A Shared Obsession

For me, its balmy airs are always blowing,
its summer seas flashing in the sun.
The pulsing of its surf is in my ear.

I can see its garlanded crags,
its leaping cascades,
its plumy palms drowsing by the shore,
its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud-rack.

I can feel the spirit of its woody solitudes.
I hear the splashing of the brooks.
In my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago.

I share an obsession with the famous American author that penned these words. They come from a book written in 1912 by Albert Bigelow Paine entitled "Mark Twain: A Biography," and describe our shared passion for the Sandwich Islands, perhaps better known as the Kingdom of Hawai'i.

No matter what is going on in my life, Hawai'i is always there, calling to me, pleading with me to come home again.

Yes, I said, "home." From the minute I stepped off the plane in the Fall of 1989, I knew this would someday be my home. Each of my 10 visits to the Islands has reinforced that belief.

Mark Twain set out by boat for the Islands in March of 1866, and spent many months soaking up the local color and putting up with the local insects.  Unlike me, he also did a bit of work during his extended stay.  And he did so, at times, under considerable duress.

Returning to Honolulu near the end of June from a tour of all the islands, he retired to bed in order to recover from an aggravated case of saddle boils.  You see, the horse was the touring vehicle of choice in those days, and he was not what one would call an accomplished rider.

Just as he was settling in, word came that a shipwrecked crew had just been brought in to Honolulu.  In spite of his precarious physical condition, he agreed to be transported to the hospital on a cot and there took notes from all the survivors.  He then stayed up all night writing the harrowing account, and the completed manuscript just made it on the next morning's sailing ship.  As a result, on July 19th, the Sacramento Union gave the world its first glimpse into the terrible Hornet disaster.

My work while in the Islands has consisted of shopping for friends, reviewing local restaurants for a travel guidebook, and working on the helper crew for the Iron Man Triathlon.  Not quite in the same league with Mr. Twain, I'm sure you'd agree.  But then, I go to Hawai'i to get away from work and rejuvenate my spirit.

Once in a while I find it difficult to communicate my passion for all that is Hawai'i.  Unfortunately, some folks just don't get it.  I can only smile, shake my head in disbelief, and hear the words of Mark Twain recorded by Walter Francis Frear in his book "Mark Twain in Hawai'i":

This is the most magnificent, balmy atmosphere in the world — ought to take dead men out of the grave.

I suppose that for these more stubborn folk, the only foolproof method of making them feel what I feel would be to kidnap them, bring them to the islands, and let them see it all first-hand.

Part of the allure of the Islands, both for me and for Mr. Twain, is the great pageantry with which the people live their lives.  It has been a joy for me to experience the spirit of the Aloha Festivals, which are carried on for several weeks in September and October of each year.  The local food is highlighted at these events, but more grand are the costumes and music that fill the senses with wonder and excitement.

In his book "Roughing It," Mr. Twain recalls, in his unique style, the wonderful festiveness of the Saturday afternoon marketplace a hundred thirty five years ago:

The girls put on all the finery they can on Saturday afternoon: fine black silk robes; flowing red ones that nearly put your eyes out; others as white as snow; still others that discount the rainbow; and they wear their hair in nets, and trim their jaunty hats with fresh flowers, and encircle their dusky throats with homemade necklaces of the brilliant vermilion-tinted blossom of the ohia; and they fill the markets and the adjacent streets with their bright presences, and smell like a rag factory on fire with their offensive coconut oil.

At the end of the day, this obsession I share with Mr. Twain has affected me in the same way as it did him.  I'll let him explain it to you.  In a letter to W. D. Howells on October 26, 1881, Twain wrote:

Charles Warren Stoddard has gone to the Sandwich Islands permanently.  Lucky devil.  It is the only supremely delightful place on earth.  It does seem that the more advantages a body doesn't earn here, the more of them God throws at his head.  This fellow's postal card has set the vision of those gracious islands before my mind again, with not a leaf withered, nor a rainbow vanished, nor a sun-flash missing from the waves, and now it will be months, I reckon, before I can drive it away again.  It is beautiful company, but it makes one restless and dissatisfied.

As they say, misery loves company.  I invite you to experience Hawai'i as have both I and Mr. Twain, and then to join us in this magnificent obsession.

Saddam's Killing Fields

Our young men and women who died in Iraq have put a stop to Saddam's "killing fields." God bless them and their families!

Here is an excerpt from a Reuters article dated Tuesday, October 12, 2004:

...

