As I look out at my life it appears that I am still learning even in the latter stages of life. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Or can you? I think you can but the more important questions is…”will these new tricks that I haven’t seen be of any value?” The answer for me leastwise, is probably not. I’ve seen so much over the years it’s all old hat. “Nothing new under the sun,” as they say. I give you the example of the automobile. If you could get a brand new 1997 something or other, same as you drive now; there would be negligible difference in value or experience. Sure the nuances of different vehicles is always there, but both have standard power brakes, steering, windows, mirrors, seats, radial tires, independent suspensions, A/C, multi media players, and 100,000 mile reliability; all of the things that make automobile transport comfortable. My point being, is that the improvements in these same features has been so finite that if the old was not getting older no one would care! Today we have improvement for the sake of itself with no benefit in sight. Another maybe more universal example is Windows, since about version 7 I have not had a better experience only the frustration of its improvement!

But then there is that odd occasion when I flounder upon something that wakes me up and jabs my soul with zeal, kinda like whacking a funny bone. Although that funny bone is not quite near funny, my experience is a jolt, a quickening, a rousing or gripping, to mention a few. Have you recently experience the observation of a thing and it provoked you to spend hours investigating, reading, searching or meditating upon the subject convinced that once you get all of it you can; you or your life will be markedly better? Whatever the cost I need to get it!

More recently in my life I have had some shall we say, ‘legal disgruntle-ments’. I made that up so that I would not write the next 100 words to explain it. Suffice it to say I need to learn about some legal things to protect my interests. Not something to which I was looking forward. I’ve not had an interest in law mostly because the law people I know of are not my favorite group of individuals for a number of very good reasons. Mostly incompetence.

In any case I embarked upon this journey months ago with intrepidation. I didn’t want to go but the need to understand at least the basics of my situation dictated go; I must or give up on a lot of time and money and just move on. So I went. And let me tell you what I found. I found a quickening in an area of my life that I did not know existed! I found a place in me that was not alive and well. Missing if you will. Part of me missing? Hmph. I found an idea that intrigues me so that I can not get enough about it. I have three browser tabs at any given time on my computer, a number of pdf documents going at any given time, joining forums and such to plug into the group of people that have been before me; to a place I’ve never heard of until now. It is exciting and fills my lungs with a very cool, crisp new wind that is most exhilarating and refreshing to my spirit. I can’t get enough and want more knowing that I’ll be better off than before.

This is in stark contrast to my general outlook about things. Recently I bought a 3D printer. I know CADD, I’m comfortable with computers and I know what I want to do. Once I got into the fray I realized that the learning curve for the various softwares and nuances of printing were outside of my value proposition. Meaning what I was getting from it was less valuable than what I had to put into it. In other words, what I was getting cost too much. Let me say it another way; I would gladly pay $25,000 for a 97 F250 and all of it’s shortcomings than $90,000 for a new Silverado and whatever its supposed benefits are. Just not going to do it. Neither the 3D printer nor the Silverado will make me better, better off or better equipped to handle my future! Why bother?

On the other hand it may or may not be true of my new endeavor but I like the prospect, I like the breadth and depth that my world view is taking on! I like the feeling of empowerment, growth and understanding that comes in significant ways.

This old dog is learning new tricks and is going to enjoy them! The old dog’s new tricks make him a new dawg, and that’s righteous!

Run with the BIG DAWGS and find YOU something to LIGHT your fire!

I desire so much to so many things. Work, projects, travel, spend time with family and do this pet of mine here. It is absolutely astounding to me how much I have to do all of my own doing. Next thing you know it is weeks if not months later and even though I’ve gotten a ton of things done some of my most desired pets sit idle nagging me about their priority eight or ten position on my To Do List. Desire meet time. Time is not friend to desire nor me for that matter. I never have enough, never get enough done and it seems that a few of the things I really want to do just don’t make it up my list for very long.

Don’t get me wrong I live a very busy and fulfilling life. My work, my family and friends are all very rich. What I accomplish each year is a mountain of effort and successes. Life is GOOD. But for a guy with my problem, never good enough. My desire for something better kicks my can almost daily. We’ve heard it said that, “good enough is the enemy of great.” I can roll with this but there is a point. A point at which good enough is too much and also a point at which good enough is not satisfactory.

The examples I have are personal experience. One time I was doing this tile job for a customer way, way back. He was ecstatic about the job, just thrilled. He was telling how so and how happy he was. Then at once he turned and says to me, ” what do you think”. I replied, in all of my youth and ignorance, “yeah, it’s OK”. He proceeds to quiz me on my response wherein I explain the two things that I’m not happy about but that I did what I could in those situations. He begins to chastise me because one of the blemishes in my work that I brought up was under the dishwasher. There is no value in a ‘perfect’ job under the dishwasher, therefore good enough has copious amounts of latitude. Not only will a homeowner never see under their dishwasher, the next person is likely to be a plumber, what does he care about tile? Needless to say he schooled me well that day.

