From the mind of critic: “Have the election results caused us to enter a brave new world, where everything we thought we knew about ourselves, our community, our country and our system is up in the air? Are all the freedoms, rights and oppurtunities we have come to expect living on the geatest country on the planet, gonna up and dissappear on the whim of a tyrant? Or are we simply in a transitional period in our collective evolution, where we are given a stark contrast of the paths in front of us, and we’re given the choice of which one we wanna travel down? The entire world is taking a few deep breaths, wondering what the next six months will bring. We’ve always flirted with giving somebody power that has never had it before, just not somebody who so blatantly advocated blowing up the system. Many of us are angry with the way things are, and wanna see major change. However, when this change involves blowing up the system, are we ready to rebuild it, were we even thinking about the rebuilding process when we talked about destruction? Clean slate thinking is dangerous, it’s extremely self-centered to the point where we want the world recreated as we think it should be, and any detractors are automatically enemies. There was talk before the new president-elect got his new job. that when he did get the new job, that the revolution would start immediately. Well, where is it? Were we joking? Maybe we’re trying to think up a way where our revolution wont bring on the same destruction that the other side wants. Can we change things for the better, without completely tearing them down first? We can if we look forward, and only look backward for advice and strategy. Only thinking about memories is what got us into this mess, and wanting the past to come back. We must look forward and create the new future that will work for the best of us, not the worst of us” 🙂
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from the mind of critic-11/9/16
From the mind of critic: “What can we possibly say that would make the other night make any sense? Is there one black and white explanation for electing a despicable human being who lies so much, so often and so freely that he gives lying politicians a bad name? Or have we finnaly devolved to the point that we can’t escape the complete destruction of the American system, before it’s rebuilt and made better? I, like many us are a little numb. We could go on and on about how Bernie would have fared much better, and would have won because he encompassed the same anger at the system. We go on about he would have won simply because his name isn’t Hillary Clinton, and people really hate her that much and have for decades. We could even go on and on about how the mysoginist and racist pig we now have as our president for the next four years, is gonna drive the great American experiment right into the ground, making everything we’ve gained in the last 40 years to be lost, while abortion is made illegal, and the mass deportation force is rounding everybody up it thinks doesn’t belong. We could do all that, throw up our hands while saying screw it, and completely give up. But that’s what they want us to do. They want us to think we don’t have a chance for change, so we get slapped upside the head with the change that personally effects us, not realizing that if we would have paid attention to all the mountains of eveidence that has mounted up over the years, we wouldn’t have had to get slapped, because we actually noticed what the problem was, and everything that built up to it. Now is the time that will prove how human we are, we can give up and say there is nothing we can do, or we can stand up, and never, ever sit down ever again. We choose our destiny, always. It can be built better, but only if we put in the effort” 🙂
from the mind of critic-11/5/16
From the mind of critic: “If we honestly believe that if we want something done right we have to do it ourselves, do we honestly believe that somebody else will do that same thing worse? Have we been hurt and let down by so many other people on purpose and not, that we’ve lost faith in humanity and we’re floating around trying to do as much as we can for ourselves before our short time is up? Or have we not fully allowed ourselves to fully open upto the world and all its possibilities, so we don’t see all the people that can help us, and so we think we have to do it all, which causes us to spin out of control because we see all the millions of things we could be doing, and it freaks us out? Many time when we’re not used to doing things for our own betterment, we think others should do them, then we get let down when they don’t. Maybe we need to do some things for ourselves, and ask for help on others. Maybe being all one way or all the other, is what got us in this mess in the first place. Maybe finding what we can do for us and finding out what others can do for us, is how we find out what we can do for others, which is how we discover that balance will keep us motivated. Maybe through that balance is how we find out doing for us, is how we do for others. We all wanna succeed, love and be loved. We all wanna feel like we count and that we matter. Do we have to do for us, yes. Do we have to let others do for us, yes. Do we have to use ourselves as an example to prove to others that they can have faith in humnaity, because we do? There is no better feeling than overcoming adversity, or acheiving a long term goal. We simply must remember tht if we shun help from the world, success won’t come to us. We allow success, by allowing the world to help us 🙂
from the mind of critic-11/4/16
