Tag Archives: Mental Health

To Thine own Self be True…#2.

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Shakespeare’s famous quote from Hamlet was “This above all, to thine own self be true.” What was Shakespeare talking about? And why be true to yourself?  King Solomon talked about the same subject. He said, What was before, shall be again…there is nothing new under the sun. Evil is not just for one period in history. People have lied and betrayed others since the beginning of time. Shakespeare wrote a whole play about betrayal. It’s called a tragedy because everyone died because of betrayal.

We have all known people who have lived a lie. It is a sad situation where they believe how they are living is the truth. But it really isn’t. Everything they are doing is a lie. You want to shake them up and show them that they need to wake up. But they are deceived and believe the deception. For the most part people are the same. They may have different backgrounds. But people are basically the same. We were born with parents. We need to be reared and taught how to live. We learn a skill or job to be able to eat, clothe ourselves and have a home. We learn the language of our parents. And if we are fortunate, we learn other languages. We do so to go out into this world and communicate with others. When we do we find that people have different beliefs than we do. It seems that their truths aren’t the same as ours. If we don’t have strong belief system, things can become complicated. I have seen people switch their beliefs to other cultures. I don’t have to defend myself. I know who I am and where I am going. I know where I will end up. I am being true to myself. Because 45 years ago, I was drifting through time. I had no anchor and didn’t belong anywhere. Now I have a worldwide family and I belong. To Thine Own Self Be True.

Crain Blanchard.

www.joseph1637.com

joseph1637@juno.com

Soliloquy

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I don’t always know what I am going to do. I think to myself I do this or that. What is the best way to write a blog? What if people don’t like what I write? It is like Hamlet said, “To be or not to be, that is the question. Am I going to write about myself or do I choose another topic? I have always heard people say, publish or perish. I guess it is true. If I am not out there, no one can read it. But I don’t want to put anything stupid on the page. I want to make my work make sense. I can remember as a younger man, people looking at me side-ways because I didn’t make sense. What I said or wrote was disconnected from people in the world. It may have had to do with the dyslexia I had. It took a long time to work it out in me. I know that is why I went to college and studied communication. All through life I have had many experiences that has led me to writing. I started writing in college. I took an English course on the meaning of words. We broke the word apart and saw its meaning and where it came from. Also I took a business course on letter writing. To be able to convince people to purchase anything. Learning vocabulary and how to use the words effectively was the end result. I am a word meister of as they say in the vulgar or common language. I like the 50 cent words but don’t always have room for them. I have always tried to be concise with my blog. Information doesn’t have to be wordy. Look what Lincoln did at the Gettysburg address. He say in 267 words what the orator said in 2 hours. So I think about what I am going to say. Then I write it down so it makes sense and hope that it relates to people in this world. I am not Shakespeare, but this is a soliloquy.

Crain Blanchard.
http://www.joseph1637.com
joseph1637@juno.com

Disconnected: Covid style…

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I have been watching as people swing from one thing to another. Since 2000, there has been a series of disasters that have modified people’s opinions and actions. In 2000, Presidents Bush and Clinton began raising money for the disaster in the Indian ocean (the Tsunami). They raised millions of dollars for the American Red Cross. People still had disposable income. Then in 2001, the US was attacked on 9/11. President Bush landed in Shreveport at Barksdale AFB to begin to direct the US government from there. Churches began to fill up as people saw the uncertainty of their lives. As President Bush stepped up and took control of the situation, the churches began to empty. Then came the 10 years of fires in California and other states. This disrupted our food supply and prices began to rise. Then came Hurricane Katrina and the shutting down of New Orleans and the port. It cost billions of dollars. Most of all the grain in America is shipped through the port of New Orleans. Then Hurricanes Ike and Gustav that hit Texas and severely damaged the Oil industry. Which meant the further lost of money and rising food cost. Then there were tornadoes in the middle western states. Let us not forget the recession of 2008, when major industry in the US began to collapse. Also, lets us not forget the on going droughts in the western states and the bird flu, which the US government had to kill millions of chickens. Food prices went up and up.

There has been a major disaster every year in the US since 2000. Which further reduced our disposable income. Then in 2020, Covid-19 hit our country. Our health system was blind sided. They were not prepared for a world wide pandemic. Our government overreacted to the problem. It was like watching chickens with their heads cut off. It was total chaos. They didn’t get their act together until the pandemic was almost over. Hundreds of thousands people died during the pandemic. Businesses shut down and everyone was quarantined at home. I don’t know the exact of amount of money that was lost from 2020 until the end of Covid-19. But it is certain that billions, if not trillions of dollars were lost. During this time, people became disconnected from one another, the community, the state and our national government. What it produced is depression and anger. Now days you can go online and find a psychologist to help solve any problem you have. Yet people are still disconnected.

We are social beings and need social interaction to maintain good mental health. If we separate ourselves from all other humans, our behavior becomes abnormal. It is because of our disconnection to other people. I know that we can’t get alone with everyone. But we can try conform to the social norms. This will help our feelings of disconnection and help to correct mental health issues. I am not saying that you have to conform to all the social morays. I have been living for 75 year on this earth and do not conform to all the social morays. But I like to talk to people, to see who they are. I like to do things for people to help in some small way. It makes me feel good about myself, that I am not social, pardon the expression, moron. I am not a social butterfly nor am I so introverted I don’t speak to anyone. The joy in my life is seeing people smile and to feel joy. This is where we become connected to each other and can feel good about ourselves.

Crain Blanchard.

Joseph1637@juno.com

Joseph1637.com