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From the mind of critic: “If we go through drivers ed, a DMV written test, a DMV drive test, and pass them all while driving with a restricted license or the first year, does it guarantee we’ll be a good driver? Does the extensive study of rules and regulations of the road, and the passing of tests on those regulations guarantee we’ll never get a ticket, never get in an accident, and always drive safe, sane and sober with all the other crazies on the road? Or does extensive study that produces satisfactory grades give us a false sense of security, because although we’ve read and seen what it means to be a good driver, we haven’t experienced it’s real life applications, so we take undue risks when otherwise we might not? Just because we’ve read, studied and tested extensively, doesn’t mean real life will turn out roses. At the same time, just because we’ve had many real life experiences, doesn’t mean testing and schooling will come easy either. Balancing school smarts and street smarts, is one of the aspects of being a complete human being. We can’t fully experience and know something until we think and live. When we remove life experience we aren’t living, when we remove book learning, we aren’t thinking. Once we realize that schooling alone does not an expert make, we’ll see that unless we critically think about our past, present and future and how they all fit together, we’ll never be the experts we claim to be. To ensure our 2×4 moment is a love tap and not a WWF piledriver, we must admit we don’t know everything, but are open to learning as much as we can. Driver training is a good thing, but is only effective when it leads to more questions. The more knowledge we gain, the more knowledge we discover we’ve yet to learn” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If we’ve ever told our kids, other young people, or simply heard it said by somebody, “do as I say not as I do” are we cedeing responsibility of our actions? Are we holding others to a higher standard of living than ourselves, because we don’t think we can reach that higher standard? Are we looking for future scapegoats if want people to pay closer to our words than our actions, while being complicit in the action because we allowed it to happen? Or do we honestly want others to life their lives more truthfully and joyfully than we have, specifically because we’re firm believers in leaving the world and its inhabitants better than we found it? Accountability and humanism can solve most of the problems we have as a society when they are applied. What we forget sometimes is to help ourselves when we spend all day helping others. Maybe we feel that we don’t deserve help, or that it’s to much work to look internally for answers to tough problems, because we’ll have to be accountable to ourselves, just like we’re asking others to be. All of us have heard the old quote that we have to be the change we want to see. If we spend all our time ejecting empty words not tied to actions, we’ll end up like the crazy preacher on the street corner, where we can scream and yell all day, but the only people who listen are the police when they tell us to move along. Wanting others to live better, acheive more and strive further than us is a noble mission, that makes the world a better place by even making the attempt. But if we expect others to do things that we see as below us, unimportant or easily ignorable, we’ll devolve our entire species by spreading false information, dressed in a caring and tolerant aioli. Do as I say not as I do aren’t words to live by, they’re words that make us complacent and apathetic. And what will evolve us, complacency or vigilance?” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If the garbage trucks take our garbage away once a week, does it give us a false sense of security and morality that our garbage has dissappeared forever? Do we believe discarding refuse once prevent it from coming back, because garbage never piles back up? Do we believe paying someboyd to take our trash away, prevents us from having to deal with it? Does the compacted trash a garbage truck unloads at the end of a route,represents the collective receptacle to get rid of what we don’t need? Are we getting rid of all different things, or are we getting rid of different versions of the same thing? Letting go is the gretaest thing we can do to prolong the life of our heart and mind. We must be vigilantly on the lookout for things we can let go of, and what we want to hold onto. Basically, letting go is a constant process, not just a one off and then we’re done. Only we can make the decisions for whats best for us, and what will lead us to a more fulfilling and productive life. We want good things to flow in and out of our lives like rain, we have to let go of what doesn’t serve us, to make room for what does. Once we realize that we have to let go of negativity all day everyday, not once a day, week, month, year or just once or it will constantly come back, we’ll see we can’t pay somebody to let go of things for us, or to take them away, we must do it ourselves. If we actually want to let something go, not just give the illusion of letting go, so some person who doesn’t affect our lives one iota, let alone the grand scheme of things, will think a little more highly of us. Paying someboyd to take our trash away can be helpful, but not as satisfying as tossing it ourselves, because it keeps us conscious of what we’re throwing away. The key to a jofully fulfilling life, is to make trash day everyday” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If a rose grows through the concrete, is it because it’s stronger than other roses? Will it grow due to it’s undying, unrelenting and courageous compassion to throw off the restrictive shackels of the concrete? Or does the rose grow not because of the great, and authentic strength it undoubtedly possesses, but because of the actual porousness the concrete has, as compared to the unbreakable, monumental might it falsely portrays that it has? The world can be harsh, dark and so physically and emotionally draining, it seems like we’ll get beat down, and fiercely held back from reaching our true potential. The world can also be