July 30th, 2010 — Humor
We’ve been talking about loopholes that people use to get around the spirit of laws. My favorite is Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor and a saint in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Byzantine Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches.
Constantine didn’t get baptized until he was dying because baptism wiped away all one’s previous sins. He was a violent man…for instance he had one of sons killed with a slow poison and left his wife to die in an overheated bathtub…and he worried about going to hell. He wasn’t about to change his lifestyle so he waited until it was clear he could sin no more. He did manage to get the timing right. I don’t know if he made it to heaven, but he was awarded those sainthoods. 
July 23rd, 2010 — Humor
This cartoon reminds me of an acquaintance years ago. His doctor looked up from the test results and said, “Tell me, Mr. Balestrini, do you believe in God?” Oh, oh.
It also reminds me of some appeals from charities I’ve recently received. They weren’t asking for money now. They simply want me to remember them in my will. Oh, oh.
They remind me of buzzards circling overhead.
Have you ever received an appeal like that? If you did, how would you feel?
July 16th, 2010 — Humor
I don’t know about other countries, but here in the U.S. states allow people to buy “vanity plates”. Instead of a combination of letters/numbers issued by the state the buyer can choose his own…as long as it uses only about 6 or 7 letters or numbers, isn’t obscene, and hasn’t been already chosen.
Obviously people sometimes have to be ingenious to fit the restrictions, e.g., having to leave out letters while still conveying the meaning:
One clever person took advantage of a special Virginia plate ($25 a year extra, plus $10 a year more for your choice of lettering) which allowed the buyer to support the state program against domestic violence.
His choice poked fun at the license plate, probably not quite what Virginia had in mind:
Given the ingenuity of the human race and the law of unintended consequences, I wonder about an idea California is exploring. The state is looking into digital license plates. The license plate number would be displayed when the car is moving, but when it stopped for a stop sign, red light, or because of traffic gridlock, a miniature billboard would appear. The scheme would make more money for the up-to-its-ears-in-debt state and allow the buyers more creative flexibility. But I wonder how they would regulate the results. What do you think? Given the creativity and perversity of some human beings, do you think the scheme is a good idea or more trouble than it would be worth?
July 9th, 2010 — Stress Hardiness
What are the “stress tests” in your life? My daily one is to look at the news every morning and to avoid being discouraged by the latest messes. I also spend a lot of time reading history so I can put things in perspective and get some intellectual pleasure out of living in these radically changing times. What about you?
July 2nd, 2010 — Focusing Our Attention, Patience
This cartoon tickled me, but I don’t really believe it. For one thing, sometimes patience represents hope rather than despair…say when we grow a garden or raise a child. Some of the most worthwhile things in life can’t be rushed, they take time.
And there are no guarantees. Sometimes things don’t go the way we hope. After we’ve done all we can and the situation is out of our hands, we just have to let it go…either temporarily or forever. And focus on keeping it from poisoning the rest of our lives.
My daughter is in that boat right now. She and my son-in-law are trying to remodel their house, a major undertaking that was supposed to start on May 3rd and hasn’t started yet. They were finally through most of the hurdles (financing and building permits) they thought, but the changes in the plans someone in the local authority had told them to make turned out to be illegal. So they’re back to Square One on the building permit. This is two months after moving into their rental house, which means more money going out the door with nothing to show for it.
My daughter is an effective, can-do person, so this is especially hard for her. But because she is so effective she will wind up handling it well. She has plenty of other things in her life to focus on until it’s time to deal with this situation again. Yes, it’s hard, but stress-hardiness techniques do work.
What about you? Have you ever been in a situation like this?
June 18th, 2010 — Life as a Shared Adventure
Which has higher priority in your life, work or play? Play comes first for me, which doesn’t mean I never do anything that someone else would call work. It’s just I try to enjoy what ever I’m doing as much as possible. As they say, life is short. Way too short not to enjoy it for those of us with one foot in the grave the other on a banana peel.
