March 2008
Integrity
Integrity is the basing of one’s actions on an internally consistent framework of principles.
I believe that the reason personal integrity is so difficult to achieve is that it is the very phrase that holds us accountable for our own actions. How many times do we take ownership for our words, and actions? How many times do we truly feel like we have control over our feelings, emotions, thoughts and life?
It is one of the human qualities, which has helped us rise above anarchy. Integrity is the ability to do what is right even if it is at your own expense. Integrity also has other meanings such as following through in actions with what you say in words. Such follow up with action gives your words integrity.
We as humans seek control every day in our relationships, during work, while driving, in phone conversations and yet the last person we try to control is ourselves. Ironically, if we were able to take responsibility for ourselves, our lives would almost instantly fall into place.
I never really gave it much thought, because it is difficult enough to get by on my own, never mind worry about how I come across to others. Its quite liberating to say to ones self “I do not care what you think about me” and to go about life free of judgment, however there is a fine line between lifting social anxiety and smothering ones self in egocentric selfishness.
I must give kudos to the people in my life who truly “know” me and still have the “backbone” to maintain a friendship with me because; I will be the first to admit that it isn’t easy being my friend. I am blunt and bluntly honest.
If you ask my opinion, I will tell you what you need to hear and probably not what you WANT to hear, even if it hurts emotionally. And I expect the same from you in return, as friends, we owe one another that.
God knows, I have made my share of mistakes and thankfully I have learned from them. As we grow older, we grow wiser at least, we are supposed to.
My definition of living with integrity means owning up to your mistakes. Or doing everything in your power to correct them in the future. I’ve lied to girls and cheated on one. But eventually, I had to “let” her catch me because I had been trying to completely sever our unhealthy relationship for a very long time but she wasn’t hearing the words which were coming out of my mouth and at that time my opinion was that maybe she needed to see in 3-D that it was really over and I had moved on.
So afterwards, I laid all of my cards on the table and told her EXACTLY how I felt and why I did it. It wasn’t always easy. It would have been easier to continue the lies but to me there is a difference between situational lying and lying about something you’ve been accused of.
Many people get ahead by being cutthroat. Others say what people want to hear to get more. People screw friends in order to steal their romantic partner. And still others sell a false bill of goods for personal gain.
They might feel like they have won or benefited in some morbid way from their own ruthless acts, when in fact they have become the ultimate loser. People around them know what they’re like. And eventually, it will come back to haunt them since what goes around really does come around.
Living is learning and learning is living. It is my own personal belief that we should live our lives without any regrets. We should possess the ability (with couth of course) to be ourselves, say what we want. We should have open and honest relationships, whether it be with our partners, family or friends.
But above all, we should maintain our integrity because that is the one thing we “own” that no one can take away from us.
I hope you all have a wonderfully prosperous week!
———————————————————————- “Life is Short” On March 16, 2008, Heaven gained another Angel and some of us lost an incredible friend. When a friend dies, your memories can absorb your every waking moment; and also your dreams. There are very few things in life that are harder to face than the sudden death of someone you care about. Whether it’s a friend, a sibling, or even someone you just sort of know, the loss of their life can make you feel like you have an enormous hole inside yourself. Kristine K. Naragon, 55 of Canton Ohio passed away Sunday morning from injuries sustained in a three-vehicle accident while on route to teach private music lessons. Kris, her longtime partner Jayne and their two teenage daughters, Sarah and Emily were returning from their usual Sunday morning routine of tending to their horse when another vehicle ran a stop sign and slammed into their Toyota 4 runner. Kris was a music professor and percussion instructor at Kent State University’s Stark campus and a percussion instructor in Green schools in Summit County, where she had been expected to meet with students Sunday afternoon.Over the years, she had been involved in several productions at Canton Players Guild and the Carousel Dinner Theater; she loved music and the arts.The impact was so severe that their vehicle went airborne and landed 150 feet from the initial impact on its roof. Kris was killed at the scene; Jayne, Sarah and Emily all had to be extricated from the vehicle by the Jaws of Life and were life-flighted to Akron General Hospital. All three will survive. I remember the first time I met Kris and Jayne. We had just moved into the neighborhood and I remember being so excited that there was “family” living a few houses up the street from us. We eventually all got to know one another, and during the summer we hung out on one another’s porches, went out to the stables where they boarded their horse and picked black berries; those times will always be fond memories for me. Kris was one hell of a drummer and woke up the neighborhood when she practiced. Today more so than ever let’s enjoy, treasure and appreciate life; let’s enjoy, treasure and appreciate the people around us; let’s live every day to the fullest and not get hung up in minor squabbles or discontent. Let’s not waste our time with feelings of resentment or even hatred. Kris was a phenomenal woman and will be greatly missed by many. My deepest sympathies go out to Jayne and their daughters. “One day at a time; this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering.” “Rest In Peace My Friend”Ohio.com – Music teacher killed in crash I hope you all have a wonderfully prosperous week!
