2014
I love today's horoscope: You'll gravitate toward ideas that set you free and shun limiting ones. This month brings transition. November brings fantastic financial luck, but it's the personal win in January that will rock your world.
Wow! That's great, right?
So here's the bad news and good news:
That was today's horoscope but not my horoscope.
However I love it so much as to adopt it as my own.
LOL
2002
"… Though I believe our metronome is still swinging away from repressive Puritan mindsets, which had been rooted deeply throughout our nation, toward the opposite extreme, where sex runs wild through the streets—at all ages—today, here is why I believe we're inching toward a healthy balance between unbridled lust and self control within reason: First of all, sex is just one symptom of today's laxity in terms of self discipline, because everywhere we look, every aspect of life that we value has come undone. *When everything we value has come undone, and still, we feel shocked, again and again, then it makes sense to surmise that denial is blinding us to this fact: We have no clue that our values and priorities no longer match.
I believe that before too long, parents will be forced to peel off their blinders and grow aware of this fact of life: If their bedrooms act like revolving doors, little pitchers with wide eyes and big ears will be likely to engage in adult behaviors in irresponsible ways. So, though we may not think to maintain a hold on self restraint for ourselves, I believe that by way of education, we'll see our way toward role modeling self control in hopes of instilling the same within our kids …
Please make no mistake. I'm not suggesting that single parents embrace celibacy. I'm suggesting that in every aspect of life, discretion is a necessity. As to why the importance of discretion? Mixed messages mess with minds of both genders, at all ages, and the media certainly exacerbates confusion, 24/7. Remember photos of a gorgeous sixteen year old girl modeling jeans with this caption beneath: What do I wear beneath my Calvin Klein's? Nothing. How suggestive of advertising hormonal kids-embracing-sex can we get? Engage sexually with a sixteen year old girl, be convicted of statutory rape.
What are your kids watching on cable? At the movies? Reading undercover with flashlights switched on, as has been true ever since someone invented the energizer bunny.
I believe that before too long, parents will be forced to peel off their blinders and grow aware of this fact of life: If their bedrooms act like revolving doors, little pitchers with wide eyes and big ears will be likely to engage in adult behaviors in irresponsible ways. So, though we may not think to maintain a hold on self restraint for ourselves, I believe that by way of education, we'll see our way toward role modeling self control in hopes of instilling the same within our kids …
Please make no mistake. I'm not suggesting that single parents embrace celibacy. I'm suggesting that in every aspect of life, discretion is a necessity. As to why the importance of discretion? Mixed messages mess with minds of both genders, at all ages, and the media certainly exacerbates confusion, 24/7. Remember photos of a gorgeous sixteen year old girl modeling jeans with this caption beneath: What do I wear beneath my Calvin Klein's? Nothing. How suggestive of advertising hormonal kids-embracing-sex can we get? Engage sexually with a sixteen year old girl, be convicted of statutory rape.
What are your kids watching on cable? At the movies? Reading undercover with flashlights switched on, as has been true ever since someone invented the energizer bunny.
*When we talk to our kids about embracing responsible values, humility, objectivity, generosity of spirit and compassion while blindly prioritizing greed, immediate gratification and self fulfillment—when Big Brother, in the form of big business, steps all over 'mom and pop shops', doesn't all of that point toward our society's serious detachment from reality? I mean is reality too scary to peel away denial's blinders and face the truth? Seriously, if the truth emerges in the end then common sense suggests mustering the courage and humility necessary to remove our blinders and face up to the truth before our ability to lead the world toward greatness comes to a bitter end.
Here is how our fear of deeper truth detaches our conscious minds from reality by exacerbating confusion, all around: While embracing attitudes, which blame others for our pain, we simultaneously give our power to those who brainwash us into dismissing our needs in favor of feeding theirs. Clarity suggests sound reason for exhaustion and anger building up inside, everywhere I look. Anger precedes riots. Riots are symptomatic of emergent rebellion. When the anger of blue collar rebellion explodes the police are called. Who will we call when the simmering anger of white collar workers, who can't make ends meet while their employers are joining the fortune five hundred, explodes? The guillotine maker? Or Nick?
