Adding Up to Peace +Joy

 Seeking Peace and Joy Adds Up

So holy cow it’s January 12th already and my “new Year’’s Resolutions are sitting patiently by waiting for me to dig in.   Now it could be  that some of us make these resolutions and don’t start on them right away and are starting to feel guilty…let’s visit that a little later.  It may be that we’ve already given up  in which case pat yourself on the back for being an overachiever as research has shown that the majority of all resolutions are abondoned by January 19th sometimes known as National Give Up Day.  Either way let’s figure out what we really. Want to work on and start today but… first….

Let’s figure out why we didn’t start right away… There are probably lots of reasons, however, maybe its mostly about fear of change?  Maybe  let’s explore this by relating it to something most people are taught to fear—MATH.

Yep… you see most people get taught to be afraid of math at some level and then they stop building the foundation to change their level of math skills.  So … let’s substitute  math skills for  life skills and put some stronger math  bricks in your foundation and then in the next couple posts  bring the two together.  Life hacks/ Math Hacks

We are usually taught somewhere around third grade. Or fourth grade the only math hack  we ever learn… so your schools are ripping you off (big shocker).   What’s that Hack?

The rule of 9

When you multiply. Any number  by nine the sum of the numbers in the answer will add up to nine.  While this is true no matter how high you go we are usually only taught up to 9 X 9.  

That’s a good foundational hack, however, it just get’s left there with no building. On top of it and that leads to some uncertainty so let’s expand shall we?  What is almost?  Why 10 of course… So multiplying by 9 is the same  as multiplying  by 10 which is adding a 0 to the end and subtracting  that number multiplying by 1 which is of course  that number.  So let’s say we want to multiply 319 X 9 well that is 3190 — 31990–19  is 71 and 3100 —300 is 2800 so the answer is 2871 and of course 2+8+7+1 is 18 and 1+8 is 9 (remember what we said about the digits adding up to 9?  So instead of multiplying all this numbers you are simplifying be adding a zero and subtracting  and subtracting  shouldn’t scare anyone… 

The  5 Hack 

Now another hack we should all be taught is the 5 hack but we are not.   Now multiplying be 10 is adding a 0  and 5 is half of 10  so take the  you are multiplying by  5 let’s say 1286 just for giggles.  So cut 1286 in half which is 643 and and the 0 there’s your answer so what if it is an odd number …pick the next higher or the next lower number  and do the same thing and simply add or subtract  the 5. So let’s do 6217 for example… we’ll add 1 making it 6218 cut in half that’s 3109 now add the 0 so you have 31090 then subtract the  5 and presto you get 31085

Squaring  numbers that end in 5 … so let’s say  we are going to multiply 25 time 25  the hard way is to multiply 20 times 25  and then add another 5 times 25 or the other way around.   The easy way is to look at the first digit  which. Is 2 and then multiply it by the very next number which is  3 and then stick 25 on the end.  So 25  time 25 is 6 (3X2) 25. Now let’s go to 45 squared  using the same hack it is 4X5 (20) with  a 25 tacked on or 2025 so of course 85 squared  is 7225 etc..  and yes 105 squared is 110 (11X10) 25 11025! 

Just one more for today

Multiplying by 25… 

Now 4 X 25 is 100  and just like  multiplying by 10 adds one  zero… multiplying by 100 adds two  zeros.  Now the trick here is to remember. We are multiplying by 100 divided by 4.. so we add the two zeros and then divide by 4 or divide by 4 first and then  add the zeros.  So let’s take 72 X 25 .. Now 72 divided by 4 is 18 and 25X72 is 1800 Now you say that’s all good but what if the number  doesn’t plot by 4?  Good question… since you are multiplying by  25  your answer has to end in 00 25 50  or 75 so after you divide if there is 1 left  over your answer ends in 25 for example 117 X 25 = 117  divided by 4. Or 29 with 1 left over.. so the answer has to end in 25 which means 117 times 25  is going to be 2925  39 X25  would be 39 divided by  4 which. Is 9 with 3 left over so that is going to end in 75 or 975

The point is …. Math can be fast and fun and easy..however many of us were not taught that… We learned that  there were piles of complicated numbers to be figured out. Carried put in columns and the very least we need a fancy calculator to even come close.. 

