Author: Adventure in the burbs

Honduras- Ever Been?

Have any of you been to Honduras? I have. It was sometime after 9/11. I did a little math this morning and based on my daughters age I think it was about 16 years ago.  How time fly’s.

I was working as a contractor for the Federal Government and I was traveling to several different embassies to lay fiber optic cable and do some other odds and ends.  If I recall my wife was pretty dang pregnant and there was a lot going on in our lives.  I was traveling around with a guy named Dickie.  Dickie was an interesting cat for sure.  Dickie was an ‘ol country boy from Virginia who was in his 60’s, had an affinity for alcohol and strippers.  He loved his booze and his women.  Dickie was bald, had a pear shaped body, big ears that stuck out on both sides of his head and was a bit of a stubborn person.  It didn’t take me long while traveling with Dickie to realize he couldn’t handle his alcohol but that’s a whole different story.  God bless you Dickie (and your family) if you are or are not with us any longer.  I’m sure one way or the other Dickie is doing ok.

Dickie and I were bouncing around Central America and one of our destinations was Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Who the heck had ever heard of Tegucigalpa?  I sure hadn’t.  I was just a guy with a cheap United States high school education who most likely didn’t pay a lick of attention during any sort of geography class.  I most likely failed geography miserably to be quite honest.  Anywho.  Ol Dickie and I arrived in Tegucigalpa and the one thing I recall was getting picked up by an armed escort.  It’s been years, but if I remember correctly the agent was carrying an M-4 Carbine, a pistol, was wearing full body armor and arrived in a armored up white Suburban. If you’ve never opened up the door of an armored up Suburban  you’d definitely notice the difference immediately.  It’s no ordinary SUV.  The ballistic glass is extremely thick, the doors are much heavier and the moment you enter the vehicle you have a sense of protection.  I’d imagine those Suburban’s would protect you from most small arms fire up to an AK-47 for a reasonable duration of time.  What reasonable is, well I’m not sure but I’m glad we didn’t get to test it out.

Once Dickie and I met our escort it didn’t take long before we were off to the embassy.  The trip to the embassy is now a blur but we definitely didn’t do any site seeing and went straight there.  As I remember,  we approached the embassy on a relatively small road and the outside was guarded by Honduran nationals.  During our approach the Honduran nationals recognized the vehicle and directed us to make a right turn.  The steel vehicle barriers dropped into the ground, the guard rail lifted in the air and we were in the embassy compound.  It honestly reminded me of something you’d see in a movie. High five to you Hollywood hooyazz….  Tegucigalpa looked like a real movie.

I don’t remember much about the embassy.  What I do remember and what is more important about this post is the poverty in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  We stayed at a place called the Intercontinental Hotel. I’m sure it has changed over the last 16 years but the one thing I remember was how you had this beautiful hotel in the middle of a poverty stricken area.  Across the street from the hotel was a modern mall with all the fixings that you would expect in the United States.  If I recall we ate at a TGI Friday’s and the one thing that struck me was “how is it in the poorest of countries you have the most beautiful women?”.  I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way but the woman here were gorgeous.  As I explained to my daughter this morning it was almost as if you walked in the mall and you were in the United States and as you stepped outside, looked left and right you saw a third world country.  It was quite odd.

The REAL point of this post is to briefly discuss what is currently taking place in the America’s.  We have this caravan of thousands of refugee’s coming north to the United States.  There are some in the US that would say don’t let them in.  There are others that would say let them stay.  As I understand it these people are fleeing violence, oppression, gang violence and so on.  I believe behind the scenes there is a US political element that is driving this issue.  News sells!  Hell I’m writing about it!   Is each political faction taking advantage of this moment to capture the minds of voters?  In this ever complex world today I believe we need to be more compassionate.  We need to figure out an innovative way to deal with the ever changing face of the United States, the changing world and the ever changing complexities of our immigration policy.  Perhaps we make Guantanamo Bay Cuba the new Ellis Island?  Lets use GITMO (I’ve been to GITMO too)  as a place to properly bring these people into the United States?  We used GITMO in the 90’s to deal with the crisis in Cuba.  Let’s think about this, if your family was struggling in fear, oppression and starvation wouldn’t you travel thousands of miles on foot to go to the promise land?  Any good rational person would say yes.  Let’s figure out an innovative way to help these people.  It’s the 21st century for goodness sakes.  We can put rovers on Mars but we can’t figure out the complexities of a reasonable immigration policy?

