Sit Down Comedy … September 25th, 2020

Jonathots Daily Blog

(4535)

Finally, a crazy idea that has its day.

All my life, I wanted to tell Earth the truth. To a certain degree I have done so, but I have reserved this particular statement for the occasion of my demise,

I thoroughly enjoyed my stay on Planet Earth.

I cannot understand why so many people are so bitchy about it.

The climate is pretty good—and if it’s not to your liking you can move around until you find the sunrise and sunset of your preference. After all, there is snow if you want it, rain if you need it, mountains to climb and valleys to plant.

What in the hell more do we need?

Please understand one thing: It is not acceptable to sit on the mountain and scream at the valley.

You are also not allowed to think that nice people are sons of bitches and pigeons just because they choose to be kind.

It is time to be militaristic about LOVE. Love does not have an army, so to speak, but it does have ammunition. It ranges from tenderness to intelligence to intuitiveness.

Love can rock the goddamn world.

• The medical field does not work without it.
• The government is being debunked from ignoring it.
• The church is pious when separated from it.

Find good and you will find God.

It’s that extra little “o” that guarantees it.

Goodbye, human race.

I think you have a chance—if you insert love every time you want to do nothing.

Things I Learned from R. B. (June 21st, 2020)

Jonathots Daily Blog

(4433)

Episode 20

I don’t really enjoy playing chess.

I have an understanding of the game, minus passion.

There are those who are thrilled with the prospects of a match. They refer to it as “the pastime of the royals.”

I don’t quite understand how it gained such a following. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that early on, it was associated with intelligence.

Yes, when I first learned how to play, I was told that I “should be very good at the game” because I was smart.

Well, I don’t know about that, but if interest has any bearing, chess stupefied me. I rarely played it and when I did, I often regretted choosing to do so—because my opponent was often grumpy and unwilling to lose even one piece from the board.

When I discovered that R. B. was an ardent player, I avoided ever mentioning that I, too, knew how to move the pieces. He explained to me that I needed to participate because he believed I would be excellent at it, and then we could play together. For many years I was able to subdue his advances by pleading my “chess virginity.”

Then a young man moved into my household—actually, three young men. Their father was struggling with anger and was beginning to take it out on them, so I was afforded the opportunity to become their godfather and welcome them into a safer haven.

One of the boys was very good at chess.

To preserve his innocence, we shall refer to him as Justin.

Justin was precocious. You see, precocious means whatever any adult wants it to mean. That adult can use it to describe a child he or she either likes or believes to be headed for reform school.

Being precocious, Justin immediately struck up a conversation with R. B. about chess. R. B. felt he had arrived in some sort of circle of heaven—where he could be the teacher and finally have a budding student.

The only difficulty came when Justin beat R. B.

And not just once.

Regularly.

Even though R. B. had studied the board and had even mastered some moves of the champions, Justin always found a way to get through his defenses, steal his queen and leave his king flailing in some corner, surrounded by a bishop and a knight.

At first, R. B. attributed it to “beginner’s luck.” But after many visits and many matches, it became clear to everyone that Justin was a superior prodigy. Everyone, that is, but R. B.

One night, after having lost two games, R. B. was surrounded by Justin, who was prepared to pronounce the “checkmate,” when R. B. brought his fist down hard on the table, knocking over all the pieces, scaring young Justin all the way down to his X-men underwear.

You see, Justin was accustomed to hearing an angry voice. He was well acquainted with a man whose temper was out of control—and he knew it usually meant that he was going to be in trouble.

Sensing Justin’s fear, R. B. tried to turn it into a joke and give the young man a hug, but when Justin nervously pulled away, R. B. was even more angry. He yelled at him. Some curse words flew through the air and young Justin was trapped, with no place to go.

R. B. screamed at him, claiming that it was a draw and they would play again on another night—and then left.

I was not in the house at the time, but when I returned, I immediately noticed the red in the corners of Justin’s eyes. He was reluctant to talk to me. Already in his young life, he had learned it was better to shut up and not have to face painful consequences.

But you see, Justin was also a young man with a good heart that was growing blossoms. He didn’t lie. After about an hour, he told me the whole story. I was infuriated.

