Posted on by BWThomas

A can-do attitude and enthusiasm keep us going in the face of adversity.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Winston Churchill

School is starting soon and children will once again walk past my door with their mothers, fathers, grandmas, and grandpas on their way to school. Going back to school is always the catalyst that makes me think about changes I need to make. New Year’s resolutions are not the same, as that seems more like a time of hopes and wishes instead of real change.

Fall has been the change agent in our lives. It was when we started afresh, took on new challenges, learned new things, and met new friends. Our lives flow with the seasons and if we are in sync with the seasons our life flows better.

It is easy to lose hope and see the negatives instead of the positives, but I think we have to take hard, long looks at how things are going in our lives, our country, and the world. We shouldn’t pull the sheet over our face instead of facing the changes that must be made.

Sometimes we do things hoping for one result and getting another. We didn’t understand the unintended consequences. Many good-hearted people want to help but sometimes help doesn’t do what we thought it would – safe injection sites come to mind.

One thing that rolls around my mind often is what help looks like. When are we helping and when are we enabling? When are we creating more chaos instead of self-reliance, independence, and order?

We are very good at fixing things, we know how to repair roads, bridges, and houses, and we know when something is beyond fixing and needs to be rebuilt from scratch instead of patching up what is already there.

For success, attitude is equally as important as ability. Walter Scott

Building society is different because we never get to scrap the old for the new, and where it has been tried, it hasn’t worked out well.  We have to balance the needs of everyone in society; we need to provide education for the brightest among us and those with special needs.  Perfection is the enemy of the good, but when is more help detrimental? George Bush talked about the bigotry of low expectations.

Do low expectations of ourselves and others affect our lives in negative ways? I remember a conversation years ago about easier math classes in high school. She said, “The math is about twenty percent easier, but the environment, is one hundred percent worse. Why would she say that? Is she writing the kids off in the easy math or is it the attitude they bring, an attitude of I can’t instead of I can? An attitude of embracing trouble instead of expecting a great life they will work hard for. Do we need to guard against learned helplessness with ourselves, our families, and our society? I can because I think I can, is a great attitude.

If we look back on our lives there was so much opportunity we didn’t see. It’s why if we had a do-over we often think we could build a better life by taking the opportunities that were there we didn’t see. But we don’t get a do-over and opportunities we missed were perhaps a lesson not to miss them when they present themselves again, or new opportunities we don’t recognize because opportunities often look like hard work without a guaranteed payoff. Is it looking for easy and the guarantees in life, that catch us up?

I think it is Jim Rohn who said, “Don’t ask for easy, ask to be better.” What would it mean if we took that advice to heart?

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. Winnie the Pooh

The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude. Oprah Winfrey

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome. William James

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Posted on by BWThomas

Free and open society, building a good society should be our goal.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

If we lose freedom of speech, it’s never coming back. Elon Musk

What does a free and open society mean? When is it free enough and open enough? How do we square the views of, “No one is illegal” with “Close the borders?”

Somewhere in the middle of those two sentiments is where we should probably be. We need to find the common ground between the left and the right, the compassionate and the harsh. Neither extreme leads to good results.

Overreacting to horrific things that happen in society does not improve that society. Building a good society is never finished, we are always in the process of making it better or making it worse. We won’t all agree on what will make it better or what will make it worse, but can we agree on general principles that it isn’t getting better when more and more people don’t have a place to live or enough to eat?

Some people think controlling prices will make food cheaper. I worry it will make producers quit producing, stores shut down, and we will have less food for more people, instead of cheaper food. Each country has to figure out how to sustain its population, and I believe have a right to limit those who want to come to the country especially if they have problems housing or feeding the people already in the country. This seems like common sense to me, and I don’t think telling someone who doesn’t have a place to live or food to eat they should be more compassionate, and tighten their belt even tighter, seems right.

Do desperate people who get in boats or on planes have a right to go to any country they want to? When they land on our shore do we have to accept them? It might be a lovely thought, and even a compassionate thought to say, “No one is illegal,” but what are the ramifications of that? What if everyone in Canada decided they had to live in the best place in Canada, we might not all agree on where that would be, but I think we would all agree that 40 million people moving to one location would overwhelm the infrastructure, services, food and housing supply, and make the residents already there very unhappy.