Another time I hired a guy to do some roofing work at one of my rentals and he came and did ‘good enough’. The job was passable, the price was acceptable and I was able to move on from the problem. But for me a bur in my saddle, you see, he charged by the hour plus materials. His 6 or 8 hours was fine, but the materials list included things he should have thought to bring along like an extension cord! As I recall I paid the guy 50 bucks for something that he should have as a contractor. Good enough, not really. But that’s my problem; I wonder how many extension cords does this guy have; how many new jobs does he do this with, did it go in the trash; I bought it, why didn’t he leave it.

My desire to move on made me realize that good enough is in fact good enough when your future is as bright as mine and the past is a place to remember not linger. Getting down the road must be a priority, not going back to check potholes or a tile with a cut edge under and appliance. I do believe in excellence by all means, but being Great is really, really, really relative!!! Most of the people I know look at my life and don’t want the work, stress, weariness, etc. Life is great for them when it is devoid of these things. Life is great even though they will never possess my assets, bank account or free time.

I think most people’s desire gets reduced early on in life to meet their interest in time. “If I look down the way and see ‘hard, grief, heartache’ I’ll just be moving on, thank you.” Not realizing all of these things are a part of life in general and avoiding them is relative. The avoidance creates its own set of troubles, similar if not exactly as moving toward them.

My desire to get the most out of life has taught me that good enough gets me there sooner and that being great is a compilation of good enoughs. The more good enoughs I pile up the greater it is. Therefore my life is over flowing and full of blessings and hope. My desire to build this organization and meet my tribe never fades, and each day that I can put another good enough together and move down the road, the sooner I will get to the place where I can work on this all the more. But until then my desires will duke it out with my time until the day when once again I will be triumphant and shout, ” what a ride”!

Force your desires to fight it out with your time, there is greatness in that I am certain! Shoot for the moon!

Are we decidedly so? Who is ‘we’? Am I a part of we? How do I know I’m not the stupid one and that is the reason everything in my life makes perfect sense? Perhaps me being stupid is my saving grace. I can’t know what I don’t know and therefore this ignorance is the foundation of my stupidity and as ‘they’ have said for many years now, “happy as a pig in sh**…..”. Perhaps I’m rolling around in it all day everyday and it is just normal to me not even knowing that there is something to be known that will change it all for me. That begs the question, do I even want it to change? I’m happy in my stupidity, or at least I think I am.

This being an age old philosophy question has always been for the interested. Not all people want to be better. Not all people are interested in better. In my experience most people use fear as an excuse for why they can’t even look at a proposal.

“No, I won’t even talk to you about it because.” Minds eye: (“I’m afraid that I’ll need to do something that I don’t want to do.”

“But what if it makes things better for you?” (“Life could be great!”)

“What if it makes things worse?” (“Who is this positive thinker? He’s one of those trouble makers everyone is worried about.”)

“What do you have to loose?” On and on it goes. I could fill volumes of dialog like this never getting to an end, never arriving at a place of understanding or perception of the reality we actually witness together. If I press harder for an acknowledgement of that reality it spirals down into an argument castigating me as ‘one who has to be right’ or ‘a trouble maker who just wants to argue’ or ‘a narrow minded person who just can’t see the light of how good their life is.’ Forget that we got into all of this because of their plight in life, they are bitching about their situation. The harder you press for them to realize something better, the more they dig their heels in and pull against the rope of change, the more they identify the rope as the problem and not their defiant pulling. What I find interesting here is that we can learn this premise just from watching animals. A good horse quickly learns that the road to a better life is cooperation with good people. He gets a warm safe shelter, he gets regular feeding (even when snow and drought), he gets kind attention. All he has to do is go along, learning how much better it will be. Instead decidedly stupid.

I hear some of you saying, “I’m not a horse to be led around and made to work for the man.” Is that right? I assure you that you are not the free man you believe yourself to be. If you were interested to see you would easily find all of the places that someone else controls your life by managing the things that make up the choices you make. The perception of freedom because you can walk into Walmart and choose whatever you wish is a sign of your freedom. Let me ask you, “who chose what was available to you?” “Who else can you choose from?” The more you drill this down you will find that more choices are made for you than you make for yourself. You are no different than me, especially if you live in the US. Your life is exactly the same save the preferences you express by your so called ‘choices.’

