Why is it difficult sometimes to find tranquility

Is it beyond our meager mental ability

We journey through our limited time

With useless worry of future on our mind

In the sometimes lonely, in mid of night

We feel futility of struggle and fight

We realize solemnity of existence

In the limits of time’s distance

Some would pray for relief

To an unseen God, or mysterious belief

We seek kindred spirits to share

Our anxiety and honesty if we dare

Or we find comfort in a drink

So to sleep and not to think

Maybe tranquility and peace, we will reach

On some faraway shore and sandy beach

Or in our loves and heart’s mind at night

We find our soul’s truth and know it’s right

Over the course of many articles and some poems, I’ve tried to convey some of what I feel is accumulative wisdom about life and thought that if considered and followed should enhance the probability of finding success in life and in business.  I’ve pressed the need for perspective, of being curious, of being passionate and willing to take risks and of course the need for self-evaluation.  To know your own capabilities and be honest about it, and then to stretch and climb the mountains in front of you.  Create a life-long passion for learning and accomplishment.

What I’ve not yet talked about is “luck”.  I’ve written about life’s lottery, which is a bit of luck in where you were born, what country your parents managed to get you to, and how the sacrifices of our ancestors bring you to a point in your life where you have opportunities for success.

Most people get some break in life, an opportunity that presents itself, in part out of luck… Many will never have the perspective to see the opportunity, they will only see the problem.  Some will be too timid to explore it, or if they do, will realistically lack the talent or passion to exploit it.   However, getting that opportunity is something of a bit of chance, of luck, and we can increase prospects of this occurring by expanding our network, expanding our experiences, and being open to seeing change as a potential opportunity. Furthermore, be ready!  Develop the wisdom and capability to respond to opportunity when it knocks… and then work hard and be persistent.  Climb that mountain!  If you don’t, you’ll find that there are so many other talented people that are also out there looking for their chance, as they go by you.

Be Lucky!

I know I have been!

The following article was an interesting take on the dirty secret about success… luck!

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180309-your-hard-work-doesnt-actually-pay-off

A Field of Black and White

Enthroned on a field of black and white

To do strategic battle for what is right

For the moment queen is close at my side

Evaluating all the risks arrayed on the other side

Bounding and maneuvering knights

Travel forward looking for fights

Pawns inch forward and sacrifice

Too easily their least-valued lives

Bishops dressed in religious garbs

Cast sideways glances with sharp barbs

Rooks late to battle, and castle protect

Reserves for later power project

The queen flits easily forward and back

She manages intrigue and leads the attack

A game of thrones with a hobbled king

Moving nearly like a pawn, with little sting

Two dimensions and so many options

Think ahead many thoughtful notions

View the field from on high

As a bird would float and fly

Lure your adversary into a trap today

Or surprise with a brilliant unexpected play

A game of war, of strategy and of might

Played on a field of black and white

I’ve written about how great and growing lives are driven by a relentless curiosity, see “Loving Curiosity” and “Of Perspective and Shading” and its value in how we navigate life. True to “Thinking About it” and “Keep it Simple” this musing is about the value of risk taking in one’s life journey.  I have expressed a philosophy that includes truthful self-evaluation, seeing the journey ahead of you from the vantage point of perspective, understanding that clarity is not possible, that life and futures are always shaded.  I encourage decision making based on perspective, but also based on evaluations of options where the fewest of assumptions are necessary to see successful outcome, and yet I’d be remiss if I didn’t add the need for risk taking.  Every day in a life has inherent risks.  We may be prudent, we may seek to avoid failure, and danger, but it is ever present.  Randomness and chance both play a role in our lives, in good ways and in bad.  In a way circumstances are a part of every life that we can either embrace and “Dancing with Circumstance”, or we can spend our days decrying to each other the consequences of circumstance.  So too, our decisions and our path includes always options of relatively greater or lesser safety.  I believe that if we are curious, and investigative, if we are able to see past the risk with perspective, if we keep it simple, and think about it, then we can master too the risks of our lives and world.  All interesting stories involve taking a risk.  As my grandfather used to always say, “take a chance, Columbus did” … I’m sure he meant it in a fun and casual way, but I see those words differently in the passage of time.  Quite possibly it was his way of saying that in all life, in every game of cards, or game of life there are choices and risks.  But there is no great story, there is no great wins, and no great loves without taking a risk; and when you do, do so with passion, and know very well that “Passion is a Dragon”.

