Anger
Good morning,
I would like to spend a few moments talking about the way we feel; the way we feel more often that we probably should do. I want to talk about anger. Anger is the most negative of the emotions that we feel, many of us on a daily basis; and it is definitely the most destructive, affecting ourselves and those around us. If you look at the world around you, the situations many of us find ourselves in, there is good reason for us to be angry. Companies we entrusted our money to, are collapsing; banks and financial institutions need to be rescued by the government; using money we’d paid in taxes to improve services in our neighbourhoods, towns and cities. The money we have being squeezed from us as companies, who provide us with essential services (food, power, housing, transportation) are raising the costs of everything we need to survive. Our jobs are at risk; we know that our company may very well be one of the next to fall victim to the “credit crunch” crisis we are currently experiencing. We know we may fall, and we know that the outlook for employment to replace that we’d lose is bleak.
All this stress and strain, on top of those we feel anyway on a daily basis; they all add up to making us angry people.
We get angry because we are losing control, we feel like we are losing control in our environment, in our lives. We get angry because we are powerless; but our anger gives power to others. In being angry, we are saying that the cause of our anger is more important than we are.
We have to learn to control our anger. This doesn’t mean we can’t allow ourselves to feel angry (if we deny our anger, it will build up like an emotional pressure cooker, eventually exploding; and most likely triggered by a situation which wouldn’t warrant it); controlling your anger is about releasing it in a controlled way. About controlling our lives and introducing things to help relax ourselves, to calm the rages inside of us. But before we can control our anger, we need to learn to recognise the signs; we need to identify the things that are raising our hackles and putting us on edge.
My thought for today is for us to look at ourselves and see if we are angry people. If we are, then admitting that is the first step to change. I’m going to include a couple of links here which have sites filled with information that may help. In treating people better, less aggressive and angrily, we make the world a better place for them, and for ourselves.
Useful links.
APA Online “Controlling Anger before it controls you” : Link
BBC Health “Anger Management” : Link
Bupa “Anger Management” : Link
Trust
Good afternoon,
my apologies for not writing the past couple of days; I have been meaning to sit down and write about trust. Trust is about having a belief in someone or something. You have expectations of how something will be, and faith that everything will meet your expectations.
The problem comes when your trust is broken; when you are let down and your expectations aren’t met. The more this occurs, the less you expect. Eventually you get to a point where you have no trust left.
On the withoutwax.tv blog earlier this week, they talked about your “trust meter” being broken ( link ) as part of a “baggage series” they’ve had at Cross Point Church; it is, like all the entries, well written and I like the way it’s explained.
Trust is a fragile thing and it breaks easily. Once broken, it is hard to build up again.
The more relationships we experience where our trust is broken, the more of a culminative effect we feel; we enter each new relationship with less trust. We expect disappointment, we expect to be let down.
My thought for today is to take a moment to look at how we see our relationships. Can we trust easily, or have we had our “trust meter” broken? Have our expectations been damaged by our past? Can we do anything about it?
There is always something that we can do. The first thing is to recognise that we have a problem; the second is to communicate with others, to be open and allow trust to build – to realize that the people in our lives are not necessarily the same as the ones who betrayed our trust in the past. Not to be blind to signs and ignore suspicions, but to air them in a calm and rational manner. To give people a chance.
I definitely recommend you read the withoutwax.tv blog entry linked to, and consider adding it to your bloglines or favorites list.
Thank you for reading,
have a good day.
Salv.
Opinion or Truth
Good morning,
first I must apologize for the lack of an entry yesterday. Second, I must thank everyone who spoke like a pirate on Friday and brought smiles and happiness into each others’ lives with all the silliness and fun that such a thing causes.
Yesterday I was talking with various people throughout the day, from the rich to the poor, the educated to the barely literate; people from all walks of life, all sorts of professions; each of which having their own set of beliefs. Their own truths and opinions. To many people their beliefs are mutually exclusive to any other beliefs that exist. Many people have rigid beliefs that are unchanging while others are more flexible and, accepting that they maybe do not know everything in this life, allow their beliefs to change over time as more information is made available to them. While many beliefs may sound believable and reasonable, some people’s beliefs may seem odd and illogical to us; I am reminded of the story of the old woman who attended a lecture on astrology and, to quote from wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down ; I believe referencing Stephen Hawking’s “a brief history of time”)
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down!”
Many religions actively encourage us to go out and preach our beliefs; to share them with the world and convert people to our way of thinking. I believe, in ancient times, this would not have been so much of a problem. We would be comparing our deities; not comparing God to that we have learned about life, the universe and everything.
