Tag: internet

THE ‘I’ IN TEAM!

What role do you play?

the i in team

There are many different kinds of teams, and many synonyms to label them. 

  • crew
  • club
  •  company
  •  lineup
  • organization
  •  party
  •  side
  •  squad
  •  unit

Did you forget any? How about FRIENDS? FAMILY? CO-WORKERS??

You may have heard the old saying ‘There’s no ‘I’ in TEAM’. Simply put, the reply to this is yes, and no. Strictly speaking, when you spell the four letter word out TEAM , there is no letter ‘I’. Now there is a popular joke response floating about the internet that IF you type the word TEAM in certain fonts, you get a lowercase ‘i’ hidden in the negative space of the letter ‘A’. Often the caption that follows is something like ‘I found the ‘i’, it’s hidden in the ‘A-hole’.  This can be true in more ways than one.

First off, let’s address the ‘I’ in TEAM.

It’s all fun and games until someone loses an ‘I’

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Teams are groups of INDIVIDUALS working TOGETHER for a common goal. So the ‘I’ in TEAM stands for INDIVIDUAL, and that has good points and bad points.  Every INDIVIDUAL is unique and has unique needs which have to be addressed. Sometimes these individuals add skills and qualities to the group dynamic that improves the group’s overall performance. That is where the acronym T.E.A.M. comes into play, because TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE. It’s a wonderful thing when it works out that way, but  sometimes you get those negative elements that don’t play well with others. They are  the ‘a-holes’ bringing down the team.  In those cases, that negative player must either be corrected, or at worst cut, for the greater good of the squad. We are ALL individuals, and WE are all UNIQUE, and we each have our respective roles to play. We don’t always get to pick our teams, sometimes  teams pick us, and other times we are thrown together  by circumstance. Not everyone in the same organization will get along all the time, or even like each other.  Whether you like it or not, you on still on each other’s team. In those trying situations, the INDIVIDUAL you need to focus on is YOURSELF. Are you the solution, or part of the problem?   

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Who’s in charge around here?

Every effective group has someone leading the organization. Being a leader takes courage, discipline, and determination.  It is a very hard job that can be lonely. You can be open to harsh criticism when things aren’t going well, be accused of playing favorites, insulted by underlings who don’t like your leadership style, or feel you don’t recognize their contributions. Occasionally these gripes are true. We’ve all had bad bosses at one time or another. Leadership, like any new skill takes time to develop. Sometimes, happenstance requires that a void in the chain of command be filled. If no qualified  INDIVIDUAL can be found, willing volunteers may be asked to pick up the mantle, or have it forcibly thrust upon them.  This is what is sometimes referred to as ‘trial by fire’. You’ll either rise to the occasion, or burn out. If you suddenly find that you are now the ‘captain of the ship’, then YOU need to act like it, and run things as best as possible, while consulting with other captains of other ships, reading the appropriate manuals, and making the tough calls. This also includes listening to the questions and concerns of your subordinates, some of whom may have more seniority than you.

IF you find that YOU are NOT in a position of authority, and the duly appointed captain refuses to acknowledge the approaching iceberg, YOU have two choices.

Stay the course and hope for the best, or abandon ship.

The LONE WOLF

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As a  leader, we MAY be able to force someone to do something they don’t want to do, but they won’t do it well, and may even quit or take action against us.

As a team-mate, we MAY be able to convince our squad to run a play, but everyone would need to be on board and, the team leader would still need to agree to it. There may be repercussions if we just did it without authorization, EVEN IF IT WORKED.

As an INDIVIDUAL, you can always convince yourself to do anything you really want to do.

Sometimes it’s just impossible to find a group that fits, or create a new group, or convince an old group to try something different that you really want to do.  The lone wolf has total freedom, but that freedom comes at the cost of camaraderie.  One really is the loneliest number, but regret is also a terrible thing.  If your team or group is holding you back, it may be time to explore new horizons and challenges solo. This requires a special kind of courage and strength, because the path of the lone wolf is the toughest.  If you falter and need help, you’re on your own. There’s no one to recognize your accomplishments, or say ‘good job’ at the end.  Only YOU can decide if it’s worth the risk of going it alone, or facing the regret of never knowing if you could have done it.  As INDIVIDUALS we all have the option of taking our ball and going home,  or finding new groups to play with, or just practicing our skills alone. Self-improvement  begins with SELF. No matter where we go, there we are. We can be part of many different groups simultaneously, but wherever we chose to be we need to bring our ‘A-game’ and give it our best effort.

 We cannot control the actions of other people, we ultimately can only control ourselves.   As always, I wish you success and happiness.

 

TIMING IS EVERYTHING!

Every second is precious.

timing is everything

“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.” ~ Peter Drucker.

It’s been said that ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’. It’s also been said that ‘he who hesitates is lost’.  We all live in the moment and there is no ‘right time’. People who wait for ‘the right time’ often wait forever and never accomplish anything. Ultimately it all comes down to proper timing. Each day, we all get the same 24 hours and how we spend that time is up to us. We also all have dreams, some big, some small, some practical, some unrealistic, and occasionally some totally bizarre. Like our time, realizing those dreams is also largely up to us. Highly successful people manage both their time and their money exceptionally well in order to accomplish those dreams and goals. Your future success is determined by what you do TODAY. People who chose to do nothing accomplish nothing and have no future. That same group is the most vocal about how successful people have somehow held them back in life, and that life is unfair. They refer to successful people as being obsessed. The important thing to remember is that obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated.

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If you truly want to improve your life, you cannot procrastinate, and you must attack your goal with full fledged determination. If you do this, you will succeed in life because most people are lazy. The important thing is to start! Do not put off for tomorrow what you can do today! Make a checklist of the things you need to do, and arrange them in a logical order so that you do not undermine your progress by having one chore undo another. For example, if you were  cleaning your kitchen, you would clean the counter tops BEFORE you swept the flour. You do not want to be counter-productive. The more efficiently you use your time, the more you can accomplish. Some tasks can be done simultaneously, others must be tackled one by one. Highly efficient people write things down and work from lists.

