GET YOUR HAPPY ON! - a meliorist worldview

My handle is 8foldpath. I write as 8foldpath instead of using my real name for a number of reasons. First, I believe that my message “There are no problems; only opportunities” is more important than my identity. It wouldn’t take more than some quick cursory research to learn my name and e-mail address, as I made no effort (of which I am aware) to hide them. Second, I would like to draw more attention to the Noble Eightfold Path, which I believe is the best method to end suffering for all humankind, (not that I am the most ideal representative of Buddhism but I am trying real hard to be the Shepherd).

Many bloggers choose to use pseudonyms to protect their identities; other bloggers hide behind their online handles so that they can get away with writing statements they otherwise wouldn’t dare make in public. I have nothing to hide, and I am proud of what I write here. I want to help make the world a better place.

This morning I received my first negative comment, from a person styling him/herself as “thefirstreader.” I welcome criticism as eagerly as I accept praise — perhaps more eagerly because constructive criticism should theoretically help me improve my ability to share my message. The author had stated that I had disrespected my wife by placing a definitive article in front of my wife’s marital status. In other words, I referred to her as “the wife” instead of “my wife.”

The comment threw me for a second but maybe I was out of line. I had only meant it in a humorously casual manner, but perhaps I was too cavalier and even disrespectful toward my wife, whom I have heretofore claimed to adore. The author left a phony e-mail address, so I am unable to obtain clarification from the author on my “good ol’ boys club semantics.”

In the author’s comment, he/she claimed that I write as though I am 60+ years old. I wonder what was meant by that statement. Surely, the author wasn’t using an ageist simile, because that would be hypocritical — claiming that I was a chauvinist with one sentence and deriding older people in the next sentence, by associating them with my offense. Believe me, I have met many older people who were both cooler and more open-minded than I.

I also wonder if the person who wrote the comment finds offensive the word “the” itself. It boggles the mind: trying to get through a day without using the word “the” once; though surely it is possible. Hypothetically, let’s assume for a second that TheFirstReader abhors inappropriate use of the word “the.” Why then does the author use “the” in his/her own when he/she comments as “thefirstreader”? The first reader of all blogs? The God of the Blogosphere? Eek!

OK, OK. I’m going to stop be silly now. I’m certain that TFR was simply stating his/her objection to my distasteful reference to my wife as “the wife.” If I was being sexist, dear readers, I am sorry. Maybe my wife didn’t know that I was being a sexist pig? Praise Buddha for sending me TheFirstTeacher, I mean Grader, I mean Reader, to show me my error!

When I apologized to my wife, she laughed; dismissing me with her hand, she said an apology wasn’t necessary. In all fairness to TheFirstReader (who might have been upset before even reading my blog), my wife and I have a very similar sense of humor, but that doesn’t give me the right to abuse you (the current reader) with my nonchalant approach to discourse and rhetoric.

In my own defense, if I don’t occasionally risk offending someone, I could conceivably rob the more pugnacious among my readers of commentary-worthy blog material. I really am surprised that the almost insignificant introduction to last week’s post was the only item that stirred TFR’s ire. Even more surprising is the fact that I have received no other negative criticism, when I am clearly inviting you to dance with me.

So without further ado: McCain is a douche; Obama is Jesus walking; Heaven and Hell don’t exist; the world is going to end in 2012; the Cubs rock; the Sox suck; Republicans are lame; Democrats are slightly less lame than Republicans; gun lobbyists are murderers; humans are descended from Jurassic rodents (which must be why we crave cheese); and laughing is the best medicine. If you’re having a heart attack, chew some aspirin and call for an ambulance. Otherwise, laugh now before you have an aneurysm!

I walk a tight rope, my friends. Thank you for joining me. I love all of you, especially you unemployed gun-toting Republican smokers who think that voting for McCain will help America. I look forward to continuing this journey with you. And keep those comments coming!

Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama shared the stage Friday during a Democratic rally in Unity, New Hampshire. It was something beautiful. Broadcast live on MSNBC, Mrs. Clinton give a magnanimous speech with grace and great humor, drawing together both her supporters and Obama’s. I look forward to Obama as the next American President. We simply cannot suffer another 4 years under a Republican President.

History shows that over the past 30 years, the Republicans have taken every opportunity to put money into the pockets of the richest Americans, and in the process, the Reaganomic policies have systematically broken the backs of the hard-working middle class and stolen food from the mouths of the poorest Americans.

Barrack Obama represents real change in the American political landscape. Obama does not belong to the Clinton dynasty, and he certainly isn’t one of the Bushes. Can you feel the excitement? Can you feel the electricity?

Barrack’s arrival as President could not arrive at a more opportune time. As America’s urban populations struggle for survival, we have a man who can speak to every person in this country. And they will listen. The Reaganites disregard poor people with almost religious disdain.

Remember when Reagan told poor people who couldn’t afford vegetables to eat ketchup? Remember when the first Bush won his election with the promise not to increase taxation? I lost count of the number of lies Little Bush told to advance his harmful domestic and foreign policies.

To paraphrase Barrack Obama himself, this year’s choice between Republican and Democrat is the choice between the past and the future. The Republicans have made enough of a mess. Let’s learn from our past mistakes, and move forward with Obama. Let’s all step forward toward a more compassionate tomorrow.

I love you all very much, my friends! Take care of yourselves and each other!

Haw! Fie! Zounds, I say!

After two days of blogging about the inanity of gun violence, the Supreme Court has overturned a decades long ban on handguns in our nation’s capital , and it has me hot under the collar — so hot that I couldn’t concentrate.

I recognize the Bill of Rights seems to guarantee the right to bear arms, but hiding behind the Constitution when thousands of innocent people are getting killed by stolen guns seems foolish to me. More guns = more killings, it seems a common sense equation ignored by too many people in power. I hope and pray that this judicial decision does open the door to an even greater surge in gun violence.

I decided to get away from the news before I became even more frustrated.

I had some Netflix DVDs that I decided to take to the post office. I quickly checked CTA Bus Tracker to see when my bus (the 50 Damen) would arrive. The website informed me that it would arrive at my apartment building in 2 minutes.

Great! I thought. Just in time. I ran downstairs to catch my bus. The 50 was on time, but I wasn’t. I watched my bus sail southward right before my eyes.

No big deal. I’ll just walk to the post office, and catch a bus along the way. As I made the mile-long journey (with a jazzy glockenspiel soundtrack going in my head), two No.50 buses passed by me in the opposite direction. I am a brisk walker so I thought nothing of beating the bus to my destination.

After dropping my envelope off at the post the post office, there was no bus in sight so I immediately turned around and began walking the other way (north).

It is over 80° outside in Chicago right now; it is sunny and humid, so I was sweating a little bit. It takes a lot of energy to move around someone my size, so I was getting a little hungry too. I wasn’t wearing my sunglasses or sunscreen. As another southbound No.50 passed me going the opposite direction, I started getting a little worried about skin and eye cancer.

I walked two miles before seeing a bus heading my way, and by that time I had already arrived back at my apartment building.

I left the apartment building to get rid of my frustration with a power walk, and I just picked up more frustration along the way. Life is full of irony.

The only sure-fire method of eliminating frustration that I have found is a two part method: surrendering to the will of the Universe (or the will of God, if you prefer), and meditating with an empty mind. The method takes years of practice to master; however, meditation at the beginner level is surprisingly easy.

Be easy on yourselves and each other, my friends. The world is hard enough. There is no sense in making harder.

Continuing with yesterday’s theme, I feel obliged to write more about Chicago’s gun violence. Every day more people become victims of violent crime. Often gang members perpetrate territorial drive-by shootings that result in collateral damage, murdering innocent bystanders whose proximity to the intended targets put them in harm’s way.

Monday night, an assassination attempt hospitalized Josue Torres, an 8-year old boy who was in the same vehicle as his alleged gang member parents; the intended likely target (Josue’s step-father) was uninjured.

