Man Plans and G-d Laughs!
So in retrospect, in 2015, not a single person got the answer right to ‘where do you se yourself 5 years from now?’
Where you gonna be in 2020?
Stuck at home for almost the entire year!
But you are a fortune teller and are so smart you should’ve rolled your dice in the ever exploding bubble of a stock market.
Oh, that’s right, you did! 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So we just finished watching Season Six of Alone (and have now started Season Seven).
Highly trained professionals (military and otherwise) with ALL the skills, experience, and confidence setting out to survive in the arctic, alone.
Each one thinks they can make it and outlast the others.
And watching these folks, you think to yourself, wow, these people can fish, hunt, build shelters, survive off of the land, and know how to survive.
Yet, usually well before 100 days, (virtually) all the contestants are out:
No matter how well prepared they are, life happens!
– They get hugely sick, often from the gross food they are eating.
-They fall down and hurt or break something.
– They cut or stab themselves.
– They lose one or more of their essential survival tools.
– They inadvertently burn down their own shelters.
– Animals steal their food or attack them.
– They starve and their bodies start to break down critical fat stores in their heart or other vital organs.
– They start to lose their minds from the lack of nutrition and mind-numbing loneliness.
It seems like no matter how well trained and prepared they are, they can’t outrun, outwit, out-survive what life eventually throws at them.
Even the last person “standing” is still usually more dead than alive.
Anything other than self-control is ultimately an illusion.
Remember, life happens, and eventually everyone needs help from someone.
No man is an island even if you are living on one. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So as we have done for ages…
We pray.
We weep.
We bless.
We request.
We thank.
We only control what we say and do.
The rest is in G-d’s merciful, blessed hands. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
People are creatures of habit.
They form routines and function with relative comfort and efficiency within that.
And for the most part, we can recognize our own patterns in life.
Get up, brush our teeth, dress, daven (pray), go to work and so on.
After a while, you can do it mostly in your sleep.
We sort of become like automatons.
Flip the switch and we go.
When routine and structure become so rigid that we can no longer improvise or innovate then we have a big problem in higher order functioning.
But also when we break people’s structures and habits, we find that they can quickly lose their sh*t.
People need to control their time and maintain their patterns of life.
Therein lies a certain safety and comfort in that repetitive doing.
You know what you’re doing–you’ve done it before, so you can do it again.
If you strip a person of their control over their time and the structure of their behavior, they are truly naked and in much more than a physical sense. (They articulated this in The Punisher, Season One, on Netflix)
All of a sudden they don’t know what to do or how to do it.
Do they go crazy, breakdown, or tell you everything you want to know.
Torture is not just physical, but also mental and emotional.
It is not hard to take away something so simple and a person is no longer a full person anymore.
People need solid coping as well as survival skills to deal with the unknown.
Finally, appreciate when everything is more or less under control, because that’s truly a blessing. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
There is a place for border walls.
Walls are not bad.
And neither are all people.
But some people are bad.
And we have the right to be protected from them.
Walls help to manage the flow.
Not everyone can just go whatever, whenever, wherever.
Surely, some people need to move to and fro.
But we must decide who and when and where.
Walls define spaces and ownership.
Not every place and thing is everyone’s.
People have property rights as do sovereign nations.
Not everything is strictly defined.
There is the commons that we share.
But also there is a mine and a yours.
That’s how economics functions and how people give and take.
Walls help separate and secure.
Bridges help connect and transport.
They are not mutually exclusive.
I’ve never seen a house, company, organization, or government without walls.
And neither have you. 😉
(Credit Photo: Michelle Blumenthal)
I just thought this was an interesting acronym that Amazon uses for selling unprofitable knick knacks.
They call it:
CRAP
It stands for:
Can’t Realize A Profit.
Sometimes, you see people buying stuff, lots of stuff, and it’s not important–often, it’s all a lot of junk.
But they like to shop–bordering on shopsholics’ compulsion.
Maybe they don’t even have a lot of money for this stuff.
However, just the act of buying it–of having some control in their lives and some freedom of the purse–makes them feel good and buy and hoard more and more things.
Likely it ends up in Goodwill, recyclables, the attic, or the trash.
Is it crap?
Well you can’t make realize a profit on it. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Two funny things came to mind about eating dinner.
The first was a joke my dad always told which was something like:
We had our mother-in-law for dinner…and boy was she good! LOL
The second was something I heard recently about power and politics, which was:
If you’re not at the table then you on the menu!
Ah, you better have a seat (and welcome voice) at the table or else you may find yourself part of the next batch of beef stew coming out of the kitchen.
Two new ways for us to think of dinner time. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Please see my new article in The Times Of Israel called, “In The Blink Of An Eye.”
It all seems to happen in the blink of an eye. Those moments when your life or those of a loved one hang in the balance. It can go either way–you can end up on the road to success or potentially in the morgue.
In those pivotal split seconds–your life can go this way or that. Do you recognize who is pushing on the scales of justice and are you ready on where to go from there?
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel, called “The Jews Control It.”
Unfortunately, the anti-Semites continue their refrain of “The Jews control the world” from Wall Street to Main Street to K Street.
But what they are completely missing are the true secrets of Jewish creativity and thought.
I hope you will read the article to learn about Jewish values and our faith. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I want you to know that there is a very thin line between fantasy and reality.
There are those who want you to not only question reality, but also to accept alternative deceptions.
They want to substitute fantasy and conspiracy and their version of “truth” for what is happening and real or intentionally phony.
But (more) fake news and lies are not real news and truth.
They ask questions, and they provide “answers.”
But the answers are more often contrived to make you think they are a reality when they are brainwashing and mindf*cking you.
They show you maps and pictures–it is nothing but entertainment to sow fear and for mass hysteria and distortion.
Dr. Insane is running her own Meshuganah Island.
You can easily get caught up in it.
But I caution you that there is a thin, thin line between fantasy and reality.
It’s not a game.
The game and joke are on you.
Misinformation, psychological operations throw you off track.
Yes, there are secrets–there have to be.
Not everything is for everyone to know at the moment.
But the world is not run on: I say, he says, she says.
There is power. There are plans. There is execution.
Randomness sometimes.
Intent sometimes.
Corruption all too often.
You can’t really know.
Were we smart or just plain lucky?
Someday, the unknown becomes known, but not on rants and raves.
Follow the data carefully and question it to make sure.
In the end, the King of Kings is guiding everything and therefore there is no reason to fear.
The world is going according to plan.
Fear leads to you wanting to gain control.
Some people want to vent or to pretend they know something when they don’t.
There is no reason to conjecture and cross with Dr. Insane into Meshuganah Island.
Making things up makes things worse.
What we do have to do is to keep good winning over evil with truth. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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