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Schedule EVERYTHING including downtime.  Dedicated people tend to over-schedule and burn out due to stress. Everyone needs a break. It’s OK to burn the midnight oil occasionally, but if you are constantly working late, sleeping little, and avoiding rest periods, you will begin to break down from stress. There’s an old adage: “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” If you feel you are not having enough time to do everything you need to do, you may need to cut out time-wasting activities. If you spend HOURS sitting in from of the TV, or playing games on the computer, then those bad habits are holding you back. I allow myself plenty of time in the morning by waking up earlier than I technically have to. This allows me time to have breakfast, pack lunch, exercise etc.  I allow a few extra minutes on the commute to work in case of construction or gridlock.  When I have tasks like shopping, I save time by making a single large loop and hitting all my destinations in the most efficient manner as to avoid back-tracking or going out of the way.

Remember, the future belongs to those who work for it. Do not neglect your health, no not neglect your finances, and if you have a family ESPECIALLY do not neglect them. People are ephemeral, we will all die one day, and it will be when we least expect it. The same goes for our friends and family.  How you spend your time is up to you. Will you waste it? or will you make the most of every moment? Only time will tell. As always I wish you success and happiness!      

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

(Your life may depend on it someday)

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.” — George S Patton

Two hikers stumble across a grizzly bear and her cubs. The enraged mama bear snarls and charges towards them. As the two men turn to flee in terror, the one says “We’ll never make it, we can’t outrun the bear!”  His buddy replies, “I don’t need to outrun the bear, I just need to outrun you.”

That’s an old joke, and you’ve probably stumbled across it before. Often it gets recycled or changed a bit.  Lately it’s been used pretty often in the popular Zombie Apocalypse Fiction genre.  One traumatic  example was in the second season of TV’s The Walking Dead when Shane shot Otis so he could outrun the zombies chasing them by sacrificing his buddy.  In the move Zombieland, Columbus had 33 survival rules, but his NUMBER ONE RULE was Cardio. “To escape a pursuing zombie you will need to out-run it, and this means being in good shape. ” There is even an running app for your smart phone called Zombies, RUN!

Many people take running for granted, often fooling themselves into believing that if they ever needed to run, or run FAST and far , they could if they had to. You’ll never know how far, or how fast you can run unless you make time for a regular fitness regime that includes cardio.  Now besides entertainment, end of the world Zombie fiction is good for getting people to THINK about what they what they would do if the unthinkable happened. When a natural disaster such as hurricane Katrina or Sandy suddenly devastated coastal regions would you have  fresh water, power, or food? What about tools, and other supplies. So let’s assume you were smart and did have a ‘bug-out-bag’ with supplies ready and waiting for an emergence. Could you strap it on your back and walk with that load  for miles if need be? Could you?

Two out of every three Americans are overweight, and half of those are obese. Being FAT is not healthy. It is bad for your heart, your veins, your bones, and your mental state. It is bad for every part of your body. I should know, I’ve been struggling with weight issues for years, and two years ago I embarked on a vigorous diet and exercise program to get my life back on track once and for all. Understand this above all else, it is impossible to lose weight by exercise alone. Exercise just helps to strengthen and tone the body. You’re food is your fuel, and your body needs the best possible nutrition to build strong bones and muscles. As a stress eater, I know that it is a struggle to give up comfort foods such as chocolate, cake, and pizza. Trust me, I know all about it. It is a daily struggle of mind over matter, but once you establish a daily routine and stick to it, you will see results. It will NOT happen overnight, all good things take time. The important thing is to start.

The Power of Positivity

When you feel good about yourself you feel better physically, and vice versa. I was in a bit of a funk a year ago because my weight had hit a plateau which is common.  So I needed to change what I was doing as far as both diet and exercise. After all what is the point of being rich and successful if you’re too sickly or overweight to enjoy the fruit of your labors? Doing NOTHING is not an option. When I was fatter, my knees hurt. Running was not an option in that state. As I began losing weight, the knee pain lessened and I started doing the elliptical more and more at the gym. And I began to see results so I started feeling better about myself. Obesity causes mental illness, such as depression.  Over the past two years I’ve managed to lose about 60 lbs so far, 30 last year, and 30 this year.  Last summer when I lost the first 30 lbs, I was on vacation and a cute waitress at my favorite cafe noticed, and told me I looked really good. That one compliment made my entire year and provided the impetus  to train even harder. So I decided to try running.

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One of my friends on Twitter is Nathan Maxwell @socialshark . I met him though CoffeeChat. He’s an Ultra endurance athlete, married with six kids. He started running 11 years ago and at the time he too was overweight, and couldn’t run one mile. Since then he has trained incredibly hard and to date has run more than 60 ultra marathons and four 100 milers. He has been (and still is) an incredible source of inspiration and motivation. I am fully convinced that I would not have reached the level of running I have currently achieved had it not been for his knowledge, wisdom, and encouragement.  Almost six months ago, I ran my  first 5K, that’s 3.1 miles. Since then I did a 15K Trail Run, uphill with 4 creek crossings in 90°F heat, and two weeks ago I ran my first half-marathon (13.1 miles). On October 13th I’m running another half-marathon, and four days later I have a 5K night run planned. I hope to run a full marathon in a year or so once I get my times down on the half-marathon.

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If there is one thing that I can say about the running community, it is filled with people who encourage and support other runners. I have been told that I was AMAZING more than once, and have gotten many thumbs-up, fist bumps, and high-five palm slaps. Likewise I have passed on encouragement to fellow runners, including one man  who decided to run his first 5K at age 70. And yes, Richard finished, and he wasn’t last! Even if he was, the point is running the race, and not giving up. I was dead last when I ran the Chobert Challenge 15K trail run. I burned over 2000kcals and was exhausted and staving when I crossed the finish line, but I did it, and there was even pizza waiting! Next time, I won’t be last. My first half marathon was grueling, but I finished! The best thing about half-marathons and up is that you get a finishers medal when you cross the finish line. This is not to be confused  with the insulting participation medal. It is a FINISHERS MEDAL and you earn it when you FINISH.  Crossing that finish line is an accomplishment that needs to be recognized.  Each year there are over 750 marathons and half-marathons held across America. Less than 1% of the US population runs in these races.  As for 5K races and such, there are also medals awarded by divisions and gender, so you can still win first, second, or third in your bracket even if you were not in the top three over all, and your times are recorded so you can track your progress as you go for the gold! Good luck, and as always I wish you success and happiness!  

