ClydeStyle

Tag: Crisis

  • Advantage: Profit and the people lose again

    Who doesn’t enjoy a good burger with fries and a cold drink? I mean, we are in the middle of summer, and there are so many places to get a burger.

    McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Culver’s, Checkers, Sonic, and Hardee’s can all give you the typical burger, fries, and drink combo. But at what cost?

    When we eat these foods, it is rare that we consider the residual effects of this choice. If we did consider it, we would not eat it. I wish all we had to worry about was the calories. A typical combo meal from any of the restaurants named would be over 1,000 calories — easily. And if we brought in carbs, fats, and sodium, you could have a heart attack just thinking about it.

    The larger chain restaurants are even worse. Chili’s, Applebee’s, Cheddars, and even Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and Outback are far worse than the fast food joints.

    The reason? They are in business to make money by any means necessary, and if that means over time, millions will suffer from degenerative diseases related to obesity — oh well!

    These restaurants are giving customers what they want. For most of us, if you put a plant-based burger with lentils, beans, and mushrooms as its base next to a quarter pound beef burger seasoned well, the choice (based on taste) would be the beef burger.

    Further, if you tell us the consequences of eating both, most folks won’t care. They will make statements like, “Well, we all gotta die of something.”

    By this same logic, why would anyone save money, buy stocks, have a 401k, or invest anything in the future? Our eating decisions will ensure we won’t be around to enjoy it.

    It is hard to blame the restaurants for making a buck, and they have the nutritional information available for everyone to see.

    In the US, there are 119.9 million people with high blood pressure and 38.4 million diabetics. Heart disease is still the number one killer in America, and 40 percent of all citizens are obese which is about 100 million. The lion’s share of this is based on what we eat. You could work out for five days and literally undo your progress over the weekend by eating at the restaurants listed.

    The Food and Drug Administration could do something about this. It controls the ingredients used. They won’t because too much money is spent treating our sickness, and too many lobbyists have dispersed checks for their silence.

    YOU have to make YOU better, or the advantage will stay with profit.

  • Immigration isn’t everybody’s issue

    If you looked up, fear mongering in the dictionary, you would see a picture of old Uncle Sam because America’s preferred use of getting a reaction from its citizens is always fear. Politicians and talking heads often want to inform the general public what they are afraid of, and lately immigration is high on the list.

    It seems that the “powers that be” like to use the “magic” approach to politics. They like to distract you with the right hand while stealing from you with the left. Today, that right hand wants us to be concerned about border security. Why?

    We are told that migrant crime is high. It is not. We are told that they will take all of the good jobs. False. Mexico is dumping its prisoners on us. There are far more women and children coming over.

    There are always going to be poverty crimes because you have poor people. So, it makes sense that poor migrants will commit petty crimes at times. The jobs that they work are definitely jobs that Americans would not take. You can tell that our government doesn’t really want to fix this problem based on the amount of help wanted signs at the border. You could leave Mexico on the right day at the right time and have a job in the US within 48 hours.

    But why is this such a big issue or better, what are we avoiding by spending the time talking about this? Well, nothing has been done about the criminal justice system. We still have people in prison for cannabis in places where it is now legal. Nothing has been done about voter suppression. There have been attempts to dump student loan debt, but nothing concrete. And let’s not even begin the conversation on reparations.

    The more we talk about immigration, the less we spend on issues that really matter. If Congress was paid based on the work they completed, our Congress would go broke.

    We must not let what matters to us die on someone’s desk in Washington. We need to make a statement with our voting and even seek even greater ways to get our positions heard.

  • Please, allow crazy to be crazy!

    As mental health awareness month comes to a close, I want to encourage everyone to empty your lives of as much drama and craziness as possible. You have been carrying it or them for too long!

    There are some lives that follow social norms and others that don’t. Although anyone can experience a trial or tribulation at any time, it seems that the more logical thinking people tend to avoid strife better.

    As for others, drama seems to follow bad decision making. It also follows bad relationships. Have you ever met someone who loves to argue? And they argue about everything. There are extreme in their thinking, they have a sense of entitlement, and they don’t seem to be happy unless they are trying to control you!

    These same people masquerade as our friend until things don’t go their way. We waste a lot of time trying to apply logic to these relationships to no avail. These people are not logical, so no logic can be used in dealing with them.

    Now, I realize that some of these people are relatives, and you’re wondering how can you abandon the family? Well, how can you keep strife around?

