What makes a mother? by Yasmin Moses

A wise person once told me “mother’s day is everyday”. Everyone has a different perspective and definition of a mother. In my opinion, I think mothers are a gift from god; I also think mothers are brave, warm-hearted, vivacious individuals. Although I am not a mother yet hopefully one-day I will be. My observations of mothers are like angels sent from above. Mothers are protective providers who take the life that they brought into this world and raise their child to the best of their ability: teaching their child about life and its lessons. As every child matures they are filled with curiosity, heart-aches, and blessings and as teachers of the home mothers have a contingency of scolding with good-intentions. What makes a mother? One can ask the question; however, only a mother can show you the answer: when you see the smile on your child's face after an accomplished goal, or when the child is faced with discrepancies how does a mother cope; especially when the mother has to make a life-alternating decision. What does the child think of the mother's decision in the years to come? A mother provides guidance, when the mother lets go of her child who faces the real world. The child reminisce on the past and is anticipating on the future and is grateful for their mother, yet what makes a mother is her courageous, and unconditional love for a child that blossoms into an unique adult; Moreover, the heart-filling advice given throughout life. A single word cannot express how appreciative he or she feels for the mother they were blessed with. On this mother's day I wish all the mothers a HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.

I Cannot Forget by Cesar Augusto Marin

I have wanted to rub out of my mind
burials in my thoughts
submerged in my memories
and suffocated in the sea of my solitude
to bury my feelings in but deep is my pain
and in memory your love
forgetfulness in silence.
I want to kill the hopes of seeing
but you live in my mind
and also in my deep memories.
I have crossed towns and cities
with the intention of forgetting
with the purpose of not having
but I cannot forget.
The sea, the stars
the sky and the Earth
they do remember you
and they are witnesses of my pain
witnesses of my quiet and disturbing suffering.
I have wanted to always give death to
your love
in my unwanted memories
in the cross of my sadness
but you are.....always here
like a triumph of love
like a feat of pain
you love me.

Angel in the Sky by Yasmin Moses

Angel in the sky

You have touched so many lives.

Your angelic voice is no longer heard.

You left without a word of good-bye, yet you embraced people with your generous ways.

Angel in the sky

As you rest your head with God, you are being remembered through your music and the

positive lifestyle you lived.

Angel in the sky

The songbird that flew away too soon…

The songbird that is loved by many, your fans love you and miss you.

Angel in the sky

It is twelve years without your smile or personality.

You will always be in our hearts forever.

Dedicated to: Selena

Human Nature

Recently some of my students wrote on the topic: Describe something you want to better understand about the world. The majority wrote on a similar theme. They want to better understand why humans behave as they do. Why do we have so much crime, violence, discrimination, poverty, war? My students want answers.

I understand my students’ bleak view of their fellow humans. This past New Year’s Eve 11 people in Dade county alone fell victims to bullets, gravity and sociopaths. We watch endless cruelty and barbarity on the news. I at times have a pessimistic view of the human race and wonder whether we’ll last another 100 years. Evidence abounds that we haven’t evolved much over 50, 000 years.

The images from the battlefront in Baghdad look tame compared to what the Arabs continue to do to Blacks in Darfur. No words can describe it. We live in 2007 and superstition still guides people’s lives. The world remains a dark, cruel place as Maximus assessed for Marcus Aurelius over 2000 years ago.

I can only offer a simple layman’s answer to my students-human nature. Perhaps things happen as they should? Perhaps the psychologists have the estimates wrong and more sociopaths live among us than we can imagine? Perhaps no matter how many laws we write or committees we form most humans will remain savages? As Prof. Keating said, “It was always thus and thus it shall always be.” I suggest to my students that outside small pockets in the United States and other places that have adopted the Anglo-Saxon tradition of respect for the individual most groups will always treat each other cruelly. I don’t see evidence in history to prove otherwise.

Most days however I remain an optimist. How could I not? I live better than kings did 100 years ago. Things look bad but we don’t have to suffer Weltschmerz. We live in the worst of times but we also live in the best of times.

Today exist more opportunities to reach more diverse goals than at any time in history. You can set any goal and reach it. Only your dreams, desires, choices and intelligence limit you. You can even invent your future thanks to technology. In the United States alone today live 5.2 million millionaires and over 500 billionaires. Why can’t you be one of these? A million dollars in the bank alleviates a lot of pessimism.

We see horror on T.V. because newscasts thrive on horror. Few people care to see planes land safely. Most want to see the plane that crashed. We don’t see much of the good news. Today more people (and a higher percentage of the population) live in democracies and participate in free markets than ever in history. The Chinese have a long way to go as communist tyranny gives way to liberty but in India they’ve almost completely rejected socialism for free markets and per capita income increases monthly.

