My Sunday Thought for 121017: Sucking the Good from Life

One can't wander the aisles of a local supermarket without seeing the fun and goodness of life being sucked away.  For goodness sake, would someone please tell me what "no-sodium" salt is?  Grocery shelves are being re-stocked with "low-sodium" this and that; Spam Lite, "reduced fat" Vienna sausage, and "fat-free" Greek yogurt.  Oh my, yes!  Like fat-free bacon, fat-free buttermilk, and the fat-free hot dog, fat-free Greek yogurt is another perfect example of going too far in our hope for a few more months of miserably deprived living.

You almost can't find a brand of yogurt with all of the essential milk fat which your body needs, craves, and actually knows how to process.  What you do find is yogurt slurry of fruit and sugar.  We leave the poisonous monosodium glutamate (MSG) in foods, yet we remove beneficial milk fat from Greek yogurt and add fattening sugar and real "fruit" that I'm not so sure isn't just strawberry preserves.  Does anyone really know what Greek yogurt is supposed to be?  MILK FAT!  It's the entire point of that kind of yogurt.  Nonfat Greek yogurt, well, isn't Greek yogurt any more than thick crust Sicilian pizza is Sicilian, or a vegetarian hamburger is a hamburger.  Oh, and, baked French fries are French bakes, not fries.  Nonfat Greek yogurt isn't even considered healthy by doctors and dieticians.  Have you ever bought a can of "no salt" tomatoes to make marinara sauce?  If so, then you know how much salt you have to add back in just to make the sauce palatable.  Better to just use fresh tomatoes, if you can afford to, the salt is going to be added before you finish cooking the sauce, anyway.

If you have to make something so delicious taste like flavorless cardboard, then what's the point, other than to suck all the goodness and fun out of life?  Don't get me wrong, I'm all about living to a ripe old age, I'd just like to do it with a plate of greasy, sauce slathered, ribs.  Let's face it, heart pounding rockus sex probably won't be any good for me either at the ripe old age of 90, but I'd rather have my heart explode trying to relive my youth than trying to plant my tired old ass in an Adirondack chair I'll never be able to get out of as I uncontrollably soil my underwear and consider which flavor of "all natural" baby food I'll be eating for lunch, all the while complaining about a bucket list left wanting.

“The only real conflict you will ever have in your life won’t be with others, but with yourself.”

-- Shannon L. Alder, author, blogger, philosopher

The yogurt notwithstanding, healthier food is, in fact, healthier for us.  In a society where obesity, high blood pressure, heart attacks and stroke have become the accepted avenues for an early departure from this mortal plane we call life.  People mistakenly believe they can pop a pill for high blood pressure or cholesterol and they're okay to graze through the all-you-can-eat bar-b-que smorgasbord at the local casino.  No, you really can't.  There is better living through chemistry providing said chemistry doesn't kill you better.  In our zeal to save us from our own gluttonous selves, we have sucked all the flavorful fun from life.  We will now die healthy, a few years latter, though not necessarily happier.  So, what do we do?  Don't be gluttonous!  Eat the good tasting bad crap in life with a bit of moderation; have the hamburger, just not the triple-decker with extra cheese, bacon, and whatever crap is in that delicious secret sauce.  Moderation and exercise will help to keep us physically healthier, but what about being socially, mentally, and spiritually healthier?

This country, America, was founded on principles like majority rule, religious freedom, the inalienable right of people to pursue these lawful freedoms like liberty, justice, happiness, and eating a triple decker with bacon, cheese, and pickles.  We have a Supreme Court to ensure these freedoms, rights, and principles are protected.  You actually do have the God given right to order the triple decker burger with everything on it, along with the supersized fries and diet soda.  A diet soda?  Why, of course, this is the way we try to convince everyone we're on a diet, and excuse being offended when everyone suggests we're fat. Really?  

There are also those among us who are offended by everything, constantly.  I have always referred to these unhappy folks as members of the League of the Perpetually Offended.  The League exists to test the resolve of our laws and our faith, our patriotism, our Constitution, and our very right to seek our own happiness which continues to elude the selfishly offended.

"The kids aged, but never grew up. A baby can whine if it does not like something because it doesn't know better. What's your excuse? Stop getting offended whenever the wind blows your hair the wrong way! We will get nowhere if we continue to avoid truths to avoid offense. Speak your mind and do not be afraid of stepping on toes. The truth can be ugly, and that's what makes it so beautiful. Speak your mind, but don't take this as a chance to lose respect either. Always keep respect. If someone then still claims to be offended, it is not because of you, nor is it your fault. They simply don't like the taste of the bittersweet truth."

