(Credit Photos: Andy Blumenthal)
Category Archives: Path
@Lake Needwood, Memorial Day 2020
(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)
@Harpers Ferry
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Strategy, Strategery, Stratego
Like the all knowing eye…
Strategy is our way of trying to forge a coherent path ahead.
Of course, as humans, we are imperfect and don’t know what we don’t know.
But whether we call it strategy, strategery, or stratego, the goal is to have a method to our madness.
We can’t just rely on luck, gut, intuition, or subjective whim to get us wherever.
Having no strategy is brainless following or aimless wandering.
Strategy means your thinking ahead what you want to achieve and then at least trying your best to accomplish something.
Ample course corrections allowed and encouraged, as needed. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Settle Down or Trade Up
So I always hear this question from people…
Should I be happy with what I have or should I seek out something better?
It’s the age old question of whether to settle down or trade up.
When it comes to any decision in life…choosing a school, degree, career, place to live, an investment decision, or even your spouse and life partner–how do you know when you are making the right decision?
Maybe you like or love what’s in front of your eyes, but you still don’t know 100% if there’s something better out there for you.
Every choice means you are settling in some way, because let’s face it, nothing is perfect in life!
When is good, good enough for you?
There are trade-offs with every decision.
And it’s a matter of what YOU can live with!
A guy may say, “I like this girl, but I’m not sure whether she’s the one for me or that I really want to settle down with long-term.”
Someone else says, “I’m studying to be an accountant, but you know I really always liked psychology.”
And yet a third person says, “I like working at company ABC, but maybe I can learn something new or do better financially for myself and family if I go somewhere else.”
So when do you settle down and when do you try to trade-up?
The dilemma is fateful because you don’t want to lose what you have, but you also don’t want to potentially miss out on something even better for you.
Listen, we’re not prophets!
No one knows whether your investment in something is going to pay off in spades or land you flat on your butt.
All you can do is try to weight the pros and cons of every decision.
If you treat life like a roulette game in Las Vegas, the one thing that is pretty sure is that at some point, you will lose it all to the house.
So choose wisely and make sure you are passionate about your choice and that can live with it over time.
Know that you made the best decision you could by looking at it from all angles.
And most important of all, be grateful for everything you have–these are blessings from the Almighty Above and you need to have faith that He/She is guiding and helping you all along the way. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Computer Luminaries
I wanted to share these photo that I took at Micro Center, a computer and electronics store, outside Washington DC.
On the wall are these pretty awesome photos of many of the founders and inventors behind modern-day computing.
1) Doug Englebart – the GUI and Mouse
2) Dennis Ritchie – C and Unix
3-4) Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston – Visicalc and Spreadsheets
5-6) Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard – HP
7) Gordon Moore – Intel
8) Grace Hopper – First compiler that led to development of COBOL
9-10) Robert Khan and Vinton Cerf – TCP/IP
11) Steve Wozniak – Apple I and II
Of course, the following deserve a place of the wall of fame as well:
12) Steve Jobs – Apple
13) Bill Gates – Microsoft
14-15) Larry Paige and Sergey Brin – Google
16) Jeff Bezos – Amazon
17) Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook
On one hand, these are people like you and I, who live, feel joy and pain, and one day die. In the end, we’re all just flesh and blood, plus a soul that is our moral compass.
But on the other hand, G-d has given some people special gifts to pass to mankind, like a master painter, musician, inventor, or holy person, whose worldly works are as near to G-dly as perhaps we can get outside of Heaven itself.
G-d must have a plan for us as he sends us these people–or more like angels–to guide our development and our destiny.
Whatever G-d wants from us, we’re definitely on a course to get there and that is comforting and a ray of hope for all of us. 😉
(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)
What Path Are We On This July 4th?
Over and over again, I hear people say that as a country we are on the wrong path.
According to recent polls, around 70% think we’re moving in the wrong direction!
Very pessimistic bunch or something more going on?
Despite all the technology advances–from smartphones to video-on-demand, drones to 3-D printing–people are still feeling like things are a mess.
And the upcoming election seems to have given everyone with half a brain, reason to pause.
