Are You Thoughtful?

Everything is Constantly Changing 

Everything has a history. All things in the world have an origin and a history. The known universe is made of matter and energy. The land we we stand on, the water we drink, the food we eat, the people we know, the stuff we own, every living and non living thing in our world has history. Do you ever take the time to stop and listen to someone else's story? .....

It is easy to gloss over the histories of the things and people we encounter as we blast through our days, but I assure you that if you take the time to stop and listen to someones story, your experience of life will be affected by the understanding you gain by listening.

It is easy to be dismissive of others, to judge them as wrong and write them off, but you know as well as I do that when we see someone doing something we disagree with, there is a long history behind that persons choices.

I was recently reminded by a friend that a gentle sun is able to remove a persons coat, but a strong wind can blow with the intensity to knock the person over, without removing their coat. When we take the  time to listen and use gentle words of love and encouragement, our kind words are healing to other people.

God's word and example of love calls us to bring others into the illumination of salvation with loving words of kindness. We are asked to be patient, kind and humble; to take the time to listen to someone else's story, especially when we can tell they are sick, weary, broken or hurting (bad choices are indicators).

That little "made in china" sticker you can find on so many items exists as a symbol of a complex political and economic history that has tremendous implications about our future. Every time we buy an item that is made in china, we are casting a $ vote for a hateful bigoted atheist communist country that abuses and oppresses its own people : if china treats the chinese people with hostility and oppression, how do you think the nation of china will treat people in other countries if it ascends to a position of global power ? Each choice we make has impacts that far exceed our understanding. Know that when you vote for a locally made anything, you are making a systemic vote that will enhance the entire economy of the country that thing is made in.

Looking deeper at the history of outsourcing work to China for example can greatly enhance our understanding of why the US economy continues stagnating. There is a long history of outsourcing that has its origin in a system of broken thinking and negative reinforcements. If a company only focuses on maximizing profit for the next fiscal quarter, that company will make choices that are bad for its long term success. The history of the Dell computer corporation provides an excellent example of the faustian bargin they negotiated with ever increasing outsourcing to "developing" parts of Asia.

If all companies in America outsource all of our work to other countries where people are willing to work for less, what jobs would remain for Americans? We can not have a country made entirely of managers: some people actually have to "do" something in order to create a functional durable and diversified stable economy.

The history of the American petroleum industry gives us yet another eye opening example through which to understand how we got to this place of becoming a nation with an energy crisis.

If America does not adapt and change in order to stay competitive in the future, the culture diluting forces of globalization will cause America to fall from its position of global power. If we fail to make the changes nessesary for a prosperous future, we will be doomed to fail as a large nation state as so many other large nations states fell from power in the past.

If people took the time to stop and listen, to gain understanding, to see the big picture, to be thoughtful, then more people would have the truth to inform their choices. If people understood the truth, perhaps more people would recognize that a gallon of gas costs our economy $15 and that driving a 9000lb SUV as a commuter vehicle really does not make any rational sense. If people took the time to understand teh truth, then perhaps more people would appreciate how the little golden "made in china" sticker is symbolic of an economic virus that is taking our economy appart from the inside out.

The war on drugs is example institutionalized thoughtlessness. If we to take time to study the history of narcotics for example, it would become immediately clear that the war on drugs has been an abismal costly and ineffective failure. You cannot solve cancer by treating the symptoms it produces, any more then you can solve drug abused by legally demonizing the users and produces of the abused substances.

If Americans are out buying heroin and cocaine, then we know for a fact that there are unresolved cultural, ethical and social problems we have failed to address that a driving these marginalized people to abuse hard narcotics. Normally mentally and physically healthy people do not abuse drugs or alcohol. People driven to substance abuse almost always have an underlying spiritual, social, emotional or psychological problem. If we want to solve the problems of substance abuse and addictions, then we need to focus on addressing the underlying drivers of these problems.