Tuesday, Chicago’s police superintendent Jody Weis told reporters that Josue’s near death was clearly “the parent’s fault.” Weis believes that the parents’ gang activities was directly responsible for their child’s injury.

As cold as it may seem, I have to agree with Weis, Chicago’s top cop. The parents’ fault is implicit if they are/were involved in gang activity. “Live by the sword, die by the sword.” Common sense, right?

Are you familiar with the concept of Karma, dear readers?

Many people equate Karma with luck, but that is a vulgar misinterpretation.

In Sanskrit, Karma translates as “action.” Every thing you do or don’t do is Karma. Positive deeds are good Karma, just as negative activities are bad Karma.

One’s Karma has an immediate effect in the world, and one’s Karma always returns. It is as certain as the first observation of gravity — “What comes up must come down.”

If one has good Karma, one will benefit from the kindness of others. When one has bad Karma, others will harm that person.

Josue’s gang member parents have unfortunately incurred Karma’s swift retribution. I feel very sorry for them. They must not have known about how Karma works. Josue and his family need our thoughts and our prayers, so that his parents may turn a new leaf and rescue their child from future danger.

Be good to each other, my friends.

Chicago suffers from gun violence. This is not news — Chicago’s violent crime has earned it notoriety all over the world — and many cities experience more violent deaths per person/per year. Yet, I feel that my first sentence bears repeating.

Chicago suffers from gun violence, and the people of Chicago are suffering from these senseless murders.

Any violence is too much, my friends. I’d like to know when the violence will end. When will the powers that be say, “Enough is enough!”? Or will that be too late? Will we be living in a police state by that time? Out of love and concern for one another, I would like all people to come together and end gun violence — that means social activism to prevent gun violence while lobbying our politicians for gun control at the local and national levels.

Monday night, an 8-year old boy was shot several times in Humboldt Park. His doctors have promised his parents that he will survive. Thank God! But this shooting followed a resurgence in gang-related gun violence this month. Dozens of teenagers have been killed this year; many were innocent bystanders who had absorbed stray bullets. Any kind of violence is unnecessary, but gun violence is completely insane.

I went on the Internet to research gun control lobbyists to see if there was any activist group that I could join who would help me contact my Congressman, because I want him to increase his effort to stop this insanity.

I didn’t find a lot of information on gun control groups, but I did find a glut of crazy pro-gun lobbyists. These dudes are seriously out of their minds. You need to read what some of these crazy people are saying. Just Google the keywords “gun control lobby” or “gun control activism.” You are sure to read a slew of certifiably insane codswallop, written by reactionary psychopaths who treat the Second Amendment like a religion.

Don’t these people understand that kids are dying on the streets of the inner cities. Do they care? I worry that the soul of this nation is becoming more corrupt with the unwarranted death of each victim.

This is the perfect time to end gun violence. Today. You have to start today. You have to say, “Enough is enough.” I love you very much, America, and I know that you are capable of doing better.

This has been a sad month for losing great American patriots who helped peel back the media’s tendency to air disinformation. First, we lost Tim Russert, the great NBC anchor whose infectious excitement about the issues made Sunday morning politics a little more interesting.

Today, I learned of George Carlin’s death. I loved listening to George Carlin and watching him live was amazing! George Carlin told truths that people didn’t want to hear, but he always made you laugh when he shared his perspective; he was a folk doctor, whose mission was to cure social ills with his bittersweet pills. Awesome!

George Carlin, Bill Hicks, and Richard Pryor were my three favorite stand-up comedians, and now all three of them are dead. It doesn’t seem fair. At least, we still have the memories of them recorded digitally, so many future generations can enjoy the insights of those fallen comic prophets.

R.I.P. George Carlin. You will be missed.

Every weekday, my wife and I get up early so I can make breakfast and get her out the door, allowing her to make her morning commute. We go to bed late because she also teaches voice lessons at night. By the time, the weekend rolls around we are always tired.

Our story is probably very common amongst our fellow Americans. With the standard of living being so high in this country, a lot of families must find multiple sources of revenue to make ends meet. And getting ahead? Forget about it, right? I’m sure that a lot of people don’t even see a point in saving up for a house, sending their kids of to college, or just trying to live comfortably. What’s the point? It ain’t gonna’ happen, right?

Wrong! If you are happy, you will always live and feel rich.

You have to change your perspective on things, or you’re going to be miserable for the rest of your life. Everything you grew up thinking was important (money, a house, vacations, etc.), none of that matters because none of it will make you happy.

Happy people are healthy people, and healthy people live longer. Who wants to leave this world unhappy?

If you want to be happy — and I am writing about really really deep-in-your-soul Happy — the first step is tell yourself, “Hey! I deserve to be happy!” Honestly, you have to march into your bathroom; look yourself in the mirror; and tell yourself that you deserve happiness.

Then you have to forgive yourself for being unhappy for so long, and you have to stop blaming everyone else in the world for making you unhappy. No one else other than yourself is responsible for your own happiness. If you rely on others for happiness, you will be riding an emotional roller coaster that will prematurely turn you old and gray.

Everyday I meet people who think that I’m in my early 20’s, but I’m actually in my mid-30’s. I keep myself looking and feeling young, because I never let meaningless nonsense bother me.

You can’t get angry with yourself or get angry with others. Anger is a contagious disease that rots the soul of everyone it infects. Practice smiling in the mirror, and smile as often as you can, especially when you don’t feel like smiling. A smile is just as contagious, maybe even more so.

If you want to be happy, you have to wake up every morning and proactively decide that you are going to be happy. Then take responsibility for all of your own actions. Every action that you take (and every action that you don’t take) has an immediate effect in the world — and it always comes back to either help or hurt you, depending on how positive was your action. Always take pride in what you are doing, and if you’re doing something that doesn’t make you proud, maybe you should stop doing it.

Stop for a second, and change your perspective. Step outside of the box you have created for yourself. Realize that you (the individual You) are an essential component in the organism that connects all life in the Universe. Honestly.

This is the first step toward really really REALLY being happy for the rest of your life. I’ll write more about this later.

I love you all very much, my friends. Be good to each other.

The wife and I woke up and watched a movie.

We could’ve done dishes, but we didn’t.

We took friends out to breakfast. It was delicious!

We all had manicures and pedicures. Metro!

We finished our film as I ironed my clothes, and our friends left to do some shopping downtown.

We drove out to my parents’ house where they threw a beautiful party.

I saw friends and family whom I haven’t seen in years. I love them all.

The Cubs won. The Cubs are the best team in baseball right now. Very nice.

It was a beautiful, sunny evening.

We had a great meal. Great drinks. Good company.

No harsh words were exchanged. Everybody left healthy and happy.

I am so blessed to be a part of this moment in the world.

Thank you, God. Thank you, World. Thank you, my friends. I love all of you very much. Be good to each other.

The big story TODAY is the Crosstown Classic here in Chicago. That’s the weekend when the Cubs and the White Sox compete in one of the world’s greatest sports rivalries.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of rivalry and competition. When you set out to make someone else look bad, the person you will hurt most is yourself, but most sports enthusiasts don’t understand that. Every year the local media likes to play up this rivalry that upsets so many Chicagoans.

Even if you’re not a local, you might be aware of the decades old tension between Sox and Cubs fans. It’s all about geography. Chicago is a long city, about 40 miles from north to south. The distinction is so great that Chicago has three main populations — Northsiders, Southsiders and Westsiders — and among them, a 19th Century socio-economic cold war exists to this day.

The wealthiest neighborhoods are on the North side; the South side has the most ethnically homogenous neighborhoods; and the West Side has some of the country’s poorest ethnic neighborhoods (though poverty and violent crime exists all over the city). For many years, there was only a North and a South side, engendering a strong rivalry between the two prior to baseball’s arrival.

The Cubs’ Wrigley Field was nestled firmly in the heart of the wealthy Northside, and the Southsiders did not feel welcome on “the other side of the river.” Early on, Cubs’ fans garnered their reputation as snobs, and there may have been some truth to that if the Northsiders sense of entitlement overshadowed their better nature.

For many years of Chicago’s early baseball history, the Cubs was the only team. The White Sox is known as “the Second City’s Second Team.”

When the American League finally came to Chicago in 1901, the Southsiders swelled with pride that they finally had a team that they could call their own — over a hundred years ago!!! — and that was before the American League joined the Majors, so Cubs’ fans were still condescending to Sox fans.

In defense of Cubs’ fans, American League baseball isn’t big boy baseball. They use a designated hitter. (Painfully, I must confess that I was born a Cubs’ fan — and I’ll probably die one — but that doesn’t mean that I condone snobbery or the ill will between the fans.)

Chicago needs to leave all this nasty unnecessary bickering behind in the 20th Century. This is the Dawning of the Age of Acquarius!

I used to have a friend who is a White Sox fan. We drove across the state together to attend a friend’s wedding, and he would go out of his way to pick fights with Cubs fans. He believes that anger and hatred are good emotions, that they kick-start social evolution.

I told him that engendering anger in another human being is bad karma, but purposefully doing so is in the very worst category of bad karma. He said that I was a pussy, and I told him that his psychopathic gangland mentality would get him shot someday; we haven’t spoken since, which is unfortunate because our rift parallels the odii that North side and South side Chicagoans might hold for one another for many generations to come. Healing has to start with the self, but I don’t think his mind and soul are open to healing.

Love one another as you yourself would choose to be loved. To quote another prophet, “Be excellent to each other, and… party on, Dudes!!!”

John McCain’s posse has recently attacked Obama for opting out of his privilege to receive federal funding for his campaign, but that sounds like sour grapes to me. (Sorry, Senator, I’m just telling it as I see it.)

Barrack Obama’s inherent ability to get ordinary folks to vote with donations for his campaign is somewhat unprecedented in modern politics, and Obama’s campaign has a clear fiscal advantage over McCain.

When the fella’ with the most money in his war chest is the candidate most likely to win the general election (and the Presidency), candidates at all government levels have been forced to make uneasy alliances with wealthy corporations and interest groups. Of course, some morally lenient politicians have seen no conflict of interest in receiving moneys from corporations while serving the public, which is why campaign finance reform has been a hot button issue since 1867.

Contemporary politicians have taken up the call of campaign finance reform — though few with as much vigor as John McCain — so it should not surprise anyone that McCain & Co. would leap as soon as Barrack Obama announced his decision not to receive public assistance, which would limit his campaign to only $80 million, (a veritable drop in the bucket).

John McCain’s campaign is struggling to keep up with Obama, so it will be interesting to watch McCain in the next few months. Will his campaign survive with only public funding? Or will McCain learn to enjoy eating crow? Another interesting question is will the special interest groups, from whom McCain has made such a great show of distancing himself, view the cash-poor Arizona senator as a smart investment?

Maybe another reason might explain why McCain’s people are making such a big stink about Obama refusing federal campaign assistance, when Barrack Obama has endorsed campaign finance reform in the past.

John McCain, however, has shown himself to be a bit of hypocrite as well. I mentioned yesterday how John McCain claims to be the voice of the American Indians, yet makes shady deals for Navajo and Hopi land rights with mining companies.

Not good karma, Senator. And it certainly is not environmentally conscious, even though “Maverick” McCain claims that he is the Environment’s greatest advocate among the Republicans.

Greater light has been shed on McCain’s eagerness to again betray the Environment with a pitch to lift the Congressional ban on offshore drilling, just like George W. Bush.

If all of this coming from the Republicans doesn’t sound familiar, dear reader, I will remind you that George Jr. also claimed to be a “Friend of the Environment,” and his administration represents the worst energy policies since Reagan.

Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?

Take care of each other, my friends. Be kind to a stranger today.