Click to see the many benefits of giving a charitable gift from Gifts In Action

Maybe you’ve been racking your brain trying to come up with the ideal gift from someone who seems to have it all. Well, now you can give a unique gift that will help someone who doesn’t have that much — and simultaneously warm the heart and even inspire that person who doesn’t really need much in the way of material possessions. A charitable gift from Gifts In Action changes lives and spreads a message of hope, empowerment, and greater community.

And — perfect for you, the procrastinator — you can still get it to your recipient in time for Christmas!

Click here to get details about how Gifts In Action works and choose the charity gift that appeals to you (and your recipient) and fits your budget

Gifts In Action is a charity gift-giving organization based in the UK.  The Gifts In Action program is the brainchild of ActionAid, a non-profit organization that has been working since 1972 to end poverty and injustice in the world.  Now with programs in 40 countries, ActionAid — and Gifts In Action — attack the problem of poverty at the root, providing programs that help people become self-sustaining and financially independent.  It’s not just charity — it’s creative assistance that makes a real difference in the lives of those it helps.  The folks at Gifts In Action work to provide long-term solutions.

How Gifts In Action Works

You give the gift of supporting a project somewhere in the world in the name of someone else.  The person in whose name you give the gift receives a personalized card from you — either a paper card that you can have sent to them (or have it sent to you to give to them personally), or an e-Card that Gifts In Action will email directly to your gift recipient.  They will receive the details of how the gift you’ve given in their name is helping someone in the world address problems experienced by their family, their community, or their country.

Do you know someone who is passionate about education?  Give a gift in their name that helps ActionAid train volunteer teachers to teach rural students in Cambodia — thus spreading the benefits of education and economic advancement.  Similarly, a gift to Gifts In Action of £20 will provide school books for a child in Haiti for an entire year.

You simply choose which gift program appeals to you and match it to the donation amount that fits your budget

Do you know an environmentalist?  Maybe they would like a gift of helping rural Vietnamese children plant 400 trees — teaching the kids about the value of preserving the environment, while simultaneously helping them rid themselves of disease problems caused by mosquitoes and flies.

Do you know someone who extols the virtues of entrepreneurship and financial independence?  Maybe that person would appreciate the gift of helping to support a chicken-breeding program in Malawi.  A donation of only £10 helps rural women buy broods of chicks.  The eggs the chickens produce helps feed their families and can be sold at local markets to support themselves financially.

There are many categories of gifts from Gifts In Action — projects and initiatives that should interest just about any gift recipient you have — from energy-saving stoves for women in Uganda to river ambulances for people without access to good roads in Bangladesh.  All of the charity gifts from Gifts In Action are reasonably priced and are used efficiently on long-term projects that can help entire communities.

And right now, you can get £1 off when you buy two or more Gifts In Action and use voucher code GIAAFF on the checkout page.  When you use this voucher, Bluefrog Ltd. (the corporate partner of Gifts In Action), will pay £1 (one British pound) of your gift for you.  Just choose two or more gifts and enter code GIAAFF on the checkout page.

If you use the e-Card option on the Gifts In Action site, you can still get the gift to your recipient in time for Christmas (sorry, but the deadline for paper cards to arrive by Christmas has passed).  Do something good for your fellow human beings around the world, please and inspire your gift recipient, feel better that you’re making a difference, and meet the Christmas deadline…  What could be better?  It’s a win-win-win-win.

I imagine your gift recipient will never have received a gift quite like the one you give them from Gifts In Action.  See the video below to get up close and personal about what they do:

Related posts:

1. An Easy Place to Find Gifts for Guys Is at “Presents For Men”
2. Kaskey Kids Football Guys and Other Sports Action Figures are Fun Toys That Encourage Your Kids to Play Imaginatively

As a basketball fan, I’m concerned about how many players will be left behind to complete the NBA Eastern Conference Finals after the Rapture occurs tomorrow.

As many of you have heard, Harold Camping, founder of a Christian radio station and an engineer, has predicted that the Rapture will occur on May 21, 2011  — an event in which Christians who believe in Harold Camping and Family Radio and who are non-evil, humble, and God-fearing will be levitated into the clouds.  These Raptured folks will never return.  Since Harold Camping has a degree in civil engineering, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s right about that.  So what does that mean for the Miami Heat, the Chicago Bulls, their fans, and the outcome of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals?

After the Rapture, how many players will be left behind on earth to experience the tribulation and play the remaining 5 games*?  And, more importantly, who is likely to win the Series?   (It is currently tied 1-1.)

Well, as to that first question, I’m pretty sure there will be some players left.  I don’t know who specifically of the players on the Heat or the Bulls believe in Harold Camping’s prediction, which makes predicting who will be around for Game 3 on Sunday tricky — about as hard as predicting the winner of this series — but, while not many NBA players can be considered totally non-evil, humble, and God-fearing, there must be at least some who are.  Or who are at least self-professed Christians.

Will Lebron remain and Rose rise?

Lebron will definitely still be around.  His religious affiliation appears to be Roman Catholic, so he should be left behind based on that criterion alone, according to Rapture experts (who take a dim view of Catholics).  Additionally, he is not humble, since he speaks of himself in the third person.  So that’s a relief, eh, Heat fans?  And also a blessing for the Heat’s owner, Micky Arison, who is paying Lebron $110 million.  (Micky will be also be at AmericanAirlines Arena on Sunday, too, so Lebron can count on a continuing paycheck.)  Also, apparently Lebron James is a member of the Illuminati, so that lets him right out.

With Lebron available for Miami, one’s mind immediately jumps to the fate of Chicago’s Derrick Rose.  Will the Bulls still have their lone superstar?  It’s hard to tell what religion Derrick is.  The youngest-ever MVP worships basketball, obviously.  However, the first tattoo he ever got was a cross with the words “Only God Can Judge Me.”  This may put him on shaky ground, Rapture-wise, because it would have been better for him if the tattoo stated, “Only Harold Camping Can Judge Me.”  But I think the real deal-breaker, Rapture-wise, is his “Poohdini” tattoo, which shows an image of a wizard holding a staff and a basketball.  We know from their many pronouncements on the subject that Christians think wizards are in league with the Devil — after all, Christians are the ones who tried to have Harry Potter books banned from school libraries.  So, I think the wizard inked on the shoulder should disqualify Derrick Rose from being Raptured.  Sorry, Derrick, no clouds for you.  Whew… close one, Bulls fans!

Okay, so we’ve got at least two guys staying on earth.  What about Dwyane Wade?  We know he’s Christian.  We know he wears number 3 because of the Holy Trinity.  And he tithes 10% of his salary to his Chicago church.  If that weren’t bad enough (from a basketball fan’s point of view), his mother is an ordained Baptist minister.  So, Dwyane is gone.  Dwyane might as well already be walking through the pearly gates.  He will not be available to start on Sunday.  Or ever again.  In other words, he’ll be a first-round draft pick by God.

The remainder of Miami’s roster

What about Chris Bosh?  Well, he’s an intelligent guy — good student, went to Georgia Tech — so we can infer from that that he’s not one of Harold Camping’s followers.  On the other hand, he was dumb enough to get involved with his “Basketball Wife” ex-girlfriend, so maybe, you know, he could have some religious tendencies.  But not enough, I’d guess.  Bosh should be around.

So now we’ve got Lebron James and Chris Bosh against Derrick Rose.  Will Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer still be on Rose’s team?  Well, when he commented on religion for an interview once, Joakim said, “I believe in God, but I don’t have a particular God…  I definitely want to learn about different religions. The more people know about religion and other people’s culture, the less ignorance and conflict there will be.”  That pretty much excuses Noah from Rapture-hood.  Christians do have a particular God and they do not want to learn about other peoples’ religions and they are not opposed to ignorance and conflict (I mean, look at Galileo, and the Crusades, and evolution, and that whole witch-burning episode, and the Inquisition), so yeah, the Bulls’ premier defensive stopper will be available for Game 3.  And Carlos Boozer?  He once commented that Mormons are “not bad at all.”  That statement right there ensures that he’ll be missing the Rapture express.  Sorry, Carlos.  Plus, he has his own shoe with Nike, who, as we know, is a Greek goddess.  That should put the kabosh on any remaining doubts about his post-Rapture status.  In other words, Boozer will still be around to post up the non-righteous Chris Bosh.

Unfortunately, Mike Bibby won’t be shooting any more 3′s for Miami.  He states that he’s a Christian on his MySpace page and he has said that he’s a religious person.  And who are we to doubt Mike?  MySpace is almost certainly good enough for God, so it’s floaty-uppy for Mike.

Miami center Joel Anthony will also not be around.  He went to a Christian school.  Plus, he’s Canadian, which almost automatically makes him humble.  But Mario Chalmers should still be on Miami’s roster.  It’s not clear what his religion is, but he lost a stare-down to Blake Griffin once, so there’s some evidence that he’s more intimidated by Blake Griffin than he is by God.  Rapture is for the God-fearing, not the Blake-fearing.  We’ll assume Mario will not be joining the faithful in the firmament.  What about Erick Dampier and Zydrunas Ilgauskas?  Will Miami have any height remaining at center?  Doesn’t look good regarding Dampier.  Erick attended church every Sunday as a kid and now he does things like work with the Boys and Girls Club of Mississippi every off-season.  I’m pretty sure Erick will be hoovered up.  Regarding Ilgauskas, prospects appear a little better.  79% of Lithuanians profess to be Roman Catholic and, according to many Christian Fundamentalists, Catholics just don’t make the grade with God.  Moreover, in a 2005 poll, only 49% of Lithuanians believe there is a God (though that doesn’t quite square with the preceding stat on Roman Catholicism).  In any event, if Zydrunas has a religion, it’s most likely Roman Catholic, and if he doesn’t, he probably doesn’t believe in God.  Either way, it’s ixnay on the apture-Ray for ydrunas-Zay.  Finally — and this is probably the most significant — Zydrunas Ilgauskas professes to enjoy reading books. So, though Ilgauskas hasn’t exactly been a force of biblical proportions in the playoffs up until now, he’ll at least look intimidating sitting on the bench.  Jamaal Magloire?  Another Canadian.  He’ll be gone…  He operates several charitable foundations and runs clinics for underprivileged children.  If that isn’t enough, in high school he played for the Saints.