What are your thoughts?  How should we handle this?

Take good care….

Plato- The 4 Virtues

Plato identified 4 virtues in his work “The Republic”.  The book is a must read.  One of the most thought provoking books I’ve ever read.  In fact I will probably write a few blog posts just on The Republic.

Do you suppose if people made a deliberate focus on the 4 virtues that Plato identified in his work “The Republic” That the world would be a better place? I sometimes struggle with what appears to be the evil of man. I know by no means I’m perfect. I have certainly made my mistakes and have definitely made my ethical, religious and moral sins but after reading The Republic as well as many other works I ponder the simplicity of these 4 virtues and perhaps our lack of focus on them.

Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Courage.

Prudence is a person’s ability to judge his own actions as appropriate or inappropriate. Justice is the ability to act with fairness and without bias toward others. Temperance is the ability to act with moderation and self-control. Courage refers to emotional strength and a person’s ability to confront his fears. These virtues were later adopted by St. Augustine as the four cardinal virtues of Christianity.

What are your thoughts? Do we, as a global society, have a complete lack of focus on some of the most simple and foundational virtues?

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is such a tricky subject and by far I am no expert. To me, forgiveness is freedom. Freedom from the angst and pain that is inflicted on you by another individual. There are many instances where I have forgiven people for doing wrong, however they continue to make poor decisions or exemplify their own insecurities or character weaknesses. Yes, I judge people, yet I have my own insecurities and character weaknesses. It is one of the great fallibilities of humanity and one of the greatest ironies of our own imperfections. We judge other people’s faults, yet we are consistently broken and faulty.

An interesting situation that I have come upon is I harmed a close friend who I would consider a brother. I harmed my brother over trivial matters, disagreements and in today’s world, politics. We all know todays politics are polarizing however these types of disagreements should never end friendships. In addition, I made some judgements about his character that were out of line. To make things even worse, this friend came to visit me in the hospital during a significant injury yet when he was severely injured I was not able to visit him for one reason or another. The reason I was not able to visit was probably because of my own injury, I don’t recall.

After some deep thought and recognizing my trespass I decided to write my friend a letter. In my letter I outlined my mistakes and asked him for forgiveness. In fact, I pleaded for his forgiveness. After some time, I never heard a response. After a polarizing event at his place of employment I briefly reached out via a text message to ensure he was ok. He informed he was ok and said that he was planning to write me back, however he never wrote me back.

This is where forgiveness gets tricky. I pleaded for his forgiveness in a letter and never received a response. Now I must do the forgiving and frankly I don’t know the next step is in this process. Do I call, do I write, do I just forgive and forget anonymously or perhaps send my friend a letter of forgiveness in another letter? For me, this is no power of wills. Who is going to reach out first? I don’t get involved with stubborn behavior. Imagine if one of us died? How would the other feel if we went to the others funeral. It would be unimaginable. I look forward to some commentary below.

Take good care…..

In Harmony We Trust

Try to take a view of the world as though all things are in harmony.  Through this lens, there is good and there is evil.  There are objects that are beautiful and there are objects that are ugly.  There are ideas and influences that are negative and there are ideas and influences that are positive.  Within this view, all things work in harmony.

Another way to approach this concept is, it is useless to resent the opposite of what your view is as you have little control of the opposite or opposing views or feelings as well as the objects that you find ugly.  Control what is in your control and practice your own free will in thought as well as in action.  No one,  not even the bad can force you to act against your own free will.

Enjoy and take good care…..

Anxiety

Sometimes simple concepts or wise sayings are also the most powerful and thought provoking. Chew on this for a while:

Mathew 6:34 says- Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble or its own.

Although this is only a part of Matthew 6 with many different versions or translations, to me this passage is beyond thought provoking.  This simple passage can be leveraged so you can not only get through today, but also help you to be mindful of not letting the burdens of tomorrow overwhelm you.

For some reason this particular passage and concept spoke to me when I woke up this morning.  One of the more interesting things to consider about the parables of Jesus is, they are often easier to talk or preach about than they are to implement in your daily living.  That is the beauty of a parable.

