Pros and Cons

Today a bit more about how warped the English language is. We have a habit of borrowing words from other languages and making them part of our own. Over a period of hundreds of years the exact original reason for picking one word or root word over another is lost. Our tendency is to steal a word and then over time to add prefixes and or suffixes to change the meaning of the word. Sometimes it just doesn't work though. Examples follow.

Pros and cons is a shortening of the Latin phrase pro et contra which literally means for and against. For the most part, when we make a list of pros and cons we are really setting up two lists, one of things that are good and the other a list of things that are bad. We often make lists such as these, compare the lists and then make some decision based on the comparison of the two lists.

Used in this context, pro is typically a good thing and con is typically a bad thing. A professional is someone that is good enough at a thing that they can and do in fact get paid to do that thing. So, a confessional should be someone who is so bad at that thing that there is no way they could ever get paid for doing it, right? No, a confessional is a place where people go to admit their sins. Wait! What?!?! Really? Actually, it is. Since the Latin root of the word confessional is fess, which means to speak, it makes perfect sense. Adding the prefix con, would make the word about having a "bad" talk. And what else would you call a conversation about the bad things you have done?

Next we have one that actually stands on its own as a word. Fusion. It is the act of blending or uniting things together. So, profusion should be the act of blending or uniting things together in a good way or a "forward" way. Well it is and it isn't. But, mostly it isn't. Profusion means a great amount of something or an abundance. So, confusion should mean a small amount of a thing or a lack of something right? It means bewilderment or perplexity. It means a lack of understanding. In a weird way profusion and confusion almost work as antonyms.

Then we move on to one of my favorite words to make fun of. You'll see what it is and why in a second. We start with progress. It means forward movement. Regress means backward movement. Digress means to move away from or deviate from the subject at hand. Egress means moving away from or finding a way out of a place. From these examples, you could rightly assume, that gress means movement and that the prefix applied to it means what kind of movement or what we are moving in.

So, we have this brand new country, one where the people forming it are doing their very best to learn from the mistakes of others. They are doing everything they can to make it a stable and lasting form of government. Why on Earth did they have to name one of the parts that make up this wonderful system Congress? Did they not realize that what they were actually calling it was bad movement or backwards movement?  Was the person who came up with this idea attempting to intentionally sabotage our system? Is it any wonder that it takes forever to get anything done? Why wasn't it called Progress? That's what we want out if it isn't it?

Names have power. They do limit to a certain degree what a person or thing can do or become. Perhaps we should change it. What do you think?

Do not take my word for it.

After over six months of sharing my life lessons with you, it occurs to me to mention something that should have been posted on day one or two. I urge you not to believe a single word that I say. Does that sound insane?  Perhaps some explanation is in order.

Most of the posts in this blog are an accumulation of literally thousands of hours of research and experimentation on how to live a happy life. It is the skills and ideas that have taken me from an angst ridden frustrated angry person to one who is happy, enjoys life overall and has a great sense of inner peace. I have looked at hundreds of problems from countless different angles and whittled down the massive numbers of potential solutions until I have found the one or ones that will work the best.

After seeing that my life works for me and that I am happy, many other people take what I say on faith, without testing it. This is foolish and to some degree saddens me. Still confused?

The way that I do the things that I do, work for me. There is no other person on earth that I can ever understand or know as well as I know myself. When I am attempting to solve a problem, generally, I am looking for solutions that work the best, for me. The only person who has all of my past life experiences is me. The only person with my specific mental condition is me. The only person with my memories, thoughts and emotions is me.

Changing a simple variable in an equation usually changes the outcome. Life, not being simple and black and white, throws curve balls into every situation. When it comes to solving real world problems often changing a single variable adds or removes other variables, making the equation an entirely different one, with different options and possibilities to consider.

Just because something is true for me, or works for me, or some other person that has decided to copy that aspect of my life, does not mean it will be true, or will work for you. When I say what I think is best, I am telling you what has worked for me and other people who have attempted it.

It is not in any way my intention to tell you that my solution will work for you. I am merely suggesting that you may want to look at an example that has proven effective in a similar situation. You may want to attempt to follow my way to the letter, or you may want to modify it to fit your specific circumstance.

But do not take what I say on faith. Do not just blindly accept it as true. Realize that it is my experience that causes me to say that one way is better than another. However, I am not perfect in any way. And I have not had every experience possible, not by a long shot. A different experience may show you a better way. Or my way may not fit your situation at all.

If there is an area where I am successful and you are not, there is probably something that I know about that particular thing that you do do not. Though, that does not necessarily mean that what I do in that area will work for you. Feel free to use my knowledge and experience to make finding your own solutions shorter and easier. But test what I say at every opportunity. Look for places where my way works and look for places where it does not.

