Unconditional Love
The following post was written as a letter to my daughter which was in response to a conversation we had over breakfast. She is 19 very cute and gullible. Her friends whom she knows from high school take advantage of her financially and physically. She has become a slave to them in that she pays their way and helps to pay for their baby's care. She also provides them with free sitting. Her freinds, 19 unwed parents, unemployed, lives in mother's boy-friend's house with with at least 5 other people.
Unconditional Love
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident,
that all People are created equal,
that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Love that is unconditional can endure heart ache, disappointment, pain and for some even abuse. The best example of unconditional love is the love a dog has for its master. Even after we scold them for misdeeds they come to us for love and will give love to us the very next minute. Another example of unconditional love is the love between parent and child, brothers and sisters or other family relations. These bonds of love can and often do withstand many trials and for some the value of this love is so high that we will not relinquish it at any price.
It is important that we do not confuse the value of the relationship with our unwillingness to accept change. The U.S, Declaration of Independence makes reference to peoples who are unwilling to shed the burden of oppression because of an unwillingness to change. It goes on to say that it is the right and duty to throw off those who reduce us to despotism (repression) and that we must look to new ways to insure a brighter future. This is the same in loving relations. We must stand with our family in times of hardship and it is right to expect family to stand with us in our times of need but these ties must not be abused or taken to the extreme. No person can endure continuous neglect or abuse of friendship and should not be expected to by those we love. People who take from us and never give back, hurt us without remorse will always treat us this way until we make some personal declarations and draw a line that no one must cross, not our abusers/oppressors nor their agents/friends on their behalf. Once our threshold has been breached we must look for self-preservation and preservation of our assets as well. When the line drawn has been crossed we must look for new people to help fill the needs of unconditional love. It is very unlikely that those who would treat us with disrespect and abuse our feelings ever really loved us or would be at our side in times hardship.
“Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and 1Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.” 1 use something without the right to do so
Let no one deprive you of your rights
Let no person take advantage of you; I am sure that if we all took an inventory and evaluation of our friends and family we could find more than one that needs to be reminded of where the line has been drawn and put on notice that repairs are required for relationships to continue. Those who expect us to provide handouts are not friends. We all need a hand up on occasion but it us who must make a way for our own success no one can do it for us by way of a hand out and no one is entitled.
Give a man a fish; he eats today, teach a man to fish and he can eat every day.
A day at the falls, Rickets Glen, Pa
Link to other post
For those who would like to see my other blog which is in a different direction please go to the following link
http://oldtoytrucker.blogspot.com/
Fall of an Empire - Conclusion
Pandora’s box has again been opened and along with pain, suffering, and sickness we have also released unabridged greed, which has touched all living things much to their detriment. The root motivation that has lead to the destruction of our environment can be traced to a single driving force…Greed. Greed leads the way to all of our societal shortcomings. We live in a Wal-Mart economy. An economy in which, cheap prices, 24-hour service, and convenience are valued at all cost. We need to ask ourselves if the luxury of a Wal-Mart on every corner is worth the cost of having millions of workers that have no health insurance due to low wages so that Wal-Mart can operate as the least cost provider. The Wal-Martization of the world’s economy will remove the few suppliers left from the market place that cares about its customers and the people they employ. The suppliers that have left the world supply chain are often ones that employed the hard working well-informed people we could count on when making purchasing choices. In the current economic trend the level of technical sophistication for the consumer must rise daily. Purchasers are expected to be well-informed buyers. The amount of information needed to make an informed purchase decision is becoming insurmountable. The quality of employees in the sales force has fallen to such a low level that they lack the mental capacity to understand the products they sell well enough to be of any assistance in the purchase decision. Our youth must be expected to be self-reliant. We cannot continue as a successful society in the current mode of operation. Many think that all answers can be bought or that we can rely on others to solve all our problems right down to the ones associated with the routine tasks of daily life.
The success of our society requires that: we all become better informed; we raise our own children and require trust and loyalty of others with severe consequences for those who violate it. We must stop listening to the fear mongers who’s only motive is to keep us glued to the television so they can sell us more junk that will not work and we do not need. While I may sound like someone who proclaims a Dooms-Day scenario we must remember history. The history of the world shows that all of the great societies fell while they were resting on their laurels. This country regardless of how mighty too shall fall if its citizens do not collectively pull together to re-establish trust, loyalty and morality.
Fall of an Empire Part V
Corporate executives rob companies and its employees of profits; these acts appear to be committed with no regard for the consequences of self or others. Our current societal practices will tell me that it is not my fault or responsibility that I have shortcomings. I do not have to save myself let alone others, and I will be vindicated when I find who is to blame. A major pillar in the foundation of a successful society is trust. The quantity of people we can count on to be trusted is diminishing. The societal trend is moving towards openly expressing that disloyalty is to be expected and those revelations come without remorse. While it is people not companies that dump hazardous waste illegally and knowingly put toxins into our environment these people hide behind the curtain of the corporation. Corporations can be viewed as a sort of family unit as they have a similar hierarchy of leaders and followers. The major difference is the motivations between them. Families exist in (simplest terms) for continuation of the species. Corporations exist for continuation of business, even in the absence of its founder. What they have become is much more. Much of what big business has done is what has made our society what it is today. Business is where the funds come from to build the structure that supports our society. We are not islands and we cannot each be self-sustaining in today’s world. Corporate trust just as family trust must also be restored if our society is to continue to be successful.
Fall of an Empire Part IV
We have lost the family as a cohesive group. Family members in some instances are more inclined to act more severely against one another than a stranger. While risking paranoia, I believe we can no longer trust, those who are responsible for setting the example of trust. Members of our family and peers engage in confessions of disloyalty and theft of each other, of strangers, and employers without remorse. We engage in feuds on the playing fields of our children. Fighting over how a soccer game should or was played. Parents and spectators have been forced to either act responsibly or their family member will be removed from play. What does this say about our society when adults cannot let children play as children and solve on their own even the most trivial of conflicts. We must set the standard and show our youth what battles to fight and how to appropriately engage disputes. My dad beating your dad to death on the playing field is not the answer. Our clergy who many feel are an extension of the family can no longer be expected to set the bar of morality. Where are we to turn when churches have proven a safe haven for molesters and pedophiles? Some use the name of the church as an opportunity for profiting at the expense of those in their weakest moments while seeking help in end of life crisis and troubled personal times. The answer to family issues is not simple. We must find new ways to safeguard the family from degradation by negative outside influence such as television video games and violence. Children coming home to empty houses and single parent homes have taken huge toll on society. Too many children spend too much time without the supervision of their own parents. It is not the responsibility of the schools or daycare providers to raise our offsprin
The Fall of an Empire Part III
Through the course of our lives most of us have indulged in episodes of (in the purest sense) “A” moral behavior. Those who felt immediate and substantial consequences would probably think long before again, if ever returning to similar behavior. Those consequences help to remind us how we should live. However, today we will not or cannot impose harsh penalties on individuals that indulge in “A” moral behavior without fear of legal action. Children who are spanked can go to school officials claiming abuse for the sole purpose of retaliation against a correcting parent or guardian. Schools are now very limited in how discipline can be carried out for fear of legal action brought on by the offending child, carried out by the our legal system on behalf of the parents. Consequently we have propagated a society of irresponsible, blameless, instantly satisfied, helpless, lazy, greedy, and needy people.
