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?

There are two types of people: Authoritarians,
And happy people.

Those who seek satisfaction from others,
And those who find happiness in their own lives and what they create and contribute.

Fortunately, this country was founded to value what you create as an individual and contribute to others.

Happy Birthday, America. With all your corruption, you still provide us a society that immigrants from all over the world flock to join.

Just because I don’t put as high a priority on an issue as you do doesn’t mean I’m stupid or that I don’t care.

And it doesn’t mean that I’m immoral.  This judgment on morality usually came from  religious ideologues… Christian priests or Muslim clerics. But today, religious-level conviction has seeped into non-religious political issues.  Best leave that righteous indignation in the church and mosques.  After all, they have an all-powerful God backing them up.

So no, I’m not immoral. You’re not moral. Or vice versa. We simply don’t agree.

And that’s ok. Because that’s were a discussion starts. One that must be had. It leads to an even better perspective, broadening each of our beliefs, where we start seeing context and a fine tuning of beliefs before they are applied to complicated realities.

A better perspective that indicates that, really, we’re all the same.

Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.

Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. So throw away your baggage and go forward.

There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet,
trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair.

That’s why you must walk so lightly.

Credit: Aldous Huxley

The truest, longest lasting, most profound changes occur with you.

Not the institution.

Small changes lead to big things.

Trust yourself, your group, and what you see around you, rather than what the corporate or government institutions do for you.

What are you waiting for?
It’s all over.
There is no later to do those things
Scratching around in your skull
Start it.
Start it all.

FIRE IT UP.

The end is already here.

She was a picture of loveliness and also suffering. I could feel a quiet resignation behind her words. She seemed to be harboring a pain from something significant, sometime, somewhere. And it had dulled her into a sad acceptance of her existence.

My questions were deflected. Too soon, or maybe my manner was too rough? She had made herself vulnerable and been taken advantage of. It shone gently, in the earnest way she talked about her clients, and how she connected with them.

I told her she would be ok, whatever happened out there, she was ok with me. She nodded, listening, but not believing it. I wish I could have explained better, that I understood, and I was real. I would be her advocate in the cruel world. Because I’ve suffered, too, and still harbored that insecurity.

My mantra is for all of them:

Trust that what you feel in the moment is good enough.

Express it.

Let it lay.

Don’t hide. Don’t manipulate.

Accept the consequences of being you.

And dismiss those who dismiss you.