Find out what works for you and what does not. Implement what does and discard what does not.

Should I start my own religion? pt1

We established sometime ago in a previous post that I am in fact insane.  If further proof of that concept bothers you, read no further.

All day everyday data is received into our brains and although we may have a hard time recalling things at certain times, none of it ever really leaves. It just sits around waiting to be useful.

Sometimes, over long periods of time, connections between seemingly unrelated pieces begin to form into an overall picture that you would never have ever thought of putting together.

Here are some of those things.

I believe, that in my infancy, I met the being that the Christians call God. I gave up a chance to remain where he was in order to be in service to and of use to people here on Earth, not slavishly but in a loving, giving and uplifting way. I believe that there are many many benevolent spiritual beings that are greater than man and that very few if any crave worship. Having met a god, I cannot truly be an atheist and agnostic while close does not perfectly describe me either. My personal preference has always been to say that I am not religious, though I am a deeply spiritual person. A great deal of my adult life has been spent in studying many different religions as well as a search for personal enlightenment, empowerment and overall enrichment of life for myself and others.

A lot of in internal work and forging has occurred to bring me to the point where I am today. And while the path never ends, I believe that I am a perfectly designed tool for improving the world and the lives of those who live upon it. Yes, I said it. I'm a tool. And I am proud of it. But where is the proper venue for this tool to be put to best use?

It would seem, at first, that the best way to change the world in a positive manner would be through politics since nearly all government seems corrupt in one way or another.  But there is so much red tape involved in getting into politics. A great deal of it comes down to a popularity contest one which often devolves into mud slinging. And even once you finally get your foot in the door, it seems that it is impossible to get anything done without shady back room dealings. That is not for me. Besides politics is more about making laws that govern life, not about living it in a positive way. I have tried to see myself as a politician and I just can not do it.

What about religion? It would seem to be a lot more my speed. Though most current organized religion is often more about guilt and manipulation than good living. So maybe I could start a new religion, one with a different overall framework. When I was younger, I was a Jehovah's Witness for several years, at a time when I had no friends. As a result, I would take my Bible to school and read it in my free time. Some of the kids used to make fun of me, calling me Reverend Jim. I laughed it off but never really thought about it at the time. And at some other point in my life there was jokingly a Church of Jim that included the philosophies of myself and another Jim with whom I was close friends. Now, though, I can very easily see myself as both priest and teacher of the good word. But what word would that be?

Commitment pt2

We say things like: my word is my bond or my word is my honor and without it I am nothing. While it is true that your word is an extreme source of power it is more accurate to say that the value others place on your word is what matters.

Does that not make sense to you? Well, think about it for a minute. Let's say you are an employer looking for someone who can speak English, French and Spanish and can fluently translate from one to the other for the purposes of writing up technical documents. When asked about my ability to do the job, I am free to say that my skin is made of tadpoles, I had four trillion chickens for breakfast, I am only one second old and I am fluent in three different languages. If I share all four of those different claims in the same sentence(especially in that order), you are not likely to believe any of them, even though at least one of them may be absolutely true. If it is important to me that you believe the things that I am saying, what I say needs to not stretch the bounds of credulity, unless I can back up my verbiage with proof.

In this example, you are not going to hire me because you place no value on my word and my word is all you have to rely on.  A person's word alone is often  what gets them in the door when starting a new relationship, be it business or personal. Let's back up and say that during the interview, I don't say a bunch of "crazy stuff" when asked about my qualifications. I let you know that I speak Spanish, English and French and enjoy translating from one to another on a somewhat regular basis just to keep in practice. You give me a short quiz which I of course totally ace and voila! I am hired.

As time goes on though you start to compare my words to my actions and you judge for yourself how good my word is, what it's value is and whether or not you can really trust me.  Many of these judgements are done solely on the basis of how I handle my commitments. You decide whether or not I want to keep my job based on how frequently I show up on time. You decide how dependable I am based on how often I call out "sick" . You decide how trustworthy I am based on how often I meet deadlines. My worth as a person and the value of my word, go up and down in your eyes based on these metrics. My word itself eventually has no meaning at all except for how it relates to my actions. If my actions and my words are in harmony my word is good. If they are not in harmony my word is useless.

Commitment really is the marriage of word and deed. It is you giving your word that an action will occur. You are declaring that a thing will be and that you will be making it so. A commitment really is a pretty bold statement and by its very nature invites others to judge you and your word. If you don't want to be judged, wouldn't it be easier to just not commit to anything? Not necessarily.

Tune in next time when we will talk about how commitments or the  lack of them is likely to affect you personally.