Facebook

      I think sometimes businesses etc. lose their way when they start catering outside their target audience. I think it happened when the NHL tried the glowing puck etc. to try and get people who didn't care about the game to care about the game. I think it happens in baseball when they try to find ways to speed up the game. The true baseball fan is sitting in the stands in the sun with a beer (or several) and isn't complaining about the speed of the game.

      It seems like the same thing is happening on Facebook. I like Facebook. Always have. I like that it helps me keep up with what friends are doing, thinking etc. It seems like now people are being chastised for doing what made Facebook what it is. I see lots of posts (and may be guilty of jokingly sharing a few) saying: don't share your political views, or I don't care if you went to the gym or what you had for dinner.                     

      Personally I say update it. I want to see it. I like knowing what is going on in my friends lives. If someone posts too much stuff you don't want to see and you can't just ignore it then hide their updates or change which ones you see. I like the original way people used Facebook and I hope people continue to do it.

Voting

"We have a duty to another very special group of patriots: our veterans. Do we really understand the sacrifices they have made, that they fight for our right to be free? Voting is a fundamental demonstration of gratitude to those who have risked and even given their lives for us." Harvey Mackay

I actually don't agree with the word duty in this context. To me the people who fought for our freedom gave us freedom that allows us the maximum amount of choice possible without infringing on the rights of others. This includes not voting if that is what you wish. However that being said I think voting is incredibly important and is a great gesture of respect to our veterans. 

"Impress upon children the truth that the elective franchise is a social duty of as solemn a nature as man can be called to perform; that a man may not incorrectly trifle with his vote; that every elector is a trustee as well for others as himself and that every measure he supports has an important bearing in the interests of others as well as on his own." Daniel Webster

What I'm Thankful For (2012 edition)

     First of all I'm most thankful for the safety we enjoy living where we live. It constantly gives me pause for thought when I read stories of people being blown up at the market etc. in other countries. I'm also thankful that living in Canada we're free to think and say whatever we want. It's hard to imagine in this day and age there are countries where people get thrown in jail for speaking against the government or where things like Google results are censored.
      I'm thankful for the health of my family. We all are constantly inundated with friends, acquaintances, stories etc. of health problems taking people too young or negatively impacting the quality of life. I'm thankful that this year our health system fixed my wife's back problems so she can live normally again.
      I'm thankful for my family. My beautiful wife who after eighteen years together still so obviously loves me and supports me. She is the most caring, nicest woman I know. It's so amusing to see her at bedtime one by one being asked to lie in everyone's bed and cuddle them to sleep. My wonderful daughter who is interested in everything and has the same heart as my wife. Always wanting to do nice things for others. My son whose life revolves around sports already at seven. The pure joy I get to watch him experience when he makes a catch or hits a ball a long way.
      I'm thankful for friends. I lost one particular one this year that gave me a lot of reason to think. I'm glad that because of that I have made more of an effort to have important conversations with friends and to work on building a circle I can confide real feelings to.
      I'm thankful for my job and the company I work for. I look around at the life I live with the nice house on the quiet, tree-lined street and all the things I am able to do for my children and I know that a lot of my success was just the dumb luck of getting hired where I work. The less obvious thing that I am grateful to my work for is teaching me a way of thinking. As a lot of those who work there will tell you there is a real logical, methodical way of thinking that is ingrained into the culture. Learning to think this way has really helped me succeed in other areas of my life.
      I'm thankful for whatever it is that attracts me to do the things I do to help others and for the skill set I have that allows me to help them. It's really wonderful to have the opportunities that I do to make a difference in the lives of others and I am grateful that people and organizations trust me to do those things on their behalf.
      Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Freedom of Speech

How is it possible that a politician in the USA can suggest that anyone should: "inhibit such expressions"? Democrat, Republican, pro or anti gay marriage the suggestion from a member of the government that this person's employer should attempt to control what they say is disturbing.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/ravens/story/2012-09-07/brendan-ayanbadejo-gay-marriage/57680822/1