One of the reasons I am doing noobo is this. The perception of choice when there really is none or very little. The basic idea that I can choose Democrat or Republican based upon how I see things, choose to affiliate myself with that like minded group and make a better life for everyone, all along wontonly desirous uninterested in what is actually better for everyone. These two choices in particular are the easiest to discredit if you’d care to look at all. You will clearly see that this is a psy-op as these things are known today. A distraction to get you caught up in the perception of a good moral choice, ignoring what it actually does, which is cause division. What made this country great was the willingness of it’s people to be united, not in everything but in freedom. One decides to be American even though he would say, I’m from Pennsylvania with some sense of pride. Not because Pennsylvania is better than Wyoming but because Pennsylvania is part of America, the United States of America and that is a great thing to be a party to. If we take that further we could drill it down to his street. A guy meets a guy in Panama whose from the states. Where you from? Pa. You? Pa. Yeah where? Eastern Pa. Where? Philly area. Where? Upper Darby. Yeah me too. Where? Beverly Hills. No kidding, what street? Linwood. Man, I grew up on Crestview. Finding out that they are a few years apart and just never knew each other. This happens everyday all over the world but only in America does it mean something special. Because being a Wyomingite is like being German or French. Period. There is not other group of which to be a party. No other unity. Being a Wyomingite says we do things a little differently than you all but you know, I believe you’ve got my back in the thick of it. If I’m German, I don’t really give a rip about the French. Especially if they are doing things I don’t like and they share a border. That border is a demising line, real or otherwise.

Del., Pa., Wy., or whatever state is just another neighborhood of the Great Old US of A. No demising lines, no borders, to sectionalism just America. Why? By choice. We choose to make it that way. We choose to look at each other as brothers. As the sisters so poignantly proclaimed, “we are family.” We choose that motto and we live it. It makes us different. More and more we choose sectionalism. Us and Them mentality. This erodes our freedom to be American, it is reductive and harmful. We need to turn our focus to what make us all better together. How can I choose to “be the best I can be” and not be in the Army. Or maybe choose to be in that army of people who choose the best America possible.

Please go scrutinize your choices today, study them carefully. Am I choosing to satiate my stupidity or am I choosing to be great because we all need to be great.

Make a different choice today and see what awaits you,

Greg

As a question I’m hoping to provoke your interest in questioning each and every ‘alarm” present in your life. Why? Good question and a good start to questioning! I recently watch a video on the climate alarm. Whether or not you believe in such a problem is not relative to that which I am asking you to consider, but did provoke this concept on my part.

I have a question for you to consider, “does an alarm dictate an attitude of fear, grave concern or feeling of imminent doom”. As an example, we all likely remember having nuclear siren drills where we hid under our desks at school or fire alarms where we were all got up and went outside to practice a fire scenario. This (‘coached, instructed, programmed, taught, etc’) idea that we should immediately take on a sense of urgency, high concern for danger, worry about difficult and scary events, be fearful of pending doom, I could go on and on with psychological idioms trying to define the outcome of such an experience. How much of this behavioral training lives on in our everyday lives that are subliminally triggered by the simplest idea of an “alarm”? Enter my big question; “is there a really good reason to be overly concerned with impending doom”?

In reality; statistically anyhow, we will all likely live to be a ripe old age. The numbers of us who will come to such great doom even as great as death is the smallest number of us. We now live far longer and better than any previous group of human beings ever. If we want to we live inside of a warm house, eat at least something everyday of every week, have multiple changes of clothing and likely have more than one automobile. How bad can your life really get? Really? What does a catastrophe look like anymore? Your phone won’t connect like it should? Your computer won’ start fast enough? The supermarket quick carrying your favorite wine? You got a flat tire?

Yeah! On your car you big whiner! Your car! You big whiner! You have a car, what do you have to complain about? What calamity is there that will over come you and consume you? Let’s say you loose it all and go bankrupt? Bummer I am sure, maybe more than a bummer. Likely.

But will you end up starving, highly unlikely. Your prospects for a job have never been better with all of the jobs going unfilled. Housing is difficult but not impossible. You won’t be living is a mud or tiki hut to get out of the elements. You know this to be true, there is far more help available for people here than anywhere. You have far more opportunity than anywhere. Not to mention that all most anything you need aside from food is free for the taking. Wonder around to any yard sale nearing its end and you can haul away all sorts of treasure, just to save the man from having to haul it off himself. If not for free then for pennies.

I think we need to keep in perspective a few things here. First a get a real grasp on how bad can it really get? Comparatively, no where near as bad as it is for most people on this planet in their regular everyday lives. Secondly, how incapable are you of handling adversity? Are you really that soft and whimpy that you couldn’t muster up going to a job tomorrow to fix the mess you made? Will you really just give up? You might as well do that now and be done. Thirdly, are the alarms we hear almost daily any more, worthy of our consideration? Economy, climate, alternative lifestyle rights, war, human atrocities? These are the ones we are inundated with most every day if we are connected to the media. As for all of these what is it that you can actually do about them? The smallest part. Donate to a cause. Elect ethical people to enact legislation. Not be discriminating. This is the sum total.

But what is the best we can do? I believe the best we can do is to not be so alarmed about it all. Tomorrow will likely come to most all of us. Many days in fact and we should recognize this and act accordingly. Do what you can in your everyday planning to be here for some time to come. Not be so concern for those things outside or your sphere. Stop getting triggered every time someone pulls an alarm and look for the fire and a hose. You over comer you!!!

