Good and Evil

Our definitions of good and evil have been skewed by the media. Driving home from work one day, I had an ‘a-ha’ moment, because I’ve been wrestling with moral relativism and the concept of good and evil and how even the definitions of what is considered good or evil change with each decade.

Here goes my new (old?) concept:

Good: A selfless action. An action where a person considers the other person’s needs, thoughts, and feelings about their own.

Evil: A selfish action. An action where a person considers their own needs, thoughts, and feelings above another person.

It’s really that simple.

Take any societal ill, from murder to abortion to throwing garbage out the window, even suicide. The level of selfishness would determine the level of evil. Taking the last cookie when you know your sister wanted it, a small evil. Murder, a large one. Suicide…consider the pain of the people who love you. How much pain would you cause by removing yourself from the world? It is a crime against the people who love you most, but the media twists it into some romantic tragic sadness that gives teenagers the idea that it’s okay and everyone will ‘feel sorry’ after.

Now, think of heroism, the people we look up to and want to emulate. The paramedic who answers a call to travel on a snowy night on treacherous roads to care for an accident victim. The man who rushes into a burning building or into the ocean to save someone, sometimes even losing his own life. Heroism is the pinnacle of selflessness. On a smaller level, it is the woman who walks her neighborhood picking up garbage, the man who stops to help a stranger change their tire.

We can expand this to society. Societies are a range of good and evil, and it does no good to say, “Well, of course, each culture has its own morality. We should accept the other culture’s immorality” No. If evil is done under the guise of culture, it is still evil. If done with acceptance, it is that much more abhorrent.

We are human. Some human beings are good. And some are evil. Collectively, it is our DUTY to stop society from taking the traits of evil human beings. A selfish society will become a society that none of us can live with.

In What Universe Does this Make Sense?

Across the world and physically unaffected, I am still angry and annoyed at the attack on the Nord Stream 1 & 2 pipelines. Here we have all of these world leaders complaining about my gas car while they cause a catastrophe that dumps massive amounts of propane into the ocean.

I have come to the conclusion that most of our presidents for the last fifty years are criminals who never got punished. I hope that the United States had nothing to do with this, but if we did, I would hope that the perpetrators are tried and convicted and sent to prison, starting with the guy who gave the order and anyone who knew about it and decided to move forward.

At some point, we need to view the planet as all of ours to be cared for and cherished. I don’t believe in the green movement because I see it as a politicized way to control people. Kind of like when Washington State required emissions tests on every-day citizens for a decade while tons of sewage got dumped into the Puget sound. Our carbon footprint can’t compare to the rockets, freight ships, and flights of those most interested in passing these laws.

That said, I buy products to last, try to avoid plastic, put my garbage in the garbage and act like a responsible citizen. It seems like the actions of a responsible citizen can’t compete when corporations, governments, and terrorists can cause massive full-scale disasters and later blame the individual when the Earth suffers.

I didn’t intend to make a political blog when I started. But I feel like at some point, all of us little people need to raise our voices and say, “This is not okay.”

New Directions

I’ve been focusing on a pen name series for quite some time now, but in the past few months I’ve had an idea for a cozy mystery series. I’ve been reading The Comic Toolbox by Jon Vorhaus. It has been a tremendous aid in figuring out the characters and how to make the novels funny and as much fun to write as possible.

I’m learning about exaggeration and antagonistic characters, how comedy mixes pain and truth. We’ll see how it goes. I’m hoping to have the first book out by 2023.

Update Oct 2023:

So, I’m still writing the cozy mystery series. I’ve started 6 books, finished one and scrapped it, finished another and holding onto it, but nothing is ready to release. We’ll try for 2024. I really want these to be funny. And so far…they’re not…yet.

Covid19 or Wireless? You decide.

Please take a look at the death tables below for Washington State. The highest cause of death in 2018 was Malignant neoplasms (cancer) at 12,786 people. Now look at 1989. 8,710 people died of the same thing (2nd line on the chart.) That’s a difference of over 4,000 people per year.

Governor Inslee of Washington State has locked down small businesses and restaurants a second time for 2,519 deaths this year. (See link at bottom of page to Komo news). Compare that to the nearly 13,000 people who die of cancer.

So…what about Malignant neoplasms and a jump in death on a yearly basis greater than Covid? What is the response from our government? Crickets. Why? What could possibly cause an explosion of cancer?

