Form and Reform

All of us are formed as we live our childhood.  I know of one person who was formed, sometimes violently, very well in terms of ethics.  Honesty, truth-telling, respect for others, respecting the property of others -- this person was formed quite well.
He/she was formed differently when it came to substance abuse.  Alcohol, in particular, was there to be used and abused.  He/she was not formed very well in terms of emotional openness and health.  He/she was not formed very well when it came to self-respect and self-value.

Some formation was positive.  Some was lacking, or negative.  Probably most humans could say the same.

As he/she enters adulthood it may be time for re-form.  It may be time for looking carefully at the use of alcohol, or drugs, or sugar, or fats and decide:  "I need to re-form myself in this/these area(s)."  I believe this to be both a personal issue and a social issue.  Addressing the need to think about re-forming oneself is powerfully personal, of course, but it also has an impact on society where he/she lives.  It impacts raising children, being married (or being unmarried), life on the job, how a person balances many parts of living while relating to others.

I think this is a lifelong task, but it belongs primarily in young adulthood.  A person can create his or her own "reform school" and sentence the self to lifelong attendance and ongoing learning and development.

What do you thing?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Brave - 1

Think about bravery with me if you would.  Instances in history come to me:

Jesus, captive to conservative legalists as well as to Roman occupiers, said to a wealthy [conservative?] leader:  "You know the commandments." Then he listed the social behavior commands, and left out the religious commands.  That took guts!

Moving forward in history, brave men and women discounted religion, magic, superstition and kept saying:  "Look at the data!  Look at the data!"

If we don't understand it yet, that doesn't mean it's magic, or a curse, or inevitable.  

Persecuted, burned, hung, flayed and flogged, brave thinking people paved the way for your bravery and mine in 2013.  

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Is Preparation Obvious? Part One

Recently I have had occasion to visit with people who have failed to prepare.  In some ways I have failed to prepare.  Let me use some examples.

Friends are thinking of retiring early.  Great possibilities.  But. . .

They have not been preparing to retire.  Let me count the ways.

They have not developed a breadth of activities they can enjoy and do.

• Active living -- keeping the body strong and healthy could include:
• Walking, cycling, skiing, hiking, serious yard work including digging, landscaping, etc
• Playing tennis, golfing, handball, etc. 
• Dancing or taking dance lessons
• Painting the house or houses
• Helping the others by working on Habitat for Humanity construction projects, shoveling  snow for shut-in, serving and preparing food for community kitchens
• Going on Road Scholar trips that involve a high level of physical activity
• Moderate living -- being active, but not stressing the body, could include: 
• Doing one's own yard word, including pruning, mowing, raking, and planting
• Walking each day
• Playing one or more musical instruments, preferably with others
• Bowling, regular workouts with Silver Sneakers or at a local health facility.  This does not have to be 'heavy duty" stuff.
• Doing your own housework including vacuuming, sweepting, cleaning, etc.
• Quiet living -- for evenings, or when the body has begun to fail, could include:
• Reading, playing board games, getting together with friends to talk, attending films with others and having coffee or dinner afterwards to talk about them, playing computer/tablet games, doing your own preparation for income tax and then preparing your own tax returns, planning trips and projects 
• Taking classes at nearby colleges
• Taking classes on line think of Coursera, for instance) 

You get the idea. In my experience people who retire tend to keep doing what they have "practiced" before they retired.  The time to establish these lifestyle possibilities are when you are in your thirties, forties and fifties.  Of course, it's never to late, but. . . 

What do you think?  Do you have an experience to share?  Leave a comment and let us know. 

"The Butler" - reflections and Responses

The results have changed.  However, when I first used Google to get websites about the film, "The Butler", most of the responses were sites defensive of Ronald Reagan.  People felt the film had portrayed him as a racist.

In fact, the film both gives him personal kudos for his support of his black staff and his decisions to dismantle civil rights progress.  In other words, he had a mixed record.

The amazing thing is the number of people who cannot think carefully, accept the facts that demonstrate a mixed record, and go on with life.  I suspect that Mr. Reagan's defenders have their own racism or their own "right" ideology to defend and he is just a front person for that.

Maybe not.  What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Shop classes -- gone!

On a recent trip crossing Nevada, Utah and Wyoming I had way too much time to think.  I got to wondering about the lack of foresight in most contemporary home owners.  Let me break my thinking into two parts.

Part one:  people who purchase houses, condos, cabins and town homes are genuinely surprised that they have to maintain them.  It may be they expect to mop floors and mow the lawn, but. . .

• they are surprised when the water tank leaks
• they are astonished when the furnace doesn't work well
• they express amazement when the doors don't close properly

In short, the effort and cost of maintaining a home hammers them between the eyes.  They are so often unprepared.

Part two:  I got to wondering if younger home buyers are victims of the elimination of wood shop and home ec courses in public schools.  They have grown up without any understanding of fixing faucets, adjusting doors, and paying for craftspeople who can deal with maintenance issues.

In my experience one can expect to spend about the cost of the house again in thirty or so years in order to maintain it well.  To handle that, in addition to budgeting for monthly mortgage payments one should be budgeting an adequate amount from the second month of ownership, to be put in an investment or savings account, so that there is money available to keep the building and property in good condition.

I learned about such things from my dad and from wood shop at Peninsula High School.  Mr. Miller's Modern Problems class helped as well.  But adults who did not have these classes probably wouldn't even know where to look for classes on this kind of foresight and planning.  Their mortgage broker won't tell them!

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.