Go lightly
so you may see clearly , without the intoxication of emotion.
Remain focused on the true value the world provides,
And the service you can provide the world.
Instead of reacting in hate, which is destructive and tears others down, provide something that builds others up.
The end doesn’t justify the means
Even if my moral convictions are more heartfelt than the opposition.
Amazon now captures nearly $1 of every $2 that Americans spend online.
To think of Amazon as a retailer, though, is to profoundly misjudge the scope of what its founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos, has set out to do.
It’s not simply that Amazon does so much more than sell stuff—that it also produces hit television shows and movies; publishes books; designs digital devices; underwrites loans; delivers restaurant orders; sells a growing share of the Web’s advertising; manages the data of US intelligence agencies; operates the world’s largest streaming video-game platform; manufactures a growing array of products, from blouses to batteries; and is even venturing into health care.
Instead, it’s that Bezos has designed his company for a far more radical goal than merely dominating markets; he’s built Amazon to replace them. His vision is for Amazon to become the underlying infrastructure that commerce runs on.
Which leads to the question: Should the government break up Amazon to maintain a fair level of competition in the American marketplace?
Excerpted from thenation.com
My first reaction to this was, “Who is this to tell me that my opinion can’t contribute to the conversation?!” I was offended. I thought, “More authoritarian moralism, telling me my place.”
Then I realized that the statement was unfriendly because it was angry, and that the anger was coming from a place of hurt. Why were they hurt? Because they don’t feel understood, they feel alone, ignored, probably from hiding away from the shame of being victimized.
And all these feelings manifested in a confrontational and extreme statement, ironically alienating people, maybe the very people that needed to be brought closer to them, the people who don’t have the empathy or perspective to listen. Whoever wrote this doesn’t need judgment or politics.
They need our patience. They need us to sit through the emotions.
They need us to simply listen.
“What are you doing?” she called down from the window of the house.
He stepped back from the bee hive he had set up. “I got us bees,” he said.
She disappeared from the window, and returned with a rock in her hand. She dropped it on the bee hive and they started to buzz angrily.
“What are you doing?!” he said, panicked.
“I don’t think having bees is a good idea,” she answered, and dropped a second rock on the hive.
Bees rushed out of the hive. He ran, the swarm following him. “Why?” he yelled.
She shrugged, “They don’t have the right temperament.”
I look forward to this change every year.
It makes life interesting…dynamic, to see how things develop, a natural cycle of growth and death. So that we can renew ourselves and evolve and progress. Cleaning out the unnecessary, the dead bits of the mistakes from our past.
Every time better than our last season.
We are instinct-driven animals with greed, lust, love, and hate.
But we are clever, to our credit. And to our demise.
The awareness of these impulses determines how much control we have over this turmoil which rages within. And it will determine what kind of person manifests in reality.
And the kind of society we become.
Today, I will do everything that I want to.
If I have the time.
Of course, I do have the time.
I am inexorably linked to it. There is no other that I am connected to more than time.
I am married to time.
It drags me along. I am its ball and chain. Or else I fly along with it carelessly, like a feather, as it counts down to our unavoidable separation.
Either way, we are linked.
Literally. Our marriage is the strongest of any marriage.
Respect your partner in the most intimate relationship of your life.
Until death do us part.
Dare to welcome a stranger
Dare to help someone
Dare to do more than the minimum
Dare to do a better job
Dare to be honest
Dare to be vulnerable
…Dare to be yourself.
I’d forgotten a name of her friend, again.
And she was reminding me about it, again.
Why didn’t I remember their names? I remembered her name. Isn’t that enough?
Education is happening all around me, if I’m paying attention.
If I’m not paying attention- to names, other people’s ideas, whatever- does that mean I don’t care?
Yes. Yes, it does.
Sometimes it’s a name I don’t care about. Other times it’s an opinion that I judge as wrong.
More curiosity. Less judgment. Leads to more learning.
Check your ignorance…check your expert opinion.
Grow your curiosity.
And after the conversation, you may learn something.
Selfishness is shunned and selflessness is seen as virtue.
But virtue is being high value in order to contribute high value.
Because without building yourself, how do you produce anything valuable?
