Tag Archives: life

Solving the Cube

As a teenager in the 80s, there were so many memorable items that came out to entertain us. We worked out to Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons via VHS, the CD player slowly took over vinyls, high top sneakers, MTV, and leg warmers, to name a few.

We were also introduced to a mental torture device- the Rubik’s Cube. How many hours were wasted trying to line up colors on a block? More than I care to admit.

Solving this puzzle is like trying to make sense out of life. It is not impossible, but it can be difficult. People approach solving a Rubiks many different ways. This is just like how we approach life’s meaning differently.

Some people will analyze and make careful turns, spending more time thinking than acting. Others will constantly spin the sides, hoping that they will solve it by dumb luck or by accident. Of course, there are people who will give up and say it is impossible. Deception also takes a role. There are those who will peal off the stickers and replace them to make a completed cube, attempting to impress those around them.

You can take all of these methods and apply them to how people approach morality. Do we sit back and analyze, rarely acting? Jump on the bandwagon of the latest idea and hope that we will find the answer? Or, worst of all, do we peel the stickers and shape morality to fit ourselves?

It takes a steady balance of insight and action to solve this puzzle and living the moral life.

I challenge you not to ebb and flow with the times,  nor give up due to it feeling like a “hopeless” cause. Focus on what is good and right, thinking and acting that way. Don’t peel the stickers to shape something that fits you. It is a dangerous path to take, one that will do more harm than good. 

Find your center and align your blocks around that.  It is not impossible to solve the cube, just as it is not impossible to solve moral living.

“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions.” – Albert Einstein

Climb Aboard! We Will Show You the Way.

Once again, we are at that time when our lives are bombarded by politics. Every four years, we elect a president who is always preceded by a vicious campaign of personal attacks and name calling. Each candidate has a plan to “help” the nation’s citizens.

Is anyone else tired of the exhausting circus? I know that I am.

We become obsessed with our politicians, wanting them to make changes and improve our lives. We are so focused and dependent that we also look to them for moral direction. Don’t forget, they are humans like you and me. They have no authority to give moral direction. Human thinking is flawed and corrupted with power and control being a huge temptation.

There is the old saying; absolute power corrupts absolutely.  It seems almost cliche to the point that we state it like a punchline to a joke. Yet, I like to state that with more power comes more temptation to abuse that power.

Putting our faith and moral direction in the hands of our politicians is a huge risk; dare I say, an easy way to trick ourselves. The trick is that we let another flawed individual or group guide our ethics as we travel through the raging river of existence. Why risk trusting a navigator who may drive the boat into the rocks or even toss you over to make the boat lighter?

Don’t get into the doomed ship and be chained to an oar, hoping to see the light of day as you row the vessel to an unknown destination under the command of a control hungry monger.

Buy the kayak and direct your own way through life. Be an individual, not part of an enslaved collective rowing under the monotone beat of a drum.

One response to “Climb Aboard! We Will Show You the Way.”

  1. dutifullygrande0152c653d Avatar
    dutifullygrande0152c653d

    Yes I am tired of all the lies and bashing.Human thinking is flawed and for me I will not get on board the boat of destruction , I choose the kyak for the moral direction through this life. My faith is in the One who made me!

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Give Me the Beat, Boy, and Free My Soul…

For my entire life, music has been an important part of who I am. I grew up with a small briefcase style record player, tossing aside the kid’s records that my parents bought me and swiped their (much better) albums. ELO, The Beatles, Barry Manilow, and Ted Nugent were among several that I would put on headphones and let myself be carried away.

I have found that as I am older, music has become a type of therapy and a form of meditation.  A song can comfort during sadness or help release anger that is boiling up inside. Another way to use it is to bring you back to earlier times in your life. It is like time travel, but without the DeLorean. Nothing sparks a memory like a song. I can sometimes capture a feeling I had as a kid with the rift of an old song or a relevant lyric. I believe it was the book, All is Quiet on the Western Front, where the soldier tried to recapture memories and feelings before the war by reading through books he had read in the past. Unfortunately, he was unable to capture those feelings of comfort and his past. It is music that can do this!

Music is not just entertainment or background noise. It is a catalyst that can help an individual process emotions, memories, or feelings. It can bring back good memories but can also bring back the sad. Even through those sad memories, we can begin to heal and learn. Use that sadness to strengthen your resolve!

I am music,  and I write the songs.