The Divinely Guided Boot of Upward Inspiration

Friday, July 08, 2005

More on "you are who you hang with"

From Theresa Frasche's blog Me 'N' Jack (where she details her process of working through success phenome Jack Canfield's book, Success Principles) is this insightful post on how our "people environment" affects who we are, and who we can be:

Drop Out of the "Ain't It Awful" Club

I learned a long time ago that hanging around toxic people was damaging and that no matter how it seemed, I always had a choice.

Posted at 05:58 pm by sonipitts
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Nothing to hide, nothing to lose

From my inbox, some words of wisdom (and a prayer) on the value and strength of vulnerability and transparency.

"I believe much trouble and blood would be saved if we opened our hearts more." --Chief Joseph, NEZ PERCE

We are as sick as our secrets. Our ego takes over control of our lives and when that happens our minds get very sick. Then we hurt people and our minds will always justify our actions. Our minds will give us rationalization and excuses that we are justified in doing what we are doing.

My Creator, Let me live today with an open heart. Let me realize to be vulnerable is a strength, not a weakness. Let me realize the power of an open heart. Let me be available to truth. If I get into trouble, let me hear the whisper of your guidance. Let me make heart decisions and let my head catch up to that decision.

Posted at 12:22 pm by sonipitts
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Would you eat this?

So, here's a dilemma for us veggies -

Burgers from a Lab? US Study Says it's Possible

While NASA engineers have grown fish tissue in lab dishes, no one has seriously proposed a way to grow meat on commercial levels.

But a new study conducted by University of Maryland doctoral student Jason Matheny and his colleagues describe two possible ways to do it.

If you're a vegetarian, what do you think? And even if you're not a veggie, would you be interested? As for myself, I'm staying firmly on the fence on this one.

The objections I have to meat that this would solve are two-fold: firstly, there's that whole "why should something die for my dinner when I can eat myself into nutritionally well-rounded morbid obesity without getting blood on my hands" issue. I mean, to kill something not because you need to in order to survive but simply because you'd rather eat them than whatever else is at hand, strikes me as, among other things, supremely arrogant, cruel and hubristic beyond belief. To the extent that vat-grown meat obviates the need to either kill or to inhumanely care for sentient, feeling animals, I'm good with it.

Secondly, being personally quite senstive to antibiotics, hormones and other chemicals that are necessitated by the conditions of modern-day factory-farming, by not eating meat I avoid being sick all the time. Really - I used to get strep throat on a reliable and regular basis several times a year. Since I quit eating meat, which has been well over 10 years, I haven't had it once. And anyone who's ever suffered through a bout of strep knows that that by itself has paid the price of admission to the veggie clan. Since vat-raised meat obviates the need to keep whole animals upright and breathing in decidedly unhealthy conditions, that would seem to clear up that.

However, another reason I don't eat meat is because of it's effect on my body - raised homocysteine levels, overly-high protein levels, cholesterol, etc. And I'd have to see what the long-term nutritional impact of vat meat (sounds yummy, eh) on a real human population is before making that sort of decision.

I do miss some of the flavors and textures of real meat and wouldn't mind having a non-death version to turn to when veggie patties just aren't cutting it. But most of these latter health issues are intrinsic to the nature meat itself (although amplified by inhumane treatment and factory-farm procedures), so I'm not holding my breath for a safe and painless return to the land of barbeque riblets.

So what's your take on the issue? How do you feel about the prospect of meat that never walked the earth? Do you even think that they can come up with something that tastes like real meat, and not like something that was concocted with a Young Scientist kit? Is the whole question moot, given the slow process of public acceptance of test-tube comestibles? Is this just going to be just another a low-quality, low-value, under-researched and over-processed food handed out as commodities to the poor while the rich continue to chow down on rare Kobe steaks made from real slaughtered animals?

Only time will tell, but I can't wait to see what develops with this, er, meaty issue.

Posted at 12:15 pm by sonipitts
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Thursday, July 07, 2005

One use for those over-built Jaycee halls

"Just imagine how good it would feel if we all got together once in a while in large public gatherings and admitted that we don't know why we are alive, that nobody knows for sure if there's a higher being who created us, and that nobody really knows what the hell's going on here." -- Wes Nisker, meditation teacher, Inquiring Mind (Spring 2005)

Posted at 12:05 pm by sonipitts
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Parking lot...of DOOM!

