It is Finished

It Is Finished!  What does the phrase, “it is finished” mean?  Does it mean, over and done with? Does it mean that it is accomplished?  These were Jesus’s last words on the cross (John 19:30).  Did he mean that his life was over or was he saying that his life’s work was over?  Somehow, while I did not want to seem blasphemous, this phrase was echoing in my mind and it seemed a fitting way to end my Time Blog.  What does “it is finished,” mean?

I started this blog sometime in October of 2009.  A friend of mine had asked me what I had written recently.  This was several years after my last book was published (1998) and I had not been writing for several years.  He noted that it was a shame that I was not writing and I replied “I only write if I get paid for it.”  Later on I thought about this and upon some reflection realized that in writing one does it because they love it but not necessarily because you think you will make any money on it.  Putting aside my pecuniary interests, I decided to write for love and passion.  Meaning to hell with any writing for business or clients or money, I would simply write what I felt like.

It took a while but I finally settled on the idea of writing about time. I decided that I would write a series of reflections upon the many and manifest varieties and concepts that time is associated with.  Time seems to affect every element of our lives and I am and have been (or at least thought I was) a master at using, saving, managing, deploying and creating time.  Money has tnever been important to me or my life but I am obsessed with time.  I cannot waste a minute of it. It is the most precious thing in the world to me.  It is truly (or was anyway before I started this blog) my GOD.  Along the way of writing this blog, I began to see that I was holding on to a phantom.  Time did not exist except in my mind and heart. I was creating it each morning when I woke up and letting it go each night when I went to bed. 

I decided to write a blog every weekday or at least try to.  I reasoned that more people would read my blog if it were regular and dependable.  I have now posted or written 700 blogs counting this one.  I confess that I have recycled several blogs and either edited them or expanded them as upon further thought, I decided they needed more work and could be republished.  I have written at least 500 new blogs on time over the past 3 years.  My readership grew from about 400 “views’ per month to about 3,000 views per month.

I do have some confessions to make.  Would it were only one.  However it would not be fitting or just to close my final blog without being honest.  I had thought of ending this blog many times.  Often I would write and ask for comments or feedback. I even posted polls and surveys and seldom if ever did any readers respond or reply.  It was very disappointing.  I constantly questioned the value of what I was writing and saying.  I was on the verge of quitting many times when out of the blue I would get a comment or remark from a reader with some insights, praise or questions about my blog.  This single comment out of nowhere would reenergize me.  I would decide to continue writing.  It was sufficient that at least one person knew I existed and depended upon my blog for some inspiration or motivation.  I often decided that even if only one person in the universe read my blog, I would continue writing it.  Over the years, the number of comments trickled in and it was enough to sustain me. 

My sorrow and regrets are somewhat mundane. I had selfishly and egotistically wanted my blog to grow to at least a million readers a month.  I had secretly nourished a hope that I would be “discovered” and a talk show, movie and many You Tube videos would all trumpet my talent and creativity to the world.  The days turned into weeks. The weeks turned into months and the months turned into years and here I am.  Still unknown!  Still unheralded!  Still not a celebrity!  Many others with what seemed to me much less talent and much less to say were feted and lauded every single day.  From Donald Trump to Sarah Palin, fools like these make millions on talk shows, speeches and lectures.  Is value truly determined by the quality of what we have to say?  Dr.  Deming and many of my other mentors all sent a message that quality was more important than quantity.  Have I been lacking in some intrinsic quality that is necessary in order to find fame and fortune?  Have I been too mean spirited to the gods above or perhaps not offered Zeus the right sacrifice?  Why have Oprah and Sally and Jay and Barbara not called upon me for advice and recognition? 

One of my other friends cautioned me.  She said “write about things that uplift people.  Do not write negative ideas and spend your time criticizing or harping on the evils of the world.”  She said, people will take more note and value from your writing if you spend more time on the positive side of life than the negative.  For the most part, I agreed with her and I would say that I have tried to write inspirations and motivations to help others. However, I decided that there is also a role for me to speak out against what I perceive as the evils and injustices in the world.  I reasoned that a little lecture would not turn off to many readers and might just help to mobilize others against injustice. 

One of my most proud efforts is my series of blogs on immigration.  I was worried that many people would take offense at my opinions.  Living in Arizona, I was even advised that it might be dangerous to write about this subject when the tensions and feelings are running so high.  Nevertheless, for many reasons I chose to speak out against the anti-immigration forces.  I truly do not know whether my comments made one iota of difference to anyone but it seemed the right thing to do.  I am constantly reminded of the quote by Edmund Burke (1729-1797) that "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Thus, I have taken the negative road several times over the years to speak out against what I thought were evils in the world.  If you hated or loved these blogs, it really did not matter to me.  My faith was that somewhere on this planet, I might make a difference to someone who felt hopeless, unloved or unlovable. 

Jesus in his ministry consistently noted that we must help the poor.

John 3:17 -  But if someone who is supposed to be a Christian has money enough to live well, and sees a brother in need, and won't help him--how can God's love be within him ?

John 3:18 -  Little children, let us stop just saying we love people; let us really love them, and show it by our actions.

I will end this blog with the famous words of Dr. Martin Luther King:  “If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

I don’t pretend to have the depth or piety of Jesus or Dr. King, but I have hoped that over the years some good would come to the world from my writings. 

But difference or no difference to the world, it is time to move on.  For those of you who have been faithful readers, part-time readers or sent comments and feedback, I want to thank you. Go and do likewise.  This blog is finished.

A Sign of the Times

Zeitgeist is a German word that roughly translates to “tempo of the times or the sign of the times.”   A sign of the times may be “tribal tattoos” or SUV's, or black Fridays.   I can see a list developing here, some of the things I associate with the “Times” today are:

• Greed is good
• Shop till you drop
• He who has the most toys wins
• Serial killers
• Pedophiles
• Helicopter moms
• Sports scholarships, sports stadiums, sports salaries
• Astronomical college tuitions
• Non-stop news, sports and stupid sit-coms on TV
• Billionaire Ponzi schemes
• Increased  gas prices
• Decreased water resources
•  Global warming, climate change, swarms, tornadoes, hurricanes, fire storms and more storms
• Casinos, lotteries, pull tabs and scratch offs
• Ridiculous lawsuits, ridiculous litigants and ridiculous lawyers
• Celebrities, royal moms, TV Stars, Movie Stars and more celebrities
•  Smart phones, Facebook, LinkedIn and IPads
• Travel leagues, T-ball, gonzo fans, gonzo coaches and gonzo parents
• Crooked politicians, stupid politicians, partisan politicians, despicable politicians
• Outsourcing, off-shoring, insourcing, global competition
• Designer jeans, designer dogs, designer homes, designer weddings, designer funerals, designer people
• Aging, retiring and dying baby-boomers

A “sign of the times” may be the poor attitudes of teenagers today.  But wait, wasn’t that a sign of the times during the days of Socrates?  A quote attributed to Socrates holds that:

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”

Perhaps a sign of the times is the “great recession” that we are either coming out of or still in.  Maybe a sign of the times is the increased unemployment or maybe the “war on drugs” or maybe the increased road rage or maybe our attack on immigrants and immigration.  Maybe it is our shift to the political right and the increased influence of evangelicals and Republicans.   A sign of the times is an expression used to denote something that seems symbolic or emblematic of the era we are living in. “Sign of the times” was a phrase strongly related to Roman Catholicism in the era of the Second Vatican Council.  It was taken to mean that the Church should listen to, and learn from, the world around it.” (wikipedia.org) 

The problem is we do not have any good reference points to compare our times to.  Most of us do not have a very good knowledge of history or of what happened even a few years ago.  We all tend to forget how things really were. So we think: crime is worse today, teenagers are worse today, life is harder today, etc. Then we say: “it’s a sign of the times.”  However, it could easily be a sign of many times and eras gone by.  What then are the dependable and predictable signs that would allow us to say with certainty that our times are different (for better or worse) than past times? 

