Courage Camille....

I read a story today about a young man named Ken Hilborn of the University of Toronto Blues. (you can find this story here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050218.wxhtourette18/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth )

Young Mr. Hilborn has Tourette's Syndrome. The disorder takes control of the mind and can cause the person to make unexpected hand gestures or sounds which are sometimes curse words. It's partly like that of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which is where people do something as a ritual to keep them safe. I'm not a therapist, (never played one on TV either) but it sounds like a horrible thing to experience.

I was struck at the courage that it takes for this man to get up each day and deal with life. Much as I am with those who have MS or any other disease of the mind or body. Every day they meet this problem head on and do what they can in life.

On the other side of the equation, there are those who are fully able, but just don't want to get going. They would rather sit back and let life meet up with them or bring something to them. Please don't think for a moment that I am calling them lazy or selfish, they just are on a different path.

Do I think we should hand them money and take care of them? Well, I admit I struggle with that question. Compassion for all dictates that we try to help them. But is handing someone some money and not doing anything else compassion? The folks who follow the like of Rush Limbaugh think that that is not an answer at all. That we should hold back all money for these people no matter what, and they should just fend for themselves. That they are given a choice. Work or no money. I don't think that is a good answer to the problem. Can we work with them to help them find some feeling of belonging so that they will feel a need to contribute or help them get an education and raise their sense of self? I think we can. I think that just slapping a label on someone and telling them to get off their ass and get to work will not do. Lets help them. And, lets not do it by giving government money to religious programs that will use that money to further their religion while passing on a bit of help. Keep them separate. It is the law we all agreed to live under.

There are some people who are just unable to work. Their brain chemistry is bad, they live with a depression most of us with thankfully never know. We need to be very compassionate about these folks and help them in what ever way we can. We cannot force them to 'get over it' and get to work. Some people just can't. Lets face it.

Back to Mr. Hilborn. I would bet somewhere there was someone who saw him in his early years and told him, in some form, "I believe in you. I believe in what you can do." and helped him to find his way. This too takes a level of courage. You risk being turned down or disappointed.

Is there someone you might help with a few simple words or a gesture to help them find their way?

Honesty is such a lonely word...

There has been a scandal in the United States about a man who was kind of a reporter for a sort of news organization who had website hiring himself out as a gay escort. This was reported on a Blog. (I think it was even on a Blogspot.com Blog.

It all comes down to honesty.

In my hometown there is a large social services organization that is shutting it doors at the end of the month. The downfall of this organization started when it was found that it's leadership was not using funds the way the reported them, and as they were chartered to do so by the state. The misdeads of a few will affect thousands of people and vendors who were working to help the less fortunate.

It all comes down to honesty.

A Catholic Priest was just convicted of molesting several boys.

It all comes down to honesty.

All around us companies make claims about products, yet sometimes we find they were not honest about them. Everyday some one tells us something that they believe is true, or want us to believe is true.

It all comes down to honesty.

Several years ago I worked for a man who is right now a multi-billionaire. He owns a few companies and a winery. Has several houses across the country and travels the world with out a care for how to pay for it. There was an article written about him in a trade magazine. The lead paragraph explains how some people know him to be dishonest. Yet, this man has his money and property and for him, life is good.

I'd rather be flat busted broke than to have anyone, ever say that I was less than honest.

Why is it hard to expect honestly of everyone?


Thanks to Billy Joel for the line of lyric from "Honesty", used without permission.

Hallmark be damned... not really

OK. I don't really mean exactly that. If you have read my other Blog entries, you just know I'm going to make sence of it later on. They are a fine company, and they make some fine products. I use them often. More so on a day like today. It's Valentines Day and love is in the air.

Valentines day, and the days leading up to it are about the only time a guy can go looking at frilly clothing and no one around is wondering if they are buying it for themselves. Its the only time we can go to a card store and look at sappy cards and buy flowers and all that.

It is the one day when most everyone who is married takes a moment to say something special to the person who committed themselved to them for life legally, and before all those present and perhaps before God.

Sadly, today there are some who will not be able to take that moment. They are madly in love, they have committed them selves to someone who they want to spend the rest of their life with, and yet, they are denied the term Married.

They are Homosexual, Gay, Lesbian, same sex couples.

It is sad to me when our society says it does not want to reconicize these unions. I understand how some - most of them religous and politicaly involved - claim that to allow them to use the term Married to define their marriage would take away from marriage. So we hear terms such as "Preservation of Marriage" and so on.

Why?

The guy next to you cleans toilets for a living, and he gets married to a woman who is a fortune teller. And they have a marriage license.

The woman at the next table from you reads trashy novels and likes to do strange things on her body with chocolate, and she marries a guy who makes porno films of her and others, and they get to have a marriage license.

I don't hear anyone yet saying we need to limit marriage to only people of a certain education or stature in life or ecomony, but might that not be far off?

Often times it seem these "We have to preserve marriage" people will say that the Bible condems same genders being married. but America is not a country ran by religion. Or at least it should not be. It is not a Theocracy. Iran is a Theocracy and many who want to not allow gays to get married also condem Iran and condemmed the Taliban which was a religions government. They say we had to have have to invade these countries for just that reason.

Back to Hallmark. The cards for married people to give to one another? Hallmark does not sell them here in the US. They can't.

But, I hope if you, like me are madly, deeply in love with someone, I hope you took a moment to tell them how you feel and how you appreciate what they do for you.