Drive

I have been driving since I was 15. Before I had my driver's license, my Mom let me use her brand new 1964 Mustang so she wouldn't have to pick me up at 5:30 after football practice. I parked it next to my Driver Education teacher in the High School parking lot (true story). 

Here is a salute to all my vehicles, spliced between the images from my drive through life.

My journey home continues in 2012 on my yellow brick road.

60 Years on Earth

The official moment I declared that I have been on planet Earth for 60 years is Dec 17, 2011 at 5:26 PM. It did NOT sneak up on me. I had been thinking about my 60th for 12 months. I had a party Dec 17, 2010 to mark the first day of my 60th year and we partied on 12/17/11 to celebrate the beginning of the rest of my life. If you had known me for the past 35 years, you would question why celebrating my birthday has all of a sudden become important. Why is this particular milestone different?


This is the official moment when I cross the line from middle age to senior status. AARP moved that right of passage to 50 years old awhile back, but I'm guessing their mouths were watering looking at the potential huge membership of people in my generation and they couldn't wait to welcome us into senior-dom. Greedy buggers!

This is a great opportunity for a Robby segue. Greed and fear are the driving emotions of humans in my lifetime (probably been that way forever). Fantasy and reality also occupy a huge space in our psychology and emotions. Our being-ness is a complex system of memories, current conditions, genetics, and decisions. I decided to pry open my own time capsule, borrowing an idea from Forrest Gump. The snapshots here are part of the timeline of my existence. There is no question that "life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get."


As a kid in the 1950's in NY, my world revolved around sports. Mickey Mantle was my idol. Negative family dynamics were buried under my total immersion in baseball, basketball, football and hockey. In bed after lights out, I listened to the Knicks and Rangers on my transistor radio under the covers. I spent countless hours in our Den watching all 154 Yankee baseball games on our Sylvania black and white TV.

In the 1960's, my family issues continued, but I had a great friend at school, David. He and I made our way through Junior High and High School, dominating all sports and eventually heading off to Penn and Princeton. During the first 4 months of college, American troops crossed the boarder into Cambodia and news of the horrific events occurring in villages across Vietnam appeared on the evening news. Protests boiled on college campuses as 18-25 year olds were inspired by the lyrics of Bob Dylan and the Beatles to NOT accept the status quo.

Of course there were other distractions. I was mesmerized by the Hollywood fantasy exemplified on the silver screen by my favorite Raquel Welch. I met and fell in love with a real life beauty, my college girlfriend/cheerleader Nancy. She became my first love and heartbreak. It took too many years to recover. The rest of the 1970's were filled with coaching, teaching, and exploring the highways of the USA, and ended with me moving to Bezerkeley. 

The internal changes that brought about that transition were only realized through hours and months of therapy and a healthier lifestyle in the 1980's. No piece about my life would be complete without my taking a moment to mention my angel, my older sister Lauren. She left me seeking deeper meaning in life and wondering, "What's it all about Alfie?"


My son was born in 1986 and I found myself being a philosophical Dad. We watched parts of the Never Ending Story ever morning. It depicted a world being torn apart by evil, but emphasized the power of a small boy to find the confidence necessary to save the goodness. 

By then I had Co-Founded Hospice of Central Az and had Directed Special Olympics in Santa Cruz. Filled with the satisfaction of these good works, I set about the business of trying to make a living as a self-employed man. Although that taught me a lot, it never worked out financially. In the 1990's, I spent all my time getting in and getting out of businesses and relationships. Transitions became the signature of my journey. Fortunately I maintained my connection to truth and stayed focused on being a Dad no matter what else was shaking my reality.

In the new millenium, Americans were brought to their collective knees when 2 planes hit and took down the twin towers, claiming 3,000 innocent souls, and throwing a nation into panic and anger. These are not a good mix of human emotions and they blinded a country, making its citizens vulnerable to the twisted manipulation of the evil Dick Cheney. To puff his chest and line the pockets of his cronies at Halliburton, he lead us with lies into a war we didn't need to fight in Iraq. 

That war ended the day before my 60th birthday, in a year when humans once again found their voice. In December 2011, Time magazine named its "Man of the Year = The Protestor". This honors the courage of regular humans, mostly in the Arab world, willing to stand up and demand a change of leadership in their countries. In America the "Occupy" copycats in cities across the land, inspired by the original "Occupy Wall Street" gang had a harder time with their message and demands. It is much more complicated and harder to define what change is needed in a "free" country being run by lobbyists, financial institutions, and corrupt politicians.

It is not as simple as throwing out the long standing Dictator. Its about changing a system that was put in place gradually since Ronald Reagan. "Money gone wild" was then turned loose during the first decade of the 2000's by the Bush administration. Amongst a laundry list of bankrupting ideas, regulations were turned off and the citizens economy was laid to waste by lending cheap money to humans who could not really afford to buy houses, cars, and products on cascading credit contracts.

Where does Earth and its humans go from here? What will happen during my 60's and how will "things" be at the celebration of my 70th birthday.  Time will tell, but I have to keep reminding myself that although I have a pretty good idea about the humans I'm sharing this ride with through space and time, hope springs eternal. The ultimate battle that humans need to win in order to overcome the challenges confronting us is exemplified by these great words from Forrest, very simple man: "Stupid is as stupid does."

2012

This is my "2012 - A Year in Review." Bending my mind around what I'd like to be analyzing in the rear view mirror on 12/22/12 is an opportunity to look ahead and consider the part I might play in creating change.