Very few things really emerge that make good signs of the times.  Rising costs and rising taxes have been true forever.  War, famine and pestilence were frequent during the days of the Pharaohs and are still with us today.  Disease kills millions yearly and people do not really seem any less or more happy than in days gone by.  Is life easier or more difficult today?  You would probably notice that it depended on who you asked.  How then can we find a true and accurate “sign of the times?”  Bottom line is you will probably not. The idea sounds good on paper but it is just too subjective.  There are few signs that exist today that could irrefutably tell you what year or even decade it was, without the value of hindsight.  Twenty years from now, it will be possible to look back at today and say things about it with some certainty but the present is never certain.  That is why the past cannot predict the future. 

We seem to dwell on the “bad signs” but maybe you can think of some good signs of the times.  For instance, income levels are rising across the world and many diseases have now been eradicated that plagued humanity for centuries.  We should make a list of all the good signs.  I think it would probably be longer than the list of bad signs.  What do you think are the signs of the time today?  How would these compare to your signs twenty years ago?  Do you think your signs would hold up if you went back two thousand years?  Will these (my list and your list) still be signs five or ten years from now? When do signs become obsolete?  Do your signs tell you that things are better or worse today?

Letter to My Grandson

Dear Sam,

I hope this letter finds you well and happy.  I hope you are honoring and obeying your father and mother.  You have great parents who love you very much.  Grandma and I are looking forward to visiting you a while when you are in Korean Camp this summer.  You always seem to be having so much fun there.  When I was young, I went to camp for one week at a Boy Scout camp called Camp Yawgoog.  My parents could not afford to send me more than once and I was always jealous of the kids that got to go back or could spend more than one week. 

I am writing to clarify something I said when we were having dinner on Mother’s Day. Grandma told me later that you asked if I thought you were stupid for spending time playing baseball and other sports. I was surprised at the question and disappointed that you misunderstood what I was saying to your mom.  I had no intention of hurting your feelings by what I said. So let me explain a bit.

I think sports are great. I think most athletes are dedicated, disciplined, hardworking people.  I think it takes a great deal of determination and effort to be successful in sports and that those individuals who succeed are truly gifted individuals athletically.  In life, we are all given gifts.  Jesus said:  “But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”  (Luke 12:48).  He also said “Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." (Mark 4:25).

These comments by Jesus mean that we are all given gifts and if we use them, they will be increased in us.  Many would commonly say “use-them or lose-them.”  This means that if we don’t use them, they will be lost to us.  Unfortunately, many lazy people wait around to get FREE gifts by winning the lottery, gambling or suing someone.  They do not realize that gifts come to us through hard work, sweat and perseverance.  One of my favorite quotes is by Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson said “I have noticed that the harder I work, the luckier I get.”   The great Roman philosopher Seneca said that “luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”   It is clear to me that we must find those gifts which we have in life and use them to the best of our ability.  It takes determination and hard work to develop them.

My concern with sports and my problems with the way sports are handled today is that for too many people, they have become almost like a drug.  More people will watch the average football or baseball game than will listen to a presidential debate.  We pay the average NCAA Division 1 football coach 1.47 million dollars a year (USA Today, 2011).  This is more than most college presidents make and much more than the average college teacher.  Colleges continue sports programs that are high budget and high maintenance despite the fact that most do not make money for the school.  High Schools that cannot afford art and music programs nevertheless keep their sports programs. 

Writing in Forbes magazine, Steven Salzberg notes:  “The football-industrial complex has too much power over our universities. Nothing else can explain how we spend so much money and time on football, which contributes almost nothing to students’ education, while academic departments are cutting faculty and staff. The culture of football worship has gotten so out of control that I think the only solution is to get rid of it entirely.”

My feelings are not exactly as strong about football and other sports as Salzberg’s but I question why we need so much emphasis on sports and so much less on other areas.  The great Greek philosophers all said that the secret of success in life was “all things in moderation.”   However, even Aristotle counseled that moderation needed moderation as well.

I think sports have a definite place in our lives. However, in America today, people have become so obsessed with sports that we have created a cult of sports worship.  Ironically, the greater this worship has become, the fatter most Americans have become.  I give you great credit Sam for participating rather than becoming a couch potato as so many others have and sitting idly by on Sundays watching the latest sports event.  However, there are also other things in life we need to try in order to find that balance that the Greeks talked about.  There is no telling what other gifts you might have if you could explore some other options.  Perhaps Sam, you are a great artist, writer, musician, sculpture, actor, singer or scientist waiting to emerge.  Maybe your true gifts are not in sports but some other domain.  Only by spending time and energy on other activities can we know what we are truly destined in life to do. 

IMHO, spending too much time on any one activity at too early an age is not a good way to find your gifts.  I wish my parents had encouraged me to do more things and to try more stuff.  If I could go back to high school, I would join band, the drama club and the writers club.  I would take more time to learn Chinese and art.  I was not an outstanding student and I spent more time goofing off then really learning anything.  I did love athletics though and taught myself surfing, tennis, handball and scuba diving.  I always loved the outdoors and being active. I have raced canoes, bicycles, cars, motorcycles and completed several triathlons.  I did not do these for money, but simply because I wanted the challenge to see how good I was.  From these activities, I learned that athletics while fun and exciting were not where my gifts lay.  However, I am still able to enjoy many sports because I have taken care of my body and not abused it.  I still run, canoe, bike, roller-blade, swim and occasionally do a local race.  I believe we should all stay active.  


One good thing about individual sports as opposed to team sports is that I do not need a coach, referee or twenty other guys to go out and get some exercise. The sports I pursue are things I can do my entire life and they are not things that will usually cause great harm to my body unless I am very careless.  I can’t control a 300 pound blocker trying to hit me but I can control the speed I bike or roller blade.  There is risk in any sport and that goes with the game.  However, the intelligent person balances risk with rewards and does their best to minimize risk.

I have been teaching since 1976 and I have taught every grade from kindergarten to Ph.D. programs at the University of Minnesota.  I find that whenever anyone has a true passion for what they are doing, they will more than likely be successful at it.  If your true passion is sports, then you should follow your passion.  Sean John says “Life without passion is unforgivable.”  However, passion needs purpose to have an effective life.  We need to balance our passion for things, with a purpose for doing them. The greatest purpose in life is to help others or to give back to the world some of the gifts it has given to you.  Maurice Turmel writing in Boxingscene.com asks:  “What is Passion without Purpose?  A car spinning its wheels perhaps?  An electric motor running out of control, with nowhere to go?  Passion needs purpose to be attached to, to be drawn by, to be enlivened by and directed towards.  If we have no purpose, then how can we have passion?”

School is a place to learn, to grow and to try new things.  You will often hear college students being told “Wait until you get to the real world.”  I try not to use this phrase because I think that college is real as well. I could not have been teaching college for the past 15 years without feeling that college is real.  However, college does permit more learning than you might find in the work world and that is the beauty of college and all schools as well. They are places where we can try new things without expecting to be punished or penalized if they do not work out. You can join the band, or art club, or student newspaper, or the glee club and no one is going to throw you out as long as you put in your effort and share of the work.  You do not have to worry about a pay check on Fridays or a boss firing you.  Effort in school is perhaps more important than results and this gives us a lot of leeway to try new things.  I may flunk Chinese but I may also find out that I am just not very good at languages or perhaps I will find that languages are something I have a real passion for.  I once had a friend who knew 13 languages. I was always envious.  Of course, I did not want to study as hard as he did.

