Some of you may have visited this site in the past week and found a post titled "What makes life suck". I have chosen to remove that post because it noted unpopular behaviors. Who needs to be reminded of the things in life that make us sad? Instead I am replacing it with people in life who are beautiful. And isn't it wonderful to know that we have that power built in us. We are charged with managing ourselves, why not take full advantage of that. There are many people in life who can make it joyful and lovely for you, me, and it is those things we should hold on to and dwell upon with love for that person. Think of things, which make you smile as you lay down to go to sleep each night, plant seeds that will be in bloom when your eyes open to the new morning. Look for those things about you that are good in you and cultivate them, nourish them by finding ways to build others up. And you will find that it will build you up too. When you practice tolerance and watch how you view others it improves you, and will plant seeds of love and confidence in you and them, and that in turn removes burdens and obstacles from your own life. Hope for a healing in those who offend you, don't look for vengeance. This makes you a winner. And you are you know. You are a winner. Words are what make the difference in our lives. Words can cut and they can heal, choose the latter and watch yourself heal too.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Question: Is the world around you changing or is it you that's changed? Key To Life # 0.5 Accept Change
Hey, things ain't like they use to be any more, are they? I remember when the use of fowl language was taboo and particularly around woman (ladies) and children. So what happened, where are the manners we lived by before the era of bad language? Were they of no real value, and unworthy of protecting? Who decided it was ok to be vulgar and disgusting, was it our government turning the other way, while they quietly slipped us down a notch, turning us into a third world nation? Are there any decent women left or are they all cheesy, sleazy, sneaky self righteous judges and opportunist? So what's going on? What do you think? Has the world around you changed for the worst in recent years, or is it just that your opinion of it has changed, maybe because you have changed? Do you care, and if not, why not, and if yes, why? Where are we right now, any ideas?
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Is there anyone out there? Key To Life # 0.4 Never Expect People To Do What You Ask Them To Do
Hey everybody, its Gene, your host, and I just want to say, oh what a bad blogger I've been. Posting irregularly, posting long posts (Aging, and From the beginning), lecturing, Aging again, and failing to invite comments, discussions and writing as though I am the final authority on something, and I apologize. Well today is the beginning of a different kind of blogger in me, and I hope you like the new me. First, I would like to invite your comments, and your opinions on stuff I blog about here, or anywhere I blog. I want to ignite a spark in you that summons the writer in you to come out. Give you a forum to express yourself and be heard and recognized. So, without further apology, let me jump right into it. I was reading a piece yesterday at Imgur . com. The title was "What the fuck is wrong with these people?" At first I turned away because of the language, but my curiosity got the best of me, and I'm glad I looked. I couldn't believe what I was reading. These people posted hate messages about the Japanese and their plight. I was floored. Forget about praying for em, let's take this opportunity to kick em while they're down. If you don't mind, go over there and check it out and come back over here and post your thoughts on it. Really, I mean it, are you still angry about Pearl Harbor?
Thursday, March 3, 2011
From The Beginning Key To Life # 0.3 Never Forget Where You Came From
This will be a fun blog for me to write you. I get to recount my childhood and I hope when you read it, that it takes you back to your childhood too. I was this wild kid who always attracted animals of all kinds. Here are some of my childhood memories. Like a kid running into a candy store, I popped out of my mother and hit the ground runnin she'd say, and I haven't stopped for anything but food, water or a girlfriend since. That's a pretty accurate metaphor. If you lived out in the country, I'm that crazy kid from the woods who'd show up in your yard and play with your kids.
Always sneaking off and getting into mischief. My fathers shot gun saved me more than once. Twice exactly. Once from rabid skunk and another time I was playing in an irrigation ditch that had been filled with water. A small child can swim in the big ones. But sometimes dangerous animals are in them too. A cottonmouth was in the water one day with me and my dad shot it too. I've always celebrated life and tried to sample everything about it.
My mom said my eyes would light up whenever I saw the sunrise. She said I rarely ate and was always excited.
