Received in Email: Philosophy of Old Age

Gracian Tells Good Looking People to Tone It Down

Here's an excellent article from Yahoo Finance on the efficacy of good looking people putting their photos on their resumés. It says that good looking men should include a picture, while good-looking women should leave theirs off. The reason: because young women are doing the resumé screening, that's why.

Gracian has some interesting advice for the good-looking as well, and it's more in line with the attached study's advice to women than to the men.

Three Views of the Nature of Reality

"Take control of your inner state, 

Change the illusion you create."

Consciously or unconsciously, everyone holds a particular view of the nature of reality. The above aphorism is either compatible with or in conflict with the view of reality that you hold.

If you believe, for example, that we live in a material world governed solely by the cold logic of the law of cause and effect, then the above statement will seem utterly ridiculous to you.

If, however, you choose to view the world as essentially an illusion in which human beings participate in the ongoing creation of a universal illusion, then the above statement will make perfect sense.

A Word on Forgiveness this Festivus Season

We shouldn't be surprised when those closest to us engage in unconscious (negative) behavior. They are generally no different from everybody else in the world, no matter how much we may love them. And we're all at varying levels of awakening after all.

(Photo: Frank Costanza, from Seinfeld, the Festivus airing of grievances, courtesy of Sony Pictures Television)

When we are surprised, that becomes our own unconsciousness, perpetuating a cycle of--to one degree or another--violence.

The only way to break this cycle is through forgiveness. They truly do not know what they are doing. If the did, they wouldn't do it, because they love you too.

Mary and Martha on Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, let's all help out in the kitchen and may all of us give our loved ones our undivided attention.

Now as they went  on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." 

The Bible, Book of Luke, Chapter 10

Happy Thanksgiving!

You might also like: Spiritual Clean-up on Aisle Five

The Reading List

These 12 books have helped me. They will help you too. Please buy one or all of the below books and actually READ IT/THEM!

If you can't afford to buy any of these books, send me an email with a request for one title along with your name and address, and I will submit your request (anonymously) to my list of 1,000 friends. No guarantees, but one of them will likely respond. At that point, I will email your name and address to that person, who will mail you a copy free of charge, no strings--just blessings--attached.

For a definitive list of Self-Improvement titles, including detailed summaries, please see my friend Tom Butler-Bowdon's website (and books): www.butler-bowdon.com

Happy reading!

You might also like: Is Eckhart Tolle a Seinfeld Fan?

Non-Reaction and Non-Violent Are Not the Same Thing

Jesus famously said that if someone slaps you on one check, you should offer him the other cheek as well. "Turn the other cheek" has long since become a catch phrase for what Eckhart Tolle and others (like the Buddha even before the Christ) call non-reaction. It's really the only sane response to violence. Anything else will only perpetuate a cycle of violence that will never end until one of the parties is either annihilated or until one of them decides, finally, to employ non-reaction.

The first key to non-reaction is internal. It means that your response isn't a knee-jerk, unconscious response to what's happened or what's about to come your way. It means that your ego doesn't take you over, causing you to act without really realizing what you're doing.

An Excerpt on Ego from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

Ego is no more than this: identification with form, which primarily means thought forms. If evil has any reality--and it has a relative, not an absolute, reality--this is also its definition: complete identification with form--physical forms, thought forms, emotional forms. This results in a total unawareness of my connectedness with the whole, my intrinsic oneness with every "other" as well as with the Source. This forgetfulness is original sin, suffering, delusion. When this delusion of utter separateness underlies and governs whatever I think, say, and do, what kind of world do I create? To find the answer to this, observe how humans relate to each other, read a history book, or watch the news on television tonight. (p. 22)

You might also like: An Excerpt from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

An Excerpt from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

Trying to become a good or better human being sounds like a commendable and high-minded thing to do, yet it is an endeavor you cannot ultimately succeed in unless there is a shift in consciousness . . .