So, to finish this letter to you Sam, I hope I have explained my thinking and ideas to you some about sports and life as well.  Perhaps the best advice I can leave you with is the famous Hamlet dictum : “To thine own self by true.”   Do what you find passion in Sam, but keep your heart and mind open to other opportunities.  Try as many things as you can when you are young.  As you get older, you may have fewer opportunities to try things.   Adulthood brings responsibilities that often limit the choices we can make.  One of my friends died and at his funeral, they all noted that Harold always said he had no regrets.  Even when he found he had less than six months to live and he was dying of pancreatic cancer, he said he “had not regrets.”  Not a bad way to live a life.  I hope I can say the same thing when I am on my last breath.  I hope you will be able to as well.

See you soon,

Grandpa John,

Famous Last Words

Down at the Frederic library yesterday, the Cucumber Guys were discussing the purported last words of Voltaire and the discussion meandered into the last words of other famous people.  Jerry, Ken and I could all think of some comments made by people on their death beds.  Most of these comments are very interesting, perhaps because you don’t think anyone is going to lie when they only have a few minutes to live.  Or perhaps, we are fascinated because of some irony that these last words provoke.  Voltaire is supposed to have refused to repent his sins because “He did not want to make any more enemies before he died.”  He was referring to the fact that Satan would be upset if he now recanted on his lack of belief in religion or Christianity.  Socrates last words were:  "Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt."  (Asclepius was the Greek god for curing illness, and it is likely Socrates' last words meant that death is the cure—and freedom, of the soul from the body.) (Wikipedia reference) 

Regardless of the reason for our fascination with these “last words”, there is no doubt that many of us find considerable inspiration in the last words of others.  I am going to share some that I like in the rest of this blog today.  If any of these motivate you, please feel free to send me your comments on why they inspire or excite you, or simply send me some famous last words that you like.  I may post again on this subject if you can send me enough inspiration. 

·       Adams, John (1735-1826) "Thomas Jefferson--still survives..." (4 July 1826. Jefferson died on the same day.)

·       Barrymore, John (1882-1942) Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.

·       Eastman, George (1854-1932) "My work is done, why wait?" (His suicide note.)

·       Marx, Karl (1818-1883) "Go on, get out. Last words are for fools who haven't said enough."

·       Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973) "Drink to me."

·       Runyon, Damon (1884-1946) "You can keep the things of bronze and stone and give me one man to remember me just once a year."

·       Stein, Gertrude (1874-1946) "Just before she [Stein] died she asked, `What _is_ the answer?' No answer came. She laughed and said, `In that case what is the question?' Then she died."

The above list of my favorites was taken from a much more extensive list that can be found at http://www.mapping.com/words.shtml,   Real Last Words from Famous People.

So as you ponder my list, will it provoke you to think the obvious or maybe not so obvious?  Is it too early to wonder or maybe even plan what you will say for your last words?  My friend Harold was reported to have said “No regrets.”  I wonder what my last words will be.  We may not have a choice over our last words now but we can decide now what we want written on our tombstone.  Will you go out simply with your name and date of death or will you leave some inspiration for future cemetery wanderers?  What would you like written on your tombstone?  What do you want the world to remember you for?  This is something we do have a choice over.   What would your epitaph be?  Are you living it now? 

What can Blue Grass music tell us about time and life?

“I am a man of constant sorrow” This line is from the song in the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”  John Hartford wrote the lyrics to the song.  Some credit the music and the film with a rebirth of Blue Grass and Old Time music in the USA.  It is hard to believe that one movie could have so much impact.  I am inclined to think that this claim is somewhat exaggerated.  Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the movie did spark a renewed interest in Blue Grass music particularly among people with whom it was not a familiar genre.

The most popular song from the movie was “A Man of Constant Sorrow.”  This haunting song resonates with us somewhat like hearing a drum beat.  Deep in our hearts we somehow identify with these lyrics.  Nevertheless, I continue to wonder what it means to be in constant sorrow.  What events or episodes in ones life could create constant sorry? What would anyone be like if they were in constant sorrow?

“For six long years, I've been in trouble
No pleasures here on earth I found
For in this world I'm bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me now.” 

(From “I am a Man of Constant Sorrow”, John Hartford)

Did so many people really like this song because it resonated with their own sadness and melancholy?  Can it be that many of us have: No friends, no pleasures, no home and no one to help?  What could be sadder?  Would this be enough to induce constant sorrow? Constant means never ceasing, not changing or varying, uniform, steadfast.  Constant means to have a feeling with you 24 hours a day, everyday of the week and every week of the year.  A Man of Constant Sorrow would be a sad person indeed.

 Do we all sometimes feel this pain and sorrow from the daily toils and doubts of life?  I think many of us do. There are too many depressed people in the world for it not to be true.  Most of us get over it though, but what of the people who do not? What do you think it would be like to live in constant sorrow?  Do you know anyone who you think might? What could you do to help this person?  How can we all help make sure that no one in the entire world lives a life of constant sorrow? Is this an impossible dream?  

Why so fast? Are you moving at the speed of light?

Have you ever felt that you were moving at the speed of light?  Do you understand what time and speed have in common?  If you are familiar with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the theory says that as speed increases time slows down. You might remember the famous paradox about the space traveler going away on a long journey and coming back younger than his or her parents.  How can this be true you might say? Well, according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity it is true.  As we approach the speed of light, time slows down. Wouldn’t it be great if we could we use Einstein’s theory to help slow our day down and get more done?  If we could move at the speed of light, time would just about stand still.  Just think how much stuff you could get done.  However, if everyone moved at the speed of light, then relatively speaking, time would not move any slower for you.  This technique would work only if you or a few others were moving faster than everyone else.  

In practice, we all seem to be working on the presumption that if we could just move fast enough we could get more done.  This negates the overall benefit and we become like rats on a wheel. All of us are running and running and just staying in the same place.  Target company has a motto or credo that says something like "Fast, Fun and Friendly."  How many workers do you know who are moving fast and feel like they are having fun?  And if they are not having fun, do you really think they are going to be "friendly" to the customers. More like, "get out of my way jerk, I have things to do and my boss says I better move faster."  

We move faster and faster and faster but paradoxically we seem to get less and less done. I took a class in motorcycle racing once and the key message of the instructor was “You must first learn to go slow before you can go fast.”  Most of us think that by going faster we can accomplish more.  In many cases, we only accomplish less since our haste results in more rework and having to do things over again.  Most of the organizations that I have met that do not have "real" time for their customers eventually perish or they become second choice to the consumer. 

Today, concentrate on moving slower.  Forget the speed of light.  See if you can study your motions; watch your body move more slowly, exert less effort and try to move at the speed of a snail.  What differences could this make in your life? Can you do this for one whole day? Why not? What keeps you moving at the speed of light?  

This won't take long!

This won’t take long!  How often has someone said that to you or you have said that to someone else?  A few years ago, I bought my first gas grill.  I had never owned one and Karen and I decided it was time.  To save a few bucks, I ordered it through the Internet. When it came, it was in one huge box which I had a hard time moving into the garage by myself.  I vaguely remember something about it only taking fifteen minutes to put together.  Well, it took me 30 minutes just to lay all of the parts out. Three hours and forty five minutes later, I had finished putting my grill together.  Except for putting the batteries in backwards, I was able to fire the thing right up and do my first outside grilling at the age of 60. I was thrilled except when I thought how long it took me to put it together.  I was even angrier the next day when after going to Home Depot, I found the same grill assembled.  I could have purchased it there pre-assembled; with delivery and it would have only cost me 25 dollars more. Thus, my savings did not even come close to paying for my time, not to mention my aggravation.