What is being suggested here  is that we are probably more likely to feel good about seeking peace and joy through New Year’s change if we start with a simplified scheme that we can feel good about.  

So let’s say you want to eat better…. Start by multiplying  by 10… What?  Adding one zero… eating one piece of fruit or one green vegetable  Then  if you want to get a little more advanced multiple. By five.. Eat one fruit AND. One vegetable .  

Back to the  point about not starting yet… Screw it… You are the master of your own life calendar… start today … Guilt never changed history… and you may have to start again a few times  in order. To figure out what formula works for you.. You may multiply. By 9 by simply  multiplying by 9 but. You may find  it must easier to multiply. By 10 and subtract.  

Seeking peace  and joy or any change or building any meaning  is adding up the pieces from where you stand at any one time.   And after a while  you can start putting some anchors down like knowing that 74 squared is 5476 and 76  squared is 5776 and 88 squared is 7744… the point is practice facing fears to build a foundation  from which to exercise curiousity …  and be sure to show your work!

More Math hacks soon and your new year starts now… 

Peace.

Political Differences Getting Old

 Find the cameras—tables pound

Point your fingers all around

Who’s to blame?—they must be found

Losers chosen Winners Crowned

The clock ticks for it’s tightly wound

Once again that popping sound

In the earth a tiny mound

  We place our children  in the ground

Political Differences?

Regrets final? Part three

 So Many Regrets?  (Or more types and questions for reflection)

So we’re walking down the trail of tears better known  as the whiskey walkway for some and just plain the roadway or regrets for many.  the past two entries have provided  some notions of what the roots of regrets can be and some thoughts about specific kinds of regrets including  regrets about not building a set of foundational knowledge and skills and regrets about not being bold enough.  Now (using Daniel Pink’s framework) let’s highlight some other root types of regrets and introduce some more thoughts for reflection.  

“Moral” Regrets

This is fairly straightforward.  these are regrets like “I wish I wouldn’t have bullied that kid or when others did I wish I had stood up for them.   Or maybe  it’s a wish that one wouldn’t have told even that white lie or stolen that dime candy bar (that now costs a buck fifty.  In essence  these are the “I listened to the devil on my shoulder instead of the angel kind of thing.   We have all these because the list of perfect humans is noticeably short.  So upon becoming aware of these things it seems  that asking for forgiveness is in order and well just maybe forgiving  yourself might be in order as long as you plan to change  that crappy action and mean it.  

So sometimes  you can’t ask the wounded party for that ship has sailed... therefore  assume forgiveness.   What how can you assume that?   Well can you forgive someone even if they didn’t ask?  You can if you choose to and so you can assume forgiveness without a direct statement of it right/.  

“Lost Connection”.Regrets

This is...as the subtitle says... LostConnections—you know the friends/family  you don’t really connect with because the relationship was somehow left unattended and now you miss it or wish it still existed.  These are “relationships lost” regrets and social media has helped many people to “find” people again..... 

On the other hand  does social media now set up the expectation that we will be able to find anyone at most any time?   Also when we reconnect are we doing so believing the person we once lost is “the same” as they were?   

Well.... summing up these types or root causes of regrets we have foundational regrets that are emotions created because we believe we didn’t. Do something that creates the foundation for something we could do now.  We have “boldness” regrets that suggest we could have acted with less fear in situations and changed the current situation we find ourselves in.  Moral regrets are those  feelings that seem to haunt us because we acted in a less than honorable way and the guilt follows us today.  Finally  we regret losing personal connections  with “old” friends and family we might know better today if we had put energy into the relationships.   

Maybe it is helpful to name the sources of regrets so that we can ask ourselves and others the questions that will help reveal the lessons  and thus lady the wasted parts of the regret to rest.  Here are some further questions (read the two entries before as well) that may serve as avenues for revamping and revealing new paths.

