By Tyler ~ L uckily, I was not born into a religious family! However, I was born into a family that lived around religious Catholics and Jews. Oh no! When going to school with people who were primarily Jewish, I was ridiculed all the time and heard their silly jokes to each other, which I never understood. They were all well dressed, totally materialistic and did not make sense to the rest of us who did not grow up with their religion. One actually came to my house, stole something and tried to put the blame on me. Then we called his mother. She tried to blame it on us too! Same thing happened to my sister: false accusations. I think they secretly think everything belongs to them, much like their Catholic and Christian enemy/brothers. Anyway, I eventually went to a community school with a Roman Catholicism class. Uh Oh! I was sitting in the first seat in front of the teacher and he immediately looks at me and tells me, "Come out of her my people." I did not say a wor

By Webmdave ~ I retired a couple years ago and people are still asking me what I do with all my time. Responding I am working on personal improvement seems to assuage most curiosity. What I am tempted to tell them is I spend my time the same as everyone: living life.  It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested...  ― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life Until recently my mindset resembled that of my inquisitors. I believed that a person who spends the day playing video games or watching television is wasting time. Further, I believed that if a person isn’t actively pursuing a goal such as career advancement, acquiring a degree, travelling the world, etc., then they are also just wasting time. In fact, spending time doing anything not measurably productive could be labeled a waste of time. Someone I know, when she is off wo