We often underestimate the length of time it will take to do things.  Sometimes we are misled by advertisements but often by our own misconceptions.  The thought “this won’t take long” should be a red flag for most of us. On reflection, the phrase is seldom true. They say anything worthwhile takes time.  We can do the worthless fast, but those things that are really meaningful and valuable will take more time.

What things and events do you most often underestimate?  What jobs or tasks do you rush through?  What work do you have to do today that you should allow more time for?  What areas in your life should you spend more time on?  It is a lot easier to be less frustrated and to do a better job when you can allow the right amount of time needed for the job and not worry about it “taking too long.”  

I lost tract of time today? Did I lose my mind as well?

I lost track of the time. Where did the time go? How often have you heard someone make this comment? Generally, it means we were so engrossed with what we were doing that we forgot we had another appointment or schedule.  When we lose track of time, time no longer seems to exist. It is not moving fast or slow, it just does not seem to matter to us. I heard someone say recently that they did not wake up and say “gee, I have to go to work today.” Instead, they woke up and said “Wow, I get to go to work again today.” Can you imagine the difference between time for the first case and time for the second? Time in the first case is drudgery and time in the second is a joy. 

When you do not enjoy what you are doing, time is the most oppressive. You check the clock. You wonder when the time will go by. You find ways to “break” up your time. The more “breaks” the better.  When you enjoy or even love what you are doing, you forget the clock.  You don’t worry about breaks or when it is time to go home.  Sean John’s says “life without passion is unforgiveable.”  He lives this in his daily life.  His message is important for all of us.  How many of us find lives that are full of passion?  Why not?  Is such a life beyond our reaches or do we just fail to make the choice? 

The more our world is dominated by time, by pressures to do things faster, to multi-task, or to live in the fast lane, the less happy and more stressed we will be. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if time did not matter anymore and we could lose track of time on a permanent basis? What if our lives were so filled with passion that every second was one we could live with for eternity? What if we counted Passion instead of minutes?

When was the last time you lost track of time? Can you hardly wait to go to work today or do you count each workday between Sunday and Friday? Is your life filled with passion or wondering when the minute hand will move forward?  Are you in the “Thank God it’s Friday” camp or in the “I am looking forward to Monday” camp. 

Time to Play! and not Hard either!

There is no time that is better than fun time.  Most children would not have a problem with this statement.  When we are young most of our time is fun time. The older we get, the less fun time we have.  Fun time is spontaneous, unstructured and not goal driven.  I get a laugh out of the corporate saying: “We work hard, but we play hard.” That is an oxymoron.  Play and fun are not about hard or about accomplishing anything.  Hard is a macho concept that denotes a phallic reference that often seems to take ascendancy over the feminine in society. Thus, working hard and playing hard are more to be valued than playing soft or working soft. When did you ever hear anyone extol the virtues of playing soft? 

Well, if you want to work hard, that’s good, but don’t play hard.  Playing hard destroys the essence of play. I look at all these young children playing in these league sports and wonder what their lives will be like growing up without any real play time.  All of their time seems guided by misguided parents who either through ego or greed think their kids will play big-league sports or get a free ride to college on an athletic scholarship. As my friend Ken noted, many of these parents think parenting is about showing up at all of their kids numerous league games and "conference" playoffs. They are not teaching their kids anything about play or about living their own dreams. 

Play is about freedom and spontaneity. It is going where you want to go, doing what you want to do and not having to answer for the results.  Retirement is the oasis of play that many people dream of.  People wait years for retirement so they can do what they want to do. Retirement is future play time for adults.  Once we retire, we can become as little children again. Can you imagine wanting to have a “hard” retirement.  I would much prefer my retirement to be soft and leisurely.  I want to take long walks in the woods, smell more flowers, kick more cans, take more long naps and get in as much unproductive time as I can get in. We all need to have more fun time.  We live in a work-alcoholic world driven by time clocks and computers.  Perhaps, there would be less stress and less crime in our society if we all had more time for fun.  I know there would be less road rage.  

How much time do you have set aside for fun today?  Do you take time each day just for fun?  What do you have to do to have more fun time in your life?  What would your life be like if you could play more and work less?

Are your summers really easy?

“Summertime, when the living is easy.”  This line from the musical “Porgy and Bess” by G. Gershwin seems to always resonate in my mind when the warm breezes start blowing the cold weather away in Wisconsin. We all love summer.  For many of us, it is a time of vacations and connotations of freedom from school and work.  However, why does the song say the living is easy?  I think it is because summer seems to bring that association to mind despite the fact that it is not now nor probably ever was easy.  Nevertheless, we think of the lushness of fresh fruit, vegetables, the farmers market and long days and nights.  It does not matter that we may work all summer, the dream is still there of “easy living.” 

As we get older, many of us will think back to our childhoods with fond summer memories of doing nothing but playing baseball, grilling out, fishing, swimming at the lake, camping with our friends or weekends at the cabin with our family.  Perhaps these are more traditional Wisconsin memories but no doubt you will have your own memories associated with summer time.  All over the world, people are in vacation mode during the summertime.  Perhaps you will spend your summer traveling to exotic destinations or simply taking a short trip to visit relatives.  Summer brings a longing for what we want life to have in store for us as we age.  Summer is a time of psychological retirement years before any of us will ever retire.  You might say summertime is practice for that time in your life when you really have retired.

However, now that Karen is retired and I am working less, we have seen first hand how easy it is to stay busy with one project after another. I think we don't really want to retire, we really want to simply lead the life determined by our own choices and not guided by the "bare necessities of life."  Summertime is a time of easy living not because living is ever easy, but because we make our choices on what we do and when we want to do them. At least that is our dream.  Are you living your dream?  I hear people using this phrase a great deal as I talk to more retirees.  Why did they wait so long?  Why not live your dream now? Its summertime and the living is supposed to be easy.  

What are your best summer memories? What did you once do each summer that is now simply a memory? What summer traditions do you still celebrate?  What do you hope your future summers will have in store for you?  

Just another Friday in Frederic, Wisconsin

Friday, Friday, way too much too say about this day!  Black Friday, Freaky Friday, Good Friday; Casual Friday, Unlucky Friday! Can you believe a chain of restaurants, a god and more songs than I could list named after this day?  Friday, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon form of Frigga, the Germanic goddess of beauty.  Frigga was the goddess of love, marriage, and destiny. She was the wife of the powerful Norse god Odin, The All-Father.

If there were a magic day, it would be Friday. You know the reason why too, don’t you?  The last day of the week, payday, the day that three day weekends begin on and a holy day as well.  The Easybeats sing:  “Monday, I’ve got Friday on my mind.”  We can all identify with that song, since many of us start thinking about Friday as soon as we are headed to work on Monday. Even those of us who love our work, often look forward to this last day in the week, the day before our weekend break begins and frequently the day we begin it on early.  In Japan, Friday is Kin-Youbi: "Gold Day" or "money day", and in many Asian cultures, paydays are on Friday (Wikipedia).  Friday for others has often been associated with the dreaded pink slips.  Instead of getting paid, you receive your layoff notice.  Love it, hate it, dread it, fear it, you cannot ignore it.

Well, Friday up North today begins the great 3-day weekend known to us locals as Frederic Days.  Three fun filled days of bake sales, book sales, brat fries, chicken and pork dinners, church dinners, races, sporting events, queen coronation and an amateur hour for local musicians.  I need to be at my library early this morning to get to the book sale.  I want to get their early to get the best selections.  Thus, this Friday I am up a little earlier than usual. Got to get started so I don't miss anything.  Who would want to get started late on a Friday when there is so much to do and so little time to do it? 

What do Fridays mean to you?  Have Fridays more often been good to you or bad?  Do you anxiously wait for each Friday or do you take your days one at a time?  What do you like most about Fridays?  What if we had a four day week and skipped Fridays? How would you feel about that? Would you miss your Fridays? 