Have a great day,

Greg

Another day in American life mostly isolated from the rest of the world. We are largely unaware of the goings on elsewhere. Did you know that there is tremendous political turmoil in countries all over the world? Out of 193 acknowledged states approximately one third of them had an armed conflict that killed more than 100 people. Think about that, imagine reading in the news here in the US that two armed groups of people were large enough to inflict 100 deaths. If you said 200 total, each side had 50% casualties would get you there. Imagine the magnitude of such an event here. In this list of states to which I am referring, this is chump change, I mean were talking about thousands and there is no out right war, just internal conflict. Just because life is not good. We used to be the purveyors of peace through prosperity. We brought prosperity to the world after the Big One and now it seems we are the manager of the biggest Fight Club in history. And not for good!

While we’re all here stateside consuming ourselves with drivel, most of the world seems to be coming apart at the seems. Please, get offended. You need to be, snowflake. Why do I say such a thing? To quote Tyler Durden, “We’ve all been raised on television to believe that we would all one day be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won’t!” That’s why. The American dream has come down to being one of these. Drivel! Drivel! Drivel! Being a millionaire isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; its a lot of work, which is contrary to the reason most people want to be millionaires, is to not work. Movie gods seem to be so disconnected with reality, not to mention, it is quite an exclusive club and they don’t just let anyone in that doesn’t suit them. Hardly a free market. Interestingly enough it has become easier to be a rock star than ever before. Take a look at Christopher Lunsford, made a song, sang it on the internet and bam he’s a rock star touring the world. There’s hope yet I guess for those who can do that. My point here is that most people want all of this for the money! Not a dream of their own, not for eternal happiness, not for anyone but themselves.

When I was young I saw this place in life where fathers didn’t die early, roofs didn’t leak, cars lasted 10 years like they should, and when all of that allowed you to get in a good days work that satisfied you and then be at home each night with the ones most precious to you it would be a dream come true.Still fighting that one out. Once people are gone, other people take their place and you realize how thankful you are for what you did get, if only DNA. It’s who I am in more ways than one. After doing construction for a long time I did get the roof thing down, at least for 50 years or so. I gave up on cars, their not so exciting anymore, especially the new ones. I get more excited to think that I’ll have a restored one that I worked on with someone special or at least shared a good time with a group into the same ones.

What does Fight Club have to do with all of this? In the concept of the movie a bunch of guys who are bored, unhappy, disenfranchised, lost, confused, angry, depressed, misguided, arrogant,…… Read that as “dead”; found a way to come alive and experience living. Real living. How barbaric you say. Eh, maybe. But here’s what I do know for a man to learn his true place in life is priceless. Not a better thing can come upon him. When a man knows his place in life he will walk into his future like God himself sent him into that room. When a man knows the calibre of the man standing next to him he gets direction. All great things that have ever been done have come out of this understanding. One man provoked by another to do something worth his salt. That’s a Fight Club! Men need it. Not only need it should be requiring it. And like the narrator said, “along comes a woman to mess it all up.” How true. Not just women though, profiteers also.

Professional sports used to be a Fight Club. The rivalry of two men working things out on the battlefield. Most men whether they realized it or not watched for a fight to break out. Their team winning was a secondary event, mostly for afterward, to go on about being a winner for choosing the best fighters. The hockey guys still fight but now with all kinds of ‘safety’ gear. Especially panties. MMA was the last one to go down, sports are so lame now I can hardly stand to watch. The Fight Club is gone, the men are soft, the edge is missing and the most dangerous part of the whole thing is TSA at the airport getting to the next city. Sad, its so pervasive and our men are getting softer than the Stay Puft man.

Back to my American Dream. Even at my age there’s still a lot of good fight left in me. Can’t seem to find a local fight club, actually finding it difficult to find any, it seems. All of my acquaintances are consumed with relaxation, stuff or vacation. So I’m starting a fight club of my own. My Fight club is going to rebuild my version of the American Dream. One where men come around and knock heads to see who is worthy to stand in our midst. To see who has grit, chutzpah, sand, fiber, moxie, audacity or mettle.

Since we started with the movie analogy, I’ll end with it. If you get that nervy feeling run up your spine and across the top of your pate at the hearing of any of these lines from Hollywood, you’re my guy. I’m looking for you to join my Fight Club. “Fill your hands, you son of a bitch”, “When I need one there will be plenty of them lying on the ground”, “You gotta ask yourself one question, do I feel lucky? Well do ya punk?”, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning”, “you want a war? I’ll give you a war you wouldn’t believe”, “This is Sparta”, “Come take them”.

