent a week or so exploring virtues and realized, old Ben came up with a pretty good list. I originally thought I might expand on each one, they seemed almost too simple at first. Well after exploring Temperance, Silence and Order I realized that he developed a seemingly simple list because one could easily get out of hand with what each meant. By out of hand, I mean creating something that is so detailed, big and cumbersome that failure would be the only possible outcome. Like any challenge there must be victories along the way to keep your interest and keep you chugging away at it. If the thing was to complex, like I was trying to make it, it would never pay any dividends in successes and I would most likely just quit. The engineer in me came out and tried to overcomplicate things that did not need complicating. I bet old Ben learned this as well as he created the original list. I have reverted to his original list, with his original definitions, which are below, and I am going to add just a few items, with simple definitions for each, to the list.
1. Temperance - Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation
3. Order - Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time
4. Resolution - Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality - Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing
6. Industry - Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity - Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly
8. Justice - Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty
9. Moderation - Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness - Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloths, or habitation
11. Tranquility - Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable
12. Chastity- Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation
13. Humility - Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
I was coming to the realization of my over complicating things when a great friend sent me some feedback on my long winded, complex and engineer designed definition of temperance. He said some things that brought my own absurdity into clear focus for me, sometimes the engineer part of my brain completely overpowers all the other sides of my brain, can’t seem to help myself. His feedback included the comment “shouldn't we strenuously seek peace, love, good will, etc., and shouldn't we be passionate about enlightenment , self actualization and improvement?” and the answer to that is yes. When using my bloated definition of temperance that was a no-no – stupid me right? He also said “I am reminded of many self-help strategies and plans that have been propagated in the modern era both in the secular/scientific and religious worlds and have to ask as I always have: is there a more direct, straight-forward , less process-oriented way of self management and improvement?” I will be working on trying to control the engineer part of my brain because it does take over on a lot of things in my life.
Brother you know me to well, “less process oriented” that was EXACTLY what I was attempting to do and I agree with him. Doing the right thing is not a process, it should be more like the Nike commercial – just do it! Doing the right thing is not about a multi-part management system. It is, and should be, a simpler philosophical or spiritual focus, or whatever name you want to give it, that will allow you to have a compassionate heart to pour love and understanding out of, to ourselves and others.
I have, however, decided to add a few virtues to the list and define them in very simple terms, like old Ben defined the virtues on his list. My additions are below
14. Mindfulness – live in, and be aware, of this moment in a harmonious way
15. Compassion - feel for other folks as we feel for our self.
16. Contentment – be satisfied with our possessions, status, or situation
17. Wisdom - Utilizing our knowledge and experience with common sense and insight.
18. Gratitude – be outwardly thankful to folks
One thing I do want to add to my quest is to add the inverse to them and not only work on cultivating the positive aspects of the virtue but work on tamping down the inverse, or negative conterparts. For example, When the apostle Paul speaks to thieves about their behavior, he does not merely tell them to stop stealing. In Ephesians 4:28 we read – “He that stole, let him now steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth need”. Paul is giving instruction to work at that which is virtuous so that we can share resources with others who have needs. These actions will demonstrate the virtues of compassion and generosity. As I work on, and write about each virtue I will also be working on the opposite and writing about them as well.
And I have another question, I would like your help in coming up with one word that would describe a person who is making headway on all these virtues.
So who among you is in and wants to join me on this journey of self-exploration?
1. Temperance - Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation
3. Order - Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time
4. Resolution - Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality - Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing
6. Industry - Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity - Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly
8. Justice - Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty
9. Moderation - Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness - Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloths, or habitation
11. Tranquility - Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable
12. Chastity- Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation
13. Humility - Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
I was coming to the realization of my over complicating things when a great friend sent me some feedback on my long winded, complex and engineer designed definition of temperance. He said some things that brought my own absurdity into clear focus for me, sometimes the engineer part of my brain completely overpowers all the other sides of my brain, can’t seem to help myself. His feedback included the comment “shouldn't we strenuously seek peace, love, good will, etc., and shouldn't we be passionate about enlightenment , self actualization and improvement?” and the answer to that is yes. When using my bloated definition of temperance that was a no-no – stupid me right? He also said “I am reminded of many self-help strategies and plans that have been propagated in the modern era both in the secular/scientific and religious worlds and have to ask as I always have: is there a more direct, straight-forward , less process-oriented way of self management and improvement?” I will be working on trying to control the engineer part of my brain because it does take over on a lot of things in my life.