In Hindu teachings (and sometimes in Buddhism also), this transformation is called enlightenment. In the teachings of Jesus, it is salvation, and in Buddhism, it is the end of suffering. Liberation and awakening are other terms used to describe this transformation. (pp. 12-13)

You might also like: Abundance

Dealing With the Past on the Level of the Present the Key to Beating Depression

Here is a key passage from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment:

[D]eal with the past on the level of the present. The more attention you give to the past the more you energize it, and the more likely you are to make a "self" out of it. Don't misunderstand: Attention is essential, but not to the past as past. Give attention to the present; give attention to your behavior, to your reactions, moods, thoughts, emotions, fears, and desires as they occur in the present. There's the past in you. If you can be present enough to watch all those things, not critically or analytically but nonjudgmentally, then you are dealing with the past and dissolving it through the power of your presence. You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You find yourself by coming into the present.

Depression results when we give up contact with reality, which can only be realized in the present moment, for the mental construct called the past. The past is a present moment that doesn't exist anymore, but people often continue to live in it for long stretches at a time as if it did continue to exist.

Balthasar Gracian and the Pain-body

Understanding of what Eckhart Tolle calls the pain-body has been around a long time. Here is one of Balthasar Gracian's maxims from The Art of Worldly Wisdom, written in 1637:

lxix Do Not Give Way to Every Common Impulse.

He is a great man who never allows himself to be influenced by the impressions of others. Self-reflection is the school of wisdom. To know one's disposition and to allow for it, even going to the other extreme so as to find the juste milieu between nature and art. Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement. There be some whose humours are so monstrous that they are always under the influence of one or other of them, and put them in place of their real inclinations. They are torn asunder by such disharmony and get involved in contradictory obligations. Such excesses not only destroy firmness of will; all power of judgment gets lost, desire and knowledge pulling in opposite directions. [Italics added]

What has been less clearly stated is exactly what to do about the pain-body, how to dissolve it. Tolle says you dissolve the pain-body through simply becoming aware of it. This is a two-step process.

Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success: Intentness

This article was originally published by Technorati on 19 June 2010 as a Simply Spirited/Sports feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

The position of every block in Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success is significant. None more significant perhaps than the placement of the "Intentness" block directly on top of the foundational "Enthusiasm."

Intentness, Coach Wooden wrote in The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders and Leadership "is the ability to resist temptation and stay the course, to concentrate on your objective with determination and resolve."

He also describes what Intentness is not: "Impatience is wanting too much too soon. Intentness doesn't involve wanting something."

Friendship Foundational to Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success

This article was originally published by Technorati on 15 June 2010 as a Simply Spirited/Sports feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

As I put pen to paper to write about Coach Wooden's views on Friendship, I find myself researching more heavily the legacy of Adolph Rupp, Hall of Fame coach of the University of Kentucky (my alma mater) from 1930 to 1972. The two coaches' styles could not have been more different. Coach Rupp was colorful, foul-mouthed, a scotch drinker. Wooden--the opposite.

Wooden's players seem to have universally loved him as a coach and as a man. Rupp--the opposite.

Industriousness and Enthusiasm Cornerstones of Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success

This article was originally published by Technorati on 11 June 2010 as a Simply Spirited/Sports feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

"Industriousness" is the first cornerstone of Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success. Industriousness is more than just hard work, though it necessarily includes that. In Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections, Coach Wooden writes, "I call it industriousness to make very clear it involves more than just showing up and going through the motions."

There is a right amount of preparation for every endeavor, whether you're a basketball player, a writer or a plumber. The key is the quality you put into both preparation and participation. Quality effort can only come from an emphasis on the present moment, whether in the field house or on the floor for a Final Four contest. What you are doing now is alway the only true measure of success, and only if you are doing the very best you can do in that moment.

In the coach's words, "You can work without being industrious but you cannot be industrious without word." Work plus quality equals Industriousness.

Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success - An Overview

This article was originally published by Technorati on 7 June 2010 as a Simply Spirited/Sports feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Coach Wooden's pyramid is instructive not only by the individual blocks in contains, but also by its over all structure. Every block is placed particularly.

