Thoughts on Thinking

"When somebody persuades me that I am wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?" John Maynard Keynes

"If you're unhappy with your life, change your thinking." Charles Fillmore

"The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it." Eckhart Tolle

"People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them." Epictetus

"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates

"Consciousness is a terrible thing to waste." PunditGeorge

Monday, July 04, 2016

FREEDOM!


By tradition we celebrate the Republic on July 4, the date when all signatures were affixed to the stunning document declaring independence.  


Our great experiment continues to confound history.  From the get-go was the debate over primacy – the individual or the government.  The principal factor in the debate is creation of wealth, another way of stating standard of living.  Wealth is created by individuals, We, the people.  Government cannot create anything.  It must take what others create.  In our Republic, this is taxation – a touchy issue that created the House of Representatives and its responsibility to originate all spending bills.  The structure is good.  As always, implementation is the key.

Attitude is everything.  Let’s look at two prevailing attitudes:

1.  Unless it is stated in the regulations, you can’t do it.
2.  Unless it is prohibited in the regulations, you can do it.

Which do you prefer?  In the former, one must have permission to do something.  In the latter, freedom of action is the norm unless specifically prohibited.

Our Republic was established on the latter although through the decades great amounts of personal freedom have  been surrendered to the government.  Once upon a time travel by flying was a delight.  And, once upon a time government did not recognize, or impeded, the inalienable rights.  The machinery to amend the Constitution has been used to correct instances where government prohibited freedom for many people.

It is attitude that rules.  There are people on the July 4th who are in mental and emotional bondage.  Rather than enjoy their lives and share that joy with others (rising tide lifts all boats) they instead dwell upon past “wrongs” and injustices.  Quite literally, that was then.  A different people, a different world-view, a different perspective from that of the present.  This is now.  Do you wish to be free?  Do you wish to be controlled by others?  The beauty is that you have the freedom and ability to do either.  I would encourage freedom – living in the present and making the present the most enjoyable moment.  (Hint:  There is only one moment, now.  There’s no such animal as past and future as far as experience goes.)

Those who get it, get it.  Those who don’t, can’t.  It took me a long time to fully grasp that.  Yet it’s true.  The Law of Attraction is the example.  Those who understand the Law of Attraction benefit from that knowledge.  There are people who deny that there is such a thing as the Law of Attraction.  It is the working of that law that helps convince such folks that there is no such thing.  Like attracts like, and if one thinks there is no such thing, then evidence of no such thing will come forth.


There are many unhappy people on this Fourth of July.  That is sad.  Let’s help them by having a rollicking good time celebrating freedom and all that is joyous.  You don’t have to convince anyone of anything (because you can’t) but you can demonstrate your joy in Life and perhaps, after a while, they’ll get curious.  Once curious, they may begin to perceive things differently.

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