The Things I Live By

The Things I Live By

   Before I go into my next set of blogs, I want to take the time to let my readers know what my personal "philosophies" are.

1.  I am a follower of the Scrooge McDuck rule for life.  He always said, "Work smarter, not harder." (Imagine that in a Scottish accent.)  I believe in that as well.  Along with that is the concept of not wanting to re-invent the wheel.  For those not versed in older slang, that means that if someone (myself included) has already figured out how to do something, I don't want to waste time, energy, and sometimes money in re-figuring out how to do it.  Now I might take time to figure out how to do it better (see Scrooge's rule), but I'll start with someone else's groundwork.

2.  When I was a kid my father taught me a valuable lesson about money and friendship.  He told me that friends would ask to borrow money.  He had rules for that.  He would never loan more than he could afford to loose.  He had to be willing to never see the money again.  If the friend repaid the loan, then he would be willing to loan money to that individual again at some point.  If the money was not repaid, there would never be another loan to that individual.  The old saying goes, "Don't throw good money after bad."  The status of the friendship would be in question as well.

   This money policy, for me, carries over into friendships.  If someone I consider a friend causes me pain, or in some way treats me like crap, that person has lost my trust and is no longer someone I consider a friend.  I don't cause them problems publicly, but I also no longer have anything to do with them.  Protects me.  I've had situations where the offender much later wants to be friends again.  Not my first choice.  In one case I almost had an apology.  I agreed to a limited relationship.  I no longer avoid that person, but I won't trust him again.  His basic personality is unchanged.  Given a percieved need, he would harm me again.  So yeah, cause me pain and you will no longer be on my friends list.

3.  My spiritual beliefs.

   The short version is that I am a born again, spirit filled Christian.  Anyone who makes any assumptions about me based on that will be surprised.  This is not a religion for me, this is a spiritual lifestyle.  I try to keep my life well rounded with many of the spiritual elements.  I believe in prayer, fasting, spiritual gifts, works of charity, and love.  

4.  My political beliefs.

   Because I grew up during the Vietnam War I am aware that my country's government has no problem lying to me.

   Because I remember President Nixon, I understant that those in power will do whatever they think is necessary to keep that power.

   I have watched even honest men be corrupted by political power.

I believe that if our government is unwilling to take care of the poor and needy, it should not keep other organizations (like churches) from stepping in to fill the gap.

   In the American system I would be considered a moderate democrat.  Call me a practical democrat.

Confused yet?