SENSITIZE 46
Every morning, Mr. Cring takes a personal moment with his friends.
Today: Cring examines the power of BE and LEAVE. Who to be and what to leave behind.
Click the picture below to see the video
Salient…July 23rd, 2018
Jonathots Daily Blog
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There are matters that are too important to ignore or leave to chance. These are salient moments.
Make a statement. Avoid questioning.
And by questioning, I mean the assumptions that other human beings draw about you based on very little information.
For some reason, we, as people, feel no need to apply facts when it comes to deciding who somebody really is, since they haven’t clearly stated their position one way or another.
This quick-to-the-punch evaluation can be based on facial expression, body language, race, gender, sexual orientation or whim.
If you don’t make a statement about things in life, you leave it to others to come with the questions, or to question for themselves and then form conclusions–which more than likely will be far from true.
Yet, because we have become so politically correct, afraid to voice an opinion for fear of being offensive, answers like “I don’t know” or “that’s a tough one,” or one I personally disfavor, “I guess it depends on the circumstances,” are prevalent.
Make a statement. Avoid questioning.
Let me give you some examples:
- I do not believe in killing anything unless I plan on eating it.
- I also decided not to judge anyone at any time unless I’m wearing a long, black robe and have a gavel in my hand (so far no offers).
- Every week I evaluate my compassion, success and motivation on whether I end up giving more than taking.
- And I freely admit that I’m a bigot. I favor one race. The human race.
So there you go.
Because I make statements, you don’t have to exhaust yourself coming up with a list of inquiries or challenging me in your private thoughts, developing your own profile about me.
So here is your salient moment:
If you’re not afraid to make a statement about what you believe, then you won’t have to field so many questions about what truly and honestly is in your heart.
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3 Things… June 7th, 2018
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Former President Bill Clinton Might Consider to Share With Monica Lewinsky to Affirm His Stance on Gender Equality
1. “I took advantage of you. You were a star-struck young girl and I knew better.”
2. “I blamed you and sent the brunt of back-lash in your direction.”
3. “I failed to represent my core beliefs and values in dealing with you directly as a human being.”
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Ask Jonathots … November 24th, 2016
Jonathots Daily Blog
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How do you keep politics and religion from ruining a family gathering?
Life is truly about giving–but not merely in the sense of being generous. Rather, it’s about learning early and permanently when to give effort and when to give up.
Giving up can actually be one of the more noble steps of submission to overwhelming evidence. And giving effort is essential to achieve progress.
I bring this up in relationship to your question, because in order to have a good family gathering, you must know when to give effort and when to give up.
First of all, give up on changing people. You can’t, you won’t and you shouldn’t.
If Uncle Fred is a Republican, he will probably leave Thanksgiving evening equally as convinced. If Aunt Margaret is a Democrat, she will likewise ride her donkey out the door. And if any of your relatives claim to be atheists or insist that “all baptism must be by immersion or you’re not saved,” it is always a Godless pursuit to change those who are “all wet.”
So what can you do during a family gathering to be productive, but faithful to your own ideals? There is one simple, easy step:
Never speak in the abstract.
- Don’t talk about doctrine.
- Don’t talk about beliefs.
- Don’t talk about Vladimir Putin.
Talk about your own life–your own goals, your own anecdotes–and in so doing, you gently confirm your beliefs.
In other words, if someone says “the homeless are a blight on the conscience of America,” wait until the conversation changes, and then double back and say, “I was waiting at a light at Wal-Mart, and a fellow was there with a sign, looking for money, so I rolled down my window with two dollars and I gave it to him, and he was so appreciative that it nearly made me cry.”
Then leave it alone.
When it comes to religion, humor is always your best vehicle:
“Well, I was driving down the road and I was nearly out of gas in a country setting and I wasn’t sure I would find a station. So I kept my eyes open, checked my GPS, but also–call me crazy–I said a little prayer. I’m not sure which one worked, or whether they worked together, but three minutes later I was at a gas station getting fueled up.”
Since you can’t change people, give up on that and instead, give effort into what you can change: your attitude toward people.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this inspirational opportunity
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Jesonian: Reasonable (Part 1) … December 6th, 2015
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Reasonable: being able to reason.
It seems like a noble idea until you realize it requires you to sift through your beliefs and discard the unreasonable portions.
The process of becoming a good Earth-citizen is acknowledging that there are billions of others, and the goal is to find a way to peacefully co-exist with your brothers and sisters without compromising the power of truth.
So what is the first step to being reasonable?
Free will.
We are not on Earth by God’s plan, by luck or to be guided by superstition. There is a way things work and a way they don’t, and the first step in understanding that process is comprehending that every human being has free will.
1. God died for free will.
Using the flesh-and-blood passport of Jesus of Nazareth, God came to Earth and submitted to the decisions of arrogant religionists, who gave a verdict of death because he preached love.
God did nothing to stop the process. But after it was completed, He used the bravery of Jesus as evidence of salvation.
2. You have free will.
Don’t ask God to live your life. He won’t.
You may convince yourself that certain events link together to form a plan, but actually, they happened because of your action or inaction.
Jesus characterized God as Father, and no good parent would ever try to control the life of His child.
3. Human beings have free will.
Therefore you can’t force your beliefs on others.
We have to learn the power of influence. And how do we influence people? By making them jealous of our success–so jealous that they imitate our actions in their own way, without ever giving us credit.
4. Because free will is immutable, if we’re going to impact others, we need to make sure that we’re constantly making our choices simpler and easier.