Brother you know me to well, “less process oriented” that was EXACTLY what I was attempting to do and I agree with him. Doing the right thing is not a process, it should be more like the Nike commercial – just do it! Doing the right thing is not about a multi-part management system. It is, and should be, a simpler philosophical or spiritual focus, or whatever name you want to give it, that will allow you to have a compassionate heart to pour love and understanding out of, to ourselves and others.
I have, however, decided to add a few virtues to the list and define them in very simple terms, like old Ben defined the virtues on his list. My additions are below
14. Mindfulness – live in, and be aware, of this moment in a harmonious way
15. Compassion - feel for other folks as we feel for our self.
16. Contentment – be satisfied with our possessions, status, or situation
17. Wisdom - Utilizing our knowledge and experience with common sense and insight.
18. Gratitude – be outwardly thankful to folks
One thing I do want to add to my quest is to add the inverse to them and not only work on cultivating the positive aspects of the virtue but work on tamping down the inverse, or negative conterparts. For example, When the apostle Paul speaks to thieves about their behavior, he does not merely tell them to stop stealing. In Ephesians 4:28 we read – “He that stole, let him now steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth need”. Paul is giving instruction to work at that which is virtuous so that we can share resources with others who have needs. These actions will demonstrate the virtues of compassion and generosity. As I work on, and write about each virtue I will also be working on the opposite and writing about them as well.
And I have another question, I would like your help in coming up with one word that would describe a person who is making headway on all these virtues.
So who among you is in and wants to join me on this journey of self-exploration?
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Virtue #1 - Temperance
The first Virtue I want to define is Temperance, the following blog will detail my exploration of temperance in an attempt to define what it means to me as I take this journey. I have found that I will need to define all thirteen like this before I can determine if there are other virtues I want to add to my list.
Old Ben defined Temperance as follows, in bold, and I went a step further and looked up the definition in several places on the internet.
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
A. Moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc.; self-control
B. Habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion, esp. in the use of alcoholic liquors.
C. Total abstinence from alcoholic liquors
I see this as a challenge in which I will attempt to habitually moderate my indulgences, be it appetite, passion, words, drink or actions. I found that Aristotle had some interesting thoughts on temperance, he said true virtue lies between Self-indulgence and abstention. Therefore, temperance represents the mean, lying somewhere between excess and abstention. He didn’t concern himself with a uniform rule, he saw it as something all humans have in common, allowing us to act accordingly. Temperance is also one of the heavenly virtues, whose inverse is the deadly sin, gluttony. Although when I review the other deadly sins I think that Lust and Greed are also inverses of Temperance as they are “sins” of excess.
Getting started on this journey is going to be more complicated than I anticipated. And I think I also understand why Temperance is at the top of the list. It covers a lot of ground and I wonder what criteria I am going use to evaluate myself? Temperance is also one of the Cardinal virtues in Christianity, it is also an important tenant in the Islamic religion where we are instructed “Commit no excess: for God loveth not those given to excess?” In Buddhism there is Right Action in the eight fold path where we are instructed to refrain from misconduct and intoxicants. Even Cicero, the Roman Philosopher, recognized temperance as one of his four cardinal virtues. A genuine healthy lifestyle embraces the same philosophy, gluttony of any vice is unnecessary, unwise, and definitely unhealthy. A healthy body, mind, and soul thrives not from indulgence but from patience, self-awareness, and moderation.
There are many components to this, how does one moderate all of our sensual indulgences? The hardest part, I think, will be heightening my own real time awareness of my own actions as I interact with the people and things around me, recognizing what is actually going on around me. Not in hindsight, decisions will need to be made in real time, as each situation presents itself to me. It will require awareness but then it will require fast reflexes to act accordingly. I also found that my favorite philosopher had some thoughts in this as well. Marcus Aurelius gave us a meditation where he asks us to begin with a rigorous self-examination in order to eliminate the possibility that our reactions toward the situations are not guided by irrational or emotional responses. So in addition to evaluating situations I am going to need to look at myself first, to take stock of my own mental state, before reacting so as not to let any of my responses be based on my emotional state at that moment.