From the mind of critic: “If when all attempts fail we read the directions so we find the solutions we missed, do we feel like less of a person because we didn’t figure it out ourselves? Do we believe that we must be strong, smart and courageous to succeed, and asking for help is admitting failure because we’re weak, dumb and timid? Or do we believe that success doesn’t mean we’re the strongest, smartest or the most noble, it means we put ourselves in the right place at the right time without knowing it, and that asking for help when we don’t know something, actually furthers our goals along? Many of us wanna feel that we can do things all by ourselves, we’ve been trying to prove it since we were little kids. However, there comes a time when we must grow out of this stage, because we begin to realize that we really don’t know everything about everything. Maybe some of us never grew out of this teenage mindset. Maybe we know that we don’t know something but won’t admit it, because we don’t wanna be seen as less than. Maybe, just maybe we’ll wake up one day and realize that we’re imperfect human beings, that learn as we go. And the sooner we realize that, the further along in our journey we’ll be. If the true sign of knowledge is admitting that there are manynthings we don’t know, aren’t we simply progressing forward when we ask for directions? While the word success is subjective, knowledge is not. Sometimes when we admit we don’t have it, it actually proves that we do” 🙂
from the mind of critic-11/3/16
From the mind of critic: “If we use it’s raining like cats and dogs, bringing home the bacon, rule of thumb or getting gyped as part of our regular communication, but we dont know what it actually means or where it actually came from, have we ever asked ourselves why? Do we just follow along with what we’ve always heard so we don’t have to think about it, because it has always been done so it must be the right thing? Or do we use these phrases that we’ve always heard, because we feel they best describe our emotion or action, that is thought out by us because it came from us? Many times when we’re journeying into the unknown we see examples of what people did before us, and so we use those because we don’t know any better. These phrases might be completely innocent, or they might be completely vial, but we’d never know it because we didn’t think to ask, or we simply didn’t care to. Maybe if we thought about what our words mean, we would think about what our actions mean. And if we thought about our actions and who they affected and why, maybe the worst parts of our racist, sexist, homophobic, nationalistic, genocidal and murderous history wouldnt be repeated, because we’d critically think about what we’re saying, and about what we’re doing, we would just plain think. Old sayings could simply describe the weather or wealth, or they could demean a whole race of people, or they could describe what was the legal instrument to legally beat your wife. If we ask questions instead of blindly following, we will find that our positive and collective evolution will happen much easier” 🙂
from the mind of critic-11/2/16
From the mind of critic: “With the grand canyon size differences between the cadidates that we’ve been given to choose from, how did we get to a place where we’re so complacent, apathetic, and just plain don’t care about either one? Have we evolved past picking between the lesser of two evils, to not picking who we want, but picking the person we feel has the best chance of beating the person we don’t want? Or have we devolved so much that we don’t believe anything anybody says, and simply vote based on emotion? Thinking about what we want, and how that affects what other people want, and how that melds together to help the planet consciously evolve, is how we got to this point. Or should i say, not doing that has brought us to this point. Maybe we’ve given up on things presently improving, so we become nostalgic about how things used to be. Like we have become so lazy, that we only talk about the old days, and don’t get off our ass and do something now. Both sides are guilty of this. Both sides are so fearful of eachother, that they will only support somebody who the other side absolutely despises. When we vote based on memories and not on thinking, we end up with an election where nobody seems to care. Where each side is a super villian to the other. To change our focus, we must change our thoughts. And to do that, we must never again rely on sombody else to make the change we profess to want, we must get off our asses and make the change ourselves. Critical thought might be uncomfortable, but it is absolutely imperative” 🙂
from the mind of critic-10/29/16
From the mind of critic: “If often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, why do we never even know we have the key? Are we so comfortable with the chains that surround us because they’ve been there awhile, and although we’re aware they’re detrimental and are specifically responsibile for our downfall, they are familiar, and so we go with what’s comfortable but conforming, instead of what’s unknown and freeing? Is it fear, fear of the unknown that will flatten us the moment we try to better ourselves? Or are we not comfortable with our current situation and not comfortable with what could happen, while all the endless possibilities pour through our heads, causing us to spin out of control, with the key being one of the options that may or may not have gotten lost in the shuffle? There are many things in life that can block our physical, emotional, spiritual, financial and evolutionary progress, sometimes they come from the outside, but the majority of the time they’re self-inflicted. Maybe we wonder why there aren’t more of us that build others up, when we don’t take the time to build ourselves up. Maybe our self-deprecation has grown so large, that we’ve convinced ourselves that we don’t deserve happiness. Maybe if we were able to see this self-inflicted reverse psychology for what it is, we would grab that crusty old key, jam it in that rusted over lock, and bust through those chains that have been holding us back. Whether we’re awakening to the fact that we’ve always had the key, or we think about it every second of every day, we, and only we have the power to unlock our chains. And we can unlock them, but we have to want to, and we want to, right?” 🙂