What about wireless towers and cell phones? We all know that microwave radiation is deadly to humans. It could be something else, but why aren’t all of these governors checking into this significant increase in cancer, if our lives are so important to them?

I find it dark irony that the government wants to start a tracking program on devices that will turn out to be twice as deadly as the disease they are tracking.

(Please feel free to use this information. You don’t have to reference me or share my link…but spread the word in whatever form appeals.)

As of this posting, the tables above are found at the following link:

https://www.doh.wa.gov/DataandStatisticalReports/HealthStatistics/Death/DeathTablesbyTopic

https://komonews.com/news/coronavirus/washington-state-adds-record-high-2100-covid-19-cases-in-one-day

Following the Money

Something has been bugging me for a while, years actually. With all of the millions of dollars businesses and stars are donating to foundations and organizations, why doesn’t any of the money reach the people actually suffering whatever fate the organization is collecting money for. Yes, some of the money eventually trickles down in the form of information or a helpful website, but I’m talking real help.

When someone donates millions to a climate organization, why doesn’t the group hire people to clean plastic off the beaches? Wouldn’t that be better than paying countless dollars on advertising to tell us all there is a problem. But that might be asking too much. I can see the garbage. I hear about the tons of sewage spilled or dumped into the ocean on the news. And yet, no one steps forward to donate to cleaning the problem. Money is given to support a foundation that will politicize the issue without actually doing a thing to help the root of the problem.

What about all of those business burned and looted in the riots, many owned by minorities. Where will they get the money to rebuild? Instead of donating to some huge corporation who clearly doesn’t need your money, but has the advertising power to reach you, why not find someone on Go Fund Me who REALLY needs it.

Donate to a food bank. Donate locally to a business in need. Research, Research, Research.

I have a challenge to those of you who want to donate to an association. Pretend you have cancer or diabetes or are paralyzed. Think of what that person might need. Then contact the association you might donate to. Are they willing to send insulin? Could they provide a wheelchair? What exactly would they help with? Will they provide resources that actually help?

If not, then really, are they worth your money? There are people in need…and you don’t have to look far to find them.

The Content of Our Character

One of my favorite speeches was the one given by Martin Luther King, Jr. years before I was born. Although I come from a later generation, those words struck me by their truth and power.

Because none of us should be judged by externals.

We all live life from the inside-out. We don’t, or at least I don’t, associate completely with my own physical aspect. Sometimes I think maybe we’re all avatars in a game, picking different hair and outfits for our trip to Earth.

That gets me back to the content of our character. We are here to help one another, to learn how to appreciate our differences, to love one another despite those differences, and to give to those in need. I am seeing a breakdown of those ideals.What I see happening across America would break the hearts of any of the great spiritual leaders of the past.

If after this life, the near-death experiencers are right, we will all have to live the pain and agony that we foisted on our fellow man. Imagine breaking the windows of a store or throwing a fireball that causes pain to a small group. Now imagine that image going to millions of people. I’ve cried for the shop owner because her store is destroyed. The people who will have that kind of hurt come back on them will suffer greatly.

We should choose each action as if we were to feel the consequences ourselves. This is the pinnacle of a person with good character. Our society has forgotten, has chosen to forget, what Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech was all about.

The Long Silence

I didn’t meant to go a year and a half without a blog post.  I’ve been hard at work at multiple projects and mostly have ignored the blog.  (As you can see.)  It’s nice to have projects…I have tons.

Something strange about writing.  I find it adds to my overall happiness.  Not sure why.  Anyway, now I’ve got to get back to it!

I’m planning a couple of different series, but I’m going to rapid release them, so readers probably won’t even see them for a few years, but I wanted to let everyone know I’m still writing!

In a Rush

I have a personality flaw.  It has traveled with me if not from birth, then from childhood. It’s the drive to finish, the sense that I have to complete whatever it is I’m working on in a hurry.  Time feels to me like a huge hammer ready to swing down and stop all forward progress.  So, I rush.

While this pervades many aspects of my life, it is most apparent in creative works.  Maybe watching half-hour episodes of painting on television has propelled me into this strange idea that I can work a masterpiece in a short period of time.  Maybe it is the sense that there is not enough time to do what I need to do that has pushed me into a rush to finish works of art or writing.  In any case, I find that instead of having painted a masterpiece, I have a hundred mediocre pictures, most of which were scrapped.  Instead of having an epic, I have novellas.