I suspect, and hope, that through practice this skill will become a matter of rote. I have practiced a great number of things in my life and I am optimistic this will become an autonomic reaction – doing the right thing, with regards to Temperance, will become a habit. I am not looking for perfection because it is not attainable but if I can stay above 500, I will consider myself a success.
I am not going to create a list of grading points but I am going to take notes though out the initial days so I can write about my experiences and reactions.
Basically, I define temperance as follows - one who has learned to control all of their desires and passions, especially those related to the sense appetites.
Ben Franklin Quote: “I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand. “
Old Ben defined Temperance as follows, in bold, and I went a step further and looked up the definition in several places on the internet.
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
A. Moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc.; self-control
B. Habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion, esp. in the use of alcoholic liquors.
C. Total abstinence from alcoholic liquors
I see this as a challenge in which I will attempt to habitually moderate my indulgences, be it appetite, passion, words, drink or actions. I found that Aristotle had some interesting thoughts on temperance, he said true virtue lies between Self-indulgence and abstention. Therefore, temperance represents the mean, lying somewhere between excess and abstention. He didn’t concern himself with a uniform rule, he saw it as something all humans have in common, allowing us to act accordingly. Temperance is also one of the heavenly virtues, whose inverse is the deadly sin, gluttony. Although when I review the other deadly sins I think that Lust and Greed are also inverses of Temperance as they are “sins” of excess.
Getting started on this journey is going to be more complicated than I anticipated. And I think I also understand why Temperance is at the top of the list. It covers a lot of ground and I wonder what criteria I am going use to evaluate myself? Temperance is also one of the Cardinal virtues in Christianity, it is also an important tenant in the Islamic religion where we are instructed “Commit no excess: for God loveth not those given to excess?” In Buddhism there is Right Action in the eight fold path where we are instructed to refrain from misconduct and intoxicants. Even Cicero, the Roman Philosopher, recognized temperance as one of his four cardinal virtues. A genuine healthy lifestyle embraces the same philosophy, gluttony of any vice is unnecessary, unwise, and definitely unhealthy. A healthy body, mind, and soul thrives not from indulgence but from patience, self-awareness, and moderation.
There are many components to this, how does one moderate all of our sensual indulgences? The hardest part, I think, will be heightening my own real time awareness of my own actions as I interact with the people and things around me, recognizing what is actually going on around me. Not in hindsight, decisions will need to be made in real time, as each situation presents itself to me. It will require awareness but then it will require fast reflexes to act accordingly. I also found that my favorite philosopher had some thoughts in this as well. Marcus Aurelius gave us a meditation where he asks us to begin with a rigorous self-examination in order to eliminate the possibility that our reactions toward the situations are not guided by irrational or emotional responses. So in addition to evaluating situations I am going to need to look at myself first, to take stock of my own mental state, before reacting so as not to let any of my responses be based on my emotional state at that moment.
I suspect, and hope, that through practice this skill will become a matter of rote. I have practiced a great number of things in my life and I am optimistic this will become an autonomic reaction – doing the right thing, with regards to Temperance, will become a habit. I am not looking for perfection because it is not attainable but if I can stay above 500, I will consider myself a success.
I am not going to create a list of grading points but I am going to take notes though out the initial days so I can write about my experiences and reactions.
Basically, I define temperance as follows - one who has learned to control all of their desires and passions, especially those related to the sense appetites.
Ben Franklin Quote: “I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand. “
Saturday, January 1, 2011
The lowly acorn, or oak nut, what a marvel of nature
I was sitting out in the back yard with Bride today enjoying the beautiful day and I noticed an acorn sitting by my left foot. We have two big oak trees in our front yard and sometimes they bounce of the roof and make it to the back yard, where I found this little guy. As I sat there staring at the little umbrella shaped, or as learned after reading up a bit on it, the cupule I wondered how in the world did this thing evolve.
I did not know that the things only contained one seed, I learned that sometimes, but VERY rarely, they contain two seeds. Here is a lowly nut that could one day turn into the mighty oak tree, or into lunch or dinner for some squirrel. I also learned that it is not wise to eat acorns as they are found on the ground. Raw acorns contain high concentrations of tannic acid making them taste is bitter, and some varieties can be toxic to humans. The tannins can be removed, the native American Indians shelled nuts into a bag and let the bag sit in the waters of a fast running stream. Boiling the nuts repeatedly, until the water no longer contains any trace of the brown tannic acid, accomplishes the task as well.