Take good care…..

Consumption

At a 40,000-foot view, Capitalist models seldom change as they are based on one thing; the consumer. Innovations in technology change the way we communicate, innovations in branding, reinventing the old to make the old new again, innovations in news broadcasting, advertising, medicine, the cloud, software, music, the IOT (Internet of Things), coffee, food, the holidays, fashion, and clothes; just about anything you can think of focuses on the one thing that we all are; The consumer. While we are all consumers, the corresponding business models are heavily focused on consumption. Let’s examine the word consumer in a way that hopefully some people have never really thought about. Hopefully I’ll shed some light on the word, what the word is and how such a simple and small word can have impacts that span the globe. Since this is just a simple blog, I’ll let the reader come up with their own conclusions at the end of this post as a complete book could be written on the topic of “the consumer”.

At the simplest level, “The Consumer” is defined as: A person who purchases goods and services for personal use. Most People have probably heard of the term “Consumer Confidence”, the Consumer Confidence Index or CCI. The CCI is an indicator designed to measure consumer confidence, which is defined as the degree of optimism on the state of the economy that consumers are expressing through their activities of saving and spending. Another way to view the CCI is, spending for useless things that consumers don’t need but perhaps want. I’m far from being an economic genius, at least that I know of, but you guys and gals get the picture. If I’m not willing to spend ridiculous amounts of cash to consume or over consume goods and services well, the Consumer Confidence index (CCI) sucks!

Well kids if you’ve made it this far, congratulations, you’ve earned a big ‘ol “C” in the introduction of the consumerization of our society and survived a plethora of boring definitions written by an amateur blogger at 6am in the morning. Additionally, you have also proven that your attention span is stronger than a dental hygienist working on someone that hasn’t had their teeth cleaned in 4 years. Vivid visual eh? Quick side note; did you know there is a magazine called Consumer Reports? Probably…..I digress…

Now, let’s look at something that most of us consume daily like brainless sheep smokin crack on a Monday morning. Too much? Too soon? Its Coffee. In fact, I’ve got a cup of coffee sitting next to me at this very moment. In fact, I’m on my second cup. In the olden days back in the 1970’s……Wait let’s go with; “Back in the day”, my mother or father would break out the ‘ol Maxwell House coffee can and prepare some coffee in the ‘ol drip coffee maker so it would automatically kick off at 5am. The coffee makers got so high speed they went from having a standard clock with hands to having a digital clock! Woah, talk about technology. As many of my younger readers probably don’t know, Maxwell House was “Good to the Last Drop”. We would all wake up in the morning to the smell of coffee permeating our senses, my parents would sit down and have a cup or two, eat breakfast and we, the kids would get ready for school. My parents would head out to Washington DC or the surrounding area for work and we kids would run off to school. Note that the metal Maxwell house can was used all across the United States for other things. Dads would utilize them to organize their sheds to hold nails, screws, nuts and bolts and mothers would use them for various odds and ends or projects. If you’ve made it this far with my blog post, well hallelujah! I’ve kept your attention and defied the odds of bloggership. You have now become a level 2 Dental Hygienist!

Now let’s do a hypothetical comparison to 2018.

In 2018 we have Starbucks, Dunkin Doughnuts, the Keurig, or maybe Crispy Crème. The Keurig is one of the most ingenious inventions I’ve ever seen. It spits out single cups of coffee almost instantly. It is pretty much single use and utilizes these low-cost (consumable) plastic pods. If you don’t know what a Keurig is, like them or not you either don’t have a pulse or don’t live on planet Earth. By the way If your Keurig breaks or has some sort of mineral buildup in its components, the Keurig is so low cost you can just throw it away and buy (consume) a new one. Or just ask for a Keurig for Christmas. You’ll get one for sure. I guarantee the Keurig will be on sale as somehow, some way they’ll be a must have innovation added to the Keurig. Back to Moms and Dads across America, they will not be using the plastic pods for storing nails and screws or other odds and ends.   With the Keurig in mind, imagine if you took all the pods and the Keurig’s that are thrown away each year and stacked them up in one place on earth. What would that would look like? Complete insanity. Imagine Soda Straws from fast food joints combined with the Keurig mess. I digress…again…and again, soda straws are a whole different consumption story.

