For me anyway, and I hope for you also.
Imagine that we are fed, watered, and loved. We live on a planet that has a self correcting system to repair itself from any damage we might be able to do to it, from exploding atomic bombs and power plants to inventing things like plastic and other seemingly unnatural elements.
The Earth just considers these things as more of its children. All of this came from the Earth and some of it from mankind that the Earth allowed to exist in the first place. Could be one of the reasons we are even here (-G. Carlin ref there [Language]). Millions of years ago you had Dinosaurs. Today you have communists and normal people. Millions of years from now you'll have something else. Don't sweat it. Live in the moment. Live in the frame of your own lifespan and the lifespan of those you care about such as your descendent family. Adhere to the responsibility that you put in a little effort into maintaining a good living environment for them just as many before you have done for you. (MERIKA! Hell Yea!) Outside of that - your job is done.
If you live in any civilized country, you can hop into your car, and drive within a 30 mile radius and buy whatever the hell it is you need or want for basic living, enjoyment, and entertainment.
You are surrounded by the joy that comes from interacting with the endlessly diverse plant and animal life. The endlessly diverse physical environment - caves, rivers, lakes, oceans, canyons, trees, flowers, fields, deserts, etc.
You enjoy the fellowship that comes from your local friends, possibly coworkers, and surely Internet friends and acquaintances. You have it good.
Unless maybe you're this guy.
If only this hadn't happened..... but we can overcome.
WOW, I was really WITH YOU until................that picture................OH MY GOSH! THe definition of VERY PIG UGLY!
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, we have it VERY GOOD and it's important to concentrate on GRATITUDE...which reminds me of a wonderful saying "Gratitude turns what we have into enough." I like that!
Also, that's a VERY nice reminder and I THANK YOU, Kid!
DeleteThanks you Z! Well, I had to keep it real after all :-]
DeleteHonestly, compared to most of the rest of the world, we have it damn good. Doesn't mean we stop fighting the evil but still. I'm thankful more than not.
"Gratitude turns what we have into enough."
DeleteI really like that sentiment Z.
Lovely and inspirational, Kid. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAdrienne, that I could inspire you is very flattering. Thank You !
DeleteThat was a very helpful post, live in the moment, be thankful for the good. And the final infographic which seems to say, "You too could look like this if you were deranged and possessed by Satan."
ReplyDeleteHave to say, never been tempted by that kind of thing, thank God.
Flattering comment LSP. Thanks. Yes, I also do not have a single tattoo. I sure see many on people younger than say 45 here in Cincy. And the less attractive they are the more they have. Just don't think that is going to turn out well for them - in the spirit of 41% of trans people commit suicide.
DeleteGod bless you, for writing that, Kid. It's EXACTLY the kind of thinking we most desperately need in this Era of Apparent Dissolution, Debacle, and Disintegration.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, when I was first getting acquainted in this corner of the blogosphere, our friend SilverFiddle who used to run Western Hero with his friends Fintann and Viburnum, proclaimed you "a wise man," Kid.
He was certainly right in saying that. I've seen it more and more as I visit here, and you and I occasionally interact.
Like our incredibly wise and brilliant Founding Fathers, you did not mention God or His Son Jesus Christ by name, yet the essence of the Holy Spirit, –– God the Father AND the Son ––, as I understand it ––, permeates your encouraging words, just as the Holy Spirit surely guided and permeatd the thinking that led to the Founding of our blessed nation, and the creation of our Constitution by which we are properly supposed to be guided.
I'm not an alcoholic, thank God, but I am a firm believer in the Serenity Prayer that forms the basis for Alcoholics Anonymous.
"May God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
I think you have echoed and amplifed the meaning of those remarkably wise words very well in you piece today.
Thanks, Kid. Our country is in desperate need of a revival offormasl, ritualized GRATITUDE, along wioth a heartfelt determinatiin to adopt POSITIVE ThINKING as a modus vivendi.
Franco, Wow... Talk about flattering. This is just one more that came out of the blue. Took less than two minutes to put together. Thanks for mentioning SF and others. I didn't know they felt that way. I remember Western Hero. I have valued his and their thoughts and posts also through the years. Happy they are still around on AOW.
DeleteAnd - "May God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
Perfect. That has been the cornerstone of most of my thinking for many decades now.
Something I didn't mention that was top of mind when I wrote this. God gave us all of this. God provided all of this for us. So much beauty. Food, Water, Gravity, Plants, Animals, Wonders ! Everything we need. So much of everything from petting cats to climbing El Capitan freestyle. What a truly wonderful place we live in, that frankly assholes continue to pound away at but We will overcome. We will most definitely overcome.
Positive attitude will defeat Negative attitude every time.
____________The Lord of the Dance ____________
ReplyDeleteI danced in the morning when the world was begun
I danced in the Moon and the Stars and the Sun
I came down from Heaven and I danced on Earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth:
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)
I danced for the scribe and the pharisee
But they would not dance and they wouldn't follow me
I danced for fishermen, for James and John
They came with me and the Dance went on:
I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame!
They whipped and they stripped and they hung me high
And they left me there on a cross to die!
I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black
It's hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body and they thought I'd gone
But I am the Dance and I still go on!
They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the Life that'll never, never die!
I'll live in you if you'll live in Me ––
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
~ Sydney Carter (1915-2004)
I POSTED THAT TO AOW'S PLACE A LITTLE WHILE AGO, BECAUSE SHE IS HAVNG ONE SWEET SON-OF-A-BITCH OF A TIME RIGHT NOW, AND NEEDS ALL THE PRAYERS, POSITIVE THINKING, ENCOURAGEMENT AND GOOD WILL WE COULD POSSIBLY SENDHER WAY, BUT AS I REREAD THE PIECE FOR POSSIBLY THE NINE-HUNDREDTH TIME, IT'S VIBRANT SPIRIT STRUCK ME ANEW, AND I GOT GOOSE BUMPS AL OVER AND CHILLS UP AND DOWN MY SPINE, –– AND –– I FELT NEWLY ENERGIZED, MYSELF.
GOOD WO}RDS CAN DO THAT FOR ALL OF US, BUT ONLY IF WE KEEP OURSELVES OPEN TO THE INFINITE POSSIBILITIES FOR GOOD THAT LIFE ALWAYS HS TO OFFER.
If I could edit the Ten Commandments, I would add, "Thou shalt not indulge in Cynical Disparagement." and I would count CYNICISM as the EIGHTH Deadly Sin.
];^)>
Thanks Franco. Just went there and left a comment.
DeleteFor some reason people want to forget that an asteroid blasted most living things off the planet and ended life as it was known.. yet, Mother nature does what she does best and healed.
ReplyDeletePeople are so self centered and self absorbed that they think they must be the cause of all weather changes when reading just a bit of history, one knows climate change is a pattern.
Bunkerville. Cycles. Seems so simple doesn't it ?
DeleteLooks like someone over did it with the assholes. I read somewhere that all this plastic people are talking about is coming down about a half dozen rivers in China and India ... how about that. This might surprise a lot of libs, but it's not a bunch of straws from California.
ReplyDeleteOdie. Exactly. I don't believe for a moment that plastic in the ocean is coming from America. It's coming from these vermin countries. Countries where we send a million condoms to that also get thrown into the Nile unused because the vermin that live there would rather rape a 6 Month Old Girl to try to avoid getting aids than put on a condom.
DeleteFuck me.
In the end - Education. That has been owned by the communist left since the 70's and that refuses to educate anyone.