I just saw one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. A truck just went by with a group of people sitting in the bed with a protective, clear tarp boxing them in. The truck was painted with zebra stripes and was advertised as an Urban Safari. The tourists in the back wore hats and sunglasses and peered around at such scenes as people waiting for the bus or eating outdoor at a restaurant.

I laughed out loud. Too funny.

I’ve been learning more things about running a business. It’s interesting in that a business is kind of like a small government. A set of procedures must be developed & refined. A justice system must be in place.

Running a business is also a huge responsibility. I can’t imagine wanting to be a CEO in charge of decisions that will affect tens of thousands of lives…especially in these times where you can get fired so that the company’s profit will go up, or your job could get outsourced to cheaper labor.

I do everything I can to make sure the people I work with are taken care of first and foremost before anything else in the business. I think companies are unethical when they treat people as if they are less important than the product being produced.

Anyone who gets fat while people below him or her in responsibility suffer for no deserved reason is a thief, and they will certainly reap their karma upon themselves and/or their children.

Apparently I missed Obama’s quip on Jay Leno. He made a self-depricating remark about his bowling skills, saying it was like Special Olympics. Of course, a bunch of parents of special olympics kids got pissed off.

But what would have been the poltically correct thing to say? "I bowled as if I had a physical handicap" or "I bowled as though I was disabled." If you look like a retarted person when you do something, why can’t you say the person looks retarted?

I think disabled people will always have to fight our instincts toward survival of the fittest. This is not unlike the gay’s fight to overcome our majority instincts reproduce sexually. We ought to be able to tease each other about our outer differences, knowing none of us deserves a better or worse body.

On the other hand it probably is inappropriate to single out any one group when you are the president. The only way you can get away with that kind of comedy is to make fun of everyone equally.

Unfortunately Obama has a lot of pride (Leo, like me) and it is hard for him not to be good at something. He just has to swallow his pride on this one.

Not every thought we have should be spoken. I think we have all cringed at the idea of others being able to read our minds. The mind’s job is to generate thoughts. Everything you’ve allowed the mind to observe is a data point that will later be used to make a thought.

We shouldn’t allow thoughts to become words when they are negative or clouded by emotion. Many times we say things we don’t really mean. But once a thought is announced, it becomes someone else’s data point, and it has new power.

Guard your thoughts, they become words.
Guard your words, they become actions.
Guard your actions, they become habits.
Guard your habits, they become values.
Guard your values, they become destiny.

For people who don’t understand how the position of your planets at your birth can affect your personality, tendencies, and actions, I say your astrological signs are like the wave you caught when you were born. It is the environmental influence; the tide of the universe’s various energetic influences. The universe over time is locally in motion. Planets are moving through space (some with us on them!), other planets are coasting around us, all large objects (and small) are bending the energetic fields around them. The moment you were born you were in, and on, one of these time-dependent waves of energy.

Astrologers could have pinpointed any time during your existence to read the alignment of the stars, but time of birth is the easiest and most practical for gathering data.

I think we are so blessed to have the advantage of hundreds of generations worth of data for this science of energy.

I’ve been dwelling on the idea that God dwells in everyone and everything, and that is how "he" experiences himself. In us, God sees the world through the human experience. When you meet someone, sometimes you feel like you have met them before, or that you have known them forever. It is because you have! We are all one energy, experiencing this life through many eyes. Our carnal selves see each other through evolutionary eyes–is this person a good mate? Are they safe? Are they my friend or enemy? Etc.

But our eternal selves are there beneath the carnal selves…Recognizing God in others. The Hindus greet each other with hands in a prayer position, saying "Namaste," literally "The divine in me bows to the divine in you."

Try looking at others in this light and notice how you feel.

I told my roommates my deep thoughts on this yesterday and they said "Yep, without even attending a Unitarian church you are a Unitarian Universalist." It’s like the Swami Satchidananda said, "I am not Hindu, I am Un-do." We are here to Un-do all the misperceptions we collect along the way that have programmed us to believe we are fundamentally seperate or different than each other. In reality, We are ONE!

Our computers are never going to get faster because they keep making the programs that run on our computers larger and larger.

If you want to write a letter to the president, go to:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

“Dear Mr. President:

I am writing to express my perceptions regarding the future of our health care system. I am optimistic about your intentions to reform the system and your commitment to make progress by the end of the year. However, I am concerned that the White House is not giving enough serious consideration to a “single payer” national health care plan. Please think outside the “senator’s health insurance plan” box. We can do better.

The will of our nation’s people is that no one should be left behind when it comes to healthcare, just as public education, police, and firemen are not on a pay-per-visit basis. We want a SIMPLE system of healthcare, paid for by taxes, which ensures that we won’t have to worry about money or insurance plans when we visit a hospital in a time of need and worry.

I used to work a lucrative job which provided good health insurance, so I know how comfortable it is to be covered, and I also know how nonchalant I was toward how broken the system is for many millions of people. However, I am worried that you and your colleagues, the people who are now in a position to change our health care policy, will not have the courage to step away from your comfortable, elitist insurance system and radically reform it so that the word “health insurance” becomes obsolete.

We do not want national health insurance. We want national health care.

I can’t think of a good reason not to alienate the insurance companies, big pharma, and other industries who have profited on the illness of our families and friends. My father, after working long hours in back-breaking construction work for 30 years, has had all of his toes amputated over the past few years due to an infection that he just couldn’t afford to treat early enough. He has built air force hangars, roads, bridges, and homes, and still regularly volunteers to build things in his retirement years for neighbors and the church. My parents spent 20 years working their way out of debt due to a failed business (an arena where I believe failure is more appropriate and acceptable), and were so proud to buy the first home they could afford that was not on wheels. They now have used all the equity in their home to pay his medical bills and prescription costs, and told me the other day they should be able to pay off the house in 20 years. My father is 66 years old!

We need to take out the middleman of “insurance companies.” I realize that right now it is politically unpopular among “covered” people like senators, CEOs, and upper middle class, to do away with a system that appears to work occasionally, but we need a MAJOR overhaul. Do not let ANY insurance company dictate what doctors can and cannot do anymore. We want to take care of each other.

I have personally been blessed with very good health, and I have no problem paying into a tax pool from which an efficient government health care system is run. I do, however, have a problem paying a private insurance company money, especially in these greedy times.

I appreciate whoever has taken the time to read this, and I sincerely hope we stay true to our values, taking the best ideas from all over the country and the world to create a simple new system of healthcare.

Your fellow citizen,

Christina M. McKinstry”

Building on the thoughts below, From George Carlin’s “The Planet Is Fine”:

“It could be the answer to the age-old, ego-centric question “Why are we here?”

“Plastic, Asshole.”