The Simple Life

Trust I am struggling with trusting our new president and our government officials. I feel badly that this is the case in that I want to trust them, yet their words and actions do not mesh. Our president, while campaigning for office, spoke of great changes that needed to take place. One area he talked about was for change in the normal partisan politics. Another area he spoke often about was the end of politics as usual in the area of "earmarks" in appropriation bills. It seems that our president's pragmatic desires have driven him to say whatever is convenient at the moment, whatever would expedite his image and win the crowd. There is little that is not partisan in Washington these days, and there is a bill that he says he will sign, with over 8,000 earmarks in it. What could be his justification for lying to the public? What justifiable reason could he give to outright lie? I have heard him say that this is Bush's problem. I have heard him say that when it becomes...

Instant Relationships Relationships are important. They are important enough to rearrange your life for them, and they are marginal if we don't rearrange our lives for them. I may be old, but the foundational principles to good relationships have not changed. Intimate or good relationships still take intentionality and exclusivity in time. By that I mean that in order for me to have a good relationship with Linda, or anyone, I need to make time for her, and she for me, where we do not share our attention with something or someone else. It is not okay for me to carry on a heart to heart conversation with Linda while reading a magazine and watching the news. I need to put the magazine down, turn the television off, and look her in the eyes while listening to her heart. Exclusivity in the moment is part of a healthy relationship. That is what gets me concerned. It seems that there are many who are carrying on relationships (at least that is what they call them) with people they say th...