Although this article on parking lot pollution of run-off water was written about tests in Austin, the fact is if your town has parking lots, this is happening in (and to) your back yard:

A new study by the city of Austin and the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that coal-tar sealant, the shiny black stuff that goes on parking lots to protect asphalt from the elements, may be a major source of water pollution in Austin.

Scientists from the city's Watershed Protection and Development Review Department had been studying PAH hot spots since the late 1990s, but it wasn't until 2001 that they started collaborating with the USGS. The partnership began, Van Metre recalled, when city scientists approached the USGS with sediment from local waterways showing levels of PAH contamination that Van Metre found literally unbelievable.

"Our first reaction was we thought their data were wrong," he said. "We thought there must be a lab problem, the numbers were so high."

Gee - that whole pave-the-world development for progress thing is looking less and less like a run for eternal prosperity and more and more like a set of "let's see how fast we can kill ourselves and everything around us" wind sprints.

Posted at 12:02 pm by sonipitts
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Clean shave

Extreme environmentalism or common sense tinged with machismo? You decide:

In response to a query about the environmental considerations of using disposable razor blades, environmental advice columnist Umbra Fisk responds thusly:

Your argument for remaining beard-free is unimpeachable. But you must stop using disposable plastic razors. I don't need to spell out the reasons: the source of plastic, the likely distant country of origin, the effect on the waste stream. Here in the U.S., 2 billion disposable razors are purchased annually. That's a lot of space in the landfill.

Besides the environmental concern, David, there's, well, the dorkiness. You want a date, you want the date to lead to something, and at some point the date might see you shave. Shaving is sexy, and a choice opportunity to impress that special man or woman with your suave masculinity. Plastic disposables say, "I think little about personal grooming" -- not to mention, "I'm cheap" -- and you have little margin for this type of drastic error.

Intrigued? Instructions for more or less safely resurrecting the lost art of straight razor grooming.

Posted at 11:49 am by sonipitts
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The sum of your life

I was reading Pat O'Bryan's e-newsletter today and he was talking about creating a "treasure map" (where you paste up pictures representative of your dreams as a way to visualize and attract such things).When he got to the section where he was discussing his financial dreams, he mentioned a stunning little mathematical/metaphysical tidbit that I just had to share with you. He wrote about a success-delineation formula he came across that said that your income is the average of the incomes of your 5 closest friends. Shocked, but curious, he did the math - and discovered that it was true.

Interesting.

Of course, we all tend to hang out with others in similar circumstances - it's just human nature - so of course it's very likely that all of your friends are going to have similar incomes to yourself and so when those incomes are averaged, it will be close to your own. However, on the flip side, it is also fairly common knowledge that we tend to behave upward or downward to the expectations of those around us (we behave far differently around our tailgate-party friends than we do around our dinner-at-the-boss' colleagues). And it's old news that to get better at a sport, you don't play within your point-group - you play with people who can wipe the floor with you on your best days.

Ergo, the theory goes, if we take the initiative to hang around people who are richer, more successful, more enlightened, more productive, more whatever it is we want to be, then some of that is bound to rub off as we learn from them and adjust our behaviors and thoughts to harmonize with our surroundings.

Of course, not all of us want to be filthy rich and celebrity famous - I, for one, want to be able to go to the store without a bodyguard, thank you very much - do you know how much one of those guys eats? But most of us want to be at least financially independent, personally successful and passionate about what we do and how we live our lives.

So take a look around you. Who are you hanging out with? What are their motivations, their habits, their incomes, their outlooks and their ratios of intrinsic vs expressed potential? Does your posse represent the ideal you, or could it be holding you back from who you want to be?

Now, I'm not advocating a "ditch your true friends in search of greener pastures elsewhere" scorched earth approach. That's just wrong. But I am advocating a "ditch the loser habit-buddies you hang around with for no other reason than familiarity, superiority and comfort" get-your-act-together approach. Too many people hang around what I call "the easy crowd" - around them it's easy to fit in, easy to live up to what few expectations they have and easy to look like a mountain in the midst of such level terrain. But as one inspired motivational speaker once said, "If you are the smartest person in your group, you need a new group."

Truth is, in the game of life as in any other, if you want to improve your skills you've got to get out of the habit of playing people who make you look like Michael Jordan and start hanging around people who can take your ass to the cleaners on a regular basis. Because only the people who are already there have the ability to help you move up into the next tier.

