back to the workforce

After many months of unemployment, I find myself re-entering the workforce tomorrow. In an effort to free some clutter from my mind about all that has gone on over the past year, I have decided to write it out of my system.... so here it goes.

The greatest lesson that I learned from not being employed has to be that I have a wife and son who are more wonderful than I ever imagined. My wife, who was promoted to full-time status at her job only weeks before I lost mine, has worked very hard to ensure that we continued to have food on the table and a roof over our heads. The hours she has had to work are long, and the job does not give her much satisfaction, but she is good at it, and she worked without complaint to make sure not to drag me down. It was very hard on me to see her work so hard and know that I did not have a job to support us. I got to spend a lot of time with my son as well. In fact, the entirety of last summer was spent together, and I got a chance to know my son as a young man, not just as a boy. He has grown so much over the past years, and it was a great pleasure to spend so much time with him. I even managed to convert him to fishing, which was an activity he had only been "lukewarm" towards in the past. We are excited to get our fishing licenses again this year so we can go catch some trout!

Another lesson learned is that harbouring grudges does nothing for you. I still hold a lot of animosity toward the guy who forced me out of my old job, but over time, I have been able to leave some of that behind and not let it eat away at me. I spent a lot of time during the first 6 months of being unemployed being hateful and spiteful to this guy, without him even knowing it. I mean, how could he know it, it was not as if I talked to him or shopped at his stores any more. But that does not eliminate the fact that this hatred was stewing in me like a festering pot of overdone chili. I finally was able to let it go, and now, I feel much better about life in general.

That is all for now..

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day.. the day in America when the candy makers, flower shops, and jewelry stores rejoice because it pulls them out of the post-Christmas funk.. and a day when you feel like a chump if you haven't spent a fortune on the aforementioned items for your significant other.  For most of you who know me, you know that I have been out of work for quite a while now... in other words, money is a little on the tight side. So this year, we (meaning my wife and me) got each other 1 reasonable priced, nice gift.. For her, a new pair of shoes. For me, a new book by one of my favorite authors. There, done, no diamond necklace, no bouquet of red roses (thankfully, my wife is not a big fan of flowers, so I have saved a ton over the years by not having to buy the darn things for every occasion), and no big box of chocolates.. Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.. hope you didn't go into hock to try and please your significant other...

Another month

Another couple of months have passed and I am back in a writing mood, so here it goes. The topic for today is keeping the positives in our lives while eliminating (or trying to eliminate) the negatives. I have had a dear friend from my past who de-friended me on Facebook because she was "offended" by the opinions posted on some of my posts. She was not offended so much by me, but by some of my other friends' writing and opinions in response to my posts. On Facebook, I tend to post politically themed reports, information from conservative themed websites, and then respond to thoughts and responses from friends.. It can get a little heated at times, but it is a great way to see all sides of an issue that you feel is important to you. If you are offended by the topic, you have a few choices: defend your opinion with positive facts, defend your opinion with non-fact based rants that might include language that is not especially polite, or simply walk away from the discussion of the topic at hand. In the case of this friend, she walked away from the topics, and send me a personal message explaining why she would be defriending  me... unlike some other friends who simply defriended me with no explanation. I do not really care one way or the other, but I have always thought that simply hiding from the discussion shows weakness and a lack of conviction. If you have beliefs, stand up for them and defend them. Listen to any points the opposite side may bring up. Be willing to cede a point if one is convincingly made.
This brings me to the recent uproar about what I see as government interfering in a religion's right to worship how they see fit, versus what others see as a church trying to impose their beliefs on others and take away what they view as a right, that is, a woman's right to control her body. I will put this as succinctly as possible: The Constitution as it is written trumps everything else as far as laws go. The government is expressly forbidden from interfering in the affairs of a church and how they wish to worship. Period. There have been times when this right was taken away from groups in this country, and now all people of faith need to ensure that what is starting with an attack on Catholic organizations does not blossom into a full fledged attack on all religions. The right to worship how we see fit is written clearly into the Constitution, unlike other so called "rights" that have been interpreted to be there, like the right to privacy that is cited to uphold abortion as a right. As long as the worship of a church does not infringe on others in such a way to deprive them of life or liberty, it should be untouchable. In simple terms, Muslims who kill their daughters under the guise of "honor killings" do not have the right to exercise this aspect of their religious beliefs because it denies life to the daughter. Likewise, members of cults can worship how they want until it starts physically restricting people who might want to leave, because they are denying these people their liberty..

In closing, I quote Joseph Smith: "We claim the privilege of worshipping almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what  they may." -Articles of Faith #11