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Journal Entry

Getting into the Habit

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I have been reminded of several different places recently that keeping a journal is a good thing.  One of the suggestions is to keep track of what I do each day.  I started last Sunday but have only made that one update.

 

I have made it easier.  Now I need to work on making more of a habit.    Here are some of the things I learned this week.  Last Sunday, Christian Bradley, the other guy I teach with was sick so I had the opportunity to teach.  We discussed the creation because we studying the Old Testament this year.  Iris one of the girls in the class pointed out that Sunday, the first day of the week, was the day the Sun was created and that is why it is called “Sun” day.  I had never thought about that before.  But that is cool.  This inspired me to look to so see how Sunday is named in other languages.  Sunday does seem to be related to the Sun in German, but not French, Spanish or Italian.  Which use a word like Domingo.  Which have its origin in a word meaning “The Lords Day”  I also asked the question if other “Non” Judeo/Christian cultures had a seven-day week?  It seems that many cultures have adopted weeks based on the moon cycle which is based on a 28-day cycle with either 7 or 14-day week break down.  However, there are several cultures that have used over day number versions.  The Romans used a 10 day week and there is a culture in Indonesia, Javanese, that still have a 5-day cycle.   I got most of that information from Wikipedia articles.

 

Anyway until next week.

 

Violence, Society, Religion, And The Progress Paradox

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How can we make the lives of people better?

The synthesis of my ideas today has stemmed from a couple of sources. First is a book I am studying. Second is an article about jobs and wages from the Wall Street Journal yesterday, 2017-11-04.

Over the past several weeks I have been listening to the book The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker a Harvard professor. it was published in 2011

His thesis is the world is becoming less violent. Before reading this book and as he points out most of us feel like the world is becoming worse off as time goes along. He has lots and lots of research to back up his theories, eight hundred and twenty-three pages of smaller print worth.

Of course, he asks the question; “Why are people becoming less violent?” He talks about a civilizing process the societies of the world have been going through over the past several centuries. He talks about how violence in the developed world has become less and less acceptable. He infers that through the spread of information and as people become more educated people become more sympathetic of one another.

While violence is declining I believe we have aways to go to be more empathetic and sympathetic to people. Capitalism is still about exploitation of people that are weaker and more ignorant than yourselves.

As I read the story about Jobs and wages in the WSJ it pointed out that the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in years however wages are not increasing. Companies complain that they cannot find workers. However, it’s more about they are not willing to pay what I am going to call an “Honorable Wage.” There are endless stories of people being laid off because the company needs to show more profit. I had a friend who wrote a song about 20 years ago one of the lyrics said “People love money more than people” I believe this is why people are not happy. I have felt it many times. Businesses care more about money than they care about me. Banks and institutions like banks are the worst.

I digress.

I believe if people cared more about people and their well being than they cared about profit things would get better. Sometime in the future, more people are going to realize happiness comes from our interactions with other people, not money, not fame and not sex.

My quest has now changed into how can we get people to care more about people than they care about these other things. How can we get people to realize the best way to happiness is helping others. My hope is that people will care about how people feel like they care about violence, hunger, animal cruelty, and other social causes. I am talking about the stress fast food workers feel when they are underpaid and under-appreciated by the clients that are paying and begging for these people to make their food. I am talking about the call center employees that are tied to their computers and have to listen to irate customers because their company produces an inferior product. I am sure there are other types of jobs like these that are high stress, maybe dangerous where the people feel trapped with no way to get out; Construction Workers, other laborers, commissioned salespeople, and maybe even teachers. I believe a certain amount of stress can help motivate people, I enjoy the stress I feel as I attempt to solve a problem and the joy I feel from overcoming that problem. There have been times in my career where the situation seemed hopeless when I could not deliver what was expected, not even close to what was expected; I know how to work hard, smart, and long hours. In these situations, I realize I did not have the skills these companies needed. I either quit, once I was fired, and several times I was laid off because the company couldn’t offer a service to customers that was profitable enough to stay in business. Many times I was forced into situations that required me to change. I know some of those people are still in the situations where I was kicked out. I know many still helpless, hopeless and dejected.

I want to find a way for people to feel hope.

Things I learned this week

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Or maybe a better way to explain the learning process for me is what things have come into better focus this week.  Because learning for me a lot of the times it little bits of information from here and there start to gather into a bigger realization and then it comes into focus and becomes more clear.

Yesterday I had breakfast with a fellow I recent met at work.   He stated that marketing is more about the conversation you are having with a person.  I have to say something that is relevant to the person and they have to care about it.  This reminded me of something Kenneth Galbraith said in his book “The Affluent Society”  He said people will only listen to you if they understand what you are talking about and they also have to believe what you are saying.

I can see where the good marketer is the one that can craft a message that speaks to the person in such a way they feel they are having a conversation with someone they understand and believe.

Books I started this week.  “Me Be Do We: The Four Cornerstones of success” I came into contact with this book because of a headline I saw trending on the video section of the www.wsj.com website.  It said “Want to be a millionaire, Make your bed”  That was intriguing so I watched it basically it gave five behaviors or habits millionaires have.  “Then make their beds first thing in the morning, they wave to their neighbors, they don’t have rode rage, they don’t smoke and they pick up trash”.  But I realized as I watching a promotion for Paul Randall’s new book.  When I find a new book I want to read I usually check out the library to see if they have it.  They didn’t and it appears that no library’s have it yet.  It was published or released March 14th.  The Kindle book was only a dollar so I purchased it and started reading.  I realized looking through the book there are 100 behaviors or habits the book is advocating.  The book is more about being a successful person and leading a full filling life than trying to become a millionaire.  I will finish reading the book soon.  I am already starting to see the message that happiness comes from caring about and doing things for other people.

Another book I started this week is “The Great Game of Business” by Jack Stack.  The reason I started reading this book is because I got this book from an inter-library loan and I have to return it next week.  It’s from a library in Houston Texas.  This is good book to that tries to help people change the way they think about and do their work in a business.  I will eventually buy this book.  I probably won’t get it all read before I have to turn it into the library.  But I’ve read enough to know I like the book and the message it is portraying.  I’ll have to write something later when I finish reading it.

Question Everything

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I am grateful that I have had teachers, friends, and relatives that have asked me to question the world around me.   When I was in High School I was speaking to a history teacher about communism and that I was against it.  She said, “You believe in communism, your church’s united order set up by Joseph Smith is communism.”  I did not agree with her.  However, I did a bit of research and it is true, the United Order established by the early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints fits the definition of communism.

“A political and economic ideology based on communal ownership and the absence of class. Communism, which can be thought of as capitalism’s opposite “(Communism, 2016)

Again in College a friend of mine, not a member of my church, and also a Democrat said to me, “The Mormon church has more ideals from the Democrats than from Republicans.”  Rhetoric for things like; “Three Strikes You’re Out” laws. Abolishing social services, medicare, Medicaid, and pell grants are things that many republicans like to rant about.  Just because people are morally conservative, does not mean they are not socially, environmentally and fiscally liberal.

I think people really need to question what they think they believe.

Happiness is the goal, Joy is the goal.  If we are not happy and not experiencing joy regularly we need to change.

We do not need to experiment with different philosophies, lifestyles or mantras.  Just do a bit of research to find out what the possible consequences of those choices will be.

 

 

 

 

Citation:  (Communism, 2016)

 

Bibliography Entry:

Communism. (2016, 10 10). Retrieved from www.investopedia.com: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/communism.asp