Very few people think about how they would feel if someone demeaned, belittled, or pointed out their mistakes,(even if they believe they’re justified) the way they do to other people. If people would think about this before engaging in such behavior, everyone would get along much better. This would prevent unnecessary conflicts and ill feelings towards others. This would stop wars and disagreements. The next time you feel like criticizing or belittling anyone, think how would you feel if someone else spoke to you that way.

Human beings were created as sexual beings.  I believe that the biggest crime that can be committed against a human being is to deny them of their sexuality ie., celibacy.  I think it is immoral, illicit, illegal, sinful and just plain stupid.  According to Sigmund Freud, a very prominent psychologist,  the two strongest drives in a human being’s life are- one, self-preservation and two, sex.  Certain Church leaders should read this – they might learn something.

One of the ways to solve problems is to acquire an education about the specific item you are having a problem with. For example, if you are having problems with the A/C in your home, before you call a technician, learn that the majority of a/c problems are due to the electrical system and usually they are not that costly to fix. You can apply the same method for all the appliances in your home. For your car, it may require more study. But if you get an education about it there will be less chance that you will be ripped off by an unscrupulous a/c technician or automobile mechanic.

In the same manner, when problems arise with people in general, the best way to maybe help solve the problem is to learn the background of the person. Usually, genetics and upbringing play a very critical role in the way people behave. The more you know about a person’s background the easier it will be to tolerate or understand the problem.

Being a good parent, I believe, is one of the most difficult and stressful endeavors there is. The problem is, we do not have a school where we learn how to be a parent. We usually just do what we observed our parents doing when we were small children. It is very difficult for a parent to separate love from discipline. We all love our children dearly, but if we allow them to do everything they want we are doing a great disfavor to them. Children need to be disciplined and if we do not do it, they believe that you do not really love them.

I believe that the first ten or twelve years are the easiest, even though at the age of two children really put parents to the test. When they reach the teenage years a whole new set of disciplines are necessary. They become a little bit mature and think that they know better than the parents. They also have the influence of their peers, which to them is more important that the parents. Great problems may arise from decisions they make without letting you know.

When the children reach the age where they want to get a husband (or wife), we parents want them to get the “right” one. The best advice I got was from my father. He said: “It is very important to know the boyfriend’s (or girlfriend’s) parents! Usually all of us in a way are a product of our parents!” So true. Of course, our children will choose they one who want and the advice may or may not make an impact on their brains! Good luck!

Eventually the children get married and the wedding is a time of elation for the parents and the children and we wish them the best. After they have the first child is another time of enjoyment and elation and you enjoy your grandchildren. And the best part is, when they cry or they soil themselves, you give them back to their parents. So it is a nice feeling. If they have a successful marriage, it’s nice. You can visit them and they love to have you with them, and vice versa. But if the marriage breaks down, again you have a lot of pain and stress and you are powerless to do anything about it. (Go to my posting on DIVORCE to see the consequences of this.)

One of the best pieces of advice you can give your adult children is:   NEVER do anything that is illicit, immoral or illegal and when presented with a dilemma ALWAYS do what is right!  Make sure they remember this or remind them often.

Most headaches are caused by the lack of oxygen going to the brain. Instead of taking a pain killer you must try this breathing technique first. Using a watch with a readable second hand, time your inhale time. It must be very slow and continuous. It should be about five or more seconds. Repeat this technique three times. Breathe normally for one minute and then repeat the entire sequence. After nine repetitions, your headache should be gone. If it doesn’t go away, breathe normally for five minutes and then repeat the nine repetitions again.

