Throughout the years, there have been true prophets - people who really tried to teach and help theirfellow human beings. They usually die young and violently.
If we are lucky, their teachings live on, uncorrupted. Sadly, establishment types like to "embrace and extinguish" the real message. Jesus' teachings being twisted by Paul is a classic example.
So, I will take a mishmash of wise words, bring them into now, and present them as advice in their stead.
* Pay down debt, reduce spending. If it's being advertised heavily, don't buy it - the ads tend to point to stuff you don't need. Being careful with your money is a virtue, it will help you to think about what you do.
* Go green and local, spend your hard earned cash in your community. The community is where you live, and the economy that affects you most. Nurture it.
* Buy what you need first, not what you merely want. Remember, there are levels of need and want. Conspicuous consumption is the path to ruin.
* Develop "at home" skills and hobbies. Give homemade gifts this year, if you can. For the things made with heart and hands are more real that sweatshop schlock.
* Increase your savings. To plan for possible needs and upheavals as a habit also means that you think about the future, insterad of just "now".
* Take charge of your own health. The insurance companies will not advocate for *you*, only their profits. They make money killing you. You must live in your body, not some soulless corporation.
* Energy saving technologies are a good buy. The bills you reduce are your own. While we are not the servants of the earth, neither are we its master. We need it more than it needs us.
* Offer a helping hand within your own community. Large religious based charities are tending toward corruption, scandal and ulterior motives. Charity begins at home, and even a simple hand up can help. This doesn't mean letting people leech off of you, but rather showing them how to escape the pit, and lending them a ladder.
* Vote your conscience, beware the wolf in sheep's clothing. But vote! Make waves, do not be silent in your dissent. But, pick your battles wisely, don't just rebel for rebellion's sake. Act as a lever, not a crude battering ram.
* Try to be an example for the young. The fact that many worship sports and entertainment icons as "heroes" is a sad commentary on our society. Be a quiet hero, and show how by your actions, not your words.
* Celebrate your accomplishments, if only to show others that it is possible to aspire and achieve. Encourage others in the same things. The success of another is not a threat to the truly successful.
* Advocate for, and try to do, what is right. Not according to some book of rules written by men or some god, but what is right by the principles of fairness and justice. Don't screw others over, in word or deed.
* The net is everywhere. Remember that there are real people on the other side of the screen. Treat them as if they were next door, or in front of you.
* The world about with rude, ill mannered people. Don't be one of them. Be the genteel exception, not the nasty rule. Teach your children the same, they'll go farther in life.
* The written word is underrated. Culture a beauty and complexity in your language and writings. Think, and help others to think. For it is the creators and the thinkers that will assure our future.
* Play! Live, not just exist. Find joy where you can, and spread it. Play with heads, make someone's day brighter, just because you can. Share the stories of the fun.
* Trust everyone... to do what they believe is in their own best interest. Whether it actually is in their best interest or not, if they think it is, they will tend to do it. The path may be shared by many, but each of us walks alone - no one else lifts our feet for us.
* Learn to be comfortable in your own skin. Chuck out all the advertising driven junk about diets and health. Accept you as you are, not yearn for what some advertising hacks tell you you "should" be. Hell, chuck all that "should" crap out of your self talk. It is a waste of energy and metal angst.
* Shitcan the guilt thing. Not obeying the talking heads on the boob tube when they tell you to spend, diet, or obey some dead guy is liberating. Acknowledge your regrets, and move on.
There may be more, but that'll do for a start.
2008-01-18
2008-01-09
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