Retrospection, Introspection and Contemplation

Given the endless stream of bad economic news and political panderings, it's important to do some peaceful mental exercises to put the times into fresh perspective - particularly our own situations.

In general, I would say that I am very much an optimist. I try to see opportunities when others only see difficulties. I try to make the most of seemingly hopeless situations. Though I like to think I do this all the time, I often notice that I have to catch myself if I get off track and start to think negatively. One of the methods I use to stay on track is this three-step process called Retrospection, Introspection and Contemplation.

Retrospection: "The deliberate recall of past events," or what I think of when I think of retrospection, a state of remembrance and gratefulness for the positive past events in your life. Think about that for a moment. Think about all the good things that have happened in your life and start to dwell on them. Relive them. Try to remember the emotions you felt during those positive moments in your life. For me, I can think of several. One of the most vivid for me was the day my beautiful daughter was born. It was the best birthday of my entire life. I remember the night before hoping that she wouldn't come until the morning because the next day was my birthday and I thought it would be great to share a birthday with my daughter. I remember holding her tiny body for the first time and proudly realizing that in that moment I had officially become a father. It was a very special moment, one I will not soon forget.

I could go on and on about all the wonderful past events in my life: memories from my childhood growing up on a farm, my wedding day, the day I graduated from college, etc.

Once you get yourself in this mindset, it is hard to not be grateful for life and the experiences we get to have.

Introspection: "A looking inward: specifically the act or process of self-examination," or what I like to think of as the process of recognizing the good things in your life right now and thinking about who you are now as a person. Introspection is a thought process that takes stock of what's good and happy about your life currently. Things that you are now involved in that make your life exciting and joyful. Obviously there are problems, we all have them. But we also all have things we can be grateful for, especially following a deep look inward at ourselves. This process reveals so many hidden gems in our lives, hidden by the rush of busyness we feel each day.

One thing that comes to mind is my family. I love spending time with and hanging out with my wife and daughter. Time with them can make any day wonderful. I can't tell you how much I look forward to coming home to a wife and daughter who love me and want to know about how my day went. I love to tell them about the things I learned or the things I did that day. It is so fun to share life with others.

Contemplation: "The act of looking forward to an event as about to happen," or I like to think of it as dreaming and visualizing the possibilities of life and how they can and will be accomplished. In challenging times, it can be difficult to remember that our better days are ahead of us, all we need do is work toward them. Contemplation to me is the state of mind that dwells on the possibilities. That expands them and gives them emotion. It is the process of leaving the current situation (the conditions of which introspection clearly reveals) and fast-forwarding through time, 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, 50 years from now and visualizing your life - seeing who you are, how much more you've learned and grown, how much more mature and pleasant your life is.

When I contemplate, I like to think big. It was Donald Trump who said, "You have to think anyway, you might as well think big!" I like to think of myself owning my own successful business, having a big family, driving a big car and having a big yard out back for the kids to play in. I like to think of myself being involved in helping hundreds if not thousands of poor people get any help they might need. I like to see myself making a difference in someone's life. Thinking about the future makes me really excited.

There you have it, Retrospection, Introspection and Contemplation, a positive mental exercise to help boost your spirits amid these tumultuous times!

My Take on Wall Street and The Bailout

Okay, I don't mean to dwell on the economy and Wall Street. Sometimes I just can't help but be fascinated by it though.

As I've read the news coming out on the government bailout for toxic sub-prime mortgage backed securities, I've thought about the effects of this government intervention and the possible alternatives. Neither are very good.

First off, the bailout. To me, it was absolutely necessary. I trust Henry Paulson's judgment when he, along with many renown economists, says that we would likely experience a catastrophic meltdown of credit - the lifeblood of our economy - if the government didn't intervene. That meltdown would come because money in the financial system would dry up. It would dry up because financial institutions bought all these mortgage-backed securities that are now nearly worthless because the people with the mortgages can't pay their house payment and are defaulting. So in order to fix the problem, the government buys up all these bad mortgage-backed securities (a fancy way of saying that the government would print more money) thereby injecting cash into the financial system and taking the toxic securities off the books of financial institutions.

Another reason the bailout is necessary is because it prevents widespread panic. People won't feel like they have to run to the bank and take out all their money - millions of people running on banks is a quick way to dry up credit and bring the economy to a screeching halt. That this has already worked is evident in the rebound in the market to around the same levels as what we had last week before this whole mess started.

So that's the good about the bailout. Here's the bad: the government is taking a much larger, more centralized role in our "free market" economy. The more government intervention and bailout, the more our economy starts down the dreary path of socialism - the antithetical structure of economic prosperity. Another problem is the message this sends to companies - they can do stupid things (such as bet big time on sub-prime mortgage-backed securities) and not have to deal with the consequences. This precedent could have serious long-term effects to our economy. Fortunately, at least one company, Lehman Brothers, didn't get off the hook and felt the full brunt of the consequences.