First, and probably most important—

Do we constantly labor under the dubious assumption that events follow in a linear and uninterrupted cause and effect expressway?..  That is —is it really true that if we did a that each and every time b would happen just as predicted or expected.  By a show of hands who among us in 2017 predicted the COVID  experience?  In 1980 who predicted facebook, the iPhone etc.  Raise your hand if you thought  we would see the change from Vinyl  to cassette, to CD, to digital and yes back to some vinyl?  The point is.... some of the things that fill our lives today were not predictable let alone predicted by us and there is no reasonable expectation that we should have been able to do that.   Yet... we somehow continue to feed regrets thinking “if I had only done x....”.  

Can you change your present and your future with the way you act right now?  Yep...if you plant enough seeds in enough places....some of them are likely to become apple trees and some of them are likely to have apples, however  to assume which of those apples become cider, apple sauce, or wind up in Aunt Martha’s blue ribbon apple pie  during the 2049 Henry County Fair would be folly.  Yet we do this regrets all the time.   

As for feeling guilty about something we aren’t proud of doing or not doing.... The previous post mentioned forgiveness and this is truly important. In all directions—forgive each other and ourselves.... do unto others.... Oh and remember....

HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOT PERFECT!

Sometimes the choices we  make are between seemingly two rotten options or flawed options and it is easy to retrofit one of the options as better after the fact.   There is no claim that we as in I make selfish fearful and hateful choices, however, life has lots of choices to make so if we learn some mistakes we will have a chance to experiment  and make some other  types of choices soon and maybe that’s what is being suggested.... experiment with other choices...may they lead to some regrets....(read the above)...it’s not linear.  

Now let’s look at relationship regrets..... aren’t they all?  Regrets are  with one’s own expectations or between two or more individuals.   If you develop some plans to change and then change why let the regrets stick to you like that bit of pancake syrup you get on you somewhere  anytime you are within four nautical miles of IHOP?  Do we expect our friends, family, and lovers to carry all the regrets of the known universe around with them for eternity?  Do we want  all mistakes to become mythical misery for everyone forever and what type of dreadful existence would that create?  

This might sound cold but how many Cadillac’s can you drive at once or how many great friendships can. You have and be fully engaged in?  Do you have enough time and energy to be great friends and partners with all the people you once knew and will know?   Sure  it’s not a bad idea to reach out to people you once knew and every now and then (quite rarely) you will find  a person from your past has turned into a wonderful witty, wise, human that you are now fortunate to connect with.  Sometimes however, you will be reminded  that the reasons you let relationships lapse still exist or in some cases exist with a vengeance.  

So to sum this last three entries up in a couple sentences.   

Regrets aren’t big black clouds that just hover around.  They can be analyzed and the lessons  can be extracted if you ask questions.   Sometimes we get to the core notions that we expect things to be within our control and that what we do causes predictable things to happen.  At times we find out that we are not  at the center of the known universe waving our baton and having the fates play our symphony.  Forgiveness can be the duct ape for many things we regret and for healing the cracks that might lead to further regrets hanging on.  Sometimes we have to push a little  harder and with a little less fear because in my memory I’ve never seen a tombstone or obit that said “I wish I’d been a little more afraid  to sing my song, dance my dance or smile in the sunshine.   

Is it time to drop anchor

 Anchors Away!

This morning I heard a fog horn….well maybe it was  just my snoring since it’s winter and there is probably not much shipping moving through the Great Lakes headed in most directions.  Also  given the relentless breezes called wind chill the surface of Lake Huron  is a gnarly  wash machine and I suspect. Most water craft are in dry dock or anchored  down safely somewhere.  

so that  inspired this… let’s think about anchors and peace and joy.

Well since  the 10th century  a lot of anchors. Are exactly the shape you see in most tattoos or on Popeye”s muscles.  This design emerged  some time around the tenth  century.  Now there are other shapes  that have been developed because we have other materials and ideas about what shapes  hold best on what underwater surfaces.   No matter the shape, an anchor is used to keep the ship from being wrecked or to hold it at a certain. Point in the water.  It is for safety, however, are all anchors  really safe?  

Anchors in Time

In seeking peace and joy we need to take a fresh look at Anchors.  So many times we have anchors that just plain stop us from sailing.  