I am convinced that I remember the details of when I was born in the little one car town back in Texas. I was born in a hospital not much bigger than a small duplex apartment building. I can recall back to when I first saw the light, a bright bulb set in an aluminum cowling protruding out of the ceiling in the delivery room, at least that's what it looked like to me. Don't under estimated babies, they begin collecting data immediately I guess! My said all people don't have that kind of recall. My mother right today will tell you that my description amazes her. Neither her or my dad have ever described that room to me. You know back then they slapped a babies butt to open their eyes. Maybe that's what made me like I was. Maybe.
My mother loves to tell the story how one day her and my dad did a stupid thing. They left me alone in my crib at the farm house while they drove to the store around midnight. When they came back there were wolves throughout the yard and two had already entered the house. My dad always had a gun and the moment the car lights revealed them he jumped out shooting in the air. When they saw two run out of the house she said she feared the worst. But nope, I was lying in my crib wide awake she said.
Both my collar bones have been broken from being slam into a fence and another time tossed into a fence from several yards away. Both times by two different bulls I was teasing from inside their pins. I was 7 and 8. I think most city people would think I'm exaggerating, but most country folks would know I'm not. That's where I come from! That's who I am.
Always sneaking off and getting into mischief. My fathers shot gun saved me more than once. Twice exactly. Once from rabid skunk and another time I was playing in an irrigation ditch that had been filled with water. A small child can swim in the big ones. But sometimes dangerous animals are in them too. A cottonmouth was in the water one day with me and my dad shot it too. I've always celebrated life and tried to sample everything about it.
My mom said my eyes would light up whenever I saw the sunrise. She said I rarely ate and was always excited.
I am convinced that I remember the details of when I was born in the little one car town back in Texas. I was born in a hospital not much bigger than a small duplex apartment building. I can recall back to when I first saw the light, a bright bulb set in an aluminum cowling protruding out of the ceiling in the delivery room, at least that's what it looked like to me. Don't under estimated babies, they begin collecting data immediately I guess! My said all people don't have that kind of recall. My mother right today will tell you that my description amazes her. Neither her or my dad have ever described that room to me. You know back then they slapped a babies butt to open their eyes. Maybe that's what made me like I was. Maybe.
My mother loves to tell the story how one day her and my dad did a stupid thing. They left me alone in my crib at the farm house while they drove to the store around midnight. When they came back there were wolves throughout the yard and two had already entered the house. My dad always had a gun and the moment the car lights revealed them he jumped out shooting in the air. When they saw two run out of the house she said she feared the worst. But nope, I was lying in my crib wide awake she said.
Both my collar bones have been broken from being slam into a fence and another time tossed into a fence from several yards away. Both times by two different bulls I was teasing from inside their pins. I was 7 and 8. I think most city people would think I'm exaggerating, but most country folks would know I'm not. That's where I come from! That's who I am.
My mother said that at 16 she was not well equipped to deal with a colicky baby like I was. She said she couldn't take it so she gave me over to a white lady who lived down the road. She said she saw her carrying me and crying one day walking along a dirt road and she stopped her car, got out and asked her what was wrong. And she told her that I was crying and she couldn't get me to stop.
From that day on this lady came over every morning to the house and would stay with me and you she said, all day helping me with you. She showed me how to fold a towel and lay it across my knees and lay you face down on it on your stomach and how to rock you till you burped". She told me that this lady was as much my mother as she was, Because one day she had to go away, and she gave me to this lady. I remember her raising me. She was young and pretty like my mom was. She me a long time. My mother doesn't talk about why she me to her. I remember feeling safe and warm all the time with her. She toted me everywhere even after I could walk she'd still carry me all the time.
From that day on this lady came over every morning to the house and would stay with me and you she said, all day helping me with you. She showed me how to fold a towel and lay it across my knees and lay you face down on it on your stomach and how to rock you till you burped". She told me that this lady was as much my mother as she was, Because one day she had to go away, and she gave me to this lady. I remember her raising me. She was young and pretty like my mom was. She me a long time. My mother doesn't talk about why she me to her. I remember feeling safe and warm all the time with her. She toted me everywhere even after I could walk she'd still carry me all the time.
