“It is not the critic who counts…” Theodore Roosevelt

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt, Paris 1910.

A Treatise on Confusion

My teacher used to say:

“Confusion is a high state as long as you don’t stay there.”

Confusion means that something new is coming into our consciousness that we haven’t quite accepted yet. An old thought form or belief system is still in place and we’re not quite ready to let it go.There is a cross over between these two thought energies pulling at our mind.

This is confusion.

It’s a high state because we are moving from an old paradigm into a new one. This is progress, evolution or involution. People who are perpetually confused and confounded are not the subject of this discussion! We are talking about movement into new higher territory and the mental friction that is part of the natural process of getting there.

“Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution…

“Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”

~ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
16th US president 1861-65, elected 2 terms, Civil War ended 4/9, assassinated 4/14/65.

After he was mugged in the Subway…

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

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Pamela Sabin’s “Hugs instead of Handshakes Campaign”

I’ve started a new campaign….”Hugs instead of Handshakes”!

Your hands spread the colds and flu, viral and bacterial. So instead of shaking someone’s hand when you meet them …just give them a big ole’ HUG. It opens everyone’s hearts and it feels great! Here’s sending everyone a huge hug!

The Way to Happiness…

Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.”

~ Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)
The Power of Positive Thinking – US pastor, Marble Collegiate Church, NYC, author, The Power of Positive Thinking ‘52

6 Miles High, Heading West at 550MPH

I love to fly and not just to get away and go somewhere else.  It’s about the height and velocity. It creates/unleashes a level of creativity that I have a hard time garnering on the ground. Charles Ledbetter, Theosophical write of the early 20^th century said that “Most of our thoughts are not even our own”.  This is both a profound insight to some and a profound excuse for others. Growing up in a high density urban area, I was always bothered on a subtle mental level by the unending bombardment of thoughts around me. When I moved to Arizona in the late 70’s I experienced the expansion and solitude of the Desert. I was left alone with my own thoughts. No excuses, just my thoughts, just the manifestation of my sub-conscious breaking the surface of the conscious mind. Can’t blame the ethereal influences of other human’s densifying the ether’s. Just me and the land.  Dennis Adams used to say,“It’s never outside of yourself.” I have found this to be profound simplicity. Like my favorite quote from my favorite 1970’s Movie Buckaroo Bonsai, “Where ever you go…there you are…” My Dad used to say the same thing, “You take your dirty laundry wherever you go.” SO once you separate the thoughts that aren’t yours from what is, you are left with your stuff…positive and negative, unbounded unconditional love and judgment..  Here is Personal responsibility whacking my consciousness like a 2×4. Dang it’s me, my thoughts, my creation…wherever I go it’s me manifesting my totality. I accept that, it’s just that sometimes I do need the rarefied space of space to stimulate some highly creative moods….

“The Pain of Discipline vs the Pain of Regret…Choose one” Jim Britt

In 1975 I worked as a Medical Photographer at a Hospital in Canada. I was on the cancer ward one day  when I met a man who had cancer throughout his mouth, lips, esophagus and lungs. He had a tracheotomy, yet to my astonishment, he was smoking a cigarette through the trac hole. I was mortified at the sight. Seeing my excitation (horrification), the man called me over. His voice was raspy, low and guttural. He grabbed me by the sleeve and looked deep into my eyes and said in almost a whisper, “Son, don‘t smoke.” Tears filled both of our eyes. I am still moved by the memory…
This lesson has been a guiding principle in my personal health care. I do not want to die in a hospital with tubes coming out of me.  As you will see in my upcoming posts,  I deeply believe in personal responsibility.