Anchored in the past

When we anchor to the past it is so tempting to regret what is happening now and regret something we did at some point before now.   When we anchor in the past we keep looking back and are dragged back by things we already experienced.  While this gives us an opportunity to gather the lessons  we might learn from a past experience we have difficulty  applying  those lessons to in the seas ahead.  

Anchoring in the Future

We also anchor in the future  putting limits on when and where we might go and what we might choose to do given the waves and currents the world presents.  Do we spend so much time following the chain  to the place we think we need to be that we miss  the treasure that might be near by or just below the surface where we are right now.   At this time of year we are still into  resolutions and pursuing most goals we set for the new. Calendar.  Are these goals future anchors?  Once we reach them will we sit there unable to move in other ways?  

So what about being anchored right now?  Well if that gives us a chance to steady the ship then there is. Some value in using an anchor.  If we are making our ship stable and steady so others can climb aboard to sail with us or adding. Folks to row  along…well a temporary anchor from time to time. Might have some value, yet as time passes we need to stay aware. Enough to know. When that anchor is dragging us  into a situation  where we are anchored to our past.  

In short, we’re not saying. Anchors aren’t useful.  It is, however, important to know where and when you are anchored to.  It is  important to know how long you have been anchored and  it is important to know  that there comes a time to pull up anchor and drop the chain in a way that you can move the ship of your soul.    

Quitters never win?

 Maybe It’s Time to Q U I T?

We are sort of wandering through January and our resolutions are going well….well or are fading in the rear view mirror.  actually research shows that the great  majority of  resolutions  are abandoned. On or before January 19th and thus that day has been declared “National Quitters Day.”  Of course we have defined  those who quit as losers (in general) and so often hear the axon  “quitters never win.”   Stop!

 Let’s take a seeking peace and joy tilt. To this and ponder  other possibilities.  What if what we  are doing isn’t working for us anymore?  What’s the definition of insanity?  Isn’t it doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?   If we don’t wuit something is it possible to choose some other things to try?  Hmmmm?  Maybe we can QUIt in a distinctly inventive. Fashion.  

So let’s  Q…

Quiet  our anxiety.  Know that we sometimes have to face fear and choose change and know the risk is worth the  reward so first let’s quiet the fears.  

Next  let’s U…

As in use our talents and resources to develop some  new experimental behaviors.  Doing  something new is not really the same as quitting and sitting still.  After you have become quiet for a heartbeat or two then start acting again and learning from new actions as you have quit and learned the primary. Lesson  from what you had been doing.  Yes it is important. To persist in exploring  which resources to use  to seek peace and joy and exhaust  many of them, however, there is a value in diversifying your efforts and engaging new ones.  There is no I in Peace or  Joy…or is there?  

When you decide to change and go forward  with new things it is not  giving up it is “I”venting some new aspects of  your “Identity and “i”nvestigating it and determining. If you intend to invest in it (Enough “I”’s for  you?

finally life is not always a T party, yet it could be if…

You “T”rust  your “T”transitional  capacity.  Seeking peace and joy means  using your tools in new ways and if needed. It means leaving some tools and their  products behind.  

Bottom line we have often made resolutions as a fuzzy promise to change and maybe  we could reframe  “quitting”. In a way that quiets fear, uses new ideas, promotes innovation, insights, and investigation of new dynamic features of your identity.  Will it take trust and  the power to toss some things away and transfer some others…Yes…. 

The point is that we  can choose to understand “quitting” in a balanced sort of way….. by the way it’s time to quit writing this entry. And keep smiling. a more balanced way

Read: it can blow your mind?

  19th Nervous Breakdown

Here it comes....

