Missing the Point on Immigration
Jun. 5th, 2018 07:14 pmQotD: How to Help
Jul. 14th, 2017 01:10 pmawakening is no longer a luxury or an ideal.
It’s becoming critical.
We don’t need to add more depression,
more discouragement,
or more anger to what’s already here.
It’s becoming essential that we learn
how to relate sanely with difficult times.
The earth seems to be beseeching us
to connect with joy
and discover our innermost essence.
This is the best way
that we can benefit others."
~ Pema Chodron
The Uglification of Public Life
Jun. 1st, 2017 01:32 pmToday it was a lady by the name of Hammer. What's in a name, I ask? Did your name make you into a prosecutor in the pharmacy line? How many hammering questions does one have to tolerate before you are satisfied? Is there an inkling of generosity in you? A morsel of patience? An ounce of kindness? I saw none. I experienced questions hammering in faster than they could be answered, demands stacked up while I was trying to answer the questions, topped with an insult. Ms Hammer is just the most recent experience of this sort. There was one yesterday, and the day before more than one. Too bad it's nice people who get cancer and not the bitches.
This is Oregon. People in general are nice here. But not the raving maniac that stabbed two men to death the other day trying to get to some young women who were a different color than him. This disease of condemnation and hatred is seeping deeper and deeper into our culture, and leaking out in more settings all the time. I do not know how to fix it. I don't believe in phony niceness, but I also don't believe in punishing people just because you can. I am sensitive and not cut out to tolerate verbal abuse in the course of my work. I try to contain my anguish until I am in private. Then I weep. I try to be kind to the people that I meet. And I may have to find a way to not serve the public any more.
In Japan they have a name for it. Hikikomori. It's a sociological phenomenon in which people simply stop participating in society. If society is ugly, then decent people will not show up. If decent people do not show up, society will uglify even more. If we all retreat into our tiny little bubbles even more than we already have, the fractures in our supposed union of states and free people becomes null and void. This culture is headed for the bloodbath.
Trump's Mudras
May. 19th, 2017 09:33 amhttp://www.cnn.com/2017/05/12/opinions/hand-gestures-matter-for-presidents-van-edwards-opinion/index.html

QotD: How Tyranny Begins
Dec. 27th, 2016 02:13 pmA president intent on developing
a base of enthusiastic supporters
who believe bald-faced lies
poses a clear threat
to American democracy.
This is how tyranny begins.
--Robert Reich,
The "Not" Face
Jul. 10th, 2016 08:39 pmLate to discover Groundhog Day
Jun. 24th, 2016 04:59 pmBody Language Cautions for Travel
Jun. 17th, 2016 09:07 amhttp://www.scienceofpeople.com/2014/07/gestures-shouldnt-making-abroad/
by Michiel Andreae from The Netherlands
( Read more... )
NY TIMES OPINION PIECE: MOLLY WORTHEN SAYS STOP SAYING “I FEEL LIKE”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/opinion/sunday/stop-saying-i-feel-like.html
The PC-ness and softening of modern verbal communications has results in a net loss of meaning. We can fix this, if we want. Behind the cut is a good article arguing for awareness of this one particular phrase. "I feel like" is often used to replace the words "I think", and it is not a feeling at all. Feelings, that is emotions, are quite distinct from thoughts and judgements. To be clear in our communications requires that we recognize and communicate that difference.
The Four Agreements
Dec. 14th, 2015 04:11 pmSpeak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.
ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
Body Language Lesson
Aug. 29th, 2015 09:17 amHandsome, eh?

What does it tell you?
( What it tells me )
Can't it just be simple?
Dec. 5th, 2014 09:48 pmPosted by Seth Godin on September 30, 2014
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/09/the-sophistication-of-truth.html
A common form of complexity is the sophistication of fear.
Long words when short ones will do. Fancy clothes to keep the riffraff out and to give us a costume to hide behind. Most of all, the sneer of, "you don't understand" or, "you don't know the people I know..."
"It's complicated," we say, even when it isn't.
We invent these facades because they provide safety. Safety from the unknown, from being questioned, from being called out as a fraud. These facades lead to bad writing, lousy communication and a refuge from the things we fear.
I'm more interested in the sophistication required to deliver the truth.
Simplicity.
Awareness.
Beauty.
These take fearlessness. This is, "here it is, I made this, I know you can understand it, does it work for you?"
Our work doesn't have to be obtuse to be important or brave.
Seth Godin is a writer, a speaker and an agent of change.
SOURCE
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/09/the-sophistication-of-truth.html
Six Words to Avoid
May. 29th, 2014 04:28 pmBut
Just
Always
Never
Should
SOURCE
http://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/6-words-to-remove-from-your-vocabulary.html
Poem: Ask Me by William Stafford
Mar. 12th, 2014 02:42 pmmistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
WORTH READING:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/opinion/brooks-the-heart-grows-smarter.html?smid=fb-share&_r=2&