RAY'S REPORTS

Sometimes you gotta go back to the beginning. Out of all the lessons you learn in life, I’m thinking how the first lessons have come back, to me anyways, as the most crucial ones.

Mama, Papa. I love you. Please. Thank you. These are the first words for most people. While I may have lost track of these over the years, not sure I would be alive right now if I didn’t have them. Yes parents, but I am mostly talking about manners and being cordial. Hello, Good bye, Please, and Thank You.

To take it further, at my Grandparents house they had a sign that said, “Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Many religions and spiritual teachings echo this phrasing and in my mind this should be re-titled as the Golden Law because it is seemingly the foundation when searching for deeper wisdom and knowledge and truth. It’s trippy how things from childhood re-enter your adult life. Probably because it’s what is needed now more than ever these days.

When I was growing up “earning respect” was a real thing. And if YOU had to earn respect, you start to think that EVERYONE should be working on earning respect. You soon find out that while honorable as it is, the world just doesn’t work this way. As you get older you get confused and frustrated and look for short cuts.

Judgement, gossip, envy, power trips, ego trips, etc are side effects of capitalism that I think maybe can be softened with the Golden Law. That is if we are try real hard. We’ll see. Worth a try.

My friend who is a counselor at a high school was telling me about some recent training. His job is to, “interrupt a negative life outcome.” This means that he has to purposely influence these bad kids in a positive way. He has a great job and he is good at it. That’s all I am trying to do. Not for you but for my own inner bad kid.