I am reminded of watching a show called "The Biggest Looser" where people that struggle with food addiction compete to lose the most weight. I see obesity and drug addiction in the same light philosophically. Does the state run around with food police arresting and disenfranchising obese people or the companies that sell them junk foods? No : so why is the state running around arresting and disenfranchising drug users and drug dealers? People that are suffering from addiction need help, not legal or social condemnation. Most of the contestants on this "Biggest Looser" show, admit that they suffer from feeling rejection, emptiness, loneliness, pain, anxiety, fear, uncertainty and doubt. When the addicts seek out help to resolve the underlying problems, the symptoms are resolved. If we want to end substance abuse in America, we need to help and support the addicts so that they can free them selves from the costly burdens of addiction.

Our health care system has become one of treating sickness rather than one of maintaining and optimizing health; is that thoughtful?  Cancer is a great example. Everyone has cancer in their bodies: cancers are simply groups of cells that are out of control. When we are healthy, our body is able to sequester and effectively handle these groups of cancerous cells. When a person "has cancer", this means their body has lost its ability to effective handle the cancers. Western medicines "violent" approach of "killing the cancer", is a totally backward, very costly and extremely ineffective approach.

Effective medical management of a "cancer patient" involves holistic lifestyle management of the persons diet and exercise to repair that persons immune function so that their body can once again effectively handle and surpress the cancer cells as they occur. Our food is our medicine: look at what people are eating.... and you wonder why obesity and sickness is one the rise ? Our ideas of what is "normal" to eat do not at all align with history or the scientific facts we know understand about health and nutrition.

Again, thoughtless choices are at the core of the cancer problem. People eat all sorts of preservatives and pesticides and artificial colors and synthetics flavors, a soup of questionably safe chemicals all interacting within our bodies....  we are surrounded with products that were soaked in brominated flame retardant chemicals that disrupt our immune systems. Many of the lawn chemicals and yard/ bug/ cleaning chemicals that people frequently use, are known cancer causing agents and immune disrupters.
Many soaps, shampoos, colognes and perfumes are caked full of toxic cancer causing immune disrupting chemicals. We swim in sea of toxic petro-chemicals and wonder why autism speaks; why allergies and auto-immune disease are on the rise; why bee populations are collapsing.... the answers are perfectly clear if we take the time to be thoughtful and understanding: to seek out the truth in God's word and know enough to defend ourselves from the toxic impacts of uninformed choice making. Voting organic is not just a political statement, when you vote for organic you are casting a vote against avoidable sickness and toxicity in the world.

I see a lot of people struggling with obesity, and yet I see few people out in the sun after work walking, cycling or hiking. What are people doing with their free time ? They sit infront of a computer / or moving very little all day long, then come home and turn on the tv.... that is not a recipe for moving more or staying healthy and fit.

"Movement is Living", a phrase in a poster at Overlake hospitals "joint replacement" center. That statement is absolutely true. If we take the time to be thoughtful and think about what "movement" does to our body, then it will make perfectly clear sense why regular exercise produces enhanced memory, improved cognitive performance, better sleep, better sex and a positive mood boosting effect. To move, your brain has to do an incredible amount of work. When we move frequently during exercise, our brains get a workout that improves plasticity (learning capacity). The link between physical activity, memory function and learning is a well established pathway in the sciences. People that more more, score higher on every measurable test of cognitive function. People that move more also tend to suffer less from the psychological impacts of being unhealthy... do you think anyone feels good deep down if they are obese?

Movement is one of the most complicated tasks that our central nervous system performs. All systems in the body must work in harmony with one another to coordinate complex movements like walking. That might sound odd that "Walking" is a computational complex task for our brains, but I  assure you that the kind of information processing that happens when we walk normally is nothing short of spectacular. Look at robots like Honda's Asimo... watch a youtube video of its clunky non fluid movement. Smooth walking is extraordinary display or rich complex balanced mental function.   Exercise is not only good for our bodies, it is fantastic for our minds. AARP has become a vocal proponent of active lifestyles. Long term studies of elderly populations show that active people not only live slightly longer, they live healthier, sharper and more completely lives while they are alive. Living a healthy lifestyle is about living healthy and free from the costly life robbing burdens of sickness and preventable diseases.

Are you being thoughtful? Are you being the best version of you?

Think about it !