There seems to be an epidemic of divorce.  I believe that over 60 percent of couples eventually get divorced.  Too high.  In my opinion, there are only a few reasons why people get divorced:

1)  cheating (extramarital affairs)

2)  lack of acceptance and intolerance

3)  addiction, vices, and mistreatment and abuse

4)  lack of communication

5)  money issues

6) in-law or relative issues

A couple that decides to divorce for any of the above reasons will be extremely lucky and guiltless if there are no children.  People with children have no clue of the effect their divorce produces on their offspring.  For the younger ones which have no real understanding, him or her think they are OK.  Even for adult children, they do not approve of their parents splitting.  When younger children of divorce mature, they will definitely have serious problems with relationships and the parents won’t know what is happening to them because they thought it was OK when they were young.  Also, a divorce will force the offspring to take sides.  They cannot say that my father and my mother are OK and they just don’t like each other.  The worst thing a parent can do is bad-mouth the ex.  So, unfortunately, this is the reality of life and there is no magic cure or solution.    Counseling seldom if ever works.  There is no practical advice to give to people who want to get divorced.  It is hard to reconcile once their minds are made up.
The most important question they have to answer to themselves is this: “Am I better off with him (or her), or without him (or her)”, and after a careful consideration, act accordingly.

When divorced people find another person, and they want to get married to them, it would be a good idea to analyze the baggage each one of them has. Usually blended families have a great percentage of failure due to the fact that the new husband or wife will prefer their own children to the relationship to the wife or husband and that will cause resentment in one or both of them with no solution in sight. Divorced men or women will carry that stigma with them for the rest of their life.

Finally, the parents WILL SUFFER eventually through the children even though the divorce happened many years ago. There will be no escape from suffering.

BESIDES all the above, let’s not forget that the divorced person will have to pay alimony, child support and all the medical bills that the children may have until the offspring are 18 years old!

Most hospitals are profit-making organizations. Their
main concern is making a good profit from the people’s insurance, hmos, Medicare, and Medicaid. They do not really care about the wellbeing or health of their patients. If they get better it’s okay. The patient is released in the hope that they may have to come back to their care. It is much better if the patient has to stay longer. That is the most profitable for the hospital. Case in point: a few years ago I had an elderly woman who was my next neighbor. She was about 92 years old and lived by herself. We became good friends. At one time she asked me if we could have Sunday dinner at the cheap restaurant (Dennys). We of course went dutch with no strings attached. We shared a few personal details of our lives. She had had two husbands, both of which had died. On one occasion she told me that she had gone for her annual physical with her doctor and she said the doctor had told her that she had excellent health and could live to be 100.

A few months later, she developed a stomach upset and she decided to go to the hospital (I don’t know why). She went to a local hospital and after two or three days she was released. Unfortunately, whatever medication they gave to her had serious side effects and she had to go back to the hospital. Two or three days later, she was again released and sent home. Again, some medication had more side effects and she had to go back. My poor friend soon enough died, not of the upset stomach but from the medications given to her. I wish I could have sued the hospital, but not being a relative, I could not.

My advice to anyone is to please avoid hospitals at all costs unless there is a serious problem or emergency.

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By the same token, churches are mainly money-making organizations. They are not necessarily concerned about the spiritual conditions of their parishoners. Most important is the contribution that the church may get. After all they must pay salaries, medical insurance, benefits and retirements, etc etc etc. tithes and special donations/ annual bishop’s appeal. They make an obligation to make a commitment for a good amount to be paid during the year . This can not be denied or failed to obey. A good portion of this money must be sent to the vatican that has a secret bank that no one can check or question, except the pope himself. The Catholic church is one of the most rich and corrupt institutions in the world! This has been published in the newspaper and television.
The church is excellent in controlling the mind of the Catholics. They have quite a few rituals that bring extra income. Marriage fee is more than 200 dollars, baptism, confirmation, extreme unction more money, even the people that are selected to give the wine and the bread have to pay for that privilege!
The church has created all kind of dogmas for the people, To name a few: Do not eat meat on Friday, go to confession at least once a year, go to mass every Sunday or else you are commiting a mortal sin! They make believe that a priest who is a celibate person and has no experiene of real life has the power and authority to forgive your sins!
Since the priests are denied of their sexuality, which I believe is unnatural and immoral, they can not forgive sins.
Only God can forgive sins. He sees you like you are. He
sees into your heart and mind what kind of a person you are!
When I was very young I became a victim of a parish priest that fondled me. Fortunally he did not go too far. I believe that all the priests are sexual deviants! If you read the Bible, you can learn that salvation comes from God. He sent his son Jesus to die for our sins! In order to be saved you only need to do few things:
Believe in God, Believe that Jesus is His son, Jesus
died on the cross for all your sins. You know that you are a sinner and need to repent (in your heart) and ask forgiveness to God. The only command that you must do is: Love your neighbor. Who is your neighbor? Every person that comes in contact with you in any circumstance and place! Amen!