The world seems like a very dangerous place these days with a resurgent Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and ISIS with your guess as to where terrorism of the day will be hitting.
Moreover, weapons of mass destruction are proliferating from nukes to chemical and biological weapons…can anyone say $350 billion in the next 10 years to modernize America’s nuclear arsenal?
Deadly diseases from Ebola in Africa to Zika in South America are striking without warning and causing horrible sudden death and frightening birth defects in infant babies.
The economy and politics of the world are grossly unstable with many banks now offering negative interest rates and Brexit tearing at the very core of the EU.
Hundreds of thousands are dying in the Arab Spring and Middle East wars and millions of refugees are streaming to Europe and as far away as America.
Ballooning national debts are leading to the looming bankruptcies of not only Greece, Spain, Ireland, and Puerto Rico, but also the 3 pillars of American entitlements: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Unemployment shows at a deceptive 4.7%, but yet anyone looking for a job knows this is far from reality, and robots, artificial intelligence, and automation loom large over any future prospects.
Racism and hate are all too alive and well as tempers seem to be boiling over in city after city, with or without police shootings precipitating things.
Already as a kid, I always used to ask my dad rhetorically, “What’s gonna be?”
As an adult, I understand that this was a question born of the deterioration of the moral and leadership fiber of our society and a future that was far from certain in the inner city or beyond, along with the anxiety born of wanting to have some reassurance that things somehow would end up being okay.
But things aren’t okay in our f*cked up world!
Especially with political jockeying to gerrymandering, from sit-ins to sequestration, from pork-barrel projects to outright fraud, waste, and abuse…the system is getting so broken.
Now when I think in my head, what’s gonna be, my mom and dad are not here anymore to reassure me that everything will be alright, and frankly in this day and age, those reassurances would not even be able to ring true.
We need change and hope, but perhaps we must look Heavenward for it to come, because down here, things are looking more like a creeping hell, than a heaven that awaits.
But good people can help to change things…one good thought, word, and deed at a time. You and I can be influences for good, for a brighter tomorrow, for peace, for freedom and equality, and for prosperity for everyone that doesn’t buy into the status quo and the spin and lies that sustain it any longer.
This is our magic wand to wave and wave and make good times based on values and faith return again. 😉
(Source Video: Andy Blumenthal)
Should You MYOB?
Great Salt And Pepper comic in the Wall Street Journal today.
“What makes you think the meaning of life
is any of your business.”
Man goes to mountain.
Man seeks to know the meaning of his existence.
Mountain tells man to mind your own business.
I guess it’s just not that easy.
No one will just tell us how each of us is to make our difference in this world.
Of course, there is faith and religious teachings to guide us.
But each and every one of us must find our path to G-d and our mission to his world.
In doing that we struggle through life’s trials and tribulations.
It is painful at times, but we change and grow especially when the pain of what we are doing wrong becomes greater than the pleasure we gain from it.
The meaning is in the journey and in the destination we seek.
Our paths are not straight, but winding and hilly and not without obstacles–but it is a trek not only to the mountain, but to the very heavens itself. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
(Re)Kashering The Kitchen
So with all the 613s that we and are our friends and family are seeing, we are taking these as a sign and important message.
Yesterday, I posted that I would show you today how it is personally affecting us.
So one of the things that we are doing is (re)kashering our kitchen.
New and separate dishes and cooking utensils for meat and dairy meals.
We got these beautiful French Perle Lenox in gorgeous lilac and ice blue (of course, no one better actually use one and break it).
Being more a part of the synagogue and community now, we are hoping to host more people for Shabbat etc.
There are other small (and large) ways that we are coming back to more of our traditions, but we are far from perfect.
Sort of a blend of the secular world, the religious one, and just being ourselves.
But that is our road, and we strive to do better in all aspects of our lives and pray for G-d’s mercy and blessings all along the way and at the destination. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Heading Down The 613
So today another amazing mystical and holy 613 (commandments in the Torah).
This one is a country road between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
How apropos to be on the 613 road!
Tomorrow, in my next post, I hope to show you where this road is personally taking us now.
But wherever 613 leads that is where I want to be. 😉
(Source Photo: With gratitude to my dearest sister, Roz Blumenthal)
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