Will you live forever?

“Your time is running out” says the villain to the hero. How often have you heard this phase in the movies? Of course, we know that this is a lie. The villain’s declaration is just a cue for our heroine to spring into action. She will then surprise us with some type of unexpected near miraculous escape.  Perhaps, she will fool the villain into talking long enough so she can manage her escape. You know how villains like to explain their entire rationale for their villager.  This comment on time may be the most common phrase or at least one of the most common in all of theater. It is so melodramatic that authors can not refuse to use it. 

However, what do you think you would do if your doctor said this to you?  Perhaps at your next physical, you doctor tells you that “your time is running out.” Would you simply think of the metaphor of an hourglass with the sands of time running through it or would it strike a more essential chord of your being.  I am going to guess the latter.  You would want to know how much time you had left. You would want to know how you could escape this trap.  If there were no way out, eventually you would start wondering how you should spend the rest of your remaining days.  Suddenly time and its effective use would become the most important priority in your life.  Many of us would drop the nonessentials and focus on only the truly important things in our lives.

Karen's mother died from breast cancer and she has always had a fear of this form of death.  We often joke about who will live longer, and she has repeatedly said "Oh, you are so healthy and active, you will live forwever."  I seldom if ever am sick. In 13 years of teaching at Globe, I had only taken one sick day. In my 11 years of consulting before Globe, I had never taken even one sick day.  Imagine, our surprise when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer two weeks ago.  I told Karen "See, I beat you again and I was right again."  Sort of sick humor I guess.  I know few men die of prostate cancer (could I be the first?) but the idea of having cancer and of hearing my doctor say "The bad news is you have cancer" is not what I expected to hear.  I mean, I have always been so healthy how could these f-------- germs attack me.  I would think they would pick on a smoker or drinker or someone who is always sickly.  I watch my diet and my food.  Oh, well, that's the way the diagnosis goes.  I want to live my life like my friend Harold who when he was dying said "I have no regrets."  What a great inscription for my tombstone.  

Ironically, whether your doctor or a villain says it to you, it is a hundred percent true fact that time is running out for each of us each day.  Do you know anyone who ever said “my time is running in?”  Do you know anyone who knows the hour of their death?  Maybe, you should think more about your real priorities each day before it is too late, before someone else tells you that your time is running out.  Perhaps, you should be asking yourself today “What really does matter to me?”  

Do you spend more time doing what matters or do you spend more time on the nonessentials?  What would you change in your life if you were suddenly confronted with the fact that “Your time is running out?”  

Tempus Fugit?

Tempus Fugit:  The expression was first used in the verse Georgica written by Roman poet Virgil: Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, which means, "But it flees in the meantime: irretrievable time flees." (Wikipedia). Two thousand years have past and sadly, no one has yet learned to retrieve time.  Time is a precious and scare resource that is valued and sought after but that becomes more important later in life.  As one grows older, the law of supply and demand enforces an increased value for time.  Time is to the elderly as money is to youth.  Yet, where money can be retrieved, time cannot.  I can lose a fortune but if I waste ten years of my life, I can never recover the spent time.  Who would not want to find the Fountain of Youth?

Time flies and flies and flies and ever I wish I could just “stop” the clock. Stopping the clock seems only possible on game shows and in some sports.  However, we do have those special moments when time seems to stand still. When we are truly engaged in something or someone, time may not seem to be present in our lives.  Like a hummingbird, time can hover in one place but only for short sequences.  Inevitably the clock starts to move again and we return to the world of time and money.   

As you go through the day, try to reflect on the Latin phase “tempus fugit” and see how and when your time flies. There is a value in truly treasuring the moments of our lives. Sometimes we seem to be trying to make time fly faster than it does.  Are you in a hurry to get home, to go on that date, to get some job or chore done?  In such cases, you can’t stand to see time standing still.  You want tomorrow to happen today.  It does not matter then that time flies. Where will your time fly today?  Where would you rather have it linger like the hummingbird?  Do you take enough time in the day to just let it hover for awhile?  What would your life be like if you had more hover time and less “tempus fugit?”

10 Things the ADA requires from Websites.

This post was from a reader and it might be helpful to many of you out there. My thanks to Ms. Howard for sharing it with us.

We recently published an article that you may be interested in entitled, “10 Things the ADA Requires from Websites” (http://www.longhornleads.com/blog/2012/10-things-the-ada-requires-from-websites/).

After having followed your blog for a while, I feel that this one article would align well with yourblog's subject matter. I thought perhaps you'd be interested in sharing thisarticle with your readers? Thanks, and keep up the great blogging!


Sincerely,
Hannah Howard           

Are you still on a time clock?

Time clocks are synonymous with the industrial revolution.  Prior to industrial work, people thought of time as more cyclical. Time clocks went hand in hand with factory or machine and assembly line work.  The concept of a “Time clock” is an oxymoron.  Aren’t all clocks, time clocks?  The industrial revolution was a period when brawn became more valued than brains.  It was more important to measure the amount of time that a person worked (and this was equated with productivity and quantity) then the quality or creativity of their work. The information age and knowledge age has reportedly ushered in a quantum change in how we view and value work. Today, creativity and innovation have become highly prized, at least in word if not in deed.

On hears today that quality, creativity and innovation are the cornerstones of success in the 21^st century business world.  Nevertheless, we still see managers who are more concerned with the time clock as a measure of productivity than anything else.  How long did you work today is often more important than how much you accomplished or what new ideas and innovations you could come up with. We talk about allowing workers to telecommute, yet many managers express the view that: “how will I know what they are doing or if they are really working?”  “Well, perhaps they will not get their job done and then you would know!”  We may live in the knowledge age, but the industrial era mindset is still dominant in many workplaces.

It often takes a generation before minds catch up with new technology and paradigm shifts. We have 21^st century needs and technology still driven by 20^th century minds and concerns. Companies that cannot make the change are destined to go the way of the dinosaur.  The same might be said for managers who cannot change their mindset.

What do you value in your workplace? Do you measure how much your employees contribute, including ideas and innovations or are you measuring how long they work and how many hours they put in?  Do you have the power to change things?  If so, when will you go from the 20^th century to the 21^st?   When will you start treating your employees like knowledge workers rather than machines?     

The value of spiritual exercise

We often hear the comment from someone getting older that they are “Aging like fine wine.”  Well, yes, wine does gets better with age, but sadly, the human body does not. My joints and muscles are no longer as flexible as they once were. My body does not recover as fast from aches and pains as it once did, and I no longer dream of playing football on the weekends or any rough contact sports for that matter.  My body seems to be aging more like cheese.  It is getting softer and moldier around the edges.  It might still be edible but it is not as fresh as it once was.  The good side of this issue is that my brain is more nimble and astute than ever. (IMHO) 

The body will inevitably deteriorate, (even with plastic surgery, knee and hip replacements etc.), but the brain does not necessarily age the same way. Studies have shown that IQ can remain the same throughout one’s life, if you keep “exercising” the brain by reading, studying and learning. Now of course, the body will stay in better shape as well if you keep up with some exercising.  However, no amount of exercising is going to keep the body in the same shape as when we were 21 or younger. 

Then we come to the soul and spirit. Here is where age can really excel over youth. Through experience and moral exercise, we can all become better then we were. We can continue to grow spiritually and morally throughout our entire lives. We can leave this earth as better people. We can give back to the world some of what we took from it. However, this also requires exercise. It requires exercise of both moral and spiritual values.  It requires moral and spiritual discipline. You will not grow in either area if you do not take the time to practice skills that lead to moral and spiritual development.  The virtues of faith, hope, charity and love must be practiced daily or they atrophy like old moldy cheese.