1. During the 2012 Holiday season, thousands of friends, family, and strangers have purchased 5,000 copies of my new kids book "Uncle XOQ".

2. Barrack Obama has been re-elected and the Democrats have won back the House.

3. The earthquakes in SoCal, South America, and Italy, the tsunami in the Philippines, and the volcano in Iceland have killed 116,000 and has scared 7 billion humans into realizing who's the boss = Earth.

4. Apple's newest game changer has sold 50 million units in 3 months. Mine is permanently imbedded behind my ear.

5. My employer caught me recording my work day through the mini-cam I had pinned to my apron. I was streaming live 24-7 on my website. I negotiated a settlement; instead of firing me, they have agreed to accept my offer of providing one year of free training to all SoCal employees. My workshops increase individual productivity if a corporation commits 5 hours per week for each worker to focus on their well-being through exercise and education about diet, healthcare, communication, and relationship skills.

In addition, I am keeping my eyes wide open about the inevitability of all of the following if we do not continue to protest against the deceit, corruption, and manipulation of corporations and governments worldwide. 

*"Crop contamination leads to world food crisis

Honeybee population collapse spreads to other species

As deadly superbug mutation goes wild

EPA pressured to regulate pharmaceuticals in the water supply

Terrorist strike on the U.S. water supply

Evidence links vaccines and neurological disorders

Vaccine industry goes all in with new vaccines for all sorts of 'diseases'

While the medical industry claims to find cause of autism

Scandal implicates major pharmaceutical company in scientific fraud

Medical imaging scandal unfolds as older patients begin to show serious health damage from radiation via mammograms and CT scans 

Nursing home drugging scandal exposed

War on health freedom ramps up, targeting raw milk, homeopathy, and herbs

Satellites breakdown

U.S. power gird suffers catastrophic failure

Weather patterns become increasingly radicalized

Nuclear weapons unleashed in the Middle East

U.S. debt gets downgraded world investors slash purchases of U.S. debt 

U.S. plans military conflict with China over natural resources

China unleashes an army of corporate espionage hackers into western nations

Cell phone brain tumors start to appear in younger usersThe world becomes a far more dangerous place for honest citizens"*

Share this Blog Post on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links in the right hand column above. And take a moment to comment below; let us know what you are doing to create change to help us dodge Armageddon.


*www.naturalnews.com/028167_predictions_2012.html

Top Ten List

It's almost a year since I opened this Blog. On Dec. 30, 2010 I posted my "Best of 2011," offering a wish list in advance of the new year. It contained my hopes and desires, instead of the usual recap of the past offered up each December by newspapers, websites, and TV shows.

I was looking back over that list this morning and thought it would be interesting to get inside my own head, as I wonder aloud about why I wanted these things in 2011. My projections from that early Blog Post are in italics, and my current thoughts are not.

My wish list for 2011 - in the rear view mirror:

1. Trucks and SUV's are now only owned and used by people who need a truck for work or an SUV to get through snow or sand. everyone else now has a solar powered car. 

I continue to wish that humans were more logical, less egotistical, more conscious, and consumed far less oil and toys. My biggest disappointment with President Obama is that he did NOT force some of the major corporations the government bailed out to re-tool their manufacturing facilities to produce solar panels, wind generators, and all electric cars. We did not need a rejuvenated Chrysler making ghetto sedans.

2. The number of letters sent and read reached pre-1980 levels. 

Fantasy #2 reflects my wish that communication would swing back to the written and spoken word. Texting has allowed young people to express themselves in sound bites. Our national education system was built on the foundation of the 3 R's; Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. Technology has made the need for these nearly obsolete. If you understand human brain development, you know this basic reality is at the root of America's education crisis.

3. Three gov't businesses were sold to private companies and are now running efficiently: mail service, tax collection, and Congressional abuse investigations. 

The government has proven to be the worst business in America. The USPS, IRS, Pentagon, and Congress have incredibly awful track records at efficiently conducting their business. It is actually a joke to even discuss their inefficiency when we all know they are famously corrupt and mismanaged.

4. All cell phone use, TV access, and Internet browsing are bundled and costs each person on the planet a total of $50 per month; you can choose from any provider whose commercial makes you feel happy.

The companies that provide our communication, home entertainment, and internet services are some of the most profitable and greedy in the world. One quick way to help Americans manage their family budgets and to stimulate the economy, would be to regulate these industries and cap their fees. Like healthcare, we need to accept that web access, phone use, and TV viewing are an integral part of our free society and should be available to everyone at an affordable price.

5. No athlete or entertainer makes more than 1 million dollars a year and all the rest of the profits from entertainment goes to feed and provide medical care for any people that are truly unable to work due to health, disability, or lack of access to clean water, agriculture, or doctors. This program is privately run as a non-profit in which no one makes any wage or salary. 

This is one of my pet peeves. The lock-outs in the NFL and NBA collective bargaining issues in 2011 speak to my anger about the salaries paid to under-educated athletes. The greedy financial triangle created by the advertising industry, sports team owners, and the TV companies like CBS, NBC, ABC, and ESPN nauseate me as a sports purist. The concept that America is built on the principle that everyone has the right to earn as much money as possible at the expense of the 300 million other humans is revolting. My ideas are not socialist, they are human.

My next post will be my wish list for 2012. Check back soon while you enjoy your family and friends during the Holiday season. Namaste.