The first words I spoke were not mommy or daddy, they were s_ _ _ pot, f_ _ _ you and a few other choice words. I was afraid of my own shadow at night but not of anything else; just my shady, literally. Not snakes, wolves, bulls, horses or people. In fact she say's I was incredibly bold and aggressive at a very young age.
She laughs when she tells of the time I was riding in the back seat as she and my dad was heading down the road to Plainview Texas, and my dad said "sit down back there boy" and I said "no you shit head" and hit him in the back of the head with my metal toy cap gun. I wasn't even scared when he stopped the car and spanked me she said, but I remember the spanking. Do you have a lot of memories from your childhood?
My parents were wild, young, dumb and mean. Once they left me in the car and I got into the glove box, took my dads 38 pistol out and shot a hole in the dash. The windows were rolled up and the sound waves knocked me unconscious. I remember the ringing before everything went black. They say they found me unconscious with the gun lying beside me. This is all true dumb country stuff I'm sharing with you. If you are reading this and you are from the country, you know.
Things changed when they moved us to California. I got asthma really bad and stopped breathing a lot. They rushed me to the hospital and doctors saved my life a number of times. That scenario played out more times than I care to remember. I practically lived in an oxygen tent from the age of 11 to 14. Then one day it was gone.
She laughs when she tells of the time I was riding in the back seat as she and my dad was heading down the road to Plainview Texas, and my dad said "sit down back there boy" and I said "no you shit head" and hit him in the back of the head with my metal toy cap gun. I wasn't even scared when he stopped the car and spanked me she said, but I remember the spanking. Do you have a lot of memories from your childhood?
My parents were wild, young, dumb and mean. Once they left me in the car and I got into the glove box, took my dads 38 pistol out and shot a hole in the dash. The windows were rolled up and the sound waves knocked me unconscious. I remember the ringing before everything went black. They say they found me unconscious with the gun lying beside me. This is all true dumb country stuff I'm sharing with you. If you are reading this and you are from the country, you know.
Things changed when they moved us to California. I got asthma really bad and stopped breathing a lot. They rushed me to the hospital and doctors saved my life a number of times. That scenario played out more times than I care to remember. I practically lived in an oxygen tent from the age of 11 to 14. Then one day it was gone.
My fearlessness has gotten me into some pretty tough messes along the way in my life, but it's given me a great deal of wisdom to share. Both my collar bones have large breaks in them from those bull attacks as a result of those antics on the farm. To get into a bullpen with a bull is one thing, but you gotta run right after you get the bull's attention, and not run in a circle around the bull, that really pisses them off. We were at about 7 and 8 at that time (my friend Jaime would do it too). I had a dog named Ranger. Ranger was a giant dark brown Great Dane and I loved him. He was my best friend as a child. I used to ride him like a horse. My mother would send my dad to find me in the car whenever she called out for me and I didn't answer. They always knew they’d need the car. Because I'd ride Ranger miles away.
I used get up in the mornings at day break and go right outside, get on Ranger and ride him for miles down the road at times, not realizing how far we had gone. I loved exploring the residuals of the ending night. Right to today, you will often find me basking in the early morning sun, I love the warmth of the morning sun, its better than coffee to me.
One early morning I saw a man get struck by lightning, they say he lived, I remember seeing him sitting on his tractor and plowing his field at daybreak when out of the dark gray sky without a sound, came a bolt of lightning, the loud cracking sound didn't come till after the lightning had come and gone, then it started to rain and thunder as more lightning flashes splintered and cracked the skies like and egg cracks. I ran to his house, banged on the door and told his people, I guess his wife. Then I ran home with Ranger. My dad said the man lived. He said the lightning hit the tractor mostly.