The things we learn through science test our faith. The idea that we can build something with a circumference of 27 kilometres underground that could reveal the secrets of how the Universe, and therefore life, came into being is a big test of faith. Some religions adapt. Some religions allow for such discoveries to be explained as “part of god’s work” while others use their beliefs to dismiss anything that doesn’t fit within the confines of their religious teaching.
When I was much younger, I remember giving a talk about belief; about what I believed, a sermon with a message. The sermon has dated poorly, but the message is still the same.
What we believe to be truth is our perception, our opinion and interpretation of what we see. What we believe isn’t any more or less right than what anyone else believes; what we believe works for us. If we want to believe God made everything and science is just discovering his work, we can believe that. If we want to believe there is no god and everything is just the work of an evolutionary chain of events with chance and natural selection taking precedence, then we are free to do so. If we want to dismiss everything and believe something outlandish like “It’s turtles all the way down” then we are free to do so. We are free to tell others of our beliefs, to discuss what we feel to be true; if we are flexible then we may find a convincing argument altering the way we see the world. If we are rigid, even in the face of undeniable proof we will not change. But really, that is all right. There is nothing wrong in believing different things; variety helps make the world go around.
My personal belief is that of a Christian God, but I am not inflexible. I read the teachings but look for the message; the Bible is a collection of stories of truth, but seen through the perspective of its multiple authors. When science discovers or creates something new and wonderful, I embrace the ideas; I celebrate our genius and ingenuity. But there is room for both my faith and science. They are not mutually exclusive. Science is reverse engineering the universe and up until now it has yet to conclusively prove or deny the existence of any deity. In fact, there are no experiments you could do to conclusively prove than God does not exist; the existence of our Lord is always taken on faith.
My thought for today is to be tolerant of those whose beliefs conflict with our own; whether the beliefs are on religion, politics or any other topic.
It saddens me that people are dismissing Sarah Palin and making disparaging remarks about her because of beliefs she is reputed to hold. She is entitled to hold any beliefs she chooses; yes she is in a position of power, but if there was concern about the relationship between her beliefs and her abilities, she would not have been chosen to be the governor of Alaska, the mayor of Wasilla or the republican vice-presidential nominee for our current election. I do not know enough about her to judge her unfairly. I have not been subject to her political or religious views. I do not know whether she is, or will be, good in such a position of power. But I will not dismiss her out of hand because (what I have been told are) her beliefs conflict with my own.
Everyone has a right to believe what they will. To see their own truth in which ever way works for them. It does not make them less of a person. It does not make them any less intelligent. We need to accept them, tolerate them and not dismiss them unreasonably. There is nothing wrong in being different.
Thank you.
Pirates and pieces of eight
Ahoy thar me hearties,
you may not realize this, but today is “international talk like a pirate day” ( http://www.talklikeapirate.com/ ). In honor of this, I will attempt to write as much of this entry as I can in pirate speak. But before I start, and possibly make a fool of myself; I will tell you a little about the purpose of the day. The day came into being about thirteen years ago when two guys, John Baur and Mark Summers, found that talking like pirates brought a lot of fun into their lives; the whole story is on their web site, but essentially since 2002 “talk like a pirate day” has been an international affair celebrated by many the globe over.
The purpose is simply to have a lot of fun. To use the sillyness of phrases and words to raise a smile.
In the current economic situation, I think we could all use a smile. So my thought for today is to embrace talk like a pirate day, have fun, be silly and smile. Enjoy life.
Now, to write that in “pirate” P-)
Avast me hearties,
yer noggin may be lackin’ o’ t’day that today be. Yarrrr. Today be t’day yur all cast off t’shackles o’t'land. t’day ye no-longer be a land lubber; ye be a buccanneer o’t high seas. Aye, tis a grand life. Grab yur grog me salty sea dogs and yo, ho, ho yur way to warr ye be goin’. All ye encounter t’will declare ye a gentleman o’t’ sea an a fine one at that. Plunder smiles, raise the sails o’ silliness an keelhaul t’scoudrels.
Have ye a fine day, share t’merriment.
Salv
Some links :
International talk like a pirate day official site : http://www.talklikeapirate.com/
Pirate Speak : http://www.yarr.org.uk/talk/
Things we take for granted
Good morning,
those who follow this blog (only a few so far) may have noticed that there wasn’t an entry yesterday. This was down to circumstances; one of the things I take for granted, my Internet connection, was unavailable for a large part of yesterday. There was an outage somewhere between the place I sit, in front of my window overlooking the gardens, and where all the things that tell the Internet how to work sit.