So before we go running for the shelter—Rolling Stones lyric to be continued below— 

As promised  the SPJU will include some insights from books that have seeped through my awareness recently.  Let’s start with the non-fiction.  4000 Weeks is by far the finest time management book out there.  Of course those terms time and management  are completely erroneous.  In the seeking peace and joy world we are not concerned with “time” per se—it’s about experience creation and it’s not management it is “use.”  You can’t manage time  because it happens and you have no way to make it go any direction but “forward” or seemingly forward.  Actually it doesn’t go anywhere because when are you living?  You aren’t living in the future and while sometimes your thoughts are  influenced by what has happened you aren’t breathing air in the past either.  so this book helps people focus on  the illusions we get caught up in.  For example  it reminds us that the better we get at doing some things the more we “get” to do —like the more e-mail we respond to the e-mail we are likely to get and the better we use our time the more things we are likely to attempt.  The book reminds us that there will always be more experiences that we might choose than there will  be “time for so we can best find peace if we accept that instead of feeling overly anxious about it.   

Every  Minute  is a Day... Authors: Robert? Meyer and Dan Koepell.). This is a book about New York emergency  room activities and personnel and the initial COVID slam.  No matter what your stance on the virus—and the virus doesn’t care what your  stance it by the way—this book gives a compelling description of how some real human beings dealt with the  real onset of this era in New York City.  

Fiction. 

Well it’s the “who-done-its” that usually get my attention and we’ll see what Scooby and Shaggy  pulls the mask off about these in a second.  By far the best fiction so far this year is 

Mitch Albom’s. 

Man in a Life Boat. 

You want social commentary, spirituality, exploding luxury liners with rich people?  You want tropical islands romance and more...  This is the book for you.  It’s a book about the real power. Of believing  in something and coming to grips with the meaning of life’s experiences.  If there was a Seeking Peace and Joy Universe Library, this would lead the suggested reading in the fiction section and for quite some time.  

Jack  Reacher  and Jessie Stone are the hero’s of record in most the other fiction consumed since the first of the year.  Lee Child and Robert Parker (as interpreted. And channeled by Mike Lupica) provide The good guy wins mob, Terri or its, drug cartel villain riddled  adventures of quick witted good people who creatively weave justice through intense situations.  There’s also Jack.Noble as a hit man (can’t remember the author)  in a series of adventures I’ve read. This year.  Why these books?  

well... unusual circumstances happen and people act fairly decidedly which is an approach  to fear that seems pretty effective and in sync  with seeking peace and joy.   Oh and Now back to the top and The Rolling Stones..

Running for the Shelter of Mother’s Little Helper....

Yesterday the reading pile was  topped with a little dessert  from the November issue of Good Housekeeping.... and lo and behold the magazine suggested that we all might share  instead of getting off of my cloud and look to the promise of organic medicine...  yes  Good Housekeeping featured  the upside of magic mushrooms and other psychedelics which are now being seriously  studied for their beneficial properties.... 

So Betty Crocker is not only baking  with stones... we might be seeing our domestic engineering magazines supporting getting stoned and baked as well?  

Seriously, alternative medicine is being used with greater  effectiveness every day and Good Housekeeping  showed real courage in publishing this.   Here is another instance where folks the bed their nose at fear and said let’s tell the story.... seeking peace and joy behavior  at its finest.

Well it is time to do some domestic  engineering  of my own (don’t  you just love a “good” Housekeeping  term?  

Stay warm wherever you ar Peace 

WHY THE WORLD WILL END IN 2022 & other resolutions-predictions

 Why the World  Will End in 2022

Since there have been and will continue  to be various calendars applied to whatever time is on  this planet, in this  galaxy, within this universe etc and since the world (as we know it) excepting for that pesky concept of conservation  of matter/energy—will end we can simply modify when we start counting so that 2022 will mark the end just like the wise old owl tells  us that it takes 3 licks to get to the center of a tootsie  pop.  

So that’s prediction. Number one.  Here are  nine more predictions and resolutions coming from the seeking peace and joy realm and spanning what’s left of the year.  

Resolution and /or Prediction  2 —Sharing thoughts about books.... 

Yours truly listens to an estimated 500 books a year—yes that means  I’m listening to books and music pretty much non-stop.  It seems that somewhere  other than  my gray matter  should be used to record at least one  quote/concept/thought to be passed along.  After all, if any of “Seeking Peace and Joy”  ever makes it into a book  I want people to record their reflections for further review.  So... do unto others.  These mini-reviews are probably. Going to be jotted down in some blogs and recorded in  frequent podcasts... depending on which instruments  of mass instruction are most convenient. At the time.  Will the reader have to cross platforms?  Yep.... sorry—it’s the 21st century!