Practicing What I Preach
I was going to publish this post this morning, but I received this e-mail from my web host:
Dear Jean:
Your web hosting account for cheerfulmonk.com has been deactivated, as of 06/17/2010. (reason: terms of service violation – malware/virus)
This deactivation was due to a Terms of Service violation associated with your account. At sign-up, all users state that they have read through, understand, and agree to our terms. These terms are legal and binding.
Although your web site has been suspended, your data may still be available for up to 15 days past the date of deactivation; however, if you do not contact us, after this time, your account and all of its files, databases, and emails will be deleted.
If you feel this deactivation was made in error, or in order to gain access to your account, please call our customer service line as soon as possible at (866) 573-4678.
It reminded me of the old joke,
One little A-bomb can ruin your whole weekend.
Needless to say, I canceled most of my plans for the day and worked on getting this mess straightened out. In spite of the unfriendly tone of the e-mail I wasn’t worried. In the past HostMonster’s technical support has been great. I knew they could tell me what to do and that I had enough background to understand what they were saying. It took time but it was a bit of an adventure and good mental exercise. Given the subject of this week’s post, could I have taken any other attitude?
What about you? How important is play to you? How successful are you in integrating it into your everyday life?
June 11th, 2010 — Humor
This cartoon reminds me of Looney saying the Chinese have a rich vocabulary for different kinds of smiles. I wonder what they would call Earl’s in the cartoon above. Or what they would call the father’s smile in this cartoon:
Are you as much of a sucker for a genuine smile as I am? How would you react to the smiles in these two cartoons? I would think Earl’s was coerced… and the father’s smile seems too intrusive. Even if the father isn’t faking his cheerfulness, trying to talk his son into feeling the same way has to be annoying. Have you ever been in a situation like that? Either as the cheerful person or the person being annoyed? Do you agree with the Chinese that there are many kinds of smiles?
June 4th, 2010 — Lifelong Learning
I don’t know what the dog in the kudzu patch is looking for, but scientists down in Antarctica are digging for something of vital interest to us all….more information about global warming.
Most scientists agree that the world is warming up. The question is how much of that current warming is due to human activity and how much is simply natural variation. Scientists have been trying to guess how temperatures have changed in the past by looking at tree rings, harvest records, and sediments in seas and lakes. The trouble is too many assumptions have to be made for all scientists to agree.
As Mining for Cold, Hard Facts explains, American researchers are taking ice cores at the WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Sheet) Divide, 600 miles from the South Pole, to see what the climate has been like for the past 100,000 years. Researchers will especially be looking at the relationship between the greenhouse gases and temperature changes.
I think it’s a great way to shed more light and less heat on the global warming issue. What do you think?
May 27th, 2010 — Humor, Living Fully
Earl’s response in the above cartoon reminds me of a Marlo Thomas quote:
Some kind of help is the kind of help that helping’s all about. Some kind of help is the kind of help we can all do without.
Clearly Earl’s is the kind we can all do without, unlike Arlo’s in the following cartoon (click on cartoon for larger version):
What about you? Have you ever had memorable help from someone? What kind was it?
May 21st, 2010 — Lifelong Learning
The above cartoon raises some questions about how our minds work. Do you ever talk to yourself? If so is it out loud or just internally? I’m more of a visual thinker than an auditory one, but I do find myself mentally writing and rewriting my posts, trying to keep them as concise as possible.
A great deal of my thinking is in the form of images. When I think of topics for posts my first step is to try to figure out what picture or graphic to use. As I said, I try to keep my posts relatively short…my main goal is to present food for thought so I can share ideas and experiences with my readers.
Sometimes when I’m thinking of an idea or situation my talking is aimed at some abstract listener. Mostly I’m just observing, I don’t have a sense that “I” am doing the talking. The exception to this is when I’m facing a challenge…then I give myself pep talks and any emotional support I need.
Things are somewhat different when I’m going through a big transition in my life. Then I do a lot of free-association journal writing to make sure my decisions and actions are connected to the deepest part of me. I don’t need to do this at this point in time, but it’s nice to know that method is always there for me when I need it.
What about you? Do you have internal self-talk? Are you an observer or do you have a sense of yourself doing the talking? Does your inner voice tend to be supportive or critical? What exactly is your mind doing when you’re “thinking”?