Now, having said this, it is important for us to consider carefully who to vote for. I will vote for John McCain because, when it comes to the economy, he is much less socialist than Obama. With Obama as our next president, he could capitalize on the recent panic against free markets and bring our country further into socialism than ever before imagined. That to me is unacceptable.

Wall Street and It's Effect on Main Street

This past week has been an incredible few days for the financial markets. On Monday, I saved my copy of the Wall Street Journal with the headline: "Crisis on Wall Street as Lehman Totters, Merrill is Sold, AIG Seeks to Raise Cash."

Monday I had to travel to Atlanta for work and in the morning right before I got to the airport, I heard over the radio that the Dow had plummeted 350 points already. They kept saying that the worst thing we can do is panic and we should NOT call our stock broker and sell. Knowing my wife would wake up to the news of the market crashing, I texted her this: "The market is crashing today. Kind of wished we had pulled out a while back, but it's alright. Our plan is long-term." I was not particularly concerned for two main reasons: 1) the market always has its ups and downs and we have highly diversified mutual funds less prone to dramatic fluctuations, and 2) we are continually preparing for anything that might happen.

I then called her and talked to her about how fortunate we are to be prepared for an emergency. I have life insurance (although with AIG, which I guess means I know have government insurance ;), I had just applied for disability insurance, both of us have university degrees in high-demand fields, we have enough savings to last us nearly a year and we have enough food storage to last us nearly 3 months. Although we certainly aren't prepared for every possible problem, we felt good knowing that we are prepared to handle a lot of things if the economy turned south.

That brings me to my point. If Main Street (meaning ordinary folks like you and me) learns anything from the messes on Wall Street this past week, I hope that it is the importance of being prepared. We can never take the good times for granted. And it is naive to think the good times will never end. Bad things can happen and we should take every measure possible to ensure that our homes and families will remain in tact, no matter what happens. We need to have a college education or proficiency in a trade or skill (such as an automotive technician, a computer programmer or a welder), we need to have life insurance and disability insurance policies, we ought to save at least 10% of our income and put it away in safe, low-risk, liquid investments such as a savings account, we ought to never go into debt for anything except maybe a home, education or bare necessities, we ought to be stockpiling food in case of a rainy day, we ought to forgo the nice car for the used cheapo and overall we must protect the hard-earned assets we have, no matter how few or of little worth they may be.

Now in saying this, I don't want to sound gloom and doom. I hear the commentators of gloom and doom all the time and they make me nauseous. Listening to them all the time doesn't help anything, it only leads to discouragement. We need to put things in proper perspective and remember to always have faith, faith in the future, faith in ourselves, and faith in our Father in Heaven who is ultimately in control. It is only by faith we can solve the current problems we are in and build for ourselves a better world.

Jesus Was A Community Organizer?

The panic among Democrats is laughable. Now they have a new talking point: "Jesus was a community organizer."

I don't understand this one. If they keep on the Jesus/Obama comparisons, they could end up like the Beatles' John Lennon who foolishly declared "We're more popular than Jesus!"

Comparing yourself (or your candidate) to Jesus Christ begins to border on blasphemy. Is it true that Jesus was a community organizer? Well I guess that depends on what a "community organizer" is. As of yet, I still haven't heard a clear definition. Wikipedia's definition talks in vague terms and avoids any specifics about what a community organizer actually does. Kind of sounds familiar, the whole vague terms and avoiding specifics is what Obama has done his entire campaign. Maybe that's just a common trait of "community organizers."

Going back to Jesus as a community organizer, to me Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is NOT a community organizer. And to say such is to demean and minimize the life and mission of Christ.

Another thing about "community organizers." Do you know who the "father of community organizing" is? According to Wikipedia, his name is Saul Alinsky (another Chicago native) who wrote two books Reveille for Radicals, published in 1946; and Rules for Radicals, published in 1971. Alinsky dedicated his Rules for Radicals to Lucifer, whom he described as "the very first radical."

Okay, so the Democrats are saying that Jesus was a community organizer. Hmmm. And the father of "community organizing" was a man who wrote a book dedicated to Satan? The notion is sheer blasphemy.

The Democratic talk points are making me sick and ought to be offensive to all Christians.

To The Firefighters

As long as I have lived, I have always admired firefighters. Their courage is heroic, their compassion is inspiring. Whenever I see them out on the streets with their boots working to raise money for a childrens cause, I always stop the car and give as much as I can. They always seem to be rescuing children, whether or not a fire is burning.

As this is September 11, we owe a supreme debt of gratitude to our courageous firefighters across the nation. They put their lives on the line every day working to save the innocent and the helpless.

May our God bless our firefighters and keep them safe as they continue the perilous work of saving lives.

"A Date Which Will Live in Infamy"

Today is a day not to be forgotten. We all know what happened on September 11, 2001 when the forces of darkness and evil reared its ugly head. We all remember where we were when it happened, and we all felt the heartache for fellow citizens who died innocently and the boiling rage we felt against our common enemies of Islamic extremism - personified by one man - Osama Bin Laden.