How about Udonis Haslem, who has made important contributions to the Heat since the Conference Finals began?  I think he’ll be around.  He wants to be the mayor of Miami when he’s done playing.  No politician is genuinely humble, non-evil, and God-fearing.  Juwan Howard?  In the first two games, he’s 0-1.  Who cares?

What remaining heathen will Chicago have?

Chicago-wise, we have to take a look at Luol Deng.  He grew up in a Christian family in Sudan but, after moving to Egypt, he respectfully helped his Muslim friends celebrate Ramadan.  Whoa, Bulls fans — you dodged a Rapture-bullet there, and should be able to count on some continued scoring punch from Deng, with his Muslim-respecting feet remaining firmly on the ground.  Except, of course, when he’s dunking on Lebron.

Solid Chicago sub Taj Gibson is a bit more of an unsure thing.  Though he attended Calvary Christian School in San Fernando, CA, where he received a “Christ-centered education,” he states that his favorite basketball players are Jamaal Tinsley and Lamar Odom.  See, I’m pretty sure that’s the kind of humor God doesn’t appreciate.  Even worse, Taj posterized Dwyane Wade with a dunk in Game 1 of the series.  We already know how much God likes Dwyane Wade.  I think heaven won’t be able to use Taj.  Fortunately, Chicago will be able to use his defense and rebounding.

How about Kyle Korver?  Kyle is like, what, -2 for 18 so far in this series?  But soon his shooting slump will not matter, one way or another, because Kyle has been described as a “great young Christian man,” and his father is an evangelical pastor with his own church.  Tomorrow, Kyle will be going to that big gym in the sky, along with his father and Harold Camping.

And what of the rest of the bench-sitters on both teams?  Brian Scalabrine and Kurt Thomas for the Bulls?  Eddie House and Dexter Pittman for the Heat?  Well, let’s look at it statistically.  According to Harold Camping, about 200 million people will be Raptured up on May 21.  That’s 200 million out of a population of 6 billion.  So that means that each of the remaining players has a 1 in 30 chance of being sucked into the sky.  The thing is, each of those players has shown himself to be capable of beating the odds — first by becoming NBA players, which only a few hundred people get to be, and second by still being in the playoffs while 26 other NBA teams are sitting at home on their butts on their Elite home theater loungers.  Just by those very facts, we must assume that these exceptional men will once again defy the odds and be taken into God’s bosom tomorrow, along with the other lucky 200 million humble, non-evil, God-fearing,  Harold Camping-believing Christians.

Which is fine, because, even though they’re NBA scrubs, they’re still scrubs.

So where does that leave things with regard to the Eastern Conference Finals?  It’ll be Lebron, Chris Bosh, Mario Chalmers, Ilgauskas, and Haslem versus Rose, Joakim Noah, Boozer, Deng, and Taj Gibson.  A permanently elevated Wade will be too much of a liability for Miami to overcome.  I pick Chicago in 6.

* If necessary

Related posts:

1. A Little Limb Action: Denver Nuggets Will Win the Western Conference Finals
2. The Most Entertaining Potential Match-up for the 2011 NBA Finals

When it comes to your current economic situation, perhaps you think you’ve been playing by the rules and yet find that you are not prospering.

Maybe you’re one of the 20 million unemployed Americans.  You might be hunting for a job, doing all the things they say you’re supposed to do with résumés and cover letters, networking, re-training, and the rest.  Maybe you’re going to interviews and assuring prospective employers that yes, you are a “team player.”

Or maybe you are still employed, working like a dog for a company whose corporate culture has all the charisma and compassion of a stapler.

And you’re wondering where the reward is.

You might ask yourself:  how do you feel when you’re doing these things?  When you’re being interviewed, do you secretly cringe when they ask you to recount a time when you were part of an effective team?  Do you feel like you’re selling yourself out just a little when you assure the interviewer that you “enjoy working with others?”  Do you feel like you’re playing the “job” game with frustrated desperation?  Or do you feel like you’re wasting your life with undemanding yet time-consuming tasks at your present job?

Here’s a radical thought:  if you’re feeling that way, maybe that’s exactly the way you should be feeling.

Maybe you’re actually not in a team phase in your life.

Maybe it’s time for you to consider doing something else.  Maybe you are, in fact, not a team player right now.

Maybe it’s time to go for it on your own.

The Corporate Focus on False Teamwork

The catechism of teamwork — flexible teams, variable role-definition, organic organization, and the like — has become a hallowed precept in American business.  No one seems to be questioning how appropriate the concept of “team” is in a corporate setting where production and sale of products consists of a ceaseless round of development, marketing, service/maintenance, product obsolescence (whether planned or forced), followed by new development.  No one seems to notice that, in this ongoing process, individual responsibility and group accountability neither resolve nor conclude.

There is rarely a satisfactory payoff for many of those involved in the process, no matter how many product-launch parties management throws or T-shirts they provide to simulate esprit de corps.

Industrial enterprises tend to think of employees as square pegs that must be fit into appropriate square project holes.

Psychologically, many men (and women) are not set up to function like that.  They want to be more well-rounded.

If these concepts of teamwork make you feel uneasy, if you get a sense of the futility of it all, then you are not meant to be a member of such a “team.”  You have exhausted that approach to economic involvement.  And it is time you acknowledged that and headed in a new direction that feels better, that provides you with a sense of rightness.

An entire book could be written about the notion of teams and teamwork, their history, application, and evolution.  I can’t begin to survey all that in this post.  But a few summarizing ideas can be offered…

Man is one of the few mammals that works cooperatively to accomplish a particular end.  This behavior seems most common in species that form packs, family groups, schools, or societies.  For example, coyotes will work as a team to catch an antelope (taking turns to chase the swifter antelope until it is exhausted).  Chimps will form coalitions to engage in aggressive behavior toward other individuals or groups of chimps.  Dolphins and orcas will cooperate to herd, confine, and capture prey.

This type of behavior is not necessarily common.  Bears are not team players.  Neither are leopards, armadillos, ferrets, Galapagos tortoises, nor eagles.

In the instances where teamwork is used in the natural world, the objective is usually an easily-identified and quickly-accomplished  reward or benefit.  A goal is chosen, the team forms, action occurs, and the goal is accomplished, which generally results in a material payoff shared by the contributors.

Humans formerly applied teamwork to hunting large animals.  When populations stabilized and settled into given areas, humans learned to cooperate to construct shelters or iconic structures (e.g., Stonehenge).  Eventually, teamwork was applied to aggression and warfare.

As mankind established ever more complex societies and economies, division of labor became a necessity.  Specialization arose.  As warfare became increasingly dependent on the coordination of groups of soldiers, team sports arose in parallel.  “Sports” as the Greeks knew them consisted almost entirely of individual events.  It wasn’t until the 16th century or so that team sports such as cricket began to be invented in Great Britain.  The concept of “teamwork” was born.  But again, whether in play or in war, a team of people worked together to accomplish a definite goal — score more runs, kick a ball through a goal, wipe out the enemy’s army.

At first, economic specialization allowed freedom of individual expression.  That is, instead of every man being a hunter and gatherer, men could be blacksmiths, candle-makers, grave-diggers, and lawyers.  They pursued a trade or craft in their own, unique way.  Professions arose.

When mass-production was developed, specialization of activity increased to the point that an individual’s contribution to an enterprise could consist of an action that, considered by itself, would be worthless, but in the context of an assembly-line, would contribute to the eventual production of a widget.  (Remember how, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie’s father’s job was to screw the caps on toothpaste tubes?)  To guarantee rapid, consistent production, regimentation became the norm.

Public schools were established.  More team sports — football, basketball, roller derby — were invented.

How Public Schools Create “Employees”

Children are not by nature regimented in their play.  Very young children, left to themselves, do not tend to form teams.  They enjoy individual activities.  It’s interesting that one of the first team-oriented group games that modern kids — me among them — first remember playing is “Army” or “Cowboys and Indians.”  We were playing at dominating another group.  This sets the stage for eventual military cooperation, which millions of men (and, increasingly, women) are, for some reason, still willing to engage in.

Public schools prepare people for organized, clock-dependent, niche-related activities.  Team sports do the same.  But team sports at least preserve the satisfaction of being able to apply individual prowess, as well as the shared rewards of the “hunting pack.”  The goals and rules of sports are clearly defined — achieve the highest score, stay within boundaries — as are individual roles on a sports team (striker, goalie, left tackle).  And most team competitions don’t last much longer than two or three hours.  Modern schooling, on the other hand, drags on for years, with a dreary round of daily, ill-conceived drudgery interspersed with a “reprieve” known as summer vacation.

In school, satisfying individual roles and statuses are mostly non-existent, except as defined by “grades.”  Odd, oftentimes uncomfortable and occasionally oppressive social dynamics arise on the playground to compensate.