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SPARE TIME?

Living in the Moment!

SPARETIME

“We’re all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by nothing.” – Charles Bukowski

There are at least two things that differentiate the highly successful individual from the unsuccessful crowd.  Firstly, they handle their money quite differently than the average person. Instead of spending every cent the moment they receive it, they budget their money, save much of it, and invest.  Secondly they do the same thing with their time. 

You may be familiar with the old adage ‘time is money’.  In a very real sense it is. When you work at a job, you get paid for your time. When you invest over time, you get a return on your investment.  In fact, time is more important than money because money can be replaced, but time cannot. Every moment wasted is gone forever. Unsuccessful people usually whine about how unfair life is because they don’t have as much money as Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates.  Here’s the main point. Rich or poor, Successful or not, every single person on Earth gets the exact same number of minutes each year. 525,600 minutes each and every year, with two exceptions. The year we are born, and the year we die. How we spend that year is up to us.

When I started writing my weekly blog InstantCoffeeWisdom over two years ago, the first article was The 52 Week Challenge. It was a weekly savings plan to be done over the course of one year, the end result being  $1350.00 saved to be used as you wish. Every year, I take a great vacation at the shore in Ocean City MD, that is my decision. I know many people who always whine that they never have money for vacation, so the first year I focused on microeconomics (personal finance) to help demonstrate ways to budget, cut expenses and hopefully achieve that goal set by The 52 Week Challenge. The second year, I focused on the bigger picture, exploring macroeconomics, and explaining how religion and politics are interconnected to economics, and why you should have a firm grasp of all three. Hopefully you were able to understand my points, see where I was leading you, and you were able to reach the same conclusions.  As I embark on my third year of blogging,  I’m going to focus on the topic of time. As I already stated, time is money, and we each have EXACTLY the same time each day, week, month, and year, despite financial disparities. How we spend our time is entirely up to us.

When I was a still just a young boy, the biggest time waster was the TV. I had family members whose entire lives were lived vicariously through the television. As a child, it was my ‘babysitter’. Plop me down in front of the set with a plate of snacks and I was good to go. My 77 year-old aunt does nothing but watch TV all day, or sleep. It doesn’t seem like much of a life to me, but she’s 77 and you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I got rid of my TV a decade ago. I’ve saved thousands of dollars over the years by ‘cutting the cord’. If I do decide to watch some program, almost everything is available online and I can watch it when it’s convenient. Although the letters TV  are an abbreviation for Television, it should stand for TIME VACUUM because this activity is just a  waste of time that can suck away hours of your life each day if you let it. Now the biggest waste of time and productivity is the mobile smart phone.

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The smart phone  puts the sum total of human knowledge in the palm of your hands. You can load it’s memory with apps to help you track everything financial or health related. It is a tool that in the right hands can increase productivity and knowledge, and likewise can kill it in the wrong hands. In my youth, phones connected people. Now they divide people. The typical smart phone user touches his or her phone 2,617 time every day, according to a study by research firm Dscout. Extremely addicted individuals use it twice as much as that. The phone is NOT reality. When you spend your time looking at your phone instead of living your life, you are wasting your life. You are cutting yourself off from life and missing all the wonderful things the world has to offer when you bury your face in your phone.

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Human lives are terribly short. We live at best about 120 years, but that is not guaranteed. There are preemie babies that live a few hours, or a few days.  My father died when he was 57. I missed out on all those great father-son moments growing up without a father as a result.   We are ephemeral, a vapor, and but a blink of the eye of God. We live our lives moment by moment, stringing each moment to the next like pearls on a string. We should do our best to make those moments shine.  Time cannot be replaced when it is gone, and neither can people. The greatest gift you can give a person is your time, and the second greatest gift you can give is your undivided attention. 

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One of my close friends has cancer. I pray for him every day. I hope he beats it, but ultimately that’s in God’s hands, and worrying about it won’t change that fact. If God wants us here on Earth, it’s where He wants us to be. No man can know the mind of God, but He’s in control even if it doesn’t make sense to us now. It is up to us to use our God-given free will to be stewards of our resources, which includes not just money and possessions,   but our time and our health as well. Make every moment count and interact with people instead of tuning out the world. As always, I wish you success and happiness!       

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DREAM BIG!

Just start small!

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Many historians and scholars regard Leonardo da Vinci as the prime exemplar of the ‘Universal Genius’ or ‘Renaissance Man’, an individual of unquenchable curiosity and feverishly inventive imagination., He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived.  Leonardo da Vinci was also possibly the greatest painter of all time. He died just over five hundred years ago at age 67 on the 2nd of May,  1519.   Leonardo da Vinci  dabbled in many different fields. He was a dreamer.  His surviving  journals  contain sketches and diagrams of fantastic devices such as flying machines and military tanks. Funny thing though. He NEVER published his discoveries and kept his journals secret.  He also NEVER built any of the machines he envisioned.  On his deathbed, he is said to have lamented that “he had offended against God and men by failing to practice his art as he should have done.”

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“But he was a great painter” you may be saying to yourself.  What you do with your life, and what you WANT to do with your life are two entirely different things. da Vinci was great at painting, but painting was his JOB. It was how he financed his livelihood. He may have been passionate about it and enjoyed doing it, but there was more to life that the man dreamed  of doing. For whatever reason, he just never did the things he REALLY wanted to do. Regret is a terrible thing.

There are many reasons why people do what they do, and just as many reasons why they don’t.  You can break the reasons down any way you choose, but I prefer to narrow them down to five.

