MSB, the resolutions I never keep always have to do with impossible feats--wanting to never yell at anyone again, exercise an hour every day, even in the rain, never waste a dime, totally turn my life around, become perfect in every way, etc. The ones that seem to work aren't really resolutions, but just spending time with myself at the beginning of the year and setting goals for the general direction I want to go in--do I want to study a particular author or philosophy in depth, travel to a certain place, clean up some messy area of my life--and figure out how to accomplish it in practical terms.
You can bore me with the power of prayer if you want to--in all fairness and equal time and everything, I certainly bore you plenty with paganism. I saw something fascinating on the news recently, where groups of church-going women were losing tons of weight not by dieting, but by praying, and naturally eating less. My own spin on this is that when people are spiritually hungry, sometimes they overeat. On the other hand, I totally disagree with the AA approach to alcoholism and drug treatment, which involves surrendering your own power to a HIGHER power. I am more of a rational recovery person, believing that everyone can do what they really want and need to do without a bunch of mumbo jumbo, when they are ready, if they realize it is up to them totally--that they create their own reality.
It sounds like you have an internal dichotomy going, where God as you understand the concept, and the Devil, are fighting for your soul. This would be terrifying to me, a real schizophrenic battle, and I suspect what parents tell children about God starts this out, especially scaring them about what will happen if they are "bad". I would look at it more simply, and say you quit smoking because it was healthier and felt very good, but it was quite difficult, and when you hit a stressful time or were surrounded by smokers, it just got to be too much and you started again, the Devil having nothing to do with it at all.
I hope you realize, Mike, that when you are watching the clock at work, waiting for a cigarette break, you are not really going nuts or becoming obscessed with time. Your body is just suffering from nicotine withdrawal, and you are becoming agitated on a physical basis, not a psychological one. I did the same thing when I smoked. After I quit, I lost my heightened concern about clock watching.
Yeah, the 49'ers are probably headed for the Superbowl again. I am not really much of a fan, but they bring big tourist dollars to San Francisco. Actually, it amazes me that San Francisco even has a professional football team, since we are so effete out here or something, but who can argue with its continued success? My own feelings are that football is extremely brutal, that it teaches children that violence is acceptable, and that football players live most of their lives in pain. I'm not an orthopaedic surgeon or anything, but I could have told you right away that it was wrong to let Jerry Rice come back so soon after his surgery.
Why can't we all do yoga instead, including everyone who is just sitting there watching the games and drinking beer and eating potato chips and dip? Then the national health would improve!!! Imagine the power of it all, if we visualized whirled peas at the same time!!! < : ) |