School is getting you ready for a “job.”

Note how similar an environment to that in school is preserved in the corporate, industrialized workplace.  So-called teamwork in large companies often consists of activities that result in nebulous, partial, or vague outcomes.  Of course, a paycheck at the end of the week or month is supposed to compensate for this ambiguity (why do you suppose a paycheck is referred to as “compensation,” anyway?).

To a certain extent, men enjoy shared toil in a situation where loyalty is valued.  But the quality of the rewards for such toil, both psychological and material, have gotten thinner as our western economies have advanced.  Company loyalty to employees as a reciprocal benefit of employment is now little more than a bullet-point in HR PowerPoint presentations.

Do you expect the employer to whom you’re loyal to be loyal to you?  If you do, you’re living the 1950s.

As an example, here’s my own history:  I worked for a computer chip manufacturer as a middle manager for 5 years, successfully completing many projects as a “team member.”  In 2001, the company eliminated my position and laid me off to reduce costs.

I next worked for a wind power startup company that was trying to develop utility-scale power projects.  I toiled for 3 years, working weekends and nights for less pay than many of my corporate peers.  When venture capitalists invested in the business, they hired two young people to do the work I’d been doing, paid them less, moved me into a non-essential position, and eventually eliminated that job.

I next worked for a company that consulted on and audited large government IT projects, such as Medicaid management systems.  I was part of a 5-person team that assessed and verified progress on such projects in recurring intervals that lasted 8 weeks.  I traveled a lot and worked hard to produce useful reports and recommendations for project “stakeholders.”  When I was first hired by that company, they employed 125 people.  When they eventually laid me off as a result of spending reductions and delays in government funding, the staff was down to 33.

Ask any of the hundreds of thousands of employees who have been laid off one or more times during the last 15 years about company “loyalty.”  It has become a joke.

How does this sound to you?  Are there echoes of your own frustrations here?  If so, maybe it’s time to consider something different.  Maybe it’s time to abandon the corporate sinkhole in which you’ve been attempting to abide.  Maybe you should quit trying to be a “team player.”

At Easter:  Jesus Was Not a Team Player

Today is Easter Sunday, and in considering this holiday and its story, it’s obvious that Jesus was not a team player.  Now, aside from the fact that he is the most controversial, misconstrued, and co-opted human being of all time, I don’t want to get into a debate on the “taking one for the team” aspect of his life.  Suffice it to say that the most relevant line about him is:   “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The meaning of this isn’t hard to grasp:  believe in a divine “son,” which is a metaphor for the outpouring of spiritual essence, which is that god-begotten aspect of ourselves that underlies our experience in human embodiment, and we will know and understand that that aspect of ourselves lives forever.  In doing so, we will realize that the world is based on love.

If you ascribe the role to Jesus of a kind of über-animal sacrificed to appease an entity that invisibly and capriciously controls outcomes in humans’ individual lives, then we don’t have a lot of intellectual common ground upon which to continue a discussion.  Jesus was not a spring lamb.  You’re just told that to make you feel guilty.  People who feel guilty are easier to manipulate.

When you consider what he accomplished, it becomes clear that Jesus was probably a pretty happy, enthusiastic, engaged type of guy.  He was interested in how things worked.  He was practical.  He went his own way.  The organizations of his day did not regard him as a team player.  He didn’t quietly fill the role that guys of that time were supposed to fill.  He didn’t accept the conventional social goals that he was supposed to accept.  He originated his own projects.

You are probably getting to the point of wanting to remove the wool from your own eyes.  Teams that are assembled to pursue anything besides a short-term, tangible reward are not teams.  Individuals who must be “compensated” to pursue devitalized roles in regimented toil are not members of a team.  They are lackeys.  You have probably begun to suspect this.

You don’t like it. You don’t think being a lackey befits your powers.  You are not in a phase of life where you can continue to accept being a fake member of an ersatz team.

Easter is about renewal and transformation.  Which is what we are called upon to do from time to time — to change, reinvent ourselves.  That’s the message contained in this holiday, this spring-time season.  Adaptation is one of the fundamental themes of life, though we often seem surprised when it comes up.  Today, consider yourself reminded.  Rest assured that it is normal.  Now is the time to think about what’s next.

If you find yourself in this rocking boat, it’s not necessarily easy to overcome the bullshit used to condition you to accept a paycheck in return for unfulfilling drudgery.  I mean, as far as your economic activity goes, isn’t it easier to go with the flow and just get a “job?”

No?  It’s not easier?  In fact, the idea sticks in your craw?  Then you are not in a phase of life where it’s important to you to please interviewers sitting in corporate offices.  That’s why your efforts to do so have been halfhearted, and your results have been showing it.

Look around.  You’ll notice that things can work pretty well for men who are not team players.

Politicians are not team players. (Sure, they assemble teams to work for them, but they themselves function independently of the rewards those teams pursue.)  Entrepreneurs are not necessarily team players.  They often break the rules of invention, investment, production, and cooperation, and if there’s one thing institutionalized teams depend on, it’s rules.

Artists are not team players. (Harking back to Roald Dahl, why do you think he subtly disparages a number of social conventions in his stories?  He is an artist.)  Successful self-help gurus are not team players.  Nor are innovative scientists.  Nor are guys who inspire the creation of religions.

The only truly satisfied team players you’ll find are those who are members of actual teams that function according to the basic parameters of teamwork described above:  actors, professional athletes, fire fighters, Navy SEALs, astronauts, sous chefs, and so on.

Those who pursue economic activity outside the law or outside conventional social bounds are, of course, anathema to those invested in convincing people to be team players.

Drug dealers are not team players. Hobos are not team players.  Professional gamblers are not team players.  (It is no coincidence that, in the midst of many more pressing issues, the Justice Department recently decided to pull the plug on a source of enjoyment — and, in some cases, livelihood — for hundreds of thousands of law-abiding American citizens:  online poker.  Government is overwhelmingly interested in conformity, economic constraint, and a pessimistic view of “reality.”  For this reason, government illegalizes most recreational drugs — i.e., drugs that enable people to feel better, or at least temporarily numb, to the way they feel most of the time as a result of being exposed to the forces of conformity that you yourself are beginning to find intolerable.  Remember, government did try Prohibition.  It turned out to be cheaper and more lucrative tax-wise to allow citizens to use at least one drug — alcohol — that sort of soothes the friction of the daily grind.)

In other words, it’s not you, it’s them.  You are correct to feel the way you do.  You are right to want something different, to not be a member of a “team” pursuing endless, enthusiasm-draining tasks in a soulless environment predicated on anxiety and committed to mediocrity.

Jesus was not a team player.  Maybe it’s time you weren’t one, either.  What have you got to lose, except your boredom?  And maybe a certain sheep-like security?

Rewards of Transformation

The rewards of transformation are sometimes easily attainable, but more often people struggle to attain them.

Just be aware that it is chiefly fear that keeps you stuck in a situation of so-called teamwork.  The prospect of isolation may seem uncomfortable.  But if you can begin, even incrementally, to take small steps, to head in a direction that right now you are afraid to go, you will start to feel better.

Sure, you’ll still be afraid from time to time.  But you will also begin to feel more alive, more vital.  You’ll begin to feel self-respect, even while simultaneously feeling that you’re violating some unspoken rule that everyone around you conforms to unquestioningly, or at most with a grumble.  You will begin to feel more satisfaction, even while observing some yearning within yourself for the addictive  rewards that have been perpetually offered to you by the organizers of team activity.

That’s okay.  Your feeling of unease, of insecurity, is diagnosable.  You simply are not in a team-oriented phase of life.  Go your own way.  Choose your preferred reward.  You will experience the security of being true to yourself, the benefits of disagreeing with rules that serve a hierarchy inside which your satisfaction will always be thin.

Jesus was not a team player.  Instead, he focused so persistently on finding a good feeling that he made other people feel good, too.  That’s something akin to what you want.

First, figure out what the opposite feeling is to the feeling you have when you consider getting a job or going to the job you have now.  Then milk that feeling for inspiration.  When you know what you don’t want, you know what you do want.

You could do worse than to pursue your own meaningful, fulfilling goals.  You could have less fun than it would be to huddle with a few other non-conformists as you embark on the hunt.

Best wishes with this non-team phase of your life!

Choose a Total Training Plan that’s right for you.

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2. Get Ready for Your Super Bowl Party, Part 1: Party Supplies and Accessories

Click here to get a Super Bowl XLVI pennant

The biggest football day of the year is coming up and you’re planning on having a Super Bowl party, aren’t you?  You know — whether it’s just a couple of your buds, a bag of chips and some brews, or you invite a crowd that fills every room of your house  — football goes better with a bunch of friends.  Following are ideas and resources for football-themed party supplies, decorations, and other stuff to help you host a Super Bowl party that you and your guests will enjoy.  (Even if the game itself doesn’t live up to the hype.)

There are some good places online to get supplies for football game parties or a Super Bowl party specifically.  I’ve combed the Internet to find the best deals and prices, plus suggestions for fun items you might want to include, from football-shaped serving trays to NFL Team gear to the right TV on which to watch the game…

First, you need some basic football party supplies — cups for beverages, plates for brats, pretzels, and burgers, bowls for chili, utensils to spear and scoop things, and napkins to save your couch from greasy fingerprints.  How elaborate you get after those basics (table cloth, balloons, inflatable cooler?) is up to you (and is probably somewhat determined by whether you share your abode with a female).  Where can you get Super-Bowl-themed eating equipment like that?  Why, from BuyCostumes, of course.

