The saying, “May you live in interesting times,” has often been attributed to Robert Kennedy, who referred to it as an “ancient Chinese curse.” The saying has an extensive history. (See “Quote Investigator” for details.) Regardless of the saying’s history, war, rumors of war, and civil unrest are more “interesting” than times of peace and prosperity. At present (April 2019), we have a lot of civil unrest, not only in the States, but also in many places around the world. We also have wars (and rumors of wars) in many parts of the world. In fact, we have pretty much . . . → Read More: Living in Interesting Times
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 Comments are closed  Blog  1984, Abel, ancient Chinese, Bible, Brave New World, Cain, China, Christian, Chrystal Blue Persuasion, civil unrest, conflict, crystal blue persuasion, curse, Eden, end-of-times, English, genetic manipulation, Great Wall of China, human aggression, Interesting Times, Irish, Korea, political factions, population growth, Robert Kennedy, rumors of war, Scotts, Shondells, Steven Pinker, Tommy James, Vietnam, Vietnam War, wars, WWII In one way or another, everyone thinks, “God’s on our side.” This has always been the case. In the religious wars between Protestants and Catholics in the Middle Ages, both sides thought that God was on their side. In the U.S. Civil War, both Tap water catches fire and earthquakes multiply. As a rule, those who own and run oil and gas companies do not explore for fossil fuels in their own backyards. Is it worth ruining our environment to exploit fossil fuels when we are currently able to get the power we need from wind and solar energy? . . . → Read More: God’s On Our Side Comments are closed Blog backyards, Bears Ears, Bible, Bob Dylan, Catholics, Civil War, clean energy, commies, culture, despoil the land, earthquakes, ecology, England, environment, exploitation, fossil fuels, fracking, gender, God, Grand Staircase, greed, head of state, hydroelectric power, love of money, Masters of War, matriarchy, Middle Ages, modern world, National Monuments, North, oil and gas, political interests, political strife, politics, Protestants, queens, reality, religion, religious, religious wars, South, Southeast Asia, tap water, tax laws, U.S. Civil War, vested interests, Vietnam, vote, water, water catches fire, wealth, white men On a cold and frosty late-December morning, when I lived in a previous neighborhood, I was out walking my dog. It was so long ago that in the years between then and now, not only has that dog died of old age, but my next two dogs have also died of old age. Even so, on that late-December morning I said something that still haunts me. A boy who lived in a nearby house, ran up to me holding up a new pair of gloves, saying excitedly, “See what I got! New gloves!” My reply: “They are really neat. Did . . . → Read More: What Did You Get for Christmas? Comments are closed Blog agnostic, ancestors, athiest, begats, Bible, Bible as metaphor, Big Enders, Buddhism, business communication, Cherokee, Christmas, Civil Rights, culture, English, ethnocentric, ethnocentrism, European invaders, fundamentalist, G.I. Bill, Georgia, go and sin no more, Hanukkah, heaven, Imagine, India, John Lennon, Jonathan Swift, King James, Little Enders, Midwest, Mother Theresa, National Day of Mourning, Native American, Norwegian, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, parents, Quaker, spiritual force, spirituality, the holidays, Trail of Tears, U.S. Army, Vietnam War, Western Michigan University, Western Tribes, WWII In NLP, one of the central Metamodel questions is, “How do you know?” An honest answer to the question provides information about a person’s “model of the world,” which is essentially a “reality strategy”—the way people decide what’s real. In most cases, what we think of as “real” is more accurately a “belief,” in some cases with very little in the way of supporting evidence. Most beliefs begin, of course, with some evidence in the external environment. Through the natural processes of deletion, distortion, and generalization, beliefs that have a logical beginning can become increasingly distorted over time. One of . . . → Read More: Evidence Procedures Comments are closed Blog Africa, Amish, behavior, belief, belief systems, beliefs, Bible, breasts, cancer, cancerous, change, Christian, climate change, Copernicus, disasters, drought, economic policy, economics, Europe, evidence, evidence procedure, evolution, false positives, flood, floods, follow the money, food, fossil fuels, fuel, Galileo, geophysical, global warming, government, Greece, health care, history, hockey stick, human activity, human influence, interconnection, long-term, mammography, metamodel, Mideast, perspective, prosperity, PSA, PSA test, public education, public schools, real, reality, regulation, relief, Richard Bandler, risk, scarcity, science, scientists, short-term, Spain, strategy, survival, tax policy, technology, the world, thermography, time, U.S., X-ray Perception is a strange thing. We can’t always see what is “right before our eyes,” and because perception is fraught with deletion, distortion, and unwarranted generalization, what we “see” may not be what is actually “there.” Self-perception may be among the most distorted of our perceptions. The classic question, “Does this dress make me look fat,” is a variation of the question asked by the Queen in Snow White: “Mirror, mirror on the wall / Who in the land is fairest of all?” The Queen doesn’t like it when the mirror proclaims Snow White the fairest in the land. The . . . → Read More: Does This Mirror Make Me Look Fat? Comments are closed Blog Bible, Christianity, church, cognitive dissonance, deletion, distortion, Egypt, Evangelical, generalization, guns, John Stuart Mill, Leon Festinger, map, map and territory, mirror, On Liberty, perception, perspective, prosperity, prosperity church, public policy, Richard Bandler, Snow White, territory, Tunisia, view point |
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