I was just reviewing the search terms from my WordPress stats service. It touches my heart seeing the search terms, as I wonder at the quality of people and the hope for humanity and our future. Check it out:

Yesterday

2008-01-13

2008-01-12

2008-01-11

2008-01-10

2008-01-09

In the world of metrics and search engine traffic, these may not be big numbers, but they’re certainly big enquiries. I hope you found what you were looking for.

Reputations are vanishing with the click of a mouse. The risks of social networking can impact any individual, company and brand. Sites like Facebook and MySpace are being checked by employers, recruiters and clients – and they’re about to become more easily searchable. While the risks can be devastating, when social networking is managed thoughtfully, the benefits to companies and brands can be rewarding.

clipped from Techvibes Blog, Online Reputation Management in Vancouver

Forty-three years old, and I have worked 26 of those years full-time. Beyond that, I worked part-time all through my teen years, beginning with a paper-route. Well, you can imagine as a kid I would goof up quite regularly. I’m sure I left many customers either stifling a laugh, fuming, or shaking their head in amazement.

In the military, the business of building a cohesive unit strips the individual to create a piece of the whole. A man surrenders his freedom to bond with a woman, and become a father. A woman surrenders her freedom to bond with a man, and to bear children. Individuals born and raised in families identify with the group. Foibles, goofs, and gaffs embarrassed everyone, kept us humble and human. And then something changed.

What exactly changed and how is somewhat of a mystery to me. In a big way, my own experience really speaks to an age of individuality. I’m not sure if I’ve got the right read on this just yet, so lets just play with it loose and fast, rather than getting hung up on technicalities just yet. Take a look over the last 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, or even 50 years, and the changing social landscape speaks volumes about what is happening.

The sciences offer a great deal of information that synthesized can reveal the social impact of the time period, the affect of politics on the consciousness or psyche of the people, literature reveals much as well, also exploring the emotional undercurrents and philosophies of an encapsulated period of time in a culture. And looking back, a shift and change has pronounced what we have become over recent decades, and the longing in the heart of people everywhere echo the want for more authentic and intimate relationships.

And now technology drives a wedge even further into the divide business, people, consumers, markets, money-lenders, employers, employees, unions, governments… wait… what is going on? Judgement. The worst kind of thing is happening that we wish children would stop doing in schools: Bullying, Peer Pressure, Picking On, Singling Out, Ridiculing, Fighting. Need I go on?

People everywhere, at every single level of business, market, government, service, religion, and so on and so forth had better start realizing that everyone is simply human, and that we’re all simply here to do life together. The restriction on human freedoms is strangling the life and vitality of people all over North America, and has been killing people world-wide for centuries. We are at a time in our lives when more and more people are supposed to be waking up to the truth and enacting powerful and positive changes in their lives.

Live the Life, Love the Joy, and Bless the Pain… this is just the way it is:

There but for the Grace of God, go I.

Case Sample: Boston Legal

So, you nincompoops who want to make a case out of the messy games the Internet trails leave I say, “Shame on you! I wonder what messes live in your closet to shame you so much to reach such harsh critical judgement upon the lives of others and the games they chose to engage as curiosity suits?”

Life, after all, is to be explored.

Ha! I said I’d be posting something every day. Did you see what happened over the weekend?

Nothing! Absolutely nothing!

I had time, or could have made time, I’m sure. So what happened?

I see hidden in the corner of my [[consciousness]], this petulant brat who wants to snub his nose at all the demands of people. He just wants to be selfish. He wants some attention, some care, and some love. He didn’t want to blog anything. This is the part of me that gets sick of being ignored.

I tend to care for others around me, often times [[deferring]] to the needs or wants of others. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a doormat. I’m a [[peacemaker]]. I warm peoples’ hearts, ease their minds, their fears and worries, and share and inspire warmth, acceptance, and love. I’m not being arrogant, I’m simply echoing what I learn as those around me reflect what they experience with me. I’m very touched by their kind words. And I must take action and learn how to better care for myself.

This is where I discovered how deep my trust issues are today. I love people and could crush them with my love. On the other hand, a fear of trusting holds me back, creates judgements and barriers not to be crossed, [[rationalizations]] for inaction, and so on. They could be the biggies or the minor concerns of life. Sometimes it doesn’t act up at all, other times it brings on paralysis.

Without awareness, it is felt whenever life gets a little crazy. With awareness, I can begin to learn from it, dance with it, bring it out into the open, examine it, question it, and over time grow out of it. I just happen to be in a period of my life where there is an awful lot going on in both my professional and personal life, including finances, career, friendships, health, juggling, big choices, and so on. When it rains, it pours.

I think we all experience times like this in our life. Sitting here now, I can’t seem to see beyond the immediate struggles, though a faint memory glows back to my twenties and some of the struggles my wife and I experienced then. It was all we could do but to hang on. Luckily, we had each other to hang onto as well. Not this time though, this time I row the boat alone.

All I can do is hang on and endeavour to enjoy each day and make a point of having fun with the ride. Where that becomes difficult is when days bring on the more painful growing pains – whatever they may look like. My old habits begin to kick-in as [[hot-buttons]] get pushed (familiar with those?) and my focus turns to the negative worries and fears, creating meaning and form to events that may never happen and may have no bearing upon the reality in front of me. Ouch!

What a painful realization. I’m actually causing more than 90% of the pain I experience in my life. I’m told, and as my eyes are directed to see the truth, that is the reality for the majority in life today. The story has taken hostages. I cause more than 90% of the emotional pain in my life.

Society, my dear, is like salt water, good to swim in but hard to swallow.
- Arthur Stringer

I use the word “God” a lot more than the average person. By average, I don’t mean a Christian average either — nor any religious average. Even before my experience of church I used God more than many religious folk. This isn’t judgement, just a little perspective to diffuse the idea of perfectionism and judgement around this topic. Open the mind a little and realize there is more to it than we could ever know scientifically or otherwise.

You see, God rocked the boat today.

I told a little funny story about how I became an ordained minister. Me! An ordained Minister!? I am so anti-religion and have spit God from my mouth, and done whatever I could to eliminate this struggle with needing to know and prove empirically that my observations, thoughts, and out-of-this-realm experiences had some substance. Unfortunately, that doesn’t describe Spirit, Quantum Theory, the Wind, Existence (nothingness – One – All), and so on. Yikes! And now, here I am an ordained minister which I can explain easier than God.

So my funny Facebook story (here if you can see it without signing in) stirred the pot and got a reaction and response from a friend. Nothing serious really, but when trying to be funny you illicit a contemplative response, you realize just how serious it all becomes. Duh! God = Terrorism since 9/11, and has been the source of much conflict (surf “God = Terrorism.”)

So, I wonder, does this really have anything to do with God? Highly unlikely. Blaming God avoids personal responsibility and accountability.

Interesting?

So, I responded to her with the following, and was quite surprised and enjoyed what came from my fingers into the keyboard. I share here too, not just Facebook.

Well, in part that story was to have a chuckle.

God? What about one living God?

I don’t mean the Christian God, the Muslim God, the Buddhist ‘Existence’, the native Creator, and so on. I mean all are One.

Our problem is memory, language, culture, and experience. Humans often fail – me included – to connect all the dots, realizing that there are more similarities than differences. Difference is often nothing more than perspective based upon a personal experience shaped by the language, culture, education, and habits of a person at any given time, influenced by current social, political, and economic influences. It’s not truth. All those things I mentioned are filters that obscure the Truth. And the Truth, well… the Truth just IS.

Meaning here or not, humans extinct or not, LIFE GOES ON. Are we really so significant?

In my own mind… I’m sure.