Thoughts and Observations

Good People

2006-02-28T12:43:00.000-05:00

I want to relate something that happen to me on Saturday. My wife my son and I visited a local restaurant for lunch. It was a cold rainy day and it felt very good to be there with my family. By the way we have reconciled as a family as part of the changes that we made for 2006. We were eating and chatting about various things and we included our waiter in the conversation on his occasional stops at our table. I generally like to do this because most of the time waiters and waitresses are treated as servants not as people that are doing a job that also have thoughts and feelings. I could tell that he appreciated being brought into the conversation and that he was a deep thinker. We are in our early 50's and he was 26. You would think that we would have nothing in common but that was hardly the case. He was finishing his shift, although I didn't know it at the time, and he stayed at our table chatting for some time. We talked about health issues, addictions, making critical decisions about how to live, and religion. He talked about his generation and the fact that they are shocked by very little, something that my generation can take the blame for. He talk about his lack of water intake and how he was addicted to soft drinks. I shared with him the life giving properties of pure water and how his body would thank his for giving it a large daily portion. Pure water is needed to flush the impurities from your system, a concept he had not considered. We talked about his uncles alcohol addiction and his stint in rehab. We discussed his decision to eliminate his use of alcohol as a way to insure that he continued to be married to his lovely wife. We then talk about how he might be able to help his uncle also kick the habit. We then went to religion and what role that could play in helping his uncle. I was not surprised when he hesitated to agree that his uncle could find help at the average church. His reply was that with all of the busy bodies and superficial part time Christians it could be detrimental to his uncle. This really got to me, it caused me to take inventory and ask if we have truly lost our way so much so that people that are hurting, broken, and lost can't find refuge in our churches. He summed the situation up as that of people who are in attendance on Sunday to be entertained, not as a hospital for souls that are sick. Note this is coming from a 26 year old man, that by all accounts was just a waiter; one of the invisible people that you see every time you go into a restaurant. Needless to say we left the establishment with more than food in our stomachs we left with food and thoughts for our mind. I am very happy that I included this young man in our conversation, we are both better for it. You just never know where you are going to find Good people.

A Few Kind Words

2006-01-13T18:03:00.000-05:00

A kind word is what most people need, in this busy bustling world. We all go about our daily chores trying to get to our jobs, our appointments, the kid’s practice or whatever, hardly noticing those around us. There are people with real problems, sickness, pending divorce, loss of their livelihood, loneliness and despair just hoping that someone will notice them. They are not looking for a handout; they don’t want your money, just a kind word that connects them with the rest of humanity. I recently was at work preparing for a meeting, I had five minutes to get there and my phone rang. There was a voice that I knew on the other end but without his normal cheer, he began to talk and his voice was breaking up with emotion, from his words I could tell that he was hurting. What should I do, this is a very important meeting and they are all expecting me to be there. A kind word is all he needed something to help restore order to his broken world. I choose to be late for my meeting and listen to his plight. A kind word can lift one’s despair; a kind word can take the heaviness out of the air. This time ended up being the turning point in my friend’s life, a few minutes that helped him to focus, to evaluate his situation and make sound decisions not hasty decisions. This time allowed him to connect with humanity not withdraw into himself.

My meeting did go on, although I was late, we accomplished everything that we had planned, but most of all my friend is better and on the road to becoming whole because of a few timely well placed kind words.

A Real Energy Policy

2006-01-13T17:57:00.000-05:00

Energy Policy

We are in the middle of the worst energy crisis America has faced, it would certainly be nice to see our law makers address this issue head on instead of all of the ridiculous things we hear about in the news.

The government owns the largest nuclear sites probably in the world and we the people get minimal to no benefit from them other than the warm feeling of knowing that we could destroy the world many times over.

Why don’t our politicians use the already contaminated nuclear sites that have, already to put strategic power generation sites on all over the nation?

The sites would be in the south, the north, the Midwest, and the west. The power generation stations could be operated by the utilities in each area and there should be no environmental issues. The government owns the land, it is already contaminated and we are now paying billions to cleanup this land, (for what so we can build new houses on this land, I think not!!!).

The hydrogen society that is probably just a pipe dream could become a reality, lots of energy is required to make hydrogen, why not put the hydrogen generation plants also on these nuclear sites? Could you imagine a total energy generation station!!

We all know why this won’t happen, someone will loose a little money, notice the emphasis is on the one in someone. We all are loosing lots of money now, along with our independence and our standard of living because a few in the minority are unwilling to consider the common good of the majority.

Lets hire some lobbyist of our own, and begin to rebuilt America by making decisions that are for the good of all of us not just those with special interest.