Gun Insurance Required 

It seems that our state and federal government leaders have grave reluctance, approaching cowardliness toward improving gun control.  Furthermore, would the government be good at enforcement even if gun control legislation was improved?  As evidence by systemic failures and holes in background check system, I have concerns.  A private/government cooperative approach may be to use insurance as a means to manage access to guns and provide incentive to responsive and accountable ownership.  I propose we attach accountability to gun ownership and require insurance coverage to compensate victims of gun-violence.  Then with every licensed gun, there would be a required proof of current insurance, with risk of penalties for both unlicensed as well as uninsured weapons.  Insurance companies would be interested in the additional business opportunity, but also would help greatly with assessing and conferring risk to weapon type, owner stability, and other critical factors of risk.  To legally operate an automobile, you are required to have insurance in addition to motor vehicle registration, and the cost of that insurance is relative to the safety of the vehicle, the driver and its use, storage, as well as location.  Seems like a comparable risk profile would be possible, with great differences in insurance cost for a handgun versus a semi-automatic rifle.  Furthermore, a gun store owner, or other weapons dealer, even private sellers would own the liability for selling guns without ensuring insurance was in place.  For sake of an example, imagine a $500 annual insurance for responsible gun ownership of a personal handgun, while an automatic or semi-automatic weapon under questionable ownership requirements may be nearly impossible to insure, or maybe it’s expense would be 10x the handgun, more like $5,000 annual cost.  This would be prohibitive for many, as it should be.  A lower cost insurable solution may be to keep a high-risk weapon at a range under lock and key to be used only there, and to move it would require a special permit and appropriate insurance.  In this way, gun enthusiasts could own, and use at a target range their weapons responsibly and with proper protections and oversight, bringing insurance costs more in line to the handgun price.  The insurance market would set and control pricing based on risk factors.  The government would only legislate the requirement for insurance.  I hope this may be a more palatable path toward gun control, and should be viewed as a part of a bigger picture of improvements in school protections, mental health improvements, ammunition and direct gun control.   We need a practical alternative to the current ineffective approach to gun control in the US today.  Quite possibly the insurance industry would be a suitable lobbyist balance to the NRA lobby.

What A Waste

Beautiful, young, future’s many and strong

Possible artists, doctors, inventors, and heroes

We’ll never know what they may have accomplished

We’ll never know the good they may have done

If they’d succeed in life, even if they’d make our lives different

All because they died going to the movies, going to church, to a concert

And maybe worst of all because they were bettering themselves in school

We light candles, and pray, and say what a shame it is

We hear of heroes that shielded others through tears of pain

Then we go on with our day

What can we do, what can we say?

Memorials and flowers and teddy bears, remembrances, until it rains

And in November we’ll vote again without remembering their names

Loving Curiosity

Let her free, she will then be your friend

Curiosity will be with you until the end

She will guide you in life-long learning

Love her if it’s wisdom you’re yearning

Forget salaciousness of celebrity and Hollywood stars

Forget triviality of rumored family and friend’s scars

This world of nature, science, math and beautiful art

Of literature, history, and genius we must never part

There is so much to learn, and she can teach us

If we let her, and we listen to world wondrous

Thinking is the feeling of a thought

The consideration of all sides

Saying it as simply as possible

Rare and improbable are unique thoughts

All thoughts are vulnerable if shared

But opened and shared thoughts are the most intimate of human actions

And thoughtlessness is the death of feeling and therefore inhumane

Keep thinking!

It’s complex to make things simple … corollary is, it’s easy to make simple things complex

Occam’s razor postulates that the theory with the fewest assumptions is most often the correct one

Poetry that people like the best is simple

I used to think that telling me that my poetry is deep was a compliment

Complexity can be your friend, but simple is better understood

I sleep easier with clarity and conviction of simple than I do with complex inventions

The essence of a simple solution seems to enjoy being wrapped in complexity

Simply said… have a great day!

So the House, the Senate, the WH and the Democrats and Republicans cannot get to a budget agreement!  Big surprise!   Somehow “shut-down” doesn’t mean much to our lawmakers, in fact it seems like it just gives them more air time and sense of importance as we careen into the unknown and they blame each other for the lack of a budget again this year!  Low income children’s health care, “Dreamers” are caught in the cross-fire of politic normal, and the dearth of moral imperative.  Maybe someday the issues will be resolved, but at what cost in our national ethos?  Eventually the great people in the military will deal with another “Continuing Resolution” and find a way to protect us.   The dedicated people in the CDC will find a way to contain a flu epidemic while dealing with shutdown.   The security at the capital will be maintained, the floors will be swept, somehow food will make it to our long-tiring lawmakers, so don’t worry… except we should worry about our great country’s direction.

I think that a perfect legislation would establish that members of congress, senate, and White House and all their aides should not be paid during a shut-down.  Also a shut-down should include the federal travel office as well.   Then you’d see the pressure for D’s and R’s to negotiate.   Even the wealthy in office will feel the pressure of soon-to-be-unpaid aides looking over their shoulders as they negotiate.

We are too good to our non-functioning politicians!