Does a pink bear sh*t in the woods?
Like a politician speaks falsehoods!
My dad would rightfully say, “Be careful, don’t step in the hoy[t]a!“
Compliments of some good old Native American humor.
At one point, probably from Reader’s Digest! 🙂
(Credit Photo; Andy Blumenthal)
Latest Coronavirus news reported by Reuters from South Korea…
Virus appears to be “reactivated” after person is already cleared of it.
91 patients so far!
Is this the result of faulty testing or is this not your typical virus???
Folks, it does not look like we are in clear by a long shot on this yet.
Be careful and stay safe! 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal and thank you to my sister with a PhD in biomedical science for sharing this with me)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Anti-Semitism: Preparedness Can’t Be Blind.”
As I’m standing there, I feel someone coming up behind me and then running into me. Of course, with anti-Semitic attacks prominent and growing, I may have been at a slightly higher state of alert, and I turn around ready for whatever or to give someone a few choice words…And then I see the cane from a blind person.
So even in these times, when there are gangs, drugs, violence, and anti-Semitism, and “we can’t be careful enough” (especially given our long, deep history of religious persecution), at the same time, we need to judge our fellow man favorably first and foremost, and still we must be prepared for, G-d forbid, the worst at any time.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
It takes time to build in life.
Or as they say:
“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
But it’s not always easy to have patience.
We all have to start somewhere and usually it’s at the bottom.
And then we have to claw our way up (like Rocky).
Unless of course, you’re one of those people born with a “silver spoon” in your mouth.
The funny thing about building and climbing is that it can all be destroyed in a split second.
One silly mistake, one stupid word, one indiscretion, one lackadaisical moment, a turn of bad luck…or a series thereof.
It takes so much time and effort to build as we lay one brick of success upon another.
And it takes just a split second to destroy it all.
So watch-watch-watch your steps, because they can so easily turn into a rapid, spiraling, and even most deadly a fall. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I thought this was an interesting risk management strategy…
One colleague joked with me that:
“Everyone should just wrap themselves in bubble wrap!”
Reminded me of that game where people put on big wearable inflatable bumpers and then smash into each other for fun.
The problem though is that sometimes we put on the bubble wrap, bulletproof vest, or seat belt, but then we get stupidly overconfident.
We think we are protected, but nothing human in impenetrable.
So the person with the seat belt and air bag drives too fast and off a cliff and still gets him/herself killed.
Or the person with the bulletproof vest gets shot with a high caliber armor piercing shell or in the back of the head.
Like on many cars, where the mirror says, “objects in mirror are closer than they appear,” we need not over rely on safety, protective, and risk measures and still do stupid things.
One guy told me, he backed up into the wall in the garage, because he thought there was more room and that’s not how things looked in the mirror.
Let’s face it, there is no bubble wrap that can fully protect us from life.
Everyday we face risks out there, and we need to manage them with common sense or else… 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Sometimes we get surprised in life.
Now of course, the surprise can be good or not so good.
One person told me this funny story about how they were in the bathroom and they reached for the toothpaste.
They put it on their toothbrush and proceeded to brush their teeth.
All of a sudden though, they realized that something didn’t taste quite right.
Lo and behold, they see that they had accidentally put Desitin (diaper rash ointment) on their toothbrush.
Yikes, that was nasty indeed (at least no mouth sores after that)!
But surprises, even when not so good, can be a wake up call.
In this case, you better be more careful what the heck in put in your mouth.
And more generally-speaking, we need to pay attention to what we’re doing–be deliberate, plan, and adjust accordingly.
I remember early in my career, one supervisor telling me, “I don’t like surprises!”
Yeah, unless it’s winning the Powerball lottery jackpot or something like that, what surprises are usually all that great anyway?
Sure, I like a my share of adventure, novelty, fun, and challenge in life, but also I’ll take a mouthful of tranquility mixed with some incremental progressive learning and growth over Desitin on my toothbrush any day of the week. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So this was interesting…
I was in a meeting and someone was discussing the risks involved in a project.
And they mentioned the Humpty Dumpty Effect.
A bunch of people looked at them like what’s that.
Then they explained that it’s the risk of breaking something during the project.
Sort of like the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take to, “first, do no harm.”
When we are planning, designing, building or implementing a project–be it information technology or something else–we don’t want to break something in the process.
That’s the Humpty Dumpty Risk to beware of and it’s an egg-celent point! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
For some reason everyone wants to face down the bull in the China Shop or on Wall Street.
The bull is stubborn and when it gets angry, it charges and gores.
So how heroic for the statue of little girl (below on International Women’s Day) to be shown standing in front of him defiantly and not afraid.
The truth probably is that we are all afraid in life.
No one wants to get hurt or worse.
The consequences of something really bad happening can be devastating loss–limb, body, mobility, property or even total person.
And actually, the more we have in life, the more we have to (potentially) G-d forbid, lose.
So when you have a spouse, children, a beautiful home, and a good job, that’s when you get really, really afraid.
Losing your precious loved ones and everything you’ve built with G-d’s blessing and help can instantaneously be gone in the blink of an eye.
Therefore, be careful before standing in front of a raging bull, you never know when you’ll get walloped and bad.
Bravery in the face of danger is noble and praiseworthy when doing true good and confronting evil, but just to be a big mouth or a know-it-all or to strut your stuff, you better forget about it–you’ve got a lot to lose and it doesn’t take much for that bull to charge head on and do you a real big dirty! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal and here with attribution to AP)
So my niece forwarded this over, and I thought it was really worth sharing…
It’s about how our lives are really a bunch of building blocks, and each thing we do contributes to the next step.
So we have to be careful all along the way to do the right thing–so we can achieve the results we want and can be proud of.
It goes like this:
“Watch you thoughts; they become words.
Watch you words; they become actions.
Watch you actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”
Sometimes, we ask ourselves how we got to where we are today–almost as if we are surprised–but the reality is that most of the time, we are going through our lives inch by inch and step by step in an incremental and causal fashion.
Yes sh*t happens–bad things (and good things), and they test and challenge us and take us to the next playing level.
But for the most part, we didn’t just arrive at this moment out of the blue, but rather given what G-d has given us, we mold ourselves brick by brick….until there we are. 😉
(Thank you to Chana Rivkah Herbsman and Minna Blumenthal)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Just a quick lesson I wanted to share from my grandfather.
He used to say (or so my dad used to tell me), “You open your eyes or you open your wallet!“
Put another way is that “A fool and his money are soon parted.”
But I like the way my grandfather put it even better–easier to remember and no name calling involved! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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