Happiness

It’s up to us whether we will be happy or not. Our surroundings, our environment, our circumstances…they are all secondary to what we feel inside.

We can choose to be happy with what we have, or not. If we don’t like what we have then we are faced with a choice. The choice is to change those things or remain with them. If we remain with them and we are unhappy then we have chosen to be unhappy.

I choose to move forward and pave my own way. I choose to set my mind on the light ahead rather than the darkness behind me. Life is a journey and should be experienced with enthusiasm and anticipation for what’s coming around the next corner. The unknown is as scary as it is envigorating so I’m going to jump in with both feet and make my mark on this world and my fingerprint is uniquely mine.

Future generations will determine what my residue has created and I anticipate the day I can look back from wherever I am and see the groove I’ve carved and the wave I’ve made and how powerful my life has been as it has intertwined with the lives of everyone else on this big blue marble.

Hillary is building the big American teet

Hillary Clinton is off her damn rocker. Anyone who believes she is what America needs is also off their own damn rocker. We all went through the original Hillary-care proposals during the Clinton administration of the 90s and had to put up with her abrasive droning on and on about how it takes a village and how she will help the government coddle us from cradle to grave. I wanted to poke her eyes out with that proverbial ten foot pole every time I saw her on TV over stepping her role as first lady and trying to power her way into the administration. Who the f*** voted for her? Not me, not my neighbor, not you. But we still had to listen to her propose salvation.

Now, here we are in 2007 having to hear it all again, but it’s even worse than before. Not only is she proposing Hillary-care, albeit sugar coated this time so she doesn’t appear quite so leftist, but she has offered $5000 to every new born (she floated it that one to the Congressional Black Caucus as ‘an idea’) and a government sponsored 401K plan.

Her 401K plan is a real doozy. It’s another Robin Hood plan to tax those who own estates worth more than $7 million and match investments of up to $1000 yearly for those who earn under $100,000. She proposes encouraging employers to enforce direct deposit on the employees who would be participating in the plan.

I’m no historian and I’m no scholar but this, to me looks a hell of a lot like communism and Hillary is clearly working to rub out the class differences — see Stalinist. If she is allowed to get into office and push forward with these big government baby stitting plans then the good old USA is on a slippery slope to the gray days of the hammer and sickle.

I can’t believe people actually call themselves Americans and, at the same time agree with her ideas. Americans do not need the government to manage their lives. We need the government to protect our borders and security so we can live free and prosper according to our own free wills.

Hillary is an evil woman drunk with power.

Here’s the story, of a lovely lady…

I received news yesterday that my ex wife is getting married. This is not news per se, as I have known about her engagement for quite some time. She has been waffling back and forth on a date. First it was in December, then it was to wait until next spring, then it was as soon as they get a house together, then yesterday I received word that they are hitching it up next Wednesday (I’m sure the pressure she felt from my petition to modify the divorce decree had absolutely nothing to do with it…). There’s nothing like a good sandy foundation upon which to build a third marriage.

You’d think people could learn from their experiences and observations through life and play things more cautiously than before. Evidently some can not.

When we got married she was taking her shot at a second marriage — it was my first. I was blind and idealistic…and naive. I quickly adopted her two daughters (and she quickly rejected her ex husband and every member of his family and kept them completely out of the children’s lives) and less than a year later we had our third daughter together. I was in way over my head and there was tension and stress from every direction weighing me down and I had no escape. I was overwhelmed and alone in this family of 4…and it grew to a family of 7 before the last chapter of this tragedy was written.

Suffice it to say we did not do well and I had a hard time adjusting to being a father/step-father and taking on the responsibility of providing for a family with a stay-at-home mom after living my life as a single man for 30 years. I had adjustment troubles with my adopted daughters, even though I love them dearly, and the wife, consciously or not, drove a wedge between us at every turn by taking sides in our struggles. I’m sure that is common in these hybrid type families.

We have been divorced officially for 15 months and she is getting married for the third time, joining our 5 kids and his 3 kids together into a Brady Bunch style family of maniacal proportions. Incidentally he is the same age I was when we first got married…which makes him 14 years her junior.

I wonder what she believes she is getting into. I feel sorry that she hasn’t learned much through her tragic life other than to run from problems by heaping new ones upon her shoulders. She has been through 2 miserable marriages and divorces already (not to mention the childhood she endured) and is quick to jump into yet another, more stressful dynamic with open arms and fanciful expectations. I have my opinions, which I shall reserve.

I hope for the best as this family construct is going to mold my children in their formative years. I saw the effects of marital stress and the results on my older daughters as we jumped unprepared into our holy union. I was beyond unprepared and I will say that her new chump, I mean husband at least has a solid career and some parenting years under his belt.

There is a silver lining in all of this, other than me being completely rid of that Jezebel. Alimony is a thing of the past.

Who are you feeding?

This story is as old as time and has been told in many different ways. People like the wisdom of old Indian chiefs and for some reason Cherokee seems to be the preferred tribe when telling tales of wisdom.

And as a side note, word has it that I come from a Cherokee blood line, although my family never kept and genealogical records so I have no idea how much injun I have in me. Evidently I have enough to keep my hairline securely fastened to my forehead…I can only hope I have some of that old Cherokee wisdom in my genes — stereotypes…sheesh.

An old Cherokee was teaching his young grandson about choice. He said to him, “A battle is raging inside me … it is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The old man gave his young grandson a firm stare and said, “This same fight is going on inside of you.”

The child thought for a moment and asked, “Which wolf will win, grandfather?”

The wise old Cherokee replied, “The one you feed.”