Some thoughts on pride:

1. My religion and many of the world’s great religions say pride is something to be avoided.

2. A person who cannot accept criticism or openly discuss their faults is often looked at as insecure and/or arrogant.

3. If I went around excusing/ignoring my failings by pointing out where I had succeeded my friends, family, and coworkers would think very highly of me.

The statements I just most people would read and agree with.  However we are taught to be proud of our country.  We do not accept criticism openly and we are so quick to brag about spreading goodness and beating the nazis that we don’t take the time to address our failings.

America is the best country in the world.  It could be even better if rather than pointing out its successes it instead made efforts to correct its failings.  Great individuals strive constantly to improve often in areas where they feel they are the weakest.  Why should a great country be any different?

On a slightly different note… I would make the point that “God Bless America” is nearly as offensive as “God Damn America”… Hold On!  I know that sounds crazy but take a minute… shake out all of the preconceived notions in your head.

God does not mix with politics and God does not mix with national sovereignty.  Do you believe heaven will have politics or nations (in the traditional sense)?  I do believe in God but my God does not care about government only the individual.  Statements of God Bless and God Damn both seem rather presumptuous especially when you consider who you are dealing with. 

Finally, next time you hear the song “God Bless America” really pay attention to the lyrics.  Do you think they glorify God?  I think they glorify the country.  If putting country before God is not the ultimate sign of pride I do not know what is.

Other updates on the goal front:

I haven’t been volunteering the past two or three weekends but I have been working in the yard a good deal.  Still a lot of work to do but I am still getting used to this adult/home ownership stuff.

Work is going well.  I feel like I can stick it out in my current job at least 6 more months however I have been keeping my eyes and ears open for different opportunities internally.

I like sleep too much and I stay up to late however I have been a bit better at getting up earlier.

Reading is a tough one for me.  I read a ton daily but it is mainly blogs and articles.  The good thing is that many of the blogs and articles are fairly thought provoking (not just sports stuff or entertainment news, or even crap like news network stuff)  The bad news is that I have really lowered my tolerance to reading long books and I also feel as if I am getting my reading fix.

I have not been a complete failure however… one of my unpublished goals was to be able to play a simple song on the piano by next year.  I am happy to report that I have been practicing piano a fair amount and at this point would say that goal is on schedule.  Also, my wife and I have our tickets to Austin City Limits so I am doing pretty well on the concert front too.

Well talk to you in a month or two… ha… haha… no seriously I am going to try to be better

One of the first things the author asks the reader to do is write down their goals.  Apparently people who put their goals to paper typically outperform their peers.   Certainly, major problems exist with the “written goals = success” logic, but there can’t be any harm in trying, right? Some of my newly inked goals are as follows:

• Read 40 books in 2008 (one of my forthcoming posts will cover the tentative list)
• See 3 rock concerts in 2008 (This, while not overly ambitious, will likely be harder than it sounds)
• Make it to the gym at least once a week
• Continue volunteering at the local animal shelter and make efforts to branch out into other volunteering… speaking of good deeds I thought this was a terrific story
• Get up 10-30 minutes earlier during the week
• Get into a different deparment with my current employer or find a different job

and finally…

• Blog!  Regularly!  Aren’t you lucky?

You know how certain songs seem to fit perfectly with certain attitudes?  This song fits my current attitude on life.  It conveys the frustration of being in an undesirable position but it does so in a fun and self -depricating manner (at least that is my take on it).

For the past several months it has been clear that I need to do some things differently if I ever want to be on top in this world.  Until I am on top, ”Not On Top” will serve as my unofficial theme song.

Please enjoy the video: