June 23, 2013
Sweet Sweat, Bitter Blood
And while we shouldn't sweat the small and unimportant stuff in life, we also can't afford to overlook those things that are really important like our health, spiritual well-being, modest prosperity to care for ourselves and loved ones, and of course ensuring freedom and justice for all people.
It's a balancing act to do everything and it takes hard work to try and be successful on so many fronts of life.
Some success strategies:
- Be aware of what's going on around you--we live in a dynamic world and things are constantly changing.
- Work hard to always have a positive impact--it's too easy to be negative and cynical, give up trying, and throw in the towel.
- Learn from mistakes--everyone makes them.
- Hope for the best, but also train and prepare for the worst--because you never really know.
Overall, I think the picture above says it well: It's better to sweat in training, than bleed in battle.
So listen to the General: sweat now--really work it and don't be afraid to push your limits--you'll be glad you did, when the time comes and it really counts. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
September 16, 2012
The Shofar: We Can All Improve
On Rosh Hashanah, we blow the Shofar (traditionally made from a ram's horn) in synagogue.
My sister-in-law, Sara Herbsman, told me a beautiful learning about the three types of blasts on the Shofar that correspond to 3 types of people that think they may be beyond repair, but who can still improve their lives:
1) Tekiah--tekiah means rooted and is one long blast--a person is never too stuck, stubborn, or set in their ways to change.
2) Shevarim--shevar means broken and the sound is 3 short broken blasts--that is a person is never to broken to fix.
3) Teruah--comes from the word Ra which means bad and is 9 rapid very short alarm blasts--that is a person is never too bad or evil to repent.
For those who have heard the Shofar blast, it is a moving experience--as if your very soul is stirred to introspection and fear of heaven.
I remember learning in Jewish Day School that our prayers would ascend to G-d in heaven on the blast of the Shofar.
But what I always like the best was the story of the one little boy in synagogue who did not know how to pray, but instead just cried--and his tears, full of sincerity, ascended beyond all the other prayers all the way to throne of the Almighty.
May G-d bless us with a happy, healthy, prosperous, and peaceful New Year.
Andy
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Elias Punch)
The Shofar: We Can All Improve
January 1, 2012
Playing The Hand We Are Dealt
It's a new year--2012--congratulations, we made it!
To me, the most striking aspect of this photo is not the size of the game board, but that the people are actually the pieces.
So often life seems like we are pieces in a big game--as if someone is spinning the dice of life and depending on what number comes up--so goes our fortune.
But inside, I don't really believe that--that is too fatalistic and too defeatist. At the same time, I don't believe that we are in control of everything that happens every moment. To me, there are larger forces at work--emanating from G-d, and we must "play" the hand we are dealt.
G-d sends us tests and trusts in life, as Rick Warren says--we do not directly control these.
The tests and trusts give us the opportunity to grow beyond what we are today, to learn life's hard lessons, to care for others, and ultimately to elevate ourselves.
Indirectly, how we do and how well we learn life's lessons--sometimes "hard knocks"--may influence the nature of the future tests and trusts that G-d sends us.
In Monopoly, the roll of the dice or the Chance and Community Chest cards seem to determine our fate--how many spaces we move ahead, how much we have to pay or how much we receive, or whether we end up in the proverbial Monopoly jail. In contrast, in real life, we have the power to choose how we react to to those "chance" events--do we get angry, do we lash out, do we become defeatist or do we fight for what we want and really believe in.
For the New Year, what a great time to resolve to take back some control over lives and to not just be like human pieces in a big game of Monopoly--to choose instead to accept the tests and trusts that you are give and to do the best that you can to grow from them.
This morning, I heard Joel Osteen say on TV that we should prophesize good for ourselves, so that our words can open the door for G-d to bless us.
While, I do not think that our words of desire control what G-d does, I do believe that how we act does influence events, although not always in the way we think.
There is the age old question of why do the evil prosper and the good people suffer? Often, I've heard various answers given that either we don't really know who is good or evil, we can't understand G-d's plan, or the real reward and punishment is in the World to Come.
(Source photo: here)
Playing The Hand We Are Dealt
October 1, 2011
I Want To Be Possible
And is it really what we want to be, when we, proverbially, grow up?
I Want To Be Possible
June 7, 2011
2048--And The World Will Be As One
John Lennon sang the song Imagine—envisioning a time when everyone will be at peace “and the world will be as one.”
Perusing the bookstore, I came across a relatively new book that came out last year called 2048 by J. Kirk Boyd, Executive Director of the 2048 Project at the U.C. Berkeley Law School that carries a vision of peace, unity and human rights similar to the song.
By 2048, Boyd envisions a world with an “agreement to live together”—marked by an International Bill of Rights with five key freedoms:
1) Freedom of Speech—includes freedoms of expression, media, assembly, and associations.
2) Freedom of Religion—the right to worship in your own way and separation of church and state.
3) Freedom from Want—everyone has a right to a useful and fairly paying job, a decent home, adequate medical care, and a good education.
4) Freedom from Fear—freedom from repression, enabled by an independent judiciary and the enforcement of the rule of law.
5) Freedom of the Environment—driven by preservation and sustainability for future generations.
I would see the freedoms in the U.S. Bill of Rights that are not explicitly mentioned here to be implicitly covered by the broad categories of Freedoms from Want and Fear.
For example, the right to bear arms and such could be covered under the Freedom of Want. Similarly, the guarantees to a speedy, public trial and not to be put in double jeopardy or unreasonably searched etc. could be covered under Freedom from Fear.
Boyd’s 2048 implementation of an International Bill of Rights carries forward the Declaration of Human Rights—that consists of 30 articles—by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948—on it’s one hundred year anniversary—that has unfortunately not been fully realized yet.
In a time when so much oppression, repression, and global poverty still exist, I am awed by this vision and call for human rights throughout the world.
I like the clarity and simplicity of Boyd’s five freedoms. They can be easily understood and remembered.
The freedoms according to Boyd will enable us to focus together, think (and write) together, decide together, and move forward together.
This is a far different world than the one we live in today that is driven by scarcity, power and politics and that keep people in seemingly perpetual fighting mode.
What will it take to reach a world architecture that brings peace, prosperity, and dignity to all? A global catastrophe. A common enemy. A messianic fulfillment. Or is it possible, with G-d’s help, to move today—incrementally—through our own planning, reason and devices to live in peace as one humankind?
2048--And The World Will Be As One