    My professional advice is to give these illogical people some time to miss you. Don’t make a big production about it, just easy up on your availability. You will find that living with less stress is worth it.

    A Yale University study found that chronic stress can shorten your life. Also, researchers from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare calculated the effects of multiple risk factors, including lifestyle-related ones, to the life expectancy of men and women and found that  being under heavy stress shortens your life by 2.8 years.

    Further research has shown that overreacting, constantly worrying, and living in a state of perpetual anxiety can reduce life expectancy.

    So for this cause, when someone proves to lack judgment and  be a destruction to their own life, you owe it to yourself to allow them to just be.

  • A parable of abortion

    Abortion is like unto a woman who had a horrible back itch. She tried very hard to scratch that itch for years without success. Many people saw that she needed assistance but did nothing to help her. Embarrassed, she went in the quiet and continued to try and scratch her itch but to no avail.

    Then one day someone from among the people came to her with a huge knife and starting at the base of her back he stuck in the long sharp knife and begin to gut her like a fish. The knife went in, traveled up almost to her neck and stopped. The gentleman walked away without taking it out. The woman collapsed.

    So much blood came out and she continued to bleed for decades. She bled for so long that she began to embrace the blood and appreciate the knife because although it cause a whole lot of other problems spiritually, emotionally and mentally, her back never itches anymore.

    Through those nearly 5 decades with the knife, the wound would begin to close somewhat. Somewhat because it did not heal properly. It healed simply to survive. The people never stopped arguing about the knife. No one ever talked about her itch. It was like the itch never happened and every solution that came up through group discussions all centered around the knife. There were some who thought the knife should be ripped out while others wanted to do the little things that would assist the knife in it’s purpose. Still neither side had even a conversation about the itching.

    Then suddenly after almost 5 decades in her back, the side that wanted to rip out that knife since day one got their wish and in a blink of an eye the knife was snatched out of the woman’s body and celebrated in the streets. Protest began as well and the whole process of taking sides started again.

    As you can imagine the arguments and the scenarios never changed and the true problem stayed the same. All opinions. No solutions. And the poor woman’s back starting itching far worse than it did in the beginning.

    Abortion was never the problem, it was a symptom of the problem but when symptoms are treated as problems it just creates more symptoms and no problem is solved. Likewise, when principles are given without application they make for good slogans and wonderful sayings, but help no one. And while all this is happening in a capitalistic society, someone is off to the side and in the corners profiting from another person’s misery.

    God bless America!

  • The crisis of meaning

    With all the things that have happened since 2020 begin from the beginning of the pandemic to election issues and challenges with democracy, to job creation, gas prices, police shootings and the war in Ukraine, it’s befitting that some folks would start questioning everything and having doubts about who they are, the meaning of life and overall purpose. If you are serious about life, maturity will bring you to this point where you begin to wonder whether or not you have the correct understanding of things or that you really believe what you were told growing up.

    This feeling is difficult. It’s where you begin to search for what life really means to you. This can even be dangerous at times because for some the thought process spirals out of control to the point where they actually believe in their heart that the world would be a better place without them. Some begin to suffer severe depression based on their new found discoveries about life or themselves. This is the time when reality becomes real.

    It seems that tragedy brings about these thoughts. It normally happens when you feel the world around you is closing in on you. Things begin the change around you too fast and for a long time you have not been happy. There is a word for this. It is called an existential crisis.

    Formally, in psychology and psychotherapy, existential crises are inner conflicts characterized by the impression that life lacks meaning. These conflicts will keep you up at night. They will also make you cry, feel depressed and even betrayed.

    The year is halfway over and depending how 2022 has treated you, you might find yourself dealing with this now. If you are I want to give you some tips to make it through successfully. The first thing is you need someone who you trust. This is a person who will keep your confidence and is a good listener. You DO NOT need someone to tell you want to do or what to think — this was probably the problem in the beginning. You need a guide. This would be someone who you believe is living the life you hope to have. It’s an experienced person so they wouldn’t necessarily be in your age range. Look to the immediate generation ahead of you.

    You also must be honest about your feelings. I had a client that discovered that she had quite a few relatives who were racist and that she hated those views but was conflicted because these were family members she loved. Their views were not her views but since they had the same DNA she felt that she must be racist too. It took us some time but she discovered she could pick and choose the parts of her family she loved and hated and for her to remain balanced, she had to speak out against the behavior she hated and embrace the person with love.

    The final stage is to take your time. The process could take months or years to complete. You will make progress along the way but it should not be rushed and the purpose of it all is for you to become a better you!