I am striving to change.  It’s an ingrained personality trait and as such will take work.  My idea is to transform into a perfectionist, which is the opposing side of my personality.  I am already rebelling at the thought.  I can see it in the excuses I want to write, the reasoning for why it will take so long to accomplish, and the areas in which it should not apply.

It’s not a New Year’s resolution.  It’s a life-time resolution–one that I’m going to challenge myself with.

 

The Extroverted Introvert

I’ve spent my life thinking that I’m an introvert.  After all, as a teenager I was a bookworm who spent bus trips staring out the window daydreaming. As a youngster I was uncomfortable with small talk and much preferred to be left alone with my thoughts. It made me see myself as shy. Was that introversion or just a difficult time of life?

We have so many labels for people.  Introvert. Extrovert. Shy. Outgoing. There are more harmful labels, the ones no one should use when thinking about themselves. For years, even up to a few weeks ago when I started really thinking about it, I thought I was an introvert. I even bought the t-shirt.  The one that says, “Introverts Unite, occasionally, in small groups and for limited periods of time.” I loved it and still do.

The problem is that once someone internalizes that label and accepts it as ‘their own’, they rarely challenge the notion that it could be wrong.

I am taking up the challenge. I am not an introvert.  After careful consideration, I may have to call myself an extrovert.

Last year I was excited to attend a writer’s convention, and I didn’t know a single person going. One of my coworkers knew that and asked me if I was nervous.  I said, “No. Because we’re all going for the same reason.  It will be easy to talk to them.” He said, “Oh, they’re your people.”  Yes. They are.

This year I started full court basketball and yoga at the local gym.  I didn’t know a person there. My husband wondered that I could walk into a strange place with people I never met and just start playing.  It got me thinking.  A label that I internalized and applied to myself is untrue.  I really am not an introvert.  Maybe I’m not an extrovert because I don’t necessarily talk to the neighbors if we both happen to be outside, but I’m not an introvert.

I can walk into a place where I don’t know people without fear whether it is a conference, court, or seminar.  I’ll never be a party girl who goes and hangs out with people for hours just to hang out with people, but that’s just one aspect of the definition.

How does this blog apply to you?  Well, I would say to challenge whatever is holding you back, whatever you ‘think’ you are.  For the ten-year old whose teacher gave him an F in English.  Guess what?  It’s just a grade, a single snapshot of one moment in your life, and you can change the picture.  In a few short years, you could be writing circles around your teacher.  It just takes practice and challenging your self-image.

I have a new series on Amazon.  Click  Elemental Rage.  Free if you’re enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

The Sign Posted ‘No Cell Phones in the Locker Room’ —It’s NOT A SUGGESTION!

When the whole kerfuffle in Los Angeles occurred with a voyeur filming a woman changing her clothes and posting the photo online , I was outraged on the photographed woman’s behalf.  To be completely honest, I consider it a form of sexual assault or at the least harassment, and if I were on the jury, that woman would serve jail time. The woman shamed can’t ‘undo’ those nude pictures–once on the net, forever on the net.

Fast forward a few months. I’ve been working out at the local gym.  Last night  I walked into a locker room with signs posted on every wall regarding cell phone use, and there is a woman on her cell phone.

People, let me tell you something about your phone.  Maybe YOU know that you are searching the web…but none of the rest of us do.  It’s unconscionable for you to bring your video equipment and set up in the corner while the rest of us are changing.  If you saw one of those giant film cameras on someone’s shoulder, would you politely change while they stood there?  I didn’t think so.

Phones can and are hacked. The video camera can be running without your knowledge, which means your innocent Candy Crush game in the locker room suddenly isn’t so innocent anymore.

You can’t spend ten minutes without your phone?  Really??? Fine.  At least where I workout, there is a bench ten feet from the locker room.  Go sit down on THAT bench and play your video game or scroll your internet while you wait.  Go somewhere else where people aren’t changing.  There are plenty of places that are NOT the locker room.  Go there if you must check your email.

Not everyone has enough courage to point out to you that your phone has a camera and they’re not comfortable in its presence. For those of you in the locker room in that situation, it’s okay to give the offender a polite, “Excuse me?  Cell phones aren’t allowed in here because they can take photos.”

If you’re not comfortable with that, talk to the people who work for the gym.  I bet that woman in L.A. never expected another woman to film and post the picture online.  Protect yourself. Once on the internet, forever on the internet.

Do everyone a favor and put it away. Cell phones have no place in a locker room.