So next topic. What the heck is Starbucks anyway and what the heck kind of name is Starbucks? Starbucks! Really? I would have never dreamt in a million years a brand called Starbucks would be so imbedded in our brains that Starbucks would become as prominent and as successful as McDonalds; if not more successful. This is called branding or mindshare. In terms of consumption let’s take a look. Where McDonalds used to have a tagline of million burgers served (something like that), Starbucks probably serves millions and millions of cups of coffee each day. In fact, I’ve stood in a line at a Starbucks in Washington DC waiting for a coffee where the line wraps around the inside of the building and extends to the outside. During the winter, it is so cold outside that each person looks like a zombie that has just been taken out of a frozen morgue awaiting their post mortem autopsy. Yes, that cold and just waiting for coffee that is frankly just average to below average. In and out we go for an average latte in the freezing morning and then a wash rinse, repeat amid a cold winter afternoon; Standing in the same line freezing, consuming, consuming and consuming saying baa, baa, baa, like sheep waiting to feed their fat bellies. All the while the wolves stand watching, smoking their cigarettes, consuming their stogies in the cold and then flicking their nasty stogie butts on the ground. The ironic thing is, within spitting distance of the Starbucks lies a Dunkin Doughnuts with superior coffee, with tasty doughnuts, no line and an indoor entrance, yet the sheep stand firm. Baa, Baa. At all the street corner Starbucks, tons of trash mounting each day, over and over again as we wait in that same line day in and day out, consuming and building layers of fat on our already fat bodies while the Starbucks executives smile and pad their already thick wallets and stock portfolios. Oh, don’t forget the plaque build up in your arteries over at the Dunkin Doughnuts counter. For those too weak to handle the suffering in the Starbucks line, you better believe the makers of cholesterol medication love your visits to Dunkin Doughnuts. Gobbling up the Boston Crème Fat Pills are sure to be great for the pharmaceutical industry. Then, to work that 1000-calorie fat pill and sugary coffee off, you must have a gym membership that you pay $75.00 per month but only go to the gym quarterly or perhaps just as we bring in the new year as we make our resolutions. Woah….easy….that’s a whole different post.

Clothes and fashion, you ask? The clothing industry puts together the latest trends to be cheap, disposable and consumable. While some 12-year-old works in near slave like conditions for a meager wage in some far-off land that you’ve most likely never heard of or read about, you sit here attempting to be En Vogue with the latest monthly fashion trend so you can satisfy the cravings of your own vanity.   To most it seems completely and duly fair and righteous. Right? At the end of the month when the next trend comes out, you donate the previous trend to Goodwill so you get that warm feeling in your fat belly that you’re helping the poor. Then you go out and buy this month’s latest fashion trend. Wash rinse….and you guessed it, repeat. Let’s not forget about your tax deduction and stopping to get your next latte. All the while the executives that run these clothing conglomerates are padding their pockets and some kid in Thailand is able to put a banana on the table for his family to eat for his/her 60 hours in a sweat shop. Extreme you say? Who knows.

Let’s briefly look at technology and how you receive your music, TV, movies, news and medicine too. Today and unlike the past, we “consume” all of our media through subscription services. Music is downloaded or streamed to your phone through unlimiting subscription services. Books are now read through your phone, or tablets, and movies are carried through the internet via Netflix and Hulu. In fact, there are tons of well put together TV Series’ that capture the minds and brains of drooling zombies that binge watch on their couches. All the while they fill up on their sugar filled caramel macchiato’s and “fat free” corn syrup sugar goodies further building up the layers of visceral fatty tissue surrounding their organs. Then we all wonder why we have an obesity problem or why the medical and pharmaceutical industry are a cash crop of services and consumption. I’m sure my primary doctor doesn’t mind once a year diagnosing me with the obvious fact that I need to diet and exercise more. I’m glad it took 12 years of education that cost ridiculous amounts of money to make that obvious diagnosis. “Fast food medicine” as I call it is a totally different blog post. You walk in, an educated doctor takes your blood, tells you your fat, you go home, be sedative, make your New Years resolution, gain 5 pounds pay 100 dollars to get on another fad diet, come back to your doctor again next year for the annual physical, he/she says your fat again, get prescribed some pill, then wash rinse repeat. We’re fat all over again. Wait, doesn’t Dunkin Doughnuts sound good right now? Your local pharmaceutical rep thinks so; At least for you anyway.