For example, Super Bowl XLV plastic cups: 

And a football-shaped serving tray:

Football-shaped serving tray

BuyCostumes is a lot more than just a costume store.  Think of them as your one-stop event shop.  They have everything you need to focus your Super Bowl party, to give it fun authenticity.  Plus make it convenient:  plastic silverware, paper plates — everything that can be thrown away (or recycled) afterwards, which is the American way.  Or simply order a football party kit that’s pre-made.  This year, you especially might want kits for the Green Bay Packers or the Pittsburgh Steelers.

On the other hand, if you take environmental considerations into account, you can get biodegradable plates, utensils, and other stuff at BuyGreen (which is also the American way).

Galvanized Tub for drinks

Want another good place to shop for sports-themed and football-themed decorations and gear?  Try Wayfair.

For example, get a Galvanized Drink Tub to fill up with ice and cold beverages:

And a personalized football bar sign with your name:

You can use Kaskey Kids football guys to decorate a cake...or whatever.

Another decoration option that you might not think of is to use the football guys action figures from Kaskey Kids to decorate a cake, or cupcakes, or just set them up for the kids to play with during the party, or put them out on your serving table.  They’ll lend a fun, almost “throwback” atmosphere, however you use them — the nostalgia for when you were first learning about the game as a kid.  And Kaskey Kids sports action figures are fun to play with the rest of the year, too.  See my in-depth post on all the fun things you can do with Kaskey Kids sports action figures.

A place that has more party supplies than Charlie Sheen is Target.  Go to their homepage, and search on “Super Bowl Party.”  You’ll find a lot of essential stuff at good prices and often with free shipping.

And another cost-effective place to get your Super Bowl accouterments is Buy.com.  For example, check their Super Bowl Tailgate Party Gift Basket and Green Bay Packers 60-oz. pitcher, among other things.

As you’re taking in the game, rooting for your favorite team, getting het up, fan gear helps.  For example, wouldn’t it be supportive to have an Aaron Rodgers jersey?

Or a Pittsburgh Steelers hoodie?

Or any of a number of other pieces of gear?  The place to get all this is FansEdge.com, the one-stop shop to get everything related to fandom.

Along, that is, with Fathead.  How would you like to decorate you wall with a life-size graphic of Troy Polamalu?  Yeah, that’s what I thought.  Get that and many other exceptionally noticeable life-size sports guy emblems at Fathead.

The Right TV for Watching the Game

Of course, all the party supplies, delicious food, and fan gear will ultimately mean little if you don’t have a TV that lives up to the significance of the game.  You can’t watch the game on a 19-inch cathode ray tube television.  No, man, you need a good HDTV.  And if you’re going to get one, you may as well get the best:  the 54-inch Panasonic Viera TC-P54VT25 Plasma HDTV.   On this, the Super Bowl will become a religious experience:  Religious.  Experience.

And here’s a heads-up: Only until February 5, 2011, Sears has all Samsung and Panasonic TVs on sale for up to $1,000 off, plus free shipping on TVs $749 and up.

Not this.

This

Play Football at Your Party with an Official NFL Game Ball

Official NFL Game Football -- what the pros use

And, too, before the party you’ll want to work up a bit of an appetite so, after you become terminally bored with the 7-hour pre-game show, you’ll feel like going out and throwing the ol’ pigskin around with the boys (or girls).  For that, you’ll need a pigskin.  Don’t skimp on this.  Inspiration is not a factor to be trifled with.  Get the official Wilson F1100 Leather NFL Game Football from Online Sports — the place to fulfill virtually any sports-related need you have.

NFL Tickets

When it comes to not skimping on things, you might be one of those guys who wants to skip the home Super Bowl party entirely.  Instead, you’re the kind of guy who needs to be in the thick of things.  You want to be there, at the venue, live.  (Or even better, you want to throw your party in a luxury box at the stadium.)  If that’s the kind of guy you are, you’ll need tickets.  They’re still available.  Get them from TicketNetwork, one of the premier places online to acquire great tickets to the best sports events, including Super Bowl XLV packages.  If that’s the way you roll, check their website now.

And plan and book your trip to Dallas using Trip Advisor, probably the most trusted travel review and information site in the world.  For good deals on flights and lodging, you can also check Easy Click Travel.

Are you ready for some football?

Not quite — you still have to get the food for your party.

Related posts:

1. Get Ready for Your Super Bowl Party, Part 2: Food
2. Hey Now! New Orleans Saints Win Super Bowl 44

Halloween is when you’ll want a costume most often, but that doesn’t mean the costume parties and balls end there (hey, maybe you just want to patrol rooftops in your favorite superhero outfit or do some role-playing with the missus).  “Whenever” can be a good time to wear a costume.  Find costume ideas and discounts for Halloween and more in this post.

Read carefully and explore all the links…

Any time you need a costume, you should check with the online retailers listed here — BuyCostumes, Costume Super Center, and Wicked Temptations.  They offer a huge selection, good prices, special deals, and excellent customer service (I wouldn’t recommend them otherwise).  The next time you need a Halloween or other holiday costume, or you’re going to a Renaissance Faire, or attending a costume ball, take advantage of the following ideas, resources, costume information, and party suggestions.  I’ve included a number of specific costume ideas, plus you can find targeted links to a variety of popular or unusual categories of costumes.

And this goes for your kids, too.  You can definitely save money while acquiring outfits that will make everybody happy.

Messin' with Sasquatch

First, below is a link to the current Halloween special from Costume SuperCenter, which has been supplying costumes (and meeting everyone’s needs for wigs and masks, beards, stage makeup, Santa suits, western wear, goth getups, and pet costumes) online since 2005, and currently stocks over 10,000 products.  Click the following links to save some money:

Click here to get 10% OFF Orders of $40 or More at Costume SuperCenter.  Use Code: SPOOKY

Enter the coupon code — SPOOKY — at checkout.

When you take advantage of this deal, you might want to check out this season’s sexiest costumes.

The next costume retailer you should be shopping at is BuyCostumes.com. (For example, get free shipping and guaranteed by Halloween delivery.)  Hitwise named BuyCostumes the #1 retailer of costumes on the Internet, and they have a deserved reputation for great customer service and unsurpassed selection, with over 10,000 costumes from which to choose.  They also offer a free exchange program — if the costume doesn’t fit, they will pay for the shipping cost to exchange it.

For Halloween, here’s one of the main deals:   Buy One Costume, Get One 20% off, plus FREE shipping at BuyCostumes.com using coupon code: BOGO20.  (Enter the code at checkout; good through 10/31/11.)

They can also supply all the props and decorations you need for your Halloween Party.  When it comes to saving money, check out their clearance costume deals.  Or check out their “5 Deals Under $5″ page, updated every Monday (click the banner below):

Costume Ideas for Halloween — or whenever

When it comes to popular costumes, BuyCostumes should have what you want in stock longer than just about anybody else:

• Harry Potter
• Star Wars
• Avatar
• Playboy
• Superheroes
• Vampires
• Pirates
• and Rennaissance

And of course, Ironman:

Click for Iron Man costumes

And you owe it to yourself (and her) to get the Black Widow costume for your lady (remember you can buy 1 costume and get a second one for 20% off, plus get free shipping, using coupon code BOGO20):

Iron Man 2 Black Widow Costume

How about vintage costumes?

Not really sure what you wanna be?  Need inspiration?  Then check out their Costume of the Week.   Or consider costumes from the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s.  (Who else offers that?)  They even have a special section of product videos, so you can see how they’ll look before you buy.

Click for horror masks

In addition, speaking of ideas, you can find out how to put together a cool Trinity costume from The Matrix, and also how to dress as Neo in my post Get Your Girl a Trinity Costume.

Here’s a site that is not for your kids:  Wicked Temptations.

They have what you need to have fun with your fantasies — whether it be pirate and slave wench or doctor and vampire nurse, or whatever.  After the trick-or-treaters are home gorging on candy, add some adult fun to your Halloween evening with your own trick-and-treating…

I'll need to see what you're hiding under your coat, ma'am

And if you’re going to an erotic ball, Wicked Temptations has what you need.

Check out ideas for costume parties for kids and adults below — click the links for hundreds of additional costume suggestions…

Related posts:

1. Get Your Girl a Trinity Costume (and Neo, too)
2. Mother’s Day Gift Ideas: Turquoise Jewelry and More from the National Geographic Store

Why not send a card for the Fourth of July?

People send greeting cards for most of the other holidays.  Why not commemorate the 4th of July that way, too?  Who should you send it to?  Since the Fourth celebrates the birth of our country, as well as the conception of liberty, how about sending it to a member of the military or a veteran?  Or to your favorite public servant.

 The Fourth is coming up in about a week.  You’d like to be celebrating it by getting together with your family and friends to enjoy hot dogs, corn on the cob, watermelon, and fireworks, but in case you can’t, you can still share the spirit by sending this card.

It’s got a hopeful image of a US flag waving in the wind with a rainbow (which is completely unmanipulated; the scene is shown as shot, no Photoshop) and you can customize it with your own text if you like.  Click here to order from Zazzle.

Or click the image below to get it (there’s a discount for bulk orders) and, on the product order page, click on the ”Customize” button to add your own text — or leave it blank and hand-write your own message.

Happy 4th of July!

