“You are not alone” is one of my Ten Pillars of life. The thought is that no matter what adversities you face, there is always someone who has had them before you and they can help you learn how to cope.
Asking for help is a hard thing to do for many of us. We just don’t want to admit to ourselves that we sometimes struggle through life, let alone broadcast that fact to the world! It takes a brave person to do that. One of those brave people is Michelle over at the Green Study. She recently came out with a heartwrenching post where she told the world about her problems with depression and the history of psychiatric problems in her family.
Here are some of her words in relation to the recent celebrity suicides:
I constantly struggle with my deafness, my Aspie characteristics and sometimes depression. I thank the Lord that I am not overwhelmed by these things as many are. I feel an inordinate need to show the world that they are not alone. Someone else struggles as you do. Just knowing that might help them pull back from the edge and seek help.
One of my hardest personal struggles was the period when I went deaf at the age of forty. I knew deafness was coming but I still was totally unprepared. When it did happen my ear doctor basically told me that he couldn’t help me anymore so just go away. I felt abandoned! I went through months of depression until I finally discovered the organization called ALDA (Assoc. of Late Deafened Adults). They helped me realize I was not alone.
Thanks, Michelle for letting others know that they are not alone with their problems…
He was very adamant that these two eclipsed everything else. In this case, like my Evangelical friends claim they do for every biblical thing, I take his words literally. It is amazing to me that they don’t! They seem to put condition after condition on just what he meant.
“My hero is Edmund Burke, a great Irish philosopher, and parliamentarian and he said manners are more important than laws because manners touch us every day. It’s manners that either degrade us or uplift us…
I am a guy to is almost constantly living with my technology, but my cell phone most often resides on my computer desk and is seldom picked up more than a couple times a day. But, I suspect that I spend 2 -3 hours per day at one of my computers or iPad doing this or that. First thing every morning after my shower I browse my news feeds to see what #CO3 screwed up the day before. I read a wide variety of topics also during that time. Like Will Rogers, I get most of my thoughts I post here from those morning reviews.
It is sad to see that suicide is on the rise in the US. A couple of prominent people have brought it to the forefront. As noted below a part of the problem is the lack of proper healthcare here in America. It is hard to believe that over 45,000 people committed suicide last year alone. The stigma of mental illness causes too many to not seek help when they are severely depressed and that is the major cause of it.
When I was a member of an Evangelical church the most often phrase I heard when its members couldn’t reconcile something recently happened with their beliefs in the bible was that “God works in mysterious ways, we just have to trust Him”. I always thought that was more of a cop-out than an explanation of the situation. But that is not the topic of this post.
This post is primarily about the book “The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels,” by Jon Meacham. He tries to offer historical context and a sense of proportion for our current times. While I have not yet read the book, it is on my Kindle now, I have seen enough reviews to maybe entice you to take it up yourself.
Think for Yourself, Question Everything.
Eleven Madison Park shut down last summer for a massive remodel in the wake of Daniel Humm and Will Guidara’s flagship topping the World’s 50 Best Restaurant list for the first time. The new Eleven Madison Park reopened in October with a new look and a new menu. Now, in 2018, that menu will cost a little more. According to Eater critic Ryan Sutton, the restaurant is raising its prices by $20 to $315 for its tasting menu, meaning a dinner for two with wine will cost $1,067, after tax. The restaurant cites rising labor and food costs as the reason for the price hike.
The new California, back from years of financial trouble, has the fifth-largest economy in the world, ahead of Britain and France. Since 2010, California has accounted for an incredible one-fifth of America’s economic growth. Silicon Valley is the default center of the world, home to three of the 10 largest companies in the world by market capitalization.
I just can’t understand how the leadership of the Republican party can blame the Democrats for not getting anything done this year. Come on Mitch, you guys control everything and still can’t accomplish the daily chores necessary to keep the country running. All you have managed to do so far is to take healthcare away from millions and pass a budget-busting tax cut for the wealthy. You personally need to take responsibility for your lack of leadership but of course, that will never happen. You are simply too much like the current leader of your party who refuses to EVER admit that he that he is not perfect or made a mistake. Even if obstruction is keeping you from passing legislation, can’t you remember you personally invented the current definition of obstruction just a few years ago during the first years of the Obama administration? A tit for tat is hell, isn’t it?
Fear is what drives far too many of us in the US right now. The majority of the most fearful live in the less populated rural areas of the country. You only need to look at the red/blue map to see that reality. Here are some causes as I see it of this inordinate fear:
It’s time I put out a post on the new quote in the header above. I think experience and wisdom often go hand in hand and as Will says learning from mistakes is a big part of it. I personally think I can remember more details of the things I got wrong than the things I got right.