kc bob

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful for so much but I am most thankful for the love I feel each day from my wife Ann, my family and my friends
(yes that includes you) and from the Lord Jesus.

So, on this special day, I wish each of you a blessed day filled with love that is shared with the ones who love you.

... Snoopy image lifted from my blogging friend Wanda.

Is it always bad to be a workaholic?

I missed my dad a lot growing up, even though we were together as a family.
My dad was really a workaholic. And he was always working. -Steven Spielberg

I can relate to having seasons of my life where the balance of work and family was missing. I remembering the ways that I used to rationalize my bad behavior.
Oddly, I do not think that this pejorative view of being a workaholic is a shared by everyone. Consider how these folks seem to brag about it.

You know, I'm kind of a wild crazy workaholic guy. -Randy Jackson

I'm a workaholic. I've been doing my job for a long time. -Gisele Bundchen

I have always been a workaholic. -Jewel

I'm a workaholic. I love every movie I've been in, even the bad ones, every TV series, every play, because I love to work. It's what keeps me going. -Karl Malden

I'm a workaholic. I could easily work 300-plus days of the year. -Michael Chiklis

So what do you think? Is it always bad to be a workaholic? What if you need to work two jobs just to make ends meet? Or what if your company regularly requires you to work sixty hours a week to meet deadlines? What do you think?

If you wanna be happy ...

"Perseverance towards problem-solving versus complaining over circumstances is a symptom of a happy person. Unhappy people see themselves as victims of life and stay stuck in the "look what happened to me" attitude versus finding a way through and out the other side."
...
"I won't argue that healthy discernment is important, but most happy people are trusting of their fellow man. They believe in the good in people, versus assuming everyone is out to get them. Generally open and friendly towards people they meet, happy people foster a sense of community around themselves and meet new people with an open heart."
...
"There's a difference between control and striving to achieve our goals. Happy people take steps daily to achieve their goals, but realize in the end, there's very little control over what life throws their way."
...
"Happy people live in the now and dream about the future. You can feel their positive vibe from across the room. They're excited about something they're working on, grateful for what they have and dreaming about the possibilities of life."

... these sentiments are excerpted from 7 Habits of Chronically Unhappy People by Tamara Star

Interstellar | ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

I thought that this movie had little to do with Space and everything to do with what makes humans human. I loved the many subtle (and not so subtle) messages about how people prioritize their lives and the sacrifices we are sometimes called to make.

The main plot is about a team of explorers who travel through a wormhole in an attempt to find a potentially habitable planet that will sustain humanity. It paints a dark picture of our future and explores how different people react to the pressures of life.

Interstellar is a long movie (almost 3 hours) and moved slow in a few parts - perhaps the film's editors wanted us to experience the monotony of space travels? That said, I found it to be a very enjoyable story - I even chuckled at the way that the lead character tried to explain a strange twist of fate and not even consider a divine explanation.

Overall, I liked the movie and, on a scale of ten, give it ★★★★★★★.

Catch my other mini-reviews by selecting the Movies link in the menu bar above.

Civil Law ≠ Moral Law

The Libertarian Party has a great article on immigration - you can find it here. One interesting aspect of the discussion is the one that centers on the idea that our laws in America have sometimes changed - the example given is how Prohibition was law until it was repealed. Here is a clip from the piece:

"When large numbers of otherwise decent people routinely violate a law, the law itself is probably the problem. To argue that illegal immigration is bad merely because it is illegal avoids the threshold question of whether we should prohibit this kind of immigration in the first place.

We've faced this choice on immigration before. In the early 1950s, federal agents were making a million arrests a year along the Mexican border. In response, Congress ramped up enforcement, but it also dramatically increased the number of visas available through the Bracero guest worker program. As a result, apprehensions at the border dropped 95 percent. By changing the law, we transformed an illegal inflow of workers into a legal flow."

I say all of this to simply caution us from relying on civil law when we interpret events in our world. Many who argue for enforcing immigration law might advocate for overturning abortion laws in the US based on what they might consider a higher moral law. Some feel the same way about immigrants that break US law when they cross our borders.

So, in the end, I think my allegiance is first and foremost to the moral law of love. The Ten Commandments are rooted in this law and the Golden Rule speaks it concisely. Every other law can change but this one law will always be true.

The Deepest Level of Worship

I can so relate to these words.