-- Caitlyn Paige

The blood sucking leeches of society, the League of the Perpetually Offended, the LPO, exist for the express purpose of draining the lifeblood of happiness, of anything worthwhile and meaningful, from anyone else. Extreme examples of the LPO would be racists and Nazis. More recently, should we, now, include Black Lives Matter (BLM) in this group? They seem to have shown themselves to be an organization calling for more rights and equality than those already protected, for everyone, by law; laws which BLM seems to reject, and rights and equality which they have stated they feel they deserve more of and, yet, would deny everyone else. They evidence themselves to be misguided neo-fascist racists led by anarchists who have learned nothing from history and want to tear up the Constitution. The leadership is now writing editorials calling for the genocide of all white people. This is not racist?

But, this is just them talking, right?  Freedom of speech?  So was Adolf Hitler's freedom of speech in the 1930s, just talk.  The fallout from ignoring that little unpleasant sociopath cost the world 3% of the world population, about 60 million people.  It would seem BLM would have us revisit this holocaust with one of their making.  This is what happens when individuals or groups create misery, perpetuate it, then use it as an excuse for being offended.  How sad it is when people spend more time dividing than bringing together, destroying than building; more time being miserable and assigning misguided fault than rising above their feelings of offense to become better members of society, better people?

BLM and the LPO are society's in-your-face reminder of how good life can be when you actually have constructive things to do, like seek happiness.  They are the sodium, the lard, the monosodium glutamate of civilization; everything bad for us, and yet reminding us of just how good life truly is.  Can we live without them?  Certainly, and probably much healthier and longer, but we will sacrifice everything which is bad and gives so much more meaning to everything which is better.

“The more leeches there are affixed to a host, the less resources there are to siphon from said hosts, per parasite. The ability to only absorb energy, without the ability or desire to reproduce it in a productive manner, is a dangerous, unsustainable, albeit attractive long term method of collapse and decline.”

-- Justin K. McFarlane Beau 

The LPO, as a whole, are the never-to-be-happy losers of society who, even if they were to win, would find offense in their own victory.  The offended can never be happy as they are much too busy being offended than to waste any time seeking happiness.  I actually feel sorry for them, as they will never find true happiness in misery.  They would rather waste their short life on this plane leeching everything good out of everyone else's life while trying to drag us all into their self-made pit of anger, pity, and despair.  They are the terrorists of life, the leaders of whom would easily strap a bomb to their followers and sacrifice them to achieve the LPO's only possible, albeit selfish, end - life in a world populated only by the perpetually offended, a world of only one, and that one suffering from undeniable self-offense, contemplating suicide as an end to the pain and loneliness.  The LPO are a sad reflection of who we all might be; all of the freedoms, rights, and liberties we would all lose, should the LPO ever become the majority... of one.

I guess my point is, its better to simply enjoy all the good life has to offer, than to suck all the fun away from it.  Instead of leeching life from life, how about constructively adding to the fun and beauty of it?  If you feel offended, make sure the offense was intended, and if it wasn't you might try working out an amenable solution for the happiness of all, not just to appease the selfishness of you.

No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up.

-- Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876), founder of collectivist anarchism

By in large, most people act like asses; they usually don't mean to, but they come off as such.  The League of the Perpetually Offended, however, go out of their way to be asses; they live for the opportunity and relish taking advantage of the opportunity when it's presented.  Why, because it's easier to be an ass than to be an understanding, forgiving, reasonable, tolerant, loving, and positively creative member of society?  It is easier to be selfish than to be giving.  Who would a thought?

For the most part, I think I understand the LPO.  I'm willing to be tolerant, forgiving, yadda, yadda, yadda, et al.  I also wish for the unthinkable, that these perpetually offended will get onboard and learn to live with the rest of humanity, but, then, I do think I understand them.  They can't and, therefore, won't even deign to try.  Why does a scorpion sting?  Its what they do, and I can appreciate that.  Their opinion is relevant, to those who care.

As for Black Lives Matter, I have many friends of color, and the violence put forward by BLM just pisses me off.  Their actions do nothing to enhance race relations in this country.  On the contrary, they seek to set fire to everything civilized people have worked for since the days of Rev. King.  Their offense is relevant only in that it shows how small they are in not realizing that all lives matter, even theirs, and violence against society accomplishes little except to burn your own neighborhood down around your ears.

Society is not perfect, but at least we try to rise above... and bring everyone with us.  Naysayers, the offended, are the obstructionists to happiness and life.

“No matter what you do, no matter what you say, someone out there will proclaim how outraged they are, because they think it's their job to be offended by every God d##n thing. It makes people feel important. It makes them feel powerful. It makes them feel like their opinion is relevant.”

-- Oliver Markus Malloy, author

Editor's Note 

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card) 

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider another viewpoint.

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 23 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with an Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, to wage his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as Chaplain Program Liaison, at a regional medical center.