The five reasons people don’t do things come from weakness–

  • Ignorance
  • Fear
  • Indifference
  • Laziness
  • Spite (Or Hate if you prefer)

The five reasons people do things from strength–

  • Wisdom
  • Courage
  • Caring
  • Determination
  • Love

We are not born strong. We grow strong by working on our strengths. It isn’t instant, it takes time but it will not happen unless we start. Starting is the key to going down the path of life that we wish to pursue. We have to do it ourselves, no one can do it for us, and it can be a truly terrifying thing to begin to do something you’ve never done before.  It is the determination and courage that keeps us going. With each new success we gain the wisdom of knowing that we can do it. We did it before and we can do it again. In time we begin to enjoy and even love the little bumps in life’s road because we see them as challenges to overcome instead of obstacles blocking our path.  You only get one life here on planet Earth, there are no do-overs or dress rehearsals.   Life is meant to be lived! Instead of merely choosing to EXIST I urge you to experience LIFE, I urge you to LIVE. It is okay to dream, and dream BIG, but more importantly, YOU MUST START! Don’t be afraid to start small. Great things grow from modest beginnings. Baby steps are your friend, not a source of ridicule. Just do it. Ignore all the naysayers  and negative know-it-alls. Their dreams have long since died and they can’t stand to see you succeed where they have failed, and. Now the only way they can feel good about themselves is by bringing you down. What they think of you says more about them than it does about you.  You need to cut ties with all the negativity in your life. This goes for both things and people. If it’s not helping you to grow, it’s holding you back  and poisoning your  mind with negativity, fear, and doubt. You will never have a positive life if you have a negative mind.

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When I first started http://www.InstantCoffeeWisdom.com  on Sept 10th, 2017 I did it with one goal in mind. That goal was to prove that the life you wish to lead was within your grasp. It wasn’t going to be given to you, you had to work for it if you really wanted it, and it was there for the taking if you did. The first blog post was THE 52 WEEK CHALLENGE . The entire first year was spent producing weekly posts to show you ways to cut costs, save money, and budget. I focused on microeconomics , or personal finance in order to educate you to the larger issues. What good does it do to discuss index funds if you don’t even have two pennies to rub together? And how could you possibly even comprehend the national debt if you don’t know how to balance your own budget?  The second year was spent focusing on macroeconomics, and explaining as well as demonstrating the interconnectivity of the three big no-nos      of polite conversation: politics, religion and finance.  By sharing my ideas, knowledge, and opinions, I not only encouraged you to improve your life, I also re-enforced my own goals and improved my life as well. I am not some ‘do as I say, not as I do’ hypocrite,  I’m sharing my success stories with you and encouraging you to ignore the fake news  and trust me when I tell you this is all for the best. If you have the privilege of living in America you have a charmed life. We currently have a great President who is doing everything in the best interest of the country,  and putting America First. This is a land of endless opportunity and you can dream big. You can succeed easily if you are willing to do the work. Always remember American ends in “I CAN”!   

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If you only started reading my blog recently, I encourage you to begin reading at the beginning over the next few weeks while http://www.InstantCoffeeWisdom.com  goes on hiatus during my summer vacation. This year I’m spending even more time at the beach, enjoying my new Jeep, and running my first half-marathon  the Saturday after Labor Day.  I hope you have an awesome rest of the Summer and  as always, I wish you success and happiness!

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HERE’S THE SKINNY!

Words of wisdom from ‘the Mayor of Hollenbach St.’

heres the skinny

“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

The ‘Skinny’ is a slang term meaning the inside story, or the real truth.  The first use of this term is listed as being 1959 and may have developed out of other related slang phrases like ‘trimming the fat’ or ‘getting to the meat of the matter’.  It’s appropriate because sometimes truth can be hidden under layers of deceptions so thick that all you can see is the big fat lie being presented and not the real truth. You may also of heard another catchy phrase, ‘you are what you eat’. That is a bit older and was first used by French author Anthelme Brillant-Savarin in 1826. It also needn’t apply to physical food but can also relate to concepts, knowledge and motivations.  What you put into your mind changed the way you think and becomes the lens with which you perceive reality.  Wearing ‘rose-colored glasses’ doesn’t change reality either, it just changes the way you view things and means having a positive outlook. That phrase goes back to about 1830.

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Mahatma Gandhi was a man of peace who freed India  from British rule in 1947. He is attributed with the pithy quote ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’, but this is not his actual quote, just a highly shortened paraphrase of the wordy quote listed at the beginning of this blog post. He wasn’t  Christian, but he had some good things to say about life and living.

If you ingest a constant stream of negative, depressing, miserable lies, you will become negative, depressed, and miserable. The lies will become your reality, and you will call truth a lie whenever you hear it. If you put garbage into your mind, you get garbage out   so remember that. GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT or G.I.G.O. for short.  It is no wonder that the phenomena labeled ‘TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROM’ has been coined to describe leftists who totally lose their minds whenever conservatives praise our wonderful president for all the good that he has accomplished (and continues accomplishing) during his first term in office.  It’s also why conservatives claim that ‘Liberalism is a mental disorder’ sometimes even go so far as to label them ‘Libtards’.  Libtards truly believe the lies and fake news they hear, see, and read. For them, Donald J. Trump is literally the same as Hitler, and all his followers are racists , misogynists,  gun nuts. They think socialism is a wonderful idea and believe in a free lunch . They ignore the fact that unemployment is at a historic low, the stock market is at new record highs on a weekly basis, and our wages have increased while taxes have dropped. And they are aghast that we are going to re-elect Trump in 2020.  

The modern Democratic party has done more harm to the American way of life than can possibly be written in a single article. Whole books have been written. Saul Alinsky’s protégés had nearly succeeded when Trump upset their apple cart in 2016! You may ask yourself why any sane person would want to destroy their homeland, especially a shining beacon of hope and freedom such as the USA. 

That’s easy.  It’s because they are globalists who reject American exceptionalism and crave power at all costs. To them American citizens are nothing but cattle, a resource to be controlled and exploited.  Wolves like fat sheep.

The Mayor of Hollenbach St.

If you go to the intersection of Schuylkill Ave and Hollenbach St. in Reading PA, you will see a mural painted on the side of a house. The portrait is of my late friend and former co-worker Harvey W. Kimble.  Harvey died from a fatal heart attack on January 19th 2014. He was only 55. He owned several properties on that small city block, several of which he rented out as Section 8 housing.  He lived in one house on the block with his family. He was a US Marine, a postal letter carrier, and a very kind and caring man. I never saw him in a bad mood or angry, and he always had a smile on his face that lit up the room. He cared about everyone, and the people on HIS block called HIM the Mayor of Hollenbach St. He always had lollipops for children and would give you the shirt off his back. A great guy.