One early morning I saw a man get struck by lightning, they say he lived, I remember seeing him sitting on his tractor and plowing his field at daybreak when out of the dark gray sky without a sound, came a bolt of lightning, the loud cracking sound didn't come till after the lightning had come and gone, then it started to rain and thunder as more lightning flashes splintered and cracked the skies like and egg cracks. I ran to his house, banged on the door and told his people, I guess his wife. Then I ran home with Ranger. My dad said the man lived. He said the lightning hit the tractor mostly.
My mother and father would drive to visit some of our relatives who lived in nearby cities and spend the nights there for awhile and in the mornings they would all drive out to the fields and pick cotton. They would leave me in the car, they said it was too hard to watch me out there with the kinds of poisonous snakes that were out there. If I wondered off in those fields and got bitten we were too far away from anywhere to get help.
Sometimes when I think about to that night of wolves, I wonder if somehow during that night a bond of some kind took place because some years later a beautiful wolf followed me home from a hike and rabbit hunt just after we moved here to California. Of course we moved to the outskirts of the city to a place called Otay Lakes. My friends, parents and relatives couldn't believe it and they couldn't stop talking about it. I've always had a way with animals. My mother thinks that's why I got asthma. She says it was a psychological reaction from being take away from animals.
We really became close, the wolf and I. I would hug him, lay on him and we played tag all the time together. He would lower his head and let out a fierce growl when people approached me but never bit anyone. He never growled at my mother and father or my brothers, but still didn't trust him, they'd just call me away from him most of the time refusing to come close. They said he was just too big. I named him Lobo which is wolf in Spanish. Then one day I woke up and went outside to him like I did every morning, and he was not there.
I called out loud running and crying for miles but I never saw him again. My eyes are tearing as I write this. After a month or so I quit looking. I just knew it was right. That he had to go back to the wild. I stopped crying a lot and one day resumed my life as if it never happened. My dad said that's how it would play out, and it did. By the way, my dad never kept the gun loaded in the glove box anymore and he kept the glove box locked. I know because I looked for it again. These are the memories that I can escape to when life gets complicated for me. I hope you enjoyed reading them.
People Who Love Animals Key To Life # 0.2 Treat Animals Nice!
"What about these animal rights activists?" Ever hear people say that, and then follow up with; "don't you think people should come first; I mean it's as though they don't realize that those are just animals. they are not as valuable as people. Those people don’t say much about anything that happens to a person, but oh, let something happen to an animal and it's all over the news, what a waste of time, don't these people have anything better to do?"
May I submit this to that? Our world consists of all the elements that keep it going, and besides things like trees for oxygen, rain for clean water, soil purification and other natural occurrences, among those elements are people. We have a certain responsibility to animals, being the superior life form here on earth. It is our responsibility to take care of animals and it is our responsibility to address true human concerns too. So you are both write and wrong, and its’ extremely noticeable when one side strays a little too far into the extreme. People who make their voice heard concerning the ethical treatment of animals are just doing their job, our job if you will.
Imagine what the world would be like if no one stood up for animals. We run the risk of losing animals of all kinds by habitat invasion, abuse, hunting and killing them for sport, or vengeance, and whatever else you can think of. The people who speak up for animals are the world’s conscience for animals which sometimes will prod the rest of us to remind us of our responsibilities as the superior life form. Wouldn’t you agree that some of us need to be reminded at times? So please, don't be so quick to condemn people who love animals, we need them as much as we need rain, sunshine and air we breathe. They remind of us of our humanity and help us to keep our existence on the higher plain so that it doesn't sink to a level below that of the animals which share the world with us.
Common sense dictates that there should be a balance or a border that keeps the love of animals within reason of course; we wouldn't want our love of animals to go beyond the ethical treatment of humans now would we that would be self defeating? So both sides, people who love animals and people who are not as interested in them have a responsibility to each other wouldn't you agree, and maybe it's simple, maybe it's just a matter of respecting nature, both human nature and natural nature because it's those two elements combined which keep us all alive?
Here's a good reason to respect people who love and protect animals I'll warn you this is graphic
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