 

The Spirit of Canada

Saw something the other day that I think captured the spirit of Canada. I wish I could have taken a picture but I think it would have been inappropriate. We were at the Toronto Zoo and they had a really nice splash pad. Sitting there while my kids played I noticed a couple also sitting there and the woman was covered except her face as is traditional in some religions. I then looked where they were looking and saw what I assume was their daughter dressed the same way but fully enjoying the splash pad. Fully covered but soaked and enjoying it the same as the kids in bathing suits etc. Very cool.

A Complete Idiot

     I often feel bad and sometimes defend politicians and other famous people when an off the cuff comment they make turns into a media firestorm. I think it has to be difficult having every word you say scrutinized and people just waiting for you to say the wrong thing so they can use it to attack you. However there is a point where what you said wasn't a mistake and you're just a complete idiot. Todd Akin is a great example of that.

Letter to the editor about Hospice.

http://www.simcoe.com/community/alliston/article/1370215


 In the Month of May Matthews House Hospice held two important fundraising events. On May 6 we participated in the national Hike for Hospice campaign. The Matthews House hike was held at Spring Creek Park in Alliston. This event raised over $55,000 and boasted the top fundraiser in the country in our president Marv Chantler who alone raised over $24,000 and the top team in the country which was our board of directors who collectively raised over $37,000.
The top five non board individual fundraisers were Sally Taylor, Wayne Murray, Maureen Dilbey, John Wigle and Sharon Crosby. The top five non board teams were Caregivers, Hiker Chicks, The Cork and Vine Winers, Ted and Jamie Remax and Matthews House Staff.
We had outstanding support from the community including Mayor Mike MacEachern, Deputy Mayor Rick Milne and our Member of Parliament Dr. Kellie Leitch as well as 150 hikers and many donors and sponsors.
On May 29 the first-ever Matthews House Hospice golf tournament was held at the Nottawasaga Inn Ridge course. Despite being cut short by rain the participants indicated that they had a great time and approximately $5,000 was raised for Matthews House. Sixty-six golfers, 18 hole sponsors and several volunteers made this event a big success. Thank you so much to our community and all the individuals and businesses who came together to help Matthews House raise funds so we can continue to offer our support to the community.
Matthews House Hospice offers caring, compassionate, in-home non-medical support for people with a life threatening diagnosis, their caregivers, and those dealing with grief due to the death of a loved one. Some of the ways we can help are: Providing information to our clients and to the community about options available for living with a diagnosis, providing support groups and courses/workshops for those with a life threatening diagnosis, their caregivers and for the bereaved at Matthews House and by providing one on one and group support to adults and children who are grieving the loss of a loved one. All services are provided free of charge.

Rob Holliday,
Director and Events Committee Chair,
Matthews House Hospice

Growth In Wisdom

“Growth in wisdom may be exactly measured by decrease in bitterness” Friedrich Nietzsche

This one made me stop and think this morning. I realized when considering people I know that as we are getting older my friends and acquaintances do seem to be polarizing as far as their level of bitterness. My take on it is that it seems to correlate with the level to which they take on the victim ideology. I think that as we reach the age where we start to reflect on our lives many who haven't gotten where they wanted to be become bitter at the world. Others who have or who for whatever reason have decided to assume responsibility for themselves become more grateful for what they have.

Picking My Battles

"Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win."

-- Jonathan Kozol

This quote speaks to something I've often thought about. In politics and in life people devote countless hours to causes that can't be won. Supporting a fringe party, fighting against something being done by a group who doesn't need an approval process etc. I don't want to get into specific examples because then all the debate will go to that issue. Anyway I've often been curious about the strategy of clinging to the fight that you can't win I guess because it's important to you or you think you can build the cause. The flip side of the coin is finding "battles big enough to matter, small enough to win" which has generally been my strategy. I'm not sure one is right or wrong but my way allows me to make some positive difference in the world is my thinking.

