Learning from the past….and from the present

silenced

Four years can make a big difference. In a mere four years much can change in one’s perspective and approach, provided one has gained some insight and/or knowledge. Change will only come, though, providing that one finds proper motivation.

The transformational advantage

In my very as of yet incomplete communication and conflict resolution guide I include a mantra I have tried to pound into my subconscious when I find myself paralyzed by self-doubt, regrets or shame about my past and my life circumstances:

“circumstances describe, they do not define”

I find this basic insight about identity and self, to use what has become a trite expression, ‘transformational’.

Heroes and friends

John F. Nash Jr. at his graduation from Princeton in 1950.
Credit Courtesy of Martha Nash Legg & The New York Times

Today was to be an ordinary day. I wrote. I ate. I smoked, I chatted on Facebook, I checked the news and I hoped for better days and was grateful for days that are.

Today was to be an ordinary day, until the news came across my feed.

Let slip the dogs of war – A Memorial Day Post

Douglas MacArthur – image courtesy of google images

To honor the fallen soldier on Memorial Day I usually write something about what the day means to me. I talk about why we should honor folks who serve and give their lives.  Today, thanks to a brief Facebook back and forth, I’d like to do something slightly different. Rather than discuss the day or talk about the reasons it is so important to honor our fallen soldiers, I’d like to show why we honor them, by way of comparison.

“home schooled by a dog”: what I learned from the Maestro

This is the first of what I hope will be many posts for a re-imagined, re-focused Sniperhunter2012. As this post deals with the Internet as a tool for communicating ideas, and for practical interactions with others, the timing seems like (excuse the fuzzy term) kismet. Following up on comments left in response to a Facebook Group post I made, and due to conversations I had with other folks later, I’ve learned – or rather, re-learned a basic lesson. The Internet is simultaneously the best and the worst forum for discussing ideas.

I made my acquaintance this past week with a gentleman who calls himself Maestro Maahanmuuttaja. Identifying himself as a student of psychology, Maestro is a member of a political discussion group I belonged to {ed note: I no longer belong to the group}. Maestro had responded to a meme I had posted (the details of which are irrelevant to this discussion) which  included a quote from a philosopher, lecturer and author. Maestro’s initial comment? That the meme author/individual quoted was “clearly…a person that was home schooled by a dog”.