Hollenbach

Harvey was also very up on politics and current events and studied the newspaper daily, clipping articles for his files. He would write up editorials and pass out copies to his friends. I always kept the copies he gave me, which was a good thing because one day his hard drive got accidentally re-formatted and he lost everything EXCEPT the dozen hard copies he had handed me over the years. Perhaps his most important editorial story was an allegory titled THE SKINNY COW.  Harvey encouraged people to think for themselves and read between the lines. Always remember that ANYTHING the government provides was first taken from someone else. If you wonder why  the DNC continues to entice it’s base with offers of FREE FOOD, FREE COLLEGE, FREE HOUSING, and FREE MEDICAL CARE you really need to read the SKINNY COW, which I now present in its entirety.

 THE SKINNY COW By Harvey W. Kimble ©2002

There once was a skinny cow. A lonely, scared skinny cow. One day The Farmer came along and told The Cow, “Come along with me I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry about the food. Don’t worry about the water. Don’t worry about a nice, warm, dry place to lie, I’ll take care of you, you can trust me. You can depend on me to be there for you”. The Cow could eat, drink and sleep without worries. The Cow was happy and satisfied not a care in the world. The Farmer gave The Cow some special hay, which made The Cow eat more and sleep. The Cow loved this new life-style and thought it would last forever.

The Cow did nothing to disturb The Farmer. The Cow stayed where The Farmer said stay, walked where The Farmer said walk, ate when The Farmer said eat. The Cow utterly respected The Farmer. The Cow, always trying to please, wouldn’t even pass gas when The Farmer was near. The Farmer told The Cow “It was special and better than those other cows. Don’t worry; I’m here for you, I’ll take care of you. You can depend on me. I’m here for you. You can trust me. Don’t I take care of you? Here, eat some more special hay, just for you”. The Cow really believed it was better than those other cows because The Farmer said so, then happily ate the hay.

One day there was a commotion by the fence. The Cow never went close to the fence to see what the other cows was looking at even when they called The Cow over saying “There’s a hole in the fence come see the other side”. The other cows saw things they wasn’t supposed to see and started talking about it. The Farmer didn’t like that so he locked the other cows in the barn, while telling The Cow “Watch out, don’t trust those other cows they’re nothing but a bunch of lying, troublemaking, know nothing, jealous cows. Trust me, they won’t get much food or water and might not have a place to sleep if they keep it up”. The Farmer gave The Cow some more special hay, a pat on the head then said, “Trust me, you’re not like those other cows you’re a good cow, one I can talk to, you can depend on me to be there for you”. Then the Farmer walked away, smiling, on his way home, leaving The Cow near but not with the other cows.

When the other cows stared telling some of their horror stories of the things that they had seen, The Cow didn’t listen and even defended The Farmer. Telling the other cows not to worry, we have food, water, and a place to sleep. The Farmer will take care of us. We can trust The Farmer. We can depend on The Farmer. The other cows told The Cow not to believe everything you’re told and if The Farmer does something, it’s because he will benefit from it. The Cow turned his rump to those trouble-making cows and refused to listen. The Cow always avoided those scary troublemaking cows.

The Cow soon became the favorite of The Farmer. The Cow got extra food and water while the other cows went without. The Farmer was always telling The Cow, “It’s their fault they don’t have enough to eat, enough to drink or a place to sleep. Don’t worry trust me. I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry yourself about them, it’s all their fault anyhow”. The Cow believed, trusted and loved The Farmer more than those other cows. The Cow had dreams of becoming a farmer. The Cow grew to be healthy, plump and soft. Never talking to or looking at those other, now skinny, cows. Never looking back at its past. Never reflecting on its action. Never thinking back to just a few short months ago. Never thinking about tomorrow. Just surviving day to day thanks to The Farmer. Thank you Farmer. All thanks to The Farmer. ALL THANKS to The Farmer.

One day The Farmer took The Cow for a walk. At the end of the walk, he told The Cow to stand in line with those other healthy cows and move forward. Before leaving he told The Cow, “Don’t worry, I’ll be here to take care of you. I’ll see you in the barn my special, favorite cow”. The Cow couldn’t see far enough ahead to see where the line ended, so The Cow moved forward with the heard. When the cow behind asked The Cow to ask the cow ahead what was happening The Cow said, “Don’t ask any questions, don’t worry, we just have to do what The Farmer said and move forward. Trust The Farmer.

The Cow could now see the barn door, which let one cow in at a time. After standing in line for ours, The Cow wanted nothing more than to get through that door, out of the sun and to The Farmer for some special hay. Rumors began about how cows go in but not out, it don’t make any sense. Something weird is going on. The Cow said, “Don’t worry and don’t listen to that crazy talk just move forward. The Farmer will take care of us. Trust The Farmer”.

The door opened. The cow ahead moved through the door. The door closed.

The Cow heard a muffled cry, silence then laugher.

The door opened. Too late The Cow became worried. The Cow didn’t know what was on the other side. The Cow wondered what the other cows had seen. The Cow tried to back up but the cow behind said, “Don’t worry, move forward, I see your friend The Farmer inside”. The cow moved forward. The door closed. The Cow slipped in something that looked like blood. The Cow closed its eyes not believing what it was seeing. Afraid, scared, confused and unsure, The Cow squeezed its eyes shut tighter. Then The Cow heard the soothing voice of The Farmer saying “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you”. Reassured, The Cow opened its eyes in time to see The Farmer standing overhead swinging a sledgehammer with all his might straight to its head. The shocked and unbelieving cow gave a muffled cry and dropped dead. A friend of The Farmer gave him a pat on the back then said, “You sure took care of that cow”. The Farmer said, “Yea. I always said I would”. Then laughed while opening the barn door.

THE END

I hope reading THE SKINNY COW by my late friend Harvey W. Kimble has enlightened and entertained you. As always I wish you success and happiness.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS!

The truth behind the Democrat’s deception!