We live in the information age with all the technology, news and knowledge this implies. A lot of useless information exists but we can consume much useful information if we choose intelligently. We must develop and refine our “crap detectors”. No one can keep secret the keys to wealth, health or anything else you want to know. If you master the trivium: language, logic and history you’ll learn how to find, evaluate and use information. As you gain good knowledge you develop a sense of proportion and a brighter outlook.

Practice your individuality and don’t fall victim to “group think”. Most groups force individuals to succumb to the majority. Individuals start to think they can not make it without the group. Group leaders thrive on power and convince individuals to view the glass as half empty and only through the group can we fill our glasses. The independent turn dependent.

Just as we should consume useful information we need to surround ourselves with useful people. I try to avoid negative people. They drain my energy, put me in a bad mood, make me angry and distort my view of the world. I surround myself with positive people and I try to bring positive energy into other’s lives. I always remind myself and others, “If someone else did it why can’t I?”

Take action and you’ll feel better. Right a wrong! Do something about it if you see a problem. A problem equals opportunity. Run for congress and change a law. Write a better one. If you get elected see me. I have many suggestions. Perhaps we can extend the death penalty to sociopaths who fire their guns in celebration? Pessimists complain and whine. Optimists fix, change, create, invent, lead, contribute, discover, explore, laugh, empathize and show gratitude. The good we see around us we owe to optimists like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Edison, Queen Elizabeth I, Andrew Carnegie, Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

You don’t have to go it alone to do great things or make great changes. You can stand on the shoulders of great people. If they did great things why can’t you?

Copyright Bert Lorenzo, 2007

An Inconvenient Truth Untold

Some of my students and I viewed Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Gore hit a home run with his production and he probably deserves the Academy Award. The images look beautiful both the real and animated. Gore looks great on the stage. He wasted a major part of his life to politics. He belongs in the academy. He has an ease in front of students he never had in front of voters. He proves his sincere concern for global warming with his tone and body language. I can’t imagine anyone could present a legitimate counter-argument to Gore’s evidence. He overwhelms the audience with facts, graphs and pictures yet he’s mastered the art of simplifying the complicated. Like other master teachers Gore knows, loves and cares for his subject and he cares for his students. I hated the caricatures of Gore when he ran for president. Here he shows himself the way I always saw him as a serious, mature, passionate man. The images of the Earth’s evolution saddened me. We have ruined much of the planet’s beauty and by we I mean everyone. No one escapes blame. The animated polar bear hit me the hardest. I knew bears have started to drown this way but to see the animation of this helpless, beautiful, majestic creature saddened me.

The documentary has some flaws. I wait for the inconvenient truth but it never comes. After 100 minutes the inconvenient truth remains untold. Gore mentions the three culprits of global warming but he does it too subtly. He mentions the population explosion culprit but young students may not understand the connection. My colleague Prof. Preston Allen says Gore doesn’t want to tarnish his image with the inconvenient truth. I can see the logic here. If he preaches, turns off the audience and loses them then he defeats his own cause but Gore should’ve taken the risk. Gore juxtaposes scenes of his slide show with scenes of his travels and personal life. He mentions the strides the Chinese have taken to reduce auto CO2 emissions. Then we see him ride through China in a chauffeured Mercedes-Benz limousine. Other times we see him drive around Tennessee in his SUV or we see him on his vast lands. Because of his unquestionable sincerity about global warming Gore comes off as obtuse when we see how he lives and how as Vice President he had a fleet of Limos and a jumbo jet. To see Gore in Limos and airplanes when he could teleconference hurts his cause.

Gore mentions how all countries except the U.S.A. and Australia signed the Kyoto Treaty but he doesn’t explain to the young impressionable audience the meaninglessness of this act. What have Mexicans, Maldivians, Brazilians, Bulgarians, etc. done since they signed the treaty? With all the environmental regulations in our country we pollute but a fraction of what second and third world country inhabitants like the Chinese and Indians pollute. Better for the environment had we saved the paper used to write the voluminous Kyoto Treaty? I’ve grown bored with people and this includes fellow residents who blame my country for the world’s ills. People who can’t feed their off-spring don’t need to breed. When they do we have to use our advanced technology and vast amounts of energy to feed them. We pollute because of this and then get the blame. We supply a 1/3 of Cubans (horrible polluters) food and medicine. No matter how much we help most people around the world still hate us. We pollute because we have a consumer based economy but we also do the most to help others around the world. Our consumer economy keeps the noble middle class employed. They continue to reproduce and their children need jobs. If we don’t buy the middle class will suffer. Our military uses a lot of energy to keep our allies safe. Our industry (we work harder than any people in the world) produces things people need around the world to survive and improve their miserable lives but this takes a lot of energy and it causes pollution. We could produce less and consume less Chinese products but this will lead to more suffering and as the selfish continue to reproduce and the population explodes we will see mass death. People will criticize us but should we continue to destroy the Earth to help the selfish, irresponsible poor? Gore needs a part two of the documentary to finally speak the inconvenient truth because the Earth lies in the balance.