What exercise do you get each day?  Do you exercise morally and spiritually as well as physically and mentally?  Which areas do you need to concentrate more on?  Are you aging like a fine wine or like moldy cheese?  What do you need to do to perk up your aging process? 

Does it really belong to me?

A few days ago I received an email from a reader named Karen who lives in Australia or “down under” as many refer to the country.  Karen noted that her two teenage sons had found my blog useful for some of their school work and that some of my subjects were interesting to them.  Her older son is a senior in high school and has been studying the idea of “belonging.”  She suggested that I write on the subject of “belonging” and how it fit with time or perhaps just write on the topic as a new series of blogs.  I told Karen that I would think on this some as I used the “incubation” method of developing material.  I usually get an idea, put it on a notecard and let it “gestate” for a few days and then see if the muse of creativity visits me. 

One of my best ways of getting ideas for this blog has been to reflect on the idea while I am jogging.  So yesterday I did about 4 miles while thinking about the idea of “belonging.”  What does it mean? What are the ramifications?  Does the concept have the same meaning to people as it does to things?  What about how it applies to land and other legal titles?  My name belongs to me.  My house belongs to me.  My car belongs to me.  My property belongs to me.  My children belong to me.  However, my wife does not belong to me nor can I buy anyone like I buy a new motorcycle or a new coffee pot. 

Ownership is intimately related to “belonging” as is the idea of responsibility.  We are responsible for those things that belong to us. Thus, we are responsible for our children until they are adults and then they no longer belong to us.  We are not responsible for our relatives or our friends or our spouses and we would not say they belong to us. However, many people, (more men I think than women) act as though their spouses belong to them.  Some people have a perverted idea of what a marriage license or in other cases even a relationship means and they quite literally start to act as thought the other person they are in a relationship with is someone they own.  They attach the idea of belonging to people as though they are chattel or some type of product that they can buy, sell or trade.  How many times have you read some comment like “If I can’t have her, no one can.”  Each day the newspaper (at least in the USA) has some story about a guy who either murders his former wife or murders his estranged wife because “she left him or wanted to leave him.”  When I say this is a perverted sense of “belonging”, I think it is perverted because it carries the ideas of ownership to people.  It assumes that we own people like we own a product and that we have exclusive rights to their time, affections, attention and even bodies.  Should such "property" decide to “terminate” the relationship, it is a catalyst for feelings of betrayal, anger, jealousy and even hatred.  “If I can’t own them, if they no longer belong to me, I will see that they no longer belong to anyone else.” 

Here is where the idea of time comes in.  We get married and we promise to remain faithful until “Death do us part.”   Those who take the idea of belonging to extremes take this idea to mean that never can the other person “belong” to anyone else.  Their affections and body belong to only one person and that belonging is for perpetuity.  No one has a problem with this idea when it comes to things or property but when it comes to people; most modern cultures tend to regard the idea of anyone belonging to another as at best out of date and in many cases as simply sick.  I noted above that children are an exception.  It is often heard “who does that kid belong to?”  Children do belong (at least in a legal sense) to parents, guardians or foster care but this ownership only lasts until they become an adult.  After some legal age of responsibility, children no longer belong to their parents and any parent who continued to refer to their children that way would be thought of very strangely.   

As you may have noted, the concept of “belonging” not only implies a sense of ownership but it also implies a sense of responsibility.  Things that we own are things that we are responsible for. I own a dog or other pet and I am responsible for that animal.  If my dog bites or attacks someone, I can be sued or fined for the offense. We are responsible to different degrees for the things we own and land infers a different responsibility than my ownership of a new car.  Many legal warranties will specify my responsibilities for my new car and of course there are any numbers of legal ordinances which specify my responsibilities for my automobile.  Who was it said that great “power brings great responsibility?”  I suppose it can be said that the more possibilities something has for hurting others, the more responsibilities the owner has.

By the way, I find two different definitions for the concept of “belonging” in the online dictionaries.  One implies ownership and the verb form implies classification.  The latter is an interesting concept that I may explore some other time. 

Be·long·ing (Noun)

1.     A personal item that one owns; a possession. Often used in the plural.

2.     Acceptance as a natural member or part: a sense of belonging.

Belonging  present participle of be·long (Verb)

1.     (of a thing) Be rightly placed in a specified position: "learning to place the blame where it belongs". 2.     Be rightly classified in or assigned to a specified category.

Suffice it to say, I have been focusing on the first or noun definition.  In this term, “belonging” also implies a sense of time.  We only own something as long as we are alive.  Something can only belong to us as long as we live. We can put something in a trust, but that simply transfers ownership.  My car, motorcycle, house, property and other objects that now belong to me, will no longer belong to me after I am dead and departed.  They will cease to be mine.  We can’t take them with us.  Some of the Pharaohs apparently thought they could and their tombs were found with numerous possessions as well as corpses of their wives and slaves.  Back in Ramses day, a man truly owned his wife as well as other people.

 

Going back to the idea of time and “belonging” and ownership, it is interesting how many of us act as though these things that we own can be taken with us.  We hoard, acquire, shop, buy, accumulate but eventually we die.  Our “belongings” are now junked, trashed, sold or liquidated to make cash for someone else.  Those things we thought most precious for our lives now become someone else’s junk.  Note the many estate sales, where relatives are heard to say, “I can’t believe they had so much junk.”  One person’s treasures are another person’s junk. 

Things no longer belong to us when we die. We no longer have any responsibility for them.  You can’t take it with you but you can ruin your life thinking that these things that you own, these things that belong to you have some form of transubstantiation.  You can delude yourself into thinking that they can be changed into something permanent and timeless or that they have some sense of immutable value.  The only true value they have is to you. When you die, they may or may not have any value to anyone else.  They may simply go into the junk pile of history.  Discarded and forgotten along with most of the rest of the stuff that you have spent years acquiring. 

Next time you think that something “belongs’ to you, ask yourself why it is important to own anything?  Is life simply about acquiring more? Does he or she who has the most toys win? What do you really win?  Our lives are defined by those “gods” that govern our behavior.  If you live to acquire, what god are you worshipping?  Will he/she let you take it with you? What will be written on your tombstone that will survive longer than your possessions?  Perhaps the words: “It all belonged to him.” 

Thank you Karen for the idea for my blog today.  I hope your older son will take my ideas and play with them. I would love to see his paper or final project. It occurred to me that the second definition under Noun would create an entirely different perspective. To belong to something rather than something belonging to you is a very different issue.  Something more to think about.  

Don't Waste My Time!

Stop wasting my time!  This is a comment that is frequently heard and seldom reflected on. What does it mean to waste someone’s time?  Does the person know they are wasting your time? What was the person doing that “wasted” your time? Is it like wasting food or wasting money?  When someone tells you something that you are not interested in, does it waste your time?  In a country where the average person watches more than 25 hours a week of TV, it seems preposterous that anyone could dare use a phrase like “stop wasting my time.”

We spend over 14 hours per week watching people hitting a ball, carrying a ball, throwing a ball and bouncing a ball in games that we call sports, but we do not consider this a “waste” of our time.  If sports and TV are not time wasters, then what qualifies?  The average time spent watching sports (2.3 hours per day) is seven times greater than the average time spent participating in sports (.31 hours per day).  Perhaps watching sports exercises one's eyeballs?  So what does it really mean to waste your time?  Is this time when you are not doing anything?  Whose fault is that if you have nothing to do? 

If we were honest, we would admit that most of us waste our own time with silly meaningless activities designed to take our mind off living and perhaps really accomplishing something. We are each experts at ways to waste time.  TV, gambling, casinos, watching sports, newspapers, endless meetings, etc. are only a smattering of the myriad ways we waste our time each day. Wasting time is a very subjective concept, since what I think is very wasteful, you might think is very useful.  My ideas of what constitute a valuable use of time might fit your definition of “time wasters.” Nevertheless, we all have our own ideas of what time wasting means to us. 