He asked me to promise that I wouldn’t say anything to R. B. Justin asked me if he should play chess again with the irate fellow. I told him yes, but to wait a few weeks until I had a chance to do some maneuvers.

Perplexed, he smiled, gave me a hug and went upstairs.

Word of R. B.’s losing streak to Justin spread quickly through our family. The jokes piled up and were nearly ready to break R. B.’s spirit and release his bad temper. I had one plan—what you might call an ace in the hole if we were talking about poker, but since it’s chess, we shall say that I pulled out an extra queen.

One night while he was being teased, I stepped in and said, “Maybe R. B. just had a bad night. We could find out. R. B., why don’t you play me?”

R. B. was nearly beside himself. I had refused so many times, and now here was his opportunity, in front of our family, to redeem himself.

He was so nervous that his hands were shaking as he took his white pieces and set them up on the board. He didn’t need to be nervous. I had decided to play him a good game—but lose.

I figured a victory over me would quell his spirit, and once he had come to his senses, he might apologize to Justin.

Everybody was shocked when R. B. won.

And right after the game, he turned to me and said, “Would it be alright if I talked to Justin?”

Now, I suppose the story needs to end with me telling you that R. B. apologized to the boy and they lived happily ever after. But that’s a Hollywood ending—we lived in Nashville.

R. B. continued to play Justin and Justin grew up and became more tolerant of R. B.’s idiosyncrasies. Yet R. B. never hit his fist on the table again—but did manage to color the air every once in a while with his language.

I suppose I should have stepped in and stopped the tournaments, but R. B. needed to learn how to be civil to young ones and the young one needed to learn how to survive an R. B.—even when you know you can checkmate him every time.

 

3 Things … June 13th, 2019

Jonathots Daily Blog

(4075)

That Line Up to Form a Well-Balanced Life

Before I share this triplet with you, let me tell you that the order is important. Although I do not want to come across as picky, and certainly never self-righteous, the priorities of our pursuits either feed off one another or starve us of the attention and peace of mind we desire.

The elements are humility, intelligence and passion.

These are the three things. But if they’re not pursued in a correct format, you will get erratic results.

For instance, if you begin with humility, moving to intelligence and ending in passion, you normally will be too timid to seek the intelligence and the passion to a full conclusion.

If you begin with passion and move to intelligence and end in humility, your eagerness may cause you to ignore some intelligence and leave you humiliated instead of in humility.

Yet to begin with intelligence and go to humility may cause a lack of passion to execute your desires.

The order is very pragmatic:

1. Intelligence

2. Passion

3. Humility

For if you don’t have the truth—which is intelligence—you will not have the energy to want to make something, which is passion, while still celebrating your weakness, which causes you to appear free of entanglements.

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation for this inspirational opportunity

 

1 Thing You Can Do This Week to Increase Your Power and Influence

 

Don’t Be the First to Speak

I am fully aware of the attitude of our times and the pressure placed upon each and every one of us to dominate and establish our individuality and value as quickly as we possibly can. To do this, we’ve created a generation of gabbers and grabbers, wanting to grab the attention of the world around them by gabbing their way into positions of authority.

We have begun to believe that the person who can chat with the most efficiency is going to be the best candidate for leadership. Yet I tell you:

There is something greater than domination

Because the weakness of domination is that it limits the success of any project to the scope and talent of the dominator.

May I suggest this? Instead of dominating, we should allow ourselves the true purity of participating. In order to participate:

You can not enter a room talking 

There are three reasons for this:

1. You do not know what’s going on in that room before you arrive.

2. The room may already have established a spirit which you might “unspirit.”

3. Guess what? This was your day to learn, and you talked right through it.

There is a spiritual intelligence to entering a room and remaining silent until you hear someone else speak.

It doesn’t make you a mouse, unprepared with anything to say. It makes you a saint—one who has arrived to contribute and assist instead of control.

Walk in a room, take a deep breath, listen to what’s being said, respond to questions that come your way, and then ease your way in with whatever gift you can offer to the mix.

