Questioning Work, Respect, and Love

“Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around. Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t respect, appreciate, and value you. Spend your life with people who make you smile, laugh, and feel loved.”

-- Roy T. Bennett

I just want to earn but don't have much experience and education. What should I do?

Pick weeds, mow lawns, wash windows, wash cars, sweep up, any menial labor job takes little to no experience.

Why do you think that the elderly should be shown respect regardless or not?

It was the way I was raised. They earned it, and, even if they didn’t, who am I to judge? If they act like an ass, they may suffer from an ailment, stroke, Alzheimer's, et al. Better to just show them a modicum of respect. Who does that hurt?

Why do people with no jobs hate paying for things?

Uh… because they have to watch what they spend of what little they have? Better that we should all hate to pay for things. It might keep us all out of debt we don’t need to be in.

Reader comment:  Actually, their “hating to pay for things” puts OTHERS in debt who enable their b.s. We have family members who rely on this with idiotic members who will pay.

My reply:  Life is all about choices, and going into debt because of someone else is a seriously poor choice. Enablers are the worst at making good choices concerning the ones they enable.

“God works in mysterious ways but at least he works, he's never on welfare in a mysterious way.”

-- Steven Colbert

I'm a short guy, 20 years old. How can I make people stop treating me like a child?

Be a man? Start calling people on this. It isn’t right and let them know it. How one acts is usually how people treat them, so “man up” and start standing up for yourself.

Success started when you are successful from the inside. How do you recognize this success before you can achieve it?

Be happy in what you do. Success at an outside task is fleeting, but happiness is an inner success worth attaining. Once you have it, strive to have it always.

How do you win your husband’s heart?

Love him, and hold tight to your vows. If this isn’t enough, maybe you married the wrong man.

“Love is masterful and confident in His ability to woo and win even the hardest of hearts.”

-- Catherine Toon

What can I learn from what I write?

I wrote two books and learned how to tell a story, words I didn’t know existed, grammar, geography, etc.  Plus, you can learn a lot about yourself.

How easy is it for a person to get sucked into a cult and not be able to leave?

When I was in the intelligence field in 1974, we went to a “cult” center in a nearby city. The cult was “recruiting” on base and we wanted to go on a fact-finding mission to see what they were all about. It took us a few hours. If you’re weak-minded and gullible, it is very easy to get sucked in. We “played” them and moved forward just by telling them what they wanted to hear. Then we went to get the “money back if not satisfied” and the real fun started as a child at a desk with an enforcer on either side proceeded to threaten and belittle. Other than a door being kicked in and a warning from us of “this isn’t going to end well for you,” no other violence was visited upon them. Personally, I thought the kid was going to shit. We left and reported back to base. Cults were banned from the base shortly after.

How can one turn the negative dynamics into positive when a spouse retires and is suddenly involved in everything that one used to do independently?

Sit them down and explain the dynamic of boundaries. You love them dearly, but this is your life and they need to, now, get one of their own. There can be combined life, but not at the expense of your life.

“Mostly, she wanted to be loved and left alone. Not sequentially, but simultaneously. In equal measure. Love me. And leave me the fuck alone.”

-- Missy Marston

What is a glaring problem within your society that you come to realize during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The serum arrived quickly, thanks to “Warp Speed,” but the organization and public communication to distribute vaccinations were almost non-existent. Nobody was getting vaccinated because nobody knew where to go or who to call. It took me several weeks to finally get my aged mother the shots she needed as a person at greater risk.

Define what is position?

Position of what? (I found myself reading the parent question with a Russian accent.  So wrong of me.  This should have been in the "short answers" list, at the end, but I couldn't be that lucky - there was a comment.)

Author comment: What is a position? Explain.

My reply: "A position of what?" would seem the logical reply, but a dictionary will explain the noun and verb much better than I.

When is it sometimes necessary to be mean to be nice?

If the person you’re trying to be nice to, is a masochist. A “pant-down” spanking might be a nice touch.

“Give me a cubic centimeter of your flesh and I could give you pain that would swallow you as the ocean swallows a grain of salt. And you would always be ripe for it, from before the time of your birth to the moment of your death, we are always in season for the embrace of pain. To experience pain requires no intelligence, no maturity, no wisdom, no slow working of the hormones in the moist midnight of our innards. We are always ripe for it. All life is ripe for it. Always.”

-- Jesus Ignacio Aldapuerta

And... the short answers:

How do you deal with failure, especially when there are no lessons to be learned from it?

What failure can one not learn from?

Is 2 rest days in a row bad?

Not if you’re tired. 

Why do I feel like I have no friends even though I do?

Are they real friends, or more acquaintances?

When does quality over quantity fail?

Meaningless sex.

What is the meaning of "it's peachful on the floor"?

Peachful? Not a clue.

Are the changes in social media platforms making you more curious about the alternatives?

I’d like to find one less judgmental.

Why would a person steadily withdraw from all people as he ages?

When the hearing goes, withdrawal sets in.

Why do people lose their health later in life for the sake of making money?

They planned poorly.

What are the introductory secrets to help you keep him?

“Neighborhood-annoying sex" every night.

How come we think we have the control over our will? What if the will is a mistake whin ourselves and controls us over us controlling our so called fate? And if that is true why some people are lazy? In that case is their will not willing to survive?

What?  My head hurts.

“Nonsense is that which does not fit into the prearranged patterns which we have superimposed on reality...Nonsense is nonsense only when we have not yet found that point of view from which it makes sense.”

-- Gary Zukav

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 an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those 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 22 years with the United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world-renowned, Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved 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, and wages 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 volunteered as a chaplain at the regional medical center.

Feel free to contact Pastor Tony:  tolerantpastor@gmail.com