What are people thinking.

If you look at my profile you will see that I am an atheist. So What! You will also see that one of my favorite authors is Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, and that one of my interests is religious studies. Some people find this interesting, to me it's the ever pursuit of the truth.

It's unbelievable to me that everything we needed to know about the universe was revealed to us about 2500 years ago to a man named Moses. If you think about it that was the turning point for Christianity as far as the bible goes (you do have to ignore the other 6 major religions and some 10's of thousand other sects). Moses receives the law from the one and only God, to be delivered by this mere mortal to the 40,000 wretched sinners at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

There you go end it all stop asking questions, there's really nothing else to discover. God painted the heavens to confuse man and test his faith. God created illness, viruses, and death to eliminate the weak of faith and of mind. But we are really talking about is faith, and that is the reason for my title.

Today I did a search for Dr. Peale. I do this occasionally hoping to find better information than I have found previously. Dr. Peale died many years ago and with him the foundation for the power of his message died with him. His books is great and his story telling fantastic but nothing will replace the power of his sermons for delivering his message. Today, I found a few audio books that I had not seen before, but the ratings are what caught my attention.

These IDIOTS purchase an Audio book written/spoken by a minister and then have the nerve to complain that he spends too much time relating positive thinking to faith in God. OF COURSE HE DOES. If you had faith in something so powerful that you no longer needed to question your day to day life, when you had an opportunity to share that with the world you would. When it becomes the channel for self fulfilling thought and positive thinking then it becomes the logic behind your book. That these people would begin the process expecting anything different is beyond me.

I love Dr. Peale because he gives real stories of people that through FAITH (because that is what positive thinking is) had made incredible changes or accomplished unbelievable feats. His message of FAITH can be applied to anything you want. For me I believe it becomes simply FAITH in the principle that through FAITH and removing doubt that all things are possible. Admittedly it's harder to channel that faith into nothingness, previously being a born again Christian and having a God, a person, an entity to give that burden to was simple, it made sense and I felt like I turned over some of the burden of life to that other person. For those that have it I hope you never lose it, and for those that get angry at the fact that others have that kind of faith in any God of their choosing, I hope you find what you are looking for.

That's my last thought on the subject.

I had a revelation.

When Kari and I were on our drive I was thinking about my current emotional state. I am obviously worried about the trial and the outcome, but beyond that money and bills and expenses have got me all wrapped up. One of the things I thought about is just how much I/We take for granted what we already have. I mean truly what do we need.
Last night we watched 30 days. This show hosted by Morton Turlock who originally came out with the movie 'Supersize Me' about spending 30 days eating three meals a day at McDonalds and the health effects of that lifestyle follows people put into dissimilar situations and how they react to that situation. Does a KKK member begin to appreciate black people by living with a black family for 30 days? Does an Aetheist convert to Christianity after living with a family for 30 days? In this case Morton volunteered to be put in a federal prison for 30 days, living one of the most scariest situations you could ever live, and in this situation the state gave him what he needed. A roof over is head, clothes, and food.
I have what I need. Subsequently, an experience like Morton's really emphasizes the thinks we really want. He didn't worry about his bills while in prison (partially of course because he was getting paid to be there), he didn't want for his car, he didn't want for better clothes, more gadgets, more toys. He wanted, of course, for the love of his fiance and his family, and the freedom that we all hold so precious. Not the freedom of what we perceivably think great wealth will be, but the freedom to walk down the street, smell fresh air, watch the trees blow in the afternoon breeze, and feel the sun on his face.
So back to my revelation, basically, I thought about the fact that desires may need to be broken down into 3 categories. Needs, Wants, and Wishes.
Needs are very simple, we need to have food (not as much or expensive as we usually think), a place to live (arguable need at best), and socially it's preferred we have some sort of garment on (depends on where you live :)).
Wants are Love, Freedom, and recognition of social achievement that are generally shown by increasing the perceived value of those basic needs, food, shelter, and clothes.
And finally there are our Wishes, who could begin to categorize what may go in this column. Increased Freedom, distractions, entertainment, are the general wishes. Not to say obtaining and enjoying things in this category are bad or go against civilization. The point of this is I spend a lot of time in this category being frustrated, upset, or worried. My wishes have become my overwhelming concern when they should be an area of hope and enthusiasm.
I think it's because I have had the great fortune to achieve so many things in this column. Once you achieve many of them the wish to have more continues. Satisfaction, becomes harder to obtain. It's like a drug, once you get to that norm and you have adjusted to it, this is just the way it is and this way of life feels more like what you need than what you want. Therefore when threatened with something that might take it away it becomes an area of stress.
This vicious cycle must end for me. I need to look at my life a little more like; "Well right now I am able to afford many of my wishes, if somebody, or something causes them to go away what have I really lost? Nothing, I have only gained the opportunity to discover and obtain new wishes in life."