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly donation for this inspirational opportunity

 

1 Thing You Can Do This Week To Be a Better Person

PROMISES ARE NOT PROMISING

Though for a brief moment, our pride swells, our hopefulness inflates and our prowess among our fellow-humans may appear to soar, promises leave us with a single difficulty:

WE MUST DELIVER OR WE WILL START LYING

Once we start lying we can’t be trusted. When we are not trusted, we are eventually relegated to a position where people are willing to dine with us but not work with us.

The difficulty with promises is that they become two desolate deserts if we fail to deliver the goods: arrogance and foolishness.

Arrogance because we said we would be able to accomplish something and not only shared our intent but sealed it with the covenant of a promise.

Foolish because everyone wonders why we didn’t account for the thing that brought our plans down.

Yet we continue to promise that we’re going to give the money, win the game, be there on time and even be faithful until death do us part.

There’s nothing that makes us look more ridiculous than an unfulfilled promise, but people continue to feel the need to look powerful while ending up with a powerless claim. Society promotes arrogance–but we are all drawn to humility.

We expect people to overlook our foolishness although wisdom is regarded as a higher virtue.

If you want to do better, stop saying “I promise.” Instead, reply, “I think I understand what needs to be done. Here’s where my ability lies, and it’s available if you’d like me to take a shot at it.”

Nobody ever won a game, won a love, won the lottery or won salvation by making a promise.

So if you want to gain strength or be perceived as intelligent, offer what you have with humility, and apply it with wisdom.

 

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly donation for this inspirational opportunity

---

Click the elephant to see what he’s reading!

 

1 Thing You Can Do This Week (To Be Smart)

1 Thing You Can Do This Week …

To Be Smart

The vocal chords and the tongue have very little to do with intelligence. Surprisingly, the brain is also often a deterrent to being aware of the truth.

The best way to be smart is to be honest.

And the preferred path to honesty is to get rid of the fear of being considered out of step or not in the know.

So this week, try one thing to open the door to becoming smarter: That which you’ve seen and that which you’ve heard is the only thing you will declare.

In other words, if you read it on the Internet or catch wind of a rumor, restrain yourself. If you haven’t seen it and you haven’t heard it, don’t confirm it.

The most powerful part of your life is your personal testimony and journal about your own discoveries.

When something comes up that you have not seen or heard, simply reply, “I’m sorry, I don’t have much personal experience in that matter.”

It does not make you look stupid. For after all, the only way to look ridiculous is to pass along ideas which end up being false. The better way to come across intelligent is to let people know that you will only offer insight if you have personally seen and heard.

Other than that, you simply listen and see if you can garner some data which might be tested and proven to be true.

A great man once said, “Be careful how you hear.”

He also said, “The light of the body is the eye.”

True.

So take this week, and instead of going to the trough of the Internet or the news services to discover erroneous stories which you pander off to your friends, speak only what you have seen and heard.

It is a powerful way to look smart.

 

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly donation for this inspirational opportunity

 

G-Poppers … August 24th, 2018

“People are stupid.”

This is a statement that seems to be flying through the air twenty-four hours a day, as our society becomes convinced that gaining supremacy over other people is best achieved by insulting them and striking out at their character and intelligence.

Unfortunately, there is way to stop this onslaught without getting ground up in the gears of the mechanism.

So today I offer my last G-Popper.

It has been a great run.

Sharing the wisdom of cordiality and gentleness through the eyes of a grandfather was something I felt, many months ago when I began this column, to be a kind way of expressing the change that needs to be set forth among us all.

But it is important for all organisms on Earth to evolve with the times.

So starting next week I will have a new column on Friday entitled “Sit Down Comedy.” It will be a combination of observations mingled with a humorous peek into how we turn our everyday journey into a sixteen-lane freeway instead of just honoring a path.

And of course, in the process we will determine the difference between a stupid idea and trying to tie that misstep with the people who often accidentally stumble into believing it.

We will use video. We will use audio. We may use music. And just a little bit of writing to express the ways to escape stupidity without declaring people stupid.

It will be simpler than G-Poppers but no less sincere.

So I look forward to seeing each and every one of you next week for “Sit Down Comedy,” when we can sit down and reason together… and use the comedy to ease some of the pain.

 

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this inspirational opportunity

******

Subscribe to Jonathan’s Weekly Podcast