Go start a fight today, you big hairy, toxic man you,

Greg

I think sometimes in the ole US of A we take for granted the access we have to decent water. Maybe rightfully so, we do a lot to keep it that way. If you’ve ever traveled you learned like I did to be very careful of drinking water. When in doubt drink beer or tequila. For those of you who don’t get too far, I’ll explain.

I lived in Olongapo City, Philippines for a brief moment along the Olongapo sewage ditch or “shit river” as we Yanks called it. Interestingly enough it did not stink like I thought it should but on certain days there was no mistaking it. The indigenous were accustom to every aspect of it, the size, the color, the smell, what was in it. So familiar in fact that they would allow their children to swim and play in it. Not a single concern for health and welfare or disease. I suspect by now due to my description you are imagining some little canal made specifically for the sewage to go to some place specially made to collect it. Sadly, that is not the scene. The ditch I am referring is the Olongapo River, a natural water way the size of the Upper Yough, or the Clinch or the Salt rivers. Not a big river but not even close to a small one. You see, up river everyone builds a chute from his shack on the hill down to the river, he goes down to the river and draws a bucket of water, hikes back to his shack, at the head end of the chute and drops trou, leaves his spent lunch. Promptly grabbing the bucket and sending the excrement sloshing down the chute to the Olongapo as if to say, “Hanggang sa muli po.”

A similar experience is had just about anywhere in Mexico. One can not find a clean source of water that is not in a bottle or the ocean and just about every city dumps their sewage into the ocean. You can look for the pipe, they’re usually fairly obvious. You don’t swim unless you can verify that there is no one living up stream, usually that high up it is too cold to dip even on hotter days. We have photos of us sitting on rocks with a beautiful waterfall behind us that is polluted as all get out. Not like the Olongapo smelling of sewage but visible enough.

I think the main take away here is that we have great water resources all over this country because we work hard to ensure its integrity. One can drink from almost any water source in the country, of a certainty swim without the slightest concern. Of course there are exceptions, I’m sure to hear about them, but now a days someone will clean it up shortly and hammer those responsible. We do this for our water for a reason, we want a good life. Bad water makes for bad living. Mexico for all intents and purposes could be a first world country. Why is it not?

The lack of the most basic education, that preserving water is fundamental to quality of life. So I pose a question to you. As and example, analogy or metaphor is there a place in your life wherein you deposit some of your waste that later in time meets you down the river where some necessity is polluted and you’ve just gotten used to it and accept it as it is.

I visited with a friend this weekend who hails from the LA area. He and his wife are constantly complaining about “the system”. Politics, schools, health, government and the travesty of big business interloping on their existence. How difficult things have become, how expensive things have become or how ridiculous something seems. All the while not recognizing that his participation in all of it is what’s doing him in. He works at the corporate level and make good money, she does too. His children are going in to government or corporate lives. They’re always complaining about money. They get lots of it but what are they doing with it that gets them in the situation they always seem to be in. Where do they defecate in their life, so to speak, and later encounter it down river when they scoup it up to make soup or take a bath?

Of a certainty my analogy is not literal, please don’t tell me how I am so off. The point isn’t can you dissect my words and come up with a torn down version of rubble. The question is can you ‘see’ any part of my picture that will give you understanding of how you pollute your life to your own downfall? Like my friend from the city of angels, he’s no angel and it plays out in his life. His choice to be ignorant about his choices is the life that he leads. You are the sum total of your decisions. If he spent just a little more time scrutinizing his choices he would see some change and realize the benefit of such activity. Life would become more bearable and more rewarding.

I encourage you today to scrutinize your choices diligently. Every single one. Ask yourself will this choice give me the best possible outcome and be lasting. If the choice is temporal, ask yourself is there an option to make this choice more lasting. “Do I buy $20 shoes five times or $100 shoes once?” There is no choice too small to deserve your utmost consideration. If there seems to be, then you probably need to dispense with the situation. You need to have a life full of significance. Dispense with the trivial and see how your life fills with great opportunity. The greater the opportunity the greater the choices you will be given and the greater your life will become.

To quote someone famous who’s made some terrible choices, “Come on man”, go and scrutinize all of your choices from this point on, take great leaps of faith in those choices but mostly choose to be involved with the greater people around you so that they can encourage you to be great.

Go, choose, right now!

Greg

I saw a post yesterday where a number the people’s representatives were making a statement by wearing black to an interview in order to show their disapproval that the body did not pass legislation affirming that men could use a women’s restroom. Interestingly, in the group of approximately 25 people, I counted at least 14 women and 7 boys ranging in ages. Two women were chosen for the address. Herein lies a stumbling block in our country today.

As sound, rational people in our society today who votes for someone who makes such bold statements about social issues, makes such a declaratory action to the public about their personal agenda and then expects that their outrage should move me to support their ill place demonstration. Is this group really a representation of our society, the people that elected them or the direction that most of us think we should go. To me it is a scary thought that 14 “adult” women think that it is a good idea for the neighborhood boys to use their daughter’s toilet. I think there is a real disconnect here.