What about all our sacred holidays that we celebrate. Easter, Christmas, Hanukah, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, Cinco De Mayo, Mardi Gras, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, New Years Eve, Wash Rinse Repeat. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my holidays but let’s take a high-level view from a consumption perspective.

Easter: We buy plastic eggs and eat tons of sugar feeding my corn syrup addiction. I’m sure this is how Jesus wants us to celebrate his sacred day.

Christmas: Businesses can live or die off the consumption of goods during Christmas. The masses feed like maggots off of plastic goods, electronics, clothing, candy, the latest gadgets, fashions, toys, Christmas trees and associated goods and decorations. Alcohol is in abundance and drinking while driving becomes more common as the year comes to a close. While some people spend ridiculous amounts of money on their families, some will buy coffee cups for their friends with the latest fashionable or quick-witted saying written on them like “I love you” or “Happy Holidays”. Wow, the originality of that one. Oh, don’t forget that it’s no longer acceptable to say “Happy Holidays”. Who took Christ out of Christmas. As I write about Christmas, let’s think about that for a second. Now gift giving has become an obligation instead of giving people something well thought out and meaningful. What do you think Jesus would actually say about his birthday? Do people even know what Christmas is about? I think some do. Yeah, some people, but I judge.

Black Friday: Holy Moly, the day after Thanksgiving and the lead up to Christmas. I think Jesus would be especially proud of this day. Imagine the people working in Asia turning out electronics, plastic goods and other stuff in anticipation of this glorious day. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the logistics involved with moving the sheer volume of goods from Asia to all across the United States to their intended destinations. Talk about boats, planes, trains, automobiles, trucks, so on and so forth. More recently there is Cyber Monday. Hell, with the new frenzy of Cyber Monday and Amazon in general, we’ve put the US Postal system back in business. I digress…..again. The consumption of gas just to make Black Friday happen from the factory, to purchase to a gift under the tree has got to be unfathomable. Think about this. It’s all in the name of the holy holiday Christmas. Jesus would be so proud, right?  I bet some starving kid somewhere has a great appreciation for the masterful logistical machine moving some gaming system from Asia to the living rooms of children in the United States on Christmas day. Like a zombie on Christmas day, those game thirsty children will now stare down a new mass produced 80-inch LED 5K resolution television to play a first-person shooter on their new gaming system while sucking on a candy cane filling their bellies with sugar. All the while the kid will be whining that their internet connection is too slow, and they can’t find their friends online because everyone on the face of the planet is consuming bandwidth from all the new gadgetry that’s been turned on consuming the bandwidth on the internet. To top it off, the kids will be able to buy additional weaponry in the game for $30 dollars while some other kid in the world is dodging REAL BULLETS in a war zone trying to find some clean water and food. Yep, I ramble just for Black Friday. Hell, people fist fight for goods on Black Friday. Literally fight for goods so they can give a gift on the holy day of Christmas. Ironic I’d say. Again, Jesus would be proud of us. Sorry, I judge….but Happy Holidays and let’s get Jesus back in Christmas while I beat someone’s face in because I want to get a tickle me Elmo for my 2-year-old.

For the rest of the holidays mentioned above, I’ll let you use your imagination. Green colors are consumed, Irish Car Bombs, Red Hearts, flowers, alcohol, American flags, food, sugar, candles, more food, more alcohol, more gas, more turkeys, on and on. We celebrate our blessings all the while people throughout the world or even in our own country struggle. It’s a good thing I’m blessed, and I can throw down a couple of $10.00 Irish Car Bombs. Hell, I don’t even know who Saint Patrick is other than he likes whisky and car bombs. I guess I can look it up on Wikipedia but damn, my internet connection is too slow! It now takes me 5 seconds to connect because three people in my house are lying down in bed on a Sunday streaming movies.

Consumption is chaos as you can see. Just like my blog post. I could literally site example after example after example finding myself writing into oblivion.  Let me get back to my Keurig, my ridiculous TV, my cell phone and find the latest news on the ridiculousness of the world today.

Enjoy, take good care…..oh and Merry Christmas.