Questioning Debt, Values, Hope, and Genius

 

“People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.”

-- Stephen Hawking

How do you stay out of debt? I don't mean how you manage your money, but the temptation to take credit.

My son was great at math, so when he got a credit card application in high school, I told him to put $10,000 dollars on it and work out the payments and the percentage. He came downstairs 10 minutes later and threw the app away. He said you’d have to be an idiot to use a credit card. Out of the mouth of babes.

Look at it another way. It isn’t what is in your wallet, as much as who. If you owe a debt, you belong to someone, an indentured servant, until you pay your debt off. So, how many people do you want to belong to? Who do you want to call “Massa” for the rest of your life, because the debt will not end, and truth be told neither has slavery? Tempted to take credit? The step and fetch the monthly payments, because they own you.

Do you consider yourself lucky for being part of your family?

Absolutely. I’d be a dropout, in jail, a loser, or all three, otherwise. My dad was heavy-handed for good cause, and I was lucky to have him and my mom.

The truth is important or the lie that can make everyone happy, even if the truth makes everyone feel bad. What is the reason for your decision?

I assume you mean is the truth “more important” than a lie that can make everyone happy. The truth is more important because people need to grow up, and the truth can force that issue. There it is, my answer and my reason.

What is the easiest method of creating a perfect cat eye on social media?

You can’t because nothing is “perfect” in life. You can make it “most excellent,” however.

Can I be myself if I was born without choosing myself, and what I am in general? I mean, I could’ve been born different, and I still would have to feel myself.

If you’re fat you probably made fun of fat people in your last life. We tend to bring the mistakes we made into the next life with us, so we can learn lessons. In this way, you really “chose yourself” by your past actions. For instance, I think Hitler will be an aborted fetus 12 million times just to pay for the Holocaust. It is payback for life meaning so little to him.

We are what we choose to be. If we choose wrong, karma will follow us and make us learn the lesson we screwed up on. Better to be selflessly charitable and morally ethical, and choose to be truly happy always and in all things. It makes our “lives” easier.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What do you believe are the three to five core values that best describe Americans today?

Greed, dishonesty, perpetually offended… oh, wait. You wanted “core” values? Can’t think of a one.

What do you wish you had known before someone died?

My dad had 4 strokes. He went from tolerable to a pain in the ass. It wasn’t his fault, the strokes changed him. I wish I’d been able to know his mind on life before he died. He seemed to hate everyone for no good reason, and I know this wasn’t truly the way he felt.

What is the single most challenging online learning challenge?

Asking questions and clarification?

What made you so kind-hearted?

My mother. She grew up a dirt farmer in the South during the 1930s and 40s. Being dirt-poor and half Choctaw Indian they were treated about as well as the blacks, so being racist was out the door. Everyone helped everyone. This is the attitude I was spoonfed. Everyone deserves respect, and everyone will, at one time or another, need some help. Be selfless in what you bring to the table.

How do you manage your time and prioritize your tasks?

Make a list of the tasks in order of importance, and assign times to them. The last task should be the least important so it can be pushed to the next day if time runs short.

“Where your attention goes, your time goes”

-- Idowu Koyenikan

Why do I feel that I have to be perfect? Is the feeling wrong?

Yes, because you’ll never be perfect. You can be excellent, however. Perfection is reserved for God, and even that is, sometimes, questioned.

What helped you find out what you are made of?

My divorce after 25 years of marriage. They say you find out who you really are when you have to deal with adversity. It was definitely true for me. I went through the meat grinder and came out the other side so much better than I went in. It isn’t what we go through, as that is just lessons life throws at us to learn. It is about what we learn through the process. Learn it now, or learn it later, but you will have to learn your lessons in order to move forward. I choose to understand the process. This understanding allows me to live my life truly happy as I learn the lessons set in front of me. 

Why is good so valuable?

Why would anyone pay for something bad? If bad is worthless, it follows that good must be valuable.

How many lives do you impact positively?

Hopefully, every life I touch. It is a bonus of choosing to be truly happy always and in all things, regardless of my circumstances. I bring this with me to everyone I interact with.

How true is it that concentration of effort and definiteness of purpose are the major sources of achievements?

This is basically “perseverance” in attaining goals. If you aren’t willing to persevere, you will, most likely, attain nothing.

“When you treat your failures as lessons, you can never fail.”

-- Udai Yadla

How do you get hope out of reflection?

I reflect back on the parachute I should have put on before jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft. Hope? I’m pretty well screwed.

I’m hopelessly lost in the woods with a broken ankle. I reflect on the information I left with good friends concerning my route, destination, length of stay, and the fact I would contact them when I returned. Hope? My God, yes! I have much hope that they will be concerned when I don’t return and send out search parties looking for me.

Does loving yourself usually require having some concept of who you are?

Yes, otherwise, what are you basing your love of self on? You must love something, and that something is, usually, a concept or a trait that you see in yourself.

Have you ever doubted your instincts and ended up losing?

Yes, because I had no real experience or knowledge of what I was involved in. Instincts are based on experience, in knowledge. The better the experience and knowledge, the better the instincts. I invested money in the stock market. I lost my ass. The next time I invested, I learned something about what I was doing and the stock I wanted to invest in. My instincts were much better on when to buy and when to sell. I made a killing before the stock tanked.

What will you do if you discover the Judge was your classmate and he asked you to go home and change your life?

Our history is of no consequence. They are a judge issuing me an order to get my shit together. They are probably acting out of due cause, so they are probably right.

How true is it that the emotion of love leaves an impression upon one's very soul even after the fire has been subdued by time and circumstances?

True love is not a switch you can turn on and off. This was the mistake I made in my marriage. I truly loved a woman who could have cared less. I truly love many women, but being truly loved back is the trick. It doesn’t mean the fire is ever subdued. What I feel has nothing to do with what they feel. I still love my ex-wife, I simply can’t trust her. It is what it is.

“People say my love is like chalk

That I write it on and erase it

Whenever I choose.

Well, they’re wrong… I use crayons.”

-- F.A. Villari

How do you forgive and let go in a relationship?

First, You accept the apology you’re never going to get. Then, you forgive them and you forgive yourself. Yes, you forgive yourself. You were the one who had the relationship, so you need to be forgiven and learn a lesson from it. Accept the fact that the root cause of most of our issues is some choice or decision we make in our lives. If you allow someone else to make those choices, that is also your choice.

How true is it that there is no other road to genius than through voluntary self-effort?

We have found that “genius” can take several roads. Brain trauma can kickstart it, and some children are just born to be savants. For the rest of us, hard work and perseverance are the way to attainment.

When did you feel it's time to kick out weakness from your life?

After my divorce. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

"Pride" is a feeling of personal accomplishment, or in being part of a group with an accomplishment. Is it possible to feel pride in something you're not part of? For example, can an Italian-American feel PRIDE at an Olympic victory of an Australian?

Anytime a person or a team I am fond of does well, I have a feeling of pride that I am right about them. In the Olympics, if any freedom-loving team does well over a socialist or communist team, I feel pride that the socialists or communists are disappointed. Just saying.

Can you list all the novels you have read in your life?

Oh, my God! No! I’m a reading fool since early on. When I was nine or ten, I was getting on a bus from California to Texas. I bought a “Doc Savage” paperback. 181 books later, I was hooked on reading. I’ve read all the Clive Cussler, Daniel Silva, Lee Child, Preston & Child, Dan Brown, yadda, yadda, yadda. Not to mention the classics by Orwell, Huxley, Wells, and the Sci-Fi greats.

“I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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, finally, a senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world-renowned, Western 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 the lead chaplain at a regional medical center.

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