US Flag and Rainbow (card) by ericj9999
Browse US Flag Cards

Related posts:

1. Sure, Your Mom Would Appreciate Flowers for Mother’s Day — But What About Something Sorta Different?
2. We Can Eat Oranges in the Winter

A few thoughts on the Abby Sunderland sailing-around-the-world controversy

As columnists go, Leonard Pitts Jr. tends to be thoughtful and eloquent.  He can even be positive.  Most newspaper columnists, however, are heavily committed to whining — pointing out what is going wrong, the deficiencies of people and society, etc. — and with his column on Abby Sunderland (“Taking the Ultimate Risk…”, which you can read here), the oftentimes balanced Pitts has entirely embraced that type of ”Eeyore” orientation.  And in doing so, his generally well-considered viewpoint has gone off the rails.

Abby Sunderland sailing her boat "Wild Eyes"

See what I did there?  I employed a metaphor, stating that he had gone “off the rails,” which implies that his thoughts were misguided, dysfunctional, erratic.  But, really, what specific elements of his thesis about the response to Abby Sunderland’s attempt to sail around the world did I refute with that statement?  Not a one.  But that’s also what columnists tend to do.  Pitts did the same thing in his piece.  He wrote:  “But the hole in Sunderland’s logic is wide enough to sail a crippled boat through.”  See how easy that is?  By using a provacative metaphor that has no basis in reality, he has predisposed you to feel that Laurence Sunderland’s position is unquestionably wrong (Sunderland, Abby’s father, said:  “Sailing and life in general is dangerous.  Teenagers drive cars.  Does that mean teenagers shouldn’t drive a car?  I think people who hold that opinion have lost their zeal for life.  They’re living in a cotton-wool tunnel to make everything safe.”).

But, of course, Pitts notwithstanding, Sunderland is not wrong.  His statement is rather accurate.  And since Pitts has chosen to speak up in the interest of cotton-woolism, I’ll engage with those interests using his column as a springboard.

There are a couple of cruxes to this issue.  One involves how we view death.  The other involves how we view children.

Death comes to everyone; each human being has that in common with every other human being.  How we regard death is subject to wide latitude, however.  The controversy surrounding Abby Sunderland’s adventure seems to divide people into two camps.  On one hand, we have those who apparently think that life consists primarily of avoiding death.  On the other, we have those who think that life is an experience to be embraced uniquely and pursued so as to maximize enjoyment.  People in both camps die, sooner or later.  But who has a better time beforehand?  Is life about doing whatever it takes (including boring drudgery) to remain alive as long as possible, only to be dragged away, whimpering, when the Grim Reaper decides it’s “our time?”  Or is it about pursuing vivid experiences that give rise to feelings of purpose, euphoria, empowerment, passion, and fulfillment?

In the first camp is Leonard Pitts Jr. and his ilk, who seem to think that the value of life is to be measured by its duration, as well as how closely our activities conform to what others think we should be doing.  In the second camp is Abby Sunderland and other envelope-pushers (including her brother Zac, Jessica Watson, and Jordan Romero) who seek to do what they are inspired to do.   Which group is living life to the fullest?  Even if you’re out on the ocean in a boat, alone, in a storm, maybe scared, uncomfortable, unsure whether you’re going to make it, at least one thing’s for sure:  you know you’re alive.  And, really, isn’t that the point?  Otherwise, why bother?

Besides, that is the least of it — if the dream is pure, there’s going to be more joy and exhilaration involved than anything else.

You want to spend years and years avoiding risk and uncertainty at all costs?  That’s your prerogative.  Just don’t expect notable zest to result from that approach.  I’ll take Abby Sunderland’s 5 months at sea over 80 years of trying to prolong a tepid life.  Not that you have to be an adventurer.  The point is that you can’t fully embrace life if you’re constantly looking over your shoulder.

Let the ones who want to live exuberantly do so.  The quality of life should not be measured by how long it lasts or how free of danger it is, but by the amount of joy and intensity it contains, whether one lives for a single year or a hundred.  In his column, Pitts disparages Abby’s journey as “meaningless,” contrasting it with Magellan’s search for a passage to the Spice Islands – as though a mercantilist criterion is the only suitable way of determining the worthiness of an objective (a materialistic argument that he also brings to bear on the subject of driving cars — dissing, along the way, anyone who doesn’t have an automobile).  He seems to want people to do only those things that, according to him, benefit others.  But then, what of Pitts’s own profession?  Columnists seek to persuade, influence, and shape the behavior of others into channels they deem appropriate.  Actually, most humans spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get others to act the way they want them to.  You yourself probably regularly attempt to get your spouse, friends, kids, and others to do what you want them to do.  How’s that working out for you?   If controlling the actions of those closest to us is futile, how much more futile is it to try to influence the population at large?  Ted Koppel, a thoughtful and intelligent man who has spent his life as a journalist ferreting out the ills of society, couldn’t keep his own son from killing himself with alcohol.   By Pitts’s own standard then — benefiting others on a materialistic level – how ultimately meaningless are his writing activities?

This brings me to how parents and other adults in so-called positions of authority view and treat children.

In the last 125 years or so, much of the civilized world seems to have come to the conclusion that children are little more than self-destructive morons, incapable of choosing apprpriate courses of action or protecting themselves from the vicissitudes of a hostile world.  But this is illogical.  Look at it philosophically from either a materialistic or spiritual viewpoint.  If you take the view that basically we are all spiritual beings, then each child must be regarded as an experienced soul that chose to take on a body in order to experience this construct known as “life” — an experience they have certainly undertaken many times before, given that one of spirit’s primary qualities is immortality (the view that an all-powerful entity created each of us to live a single, go-for-broke lifetime in an immense material universe, during which we must adhere to particular religious rules or be denied an eternal “heavenly reward” is kind of goofy.  For one thing, have you noticed that the rules we’re supposed to follow are always set up to benefit the rule-makers?).  If you observe children, you will note that they instinctively chafe under the limitations of mind and body those in “authority” impose on them.  At a fundamental level, they want to express why they are alive, why they came to this world.  Instead, we bring about a self-fulfilling prophecy by treating them like incompetent halfwits incapable of making decisions and creating the experiences they desire, as opposed to powerful spiritual creators who are here through deliberate intention, relishing the tremendous variety of life.  Given the asinine assumptions and stultifying influences surrounding them, it’s no wonder many kids grow up weak, tentative, uncreative, and “irresponsible.”  (Do we disparage their dreams because we’ve given up on our own?)  Instead, kids should be given credit for being the knowing, magnificent beings that they are (as should all humans).  Parenting should consist mostly of making sure a child has a place to live, food to eat, and loving encouragement — after that, let them decide what they want to do and how they want to do it.  Too radical for you?  There are many examples of eras in history when children took on ”mature” roles much earlier in life than they do now, and the human race somehow managed to survive.  (How old was Tut when he began his reign, nine?  Alexander the Great became his father’s regent at sixteen.  Joan of Arc became a knight at sixteen.)  Kids have a greater capacity to do almost everything than is generally acknowledged.  Of course, one can find plenty of hypocrisy in this stance on childish ineptitude.  For example, the United States officially regards all of its healthy 18-year-old citizens as suitable candidates to fight wars (so it will be okay for Abby Sunderland to die doing that in another couple of years).  But when you think about it, evaluating someone as responsible or irresponsible based on the date affixed to their birth certificate is inane.  We all know level-headed, purposeful 12-year-olds and clueless, ineffectual 25-year-olds.  Both, however, should be free to pursue their preferred path in life.  It does not work well for kids to be regarded as, more or less, accessories intended to gratify their parents, nor treated like little robots that must be painstakingly programmed with society’s strictures.

If, on the other hand, you subscribe to a non-spiritual view of life — if you think that a human being is only a collection of electro-chemical processes somehow exhibiting self-awareness — then it is still illogical to lean towards curtailing the activities and aspirations of youth.  If life amounts to nothing more than subatomic billiard balls randomly caroming off each other, living beings should be allowed to pursue their unique agendas, which somehow express the focused chemical processes that gave rise to them in the first place.  In the absence of any metaphysical outcome or significant meaning toward which it must be morally steered, who cares what the ultimate fate of a process in a test tube is, other than the process itself (and maybe its cohorts)?  So, let it flow.

Of course, if a kid kills himself by following his inclinations — for example, let’s say Shaun White, instead of winning gold medals in the Olympics, ran into a tree and killed himself while snowboarding  — then that individual would never perpetuate his or her DNA.  The electro-chemical process ends.  While that may be regarded as a tragedy from the standpoint of the genes involved, the human race as a whole persists.  There’s plenty more genetic material available.

By the same token, from the spiritual perspective, if you die, no big deal — you’re still immortal, still alive, still aware, and you can come back here any time you want.  If you think about it like that, “tragedy” becomes irrelevant.

But neither of those two logical positions is adopted by the majority of adults.  Instead, if, as a child or teen, a Shaun White or an Abby Sunderland dies attempting something adventurous and challenging, there is no shortage of namby-pambys popping up to criticize the parents, opining that they were “neglectful.”

So…  Maybe the rule should be that kids can’t do anything dangerous until they have successfully reproduced?

For those who criticize Abby Sunderland’s parents, I say:  get thee to a nunnery.  That environment should suit you.  Leave the intoxicating vigor of life to those who can savor it.

Abby’s father, Laurence Sunderland, comes in for most of the criticism in Pitts’s column.  Pitts states that he “sent his daughter to sea all alone for no good reason,” as though Abby were some kind of oblivious automaton.  But it’s an ill-considered statement.  You can’t “send” anyone to sea all alone.  They must choose to go.  Abby wanted to go.  In fact, her father dissuaded her from going when she was even younger.  She finally did something she’d been wanting to do for years, that she’d been preparing to do for years.  Olympic gymnasts are almost regarded as over the hill by the time they are 17 years old.  13-year-old girls are allowed to perform backflips on 4-inch-wide balance beams all over the world, risking broken necks and fractured skulls.  Yet Abby, at 16, is too young to pursue something for which she has been practicing for over 10 years?   And besides, what possible “good” reason can there be for leaping backward on a balance beam?  Sounds dangerous and “meaningless,” doesn’t it?  Pitts should be criticizing gymnastics.  And moto-cross.  And… well, you get the point.