The structure stands on a foundation, the cornerstones of which are "Industriousness" and "Enthusiasm." Simply pointing this out teaches a great life lesson. When Industriousness is combined with Enthusiasm in any venture, self-evidently, we are well along the path toward success (we will have more to say about this in a future post).

"Skill" sits at the heart of the pyramid, pointing like an arrow at its apex, "Competitive Greatness." Again, we say, "Yes!" that makes sense, without further explanation. The centrality of skill can never be discounted if Competitive Greatness is to be supported.

The pyramid is shorn up on each side by Patience and Faith.

The former is easy to understand in terms of Coach Wooden's career. He spent 17 years coaching at UCLA, developing his philosophy, before he won his first national championship. His commitment to daily improvement over time lead eventually to exponential success that ended only when he retired. Patient, daily improvement as a coach, like compounded interest, paid off to a degree that even Einstein could not quite have gotten his mind around.

A Series on Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success a Fitting Eulogy

This article was originally published by Technorati on 6 June 2010 as a Simply Spirited/Sports feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

If you seek truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, CXLIX

God wishes to say a few words in epitaph about John Wooden and He has asked to do it through my computer.

Anyone who cared enough about the subject of this article to click on its link wouldn't be surprised by the foregoing statement. For anyone old enough to remember Coach Wooden in his prime (at 45 I just barely make this category), and for the rest who are aware of his legend, it is clear that he played, coached and vanquished mightily the simple game of basketball for one simple purpose: to show the rest of us the Way, with a capital "W."

Repeal of Impoundment Restrictions Represents Return of Balance To Budget

This article was originally published by Technorati on 29 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

"Waste not, want not," said Benjamin Franklin, one of the wisest of our Founding Fathers. An equilibrium obtains on every level when we are in spiritual balance. Balance is as necessary collectively, in our government, as it is individually.

Yet waste and budget bloat has become one of the hallmarks of the government Ben Franklin helped create. How did that happen?

One word: Impoundment.

Abundance

Here are a few more pictures from the Arboretum in Lexington, Kentucky, my hometown. (See also Eckhart Tolle Says Flowers are the Enlightenment of Plants for more pictures of the Arboretum). Be sure to click on the pictures to get some incredible resolution.

This is an excerpt from Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose:

"The source of all abundance is not outside you. It is part of who you are. However, start by acknowledging and recognizing abundance without. See the fullness of life all around you. The warmth of the sun on your skin, the display of magnificent flowers outside a florist's shop, biting into a succulent fruit, or getting soaked in an abundance of water falling from the sky. The fullness of life is there at every step. The acknowledgement of that abundance that is all around you awakens the dormant abundance within. Then let it flow out.

Eckhart Tolle Says Flowers are the Enlightenment of Plants

I hope you enjoy these pictures from the Arboretum in Lexington, Kentucky, my hometown. It's one of my favorite places. I go there as often as I can. Be sure to click on the pictures for some incredible resolution.

If you read Eckhart Tolle Says Birds are the Enlightenment of the Animal Kingdom you had to know this was coming. Now if only I can find some precious stones laying around I'll have the trifecta.

"Using the word 'enlightenment' in a wider sense than the conventionally accepted one, we could look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants," Tolle writes in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.

"When you are alert and contemplate a flower, crystal or bird without naming it," says Tolle, "it becomes a window into the formless. There is an inner opening, however slight, into the realm of spirit. This is why these three 'en-lightened' life-forms have played such an important part in the evolution in human consciousness since ancient times."

Tao Urges Non-reaction to North Korean Provocation

This article was originally published by Technorati on 25 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Tensions are mounting along the DMZ between North and South Korea now that the latter has determined that a North Korean submarine took out one of its warships with a torpedo.

This is an act of war, without question. But no act could be more ripe for non-reaction than this one.

Bloomenthal's Vietnam Pretense Contrary to Tao

This article was originally published by Technorati on 24 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Out-going Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) offered some bland words of support today for his would-be Democratic successor, Richard Bloomenthal.

