A paradigm shift

A paradigm shift has to be made when all is not the same any more, for whatever reason.

I was thinking the other day of the paradigm shift required as one grows older and objectives can't be the same as they were when he was younger. Well, that is the paradigm shift I write about in this chuckothoughts. I am now 69, which causes need for thinking differently - about a lot of things - than I did 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

For example, I used to think a lot about trading cars (and buying trucks) and houses and such. Just sign on the line and pay for it in time. That was some time ago for sure. The last new thing I bought was a new truck. It was (and still is) a nice truck - a 2004 Chevrolet Silverado, with about 70,000 miles.

I financed that truck for five years. I bought a policy that paid it off if I died, so Clema would not be burdened with a payment. I was confident this was a good move. Well, it is about paid for - another four payments left. Clema will not be burdened with a payment on that truck we both call "Fred."

Now, just five years down the road, it is a bit different. If I traded it off for a new one and financed for five years, I am less sure I would be able to pay it off in my life time. Certainly, I am not in health to be able to buy insurance to pay it off. While I might make it another five years, if I don't, Clema gets saddled with a truck payment, unless there are funds somewhere else. So, this causes a paradigm shift. Not a good idea at this point to finance a new truck. Better off to look to a financial position where I can just buy one if I want one.

The other shift in thinking for me is in trying to get the house paid for, so Clema will not have that to pay for by herself. That means funds need to be more dedicated in the direction of reducing the mortgage. That is a paradigm shift, too, that comes to me later in life, one that I did not think much about before. Before, there was a life time to pay for a house. Now, that life time has to be shorter than it used to be.

My point: there does come a point in life where one needs to think differently than they did in a younger age. I am there! This is the point at which one stars drawing in rather than extending out, if I may put it that way. I now know more that that is a part of life.

I am comfortable with this change in priorities. There are a lot of things good about growing older. Being more realistic might indeed be one of them.

So, I am at a point of a needed paradigm shift. That is not bad. It just is.

How about health care?

Our nation is always divided on something. Now it is health care. Sometimes I think I have never heard it so mean between opponents to issues. Then I think of Civil Rights, Dr. Martin Luther King, the election of 2001, Watergate, of Vietnam, of Woodstock, of Dot Coms , Clinton's haircut. You name it. Every issue has sides, and the sides are usually fiercely opposing each other. What has been still is.

My hospital stay

As Rodney King said, "Why can't we just be friends" (wasn't it he?).

Lines have been drawn in the sand before. No need to wish they were not. There are times when the right (and I mean right) must just press on. Seek consensus, but when the day is done, do what is right, and move on.

We need changes. Too many people cannot get insurance. What is available is going out of sight on cost. Too many people with pre existing conditions have to pay way too much if they can get coverage at all. The Public Option will have to be there.

Hopefully, for me, this is the year.

It is not that I need change. I am pretty well off, thank you. But I am concerned about those who need help, and I don't look on that as a bad position. We must be concerned as a nation about those who have needs. Still.

So I am in hope that after all is said and done a bill can be advanced and the President will sign it.

We need more peace

We are living in a very unpeaceful world, I'd say. Too much anger out there, and sometimes it is mine. Thing is, peace is so much better than un-peace. That is what we need to know.

I brought a sermon recently on The Joy of Forgiveness. That topic came to me via a church bulletin I get from a friend. The meat of the topic was the great danger one does to their mental and physical bodies by not practicing more forgiveness. And, of course, being a church bulletin, it talks about the necessity of forgiveness as a follower of God, the great forgiver.

This is not to say that some things do not need correcting by offenders. They do. But our growing in hate and frustration does not solve anything. It only makes us feel bad. It might be that we cannot do anything about the offender, but we CAN do something about how we think about it, and that is where it gets into The Joy of Forgiveness.

We could name so many things that happen personally where this lesson is needed. The reader can likely reflect on his or her life and list a bunch, too.

The message is we can feel a lot better, we can enjoy life a lot more, we can live at peace a lot better by being more forgiving. We can actually enjoy life more if we would stop hating offenders so much. Who knows, if we acted better, and were more forgiving, the offenders might learn something. They might want to live like us. Who would want to live like us if we constantly are in turmoil? Makes sense to me.

So....we do need more peace in our lives. Husband to wife, wife to husband, brother to sister, and vice a versa, friend to friend, and fellow man to fellow man. All kinds of relationships exist where this can be applied. And we don't want to forget employee to employer, to think of one more.

Want peace? Work at being more forgiving! Yes, that works.