DIG YOURSELF OUT

March 4th, 2006
The clock next to my bed read 4:54 am when I walked into my bedroom a few minutes ago. What an evening! I know this must sound like the beginning of a bad romance novel or murder mystery, certainly, it's nothing of the sort. I just want to tell you a little true story of stupidity, panic, and ultimately a profound event that should prove a positive metaphor for everyday of our life.
We have all done stupid things, and I can tell you that the past year and a half has been a whirlwind of stupid decisions followed by even more embarrassingly humiliating actions for me. for now I'd like to tell you about the one that happened to me this evening.
It was late Saturday night and I was taking home my wife's niece after she babysat a group of kids at a poker party John, my brother-in-law was having. Just to get this out of the way - I didn't win the tourney - and I had two drinks prior to 8:00, I left the party after midnight. In a way I wish I had been stupid and been driving home more intoxicated, at least there's a 21 step program for that kind of idiocity.
Regardless, on the way to my Wife's niece's home I saw a set of truck tracks going into a field that I knew had recently been bulldozed and all the orange trees removed (unfortunately, they suffered irreparable damage after the recent windstorm). I thought to my self, hey I bet our new truck could just cut through that field and get to the other side, that's less disctance and more fun.
So I proceded up the hill. Everything, went ok for a bit Noel was having fun and Jacob (my son) was in the back asleep just tossing about. We went on a way and I realized and said "I don't think this was such a good idea." As the truck began to slip around in the freshly graded ground, that which thanks to the recent and unnusual rains had turned to mud. Anyway, we got tossed around and I was unable to avoid a fairly large low spot in the ground, we got high centered and if I hadn't negleced to tell you this is a 2wd regular truck.
1st I have to call my father in law to come get my niece and try to convince him that I was not totally wasted. Certain he does not believe me at this point, I mean I wouldn't believe me. You have to be somewhat intoxicated to try this in the middle of the night. Next I called triple AA to see if they could help. The sent out the truck driver and he told me that because I had managed to stick the truck in exactly the middle of the lot and from any side he was unable to winch me ou because I was like 250 ft insteat of the 100 maximum they allow.
Humiliated, stressed and anxious the driver dropped me back at home leaving me with the following thoughts as options. "The only way I've ever seen that work is find someone with a good 4X4 and get towed out." He Said. That's would be fine if I knew someone with a 4X4 thus I was left with the idea of maybe hiring a tractor to get pulled out. Don't know who or where on a sunday. I mean maybe a Bobcat would do it....
Pacing in my living room I remember something the driver said about him getting stuck trying to get someone out. He said he had to dig out. "Dig out!" Why didn't I think about that... Just dig out. I mean it's only 2:00am and 40 degrees outside. Dig it out, you got yourself into this, dig yourself out. It just keeps going through my head. "Where there's a will there's a way." Get on your overalls, a shovel, some wood and walk up to the truck and dig yourself out.
You must understand where my head is at this point. First it's been a rough year and it seems like I am on a tear of self destructive decisions and behavior, this what seems to be a small disaster, just ads to my feeling of depravity. Second, I have been thinking all night while waiting for the driver of the worst case scenarios with the property owner and law enforcement. What if the property owner just says, it's on my property, it's mine? What if he could? What kind of possible other financial consequence could there be if it's deemed trespassing? Could driving through the field cause some kind of property damage and another financial drain of which I have many right now? Obviously, I can't sit around and do nothing. I got 4 hours to deal with the problem before anyone knows it's happened let's do it.
I get my overalls the shovel and some wood and start to walk up, then I realize that it really is a long walk and I need to conserve my eneregy, I also forsee possibly coming back for different tools and or supplies. Instantly, I think that a bottle jack would be a good addition to my arsenal here (proven true later). So I headed back and got to my other car and load up with stuff and drive up to the area where I entered the field.
With flashlight in hand but not on as not to alert anyone to my presence I walked the path that led me to this situation. After getting a closer look I am blown away that I ever continued driving. When I get to the truck I evaluate the situation, the front passenger tire is in a low spot and it's high centered . This pulled the rear driver tire almost off the ground. I have to first dig out the passenger side where the mud is right up to the door to get a better look. Fortunately, the recently turned over lot and the rain (both of which are contributing factors to my present situation) made digging easily. It was just soft, everywhere, even the roots left were all loose.
After digging out, I saw that bringing the jack was about the smartest idea it had. Unfortunately it did not have enough height after digging down and getting. Now a little ad for GM's truck jack. Similar to the hydraulic bottle jack that I brought with me, except with the ability to go at least twice the height. That and an extra 2X4 and I'm able to get the front wheel up high enough to get a 4X$ under the front wheel.
Still not convinced this is enough and knowing I got mud just packed into the rear tires. I went ahead and jacked up the passenger rear and put a 2X4 under it. I also spent about an hour diggin out all the dirt under the truck anywhere near the frame and making sure that all the tires had enough clearance to almost coast backwards out of the situation. Slowly, I got the truck back off and continued to take boards and put behind the tires as I went down the hill until I could simply roll back out of the field.
The entire process took about 5 hours 3 of which was digging the truck out in the dirt and mud. But at the end of the day, what seemed a hopeless situation with no immediate solution available and possible terrible outcome, was and can be solved by a will to solve it and just never stop trying. When you get stuck in the mud and you've done something stupid you got to DIG YOURSELF OUT.