from the mind of critic-10/28/16
From the mind of critic: “If it is inevitable that we turn out like our parents no matter what we do, how do we ensure that we keep the good and let go of the bad? Do we have control over what characteristics create our personality and desicion making abilities? Or do we just float through life with no control over what may or may not have happened when we were younger, and are doomed to repeat our parent’s bad deeds, choices and ou…tcomes because it’s in our genes? Some of us had terrible childhoods with terrible parents, some of us had great childhoods with great parents. While some of us had a mixture of the two. What we all know to be true is that if we don’t learn from the past, we’re doomed to repeat it. If bad things were perpetuated on us, we will perpetuate bad things onto others. However, if we perpetuate the good, it’s not so bad that it gets repeated. So how do we ensure that nothing is automatic? Once we realize that we always have choice concerning our actions and reactions, and black and white thinking doesn’t give an honest portrayal of the good or the bad, we’ll see that we aren’t doomed to repeat anything unless we allow ourselves to. Nothing in life is inevitable or guaranteeed, not even death and taxes. We always have choice. We can choose what to take in, and what to discard. We can choose what’s to our benefit, and what’s to our detriment. All our parents had good and bad qualities. It is and always has been up to us to decide and decipher whats what. If we don’t choose, somebody else will. The more we choose our own destiny, the more it will be to our collective and conscious evolution” 
from the mind of critic-10/27/16
From the mind of critic: “If manifesting something that we want is how we get it to show up, how does this play out in reality when obsessing and thinking about something to much drives it away? Is there a way to balance manifesting something and not overthinking about something, therefore creating the happy medium, where what we want shows up? Or are we just kidding ourselves when we think this balance can be acheived, because it’…s not possible to think about something, and not think about somethingn at the same time? Figuring, deciding, choosing and deciphering what we want can be a challenge in and of itself. Then once we figure it out, the next step is how we bring it in to our lives. Maybe this is a universal challenge that all of us go through. Whether it be love, success in career, or whatever we authentically believe will improve our lives, we have been told to either manifest what we want for it to show up, or not think about something for it to show up. Maybe this is like getting advice from to many people, so we end up doing nothing. Maybe it’s like the natural push and pull of life that we must figure out so we can be fulfilled and successful. Maybe we need to take the good things from both sides to create our own way of being, so we don’t blindly follow anbody or anything. Whether manifesting or letting go gets us what we want faster, we’ll never know. However, if we stay open and let out light shine, we will recieve everything we’re supposed to”
from the mind of critic-10/26/16
From the mind of critic: “If many of us in the last few weeks, months and years have asked ourselves how politicians could possibly say the most biased, outrageous, offensive and vial things, have we asked ourselves the same questions? Do we believe the system has been so skewed from the beginning, that office holders can say anything they want, because as long as they keep throwing crumbs, the people will put up with it? Do we think that this acting out is so far from what a normal person would do, that it leads us to believe these polticians can’t be human? Or do we see politicians acting out in this way, as a natural outcropping of the way we’re been treating eachother for generations, which makes politicians not only humans, but it makes them us? We’re all familiar with the saying that we don’t talk about religion and politics with friends and family. Maybe we’ve grown so used to not talking about it, that we don’t realize that not only have others been talking about it, but after watching all the voluntary heads that have been stuck in the sand, are actively and continously scheming how to control it. Maybe we’ve been doing this so long that we all resort to personal attacks, because we’ve blinded ourselves to what we’re actually saying, and only paying attention to who we’re saying it to. Maybe we think this is conversation, when it’s actually the complete opposite. To stop politicians from saying vial things, we need to stop saying vial things. And to do that, we need to be open and honest about how we feel on any subject. What we think we should never talk about, might be what saves us. The unknown is only scary because we see it that way. If we change our perceptions, we can change the world” 🙂