A lack of Internet connection was very inconvenient for me, and I am only human; I got a little annoyed by it. But before I got too angry I stepped back. I stopped for a moment and thought about it. There are many thing we have in our lives that we take for granted. The electricity that powers our houses, the clean water that runs through our taps. Our ability to communicate using phones, be they attached to a land line or cellular (“mobile” as my English friends would say). Our ability to communicate with the world at large via the Internet; email, the web, blogs and forums. There are so many things we take for granted will just be there and will work when we need them.
We are fortunate.
In some parts of the world, the things we take for granted are hard to come by. In some parts of the world the things we expect “just to work” are an impossible dream.
Not long ago, the things we have today would have seemed impossible. But we have worked hard, and we have made the impossible possible; and we continue to do so. My thought for today is to appreciate the things we have, and be thankful to all those people that have been responsible for providing us with them.
Boom and Bust
Good morning,
the current financial situation of the country; with lenders, banks and insurers falling under the curse of the “credit crunch” is a sorry state of affairs. It would be a bad enough situation if it was limited to our country, but the repercussions are felt all over the world as ridiculously huge numbers are lost on the stock markets of the world.
There is the question of “why is this happening?”. Some point the blame at those who lent the money to people in situations that did not facilitate repayment. Some point the finger at the people who sought to borrow the money, knowing that they were in a situation where they may not be able to make repayments. Some point the finger at God for creating such a sequence of events that means we find ourselves where we are today.
The way much of the financial sector works, banks and insurance; it is based on gambling. They call it “investing” but there is little difference between that which the banks do and we do when we pay a visit to Vegas.
When a bank invests in the markets, it is expecting a return based on the performance of those shares it holds. If a share does well, they can either hold onto the share and receive money sent to shareholders; or they can sell it at a profit. If a share does poorly, they can hold onto it and hope it will increase in value, or they can sell it at a loss.
Although there is more structure to it than us shooting craps, or betting on red or black at the roulette table; essentially they are doing the same thing. They are gambling. When everyone makes more wins than losses, everyone is happy. Money comes in for “nothing”
When people make more losses than wins, then we have problems. With industries being hit by the economic downturn, few people are posting profits of the sort we would have seen a few years ago; this in turn affects the stock price, meaning it drops as no-one wants to hold shares of an unprofitable company.
Just lately people have been making more losses than wins. There is “less money available” – or rather a feeling of less money available. Lenders increase the percentages they charge on loans to help raise money – but this just leads to people being unable to make payments; they default on the property – become homeless and the property goes to the lender. In prosperous times, this isn’t a problem for the lender. They can auction the property and will receive the money they loaned back (if not more if the property makes more than the amount originally loaned). In the current climate though, people do not have money. People cannot get money. The lenders are left with empty properties that generate no revenue, and in fact need maintenace and taking care of. At the same time, other banks are calling in loans from banks and lenders … we create a domino effect.
Already we’ve had reposessions and people becoming homeless increase terrible amounts. We’ve had the start of many banks and businesses fold. Only the largest, or government supported, will survive.
My thought for today is to make the most of what we have. To live within our means. To not become complacent, to not become greedy. Our lives are filled with luxuries we don’t need, but we’ve come to think of as being essential. When it comes to providing a place to live for ourselves, we need to not stretch ourselves too far. If we can’t afford something, we should accept that and make do with what we can afford; in time, if we work hard, we may find we can afford that which is currently out of reach.
In these hard times we need to take care of each other. Love thy neighbor. Treat others as we would want to be treated. Be charitable. Help those who are less fortunate than ourselves, even if only a couple of weeks ago the roles were reversed and they were more fortunate than us.
Gustav, Ike et al.
Good morning,
whenever I hear a report of a hurricane or tornado on the the radio; my thoughts go out to the people who will be affected by it. Those who will lose their life. Those who will be injured. Those who will become homeless, those who will become unemployed. As a society, we have learned the lessons from disasters like Katrina. We evacuate in plenty of time to minimize the death toll; we expect destruction and damage, most of us realize that “sitting it out and waiting for the storm to pass” isn’t really a viable or safe option.
Coming back to your property though, once the storm has passed, can be heartbreaking. While insurance may cover you (if such ‘acts of God’ are covers) from damage to many possessions, it cannot cover those items that get damaged or destroyed that hold great personal significance. Photographs. Letters. Things we cannot get back.
It’s easy to get wound up in the feelings of loss towards our material possessions and memorabilia; it is easy to forget that we have been spared and have survived the onslaught. Possessions may be destroyed, but they can be replaced. Memorabilia may be destroyed, but we will always have our memories. Our houses may be damaged, but they can be repaired; or we can (with assistance if needed) move to new accommodation.
The important thing is to be thankful that we survived, and not lose sight of how much worse it could have been. That is my thought for today; to be thankful for the things we have in the face of adversity, to count our blessings and not be distraught by material loss.