I can always tell when I’m in the presence of someone who is a novice to the human experience.
They talk about complexity.
Becoming mature is resisting difficulty.
We make progress by using our free will to find paths to greater ease and simplicity.
You will never be reasonable until you understand that human beings have been granted free will, and therefore will quite often choose ignorance over wisdom.
Selecting to blame God for this malady is not only a waste of time, but also puts you in a world of superstition … where you nervously await the next disaster.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity
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The Night Visitor… October 2, 2013
Jonathots Daily Blog
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He comes very late at night, although I think he would insist it is actually early in the morning.
You see, that’s the problem. He not only has his own opinions, but definitions for terms that are separate from mine.
The creepy part is that he insists he IS me–and in my weakened state of sleepiness, I find it difficult to resist his will.
- He has the same memories I do.
- He has many similar beliefs.
- He has encountered the emotional conflicts and victories which are part of my history.
But physically, he is smaller. Yes, he takes up less room. And he lets me know it.
He shares ideas with me which certainly make sense in the dim light of the evening, which don’t come to mind when I’m in the shining light of the day. He has four repetitive, nagging subjects:
- Why didn’t you act kinder?
- Do you really think you’re achieving your goal?
- Why do you think you can continue to be so fat and survive?
- Wouldn’t it be easy to change these things?
You see what I mean?
It’s an annoying mixture of reality, self-righteousness, valid points and impossibilities.
But when I’m lying there on my bed, it does make sense. I do feel the inadequacy and the conviction to improve my situation. But somehow or another, this vigorous being who visits by night is completely vanished by the morning light, leaving me with the emotions of upheaval without the step-by-step solutions to victory.
Yes, I am abandoned.
It doesn’t make me angry. It doesn’t make me sad. It just baffles me enough that I want to eat something. It triggers the worst part of my appetites, which are devouring my future birthdays.
I want to figure out how to turn the conversations with my night visitor into a true motivation, to trim up the areas of my life that have caused me to become lumbering and clumsy.
But how can I retain the impact of the midnight confession into breakfast time and the construction of a realistic “things to do today” list?
The truthful answer is I don’t know.
I’m not sure if my visitor is an incriminator to demean me or an angelic presence trying to spur me on to more noble causes. I’m not positive that the encounters I have with him are beneficial or just aggravating enough to cause me to slip a little further down the rock-slide of bad habits.
But I guess it’s just like everything else–if we view it as good, we can somehow carve it into a position to strengthen us. If we view it as bad, it can be used to discourage us and leave us wanting.
There are parts of the philosophy of my night visitor that I desire to possess. Honestly, I can’t be as hard on myself at ten o’clock in the morning as he is at two o’clock in the morning.
But if I can take bits and pieces, maybe I can launch a great idea which could eventually cause the man that I am during the day to make peace with the visitor who comes by night.
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We ARE in Kansas (anymore) … June 5, 2012
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Terrain changes, but people don’t.
We are frighteningly alike–alike in the sense that our basic attitudes and needs are really quite run-of-the-mill–not nearly as individualized as we might portray. What am I looking in the state of Kansas? I am looking the same the same thing that I looked for in the states of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California and the many other states I have traveled through just this year. I am searching for a people–a people who will be willing to ask themselves four questions:
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Am I ready to feel?
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Do I follow what I personally believe?
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Can I increase my thinking?
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Will I do something new if it’s an improvement?
Kansas doesn’t have to look any further to understand the application of these four things than the spirit of their own favorite daughter–Dorothy, from the Wizard of Oz. Although just a little girl on a farm, when she was whisked away by the wind into a magnificent, hallucinatory dream, she arrived with a heart was ready to feel. She had empathy for those around her; she was concerned. Although overwhelmed by the new world of Oz, she didn’t stand at a distance and call it odd. She jumped in to experience it.
But even though she was a “stranger in a strange land,” she continued to follow what she believed. She preached her prairie pride to the scarecrow, the lion and the tin man, trying to instill new promise for their lives. (Often the problem is not that people are following what they believe, but rather, that people do not adhere to their own beliefs, having become cynical. Yet they still promote them because they are trapped.)
Even though Dorothy had her own beliefs, when she was challenged by those around her and given new information by the wizard, she listened. She considered. Doggone it, she even mulled over it. There was no gate with a lock on the door to her brain blocking the entrance of fresh ideas. Because of that, she was able to navigate her way through this new world and return home, safe and sound.
And then, upon arriving back from her dream state, she’s a new girl. She has greater appreciation for the people around her. Her little revelation caused her to incorporate something new, because she perceived it was better.
There are really only two attributes in human beings that render us unattractive and sexless: nastiness and stubbornness. As you can see, they feed off of each other. Often people are nasty because they are stubborn, and continuing to be stubborn makes them defensive and nasty. Now, I’m not quite sure what to do when I get in front of a group of people who have decided to be nasty and stubborn. I see that they are bleeding out emotionally–and often all I can do is hand them a couple of aspirin and a cup of water.
But if they are ready to feel, follow what they believe, will consider increasing their thinking and will actually do something new–if it is improved–they are the salt of the earth.
That’s interesting. “Salt.” For I am in Salina, Kansas, and the word “salina” comes from the Latin word for “salt.” So what do I hope? I hope these fine folks will be the salt of the earth–filled with taste and flavor.
It’s all about being like Dorothy. When you find yourself in Oz, sit down for a spell … and hear what the wizard has to offer.
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