What if more of us started “wasting” our time on the activities that could really make a difference to the world?  What would the world be like, if more of us took an interest in government, law and politics and less in TV, gambling, sports and other activities?  What if we spent more time in charitable activities, loving others, finding ways to bring peace to the world, building bridges and creating friendships with those in need?  What if we spent 25 hours a week on these activities instead of watching TV?  Could you spend one hour less on TV this week and one hour more on peace?  Where would you start?  When will you start?  Why not today? 

What is the point of saving time? Is time management just a crock?

“Find More You Time!” This was a heading from a recent magazine cover. The byline was: “ten tips to try today.” Would you like to know what they are?  First, let’s talk about the subject of this article. How often do you see tips for saving time? Seems just about every day another article or expert is telling you how to “save” time? Do you know anyone who has time in a bank someplace?  "Yesterday I saved forty minutes and added it to my bank. I now have six hundred hours in my bank to use or to extend my life-time with."  Wow, now that would really be something! Imagine if we could add all of our “saved” time on to the end of our life.  I have not heard of any time savings plan that would allow us to do that. Mores the pity!  I have not even heard of any savings plan that would let me transfer savings time from today to tomorrow.

Whenever I “save” time, I usually end up just relaxing. I suppose I could apply it to my next task and have more time to do it in, but it never seems to work that way. I mean, if you save time traveling someplace, what does that really get you? Look at those fools who tailgate and weave in an out of traffic as though it was the Indianapolis 500.  They drive like they think they are going to get an award for being first to work.  It might get you more time to do the next job or it might get you to an early grave.  Savings time seems to be akin to those ubiquitous diet plans that are always going to save you calories and thus help you lose weight.  Do you see all of the people that have lost weight?  Show me all the successful people that are time savers.

Maybe we are trying to do the wrong thing. Maybe saving time is not the right way to look at time. If we cannot really save time, then why describe it that way? What most of these ideas are about is really doing things faster or more efficiently. However, isn’t that what puts us on the treadmill in the first place? Always trying to do things faster and more efficiently; how many of us have become multi-taskers and to what benefit? Does multi-tasking really make us more productive or does it just cause us more stress. Maybe we need to learn how to waste time more.  Maybe we need to play more and have more fun?

Are you always trying to save time?  Have you managed to store time up for a rainy day? Are you always multi-tasking? Are you stressed out about not having enough time?  Is your concern for saving time making you happier or more productive? What if you took more time for fun and play in your life?  .

Can time affect your diet?

Staying fit by the clock.  Can time affect our diets? Some experts proclaim that there is a best time for everything. They say this applies to eating, sleeping, drinking and exercising.  By following the best times, they report that you can stay healthier and happier. Staying fit by the clock is a philosophy that stresses consistency.  You exercise and eat at consistent times during the day.  However, with the many changes that each of use face in our lives, we must fit our exercise and eating into the varied patterns that our daily schedule will face. Modern life does not seem to allow many of us the luxury of a fixed schedule that never changes.

For instance, in terms of my own exercise schedule, I find that it must be flexible to accommodate my teaching schedule. My teaching schedule changes from quarter to quarter. Thus some quarters, I am teaching nights and others quarters it will be days. I adapt my exercise schedule to these changes. Some months, I exercise in the morning, some in the afternoon and some in the evening. There might be better times to exercise, but some exercise is better than no exercise regardless of when I do it. I have even run as late as 11 PM when it was dark and quiet. I bought some of those headlamps to wear when running trails at night. It is a very eerie feeling to run at dark with these lights giving me a true sense of tunnel vision in the woods.  

I also like to pay attention to my body clock as well as my time clock. I don’t care if it is “eating” time or supper time. If I am not hungry, I am not going to eat. Eating by the clock seems foolish to me. We have so many experts giving us advice that we forget to listen to our own common sense. What does your body tell you?  Do you feel good?  Do you feel healthy? Are you proud of your looks and your health? If not, then you probably need to do something different. Explore, read, and ask an expert but DO NOT put all of your health and happiness into an expert’s hands, no matter how many degrees they have. How can you take charge of your life and your time now?  What is keeping you from taking responsibility for your own life? If you already feel that you do, wonderful. 

Does it really pay to be the "early bird?"

When I was young, I learned the saying “the early bird catches the worm.” Somehow, I really internalized this phase and it has become a sort of mantra for me. I can hear myself saying this a million times over in my life. Perhaps this ingrained bit of advice has become the defining way I live my life. I am forever up early; early to appointments, early to airports, early to parties, early to events.  It does not really matter what the meeting is, I will be early for it. 

Reflecting on it a bit, what does this little advice about catching worms really mean?  I have seldom, if ever, caught a worm and when I did, it was in the evening.  I remember shining my flashlight at night on the lawn and finding all sorts of worms. I don’t ever recall seeing any worms in the morning. You might say, well it is evident that getting up early helps you get the day going sooner, you have more time to spend and you will be more successful. At least, that is what I think it was supposed to mean. I have done this all my life, always gotten up early, been early to all my appointments and I am still waiting for my worm.  Maybe, if we knew what worm we were supposed to be looking for, it would be easier.  However, I am still not sure what kind of worm I want or even if I really want to catch a worm.  Judging by the amount of late people out there, it would appear that many other people are not interested in catching worms.   

Is there any validity to this bit of wisdom?  Will you really be more successful, if you are an early bird?  Do you think the “early birds” are catching more worms in life than the latecomers?  Have you caught all the worms you want yet?  Did you find “getting up early” was your key to success? Do you think you would be more successful, if you were more of an early bird?  What works for you in your life, sleeping late or getting up early? Does it really make a difference?

June, a month for fun and new starts and endings.

June is the first day of summer for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere.  It is the time when school is over and summer vacations begin. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, our road construction season has already started.  Snowbirds have returned north and those who never left have already been to their summer cabins to get them ready for weekend visits to the lake and fishing.  Flowers are blooming and the grass now needs weekly mowing. Campers, RV’s, ATV’s, sailboats, motorcycles and canoes have all be taken out of storage for fun and pleasure.

June really demonstrates that time is cyclical as once again; we go through all of our favorite summer rituals. June is traditionally the most popular month for weddings in North America.  There will be any number of brides looking forward to years of wedded bliss and relatives wondering what to buy the newlyweds.  For those already partnered, it will mean enjoying more weekends at home with friends and relatives or perhaps a trip to visit relatives in another place. June is a time to play and a time to relax.  It can also be a time to stretch our boundaries and challenge our ideas of the world.  Travel to another country can open horizons for all of us as we experience another culture and way of life.  Regardless of what we do, in summer we all enjoy those warm days of sunshine, made even longer by the interesting juxtaposition of the sun and the earth.  Some of us wish these months could go on forever and so we think of moving to places where there is an “endless’ summer.

However, reality never seems to match fantasy and many will just endure the short but sweet northern summers. A few of us will become snowbirds and the rest will remain locals.  For people who live in warmer climates, it is inconceivable to live in Minnesota or Wisconsin year round. Those that do visit here generally come in the summer. One often hears the remark from visitors “Oh, how green it is in Minnesota.”  While living in Hawaii, I was amazed at how many Hawaiians wanted to visit Alaska. It was a very popular vacation destination for many Hawaiians. Perhaps summer for some is going to a very cold place. The grass may not be greener but it is always different. 

Summer vacations can be a time for growth and change as we use our time to try new things, go now places and meet new people.  I am going to discontinue this blog as it has been written and move to a new format by the end of this month.  Right now, I am not sure what it will be. I have enjoyed writing and doing this blog over the past three years or so.  It has helped me find an outlet for my ideas and creativity. However, I am now starting to tire of doing a daily blog and have decided to move to another format. I may choose another theme or just write a blog on my ideas each week or randomly. At this time, I am not sure what format to move to but I will serve notice that by the end of June, I will be retiring Time.  

