Want and need may seem the same at 1st glance -but I doubt it. Probably somewhere in Taos’ “Art of War” it mentions something about wanting/needing from others -and placing yourself at a disadvantage.

Many people do not know if they want something, need something, or desire something. They are often unable to distinguish between a want a need and a desire on their part -because they know not themselves.*

Anytime we want or need or think we want or need something from someone we place ourselves either at a disadvantage or in a position to be hurt (dissapointed). And yes come a people can actually instill in us a sense of want or need that places the individual at a disadvantage or a position to be hurt… or put another way 🤔, places the other individual at an advantage. Operating from a base-level, advantage is always a factor man seeks out!

Jesus had only 1 or 2 wants or needs (desires -not likely):

•To do His Heavenly Father’s work

•To be loved by us

While I don’t believe Jesus was ever placed at a disadvantage** (if there was any disadvantage “per se” -it was “Part of the Plan”)*** he was certainly in a position to be hurt -and He was!

*And this is all the ambiguity satan, or man needs to exploit….

**Lettuce talk for a moment about Jesus… What did Pontius Pilot say? “I don’t like him, He refuses to behave like the others”. Exactly! Jesus didn’t buy into any of the things that placed us at a disadvantage to satan or to our fellow man! To moths, thieves, father-time… 🤷‍♂️

***”Part Of The Plan” is a song from Souvenirs, the second studio solo album by the American rock singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg. The album was released in late 1974, on the label Epic Records. The album reached No. 17 on the Billboard 200 in March 1975 and was certified double platinum by the RIAA. Joe Walsh produced the album and played on ten of the eleven tracks. [Source:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souvenirs_(Dan_Fogelberg_album)].

After working in the garden* outside our little apartment in Van Nuys, my grandmother would come inside and get a tall glass of cool water from the tap and say “Water is the best thing God ever gave us”. She also recommended that I drink 8 glasses A-day. Did I ever tell you that Grangma-Silva and Grandma and Grandpa Hurd were the best people I ever knew!*

*If you can’t rely on your parents -who in the world can you rely on in this 🌍? It’s very true -few, if anyone will ever love us like our parents! If we’re fortunate enough to:

•Have both

•Have good ones

•Have them at’all*

I grew up in a time where I could not relate to the other kids in school who had both parents in most cases. But with my years of age and some wisdom, I can relate to just about every kid in modern-day-America today!

What was a disadvantage when I was out drinking and drugging turned out to be an advantage in recovery… What was an advantage when I was out drinking and drugging turned out to be a disadvantage in recovery 🤷‍♂️

*She grew the usual: 🌽, 🍆, 🥒,🌶,🍅 (I was always afraid of those green worms with the horn on the back -ewwww…). She also grew 💐 but I can’t at the moment seem to remember what kind 🤔

When you become weak you always open yourself up to injuries that ordinarily would not occur had you remained strong.

It’s easy to injure ones’ self when one is unfit, or unprepared.

Trouble usually isn’t trouble at all when one is prepared for it. STAY STRONG -AND PREPARED. Expect the best -prepare for the worst! I think Patrick Swayze said something to that effect in the movie “Roadhouse” (1987).

Problem seldom arise when we most expect them!

Good things rarely come out of poor decision making!

NOW ABOUT AMERICA

A strong government and a weak America is no good!

A strong America and a weak government is no good!

A week government and a weak America!

A strong government and a strong America!*

*This is what we want to aim for. We get people in government from the pool of humanity don’t we? So if our pool of humanity is mixed or tainted….. Then what we’ll end up with representing in government will be mixed or tainted. 🤷‍♂️

Each scenario however presents its own unique advantages**(I mean to individuals who would exploit weakness) and disadvantages.

**You can also argue that as an advantage where we are weak God is strong! Life is a funny thing like that -where we are weak men can exploit us; where we are weak God can do His best work.

A relationship is only as strong as its weakest link. It’s weakest individual, or group! The fact of the matter is that not only are many Americans out of shape physically -but they’re out of touch. Try to imagine people in government or people in for people in corporate America and they’re and their attitude towards being subordinate to the American public! Many of these people have a strong drive or affinity towards power. Many of these people are actually quite weak, and frail, and this is the springboard from which they seek to “Lord over others”. So is it any surprise that we see changes taking place in our society where people in these positions have flipped the tables on the American public? If you choose to be weak something or someone will come along and overtake you. If you choose to be weak something or someone will come along and overtake you. It seems to be the natural law of the universe as well as the natural law of man when operating from his base-level. When operating from his optimal-levels, man is prone to help, and protect the weak -not exploit them. Enough said? 🤷‍♂️

“The more absent an owner is from their store (America’s a very big store), the more that store will begin to resemble those who are present -and unless it will resemble those who are absent”!***

***People have this incredible need to “”DO” things” while down here on planet Earth (even before they start to figure out… begin to form an agenda!!!)

I’ve been alone the past 4 1/2+ years -what with Lenelle passing away and gittin’ sick from her diabetes and seeking financial-refuge with her “x”. That’s alot of time to ponder 🤔. These past few days days Daisy (our Chihuahua) and I have gotten a chance to get reacquainted with one another. Interestingly, I’ve come to see her as my family – “😄” how when you’re at a point in your life where you feel you have no one… something, or someone, comes along and changes all that! 🤷‍♂️ I don’t know, I guess in my immaturity, and amprehension about life and people in general, something that’s been missing all of my life is suddenly present. It’s probably not by mistake that at this point in time in my life this beautiful little creature has been brought into it -to spend a week with me. Instead of seeing her as a burden, or an inconvenience, even a threat (as it is only for a weak -detachment anxiety), I have been able to care for, and even embrace her. I’ve suspected most of my life that in order to get past some of these anxieties, some of these disorders from my rather traumatic past -that doing so with the same type of people (humanity in general) who have their own ideations, their own moods, their own fears, demons, flaws… that getting past my old wounds would be nearly impossible. But this little creature appears to have none of that!

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS TRIGGERED BY THE ABOVE?

Make the future (you desire) become your now! And your now the kind of past you can joyfully reflect upon -the key to your past, and your future revolve around your (very own here-and-) now!*

Make the future you desire -become your now! Make the past (you don’t desire) become your now! The key to your past, and your future starts now! If you have a tainted past -start by creating an entirely new and better one 🤷‍♂️

Use your dreams of the future to create a better now. Create a better now in order to dispel old regrets of the past.

I would tell people at the recovery unit, and occasionally in AA meetings “What you do NOW is worth more than everything you’ve done the past 5, even 10 years!

When you go your whole life screwing up -a bad move isn’t all that significant. Once you start building a life however…. It can take all of one bad decision to bring it all crashing down.

It’s better to screw up when you’re young and have little to lose -than to screw up when you’re old and have a lot to lose.

Some people grow from the inside out -others from the outside in.

I bet you can think of a lot more ideas to become famous in a negative way than in a positive way. Why is that. Why is it that people can become an instant celebrity by doing something very wrong -but not by doing something very right? Maybe we should do something about that!

*I’ve made several attempts and can’t quite get it to come out the way I want to -Some other time maybe. All I know is don’t wake up 5 years from now thinking you could have accomplished…. but because you never did anything…

You hear in AA meetings quite often, 🤔 that after missing a few meetings a person can “often” become quite 🦇ty. I’ve noticed, in recent years, this for me is not-so-much the case anymore.*

*What does this mean “anymore…” “…anymore”? I noticed people using this in a sentence in a strange way foreign to me 15 or 20 years ago.

Things that some people in Alcoholics Anonymous find complicated, I find very simplistic. “One man’s complication is another man’s simplicity?” 🤷‍♂️

If a simplistic piece of plastic with a few wires and diodes, made specifically 4 or matched 2…. can remotely control…. Then what can the human brain, the most complex thing in the universe, also made… for anything and everything in the known universe 🤔 mind you – what can it control -and remotely?

To me, stuff is everywhere -just floating n g above! Just their to be snatched out of… “thin-air”?* 🤷‍♂️

*While at 1st glance, the title of this post may seem a bit odd -I can say with absolute certainty that this website would not be possible were it not an absolute “Labor-of-Love”!

•Title taken from/and credited to: “Making Love Out of Nothing at All“, a power ballad written and composed by Jim Steinman and first released by Australian soft rock band Air Supply for their 1983 compilation album Greatest Hits. It reached number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks (behind “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler, giving Steinman a consecutive peak of two songs). The song has been covered by other artists. [Source:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Love_Out_of_Nothing_at_All].

Do you know what the differences between a good person and a nice person? A nice person is nice to you as long as you’re nice to them. A good person will more than likely be good to you even if you’re not.

You know there’s really good people out there in the world! The kind of people that just make you glad to be a part of this world. They can even make your heart melt!

I see the Deputy from the movie “Walking Tall ll”, Obra, riding in Bufords rigged car -the innocents in his face as he’s doing Buford the favor of taking his car back to the lot just before going off the rode and dying! The man had such purity-of-heart! Breaks mine! 😔

The same people I ran into trouble with as a child are the same people walking around in the world today.

They told me that once I became an adult I would not have to yield any longer as I did as a child! As long as people have power over you come as long as you think people have power over you.. you’re basically in the same boat as an adult as you were as a child. 🤷‍♂️ Some people manage to grow up and break free from that feeling real or imagined you’re imagined of being powerless.*

*You can condition an elephant to think it’s a mouse