The victims are believed to be minority Kurds killed during 1987-88. One trench contains only women and children, apparently killed by small arms. Another contains only men, apparently killed by automatic gunfire.

[Greg] Kehoe [a U.S. lawyer appointed by the White House to work with the Iraqi Special Tribunal] said the women and children had been taken from their villages with their belongings, including pots and pans, shot — often in the back of the head — then bulldozed into the trench.

Some of the mothers died still holding their children. One young boy still held a ball in his tiny arms. A thick stench hangs over the site, as well as at a makeshift morgue nearby.

"The youngest fetus we have was 18 to 20 fetal weeks. Tiny bones, femurs, thighbones the size of a matchstick," says investigating anthropologist P. Willey, of California.

International organizations estimate more than 300,000 people died under Saddam's 24-year rule and Iraq's Human Rights ministry has identified 40 possible mass graves countrywide.

Authorities hope careful investigations of the sites will provide enough evidence to convict Saddam and other senior members of his regime, now in U.S. detention, of crimes against humanity.

...

Did you catch that number? 300,000. THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND. That's the population of a good-sized American city. Possibly FORTY mass graves. Mothers and babies. Butchered for his pleasure. Are you eating dinner? I hope so.

How many MORE innocents would have been tortured and slaughtered if we had allowed the U.N. to continue "negotiating" with that monster? What a few of our soldiers did at Abu Graib was like tickling compared to what Saddam's henchmen committed there. Don't even talk to me about that comparison.

Freedom and security sometimes come at the ultimate price, and as far as I'm concerned, America is one of the few nations on earth that is willing to pay that price.

When the fear of reprisal among the Iraqis on the street subsides, we'll hear much more of their genuine gratitude toward America. For now, though, they still must be careful about what they say to the press.

Cultural change takes generations. It may never happen. But at least we stopped a man who played "genocide" the way we play baseball.

What can we do?

Reported by KGTV, TheSanDiegoChannel.com, on Wednesday, August 25th, 2004:

A young couple was shot as they bid good night to one another Tuesday night in City Heights, 10News reported.

Carla Aguiar and Adrian Acosta were hugging one another outside her home when a single bullet was fired by someone in a passing car.  The bullet pierced the girl's chest before it hit Acosta in the heart.  Witnesses said Acosta picked up Aguiar and walked back toward her home before collapsing on the sidewalk.  He died at the scene.

After reading this story, and wondering what could be done about the situation, I realized that there's only one truly effective solution: a change in cultural values.

Though many have tried down through history in various ways, cultural change can't be legislated — it has to happen one person at a time.  I believe we have a greater effect on our relatives, friends and neighbors than we sometimes realize.

Adrian's mother said that her son was not a troublemaker and always came straight home after school.  Whether or not this is the full story (we know how kids can sometimes hide their behavior from their parents), we'll never know.  We can, however, be certain of one thing: a breakdown occurred somewhere within the moral structure of several families in that community.

It's everyone's individual responsibility to reject bad behavior wherever we encounter it, even (and especially) among family members.

If we each hold ourselves to a higher moral standard, sooner or later the people closest to us will begin to want our acceptance and approval more than they want to satisfy their baser and, in some unfortunate cases, evil instincts.

A sad story, yes, but hopefully one that will encourage our resolve to make positive change within our families and communities.

what were you thinking?

In the following examples, what were Mary, John and Bob thinking?

Mary recently said to me, "I know I shouldn't have eaten that three-pound slice of chocolate decadence cheesecake.  I just couldn't help myself!"

John confessed, "I guess I shouldn't have told Marsha off like that.  I don't know what came over me..."

And Bob, previously in a very bad mood, suddenly discovered he'd just won the lottery — his mood changed instantly.

Do you have the sense that each of these people was just a little bit out of control?  And did you notice that what they were thinking played a significant role in each of these three examples?

Too often we assume that our thoughts are beyond our control.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Except for those people who suffer from true mental illness, the one thing over which we have the greatest control is what we think.

You can easily establish and maintain control over your thoughts by applying the following three concepts:

Awareness  —  Planning  —  Evaluation

Let's explore these concepts in some detail.

1. Awareness

   The first step in taking control of your thoughts is simply becoming aware of them.  Let's reconsider our initial examples for a moment.

   1. What was running through Mary's mind when that decadent dessert presented itself for her consideration?  Was she thinking about its effect on her blood sugar level (and ultimately on her waist line), or did its taste and texture take precedence?
   