My freedom of speech stimulates your freedom to tell me I’m wrong. P.J. O’Rourke

I don’t know what the answers are, and I don’t know how we will deal with challenges that need to be dealt with. But, I don’t think the West can take in all the people that want to come to our shores. Many people in the West are complaining that life isn’t as good for them as it used to be. Often I think we long for nostalgia that never was, we minimize the challenges and glorify the successes of the past.

We will always face challenges, make mistakes, misjudge people’s actions and motives, and worry about our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren’s futures.

We need to live with rules and laws, we might not all agree on what fair laws are, what a good level of immigration is, and who qualifies as a refugee. We might not agree on who is elected as the government, but once it is decided by the majority of voters, we must live with the decision until our next vote. We should however be able to voice our displeasure at how our government is conducting itself and the decisions it is making, peacefully.

If we can’t talk about what we think is wrong, won’t pressure build up? Isn’t free speech the pressure valve in society? By voicing our concerns we don’t have to get violent to make a point. Free speech has its perils, but silencing free speech might have even more.

Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people’s idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage. Winston Churchill

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. Silence Dogood, likely pseudonym of Benjamin Franklin

To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. Frederick Douglas

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

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Thank you for reading 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.

Posted on by BWThomas

Asking questions should never be illegal; we must ask hard questions.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Building community is to the collective as spiritual practice is to the individual. Grace Lee Boggs

What if asking questions on social media becomes against the law? What if wanting to know what is happening and why it is happening is said to be none of the citizen’s business? This might be happening in Great Britain with the riots happening over the stabbing of three British girls.

The more the truth is repressed, the more people believe they are not being told the truth, the more distrust reigns supreme, and how do we rebuild trust in our institutions once it is lost? What is being hidden, what isn’t being told, what is the hidden agenda they don’t want us to know? There is probably no hidden agenda or big conspiracy, but there is a tinder box of animosity and fear. There is nothing to see here; let the authorities deal with it, and when the authorities have dropped the ball on other issues, this won’t work.

Whether injustice is true or only perceived it has the same effect, and we don’t all see things the same. Justice has to be done, and be seen to be done, and even then everyone is not happy with the outcomes.

We are living in a time when we are told things we don’t believe, men can become women, and women can become men. Societies should get along; there isn’t a problem with mass immigration, migration, asylum seekers, and refugees. If anyone complains they are hit over the head with an “Ism”.

Society needs a good image of itself. That is the job of the architect. Walter Gropius

We don’t live in utopia, and we won’t ever live in utopia, but we do live in a great country that has fewer problems than a lot of other countries, does it make me a bad person to want to continue to live in a country with fewer problems than most countries? Is it selfish of me to want a high standard of living? Is it wrong of me to believe if countries can’t solve their problems then the people who leave those countries are bringing their problems with them?

Is it wrong to believe that in the “West” we have some things right that make our countries desirable, and we want our countries desirable for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren? Is it wrong to believe that all ideas are not equal, all change is not good, and perfection is the enemy of the good? Is it wrong to believe, we will never all get along, we will have differing ideologies, religions, and ideas about what will make society better? Is it wrong to disagree with where our leaders want to take us? Is it wrong to believe that the elites don’t face the same challenges as the common people and that common people are bearing the brunt of changes they do not want? More people for fewer jobs is not a recipe for harmony and hope. Are we creating people who have nothing to lose, and how can we guard against this?

We are creating the future our children and grandchildren will inherit, a good society doesn’t just happen, we create it, and we will be judged by the society we create.

The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. James Baldwin

I believe we can change the world if we start listening to one another again. Simple, honest, human conversation. Margaret J. Wheatley

Whatever good things we build end up building us. Jim Rohn

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more, and 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 for reading 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.

Posted on by BWThomas

Defining a woman, who would have thought defining a woman would be so difficult and contentious?

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

Thank you for reading this post. Please return, read more, and 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 for reading 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.