"I can't think of a better legacy I can have in the Senate than to have Dick Blumenthal follow me in that job," Dodd said, speaking to reporters in Hartford.

Dodd's statement comes in conjunction with Bloomenthal's cursory apology for pretending to have fought in Vietnam.

Rand Paul's Views on Civil Rights Act Not in Keeping with the Tao

This article was originally published by Technorati on 21 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

In a previous post, we detailed 8 Rules for Governing a Country from the Tao te Ching. There are at least 19 in all, along with other good advice of a general nature.

With election season in full-swing, it might be helpful to voters to have a guide for candidates based on their adherence to the Tao. And who better to start with than a candidate from my home state of Kentucky, Rand Paul, the much heralded would-be Senator backed by the Tea Party.

Paul is certainly welcome to his views, but his Libertarianism seems to have gotten the better of him just one day past his unexpected primary victory. He holds a stringent view of private property rights which stands at odds with the almost universally revered Civil Rights Act of 1964.

While purporting to agree with nine of the ten titles under the Civil Rights Act, he stands by past statements in which he has said that the title applicable to discrimination by private business entities tramples property rights and should have been modified.

This video is 10 minutes long. Maddow can't seem to believe that a person she clearly likes personally could be this inept as a politician, and she gives him extra time to hang himself. Which he does.

Is Rand Paul a racist? Absolutely not. Almost as bad for a politician, he's an ideologue.

Vatican Seems Unsure that God Alone Can Create Life

This article was originally published by Technorati on 21 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

According to an AP report, scientists are one step closer to artificial life. At least that's what the headline would have us believe.

In reality, what J. Craig Venter and his team of gnome-mappers have done is to create a strand of synthetic DNA and place it inside one bacterium to change it to a different type of bacterium. No small accomplishment, I'm sure, but not the creation of life, per se. One might even say, "Not even close."

What I found most interesting about this article was not the content, but the comments attached to it. Particularly one by a woman named Jen, who said, "The religious nutjobs in this world will definitely be chiming in with their nonsense. They have to make all cool things seem evil."

Tao te Ching Says Stop Sniping at Political Leaders

This article was originally published by Technorati on 20 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

President Obama's approval rating is hovering at or below 50%, which means, I suppose, that half the country or more disapproves of the job he's doing. Right-wing pundits are punditting that Tuesday's primary races signal his demise in 2012. Others are taking potshots at him for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, calling it his Katrina.

Left-wingers did this to Bush for eight years. Right-winger did it to Clinton for eight years before that. Perhaps there's a better way.

8 Rules for Governing a Country from the Tao te Ching

This article was originally published by Technorati on 20 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

According to Lao-tzu, author of the Tao te Ching, rather than sniping at new political leaders, we're supposed to teach them about the Tao. (See Part 1 of this post)

The Tao Te Ching offers specific advice for those who would govern a country. Selecting a few of these would be as good a place to start as any in educating our President.

1. "When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists." Lao-tzu's advice: don't be over exposed in the media. Don't buy into the idea that you have to be in every news cycle. Do your work, do it well and voters will remember you in 2012.

Emptiness of Space Leads to Deeper Consciousness

This article was originally published by Technorati on 19 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

The numbers are staggering--no, not even staggering, more like incomprehensible. When they start talking about half a billion light years from earth and a mass equivalent to a billion suns, one gets the impression that they're just making this stuff up.

No one can comprehend it, no matter how big-brained.

But according to the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, that's the distance from Earth and the mass of a supermassive black hole that has been--get this--"kicked out" of its home galaxy and is now hurdling through space in search of a new home.

Come on, stop pretending that any of this computes. Kinda makes you feel puny, doesn't it? The heavens from time immemorial have lent themselves to just this sort of philosophical contemplation of human smallness.