Remember
Good morning,
as you are probably aware, yesterday was the seventh anniversary of the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center along with many of the buildings that formed part of, and surrounded, the complex. Yesterday I took a moment to remember those who lost their lives in what has to be the worst terrorist incident occurring within the United States in modern times.
There is little need to add my story to the endless list regarding September 11th; mine is pretty mundane and uneventful. I didn’t know anyone in the towers. I didn’t know anyone who lost their life. I wasn’t even in the country when it happened. But those things didn’t stop me from grieving then, and they didn’t stop me grieving now.
We are all marked by the scale of loss we experienced that day. We feel the sorrow for those who died, sadness for those families who found themselves suddenly missing members. The children who will grow up without parents, the parents who will grow old without their children.
We remember those heroes from the emergency services who lost their lives; and we are thankful for the people who were saved and rescued from the buildings. People whose lives are forever changed.
My thought for today is to remember those people who have suffered; be they innocent victims, or people whose jobs it is to make the world a safer place for us. I also think we should take a moment to offer forgiveness to those who caused this to occur. We should forgive, but never forget.
Another day
Good morning,
twenty four hours have passed since the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started up and the world continues to exist in much the same way as it did the day before, not to mention the day before that and the day before that. The world continues to exist and all is well with it.
Except that all isn’t well with it.
We still have the same problems we had yesterday; ones we may have chosen to ignore for a few days, hoping that the end of the world would take care of them. Something not dissimilar to those days, as a child, when I would hope for poor weather to close my school so I wouldn’t have to worry about homework I’d failed to complete the night before.
But no, the world has successfully survived the threat that was posed to it, and long may it continue to do so. Which, unfortunately means we still have all of those problems we had before to deal with.
We have crime and injustice. We have censorship, we have inhumane actions and regimes that punish the trivial with the terminal. We have rape and murder. We have war and poverty. We have famine, we have flooding. We have weather of increasing severity, leading to increasing loss of life. We are destroying the planet with our increasing removal of our natural resources; our need for land to live on, raise crops and animals;and yet we have a global food shortage. Every year we erode this planet’s natural beauty; we force ever more varieties of God’s creatures into extinction, many we will never see. Some none of us will ever see.
From the panicked reports in the media, western civilization sits on the brink of recession. Of course, they don’t call it recession. Just as second hand has been relabeled pre-owned; somehow making it more palatable, recession and economic depression have been relabeled credit crunch.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet;”
(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)
While the USA spends billions on an election which is more about personalities than policies (but isn’t all politics like that now?) before bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a move that the media announces proudly “will save the global economy!” people all over the world face hardship. In England, my friends tell me that each week brings another price rise in that we take for granted. Heat, food and shelter. They also tell me of the increases in price to things which they proclaim essential but would have been considered a luxury in my day. England isn’t alone in this. Many of the people who claim hardship haven’t seen or faced real hardship. Thank the Lord for that. It isn’t a contest.
Many of the people who claim hardship are the very people who would have previously, in more prosperous times have stood for a cause. Organic food, free range animals, recycled goods. Many of those self same people have turned their backs on their cause; when the purse strings are pinched it is interesting to see those who lose the courage of their convictions. Those whose moral fiber is only present when money is no object.
The things we stand up for, the things we believe in; we should continue to believe in. If the going gets hard, we shouldn’t turn away at the first hurdle. The trials and tribulations we face are a test to our beliefs. When Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days he faced hardship. During this time he was tempted to take an easier path by the devil; to not be true to himself or his beliefs. It would have been easy for him to give in and follow such a path, but he did not.
We should be prepared to face hardship for our beliefs, be they religious or otherwise. For things we truly believe in; for things we care about deeply, we should be prepared to make sacrifices that do not compromise our belief. Our beliefs make us who we are.
Some may say we should have been more frugal. They quote the story of the ant and the grasshopper (an interesting summary, of both the original and an updated version, can be found at http://www.gospelweb.net/CultureWar/antstory.htm ); of course they are right, and we should have been. Both we as consumers and we as providers of the services. The problems we now face have been caused by greed. But we should not look for a quick, easy way out. We should face our hardships and come through stronger. We should be true to ourselves and our beliefs and chalk this up to experience.
So my thought for today is to be thankful that we have survived the doom and gloom anticipated by some, but now we should do our best to enjoy the planet and the resources it provides us with. In our times of personal hardship, we need to be true to ourselves. To not compromise our beliefs for an easier path. To be true to our faith. By doing so and enduring hardship; our forty days in the wilderness if you will, we will emerge better people. We will have a stronger faith in ourselves. We will have a stronger understanding of that which is important. And hopefully, by not abandoning our beliefs, we will retain and maintain this world for many thousands of years to come.
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