   
   2. When John's co-worker Marsha stepped over the line for the um-teenth time, did he simply react without first considering his words and their effect on her?
   
   
   3. And in our lottery winner example, was Bob even aware, after the fact, of the relative insignificance of whatever it was that had him so upset previously?
   
   

   You can't take control of something of which you're not aware.  Your task, therefore, is to begin right now, in this instant, to increase your awareness of your thoughts and thought patterns.

2. Planning

   The next step toward controlling your thoughts involves planning.  I can think of no better way to illustrate this concept than to ask you to recall the many examples, both humorous and otherwise, of the dangers of speaking without thinking.

   Bill Cosby tells of the time he visited Ray Charles one evening at his apartment.  There were no lights on at all.  The place was pitch black, and Ray said, "Hey, Bill!  Come on in!"

   Bill said, "Ray, where are you?"

   "I'm in the bathroom.  Shaving."

   "Well, Ray, why are you shaving in the dark ..." and he tried to stop himself right there, but the words kept coming out, " ... with the lights out?"

   Bill's brain immediately followed with, "You dummy!  What were you thinking?"

   But Ray was cool about it.  He laughed and said, "Man, I've been shavin' in the dark all my life!"

   The lesson here is simple: begin to flex your mental muscles by pausing briefly before each sentence you speak.  This will force you to develop the habit of thinking in advance, and will demonstrate the value of planning and organizing your thoughts.

   Take your time, plan ahead, and think before you speak; then watch what happens to your conversations.

3. Evaluation

   Finally, after you've become aware of your thoughts and have begun to plan and organize them in advance, you should evaluate your results.  Do this by examining your thoughts and thought patterns for:

   • Accuracy
   • Relevance, and, most importantly,
   • Conformance to Your Values
   
   

   This step is key to long-term success in controlling your thoughts.

   1. How accurate and truthful are your thoughts?  Are they centered around facts, or are you deceiving yourself in order to avoid some harsh reality?
   
   
   2. Are your thoughts relevant?  Do they really apply to the situation at hand, or are you again avoiding reality because it's uncomfortable or, perhaps, boring?
   
   
   3. Most importantly, do your thoughts conform to your personal morals and code of ethics?  Just because an immoral or unethical thought is hidden from others doesn't mean it won't have some negative effect upon you.  The Bible states that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.  So true.
   
   

   Begin today to analyze your thoughts, make the necessary corrections, and then be prepared for significant, positive change to occur very quickly.

Bottom Line

To be in control of your thoughts is to be in control of your entire life.  And you can control your thoughts through awareness, planning and evaluation.

Please remember this point: lacking control of your thoughts prevents you from gaining or maintaining focus on those things that are most important to you.

Once you gain full control of your thoughts, the other areas of your life in which you're having difficulty will become much more easily managed.

You now have a choice, and a decision to make: take control of your thoughts, or allow your uncontrolled thoughts to control you.

The next time someone asks what you were thinking, will you have a good answer?

each ending is a beginning

Last evening, I attended the Toastmasters Founder's District Installation Dinner for the 2004/2005 Toastmasters year.  It reminded me that every ending ushers in a new beginning.

There were many familiar faces in the crowd, and a few new ones.  Seeing those new faces keeps me energized about my involvement in Toastmasters.

At some point in your Toastmasters career, your focus will shift.  We each join the organization for our own reasons, and those reasons are almost always related to self-improvement in the areas of communication, leadership, self-confidence, etc.  But taking that step up into a leadership role, whether it be as a Club Officer or District leader, will eventually change your focus.  It did mine.

Seeing the growth in another human being as a result of some word or deed from you makes your own self-improvement pale in comparison.  How wonderful it is to know that you've helped to change a life for the better!

Last evening marked the end of the 2003/2004 Toastmasters year, and its Officers were duly discharged from their responsibilities.  But this ending led to a beginning, as the new Officers for the coming year were installed and charged with their duties.  Among them, yours truly was installed as Division G Governor.  I'll be sharing my experiences during the year with you.  My hope is to inspire you to take on a leadership position of your own.

Those new faces I saw last evening have taken that first step into District leadership.  Their beginnings will directly and positively affect thousands of Toastmasters members, some of whom will begin their new journeys with the end of the coming year.