I remember that day. When I first saw it on the news and heard what had happened, my heart broke for the innocent lives lost of fellow Americans. "They cannot do this to the United States of America!" I remember saying as I saw pictures of the towers engulfed in dust and smoke. That day, all Americans shared the common sentiment that we will not let this pass without the full arm of justice smiting into the dust for eternity the perpetrators of this despicable crime.

The words of Winston Churchill come to mind: "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!"

It reminds me of a story from the Book of Mormon when the Nephites were unjustly attacked and thus they began to defend themselves and their wives and children by going to war with their enemy the Lamanites. It was said of the Nephites in Alma 44 verse 45 "Nevertheless, the Nephites were inspired by a better cause, for they were not fighting for monarchy nor power but they were fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church." You could also say that in the war on terror the Americans are inspired by a better cause because we are fighting for our homes and our freedom.

The words of Captain Moroni, an ancient man of God who lived on this continent who led the Nephite army, also come to mind. He spoke these words to the leader of their enemy, the Lamanites: "As the Lord liveth, ye shall not depart except ye depart with an oath that ye will not return again against us to war. Now as ye are in our hands we will spill your blood upon the ground, or ye shall submit to the conditions which I have proposed."

Given that terrorists do not submit to demands of peace, we shall also spill their blood upon the ground and let it stand there as a bright testament to the inevitable consequences that follow those who spread terror and evil around the earth.

God bless America. I love this land of freedom and am everlastingly grateful for our God who had a hand in its establishment and who continually strengthens those who fight to keep it free.

The Problem With Web Search

So today while my wife went to Roberts Arts and Crafts I went to one of my favorite bookstores that is right around the corner, Deseret Book in Provo Utah. While there, I was mostly just burning time because I knew that Sarah would be a while and that I could enjoy myself just browsing around the bookstore. So without any purpose or thought of buying anything I just moseyed around looking at stuff and thumbing through pages of a few books that caught my eye. Then finally, I decided to buy a book that I had thumbed through for a bit and ended up spending an un-planned $16.

When I got home I thought, why isn't the web like that? Why can't I just easily browse through it and stop on anything that "catches my eye?" With the web, I have to take an active approach to finding things - inputting a search term and hoping for the best. This is too much work. Imagine all the sales that never take place online because you can't just easily "browse" the web and buy an un-planned item.

Take this concept a bit further with the bookstore analogy. When I go to a bookstore, I would say that about 1/3rd of the time I know exactly what book I want to buy and I go straight to the computer kiosk where I can look up the book and find the reference to where it's located in the store. The other 2/3rds of the time I go into a bookstore, I have no specifics in mind, but I go and browse the sections that I'm interested in until I find something neat. Then I thumb through pages of several books until I find something I really like. That's when I purchase something unplanned.

In a sense, Google has perfected the "card catalog" for the web. But no website has made a good way for us to browse the web. And the exciting thing about the web is that it has a lot more stuff in it than just books, music and magazines! The day will come, and maybe this is my ticket to internet entrepreneurship, when a website (or an enhanced web browser) will allow a person to browse the web similar to browsing a bookstore.

Update: Since posting this, I found Google Directory. It is a good start, but nowhere near what it could be.

My Problem With Obama

Okay, so I've watched the conventions (the parts I could stay awake for), I've read Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope" (all of it!) and I've stayed pretty up to date on the election through Google News and my print subscription to the Wall Street Journal. So here a few of my thoughts on Obama and McCain:

My first issue: Obama's terrible friends.

Obama has responded to his relationship with Rev. Wright. You can read it here.

That's a good response. This was the most important part of his article: "He has never been my political advisor; he's been my pastor. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn."

I think I remember McCain even saying that he took Obama at his word that his pastor's political views were inconsistent with Obama's political views.

The thing is that Wright isn't the only problem. Obama has a long list of friends that put a new definition on the word "shady." The long list includes: Rev. Wright (we know what he did), Louis Farrakhan (a loud anti-semite), Bill Ayers (proud domestic terrorist who participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972), Tony Rezko (Obama's friend who through an illegal deal helped Obama get a huge discount on his Chicago house), Kwame Kilpatrick (corrupt Detroit mayor who had an affair, lied, and used taxpayer money to fund vacations and wild parties), and others. If anybody hasn't already, do some research on these men, their beliefs and actions are alarming. And that Obama has held very close relationships with each of them (excepting maybe Kilpatrick) is equally alarming.

I think the old saying that you can tell a lot about a man by who his friends are is still true. With Obama, there are huge personal character questions that remain a profound mystery. There is no excuse for being closely associated with an admitted terrorist. The fundamental problem, and the reason I am still skeptical of Obama, is because his actions do not align with his words. He can give a wonderful speech about patriotism and love for country (and he can write a nice book about it too - "The Audacity of Hope"), but after a critical analysis of his actions, all his words become empty and meaningless.

With McCain, even if you disagree with him, you know exactly who he is and what he stands for. Even though he may not sound as pretty as Obama when giving a speech on his love for this country, you can critically examine his record and notice immediately that his actions show clear as day that he loves this country to the core and that he has the personal characteristics of an outstanding leader.