For many reasons we’re at a point on the time line where employers drive people of both sexes to work, work, work—without paying enough mind to considering what has actually caused our nation to lose all sense of balance, every where we look. With so much pressure at work causing repressed anger to boil over at home, it's no wonder that we can't maintain control over our emotions any more than our finances. What with daily exhaustion and no release of frustration until we get home ... we always hurt the ones we love, the ones we ought not hurt, at all.
2014 And thus do I see affairs in the workplace, along with repressed frustration of over worked men and women, who live in fear of the bill collector and credit card debt, creating such a subconscious build up of anger, which exploding, repeatedly, at home, ends loving unions in divorce court with countless, confounded young, trailing fearfully behind.
For many reasons we’re at a point on the time line where employers drive people of both sexes to work, work, work—without paying enough mind to considering what has actually caused our nation to lose all sense of balance, every where we look. With so much pressure at work causing repressed anger to boil over at home, it's no wonder that we can't maintain control over our emotions any more than our finances. What with daily exhaustion and no release of frustration until we get home ... we always hurt the ones we love, the ones we ought not hurt, at all.
2014 And thus do I see affairs in the workplace, along with repressed frustration of over worked men and women, who live in fear of the bill collector and credit card debt, creating such a subconscious build up of anger, which exploding, repeatedly, at home, ends loving unions in divorce court with countless, confounded young, trailing fearfully behind.
Case in point, highlighting a society out of control? We're losing our homes, and children are gunning down innocent children in school. Need I say more? Yes, I do. I need to say one more thing in hopes of ending this last train of thought on an up beat note: In order for the down side of this cyclical pattern to swing up, we need to open our eyes, look in the mirror, and begin to embrace the line of control ... within reason ... before it's too late to regain a sense of balance in all things. And once balance is within sight, little pitchers with wide eyes and big ears will be more likely to follow suit.
While reading the news (?) concerning leadership (?) at VA hospitals, I was saddened but not surprised. This scandal, one of many in a long line of debaucheries, presented yet another piece of the bigger picture that's been puzzling through my mind for over a decade. So rather than freeing my frustration, which has been gaining momentum for more than a decade, by storming around, I sit my ire down and post questions like: When will individuals across our nation recognize each one's need of peeling off denial's blinders, so that self examination grows widespread? Soon, I hope, don't you? 78 nations and counting ...
2002
For Pete's sake, Mom, here we are, living in a warm and sunny climate where people, who ignore the state of our natural environment, run indoors in gyms that cost a fortune. Tell me how that makes sense? Run in front of a TV or run, surrounded by gorgeous mountain views that we all need to work to protect?
Too few of us are aware of the fact that values we profess to believe in have not matched our priorities for quite some time. All of the huffing and puffing we do does nothing but blow up a lot of hot air. *Our nation has been tottering at the top of a pyramid scheme, which has been undermining the solid foundation of family life for so long that we seem to expect our hurried children to dance toward high achieving adulthood as fast as they can in hopes that they (who learn by mimicking us) will come up with bright ideas that will save middle class values (which have hollowed out under our watch) before our great society approaches a state of total collapse. Whew!
I sure do hope that the center of the bell shaped curve meets up with Nick, fast!
I sure do hope that the center of the bell shaped curve meets up with Nick, fast!
At this pace, I fear the best of the younger generation will burn out younger and break down more often than we, who had been raised after the armistice during the stable upswing of the fifties. As to tormented kids, who shoot their way through classrooms in schools, while we sit on our couches, clucking our tongues to hear that 'someone else's' child has been dashing about, blasting loaded guns with no respect for human life, left and right—why do we think the parents of the shooters had a clue as to their children's depth of despair? How many parents, today, pay close attention to what their kids are up to when left on their own?
Though none could be more attentive in healthy ways than I was while raising our boys, once our sons were grown, they revealed hair raising stories that made me ask: Who raised you? Where was your mother while all of was going on? One day, I'll write a book entitled: High School Stories From Hell.
But Annie, your kids were good. They excelled. They were leaders and grew up to be responsible, loving men.
Though none could be more attentive in healthy ways than I was while raising our boys, once our sons were grown, they revealed hair raising stories that made me ask: Who raised you? Where was your mother while all of was going on? One day, I'll write a book entitled: High School Stories From Hell.
But Annie, your kids were good. They excelled. They were leaders and grew up to be responsible, loving men.