Resolution-Prediction 3 –Getting organized—This Blog has  over 500 entries....500.... if you would have told me I was required to write 500 entries over the course of a lifetime I may have wiggled  a solitary finger and said no way at one point, yet now that we’ve crossed that Rubicon  it’s all downhill from here—unless we’re headed in the wrong direction.   The point is....it is possible to index the entries and I haven’t done  even a half fast  (Thanks Mac) job of using labels so readers can weave their way through new and old entries.  So... as the munchkins  advised the ruby-slippered runaway... let’s begin at the beginning.  Starting tomorrow the process of. Making sure each blog will have at least three categories attached to it begins.  By the end of 2022 (and  hopefully before) every blog  entry will be thusly organized.  Does it mean there will be some square pegs in round holes?  Yep and some triangle screws will be wedged forcibly into trapezoid treehouses too.  

Resolution-Prediction  4. 

Drink More Water

What?  This is self explanatory.  I need to drink more water.  It can be tap water, bottled water, vitamin. Water, and possibly even fire water (well maybe not so much), however I drink too much stuff with sugar and other ingredients.  Now just a note of clarification.  There are no such things as artificial flavorings.or colors.  Anything you can taste  has an actual or real flavor and anything you can see has a real actual color and all ingredients. Are natural unless they are ghosts which  might make them supernatural.   The point is I need to stay hydrated and do all things possible to enhance  my supernatural immunity .  

Prediction-resolution  5... 

I will be using the restroom more frequently  than in 2021.... see resolution-Prediction . Number 4

Prediction-Resolution  6.  

If you read this blog (or listen to the podcast)  you will have the opportunity  to learn at least three  new words (foreign or domestic) or novel concepts each month.   For example  the tiny glob of toothpaste  left on the side  of the  nozzle  should be  referred  to as crest-crust or social  media that is blasting stuff your way  without  your control should be called MMDs  Methods of Mass Distraction.  

Prediction-resolution 7. I will learn to play 24 songs on the keyboard/piano (and describe these efforts in the SPJU.  What’s the SPJU?  remember. I said I’d be introducing a new concept?  The SPJU is the “seeking Peace and Joy Universe LOL”. so I play a little already and yet it’s meager.  I’m not fully engaged most the time when I do and while I can plunk out a mean smoke on the Water or Twinkle Twinkle, its time to be focused enough to echo some real melodies and chords etc.  This will include at least  4 songs I write and play specifically. With the keyboard.  You see, every instrument has some magic locked inside and like all experiences, unless you “paint the fence”, “sand the floor”< and “wax on wax off” it’s not likely you can gain or share the full meaning within.  Therefore  I’m diving in and bringing the SPJU along.  There is a distinct possibility of failure here... but you’ll miss every shot you don’t take.

Resolution-Prediction  8. More “Poetry”

In  the year  of 20 and 21 There were some rhymes and  they were fun Yet. More of them could have been done Describing  prophet, pawn, or nun

for. Rhythmic words  cut through the haze of words designed to clear the maze but often just disturb our days In in wacky large and little ways.

Alas  new rhymes are now in store on topics one should not ignore IWith hopes of causing laughs  galore or thoughts one’s never dared before

resolutions-Predictions  9 & 10 Pointing out Fear and Taking the risk and Responsibility 