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July is a hot month and it is the middle of summer in the USA. The hottest movie this month has been Spider-man: Far From Home.  This is the third straight MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) film to cross $1 billion dollars, and the first Spider-man movie to ever hit that mark. It’s money well deserved because I’ve seen the film and think it’s the best Spider-man film ever made.  The box office bonanza WON’T be going to Disney Studios because of a complex game of hocus-pocus with Sony Entertainment which technically still owns the movie rights to the character.  Spider-Man is one of the most popular characters owned by Marvel Comics, and back in the 1990’s the company was falling on hard times and even filed for bankruptcy on December 27, 1996. While the company was struggling, it kept selling the rights to different characters to different movies studios like Fox, Sony, and Disney.  When the Marvel Cinematic Universe was created the first film in the series IRONMAN was made by MARVEL STUDIOS in 2008. In 2009 Disney purchased MARVEL and all its properties for $4.3 billion dollars. Unfortunately the film rights to Spider-man were still stuck in a web with SONY while Disney went about creating an ambitious shared universe of interlinked movies which told a continuing story over the course of (currently) twenty-three films. As Spider-man was integral to the MCU, a deal with SONY had to be hammered out at all costs.  A superhero universe without Spider-man was like a sundae without whipped cream and a cherry on top. Fortunately, Spider-man was introduced in Captain America: Civil War in 2016, and officially joined the MCU with shared custody of the character hammered out between the two companies. The current Spider-man film also introduces another long-time character to the MCU, Quentin Beck AKA Mysterio.    Mysterio has the ‘superpower’ of creating illusions so real that you are deceived into believing that they ARE real. When you can’t believe your own eyes and ears, it is nearly impossible to distinguish fact from fiction, or truth from lies. Evidently Mysterio must be a Democrat because he has the same powers that they do.

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BUT WAIT! There’s more!

July is a special month in US history for two important reasons. The USA was born on July 4th 1776, and on July 20th 1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the noon winning the ‘Space Race’ with the former Soviet Union. Although this historic event occurred 50 years ago this month, there are a small percentage of misguided individuals who believe that it never happened.  Right behind Neil Armstrong was Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon.  In 2002, Buzz Aldrin was heckled by a moon-landing denier who asked him to “swear on the Bible, that you walked on the moon.” The idiot kept insulting and jeering at until he finally crossed the line and called Buzz  “a coward, and a liar, and a thie-“.   He never quite got that last word out because Mr. Aldrin punched him right in the mouth.  This is what liberals always do to conservatives. They insult them and laugh at them until they lose their temper and lash out. Then they claim it’s our fault and that we are the problem. The left doesn’t believe in credit where credit is due, personal responsibility, courtesy, American exceptionalism , God, guns,  the Constitution, and I could go on.

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Pick a card, any card

The Democrats use their power of illusion to create one existential crisis after another in an attempt to convince you that they are the party of ‘Hope and Change’ while fleecing the American tax payers and destroying the nation. Like a magician performing card tricks, the audience is either amazed or impressed by the illusions. The truly smart members of the audience see the deception  and know that there’s really no such thing as magic. The truly dumb people believe that it’s real and the magician has special powers. After the curtain falls, the magician leaves the show with his cut of the money, while the audience goes home empty-handed.  It’s all a game of cards with the Democrats, and the only power they have is what the American people give them. They only way to take away their power is to pull back the curtain and look where they don’t want you to look. WE hold the real cards, not THEM!

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The Race Card

Democrats love to play ‘The Race Card’ and tell you that Republicans are racists, and Trump is a racists, and that white privilege exists. It’s all just Swamp gas. Democrats are elitists who have supported slavery and racism from the beginning. All Americans black, white, brown, yellow or red all share the same privilege. The privilege of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness granted them by the Constitution. These are inalienable rights granted them by a sovereign God, Jesus Christ. They DO NOT come from the Government, and they especially DO NOT come from the Democrats.

The Social Security Card

Another deceptive tactic used is the claim than Republicans will end social security and have been taking money out of the ‘Social Security Fund’ to pay for various pet projects, such as The Trump Wall. There is no ‘Social Security Fund’, there never was one to begin with. Social security is an enforced tax paid by taxpayers, with the understanding that they will get it back. Unfortunately Democrats expanded the entitlement base and started giving payments to people who never paid in, or who paid the very minimum. The game is based on you not living long enough to collect everything paid in, but as modern medicine has improved, people are living longer. Also with the record unemployment caused by previous administrations,  people sitting at home and not working were both NOT contributing Social Security, but in some instances taking early retirement or claiming social security disability. The reason social security will someday ‘run out’ is because the country is bankrupt and heavily in debt  due to massive spending by prior administrations. Just like a household budget, spending more than you earn has  serious consequences. Social Security is a shell game, and needs to be replaced with something better. Republican are in favor of entitlement reform, but Social Security will be here for years to come, and will never disappear in a day.

The Government Card

Democrats always claim that they have the solution, bigger Government, higher taxes, more spending, more programs,  more, more, more. Let me make this perfectly clear. There is no such thing as Government Provided Anything. It’s all taxpayer funded EVERYTHING.  Anything the government gives you was first taken away from someone else. Taxation is theft!

The ‘HEART’ Card

They are always claiming that all these entitlement programs are needed, and that anyone who opposes them is heartless. If you offer something for ‘FREE’ rest assured people will line up to take it, whether the need it or not. While some people are in dire straits from time to time, the American taxpayer is not the solution.  Working for a living is! You get what you pay for.

The Wild Card

You always hear about how Republicans are trying to take away rights. Many of these so-called rights never existed in the first place, like the ‘right’ for gays to marry, or the ‘right’ for transgender people to use whatever  bathroom they please. Transgender athletes who were born MALE are competing on women’s teams and beating REAL women.  There are only TWO sexes. Male and Female, and God made both of them. Cutting off your penis and getting breast implants doesn’t make you a ‘woman’, it makes you an idiot, and a mentally ill one at that.   

The Democrats have made a game out of government and created a house of cards that is unsuitable and unsustainable.  When the curtain falls on these purveyors of illusions, WE THE PEOPLE don’t get to go home, because we ARE home. If we want to Keep America Great we need to play our ‘TRUMP CARD’ in 2020 against those Democrats and some RINO Republicans who are only in it for themselves. We have a great country. The real power lies with us. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and God will bless America when America starts blessing God. As Always, I wish you success and happiness.

DRAIN THE SWAMP!

Pulling the plug on the Deep State.