Eckhart Tolle Says Birds are the Enlightenment of the Animal Kingdom

One of the many things I enjoy about being back in Lexington is the natural beauty we have here. From the descent into Bluegrass Field over lush green horse farms, rendered Emerald Isle green by too much rain this spring, to the birds (and other critters) in my mom's backyard, Lexington is still a city carved into the countryside. (Be sure to click on the pictures for some incredible resolution.)

Eckhart Tolle says that birds are the enlightenment of the animal kingdom. Watch them for any length of time and it becomes difficult to disagree. (I'm not so sure about chipmunks but they are awfully cute.)

Verizon Leaves Customer's Credit Stained in Writing Off $18,000 Bill

This article was originally published by Technorati on 17 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

A couple of weeks ago we reported the predicament of Bob St. Germain, who had been unable to settle a disputed $18,000 cell phone bill from Verizon since receiving it in 2006.

Thanks in no small measure to Technorati coverage, I'm sure, we are happy to report that Mr. St. Germain is resting comfortably, his debt having been magnanimously forgiven by Verizon.

Not quite.

Yes, the $18,000 charge (previously reduced by half) has been removed from Mr. St. Germain's monthly statement, but in one last smashing bit of corporate egoism, the bill was not reduced to a normal amount or completely forgiven--it was written off as uncollectible.

This is what is known in the business as wrenching defeat from the jaws of victory. Another apt cliche might be cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

Inner Body Awareness Slows the Aging Process

This article was originally published by Technorati on 16 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Some dermatologists are now recommending moderate amounts of sun exposure based on the health benefits of vitamin D. Our skin produces Vitamin D when it's exposed to the sun. Studies indicate that most Americans have deficient levels of it.

The downside to increased sun exposure is the cumulative damage that UV rays can cause. This is why doctors recommend covering face, neck and hands while soaking in the sun for 10 to 15 minutes three times a week on arms and legs. UV rays are responsibly for most of our wrinkles as we age.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could somehow combat this aging process? Slow it down? Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle claims that we can through "awareness of the inner body."

Slowing Down the Aging Process - An Excerpt from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

In the meantime, awareness of the inner body has other benefits in the physical realm. One of them is a significant slowing down of the aging of the physical body.

Whereas the outer body normally appears to grow old and wither fairly quickly, the inner body does not change with time, except that you may feel it more deeply and become it more fully. If you are twenty years old now, the energy field of your inner body will feel just the same when you are eighty. It will be just as vibrantly alive. As soon as your habitual state changes from being out of the body and trapped in your mind to being in the body and present in the Now, your physical body will feel lighter, clearer, more alive. As there is more consciousness in the body, its molecular structure actually becomes less dense. More consciousness means a lessening of the illusion of materiality.

The Pain-Body Causes Criminals to Snap

This article was originally published by Technorati on 16 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

The Oxygen Network will premiere a new episode of "Snapped," its true crime series about women who kill tonight at 10:00 p.m. EDT (9:00 Central).

The 2004 murder-for-hire plot of Florida woman Karen Tobie (attention: spoiler alert if you click this link) is the subject of tonight's installment of the series, in its eighth season, that claims all female killers share a common trait: "At some point, they all snapped." Thus the title.

This is likely true on some level for men who kill as well. Be that as it may, where does this impulse come from? Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle says that violence in general arises when people lose touch with "their natural state, the joy of life within."

Warren Buffett's Son Says Values Helped Him Remain Normal

This article was originally published by Technorati on 10 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Apparently, Peter Buffett, the 52-year-old son of billionaire Warren Buffett has managed to breakout of the stereotype set for him by growing up to be rather normal.

Of course, anything north of self-absorbed drug addict would probably suffice as a breakout life for one born into such wealth, ironically enough. But that's far from Peter Buffett's reality.

Publicizing his new book, called Life is What You Make it: Finding Your Own Path to Fulfillment, he says that his parents taught him "values" that kept him out of trouble and, well, helped him find his own path to fulfillment.

No More Scientology Ads, Please

I'm sorry, I really don't wish to be negative, but I'm just not comfortable with Scientology advertising on my blog. This is an effort to keep them from doing that. See the link to an interesting video below.