What does summer mean for you? Where are your memories of summer pasts and your dreams for summer future?  What would you most like to do this summer if you could do anything in the world?  What changes would you like to make in your life this summer?  What is stopping you? 

Why Waste My Time Voting?

Went to the mailbox this morning and what did I find?  Right, another “Vote for Me” flyer!  I started to throw it away but as I find it difficult not to at least scan any piece of written literature (I use the term loosely here), I noticed it had pictures of both Barrett and Walker on it. I should mention that it also included a third party candidate named Trivedi whom I had never heard of.  I suddenly was very interested in this flyer. Was it a Walker ad somehow lampooning Barrett or was it a Barrett ad somehow lampooning Walker? It seemed very strange having both of their pictures on the same ad. There was a mystery here. Sorry Wilma\Wanda, I could not resist putting these pictures here.  :)

For those of you who are not from Wisconsin, I should back up a little. On June 5^th we are having a recall election for the present Governor named Scott Walker.  Walker is a Republican who has managed to offend a great deal of the electorate.  To his detractors he is an evil villain out to undo 100 years of labor history by marginalizing unions and stripping public employees of their pensions and other benefits. To his supporters and in fact those who voted him in by quite a margin, he is a hero.  To the latter, he is a staunch defender of free enterprise and the rights of the little man who has been plagued by big government and lazy overpaid union workers. 

After Walker successfully attempted to make some changes in pensions and union rights, a large number of Wisconsin residents drew up a recall petition to force another election.  Over 500,000 Wisconsin voters signed this petition. The election is scheduled for June 5, 2012.  Walker has or will spend over 25 million dollars in advertising and Barrett (Former Democratic Mayor of Milwaukee) will spend about 1 million (Since that is all Barrett has).  I have not a clue how much Trivedi will spend since I never even heard of him until looking at this flyer.

So back to the strange mysterious flyer.  Were Walker and Barrett supporting anything together?  Were they somehow saying anything nice about each other?  Could this flyer be some sort of a bipartisan reaching across the aisle, if so, for what purpose?  Did this flyer signal a shift in electioneering from the negative to the positive side?  Reading the materials they have already sent out, it does not sound like they could be in the same room together without hurting each other.  Both have loudly proclaimed each other to be out and out liars.  What could they possibly be doing together to show any harmony or kindness to each other much less to benefit the people of Wisconsin? Was there some sort of subliminal message embedded in the ad that would induce me to vote for one candidate or the other?  I did not want to be too quick to assume any well-meaning intentions in this flyer.  Some enlightenment might be attained by finding out which one of the many “Friends of” committees paid for this ad.

Well, reading on (the Flyer that is) I was pleasantly surprised. Here is what the ad copy said:

“It’s time to do our civic duty.  Be sure to do your duty and vote. The only way to ensure a positive result for Wisconsin is for as many citizens as possible to vote on June 5.  Your Vote is Your Choice.” Paid for by the Legacy Foundation, Iowa. 

A little investigation shows that the mission of the Legacy Foundation is to:

Advance individual liberty, free enterprise and limited, accountable government. Our efforts center around public policy research and alternative policy initiatives in, but not limited to, these core areas: state fiscal and tax policy, the creation of an entrepreneurial environment, education, labor-management relations, citizenship, civil rights and government transparency issues.

I could not detect any conspiracy theory here.  Thus, I was shocked but also very pleased.  Here was an ad (seemingly bi-partisan) that is actually extolling people to vote.  An ad that is not telling you who to vote for but simply reminding people that it is their responsibility and privilege to participate in the most important process in America.  Despite the wars and deaths sacrificed to preserve this freedom, most Americans do not vote.  In fact, do you realize that only about 50 percent of Americans usually vote in the Presidential election and less vote in most other elections?  It is very likely that more Americans will watch the Super Bowl than will turn out to vote in November.  It is also likely than the upcoming recall election will be decided by a minority of the electorate in Wisconsin.  This is not sad or a shame, it is an outrage.  Below are the actual voter figures from 1960 to 2010.

National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2010

This page provides information about voter statistics, including age of voting population, voter registration, turnout, and more.

Year	Voting-age population	Voter registration	Voter turnout	Turnout of voting-age population (percent)
2010**	235,809,266	NA	90,682,968	37.8%
2008*	231,229,580	NA	132,618,580*	56.8
2006	220,600,000	135,889,600	80,588,000	37.1
2004	221,256,931	174,800,000	122,294,978	55.3
2002	215,473,000	150,990,598	79,830,119	37.0
2000	205,815,000	156,421,311	105,586,274	51.3
1998	200,929,000	141,850,558	73,117,022	36.4
1996	196,511,000	146,211,960	96,456,345	49.1
1994	193,650,000	130,292,822	75,105,860	38.8
1992	189,529,000	133,821,178	104,405,155	55.1
1990	185,812,000	121,105,630	67,859,189	36.5
1988	182,778,000	126,379,628	91,594,693	50.1
1986	178,566,000	118,399,984	64,991,128	36.4
1984	174,466,000	124,150,614	92,652,680	53.1
1982	169,938,000	110,671,225	67,615,576	39.8
1980	164,597,000	113,043,734	86,515,221	52.6
1978	158,373,000	103,291,265	58,917,938	37.2
1976	152,309,190	105,037,986	81,555,789	53.6
1974	146,336,000	96,199,0201	55,943,834	38.2
1972	140,776,000	97,328,541	77,718,554	55.2
1970	124,498,000	82,496,7472	58,014,338	46.6
1968	120,328,186	81,658,180	73,211,875	60.8
1966	116,132,000	76,288,2833	56,188,046	48.4
1964	114,090,000	73,715,818	70,644,592	61.9
1962	112,423,000	65,393,7514	53,141,227	47.3
1960	109,159,000	64,833,0965	68,838,204	63.1

*Source 2008 election results: http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2008G.html.

Read more: National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2010 — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html#ixzz1wOx9Lwom

The flyer went on to say “ON JUNE 5^th, YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT.”  Dam right, your vote is important.  Whether you are Republican or Democratic or Independent, it is the most important right and responsibility that you have in America. It has often been said (In fact, I say it often myself) that “People get the government and the politicians they deserve.”  If you would rather be watching the baseball game on Election Day or some idiotic television sitcom, then you have absolutely no right to complain about your government or the quality of the politicians that serve you in office. My good friend and mentor Sister Giovanni often said:  “People want rights without responsibilities.” 

For more than a generation now, we have been hearing about the “entitlement” generation. This is simply people who want their rights without any responsibilities.  This is nothing but lazy mindless thinking and behaving.  Sister G also said “For every right there is a corresponding responsibility.”  If you want to live in a free country, if you want a choice of who runs your country, if you want to be able to walk the streets a free person with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, you have to pay for it. There are no free lunches. Your payment is the responsibilities you must undertake to ensure and protect the freedoms I have mentioned. One of the most important of these responsibilities is that of being informed. Meaning you take the time to learn about the records and backgrounds of those running for office.  Most important (to restate it again) is that you get out and vote.

Are you registered to vote?  Do you know where your voting place is? Have you arranged your time to fit in voting?  Do you know the records of those running? Have you selected a candidate based on a solid knowledge of facts and not rhetoric? Are you making up your own mind or are you going along with your friends and relatives?  Are you looking at who will do the best job both long and short term or are you only worried about who will help you make the most money in the short term?  Are you as concerned with the social, global, environmental and ethical policies of your candidate as you are with his/her economic policies  Do you realize that without a future there will be no tomorrow’s?