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Since winning the 2016 election for U.S. President, Donald J. Trump has kept ticking items off his campaign  ‘To Do List’. In less than three years, he has accomplished more positive things for our great nation than any prior president, except George Washington. Despite his growing list of accomplishments Trump has been constantly and continuously attacked by the liberal media and members of the Deep State.  Having done his very best to accomplish to deliver on his Make America Great Again campaign slogan, Donald J. Trump needs to win re-election in 2020 in order to Keep America Great.  The ‘Deep State’ refers to the self-righteous, egotistical, and subversive people who have infiltrated the US Congress and have raided the treasury as if it were their own private piggy bank. Many of these so-called representatives like Maxine Walters, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi have done nothing besides claiming to be working in the best interest of their constituents. Many areas like the cities of Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York have gradually become crime zones with outrageously high taxes under Democratic leadership.  Donald J. Trump has been working to ‘Drain the Swamp’ of American politics by removing these swamp rats from office, but he needs your help to do this. The American people are the ones who voted these destructive elements into office, and the American People are the ones who must also vote them out.  Mind you, these people are USUALLY Democrats but there are a few RINO (Republican In Name Only) Republicans who need to go as well. Not all states have term limits regarding their representatives in congress,   and some of these negative elements have exploited this loop hole to remain in power for decades, if not for life.  They will say anything negative about Trump in order to retain their stranglehold over the American People.  We have the power. Congress work FOR US, and we can effectively FIRE THEM by voting in competent reformers. 

What does a member of Congress do?

Members of Congress represent the people of their district in the United States Congress by holding hearings, as well as developing and voting on legislation. All bills must pass Congress before they can go to the President to be signed into law.

What are the qualifications to run for office in the House of Representatives and Senate?

The required qualifications are found in Article 1 of the Constitution:

House of Representatives                                                                                                                     

  • 25 years of age
  • A citizen of the United States for at least 7 years
  • At the time of election, be a resident of the state

U.S. Senate

  • 30 years of age
  • A citizen of the United States for 9 years
  • At the time of election, be a resident of the state

How many members of Congress are there?

There are a total of 535 Members of Congress. 100 serve in the U.S. Senate and 435 serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

How long do members of Congress’ terms last?

Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms and are considered for reelection every even year. Senators however, serve six-year terms and elections to the Senate are staggered over even years so that only about 1/3 of the Senate is up for reelection during any election.

How many members of Congress come from each state?

Each state sends two Senators to represent their state in the U.S. Senate. However, in the House of Representatives, a state’s representation is based on its population.  For example, smaller states like Vermont and Delaware have one representative while large states like California have 53 representatives. (This is why Democrats want to eliminate the Electoral College. If they did, smaller states would never have a voice in government and the ‘big states’ would pick the president.)

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How many people do congressmen and senators represent?

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives each represent a portion of their state known as a Congressional District, which averages 700,000 people. Senators however, represent the entire state.

How do the House and Senate chambers differ?

In the House of Representatives, the majority party holds significant power to draft chamber rules and schedule bills to reach the floor for debate and voting. In most cases, House rules will limit debate so that important legislation can be passed during one legislative business day.

In the Senate however, the majority has the power to schedule when various bills come to the floor for voting but a single Senator can slow legislation from coming to the floor for a vote. Since debate in the Senate is not concluded until 60 senators vote for a cloture motion to approve a bill for consideration, the majority must also coordinate with the minority part to set the rules for debate on legislation. Under this system, legislation can be debated for one or two weeks on the Senate floor alone.

Why does Congress use the committee system?

Congress deals with a broad variety of different policy issues and it is more efficient to have work done at the committee level than on the House or Senate floor. In addition, this system allows members to gain expertise in specific issue areas they are interested in. Throughout history, committees have been created to address particular issues before Congress. The House has 23 committees while the Senate has a total of 20 committees.

How does a bill become a law?

Passing legislation into law is a complicated and lengthy process between the House and Senate before the bill is presented before the President to be signed into law. For a thorough explanation of the legislation process, please see the How a Bill Becomes a Law section on the House website.

Do Members of Congress pay into the social security system?

YES. Since January 1, 1984, all Members of Congress participate in the Social Security system and are required to pay Social Security taxes.

What kind of retirement plan do Members of Congress have?

Members of Congress who were elected after 1984 are automatically enrolled in the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS). 

What kind of health care do Members of Congress receive?

As written into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, P.L. 111-205), on January 1, 2014, Members of Congress are no longer eligible for health plans offered to federal government employees.  They instead must enroll in the District of Columbia’s Health Exchange in order to obtain employment related health plan coverage.   

Remember, these snakes and swamp rats need to be held accountable. Some have become multimillionaires by accepting lobbyist money while their districts have fallen into poverty.  President Trump accepts no salary as president. He is only the third president to do so, the other two were Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy.  You need to examine the issues potential replacement candidates stand in favor of, or against. Once elected you need to examine their voting record before re-electing them.  It will take time, but it can be done, you can help Trump Keep American Great. As always, I wish you success and happiness!          

THE BLAME GAME!

Whose fault is it?

The Blame Game

“Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.”–Lou Holtz

When you were younger, you thought you could conquer the world  but somewhere along the way you let the world get the best of you. Maybe you tried and failed. Maybe someone told you it was impossible. Maybe fear held you back.  Soon, it became easier for you to just shift the blame for your lack of success on everyone else. They never taught you. They held you back. They won’t help.  They, they, they… never YOU!

 

When you were a child, your parents may have mollycoddled you but once you turned eighteen, you gained certain legal rights granted to adults. You no longer needed a nanny, so it was no longer a question of who’s minding you . I’m going to clue you in on two important secrets which when you utilize them, will give you an incredible edge on your path to success.  No gimmicks, nothing to buy. These two secrets are yours absolutely free. These two secrets will give you incredible power to achieve your goals in life. Are you excited yet? You should be, because these two secrets when used properly will change your entire life.

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THE FIRST SECRET

The ‘THEY’ that are holding ‘YOU’ back are very real, and they don’t want you to succeed.  You don’t need to know who THEY are, just that THEY exist.  THEY can include the liberal media which feeds you negative messages, questionable entertainment, and fake news.  THEY can include the corrupt government officials behind the Deep State that inhabits the D.C. Swamp, which President Trump is fighting to drain. THEY can even include your family and friends, who messed up their own lives and need you to mess up yours too because misery loves company. THEY are real, and THEY want you to fail.  Their goal in life is to control every aspect of your life by manipulating your thoughts with a steady stream of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ or G.I.G.O.  And IF you lose all hope that things will improve by listening to their negativity, THEY WILL WIN!

