What's Da Buzz?

As is my normal writing style, this article is about getting to the bottom of a topic and just telling it like it is. If you agree with me, then you are likely in the latter half of the title. If you find yourself described in this and take offense to it, tough luck.

This is an observation of mine that boils down what I see as the core basics to the vast majority of conflicts and debates we see going around the world and even in our personal lives. Are your motives or reasons for doing what you do based on what you want for you or what you want do to for (not to) others? Are you selfish or are you selfless? Do you focus on yourself or others?

On an individual level, each of us is guilty at times of doing things for selfish reasons. Often though, those things you did for selfish reasons end up causing you misery and grief. I’ve done it. My hubby has done it. We all have at one point in time. But what causes the really deep divides, fights and debates goes down to what you basically are like.

Those who are selfish are quite easy to pick out. They are those egotistical self-absorbed ones that annoy you. They live their lives in pursuit of money, fame, attention, control, sex, status or corporate title, their entertainment, making others miserable for petty vengeance or many other things that do not matter when you are dead.

Those who are selfless are often more at peace with themselves. They give to others while drawing the line before it becomes being used. Their eyes are on how they can serve others in this world without an ulterior reason. These are the ones who understand a basic truth in life.

If you focus on yourself, when the times are tough you will be by yourself. If you live only for yourself, then you will die by yourself. True success in life is not measured by selfish things. True success is measured in the number of lives that have become better because you have lived. That is your legacy. What you do for others carries on for a long, long time to come. What you do for yourself is forgotten when you die.

Anah

“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”

This entry is unfortunately based on completely perplexing items being promoted and the sheer stupidity of them. It is my opinion but I think the US Federal government has gone off the deep end – nabuang na, nuts, crazy, or insane.

There are 1.9 million farmers in the USA and 200,000 large commercial farms. The 1.9 million farmers that obviously make a tremendous amount of food are in danger of being put out of business by the Federal Government. Why would the USA government due something so suicidal to the food supply?

The answer is because cows and pigs fart.

I’m not joking. The Environmental Protection Agency has ideas of taxing farmers based on the number of cows, cattle and pigs they have because of the insane and disproven idea that cow and pig farts cause global warming. (Let’s overlook that it isn’t warming and CO2 has nothing to do with it.) I’m not kidding.

If the farmers can survive, then a basic fact of the marketplace kicks in. The taxes and costs are always passed on to the consumer. So when times are tough, we need to put farmers out of business and make food much more expensive so we can combat cow farts. The Federal Government doesn’t factor the rising cost of food into their inflation index. So they’ll stare blankly at increased foreclosures and wonder why people aren’t spending more money on useless junk. We hear it now. …

“Buy more, spend more money!”

Except people like to do silly things like purchase food, pay their mortgage or rent, get all the forms of energy needed, reduce debt, and some pay for day care.

Of course the most obvious thing, while the government makes life harder to live, is to have the government spend us into oblivion to fix the economy in ways that have no chance of working. When the world is in a global recession, our manufacturing base is in pieces, the main economic driving force (the Baby Boomers) are retiring, we should obviously spend immense amounts of money we do not have nor can recover. But hey, FDR did it so why not do it now?

The best argument is because it failed miserably the first time. But who cares about history and what the entire world knows! Let’s do it anyway and maybe this time Einstein’s definition of Insanity will not hold!

How do we know it flopped badly? History tells us at the end of FDR’s second term the economy was getting worse, unemployment at over 20% and the Treasury Secretary of then gave the best answer.

“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. … I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. … And an enormous debt to boot.”

But hey, that’s the past. Let’s give it another crack while we tax the farts out of farmers.

Nakakaloka!

Thank you,

Anah

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Earlier this year, I had posted Tough Choices and Tough Love Part I and Part II as well as Enabling and Rescuing vs. Tough Love. Now, it is time for a brief update on how some of this plays out.

People that you love can drive you up a wall when you know what they are doing will eventually come back to hurt them. As I mentioned before, tough love is tough because it is hardest on you.

To quote my opening paragraph:

“Tough love is a term in the USA and some other places that mean a series of choices you have to make to help someone grow. The reason it is called ‘tough’ love is because you have to go against your desire to help, step back, and watch a person you love hurt themselves badly with their choices. You have to let them toughen up while you have to stay tough enough to let them fall.”

Sometimes that fall is fatal. Sometimes that fall is hitting the absolute bottom in the form of a prison sentence or watching their family fall apart. It comes in many forms but you can see when the bottom hits if you care enough and love them enough to stay by their side.

In the case of one person we know of and care for deeply, that person has been hit with a significant injury that will alter their life. My husband and I know how it impacts a family as it hit him a little over 4 years ago. Any significant injury that has a permanent impact on your life or a real permanent disability makes you re-evaluate your choices and future. If you are lucky, you have someone by your side to help you deal with the challenges.

If that disability hits someone you have been trying to help but had to patiently wait with the tough love, then it becomes a potential opening in helping them back up to their feet.

I know my bana told me about what happened to him a couple of times. It has likely happened to each one of us perhaps once. If it hasn’t, it will. That is when you are faced with a very bad time in your life, those who are using and abusing you will abandon you. You are damaged and no longer usable. You find out who your real friends are and who truly cares. Often, that number comes as a shock as the amount of individuals who are your real friends and who truly care is low.

When the times count the most, who you can count on become very clear. Sometimes it is clear enough to break through the haze that had them distracted for so long.

Tough love is tough. But it is worth it all in the end. Tough love is described in a way in the Bible too. It has a special term which I will write about tomorrow. It is called Agape love.

Thank you,

Anah