Why did no one criticize Steve Fossett for floating around the world in a balloon for no “good reason?”

The meaning of any experience is contained in the experience.

Some are carping over the expense of rescuing Abby — or anyone, really – from this type of risky endeavor.  As though the money would have been better used to pay for filling in potholes or hiring a social worker, as though the money simply disappeared from the face of the earth.  To those I say:  try not to worry so much.  Your scarcity-pespective is hindering you.  The money spent on rescuing Abby didn’t vanish — it helped employ pilots and aircraft mechanics and medical personnel and video crews and journalists and columnists.  It is still in circulation.  As a result of Abby’s initiative, bloggers and pundits now have something to pontificate about, and nervous nellies the world over are using computers and electricity and the Internet to poke their noses into the Sunderlands’ business.  Media is selling ads.  Television and radio stations and websites are prospering.  And, on a personal level, the people who helped rescue Abby probably feel pretty good about what they did.  They’ll have an experience to talk about for the rest of their lives.

If only all of us could have such experiences.

Leonard Pitts wrote:  “But for the grace of God, she would be dead now.”  It’s a shame that he — and anyone who seeks to cocoon themselves in the cotton-wool of conformity and faint-heartedness — does not recognize the sublime grace that exists because of those like Abby who call it forth (which is also why we try to rescue such people when things go awry — because they call it forth from us as well).  Due to her experiences, Abby now knows things no other person knows.  Vivid understanding that will never be lost.  Bottom line, God’s grace is available to all of us, but it is those who pursue their own marvelous dreams that truly embrace and celebrate it.  The grace of God exists because we exist — the grace to do a little more because we want to.

Related posts:

1. Perhaps You’re Not in a “Team” Phase in Your Life
2. Who Will Be Left to Play the NBA Eastern Conference Finals After the Rapture Occurs?

Don’t get me wrong — flowers are good and you know she’d love them.  But why not go outside the conventional bounds and give her something rather different and memorable?  Here’re some ideas…

Okay, if you’re committed to flowers, let’s get that out of the way first.  You can still order in time for delivery for Mother’s Day (you do know it’s on May 13, right?).  You can get them from Fleurop, the most extensive flower delivery service in the world (I said “extensive” not “expensive”).  If you live in Poland you can order on Fleurop’s website and have them delivered to someone in Argentina.  Or Nigeria.  Or Iceland.  And of course the United States.  And vice versa.  I’ve written previously about Fleurop’s history and scope in my post on humans and flowers.  To order, click the text link above or the banner below.  And if you are in the UK (or you mom is), you can order from Fleurop.co.uk.  Get 15% off an order using code 2012MD15 at checkout (through 5/31/12).

Now for some different suggestions…  How about some customized Chuck Taylor shoes from Converse?  I’ll bet you didn’t know you could design a pair.  Or she can.  Women are into Chuck Taylor’s now.  The easiest thing would be to go the Converse site and get your mom a gift card (everybody likes gift cards) and she can design her own pair (on the site, click “Shop” and you’ll see Gift Cards under “More”).  Or she can choose something else cool out of their selection of apparel.  You can have the card mailed. Or send it as an e-card, so it’ll be sure to be on time.  Or you can order something like the limited-edition Missoni woven print sneaker.  Lots of options, and she’ll like any one of them.

Of course, when it comes to women (and moms are women, remember) clothes are always in order.  But rather than get something ordinary from the local discount department store, how about something from Fossil?  Not what you’d ordinarily think about for Mother’s Day, but that’s the idea.  They have cool items and they’re offering free shipping on orders over $100.  Need a specific suggestion?  How about a Stella watch, a ceramic watch, or jewelry?  And there’s always gift cards.

A good Mother’s Day gift is something your Mom would not ordinarily get for herself.  Perhaps she wishes she had more time to read books but her busy life keeps getting in the way.  There’s a solution for that:  Audible.com. 

Audible.com is the premier online provider of digital audiobooks and audio entertainment.  Now, instead of having to sit down to read that bestseller she’s been yearning after, your mother can listen to it on her MP3 player, iPod, iPhone, Kindle, Blackberry, or Android device, among other options.  Obviously, this means she can listen while exercising, riding the bus, or any other multi-tasking opportunity.  Audible.com offers over 100,000 titles in many different genres.  Books, speeches, radio broadcasts, and more can be purchased separately or through an economical monthly membership.  Entertainment, self-improvement, and education at your fingerstips! (Or ear tips.)

Finally, she can catch up with her friends and read (listen to) The Hunger Games! 

And right now, you can get the first 3 months of membership at Audible.com for just $7.49 a month (regularly $14.95).  This entitles you to one audiobook per month, a free digital subscription to The New York Times or Wall Street Journal, and ongoing discounts on Audible.com products.

Click for The Hunger Games audiobook from Audible.com

How about some great food from Spain?  That’s right, Spain.  This is not Mexican food, this is Spanish food, and the place to get it in the U.S. is La Tienda, a business that imports lots of delicious and one-of-a-kind products from Spain.  Their site deserves careful exploration.  And their food merits appreciative dining.  Maybe you can’t cook for your mom, but you can still give her something really tasty.  And unique.  They also have cookbooks, cookware, and beautiful ceramics, among many other things.

But let’s get back to customization.  How about making her a one-of-a-kind product at Zazzle?  You can make her a T-shirt, tote bag, apron, greeting card, mouse pad — they have almost 40 different products to choose from.  Use one of your own digital photos.  Go to Zazzle’s “Create” page and have at it.   You can add your own text, too.  Or, if you can’t quite come up with your own design, Zazzle has over a billion products to choose from, plus the Artsprojekt and Labz specialty sites (see the links in the top bar on their site).  Use the Zazzle search bar to search on one of your mom’s interests and lots of product options will appear.  You can often customize these products, too.  Or you could try my Zazzle store (it’s got women’s clothing).  You can select expedited shipping to make sure it arrives on time.

When’s the last time your mom had a nice vacation?  You can get her a gift card to BedandBreakfast.com and she can select from more than 4,000 B&B’s and other lodgings around the U.S.  and Canada.  Imagine the fun she’d have choosing a place to go and stay.  She could go with your dad, her BFF, or have her own adventure…  They’re offering a deal for Mother’s Day, too — 10% off using this code:  BBMOM10.  See details at the site.

If not a vacation, how about an event?  You could treat you mom to a show or concert.  Just go to TicketNetwork to select from a huge array of current and upcoming events.  How about Wicked?  Or Cirque Du Soleil?  Or Sting?  TicketNetwork has good prices (usually lower than the competition — such as 15% off Broadway ticket orders over $200 with code BWAYSAVE15 through 6/15/10) and good customer service.  And if she’s a sports fan (baseball — save 10% using code MLB2010 through 6/15;  or tennis, anyone?) they’ve got that covered, too.

And if you send her on a trip or to an event (or even if you don’t), she might want to have some new luggage or a new handbag.  Fortunately, eBags, probably the best one-stop shopping spot for getting things to carry stuff in, has some good deals going.  Explore their site.  You could start by checking Mother’s Day handbag suggestions.  

Corona Ergonomic Pruner

But maybe your mom wants to stay closer to home…  Does she like to garden?  How about a nice Corona pruner?  (Corona makes some of the best forged tools.)  Click the image to the right or here to find them for a discount at BIC Warehouse.

They feature a forged, heat-treated bypass blade.  The angled head reduces wrist fatigue.

Does she like to bird-watch?  How about a pair of binoculars from Cabelas?  These Bushnell 10×42 All-purpose binoculars should fit the bill.  And they’re not expensive.

Is she into “green” living?  Then you’re sure to be able to find something for her at GreenandMore, which carries a ton of environmentally-oriented products, gear, and things for the home.

How about music?  Fortunately, I have just the thing:  Bach’s Goldberg Variaions, played by Glenn Gould, an absolutely legendary recording.  Everybody likes the Goldberg Variations.  Or find something else out of a selection of 500,000 works at CD Universe, including movies and television shows.

Maybe your mom is a reader, too.  So how about a magazine subscription?  It’s the gift that keeps on giving every month…  And not just any magazine subscription, but a discounted one.  You can get great prices on a big selection of magazines, including many 2-for-1 offers, at University Subscription Service.  It’s the only way I subscribe anymore.  The prices are consistently the lowest I’ve found and the customer service is good.  Just don’t get your mom Popular Mechanics (unless she’s a DIYer).  She’d probably enjoy Elle, Smithsonian, Self, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, or any of a hundred others.

Does she enjoy wine?  Then she would appreciate a bottle that you can personalize with a label just for her (and ratings of the wines help you choose).  Or choose from over 600 products at Wines.com.  There is no mininum order and prices start at $10 a bottle.

Click to see the caviar selection at Mackenzie Ltd.

And to go with that wine, how about caviar, or another gourmet food item, from Mackenzie Ltd., one of the best sources of gourmet food on the web?  They import only the best foods from around the globe.  They have chocolate, too.  And I’m talkin’ good chocolate.

