40 at 40

When I was around the age of 12 the leader of our congregation, also a high school football coach, brought in a man who told us a story that went a little something like this... It has been 28 years please forgive the details.  This man told a story of a teenager, his friend, who had a list of goals on his wall. He spoke of how his friend had achieved all those goals. The friend worked towards them and had accomplished all of them save one. It was to compete and win at the state level in his athletic of choice. He had achieved the honor of doing so... including playing in the final round of completion. His coach, our religious leader, came to him one afternoon, the regional special needs school was having their prom and the coach ask if this young man would be willing to take one of these students, a young lady, to their prom. There was only one thing that was that it was the day of the competition; his coach did know the significance of the date but felt strongly he should ask thi...

  “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ―  George Bernard Shaw

 TRUE FREEDOM IS FOUND IN FAILURE. 3/2009 It seems that communism, socialism, and even democracy all have one thing in common. Then are striving to make all men equal, equal in value, equal in rights, equal in pay, equal in say... with the use of government to help ensure you can't fail, it is security. As H.L. Mencken said in his book  Minority Report  "Most people want security in this world, not liberty." Security? What is security? Security is an illusion that you are safe. People spend fortunes on security. 5-star safety ratings, Security Systems, Firearms, Life Insurance. . . 5-star cars still kill people; Security systems can be and will be defeated; Insurance companies deny claims, and firearms are only as good as the person using them... even if they are the #1 crime prevention asset you will ever own. (Ask a Criminal, not a liberal.) It seems to me that by removing the ability of someone to fail, by rules or protection or Political Correctness or Affirmative Act...

We've lived Covid, you understand the trucking thing, even if you are back to driving like baboons on the interstate. Without the advances in plumbing, the sickness of old would still be killing in extreme numbers. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/no-plumbing-disease_b_158567

 Someone Not Something By R.T. Vance 2005 It's amazing how many cares disappear when you decide not to be something, but to be someone. - Coco Chanel Over the years I have found that people for whatever reason, decide that they need to become what the social norm is, or what their group is. This was rather frustrating for me because I would watch my friends be a different person around girls than they were as a bunch of guys! I found it difficult enough to be who I was trying to be and found that being consistent across the board was far easier than trying to impress people.   I'm not saying that I'm better than anyone else, I'm saying what worked for me because God knows I'm not perfect and my troubles are neither simple or small for my current evolution but they are what makes me me.   I have found that as people struggle to find who they are that in general, they wish to travel the path of least resistance, I won't insult you saying that I don't; I'll...

I am reminded of a story.  It is one of the earliest memories of my father. I can remember it clearly. He has heard my story and hardly remembers the event, it was just something that happened in passing that had no bearing on him, but it defines my actions regularly. We were traveling to Green River, WY to visit my grandparents living there. Along the way, we stopped at a rest area to discover that a family had run out of Gas and also out of money. My memory tells me that they had broken down while on vacation in SLC and had had to repair their car to head back to home, Omaha if my memory is correct.  My parents filled their tank and I remember a discussion about some food. I even remember the gas station where they got the gas at, Fort Bridger, WY. It is no longer there, I went to try to get pictures of it 10 or so years ago. Here is the remarkable thing... After my parents did this and got this family out on the road I remember the discussion about how their finances were t...