This is real hate. When a society looses it’s regard for little girls, it’s all but done. When adult women are encouraging pedophilia against their friend’s daughter in public places all is lost. Forget about the 7 boy in that room, they have been useless all of their lives, they will never stand up for not one victim anywhere. They will support these women most likely because they are the predators who want this most! As a society, little girls are our most prized possession.They represent the hope of a brighter and more prosperous future. Real men expect their sons to grow into men and be their comrades in arms meant to die on the battlefield of good and evil. Their little girls they expect to remain at home learning to love an nurture their grandchildren for that rosy future described. This incredibly even balance is not only crucial to our existence it is fundamental. Today we see so called women of war, out there fighting for our rights, fighting for our country…… Fighting for what is our undoing. If women aren’t teaching our little girls to be the hope of our future then who is, she can’t learn it from a warrior, she can’t learn if from a pervert and she sure as hell won’t learn if from a predator!

These women are not of a certainty looking out for anyone’s best interest but their own. They’ve founded a gang and rage on society forcing their way where they can seeking their own 5 minutes of fame, but what damage they do whilst not where they should be is the true crime. They will be found out and routed. They will only last for a moment in the spot light. The vacuum they leave at home is truly a tragedy.

Thomas Jefferson had an interaction with a fellow about our press, it went like this. “Baron Humboldt asked Jefferson, ‘Why are these libels allowed? Why is not this libelous journal suppressed, or its editor at least, fined and imprisoned?’ The question gave Jefferson a perfect opening. ‘Put that paper in your pocket, Baron, and should you hear the reality of our liberty, the freedom of our press, questioned, show this paper, and tell where you found it.” Jefferson’s point was he will be taken care of by the reasonableness of our free society, the thoughtful manner of real men. This journalist would gain no traction in his minds eye knowing his fellow countrymen. This is still true today, it still works the same way.

This phase of society is just that a season, one that has been coming since before summer started. Autumn and winter always come, there’s no stopping it. I think the real question is what you make of the summer. As good men we should be working hard to put up great stores and make ready for the coming winter and war. Throughout the ages good times have made soft men and soft men make hard times and hard times make good men and so the cycle repeats. It seems that its something like a 75 year turnaround. 1777 the first world war (America, England, Spain, France, Italy) roughly seventy-five years later the American civil war, roughly seventy-five years later the next world war (same conflagrants but add Germany). I don’t count what we call WWII as it is leftover business from the Big War that America did not handle properly, just like just about every altercation we’ve been in since the beginning. I’m pondering Desert Storm or Iraqi Freedom to be included in our 75 year cycle but things are still brewing. We shall see, but I digress.

Men if you can see the slightest bit of my diatribe here today, be a man worthy of the calling and stand for something good in your world now that will live for eternity. Love your daughter teach her to be a hope for our future, teach your son to be a man who will die to protect that eventuality. More than ever we need you going into this coming autumn so that when winter hits we will be prepared. Let the words of Aron Tippin ring in your ear, “you’ve got to stand for something or you will fall for anything.”

Ladies, and I do mean ladies. Good men need ladies, women who want to be women, women who want their daughters to be ladies looking for good men. I differentiate because any girl can become a women but only certain girls will become a lady that a certain man will love. Help us all by deciding to be that lady who saves our future.

Aside form doing your part at home until the winter war arrives is to vote. I give you a novel idea: Vote, Vote, Vote and pick a NEW person every time you vote, anyone except the one there now. The only thing that is going to end the over reaching government besides a war is the lack of continuity in representation so that no one can be bought or sold long enough to make a difference. Our country will survive without them going, we don’t really need them. Try this experiment with me and see what comes of it. We can always put them right back in at a later point, they’re not going anywhere but home.

Men go and walk into every room like God himself sent you, ladies encourage your man to be that person!

Have a great day,

Greg

Over the course of my life I have discovered that math is the most useful of all human manifestations. Others might stipulate that language would be the victor in that argument, I concede, the inability to communicate would definitely bring it all down around our feet. Consider this for a moment, I consider myself well traveled comparatively. I’ve driven to all but ten states, I’ve driven from Wyoming to the middle of Nicaragua and I’ve flown to 10 countries. The one thing that was universal and functional was math, no matter the language, a pencil and piece of paper or a cell phone where you could transcribe a series of numbers could buy you breakfast. Breakfast is good therefore math is the winner.

Simple division works like this. Three hundred million people divided by two is a war, three hundred million people divided by three is a treaty and three hundred million people divided by 50 is a republic. In the first scenario two factions are always the makings of war, nary in history have two factions made compromise and lived peacefully. The kings would always kill their opponents to ensure his continued success. Opposition was to be dispensed with. Along comes the Roman republic, a weak king was overthrown by the people and the republic was born, but all was not well. Just fifteen years into the experiment the masses threatened the aristocrats and gained access to the government. Although a democracy Rome was largely ruled by committee. The two factions managed to hold on to this arrangement for another four hundred plus years. When eventually wealth and greed were so abundant that there were those who sought to have it all and the king returned.