I was more interested in the evolution of this tree, the oak. How was it that it got to where it is on the evolutionary arc? These little cupules, how did they evolve and why? It is, like all things in nature, perfect for the task at hand, I am just not sure I understand what the task at hand is. This is where the nut is attached to the tree, maybe this umbrella is to keep the joint safe and dry. No fungus or other contaminants would be able to get in there. Most of the ones in my yard have a roughly 3/8 of an inch ring in the top of that umbrella, this is where the connection is made. I am not sure if the outer portions of the ring hold onto the nut, gripping it or all the holding power is in that little 3/8 inch patch. Not sure, but that seal is impervious to most everything.
I also did not realize that some acorns take up to 24 months to develop. I am going to have to look in my trees and see if there are some little guys hanging around, waiting to mature. I was amused by the definition I found for the cupule: “a cup-shaped anatomical structure: as a : an involucre characteristic of the oak in which the bracts are indurated and coherent b : an outer integument partially enclosing the seed of some seed ferns” Now I don’t know how smart you are but I had to look up four of the words in that definition. After up that it started to make sense, at least in an intellectual way, not so much in the evolutionary way.
Oh well, the lowly Acorn, grows into the mighty oak. I prefer red oak for building furniture but it is a very coarse grained wood. In some cases that is fine, as with a coffee table I built Bride 20 years ago. In other ways one would want a tighter grained wood to make the peice more attractive. Anyway when I look at the cupule of the acorn, it is quite an amazing journey to get from it all the way to the indestructible table I built. I guess some things in life are truly miracles, of whatever you may believe in, and we should just recognize them as that - and sit in awe of them.
Slow down and pick up an acorn - and ponder it, and all it means,for a while!
I did not know that the things only contained one seed, I learned that sometimes, but VERY rarely, they contain two seeds. Here is a lowly nut that could one day turn into the mighty oak tree, or into lunch or dinner for some squirrel. I also learned that it is not wise to eat acorns as they are found on the ground. Raw acorns contain high concentrations of tannic acid making them taste is bitter, and some varieties can be toxic to humans. The tannins can be removed, the native American Indians shelled nuts into a bag and let the bag sit in the waters of a fast running stream. Boiling the nuts repeatedly, until the water no longer contains any trace of the brown tannic acid, accomplishes the task as well.
I was more interested in the evolution of this tree, the oak. How was it that it got to where it is on the evolutionary arc? These little cupules, how did they evolve and why? It is, like all things in nature, perfect for the task at hand, I am just not sure I understand what the task at hand is. This is where the nut is attached to the tree, maybe this umbrella is to keep the joint safe and dry. No fungus or other contaminants would be able to get in there. Most of the ones in my yard have a roughly 3/8 of an inch ring in the top of that umbrella, this is where the connection is made. I am not sure if the outer portions of the ring hold onto the nut, gripping it or all the holding power is in that little 3/8 inch patch. Not sure, but that seal is impervious to most everything.
I also did not realize that some acorns take up to 24 months to develop. I am going to have to look in my trees and see if there are some little guys hanging around, waiting to mature. I was amused by the definition I found for the cupule: “a cup-shaped anatomical structure: as a : an involucre characteristic of the oak in which the bracts are indurated and coherent b : an outer integument partially enclosing the seed of some seed ferns” Now I don’t know how smart you are but I had to look up four of the words in that definition. After up that it started to make sense, at least in an intellectual way, not so much in the evolutionary way.
Oh well, the lowly Acorn, grows into the mighty oak. I prefer red oak for building furniture but it is a very coarse grained wood. In some cases that is fine, as with a coffee table I built Bride 20 years ago. In other ways one would want a tighter grained wood to make the peice more attractive. Anyway when I look at the cupule of the acorn, it is quite an amazing journey to get from it all the way to the indestructible table I built. I guess some things in life are truly miracles, of whatever you may believe in, and we should just recognize them as that - and sit in awe of them.
Slow down and pick up an acorn - and ponder it, and all it means,for a while!
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