Have you ever noticed how often motivation makes the biggest difference? Some of the most important things in our life will be left undone because we’re just not motivated to take care of them.
On the other hand, some of the things that ought to be the hardest are no problem for us when we have just a little bit of solid motivation.
Have you ever heard the phrase, "The devil is in the details"?
It’s actually a derivative of an earlier similar phrase, "God is in the details." Though they may sound religious in nature, both phrases are based in practical experience: Details are important and if you ignore them, you’ll pay the price every single time.
It’s a long proven theory that children will be honest at the most inopportune times! They repeat the things you would never want somebody else to know you said and they mimic the things you don’t want anyone else to know you do.
Every day, it seems, they can find new and exciting ways to embarrass you if you aren’t careful.
Consider this modern-day parable from a mortified mother:
Approximately one in five Americans will have a mental health problem in any given year, yet only a little over one in three people with a mental health problem will receive mental health services. Over 38,000 Americans died by suicide in 2010, making the number of Americans who die by suicide more than double the number who died by homicide. Serious mental illnesses cost the U.S. an estimated $193.2 billion in lost earnings per year. Effective nationwide school-based substance abuse prevention programming can offer states savings within two years ranging from: $36 million to $199 million in juvenile justice; $383 million to $2.1 billion in education; and $68 million to $360 million in health services.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), unaddressed mental health issues can have a negative influence on homelessness, poverty, employment, safety, and the local economy. Providing for and supporting good mental health is a public health issue just like assuring the quality of drinking water or preventing and managing infectious diseases. Communities prosper when the mental health needs of community members are met.
On Feb. 26, 2012, George Zimmerman fired a fatal shot after a confrontation with 17 year-old Trayvon Martin. The Sanford, Florida Police Department investigated Mr. Zimmerman’s claims of self-defense and declined to prosecute him. The FBI launched a concurrent investigation and found unequivocally that Mr. Zimmerman had no racist tendencies and did not hold unfavorable views of African-Americans. In most investigations, that would be the end of it, but not this time.
What followed is one of the worst media prosecutions I can recall in my lifetime. The race-baiting American media went into warp drive to paint Mr. Zimmerman as a white racist who shot Trayvon Martin for wearing a hoodie. Because Mr. Zimmerman has a very white sounding surname, the lazy American media assumed he was Caucasian. He is not.
"Be a man" was a phrase I heard a lot growing up. Anytime I would whine about some little injury, I would be told to be a man. Anytime I attempted to make excuses for myself or complain about my lot in life, I was told in no uncertain terms to be a man. It would have been a much more effective learning tool had anyone ever explained to me what being a man was all about. Much of what I learned about how to be a man was by observing men in my family. Sadly, popular culture also informed a great deal of my notions of masculinity. As a grown man well into my thirties, I still struggle to figure out sometimes what being a man is all about.
I am a huge fan of the show Mad Men. For those us you who don’t know, Mad Men is superficially a show about New York City advertising executives in the 1960’s. More than that though, it is a show about identity. One of the more fascinating aspects of the show to me is the clearly defined gender roles of the 1960’s. When the series begins in the early 1960’s the gender roles were clear.
Smoke at Midwest Regional continues to build this week but the source of the fire isn’t here in Midwest City.
It’s coming from Naples, Florida.
The latest development in the company’s ongoing drama is that financial websites are all a buzz as news of a lawsuit filed Tuesday against Health Management Associates takes center stage.
HMA is the current lessee of our Midwest City hospital.
Glenview Capital Management LLC, which owns 14.6 percent of the company’s shares, filed suit claiming HMA’s board of directors are trying to strong-arm investors into rejecting a bid to replace the hospital operator’s board, according to the lawsuit.
Have you ever noticed our tendency as adults to make things much more complicated than they need to be while children seem to find ways to simplify even the most complicated issues?
Consider this modern-day parable:
A Sunday School teacher asked his class, "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?"
With summer's arrival comes a journalistic convention that seems more and more dated. It is the "summer reading list" of books, often beside a graphic showing a bathing suit and sunglasses.
Sure, I'd like to check out Douglas Brinkley's biography of Walter Cronkite and Hilary Mantel's sequel to "Wolf Hall." Heck, I'd love to read Joan Rivers' funny and shorter book, "I Hate Everyone ... Starting With Me."
Problem is, few of us worker bees will be packing a steamer trunk of volumes to while away the lazy afternoons. Average working Joes now put in a month more of labor a year than they did 25 years earlier, and much of that time comes out of summer vacation's hide.
Whenever an overly generous soul praises me for my alleged "success," I thank them and gently remind her (and myself) of the unearned luck of my life.
Consider the following: I was born during the Great Depression, after the nation's birthrate had reached a new low, and I was one of approximately 11 people born that same year. This meant that when I graduated from high school, college admissions offices - desperate to fill empty dorms and classrooms - were eagerly recruiting almost anyone who wasn't under indictment or detox, and maybe some who were.
This also meant that when I got out of college and the Marine Corps, and sought to enter the revered "private sector," it was the decade of the 1960s, during which the gross national product of the United States was actually doubling - and because there were so few people in my generational cohort, for us lucky ones there were almost more jobs than there were young people to fill them.
Last week, I wrote about our expanded news staff and the freelance writers who continue to contribute to the quality of our newspaper.
Much to my chagrin, I failed to mention one of the most important people on the staff. She's not a reporter or photographer, but she certainly keeps the wheels of business and commerce going for EastWord News. Her name is Kristina Boehlke and she's our operations director.