Take on the challenge of leadership.  Create a new beginning for someone else.  The rewards will last a lifetime, you have my word on that.

explore or perish

With all this talk about a renewed interest in space exploration and changing the focus of NASA, one thing, one very important thing, is being left unsaid.

As human beings, we must explore or perish.  We must, because of three important eventualities:

1. self-destruction


2. global natural disasters


3. human stagnation

self-destruction

We've all seen what happens when urban areas become overcrowded:

• crime increases


• poverty increases


• counter-productive cultures arise

Over the years, countless psychological experiments involving rodents have shown that increasing their numbers within a fixed space (or decreasing the space available) makes them more aggressive.

In the case of humans under these conditions, political, social and religious disagreements tend to fuel increased violence.  Extremely dangerous factions can emerge from this soup and, given some of the nastier weapons we've designed, ultimately threaten man's very existence.

The world economy proves every day that it's not strong enough to properly maintain today's major population centers.  Where, then, will we find the added resources necessary to support the population of less habitable areas once the major centers reach their limits?  Overcrowding will cause society in general to degrade into madness.

Under these conditions, destruction at our own hands is a very real possibility and a likely outcome.

global natural disaster

As destructive as Mount St. Helens was, scientists have estimated that the eventual eruption of Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra Nevada will release around 150 times that amount of explosive power.  Several other large volcanoes have recently roused from their slumber to threaten life and property.  If indeed we are entering a period of renewed global volcanic activity, the effect on human life could be disastrous.

Were you aware that a cloud of gargantuan chunks of ice and dust - comets - envelopes our solar system?  The recent box-office hits dealing with terrestrial cometary impacts have actually painted a very realistic picture of the grave danger we face.  We have, in fact, experienced several recent near misses, and they've taught us something quite disturbing:  we sometimes don't receive warning of an approaching comet until it's too late to react.

We have still more problems:

• global warming


• deforestation on a massive scale


• air, water, soil and food pollution


• scientists tampering with genetics

... and the list goes on.

And if all this weren't enough, scientists now tell us that we're setting ourselves up for annihilation by overusing antibiotics.  The super bugs which manage to become immune to our drugs are a serious threat to the longevity of our species.

Human Stagnation

Man is at his best when he's exploring and establishing new habitats.  This has been shown repeatedly throughout recorded human history.

• the Romans created an empire that was the envy of all their contemporaries


• the British conquered the world and flourished far and wide


• America was at her best during the expansion across the Great Plains and the establishment of magnificent cities along the West Coast

We read heart warming and inspiring tales almost daily about the triumphs of the human spirit achieved by modern explorers and entrepreneurs.

But the majority of people, once they establish a local culture and successfully eliminate the struggle for survival, tend to lapse, eventually, into apathy and hedonism.  This, too, has been demonstrated by those very same world-conquering empires.

Just as with a withered human limb, the weakness brought on by lack of motivation leads finally to stagnation, atrophy and death.

what, then, shall we do?

Our only hope for long term survival is to begin now, today, to explore and colonize space and the planets.  Our seed must be spread and cultivated on as many worlds as possible, so that by sheer numbers we can outrun our certain fate here on Earth.

My challenge to humanity is to stop viewing science fiction as mere entertainment, and allow it to inspire and motivate us to reach for the stars.

There lies our last, best hope for survival.

stylish sheets cascading in a garden

Ever looked under the hood of your favorite web page? (From your browser's menu bar, choose something like "View->Source" or "View->Page Source", and then stand back.)

Chances are, what you see there will not be pretty. Sure, the page may look spiffy, but remember that it takes a lot of dirt and ugly-looking rocks to build an edifice.

What's more, it takes a bunch of in some cases significantly different versions of said page to be able to offer similar, accessible content to all users of the web (a half-dozen popular graphical browsers, text-readers, PDAs, cell phones, and more). An IT manager's nightmare, to be sure.

A few years ago (1998), the Web Standards Project was begun, with the goal of "promoting core web standards and encouraging browser makers to do the same, thereby insuring simple, affordable access for all."

Suddenly, web designers and developers were introduced to a whole new way of thinking and working, one that would eventually (hasn't completely happened quite yet) free them from the chains of having to create 14 different copies of one web site just to be compatible with the world.

That new way is centered on CSS. Using CSS, a web page contains primarily content (text, graphics and links to other web pages), and very little if any instructions about how the page should look.

"So what's the point of all this?" I hear you cry. My point is to share with you a web site that, once you understand its purpose, will blow you away.

The site to which I refer is called The CSS Zen Garden.