Knowing God has made a difference in my life.

Loving God has changed me so much.

Listening to His voice has transformed me.

Feeling his presence when I hurt comforts me greatly.

He is the rock and anchor of my life.

Can you relate?

Hysterical Bob

I chuckled when I saw this cartoon this morning.

That said, I find all of the hysteria surrounding Ebola, ISIS and Elections to be disheartening. This hysteria seems to be a vehicle of "news" and pundit vehicles, as well as social media outlets, to garner higher ratings and publicity. Like the mudslinging political ads of this season, "news" vehicles seem to be tapping into our worst fears and darkest expectations.

In spite of all this, I still naively hope that we in America will one day wise up to the dark motives of this sort of fear mongering and put Hysterical Bob in isolation.

Halloween, Masks, Grandmas and the Royals

Charlie Brown is the one person I identify with. C.B. is such a loser. He wasn't even the star of his own Halloween special. -Chris Rock

A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween. ~Erma Bombeck

There is nothing that gives more assurance than a mask. ~Colette

If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween. -Douglas Coupland

Who thought the Royals had a chance to get to the World Series?
It was a treat for KC but a trick to Oakland, LA and Baltimore. -Bob

Positive Fantasizing

Ran across a great NY Times article by Gabriele Oettingen, a university professor of psychology. The title of her piece is "The Problem With Positive Thinking". Here are a few clips from the article.

"In each of these studies, the results have been clear: Fantasizing about happy outcomes — about smoothly attaining your wishes — didn't help. Indeed, it hindered people from realizing their dreams. Why doesn’t positive thinking work the way you might assume? As my colleagues and I have discovered, dreaming about the future calms you down, measurably reducing systolic blood pressure, but it also can drain you of the energy you need to take action in pursuit of your goals. ... Positive thinking fools our minds into perceiving that we've already attained our goal, slackening our readiness to pursue it."

I suggest you read the rest of the article here. It is a good read and speaks to ways to balance positive thinking with a dose of realism. If this peaks your interest you might be interested in optimism defined as Proactive Realism.

The Lincoln Balance

Happiness follows Contentment

Not sure if it is God or just serendipity that has brought two happiness related images my way this week. I so struggle with being content these days. Difficult to be content with health related limitations. The doc took me off anti-inflammation meds a few weeks ago and I have struggled with pain in my wrists and ankles where I have bone-on-bone issues. Even so, I do understand the challenge to rise above my pain be content in this season of my life. And perhaps challenge is the best word to describe it? Maybe my struggle is not so much with the pain but more about my expectations of happiness that are not connected with being content where I am. So today I will try to focus on being content and see where that takes me. Can you relate?

Happiness as a By-Product

Love this quote from a former First Lady. Reminds me that the pursuit of happiness does not mean that we go after happiness but we go after the things that make us happy.

And by happy, I am not thinking of something that accompanies a superficial appeal to illicit desire or a dalliance in sinful activities. These things do not bring true happiness.

What I think of is the deep contentment and satisfaction that comes when we are following the impulses of our innermost being. Such pleasure seems to come when we are doing selfless acts and loving in a Godlike way. Perhaps it is the only way to really be happy?

When they are not sorry ...

Most of us can relate to the idea of forgiving a person who repents of their wrongdoing. Some of us can even forgive when a person offers a halfhearted apology. But it takes a rare person to forgive when an apology is not offered and the person does not appear to be sorry. Following is the advice that I recently gave a person who was faced with the decision to forgive the unforgivable.

Think of forgiving as an act of releasing the control that a person or their acts has over your life. It is not about saying that what they did is okay (because it was not) but about saying that we will no longer be greatly influenced by them or what they did. And, in the end, forgiveness empowers "us" for the future.

Made for the Valley

“We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life - those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength.” -Oswald Chambers

My blogging buddy Andy posted this quote on Facebook today. It is a thought provoking idea. Especially when we travel through difficult places in life. In truth, I do not want it to be true. But in reality, I know that it is. Body builders know that resistance is important in the development of our muscles. Long distance runners believe that the race is often about running when your body is ready to give up. Even so it is so necessary to understand that we need mountaintops and sunrises in our life. Inspiring events and friends are so important because these encourage us to simply hang in there. So if you are walking through a difficult valley today ... hang in there and know that you are made for a place such as this.

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