I don't know what you see, but on my computer, Scientology.org keeps advertising on my blog. I don't have much control over the ads Google puts up, so I thought I'd write a blog entry that might keep Scientologists from advertising here.

For a good source of information about Scientology, check out good old Wikipedia. Follow the links. It's truly fascinating.

From one the of these Wikipedia links:

The Bridge to Total Freedom, or simply The Bridge for short, is the Church of Scientology's guide to members of how to advance expensively in the church through auditing and other services. The Bridge is explained by a chart that shows the levels one must pass through to reach Clear and ultimately, Operating Thetan. . . . The Bridge costs roughly $300,000 US.

Any religion can't be all bad if it motivates its practitioners to generate $300,000 in discretionary spending, can it?

3 Spiritual Rules for Dealing With Customer Service Reps

This article was originally published by Technorati on 9 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Last week I expounded on the unconsciousness of large corporations as an element of reportage about an $18,000 bill Verizon sent to one of its loyal customers.

Our coverage of the subject would remain incomplete if we did not consider the flip side of this selfsame relationship, the costumer's responsibility when dealing with large corporations.

While an $18,000 bill is best left to a trained professional--an attorney--smaller amounts don't warrant such treatment. So it's up to us to deal with the frontman (or woman) of virtually all large corporations, the lowly customer service representative.

Observance of three spiritual rules will help you achieve your desired outcome in both a material form and at the deeper level of personal growth.

Scientology Demystified-The Ultimate Business Model

This is not a pro-Scientology article.

If you wanted to make a lot of money what would you do? First, come up with a product or service that everyone wants. Second, find a way to be the only company that can market the product or service. Third, find a way that you can legally pay no taxes on the money you make.

Scientology, the creation of L. Ron Hubbard, has figured out how to do all three. And it's a very old business plan he put into action.

The product is enlightenment. Who wouldn't want that? Inner peace, right? Joy? No fear of death? Scientologists call enlightenment "clear."

Corporate Ego Compels Verizon to Charge $18,000 for Data Download

This article was originally published by Technorati on 1 May 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Most of us have been there: shouting into the phone at some poor, underpaid "customer service representative" who was with us shortly. No doubt a great deal of acrimony has been exchanged in the case of Bob and Mary St. Germain over an $18,000 Verizon cell phone bill racked up by their son back in 2006. The account remains in dispute.

To be fair, the St. Germain's have a few good points. First, wireless contracts are indecipherable gibberish. Hard to argue with this one; their purpose is to confuse the customer.

Second, experts say unlimited data plans are marketed by other companies for $30 a month. Another good point. If that's the case, its hard to imagine how $18,000 could be fair a price.

Third, the St. Germains say they were unaware that they had just gone off a promotional plan under which data downloads were free. Verizon reps admit this contention, though Verizon claims the St. Germains were duly warned of the expiration of the promotion when the patriarch of the family renewed his wireless contract with the company a short time before the bill came--nothing like a reverse signing bonus, is there?

Word didn't make it to their son, however, who continued to download songs at a respectable clip.

For Self-Mastery Forget About Free Will

From Tao Te Ching, Number 48:

True mastery can be gained

by letting things go their own way.

It can't be gained by interfering.

What is Lao Tzu talking about here?

As if it were riding in a carriage or wagon, our consciousness rides on our body's innate intelligence, which is hardwired to Universal Intelligence. Learning to observe all that happens in us, through us and around us is true mastery. Attempting to intervene in what's happening--what our bodies, our carriages, are doing beneath us--is not mastery, it's interference.

The Three Flavors of Personal Finance Advice

This article was originally published by Technorati on 30 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

U.S. News offers some great money management advice in a recent article called 8 Questions for the Constantly Broke. Advice about money fits generally into three categories: practical, philosophical and spiritual. Most articles like this one focus on the practical without addressing the other two.