i will use first person. Entries  more often....and shall be open with my fears and condemnation of said fears.   These are two separate  yet closely linked  things. And it seems necessary to  come right out and say so.  In may of the 500 some odd posts prior to this  I have avoided first person language in an effort to distance myself from some of the notions that most the readers (My readers?)  have been exposed to and done so because I don’t want anyone to feel targeted or more importantly  blame me for targeting  ideas and folks.  I use terms like “we often” when it would be more accurate to say “you know I  often”.... so the thing is... maybe this shows fear and I’m so tired of being afraid and I’m so tired of people being afraid and being sold  the fact that they should be afraid.  If you are. Afraid. Like everyone else than you AND I. Are cloaking the process of being  responsible for inaction.  Well though is not enough.  If I and maybe we don’t choose risk and responsibility let’s not shout. Out about our “rights” in the coming  year.  You see living in the now and seeking peace and. Joy really do require acting in an engaged way.  They require saying  ‘fear” is real, yet it only lasts until we learn to grab lessons from “failure and then fear is  just a prompt to provide a menu of risks worth taking.  If I want. You to take this blog or the podcast. Into your heart and soul then I have to admit it comes  from my heart and soul as fed by the people I know, the people i read, the songs I hear and play and on and on.  the time has come for me. To say I am here... it is now... let’s walk forward in the light we  can create and share

Peace, Joy, and Love

Jim January 2022

Risks and Predictions 2022

 Life is Risky… Let’s Make it Riskier??

When the calendar turns a lot of folks asks other folks they call “experts” or prognosticators to predict what will happen in the new year.  This blog is not the lost journal of Nostra Dani’s  and Yogi… once quipped “it’s hard to predict things especially the future.”  In that spirit  the next few days are going to provide some facts to consider when you are making resolutions or predictions for the coming year….or trying to puzzle through  the smooth saying  that comes along with the launch of 2022.  You see… we make guesses or form beliefs  without knowing  some facts and there is a responsibility. (This blog is grabbing ahold of) to provide some facts to help our fellow humans as we ache for security  in taking risks based upon what can be known and what can’t.    

For the next three days  we are going to present and reflect on a few of the known knowns  so be informed and amazed.

Odds are…. 

Today there will be a drawing for the 7th largest lottery total  ever recorded.  We state ever recorded because maybe Noah held a lottery to select the two of each animal to make the arc?  So the yellow bellied sap sucker. Made it and the purple bellied  sap sucker… well not this round.  Okay well the odds of winning  the lottery today are 292.6 million to one.  So that’s a big number and yet a lot of folks are taking that chance while if you ask folks if they think they’ll get killed by a lightning strike they won’t spend a dollar to avoid that.  The odds that you get killed by a lightning strike are  a bit shy of 7 million to one.  So put on your rubber suit because the chance of the bolt streaking down are 41  times as likely  as you drinking umbrella drinks on your own private  island next week because your pet cat’s birthday  fell on the 21st and thus was the power ball number you had to play.  

Will world travel and commerce get straightened out. In the coming year?   

Well let’s consider  some of the most planned for and controlled travel ever.  The Apollo mission to the moon.  So these three guys  get into a modified gulfstream with the computing power of a hand held thermometer  and get strapped to a tube of explosives.  They make a round trip to the moon where everything including their  bladder output is monitored.  Upon returning —here’s comes the thing we all need to know….  These three astronauts  had to go through U. S. Customs.  

Is international travel going to get smoother this year?  fat chance Sputnik.  

Will Supply chain issues get resolved?

first of all.most people have problems understanding  a bicycle chain let alone the intricacies  of financial  and Human Resources  involved in most major manufacturing and  merchandise delivery systems.  Many products are multifaceted multinational  ordeals.  A complete  discussion  of the greed and gore of supply chain matters is beyond the scope of this blog and no matter what facts are presented a lot of folks  might stumble  the vague references to correlations versus causations.  /so let’s simplify … If you think you are  an expert on import/export… did you know???? 

Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia?  so… beforewestartpointing fingers at who creates the biggest  headache with complex economic things….having. To do with supply and demand… ponder. The fact that somewhere. There is  a kangaroo wondering why  she’s waiting for food  while  a sheik  orders a two-humper.

So …that’s enough for one day… however if we are going to believe in some things that have strange odds  maybe we should consider doing things that might change  our lives with a little more courage.  After all people assume a lot and you don’t have to worry about  them because they don’t really know all there is to be known let alone all that cannot t present  be known.  We’ll address this more in the next couple days…and I predict we’ll talk about it in this blog a whole bunch  in 2022.  

