23Apr 2014 by CJ

People who abuse their power are not true “leaders” at all

Life & Living
“Power lacks moral or principles. It only has interests.” - Horacio Castellanos Moya I hold great contempt for those who regularly abuse their power – unforutnatley it seems that anyone powerful often does. Case in point. A friend recently told me that her boss (and partner in the company) told her to push aside all her client-related projects to format his son’s internship resume. Knowing how often he negatively “brands” employees who don’t follow his orders, she reluctantly carried out his demand – spending a cumulative total of two days formatting and continually revising the young teen’s resume. I was outraged by her story. First of all, why isn’t his son formatting his own resume? And what lesson are you teaching him besides mommy and daddy will take care of…
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22Apr 2014 by CJ

In today’s society everyone is so easily offended

Life & Living
When I was in Mrs. Mason’s third grade class, I remember every morning, without fail, we’d say “The Pledge of Allegiance” followed by the singing of our National Anthem. Commonly referred to as being from the “old school”, Mrs. Mason already had several decades of teaching under her belt before I ever stepped foot inside her classroom. I recall a small, round harmonica she kept in her top desk draw. She’d play a “C” sharp each and every morning to ensure we all started singing in the same key. Could you imagine this being done in the classrooms of today? Beyond the reading, writing and arithmetic, Mrs. Mason taught us about respect for life, respect for each other and respect for our country. A dedicated and prolific historian in our…
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16Apr 2014 by CJ

We want to know everything – especially if it’s NOT newsworthy

Life & Living
Thomas Jefferson once said, “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” And while newspapers have completely lost their relevance in modern day society, replacing the word “newspapers” with “the internet” would not be a huge stretch at times. I try to educate myself about what’s going on in the world whenever I can, but I’m not sure many of the popular online news outlets are doing a very good job. Take today for instance. With everything going on in the world, CNN.com chose to place the following headline at the top of the day’s news. “Rapper Andre Johnson severs penis, jumps off building” Hmm…I’m not sure what to make of that one. CNN.com, like so many other online news…
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14Apr 2014 by CJ

The streets are not your personal garbage can, so STOP littering!

Life & Living
This weekend the sun was brightly shining and the temperatures rose to the upper 70’s. Therefore the last place I wanted to be was cooped up inside – especially after the brutal winter the north east was forced to battle this year. The weekend was a mix of leisurely enjoyment and household chores – hiking through the mountains on Saturday, and doing yard clean-up outside on Sunday. Regardless of the activity, just being outside was enjoyment enough. While in the front of my house, picking a few weeds between the cracks of the sidewalk, a car came racing down the block – loud music blasting from four open windows, though not loud enough to mask the sound of its obnoxious muffler. I sound like an old man now, don’t I?…
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08Apr 2014 by CJ

Charity is not about what you gain, but what you can give

Generosity & Kindness, Love & Relationships
“When you say "I" and "my" too much, you lose the capacity to understand the "we" and "our".”  Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free I think perhaps the greatest shortfall of mankind is its inability to look beyond themselves with any kind of real charity. So often you hear people saying things like “my” problems and “my” needs as though they were the only people living in society. One’s ego can easily convince us that our lives, our complaints and our problems are unique – that no other human being walking the Earth could possibly understand or relate to what we’re feeling or going through. We then turn that internal understanding into an excuse – “I” am simply too busy to do this or that; you have no…
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