And then, of course, there’s a camera.  Mothers like cameras because, for some reason, they always want to take a picture of you.  So help her out.  An outstanding place to find all things photographic is J&R Computer/Music World, New York’s legendary, block-long electronics store.  Great prices and excellent customer service.  You can order and get expedited shipping to have it there by this weekend.  They have a ton of other Mother’s Day gift suggestions as well.

Speaking of suggestions…  If none of the preceding ideas has grabbed you and you’re still wondering what to get, try Overstock.  They carry millions of products and they have a convenient suggestion page for Mother’s Day gifts (something they provide for every holiday).  Of course, their prices are second to none — and their suggestions are okay (not as good as mine, but not bad).  And shipping is only $2.95 on your entire order.  Give them a try.

If you want still more suggestions and discount deals (for example, Best Buy is offering some special promotions) that I didn’t have the space to include here, go to my GOOD DEALS AND OUTLETS page (for future reference, the link is in the top menu bar).  I’m continually updating it with coupons, best-buys, closeouts, interesting products, sales, discounts, and promotions from the best vendors.

Hope this has helped.  Just as dads appreciate something besides a steady stream of neckties, moms like variability, too.  It shows you put some thought into it.  Though, of course, you know she won’t complain about flowers…

And for any moms who’ve happened to run across this post…  Happy Mother’s Day!  Are your kids sort of clueless?  Then share this post on your Facebook page or elsewhere with one of the social bookmarks below, or forward the URL.  Who knows — they might just get the hint.

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Many people have felt the need to weigh in on Avatar.  Given that, I suppose it’s predictable that there has been no shortage of individuals and groups that have chosen to carp about it.  

Whiners from the Vatican to anti-smoking organizations have found something to take exception to in the movie, chiefly because it’s the top-grossing film in the history of the world.  After all, who protests against an indie film that makes $70,000 and plays in 20 theaters?  Nobody.  That we hear of, anyway.

 That said, I thought I’d weigh in on Avatar. Amongst the rest of the Avatar-kerfuffle, this approach will, I hope, be from a unique and rather more encouraging perspective:  how the story relates to the Law of Attraction.

The Law of Attraction (LOA) has been getting a lot of air-play of late, due mostly to the film and book The Secret.  Lots of folks have jumped on that bandwagon — everyone from product packagers to Baptist preachers.  What is not so well-known is that the modern incarnation of the idea of the Law of Attraction (it’s been around for centuries in one form or another) is primarily due to Esther and Jerry Hicks, who have been offering the teachings of Abraham regarding the LOA since the mid-1980s and who were the inspiration for the The Secret.

The Abraham-Hicks perspective on the LOA, as described in books such as Ask and It is Given, informs my take on how it relates to the story presented in Avatar.

In a nutshell, the LOA states:  That which is like unto itself, is drawn.  The corollary is that you get what you think about, whether you want it or not.  Why?  Because thoughts vibrate.  Fundamentally, they are energetic processes.  The Law of Attraction causes a given thought to attract similar thoughts (similar energies).  Consistent thought on a topic forms an energy matrix, which affects the energy (or vibration) with which everything is made.  Eventually, given enough time and focus, the energy manifests as matter, as circumstances, as experiences perceivable to the five senses.  Desire focuses thought.  The desire is first satisfied on an energy or spiritual level and, in the absence of resistant competing thoughts on the part of the desirer, is eventually manifested on the material level.  Every desire, without exception, is for something that the person thinks will make him/her feel better.  If you come into harmony with the energy that answers a desire (and “coming into harmony” can include taking appropriate action), the physical answer or fulfillment of the desire occurs.

Warning:  there are spoilers of the movie coming up.  If you haven’t seen it and don’t want to know what happens, stop reading here.  This is written mostly for those who have seen it.

Avatar is first of all a beautiful film.  It vividly portrays an intriguing alien environment and culture.  It also offers a dramatic, multi-layered story.  People couldn’t have found so many things to get up in arms about if there weren’t enough elements and topics in the film to spark responses and considerations.  The movie succeeds very well as entertainment and weaves enough ideas into its structure to make it worth pondering.  It’s fun to watch, captivating, stimulating, and artistically rendered. 

What Jake Wants

The plot’s focal point is Jake Sully, a former marine whose legs are paralyzed.  His twin brother was hired to help a scientific and diplomatic mission on the moon Pandora that is attempting to persuade the indigenous people (known as the Na’vi) to move away from an area that a corporation from earth wants to mine for a valuable mineral called unobtainium.  The humans have created “avatars” — bodies that combine human and Na’vi DNA — that can be remotely controlled by human “drivers” and which are used to interface with the natives.  Jake’s brother is killed, but since Jake is his twin, he is compatible with his brother’s avatar.  So Jake is hired to go to Pandora to become part of the Na’vi avatar team.

Jake’s main desire, as presented early in the film, is to regain full mobility, to escape the confines of his wheelchair.  We know that he has had that desire for awhile.  So that is what his thoughts have been focused on, that is how he has been vibrating.  And as he has maintained that desire, the universe has begun putting together the cooperative components that will allow it to be fulfilled.  One of the cooperative components is obviously his brother, who apparently was at a point where he could acquiesce to leaving his physical body.  Without that, Jake would never go to Pandora and would never receive an avatar.

Jake’s other desire is to transform himself from being a man of war to a man of peace.  He has had enough of fighting, of destruction and disconnection.  This is touched on only briefly in the film, but this is also present in his desire-matrix, and the universe is answering that request, too.  All desires that we hold percolate together to form a kind of energetic matrix, or vortex (see The Vortex, by Esther and Jerry Hicks) that will be satisfied materially if we are able to predominantly give attention to the good-feeling aspects of what we want and what we observe in our life.

Jake arrives on Pandora and is plugged into his avatar for the first time.  He “wakes up” in a new body that is strong, agile, healthy and, best of all, has functioning legs.  The scene where he takes his first “test drive” of the avatar shows him as giddy and rambunctious as a kid, crashing around the lab, heading outside to run for the sheer joy of running.  He stops and digs his feet into the rich soil, and you know he is reveling in his renewed physical perception and prowess.

Even though inhabiting the avatar body is not permanent, he has still gone a long way toward fulfilling his desire to have full use of his body.  Yet it is not fully realized.  He is offered a deal by the head of corporate security, Colonel Quaritch:  if Jake infiltrates the Na’vi culture and learns their motivations and weaknesses, the Colonel will see to it that the corporation pays for a procedure for Jake to regain use of his legs.  It seems that the path to complete fulfillment of his dream has come to pass.  But has it?  Getting the use of his legs back is only part of the mix of desires Jake holds.  The second important element – to become a man of peace, to enjoy a satisfying and life-affirming existence — is more complex in its realization and turns out not to be compatible with the path Quaritch has offered.  Not to worry, though – the universe is still enacting opportunities on his behalf.  To take advantage of an even better manifestation, he must establish a relationship with the Na’vi. 

When he first encounters Neytiri, the Na’vi woman with whom he will form his most important relationship, she sees him first as an enemy and then as a wayward child (oftentimes the people who are most important to us irritate us when we first meet them).  In many respects, in his Na’vi incarnation, Jake is a child — but a child with a pure and fearless heart, as are all children when they first start out.  When things become dangerous, he focuses on the outcome he wants to have happen, not on the fear of what he does not want to happen — a 180-degree difference in focusing that makes all the difference.  Neytiri recognizes Jake’s inner qualities and, compounded by a helpful sign from her spiritual Source (Eywa), she does not kill him, instead helps him fight off a pack of dangerous carnivores, and takes him back to introduce him to her people. 

Each step of the way, Jake does what he can to succeed in his new circumstances, but he doesn’t get in his own way when he doesn’t know how to act.  He watches, learns, practices, and enjoys the challenges, discoveries, and exhilaration of his new endeavors, much like a child.

There is an important line that is spoken by Moat, the spiritual leader of the clan, when it is decided that Neytiri will teach Jake the ways of the Na’vi:  “…we will see if your insanity can be cured.”  The insanity she refers to encompasses a wide meaning, but in a nutshell, it is a diagnosis of the ways in which Jake is disconnected from the goodness of life, his lack of awareness of his place in the larger scheme of things, the way his attitudes hinder his perception of well-being, and cause him to not fully perceive his relationship with the Source from which he — and everything else — comes.

In order to become a man of peace, he must rearrange his mental and percepetual habits (aka beliefs).

Step 3

You may wonder how the final battle that Jake eventually leads against his former employers fits in with this LOA analysis.  This is an element that is kind of an anomaly.  If this were something besides a drama, Jake and the Na’vi probably wouldn’t have to fight.  But few strictly “Step 3″ movies are being made these days…  To understand that, you must be aware of the three steps of manifestation as described by Abraham:

• Step 1:  You ask for something, whether it is consciously stated or unconsciously projected. 
• Step 2:  The universe or Source or God or however you like to call it answers the desire and fulfills it (as Jesus said:  “Knock and the door will be opened unto you”).
• Step 3:  You allow the manifestation of the satisfied desire. 

“Step 1″ experiences involve the perception of the contrast between something that you prefer and something that you do not prefer.  When you perceive something that you do not want, you automatically know what you do want and a desire for that is launched.  If you are told you have cancer, you want to be well.  If you are rejected by a girl to whom you’re attracted, you want to be liked by a girl to whom you’re attracted.  Most movies made nowadays involve a lot of Step 1 experiences and few Step 3 occurrences, which is the fulfillment of the desire.  To get to Step 3, most movie protagonists have to jump through a lot of hoops, travel to hell and back, before they are “allowed” to have what they want.  They must somehow “prove” they are “special” before they are rewarded.  Such “proof” usually involves a lot of difficult action.  That’s just what most audiences seem to find entertaining.  But in real life it doesn’t have to be that way.  Life was not intended to be a struggle.