We’re only 248 years in since our revolution, the wealth and greed are abundant and the ruling class is looking to have it all.Our founding fathers also struggled with factions. General Washington struggled with the ineffectiveness of rule by committee. The continental congress could not hardly agree on much of anything and it most always left him in the lurch for supplies, direction or ability. Most of our revolution was calamity and it’s appropriate timing. In any case when Mister Washington became Mister President he was torn between the Federalist Camp and the Republican Camp. He knew full well the necessity of financing a country as his war effort was crippled by the lack of organized financing, a sort of donation system from those who wanted to see it through. Relying upon good will only went so far. He also knew that foreign policy was a huge issue as the enemies of the people were still antagonizing. But, he also had his fill of the ruling class that controlled his life until 1776, men who had ultimate power, men who decided the fates or successes of who they selected. Hard work taxed or stolen by a greedy king and rights assigned by class.

He knew he needed a solution to all of this and would list in the direction of the Federalists, those focused on a central government. I believe, mainly because of his military experience and the lives and suffering of great men mostly by the hand of bureaucrats in committee at the Continental Congress. He knew a nation was only as secure as it’s military and a military need financing. On the other hand he had great friends the likes of Edmund Randolph and Thomas Jefferson both staunch people’s rights advocates. Of all of the people who help to make the Republic, all would quit on him and leave him high and dry. Perhaps as the leader of the free world he just didn’t suit either side well enough to keep ‘their’ interests. All but one left of his own accord seemingly because they couldn’t get it to go their way and lost the vigor to fight for it. So to it seems for Mister Washington, at sixty-six years he was more than ready to retire and leave it to someone else.

And so, here we are today toiling with the left overs of these men who started it all so many years ago. What do we have? A government class that seeks to rule all the way down to the most local levels. Mini kings and queens that have no regard for you freedoms and mostly trying to get you to live the life they want for you. Tyrants at national levels enriching themselves in cahoots with each other, major corporations and now other governments all at the cost of you and me. Exactly the way it was in 1775 when things came to a head. The one thing that separated Misters Washington and Hamilton as Federalists from today’s Federalists is that they were staunch advocates of “limited” federal government because they knew the hearts of men who seek these offices do it for they’re own purposes whilst the rest of us are off working and doing good. Like thieves in the daylight they are bold.

Oo-De-Lally good and golly what a day! Today is the first day of forever and a good day for you to decide to make your future different. Do some simple division in your life and divide yourself from the federalists who seek to rule over you and divide yourself from the republicans who seek to isolate you. Vote for those who make you free, not those who give you things. Vote for those that support you and your neighbor not those who seek power. Vote for those that empower individuals with opportunity not those who empower with favoritism, so called rights or financial gain.

You can do it I know you can, Bud light has restored my faith in all of you! Be NOT divided, be American.

Go and be great,

Greg

“Pet?”, you say. “Mine?” Well, yes. Doesn’t everyone want a big pile of money? Doesn’t everyone want to win the lottery and spend, spend, spend? To the extent this is true I am proposing you have a pet, a dear one you feed and cuddle in day dreamy slumber imagining the future when it will be your reality. In the 30 years I’ve been in business I’ve always wanted to become financially independent. Maybe big piles of money, but more than anything shrug the burden of the monthly grind and have freedom to come and go easily. Not be tied to one place or event, like work. It’s taken most of those 30 years to get there but here I am. Mostly free. Why mostly, because old habits die hard. I’ve been freight training through life for 45 years and one doesn’t just quit. There’s track all over the place that’s taken all this while to assemble, there are engines idling waiting to start work, there’s box cars of stuff needing to be somewhere, there’s people who need you to keep freighting. It’s what I do and to be honest, although I get tired, I DIG it. I really enjoy most all of what I do but most importantly I enjoy where it has taken me and where we plan to go next with all of those people.

Often times I hear people loudly proclaiming, “don’t you want to be rich”, “why not get rich, what else you have to do” and any other manner of utterances about getting money. There is a tremendous amount of noise over the internet about a focus on getting more money. You here them talk about what they do and how you too can do what they do and get money. “Show me the money Jerry!” like in Hollywood. So many look for the fame and fortune only to miss the one thing in life that will truly satisfy. A great journey! And not just any journey but one that dreams are made of, one that others see and share the same vision. My goodness, and the stories we can share with each other too!

Getting money is just that, it’s not easy, it’s not fun in and of itself, it satisfies not in any way. You can’t eat it, it won’t keep you company and it won’t fix any of your relationships. I heard someone say once, “money only makes you more of who you already are.” If you’re generous, you’ll be more generous. If you’re stingy, you’ll be even more stingy. If you’re a spender, you’ll just be a bigger spender; that is until it’s gone. That happens a lot.