At this site, you'll see one, and only one, web page displayed in dozens and dozens of unique and captivating ways. Rest assured: the content of the site is the same for all versions. The only thing that is different between the pages is the Style Sheet, which tells the page how it should look.

So, go get a cup of your favorite java juice, plop down in front of your monitor, and prepare to be amazed.

After you've recovered from your amazing journey, I think you'll appreciate why CSS will someday free web designers and developers to do what they do best -- create.

Enjoy!

you've been warned

If either or both of your parents are sill alive, here's a handy tip: ask them if they've had a living trust drawn up by an honest, reputable, expert attorney in the field of trust and estate law.

If their answer is no, or is even the least bit vague, be afraid. Be very afraid.

I won't go into any gory details here, for many reasons. Suffice it to say that this is an issue with far-reaching and potentially devastating consequences.

It may not affect you today, or even a few years from now. But sooner or later, the chickens will come home to roost. And you know what chickens like to do.

Get some good books on living trust preparation. Study them. Visit some reputable legal advice Web sites and online forums. Learn what questions to ask and why you should ask them.

Then begin your search for that sometimes rare commodity, the honest attorney. (Sorry, couldn't resist -- let the flames begin.)

Don't be discouraged. It's often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.

-- Anonymous

Be sure the professional you choose is an expert in both living trust preparation in particular, and estate law in general. Don't mess around with this. Don't' be lazy. Do it right the first time, or you'll live to regret it.

Don't say you haven't been warned.

taking on the challenge

Last evening, my home Toastmasters Club was asked to take on a challenge.  So we did.  We decided to form our own Speakers Bureau.  A challenge indeed.

For those of you not familiar with the concept, Toastmasters International allows us to form groups of members into what are called "speakers bureaus."  The express purpose of such a group is to provide the local, non-Toastmasters community with, you guessed it, speakers.

Typically, you'll find an entire Toastmasters District (composed of several hundred Clubs, each with an average of 20 members) forming its own speakers bureau.  A huge pool of talent from which to draw polished presenters, and loads of expertise in marketing said wares to the community.

So how can our little Club (presently sporting a total membership of 18) jump into such a large pond and expect to make anything more than the tiniest of ripples?  Simple, I suppose.  We start.

Under the capable direction of Competent Toastmaster and professional speaker Lee Pound, we'll start.

Lee has spent several weeks building us up to this point, telling us that each has a unique message to offer to others, that we can, in fact, "do it," and that if we prepare properly, speaking in public is a fairly predictable and even enjoyable pursuit.

Last night, after luring us into his well-crafted web, he sprang the trap:  "Your next step is to form a speakers bureau."  And we bit.

I, for one, am anxious to see what kind of lineup we can offer to our local organizations and service clubs.  We're in for a very interesting year, that's for certain.

Giving that first speech at our own home Toastmasters Club was a giant step out of the box for most of us.  Over the months and years, that box has grown tremendously in size, but we're still inside.

Time for another giant step.  Time to take on the challenge.  Film at eleven.

staying connected

Thanks to the folks at Google, owners of this free service, I'm taking the next step in interactive communications -- creating my own blog.

My hope is that you will benefit in some way from the sometimes random thoughts bouncing around in my head. If you do, please let me know, and if you don't, I'd appreciate hearing that, too. My aim is to be of service to you, my relatives, friends and acquaintances.

I'll publish my thoughts here on a more or less regular basis, so please check back often. Your input will help me to serve you better (my previously stated goal).

The inaugural topic? Staying connected. How appropriate.

More important than anything else in life (from a secular perspective, anyway) is the need to get and stay connected -- to people, not places or things. Without people, life would be, well, lifeless.

When we experience some success or some tragedy, what's the first thing we want to do? That's right -- tell someone about it. Sharing our hopes, fears and dreams with other human beings validates our own existence (sounds corny, but it's true).

Now to the other side of the coin -- being the receiver of that desire to share. Uh-huh. Not quite so easy sometimes, right? But vitally important in staying connected. Being a sympathetic, patient listener is a skill we should work hard at developing every day of our lives.

A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.

-- Wilson Mizner (1876 - 1933)

Find someone today with whom you can connect. A relative, a friend, an acquaintance -- even a perfect stranger if the situation presents itself. And when you do, ask them about their day. Then listen to them. That's all, just listen. If you're sincere while you're listening, they'll know it, and you'll have a friend for life. Guaranteed.