the measure of a life lived

 

On craggy cliff below imperium sky

there the playful sea birds cry

the traveler pause’

above stormy sea

and contemplates eternity

making meanings from

the journey done

then measure taken

assessment past

lays down all burdens at last

Preserving democracy and opportunity should not preclude designing a good country to live in

I am so sorry that you are having a problem. It is so shameful that the US is the only western country that does not have medical care. We can provide huge bureaucracies for fire protection, police and homeland security surveillance, the department of labor and irs to keep dangerous girl scouts from selling cookies, but America can’t staff hospitals to take care of people’s real problems.

Float in the wind while it is your time

Hey I saw your post the other day about being pressured to hook up with a woman, I thought I would give you a little of my thinking on the subject, don’t think I am presuming to give you advice, I am just telling you my story because I think it may be different than many other people so I offer it as an example of how all people are not the same. I date alot, I like people, I like flirting, I like the boost to my self esteem when some one thinks I am special in a romantic way, I like letting other people know when I find them attractive or exciting, I hope it boosts their self esteem and encourages them to be the people that they are and not cave in to peer pressure and try to be “like everyone else”. I really don’t like being too intimate with people, especially not sex, that is too private, too personal, too important for me. I reserve that level of trust and intimacy for my immediate family, my parents, my brother, and a couple of children that I have raised. And those are not the people I have sex with. I really don’t like having sex with anyone and I have never found anyone that I want to sacrifice my life and my future and all my plans for. Just like you said in your post, you would not sacrifice your relationship with people you are eternally bound to, in order to get a relationship with a woman that you just met. So what is wrong with the way I live. I don’t feel the need to procreate for the good of future generations. I don’t need to get a trophy blond on my arm to impress people. In short, I don’t need marriage, I do need and I get love from people: good friends; and I devote my life to learning and growing as a person, as I believe all people should. So what is wrong? Well, for many years, I felt like I was neglecting my duty, as if I was eating unhealthy or being an alcoholic, as if not seeking a mate was a sin or weakness that was tragically wasting my life. I don’t believe that anymore, I accept that I don’t want to be married. I like devoting my life to climbing to a higher plane of moral and philosophical purity. Well that is me. So my message to you is march to your own drummer and feel sorry for the people who don’t see that if you are different it is only because in some ways you are superior. Diversity is good, people are not all the same, we should not try to pretend that we are. Well one other piece of advice, which I don’t want to offend you with, but I am going to say it because I like and admire you very much (I hope that increases your self esteem). People have often mistaken my not being interested in sex with women with being gay. They are mistaken, being gay means being interested in sex with men. Men who are gay are out looking for sex with men. That is totally the opposite of believing that sex is too private and personal and important to trust to share and trust other people with. Although I am not afraid of being gay nor do I find it revolting, in fact I admire men for beauty as often as I admire women, in fact, not to offend you, I see that you are very beautiful, but sharing sex with people is not what I want, men or women. and I don’t want to bind myself to any other living soul. I admire and celebrate the divinity of all living things but my soul is not half a life looking for a mate to complete me, I am a unique life and my time on earth is devoted to perfecting my soul. In short, I am a holy man on a lifetime pilgrimage and I blow like a leaf in the wind, lightly touching other souls but never with the force to divert their own pilgrimage through life. These ideas are very alien to Western Commercial Culture, but historically, many people have believed what I believe and lived as I live now. I hope I have not offended you with my story.

Small Community Public Charter Schools by Gregory Reese

Political, moral and religious debates continue to rage as to whether the school could or should replace a child’s family, however, the case is becoming more and more common where children in California don’t have a functioning family. California families are confronted with extraordinary challenges: immigration, economic turmoil, Proposition 13 spending restrictions, the relative newness of California’s government and institutions, the highest ethnic diversity in the world; regardless of the contributing factors that have led to the widespread breakdown in the family structure in California, the result is children in crisis. In such cases, it is too late for debate, the answer is simply that the school must replace the family. Homeless children, dysfunctional families, temporary foster care, children earning their living off drugs and prostitution: tragic tragic cases for our society. It is my position that we must abandon the debate about a theoretical perfect world and step in to help before it becomes too late to save all these terribly unfortunate children and too late to save our society from sinking into a bottomless abyss of crime, misery, hopelessness, poverty and violence.

The poorest, most unfortunate members of our society do not begin to have the resources or training to help their own children to rise above the often monstrous world into which they have been born. If a parent could save a child with pure love, few parents would need the schools to step in and save their children. One in four California children is living in poverty. One in four California children is an English learner. What is the actual plight of many California parents? Parents work; they are away from the home; they are not there to supervise their children. Parents are not trained in the law; they don’t know their rights to discipline their children legally. Parents are not educators; it is simply not true that anyone can teach a child to read and solve math problems; even many excellent readers would not begin to know how to teach someone else to read. Professional teachers teach, and we can do it very well; teachers can and must step in to do what California parents can’t do for their children.

If we have ended the debate on whether a school should be a family, then it is time to start the discussion of what a school family should look like. For my masters degree I hope to investigate how a school can be designed to offer the things that every child has a right to ask for from a family: things like self esteem, security, love, fairness and above all preparation and encouragement to make a happy successful law abiding life.

You inspire me. You always have.

Hey what schools are you looking at. Are you getting athletic scholarship. Community college is not a bad option for the first 2 years no  matter what you gonna do after that.  The reason they don’t give scholarships to places like solano community college is because it’s almost free anyway.  I really don’t know a lot about athletic scholarships so I can’t  tell you there . But I have had quite a few friends who got atletic scholarships way bigger after they went to community college for 2 years . You know I’ve always thought you were an A  student.  But when it comes to living on your own everybody has to learn how to do that for the first time and it’s really hard to learn to live on your own and also learn how to start going to college at the same time it’s so much easier if you do 1 at a time . community college is a great place to learn how to start going to college because it’s not so big that people don’t notice if you having trouble and come over and help you

College Support Services

Going to college is more than just books and tests, a young adult needs to learn to organize their time, manage their limited money and keep focused.

Madre te amo

Yo nunca hubiera sido nada sin mi madre.