…oh and there’s a 100% chance  we’ll keep  working on seeking peace and joy…. Rock on.  

Standing on the edge and shaking?

 A Couple Days On the Edge

there are always  these days between Christmas and New Year’s  that feel a bit out of place.  The anticipation  and joy or drama of Christmas has passed  yet the New Year is still hauntingly far awy.  far away because we are silently making  ourselves promises about how we want to  change our lives in the coming year.  Maybe we will proclaim these hopes in resolutions and maybe not.  After all public declarations offer no shelter and sometimes deliver no assistance from those you may look to for support.  They are risky and a tough bargain to make within.  the only suggestion that seems to make sense is to whisper  them to your soul with a promise to act and learn  from the consequences of the acts.  

If others choose to learn with you there will be more joy, however, the attempts alone will bring more peace.  

So… what to do with these edge days?  

Well the best I can figure. Out is to flip the lights on and off so that we can adjust our visions accordingly before moving forward and that’s what this blog will do for a few days including today.  The best way to do this?  Who knows?  A good way?… Some humor, some poetry… some prayer/meditation and then some celebration.   Today a little (very little ) humor and an eight line rhyme.   Oh and a comment  about snow globes… there will be more about snow globes in the  next two entries as well.   Here we stand on the edge and now we leap.

Humor?

People make mistakes… I gave my friend “glue stick” instead of chapstick  ..Horrible mistake I know, however  he hasn’t said a. Word …. (Rim shot)

Poetry * line rhyme

While truth is valued lies are cheap

Fear blocks thoughts and feelings deep

Most shiver in the dark like sheep

Afraid to sing afraid to leap

The ragged road is rough and steep

But in let courage slowly creep

And tears of joy you’ll gently weep

Giving poets words to  keep

Beware of those  who only have the courage to shake the snow globe... they know people will stand still to watch the flakes fall, and yet the scene  will not really change.  focus on change. In 2022 no matter how much the world seems to shake.

Is this change shortage Real?

 

So while opening a new checking account a week or so ago the people at the bank said they were in fact experiencing a change shortage.  Now aside from the  obvious  question—“isn’t money  your main product?”—I started  imagining why this shortage was real.  The best explanations I could come up with were:

1. Since  people. Are staying at home far more than ever before the amount of loose change that we usually give to  people for tips is staying in our pockets.   then add that to the fact we aren’t changing our clothes as often so more change has a longer time frame to get shuffled out of our  pockets and into our  reclinersa and couches along with  the stray socks that are left over from the dryer, the coupon for 50% off two car washes, and the back from  that little earring—oh and that hair tie you know the one that matches those flip flops.
2. Most people just don’t believe in change anymore... even when we used to have it—it just didn’t buy much except for a few minutes of parking and well quite frankly the machines that  Artie designed to process change don’t  ever work.   Let’s face it how many times have you put a dollar in a change machine and while some coins may have. Fallen out—nothing...I mean nothing of importance...ever. Changed.

seriously... maybe it’s time to move to the  question—why does it take so long for change to happen when it does?   

Well some folks are just fine with the way things are and. Believe the  future will be pretty much the same as long as they don’t push for change.   well... a lot of these folks really. Hate 2020.  

Uncertainty is often sold as failurr and if there is  little risk of failure than. There is little hope for change.  So in a world of uncertainty  and uncertainty being  viewed as something to. Fear... there is little doubt that. A lot of people can’t bring themselves to embrace change due to the notion that people want to feel like they have control outcomes  when they  experience self-directed. Or coincidental  universal shifts.   In short, uncertainty is not  calling for curiosity it is calling for fear and a lot of people are listening.  even  when  we see alight at the end of the tunnel people are shouting “it’s a train.”   

Now here’s the magic...

If you  apply a bit of curiosity and make a change you eliminate all the uncertain associated with all the choices that you put aside to act in a particular. Way and as uncertainty  dwindles the more opportunities  to explore without fear materialize.  So when you are uncertain —change—it’s a win-win

So in the realm of the completely obvious—today starts a couple days on  the relationship between curiosity, fear, and control...

and one thing I can control is my worcount—so this is it for today