Practical Practical financial advice focuses on one question: how can I live within my means? Most, including the U.S. News article, recommend things like skipping daily latte's, buying used cars instead of new and reminding us that we're earning now not just for now but also for future rainy days and retirement. They preach that we should not be stupid with our money, in other words.

From Russia Without Love 2: A Textbook Example of Addictive Behavior

I was beginning to feel a bit like one of the Volga Boatmen running back and forth to the Russian Embassy in Rome. Another day there, a little more suffering. A little more suffering, a little more insight. I'm living a Dostoevsky novel, apparently--The Idiot, perhaps.

Check out this video to get the full flavor of my morning:

The Vice Consul was unaware when he sold me the 95-Euro visa that the new computer system at the consulate could not be coaxed into issuing a visa on a passport that had less than six months to live. It was an honest mistake. "So since it was your honest mistake," I asked politely, "hows about a refund?" The response was a resounding "Nyet."

On the brighter side, it looks like I will get most of my money back on my apartment reservation and air fare. The airfare requires some sort of documentation from the Russian Consulate for a full refund. Stay tuned for "From Russia Without Love 3."

Hot on the heels of yesterday's pain-body attack, I managed to remain conscious throughout all of this bad news, laughing off the visa's final death knell.

But on the way home, I'd had enough. I needed to take some personal time, do something just for me. That's where the addictive behavior came in.

Brown's Tirade Days Before Vote a Lot Like Susan Boyle

This article was originally published by Technorati on 28 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Anyone remember Susan Boyle? Of course you do. She's an international recording star now. England's Prime Minister Gordon Brown is showing shades of Boyle in the run-up to general parliamentary elections one week from today--and I'm not talking about his baritone pipes.

The parallels are uncanny: just days before an important vote, Boyle popped off at a couple of reporters in a hotel lobby, and it cost her the crown. But at least she had the decency to tell them what she thought of them to their faces.

Today, Gordon Brown on the campaign trail in northwest England popped off at a potential voter, and a sympathetic one at that. After the woman held forth on taxes, the national debt and immigration--all the usual stuff--Brown got into the back of his limo and rode away . . . with a hot lapel mic still in place.

From Russia Without Love: A Textbook Example of a Pain-body Attack

Ah, Mother Russia! Source of so much suffering! Add me to her long list of victims.

I've been planning a week-long trip to St. Petersburg, my final excursion before returning home to the U.S. I went last week to the Russian Embassy in Rome to apply for my visa. I was in line by 6:30 a.m., as my friend advised me to do. He said on the day he applied for his visa, he was second in line at 5:30 a.m. and the consular officer saw only two people that day.

"And if you think Neapolitans are bad at standing in line," he said. "Wait 'til you see the Russian ladies at the Embassy."

So I was prepared for any eventuality and I went into this adventure with low expectations. Especially so after recently returning through Rome from a trip to the UK. While waiting in line for an Italian Carabinieri to pretend to look at my passport, a large group of Russians flooded the lines from all angles, men, women and children, pretending not to notice anyone who had been waiting for a good long while in this lengthy queue.

Designer Jeans are Extensions of Ego

This article was originally published by Technorati on 27 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Is this a joke? $345 for a pair of jeans! Some of us are hopelessly out of touch.

In a recent Good Morning America segment, reporter Marysol Castro detailed an extensive scientific, double-blind, peer-reviewed (not) study pitting a $29 pair of jeans from Old Navy against a $200 pair from Sacks Fifth Avenue. We got a glimpse of one price tag that read $345.00.

One woman claimed to have 2000 pairs of jeans in her closet. And later, Elle Magazine's Fashion News Director, Anne Slowey, actually said, "Most people are charging around $200, so you definitely want to get as much value out of that investment as you can."

No, four shares of Wal-mart will run you about $200, that's an investment. Unless you're name is Levi Strauss, denim is not an investment. Does that woman with 2000 pairs of jeans in her closet realize that at a going rate of $200, she's pissed away several pairs of Sex-and-the-City level designer shoes and handbags? Probably not. ($400,000 for those of you keeping score at home.)