Posted at 11:18 am by sonipitts
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Tuesday, July 05, 2005

On legislating morality

If moral behavior were simply following rules, we could program a computer to be moral. -- Samuel P. Ginder, US navy captain

Posted at 04:18 pm by sonipitts
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Monday, July 04, 2005

Don't worry, be happy

Ed Cone, of the News-Record, writes about the Declaration of Independence and includes this little gem of insight -

The first two enumerated rights, life and liberty, are straightforward enough, but this business about the pursuit of Happiness is more complex. Note that it is a right to the pursuit of Happiness, not to Happiness itself, and that despite the messages of our consumer culture, Happiness is not always the same thing as Fun. And nothing makes some people unHappier than the prospect of other people being Happy in a way that does not suit them. Yet this right to a personal definition of Happiness, and the right to pursue it, remains at the core of what Americans want their country to be. It is the Declaration's most profound idea.

This brings to mind H. L. Menken's famous quote, "Fundamentalism: the terrible, pervasive fear that someone, somewhere, is having fun." In a country that is increasingly becoming polarized by religious partisans who seem to be heading us down a road that ends dangerously close to a Judeo-Christian version of sharia, we might do well to remember that our founding fathers wisely believed that the freedom of each to pursue happiness on their own terms was the foundation of freedom, not the slippery road to anarchy.

Posted at 08:33 pm by sonipitts
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Thursday, June 30, 2005

From Coaching Toys - Sparkers, Creative Ideas and Exercises, comes this little gem of an excerpt:

Sabbath time can be a revolutionary challenge to the violence of overwork, mindless accumulation, and the endless multiplication of desires, responsibilities and accomplishments. Sabbath is a way of being in time where we remember who we are, remember what we know, and taste the gifts of spirit and eternity. -- Wayne Muller: Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in Our Busy Lives

So, how about it - ready to shuck off the overdemanding, overhyped and overrated Puritan work ethic that has only served to put bellows to the fire of modern progress run amok? I know I am, which is why if you see anything posted here on a Saturday, you know something's seriously awry, like my sense of self-importance in thinking the world can't make do without me for 24 hours.

Hell, I don't even turn on the computer or answer the phone unless it's an emergency. (I think I heard someone choking - I hope they're okay. I know the prospect of day sans connectivity is enough to strike terror into the hearts of the weak, the young and the heavily stock-invested.) No, for me Saturday is Sabboth day (no religious significance to the day chosen - it was merely the most convenient) - no work, no worrying about work, no email or surfing, no responsibilities beyond basic life support (I do brush my teeth, but that's about the extent of it), and no pressure to be doing any particular thing. For 24 hours. Straight.

Damn near killed me the first few months. But I'm an old hand, now, so much so that it's beginning to bleed over into my Sundays, although I usually do manage to rouse myself enough to work on a few home-type projects just for the sake of slowing the process of merging from restful and regenerative repose to succumbing to sloth. Here lately, my weekends are being spent staying with Mom out in the wilds of Southeastern Missouri, and she doesn't even have a phone, let alone a tv or a computer. Nothing but me, the cats, the birds and Mom (she's usually wandering from one room to another trying to remember why she went in there). It's like the Gobi desert of social connectivity.

And it works wonders, let me tell you. It's amazing how humbling it is to spend an entire weekend away from work and people and all that jazz, only to find that no one missed you but the friendly gang down at Nigerian Lotto Scams, Inc.

And maybe that's why most of us don't. Maybe we keep working just so we can maintain the illusion of indispensability. I'm busy, therefore I must be needed, because if I wasn't needed, I wouldn't be so busy. To realize that you can disappear off the face of the planet all weekend without creating so much as a ripple in the fabric of social space-time is a hard pill to swallow. To risk discovering that things might actually work better when you're not there is even worse.

So what are you afraid of? What are you running from when you hurry from one appointment to the next, and what are you avoiding by double booking your kid's playdate with a bi-coastal teleconference? There's one sure fire way to find out - spend 24-48 hours without so much as ooking at your phone, your computer or your television and you won't have to go soul-searching to see what fragile illusion you're depending on for your social identity. It'll get right up into your face and serve you notice.

Are you ready to rumble?

Posted at 09:46 pm by sonipitts
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