I know, Mom. That's why adults, today, are in need of working to find a balance, concerning values and priorities. How can it be that so many of us are unaware of the fact that the actions of our kids prove to be reactions, symptomatic of much that’s mixed up with adults? Once adults find a balance between meeting personal needs and satisfying the needs of others, children are likely to grow up doing the same.”
“So, Annie, what does all of this have to do with The Pill?”
“For the sake of simplicity, let's say that hindsight suggests that “The Pill” and ‘The Sexual Revolution’ set off a chain reaction, catalyzing so many affairs in the work place between young women and older married men (who'd missed out in partaking of 'the sexual revolution' during their youth) that eventually, socially accepted divorce as resembling a revolving door. This is your family, today. Meet your new family, tomorrow. Whoops! Blink once and that family is whisked out the door, only to find another sweep in—circle round, allemande left, switch partners and dosey-doe. The one thing that mushroomed from coast to coast, just like an atomic bomb, was the explosive nature of guilt, fear and anger.. Though society grows ever more deeply concerned, people get used to anything, and I believe we've grown too complacent, concerning our present harvest of painfully bruised fruit. What's wrong with children, today?
Seriously! If the apple doth not fall far from the tree then when are we going to face THE TRUTH about one generation leading the next ever more deeply into denial's dark maze?
Seriously! If the apple doth not fall far from the tree then when are we going to face THE TRUTH about one generation leading the next ever more deeply into denial's dark maze?
Think of it, Mom. More than half of us divorce. What single mother, who feels chained to punching a corporate time clock from 9-5 to pay the bills feels liberated, today? At best, most working moms feel guilty about how exhausted they are at home after working so hard to climb the corporate ladder, not toward financial success but toward paying the piper. Can we really do it all and do it well? How many can afford nannies? What kid looks out into the audience in hopes of spotting the nannie at recitals? Where is it written that nannies, rather than parents, are best suited to raise kids with well rounded family values? If the pill liberated sex to run wild then retrospectively, resultant consequences gives us lots to reconsider, right?
As women, climbing the ladder, competing for the same positions as men, hit the glass ceiling, the concept of division of labor—at work and at home—has become as mired within the exhausted blur of a power struggle as is true in every other aspect of family life. If yesterday's slave masters had gone by the name of Simon Legree then today’s taskmaster, who, by law, can no longer (?) discriminate against religion, race, gender or color, goes by the name of—Big Business.
I'd once feared Big Government turning into Big Brother. But I was wrong. While I kept my eye on Big Government, Big Business slipped in and began to call the shots, while mom and pop kept running around, like Chicken Little, lamenting our lot.
Life was messy before I was born. Life is bound to be messy after I'm gone. While I'm here, I've decided that lamenting is not enough, so I set my focus on spending my time figuring out what needs to be done to clean the cobwebs out of my mind. All you need do is watch me to see that my thoughts are always in a state of transition, suggesting my mind engaging in a new phase of growth. But instead of growing, wildly, like a weed, I grow more thoughtfully aware of where my belief system is in need of expanded adjustment, every day.
"So, what are you writing about, Annie—saving your marriage, effective communications or rescuing present day society before family values crash and implode?"
"They're one and the same, Mom. And here's why that's true: If more of us do not begin to communicate honestly with ourselves about balance, we'll not come to see how negative mindsets, insecure attitudes, and self absorbed leadership exacerbate problems at home as well as around the world.
Once we set a high value on mindful self awareness, we can consciously work together toward becoming pillars of strength, securing a balanced sense of grounded family values in home after home.
*If we don't prioritize family values and model mindful self awareness for our kids then who will?
If it's true that eventually every world power has faced its decline, must we follow suit? While working, mindfully, to prioritize the values upon which our nation had originally grown strong, I feel compelled to ask others to join hands, while we declare, with conviction:
NO! NO! NOT AGAIN!
We shall not cave or crash as those who came before us
We shall overcome greed and re-strengthen
I have a dream
How about you?
I want to hold your hand
While we figure out
How to expand our sights in hopes of
Gaining insight into meeting our needs
While retrieving values
Which have been in the process of
Barreling downhill
Barreling downhill
Since the swinging sixties got us to
The negative portion of the cycle where
We are, today!
Any Nick sightings on the horizon?
The negative portion of the cycle where
We are, today!
Any Nick sightings on the horizon?
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