~Cee~
———————————————————————-
“Big Brother”
Every day, we are reminded that privacy is becoming less and less a part of our reality. What’s sad is not that we lack ultimate privacy, but that we are quickly losing the privacy that we have gained through modern life, back to a state that is so invasive that we might as well have zero freedom.
Yesterday was our first Anniversary and for the most part it was an amazing day. I finally made contact with my children’s father who it seems, is coming to his senses and is ready to be a father again after a two year absence. So, we made the two hour trip from Ohio to New Castle Pennsylvania to drop our youngest off at his house for a few days.
Earlier that morning we went down to our local courthouse because I wanted to go back to my “birth name.” Now, keep in mind that this is the name I was given to by my mother but according to “Big Brother” I no longer “own” it so I was forced to jump through a series of hoops to be given back possession of it.
We first had to go to the “Probation department” and I was given a form to fill out because they wanted to know why I wanted to re claim this name. I was given a May 20, 2008, @11:00a.m. hearing date. The purpose of this hearing is to notify the community of my name change and if ANYONE objects (legitimately of course) then and only then can I be given legal permission to go back to my birth name. And then we heard; “That will be $84.00 please.”
Now wait a minute, $84.00 to buy something back that was mine from the beginning. Then we were informed that we were to go to the local newspaper office and I was to place an add which costs another $27.00. That comes to $111.00 to buy back something that was given to me for free at birth.
I have always thought that government was overly involved in our lives and it seems that their involvement is getting more severe as the years go by. Nothing is sacred nor private anymore. You could be walking down the street with your friend on a warm sunny afternoon and be having a conversation about something as intimate as your sex life and be sure that you are being listened to.
The NSA (National Security Agency) has the ability to eavesdrop on your communications, landline’s, cell phones, e-mails, Blackberry messages, Internet searches, and more with ease. What happens when the technology of espionage outstrips the laws ability to protect ordinary citizens from it?
But there’s more. Global Positioning System (GPS) chips, the same technology used in many new cars to help drivers navigate unknown territory, track a cell phone’s every movement in real time. Such technology is marketed to parents as a tool for keeping tabs on their children, to employers as a means of monitoring their employees whereabouts, and to young people for social networking so they can track each other down.
In 2002 alone, Bell South received 16,000 subpoenas from government agents and 636 court orders for customer information. And it’s not just that the requests for customer information are becoming more frequent, they’re also getting broader and have been characterized as “shotgun approaches” or fishing expeditions. Moreover, the FBI and other government agencies are demanding greater legal authority to be able to force companies–especially cell phone companies–to turn over customer information. “They have pushed for an aggressive interpretation of the statute that would allow it to monitor certain Internet content without a warrant and to collect tracking information about the physical locations of cell phone users,” the ACLU reports, “turning cell phones into what, for all practical purposes, are location tracking bugs.”
The War on Terror is costing us billions to fight with no clearly defined objective, never mind that we have a sluggish economy which is going to be “stimulated” by a poorly planned and useless economic “package.” Never mind that we habeas corpus is being violated routinely by our own government (an issue we fought a war over). Never mind that in order to fight “terrorism” Americans are going to be scrutinized, examined, and approved by Federal officials and files on each one of us will be collected, maintained, and proliferated to the various states through the Real, ID Act.
Have we as a nation decended to such depths? Have we as a nation traded our “civil rights” for a promise of “security”. Jefferson once said that when man trades his civil rights for a promise of security, he will have neither civil rights nor security. Prima facie evidence of this is our perpetually open borders while the Bush puppets spout of empty rhetoric about us being “secure”. Have we become Bushbot non thinking, illogical idiots to accept this toxic drivel?
We all need to take a long hard look at ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves just how much more “complicit” we are going to allow ourselves to become? Just how much more of our rights will we trade for the lies about being secure? How much more of our democracy are we going to stand by as it crumbles to the ground? Do we even still have a true, valid democracy?
I hope you all have a wonderfully prosperous week!
~Cee~
What The "L" 