Now you may be thinking ‘how does this first secret help me?’  Knowledge is power, and knowing is half the battle. If you think of SUCCESS as a ‘road’, and the THEY as ‘potholes’ in the road, by avoiding the ‘potholes’ you will move faster and easier down the ‘road of success’. Which brings us to the second secret.  

“The size of your success is measures by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream, and how you handle disappointment along the way.” – Robert Kiyosaki

THE SECOND SECRET

The second secret is that the power THEY have over YOU is an illusion which YOU allow them to have.  You do not have to give them that power. You don’t have to listen to their negativity. You don’t have to acknowledge their lies. YOU are stronger than THEY are. You have the power to be all that you can be! It’s  very easy to play the blame game and blame everyone else for are failures. The reality is that we are responsible for the vast majority of the decisions we make in our lives. The GOOD ones, the BAD ones, and even the MONUMENTALLY STUPID ones.  If you have the privilege of living in The United States of America, then you also have the freedom and opportunity to pursue your goals and achieve whatever level of success you choose. If you’re a failure, it’s because you chose not to be a success.  At some point, you stopped listening to the possibilities YOU told yourself existed,  and YOU listened to the lies and impossibilities THEY told you. When you quit, they won. You need to own that. And if you want to change that, you need to start TODAY.  Winners never quit, and quitters never win. If you really want to be a success, you can never quit.  More importantly than not quitting,  you have to start. It doesn’t matter if you fail, try again, but don’t quit no matter what. THEY may call you crazy, obsessed, stupid, or out of touch with reality. What THEY say and think has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with them.  YOU are capable of anything you choose to do. You just have to want it, and you have to work for it. Success does NOT happen overnight. It takes time and effort.

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“Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated.”–Russell Warren

The future’s so bright, I gotta’ wear shades!

For the past two years, I’ve been sharing my knowledge and advice in order to help you achieve a happy and successful life. I can honestly say that my life has never been better, and it’s improving on a regular basis. I worked my way out of the poverty I was born into, listened to wise council, and avoided many pitfalls in life by examining the mistakes of others, and avoiding those errors.  I wanted a better life. and I worked for everything I’ve achieved.  I am a lifelong Republican, and have been a Christian since college.  I live in a great country, and I have a great president.  I started running a few months ago, ran my first 5K race in April, will be running my first 15K race today July 7th 2019, and in two months I will be running my first half-marathon. In May of this year, I purchased the Jeep I’ve wanted to own for the past decade. As a result, I now currently own THREE automobiles.  If you don’t believe that success and happiness are within your power, let me assure you, it is possible, but it takes time, and YOU have to work for it. No one can do it for you. Success, or failure, it’s all up to YOU. As Always I wish you success and happiness!

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WHAT’S YOUR LEGACY?

Is the mark you make ‘spot on’?

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“To a father, when a child dies, the future dies; to a child when a parent dies, the past dies.”— Red Auerbach

Last weekend was Father’s Day in the USA. Honestly it’s not my thing. My father died when I was a young boy, and as yet I still have no children of my own. The commercial holiday to honor fathers and fatherhood is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. It was first celebrated in 1910, but not signed into law as a permanent observance until 1972 when 37th President Richard M. Nixon signed the bill into law.

One thing that irritates me to no end is when pet owners refer to their pets as their ‘babies’ or refer to themselves as ‘fur parents’.  This form of self-delusion has been propitiated by various animal rights groups, environmentalist groups,  and even pro-abortion groups as a way of discouraging  child birth because the Earth is allegedly overpopulated by humans who are supposedly destroying the environment and killing ‘Mother Earth’. The Earth is NOT your Mother, and your pets are not your children. Pets can be valuable members of your family, and be loyal companions who display an unusually human level of behavior and intelligence from time to time, but they will never BE human. Humans are not evolved animals.

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We are all children of God, and by God I refer to the one true God, Jesus Christ, who created all of us in His image for His purpose. We were created to be fruitful and multiply. Children are a gift from God, and our children are a living legacy.

 “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you’ll do things differently.” — Warren Buffett

The word LEGACY can mean either money or property that you receive from someone after they die, or something that is a part of your history or that remains from an earlier time. In other words your birthright that is passed on to you, which you in turn will pass on to another after you have departed this mortal coil.  Property is not just material goods, either but can also refer to intellectual property. When you write a book, paint a painting, film a movie, or teach a course you are passing on knowledge and inspiration to others. In the past, you really needed to shine bright to leave a mark in the history books and be remembered.  Unless we are extraordinary leaders of men, every single one of us is about fifty years from being forgotten.  When the last person who knew us passes on, we too are forgotten.

The higher you are held in regard, the further your impact will go, which is why your reputation is paramount. If you have a reputation for honesty and integrity, people will more readily believe you and follow your lead. Your enemies will do everything in their power to trash your reputation, but the truth will always be true no matter how many lies are told about it.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6 King James Version (KJV)

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In today’s digital world, nothing is forgotten, but the amount of information being generated is staggering. Information can become buried and lost virtually forever until someone uncovers and shares  it. As data ‘facts’ and fake news are spread like wild-fire in nanoseconds around the globe, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd.  The important thing to keep in mind on is that both sides playing the game of kings for global domination want to influence you and sway you to their side. This is why fathers, and husbands, and the traditional family unit have been constantly being assaulted by the left. When you destroy the family unit, you can reshape society into any insane caricature you can dream up.  This is why Christianity and Jesus and the Bible are all despised by the left, and all haters of truth.  This is why President Donald J. Trump is constantly being slandered by the liberal media.  Both parents (and fathers especially) play an important part in preparing the next generation and preventing them from engaging in stupid and self-destructive actions. Turning 18 may legally grant you certain rights held by adults, but it does not make you an adult.   The next generation is the future, and freedom is always one generation away from extinction. If you love your children, teach your children well. As always, I wish you success and happiness!

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