Money is one of the most difficult and complex subjects there is.  Most people get their first experience with money when they are very, very young.  When we are young we come to understand that money can be exchanged for things like toys, food, clothing, etc.  But we do not really know the value of money. The understanding of the value of money comes when we get older and start to work to earn money.  Most of us do not give much value to money that we receive as a gift, or find, or win through the lotto.  We use the saying “easy come, easy go”, but we tend not to spend frivolously the money we work for.

I do not really know for sure how people learn how to handle or manage money.  I don’t know if we can be taught how to save, spend or do whatever.

What I do know for sure is that it is almost impossible to live without money.  People that experience utter poverty still need money for soap, toothpaste, or very basic necessities.  When I was only 13 years old my father said to me “you are on your own, kid”, meaning that I had to work to support myself for having a place to sleep.  I went to work in a book store, selling and shipping all kinds of books to different places.  The pay was extremely low, but I managed to buy clothes, plus I gave some of my money to my mother for food.  Working at that early age forced me to go to night school, but I only managed to finish 10th grade of high school.  Fortunately, when I came to the USA I did manage to complete a GED course in the Army.

To me, it has been a source of satisfaction to be self-sufficient and able to raise a family of 2 girls and 1 boy without any outside help.

Today, young people expect their parents to supply them with every material thing they want.  They expect them just to give them money even to go to the movies and for sports and so forth.  About when they finish high school they really get a shock when they want to get a good education by going to college or university. As we grow older we learn that if we want to get a good education we need a lot of money.  For some privileged young people the parents pay for tuition, books and living expenses.  For others, those that are really intelligent, they can get a scholarship that almost pays for their entire education.  So for wealthy and intelligent young people there is no problem.  But that percentage is very low.

In this society, it is extremely important to learn how to generate money and how to handle it wisely.  It is extremely important not to go into debt, especially to buy things that you do not really need, because you will find that it is incredibly hard to get out of debt. 

It would be fantastic if people with money meant that they were good people.  But that is not true.  People with a great amount of money realize that material things are not as important as having power, which can only be acquired with money.  For them, the sense of power is to control people by making them do whatever they wish for a price.  And they get a great satisfaction out of that.  Most politicians have a lot of money.  

These are my own personal views regarding money, and I could be completely mistaken.

I am not for or against SSM.  I believe that is not the right of people to tell them not to do it or vice versa.  If the couple pays taxes, contributes to Social Security and goes by the law of the land, they should have the same rights as any other couple which are a man and a woman.  With regard to the “religious people”, it is not their right to say whether SSM is right or wrong.  By the same token we do not have the right to tell the churches that pray to idols that they are breaking the 2nd tenet of God’s commandments.

Few yeas ago a research institution in Europe,made a detail map of the human brain. They had compared the sexual orientation area of twenty heterosexual men and the same area of twenty homosexuals(we call them “gays”in our lingo) They did the same research for twenty heterosexual women and twenty lesbians.They discovered that sexual area of the twenty homosexuals was identical to the area of the heterosexual women! This indicates that a homosexual man will see another man as a woman see a man and will act accordingly. By the same token a lesbian having a sexual orientation of an heterosexual man will see another woman and naturally will be attracted to another woman! People who are homophobic after reading this may have a different attitude toward them. I believe this discovery is very important. I think this is great mystery! Why? no one knows for sure! Homosexual people ARE BORN THAT WAY. I do not believe that a person chooses to be gay or lesbian.

People as a general rule do everything according to priorities (consciously or unconsciously). The most important things are done first. The unimportant things are usually procrastinated upon and often forgotten. Some people have their priorities out of order and this causes stress and some guilt. A good solution for this is to make a list in order of importance to avoid later complications.