welcoming, light filled and so emotionally and spiritually uplifting, it seem like we’ll be supported and gently pushed toward our true potential, once we allow ourselves to open up to the beauty of the world. It is all about perspective, when we see light and dark. Sometimes light and dark happen regardless of our perspective, just to test our soul’s fortitude. This is when we have to do the inner work, and discover what drives us, and what we’re passionate about. Once we find it, we will go after it no matter what light or dark we’re being shown. Once we realize the conscious use of this energy dispells the illusion of strength the elites display, we’ll see that finding what drives us, and using it to better the planet and/or the people on it, is exactly how we evolve into the species we always dreamed we could be. The pen is mightier than the sword, as the rose is mightier than the concrete. The more positive and collective growth we gain, the more cracks appear in the wall mant to box us all in” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If everything we need to know we learned in kindergarten, why do we need to learn anything now? Do these lessons represent the pillars of life, and striving past them represents how much they don’t matter once we leave them behind? Or are these pillars the very foundation of our character, and we don’t neccesarily discard them as we journey forward, but use them as the basis of our life experience as we metamorphisize into the humans we always thought we were? Lots of changes happen all around on a daily basis, something every generation in human existence has experienced with the generation that proceeded it. As our world shifts from the comfortable rut we we’ve just settled into, it can be scary to deal with things we’ve never had to before. Sometimes these are issues we’ve never seen, or issues we’ve ignored for so long, they appear new when they stand up to slap us in the face. When this happens, it’s important to remember the rudimentary make up of human interaction. What we learned in kindergarten, getting back to nature, however we describe it, it’s part and parcel of the same concept. Treating others like we’d like to be treated, rememebering to share, balancing work and play among many others, that if woven into our adult routines, would fix most of our issues that have become so ingrained, we’ve forgotten how basic and uncomplicated the solutions are. The less complication, and more love and understanding we utilize, the more beautiful life becomes. We are the people we’ve been waiting for” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If a road goes two ways with traffic moving in opposite directions even though it’s the same road, is there a way to make those traveling in opposite directions travel in the same direction? Is it feasible let alone technically possible to form a one way road, when drivers feel compelled with the very fiber of their being to drive in opposite directions? Should we force drivers to drive in one direction, because we believe the roads will be freer and fairer, if all of us drive in the same direction? Or should we specifically build roads we can drive in opposite directions on, because we believe roads will be more peaceful, if we drive in the direction that will take us to the place we want to go? All relationships whether platonic, romantic, workplace, familial or recreational are two way streets. The give and take amidst the chaos of life can be a lot to handle, and almost impossible to quanitfy. One thing that becomes easier as we gain better understanding that humans are all striving toward the same basic things, is that we all take different roads, paths and trails. Once we realize that these different paths have to work in unison with each other not against each other, we’ll see that none of us will truly get to where we want to be, unless all of us get to where we want to be. The laws of physics demand that roads head in multiple opposite directions which we must abide by. That is unless we want to crash into each other, preventing any of us from moving forward” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If we believe that growth flows from the top down and not the bottom up, what evidence are we relying on to prove this assumption? Are we relying on generations of economic theory from Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman and Adam Smith that says we’ll have infinite wealth when we take all the shackles off the economy? What proof do we have that the rich will provide more jobs, by spending their newly found wealth back into the economy? Have we seen examples of rich friends contributing to job growth, specifically because they’re already in an outrageously high financial position? Do these friends believe they’re not rich enough, and if they do receive more money, they can economically contribute like never before? Or are all the moneyed classes sucking up all the natural resources they can, because they can? Hypocrisy is a funny word, every human has aspects of it, just some more than others. What’s even funnier, is when people deflect criticism and blame for unseen nefarious reasons. Sometimes we twist facts, and sometimes we make up facts. Maybe we discover that for every dollar we give to the bottom of the income scale, 1.70 goes back into the economy. Maybe we find that the first thing people do who get money when they don’t have it, is go out and spend it. Maybe we find that rich people become rich because they don’t spend money back into the economy, and instead pay less taxes, which means less revenue into the government because the burden was put on people at the bottom who aren’t major campaign contributors. Maybe we discover that deficit hawks only exist on issues they view as not concerning them. Maybe we find that people are Democrats when they don’t have money, and become Republicans when they do. One we realize that greed exists at the top and the bottom, we’ll see that to stop the fraud, we must stop it everywhere, at all levels. If we actually want to fix issues instead of endlessly yakking about them, we’ll base our laws on statistics not slippery slopes. Growth flows from the bottom up like a potted plant, not from the top down like no plant ever” 🙂