I have hope for the future though. We may see the solution before Gore’s 50-year scenario. We will run out of fossil fuels (a finite resource which will run out in about 20 years) before this and cleaner more efficient technologies already exist. They only need some refinement. Remember necessity feeds invention. As a worst case scenario we’ll suffer massive droughts and starvation and about 30% of the population could die similar to what happened with the great plague nearly 700 years ago. A horrible scenario but the Earth will cool and we will use the new, refined technologies to travel and produce food in cleaner, more efficient ways. We could do our small part in South Florida in the mean time to reduce pollution. We could lobby local politicians to have them eliminate the most horrendous of polluters-school and public buses. We must inconvenience someone if we want to protect the environment.

Copyright Bert Lorenzo, 2007

Simplicity Strategies Part II

In the November 2006 issue of Reflections magazine I describe four habits all students can develop to simplify their lives. I describe how a daily constitutional helps increase aerobic capacity and mental clarity-both important for students. Together with exercise good nutrition increases energy and over-all well being. I recommend students reduce their possessions to the things they love and want to keep the rest of their lives. When we allow too many objects into our lives we become slaves to our possessions. Finally students need to learn to say no to all things that complicate their lives. This includes objects, obligations, activities and people. As students simplify their lives they can apply their new found time, money and energy to their studies.

As you master these four habits you can develop more sophisticated habits that will simplify your life even more and allow you to focus on those things that really matter to you. You may want to spend more time with family and less time at work or you might want to free yourself from debt. Below I describe slightly more advanced habitual changes you can make to simplify and win more control over your life and your education.

1. Spend a few hours a week in a natural environment away from crowds, traffic and buildings. Many of our complications stem from our thoughtless decisions and actions. You need time and the proper environment to think about your life and where you want to go. We make most of our bad decisions when we let people rush us into action. When our senses suffer the over stimulation of the modern world with all the useless information, noise and vulgarity we make bad decisions that complicate our lives. Go to a quiet, natural environment and learn to think deeply. Think about all the shackles in your life you want to remove and about all the things you can say no to. As one of my favorite thinkers wrote you want to learn to live deliberately.

2. Live in a home with only those rooms you use every day. Many students live with parents which I consider the best arrangement. You reduce your worries, expenses and problems and at the same time help your parents. To those who live alone or share a home with a spouse and/or children I suggest you live in the smallest house or apartment possible. If you have a big house sell it and with the profits buy something smaller and let the left over money collect interest or use it to pay off debt. To determine the right size home for you consider the rooms you use every day. If you have one room you don’t use every day you don’t need that room any day. You may want the room. This doesn’t mean you need it. When you learn to fully distinguish want from need you simplify even more. Excess rooms mean more mortgage or rent, more to clean, more to worry about when a hurricane pays us a visit and more stuff to fill the room.

3. Live close to school but more importantly work. I suggest you live within 30 minutes of work. One of my students recently wrote a composition about all the stress in his life and mentioned his terrible job and his three hour commute every Monday-Friday. Some statistics show the majority of Americans spend 20% or more of their day in traffic to and from work. This causes manifold health problems. You need to make intelligent decisions now as a student to plan your future. Where will you live and where will you work? Don’t look at these as separate questions and decisions. You will probably find it easier to live near work than to work near home. Does that make sense? Of courses the best way to solve the commute problem-work from home. Technology allows this for more and more people every day. Remember in a capitalist society you can fashion products and create your own work too.

4. Strive for economic freedom. Many of my students mention all their credit card debt to me and I shake my head in disbelief. The majority of Americans own nothing in the ultimate capitalist society. Can you think of a bigger irony? The average consumer has $8000 of debt and this doesn’t include mortgage and car payments. To gain and/or maintain economic freedom you have two options only. You can take the complex route described by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki in Why We Want You to be Rich or the simple route described by John Maeda in The Laws of Simplicity. I took the latter route and achieved great peace of mind by age 30. You need to become expert at desire/need distinction. Remember the aphorism, “The poor stay poor by acting rich. The rich stay rich by acting poor.” Decide whether you want to achieve economic freedom or whether you want to help the business owner achieve it.

If you want to simplify try to develop one, some or all of these habits. The results will surprise and satisfy you. Life passes fast. Do you want to live in traffic or as a debt slave? Remember Thoreau’s advice, “simplify, simplify, simplify.”

Copyright Bert Lorenzo, 2007

Having a Heart Matters by Yasmin Moses

Having a heart matters

Holding onto a loved one, or even that special someone

Caring about someone else besides ourselves because Having a heart matters

A homeless person walks by

Giving them your pocket of pennies makes it Having a heart matters

Dreams that you want to come true

Believing makes it all worthwhile because having a heart matters

Do not dampen someone parade over a grumpy day

When time is rough, just smile and have a pleasant day

Because having a heart matters especially if you love yourself and others.