Science fiction movies generally require some sort of dynamic conflict (Step 1), however, and James Cameron has acknowledged in interviews that the battle between the humans and the Na’vi is kind of the icing on the cake that helps make the entirety of the movie attractive to an audience that includes action fans.  And speaking of “action” (one of the conundrums that people argue over regarding the LOA)…

Jake is not steeped in the Na’vian attitudes of what he can and cannot do.   (As groundbreaking cognitive psychologist Ellen Langer states:  “We’re often better off not knowing the rules.”)  He has already shown himself willing to try just about anything (he has the classic marine gung ho attitude), and so he conceives the idea to ride the toruk or “last shadow.”  His attempt succeeds and he becomes Toruk Makto.  This is an example of an inspired action.   He does not stew about it but just goes for it.  How many of us do that?  You probably have ideas of actions that get you excited, that get your juices flowing – how often do you act on them?  On the other hand, how often do you let fear or a feeling of pessimism dissuade you from acting on what may seem like an “outlandish” idea?  Jake was not a pessimist.  Inspired action is an integral part of the LOA.

By the conclusion of the film, all of Jake’s initial desires are fulfilled.  He is permanently established in a robust Na’vi body.  He is part of a supportive community.  He has a loving relationship.  And his eyes have been opened to new wonders, including a vivid connection to both the material and spiritual worlds (which, in the final analysis, are the same).

The Na’vi’s Part

 And what about the Na’vi’s part in this?  How was the LOA working with regard to them?  What we come to realize is that, while we are perceivers and creators of our own reality, we are creators surrounded by other creators, for every organism and biological entity is sending forth desires for the expansion of well-being and joy.  In other words, we are co-creators.  And so the Na’vi are called into Jake Sully’s experience in order to help him satisfy his desires and Jake is called into the Na’vi’s experience in order to help them satisfy theirs.  What do they want?  We find that out early in the film.  As Jake arrives on Pandora and makes his way to the corporate facility, a huge earth-moving machine passes by that has Na’vi arrows embedded in its tires.  Obviously, the Na’vi want the disruptive “skypeople” to go away.  Without Jake, who has valuable information and strategy regarding how the Na’vi can fight the security/military apparatus of the corporation (which is equivalent to Blackwater) with their less technologically-advanced weapons, the Na’vi wouldn’t have had much of a chance against the gunships, high-explosives, and mechanized walkers.  A number of commentators on the film have complained about how Jake is the “white savior” that comes in to save the “backward natives.”  What they miss is that Jake is saved by the Na’vi as much as he helps them save their way of life.  They help each other get what they want.  They are co-creators.  Neither is superior to the other.  All cooperative relationships are assembled by the LOA and implemented through equally-important beings.

Resistance, Connection, and Expansion

How did the LOA affect the corporate managers and military guys?  After all, they had things they wanted, too, but they didn’t get them.  I’d suggest it’s primarily because they were disconnected from the full sense of well-being and non-resistance that would have allowed them to get what they wanted.  Look at the faces of the corporate guys in the control room after they blow up Home Tree.  These are sad, self-condemning people.  The Colonel is disconnected as well (a badass fighter, yes, but he is fighting against what he doesn’t want as contrasted with what he does want, and so, his focus being what it is, life brings him more of what he doesn’t want).  But they are co-creators in the overall game as well, and they will have other opportunities to realize their desires (some will have to come back in new bodies to do so).

 It’s not surprising that you can easily find this arc concerning the LOA embedded in this film.  After all, James Cameron is an exceedingly successful and creative director.  He knows a thing or two about the LOA, whether consciously or instinctively.  He has been able to create what he wants many times.  He obviously has tremendous enthusiasm for the creative process, which is the basis for why we bother to inhabit this physical environment in the first place.  He loves to make movies, relishes the exploration of new ideas, and appreciates experiencing and sharing the upliftment of expanded consciousness.  Any great artist helps us to make those connections.

 In the final anlysis, the pleasures of Avatar are found in connection and expansion.  The bodily connections that the Na’vi are able to make to other Pandoran life-forms with their queue (braids) can be seen as symbolic of the connection that we can make between the essence in ourselves and the essence in other beings, as well as the essence of our physical self and the Essence of our universal, spiritual Self.

This is also the significance of the Na’vi statement, “I see you.”  When spoken between Jake and Neytiri near the end of the film, as she holds his human body, it’s emblematic of seeing the spiritual essence of each other.  We can all see the good in each other, something good, anyway, if we just look for it.  “I see you” does not mean “I see your flaws,” it means, “I see You, the best You, and your value.”  Similar to “Namaste.”

With regard to continued expansion, seeing the movie Avatar once or multiple times has become for many people a Step 1 experience — that is, they feel a desire to be connected to life-enhancing vital energy in the same way the Na’vi are, or they wish they could live on Pandora.  What they are really longing for is an awareness of the connection between their human consciousness and their vast spiritual consciousness, to become aware of the ongoing unification of those two aspects of themselves, to be aware of the well-being that is always flowing to them, of the joy that is their birthright (just as Jake Sully’s re-birth as a Na’vi renewed his sense of joy).  This is possible, of course.  If it was not possible, such a desire could not be conceived of.  Connection of the type portrayed in Avatar is possible here and now — in fact, it can only occur now, since that is the only moment we ever have.  Those who want to experience that must become appreciative of themselves, appreciative of what is around them, of the interesting beings they come in contact with, of the air they breathe, of the beautiful clouds in the sky, of the delicious food they eat, the communication they have with loved ones, the inner movement of their own harmonious perceptions, the rising of the sun, the marvelous workings of their own body.  By focusing on such things, focusing on things that make them feel good, they will leave behind resistant thoughts, thoughts of lack, thoughts of separation, and they will find that they have been connected all along. 

The only thing that ever diminishes such an awareness is our own thoughts.  Direct your thoughts and you control your experience.  Experience, after all, is just interpreted vibration, whether that vibration is coming from the “real world” or from a movie screen.  How do you think James Cameron and his collaborators created the Na’vi?  Ponder that.  This is a thought-based universe.  All is consciousness.  All experience is consciousness.  The Na’vi are here, and they are us.

Eywa Ceremony

By the way, does the following video remind you of anything?  I’ll bet James Cameron has seen this (from the movie Baraka):

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The temperature was 8 degrees F when I went out for my morning walk.

When I came back in with my face all red and almost numb, I removed the 3 layers of insulation I had wrapped myself in and hung it up.

And then I ate an orange.  It’s December and I ate a ripe orange.  I peeled it and the juice ran down my fingers.  I broke apart the segments and enjoyed that sunshine-kissed, vitamin-C-containing, sweet pulpy goodness.

Ain’t civilization something?  Here it’s winter, there’s snow on the ground, and I’m enjoying juicy citrus fruit.  I’m doing something that, for almost all the preceding hundreds of thousands of years of human history, no one at this altitude and latitude (5,360 feet, 39th parallel), regardless of their amount of wealth, could have done.  No English king or Japanese emperor or Russian czar around the year 1300 AD, for example, would have been able to eat a fresh orange in the winter unless they traveled to where they are grown — an epic journey at that time.  This morning it was easy for me.  And this particular orange was actually purchased in Kansas, where you can’t grow oranges.  And just about any of you reading this — whether you live in Juneau, Alaska or Bangor, Maine — could have done the same thing.  All you’d have to do is hand over a dollar or so.

Icicles, snow

In essence, an orange in winter constitutes wealth — a choice that would have been unthinkable a few hundred years ago.

As I’m eating this orange, the eave of a house along my street looks like this:

Our civilization is abundant with such privileges and pleasures — so much so that we hardly give them a second thought.  Yet consider all the things that had to be accomplished for me to enjoy this fresh fruit this morning as the mercury bottomed out in the single digits — what had to be accomplished not only recently but for a long period beforehand.

My mind tends to like connecting divergent things, so I was thinking about eating this orange in the context of some comments I came across on Youtube.  I’d been watching some of the posted videos from the movie Braveheart — in particular the “freedom” speech that William Wallace gives that inspires the Scots before the battle of Stirling Bridge (see an example of Wallace’s speech here) and in the comments from viewers, tucked in among the typical ungrammatical bickering and profanity, some guys said that they wished they were alive back then and could have taken part in that battle (on the side of the Scots, I assume), rather than being alive today, when there is nothing meaningful to do and people are just concerned about what they can buy.  It occurred to me that, since we are essentially spiritual beings who live forever, most of us were alive back then and experienced those conditions, albeit in different bodies.  And some of us did fight in that battle and in other battles, because we wanted freedom.  The freedom to be, to do, to have, to create.  And now we are enjoying the fruits of that labor.

I understand those guys who say they wished they could be there.  They want something that will bring forth the best in themselves.  But consider:  there is always another level of freedom to seek, for as it is achieved at one level, new possibilities occur.  For men, there are other ways to express one’s best besides battles.  (Battles just get the bulk of the publicity.  Movies aside, true fulfillment on the battlefield is elusive — which is what author Jon Krakauer, among others, found.)  Battles are are not an end in themselves.  What we want is to eat an orange in the winter.

What new things will we be enjoying a few hundred years from now?

There are still things around that can be used to inspire the best in ourselves.  Pick something – whatever feels good to you – and pursue it.

And get yourself some great oranges and other citrus fruit from Florida or Texas this winter.  You can get them from Pittman & Davis without leaving your house…

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