Thoughts On A Bad Thing

This week a bad thing happened....in my life, and in the lives of many of my friends and co-workers. A good man, a hard working, family oriented, church going man died. He was a man who made a contribution to the world. He spent more time than I would have imagined talking to me about religion and although he ultimately wasn't successful in convincing me we had important conversations about life, family, god, death and many other things. I have so much respect for how hard he tried to positively influence me in what he felt was the right direction.
The last few days I (and I suspect many others) have done some real soul searching. I've laid in bed a good portion of the recent nights staring at the ceiling. Here's what I think: I need to take my life and myself a lot less seriously. I need to make more effort in my relationships and have more important, intimate conversations. I should know the people in my life beyond the surface stuff. I need to slow my life down. It saddens me how quickly after hearing the news at home and at work we were forced to plow on with our lives and meet our obligations. I need to spend more time alone thinking. There should be time in life other than when I'm supposed to be sleeping when I can think about the really important things in life. Most importantly I need to teach these lessons to my children.
Larry I promise my life will change because of you. I promise I will be a better person in the world, with my family and most importantly to myself because of you. Rest in peace brother.

Harvey Mackay quotes

Harvey Mackay quotes:
The best way to sound like you know what you're talking about is to know what you're talking about.

If you're looking for a big opportunity, look for a big challenge.

You don't have to know everything as long as you know the people who do.

To get what you've never had, you must do what you've never done.

Be prepared, or be prepared to fail.

Giving someone a piece of your mind rarely gives you peace of mind.

Good luck usually depends on good judgment.

Some people dream about success, and others wake up and do something about it.

The world's work is done every day by people who could have stayed in bed, but didn't.

Binary Work

     "If you do a job where someone tells you exactly what to do he will find someone cheaper to do it." Seth Godin. This is a good segue to something I've been thinking about lately. I see in the world around us a push from workers to want their jobs to be binary. People push to have clear direction so that everything that comes at them is a one or a zero. Bosses increasingly try to add measurable items to employee performance evaluations to eliminate the grey areas and to be able to say here is why. The problem with making your work binary is you take the skill out of it and thus remove the value. When you remove the value why would the company or boss pay you a lot of money to do it? Now that job is a low skilled and ultimately low paying job. Next time we complain about the loss of good paying jobs in our economy perhaps we should consider the impact of us trying to remove the skill and personal responsibility from our jobs.

Macro vs. Micro

     Something I've been thinking about lately......it's important to judge things at the macro level not at the micro level. Judging at the micro level is when you are angry at someone because of something they said today rather than realizing all the wonderful things they have done for you. Or saying you hate your job after having a bad day rather than realizing that it paid for your house and vacation and gave you wonderful opportunities.                       
     Next time you're angry at someone or something step back and look at the whole picture. Your wife is a beautiful woman who loves you and keeps your family together not just the woman who yelled at you for tracking mud on the floor.....your kid is the good student who cuddles up and reads with you at night not just the kid who left his shoes where you tripped over them again.

First Post In A Long Time- Them

     Looking at my blog it looks like the last time I posted was September. I've been thinking about something lately though so here goes:
     I'm pretty conscious in life of trying not to use the phrase "them". People do it a lot when referring to the management of companies we work for and interact with, the government at various levels etc. The truth is though there really isn't a them, just a collection of people. "Them" comes up a lot with conspiracy theories. They are trying to screw us or plotting something etc. However recently I've come to believe that they and their conspiracy theories don't exist. We all go through life interacting with people and realize there are very different skill sets and levels of competency among individuals and then among collective groups of individuals. What I've been thinking about lately is that them is just a group of individuals some competent and some not. The conspiracies for the most part I think are the result of people of various levels of competency being put in positions where they are making it up as they go along. The result is what we think is a great conspiracy. There is a great quote that sums this up: "never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence".