Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

To ask the right question is already half the solution to the problem. Carl Jung

All is fair in love and war and isn’t sports a form of war? Aren’t the Olympic Games a show of strength and superiority? Our best against your best? Women’s sports seem to be fraught with special problems, as we are dealing with women with XY chromosomes and high testosterone.

Why is it so hard to define what a woman is, and who qualifies to be one? Why if we think we see unfairness in the boxing ring are we considered anti-something for bringing it up?

The Olympics is highlighting problems we have and the fear many of us have is, can women without chromosome anomalies and regular testosterone levels compete with women with chromosome anomalies and high testosterone? Is it wrong to wonder if regular women will lose out on sports and the opportunities they offer? Do we need to muddy the water further by having a third category for the people who don’t neatly fit into either biological sex?

Men have chromosomal anomalies, and according to my research, men with XX chromosomes present as male. But, men with chromosomal anomalies probably don’t have advantages in sports, which is why we aren’t discussing them.

No question is so difficult to answer as one in which the answer is obvious. George Bernard Shaw

The more research I do the more confused I am about how we should handle this situation. I think of how I might feel if a granddaughter of mine is good at sports, wants to become a world-class athlete, and has the ability, but is found to have chromosomal or testosterone level anomalies, and is disqualified from competition. But, I also see the other side; what if my granddaughter has to compete against a woman where it is questionable whether she should be in the men’s category?

There are questions to be asked and answers to be given, and we won’t all agree on the answers about who should be included or excluded from the women’s category. Is it possible that the Paris Olympics is a gift that will help us sort out how to handle contentious issues in women’s sports? Is this a conversation we need to have without name-calling, as we wrestle with who is included in the women’s category in sports, and life?

The first key to wisdom is constant and frequent questioning… for by doubting we are led to questioning and by questioning we arrive at the truth. Peter Abelard

The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge. Thomas Berger

The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions. Claude Levi-Strauss

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Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. Henry David Thoreau

One of the things we learn in life is there is a price for everything. There is a price for doing and a price for not doing. What we do for others we do for ourselves, which means when we treat others well we feel good about ourselves and when we don’t treat others well it will come back to bite us. Jordan Peterson tells us we don’t get away with anything.

When we look around we think people are getting away with things, and if we watch social media some of the most outrageous people get the most views. We need to be careful who we emulate, who we hold up as role models, and who we follow. I have always believed pimps are the lowest form of life, because they take innocent people (mostly girls) with a life in front of them and turn them into prostitutes and now cam girls, and one of the ways they do it is the lover boy technique.

If anyone says they want to make someone fall in love with them so they will do anything they want them to do, we know it isn’t something good, and certainly isn’t something that will be good for the young woman’s life.

One of the antidotes to men exploiting young women is strong fathers. One of the things our fathers teach us is to be self-reliant, to be able to look after ourselves and be willing to work to better our situation, and not to let people make you feel you owe them anything.

 When we think things are too good to be true they usually are, and if someone isolates someone from their family, makes someone dependent on them, and then asks them to do the unthinkable, and introduces them to women already doing it who tell them it’s good or at least not that bad and they’ll make a lot of money, they won’t be told he will be getting most of the money, and they are now basically slaves.

Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution. Victor Hugo

The sex trade seems to be bigger than ever, and Romeo pimps are roaming the streets and online looking for our daughters and granddaughters. What can we do? It seems it is mostly older guys going after young girls, some of these girls are in group homes and when they run away with their wonderful boyfriends is when the pimp has them in their clutches.

The breakdown of the family is our biggest problem and where children become vulnerable. If we can’t build strong families how will we lessen the victimization of our children? We might not be able to do anything about huge societal problems but we can perhaps do something in our own families. If we can keep the lines of communication open, let our children and grandchildren know that even if they make a mistake, trust the wrong person, or go down a path they are ashamed of they can always come home.

If we let them know they can turn over a new leaf in life, turn their lives around, and build a better future we give those that prey on our children and grandchildren less of a hold on them. If someone can make our children or grandchildren feel so bad about themselves they can never be forgiven for the choices they’ve made or been forced into, they are putty in the hands of those wanting to exploit them.

Even pimps can turn over a new leaf, and forgiveness is open to everyone. But a pimp that pretends to reform or makes it seem like being a pimp is empowering might be the most dangerous one of all. There are men teaching other men how to become pimps online.

When we become enamored with people with money we need to ask how they made it. What did they do to get it, and what are they asking us to do to get ours? Some people want to make the sex trade acceptable, if it were respectable it would already be acceptable. If we have to sell our soul to do something the price is too high, no matter how much money we make or the lifestyle we acquire. Is it money that’s the root of all evil, or the willingness to do anything for money, to sell our soul for money, or to make someone else sell their soul for money, that makes it evil?

In reality, victims of human trafficking are often left voiceless and completely unseen by society. Elise Stefanik

Children are the most vulnerable and susceptible to become victims of human trafficking. Asa Don Brown

During the grooming process, a sex trafficking situation can start out looking a lot like a romantic relationship before the exploitation begins. Aura Freedom

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Thank you to those who read my books, and a special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. Steve Jobs

“I’m not accusing you, but…” a young boy stood on our front step Tuesday evening showing me his phone which showed his missing earbuds were at our address. On the screen in big black letters, was our address.

The earbuds were taken out of his backpack at school, he said, but it isn’t one of our local schools. No one in our area goes to his school. No one in our house is of school age, but there on his phone is our address. He and his father leave, and we are left with a mystery. Why is our address on his phone the location of his missing earbuds?

Last night his mother showed up. We go through the same information, but now the earbud tracker is dead and the last known location on the phone is our address at three o’clock pm on Tuesday.

Evidence like this could get someone in real trouble. What if the item missing was more valuable than a pair of earbuds? What if the police were called? What if the earbud tracker quit working at the precise time it went past our house in a vehicle, and that is why it shows our address? There is an explanation and I believe both of our stories are true, those earbuds must have been by our house at 3:00 pm on Tuesday to register our address, and we don’t have anything to do with the missing earbuds.

If a tracker in a vehicle registers as being at an address when it is in a vehicle traveling on a road there are all kinds of ways this can point fingers at innocent people, and the accusers might not always be willing to believe what they are seeking is not at said address.

Technology always has unforeseen consequences, and it is not always clear, at the beginning, who or what will win, and who or what will lose. Neil Postman

Situations get out of control over seemingly benign things, tempers get heated, things get said, and actions get taken because people with an address on their phone don’t believe what they are seeking isn’t at the address their device says it is. What if a missing child’s tracker showed their last known location as our address because the vehicle whisking them away drove past our house?

Technology is wonderful and knowing we can locate missing items might make us feel good until we are on a stranger’s doorstep saying, “I’m not accusing you, but…” As we’ve seen in the news, showing up at the wrong stranger’s house can have dire consequences.

Tracking devices can and are used in nefarious ways, and seemingly innocent things can have devastating consequences. As a society are we equipped to deal with what our technology brings, both the good and the bad?

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. Milton Friedman

The law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history. Niall Ferguson

Fear makes come true that which one is afraid of. Viktor E. Frankl

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books, and a special thank you to those that leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Happiness depends on ourselves. Aristotle

I’ve been listening to Tony Robbins, and he tells us he knows what makes us unhappy and what makes us happy. He tells us we are unhappy when the life story (blueprint) we have for ourselves doesn’t mesh with the reality of our lives. When our life is far different from what we expected it to be, we are not happy.

We have two choices, we can change our expectations, or we can change our life. Sometimes we have to make huge adjustments in our life and change our expectations because the reality is the dream we had for ourselves is never going to happen.

We may look at people who have huge accomplishments but still aren’t happy, and we see people with seemingly small achievements that are very happy. One strategy to find happiness is to continually improve and to see progress in our lives. He tells us we may need post-traumatic growth. We need to grow through adversity, and when we do we will realize we are stronger than we thought we were. We can deal with more than we thought we could and we know we can deal with what lies ahead.

How easy is it to manage our expectations? One of the problems we have is our expectations of other people, but we don’t have any control over other people. The person we get to change is ourselves but often we want to change others. If they would just… then we would be happy. If other people have to change for us to be happy, chances are we will never be happy. We have to accept others as they are, but we don’t have to let them have control of our lives, we can give up our expectations for them to be different than what they are, and accept them as they are, just as they need to accept us as we are.

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions. Dalai Lama

It all sounds so easy when we are listening to someone talk about some of the biggest challenges in life. What if people are really not doing what they should be doing? That is still their business and not ours. What if they are living in our house? We can live with them and love it, we can live with them and hate it, we can leave, or they can leave, but what we can’t do is make them change to be what we think they should be.

If we expect less of others and more of ourselves it seems better than the reverse. We can change the way we look at things, we can change the practices in our lives, and we can change the groups we belong to. We may find when we leave people be, to make their own decisions and lead their own lives they figure things out.

We may be unhappy that we haven’t reached our goals, but maybe that goal isn’t part of our destiny. Maybe adversity is part of what we have to go through to become who we are to become. We might not like the adversity, but we might like knowing we could get through the hard parts of life, and know we can meet the challenges in the future.

Is it true when we change the way we look at things the things we look at change?

For just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there’s nothing else. It’s here, and you’d better decide to enjoy it or you’re going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever. Lev Grossman

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. Franklin D. Roosevelt

One is happy as a result of one’s own efforts once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience. George Sand

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books, and a special thank you to those that leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the purchase price through the Amazon affiliate program.