The fun thing about getting money is what you can do with it. If that’s the best part why wouldn’t a person focus on that. People do. But then run out of money again. Now what? Do it again. Gets old like most everything else. The most unhappy people I know have boat loads of money. They go and do, they go and buy and they go and see. Constantly. If getting money was going to help you we would be enjoying Nirvana’s newest album with Kurt on lead. Sadly we’re not and sadly money isn’t an answer to anything.

Don’t misunderstand me, you do need to be interested in it, you do need to respect it’s value and you do need to go make efforts to acquire it. You need it and you should get it. Saying, “it’s the root of evil and I don’t need it” is just one way of saying that, “irresponsibility is the life I choose.” You thought you were miserable now try that one on. Listen to an old man, the key is when your needs, time and money all come together at the same moment to allow you to have the freedom to enjoy the people nearest you. Then and only then will you be happy about money, happy about life and happy that you focused on the journey and those going with you and not your little pet.

I’m starting on a new project with a new partner to see where it goes. We are, of course doing it for the money but so many other things. I just met him a bit ago, but we see and say similar things, we look at our future together and wonder will this be forever or just a season. Curiosity is the thrill of tomorrow, what will it bring? Here I go.

You go too, and take someone with you,

Greg

Pearls? We have pearls of wisdom, pearls of joy, pearls of yesterday and of course pearls of the crown. Which one it matters not; all connote a certain essence of value. Something worthy of consideration, thought or even just endearment. We all recognize that certain things have a universal value and all agree that these things are worthy of collecting, savoring, protecting, enjoying and as many other verb “-ings” as there are pearls. I think you’d agree that to ‘to each his own’ is completely valid but some things are ‘to each and everyone’ valuable, an example would be his own life. Now granted, some more than others but this is universal. No?

I think we should a thought to realize that pearls come from actions taken, the lessons learned from hard work on one’s life or the hard won interest of another who has shared their personal lessons of life. In the animal world it is only the human being who can learn vicariously. I don’t even need to see it, I can hear or read about it and receive that pearl and make it my own. Pearls can be so easy to come by that, I really believe in this day and age that they have become of little or no value. I find myself on Instagram, as an example, catching pearls by the second; one after the other. What could I possibly do with them all? Well, I save them of course; for the day that I can use them. When? I Don’t know.

What I have come to understand though is that a person needs to be in a certain place in life to be able to see what it is that is ‘staring him in the face’ or ‘find what he’s been look for’ or ‘receive a piece of the puzzle’ and know what to do with it. I’m not even sure my library of pearls are really pearls if I can’t use them now. But, oh how I love it that people are tossing them about all the day long.

Enter…..’the pigs’. Boars, sows, piglets, hogs, you know swine. If I was to take a literal pearl, a tiny white ball from an oyster, and place it on top of the hogs food he would not hesitate a split second suck it in the front end and wait for it to pass out the back end. Not the slightest thought for it, nor would he go looking for it afterward realizing it may have had some value.

It took me a long time to learn about pearls to pigs. Sure I understood the concept and meaning but long did it take me to learn what a pig was. My goodness, upon the revelation I thought I was stupid. I have been investing heavily in anyone who would hang around and show signs of interest. What I learned is that most everyone will be cordial and gracious at least at face value. I would spend my time because I thought I was reaching someone who cared and it would turn into a worthwhile effort.

After years of this one day here a few years ago I was listening to a fella by the name of Dan Pena. You can go check him out, I do recommend that you do. He is quite vulgar but STRAIGHT forward and pulls no punches. Basically, what he said, was “you’re all soft. You’re not going anywhere because you’re all sissies. All of these guys you see who have made it are tenacious and elbowing people out of the way to get where they did.” There is quite a bit of latitude in my quotation there purposefully not to be as vulgar. He says it a lot better. In any case, I realized I was pissing around with people who were not going to go anywhere no matter what came to them. They could get a whole wheel barrow of pearls and it would not make one iota of difference. I would encourage, train, coach, teach, demonstrate and still they would do nothing. I did all of this believing that they would see the light and join me in going on to a greater life.

Pigs. Everyone of them, at least for that moment with me. I hate to be or sound judgemental about such things but there have been soooooo many that the evidence is overwhelming in my position. Seemingly from Dan’s point of view and quite a few others. We are never not looking for good people but now I am looking for that person who is passing me up on the row I hoe. No more so I stop to look because there is a warm body in proximity. If you’re going somewhere worthwhile I will see you appear again and again later on. With you I will go the distance!

If you’re out there going at it, look for two kinds of people only. The one’s getting behind you and what you’re doing or the one passing you up doing what you doing and go help him. You both will be blessed

Go hard into your future, now!

Greg