Thoughts

Every once in a while I feel this sense of urgency, as if there were something important to say or do that is just on the edge of my mind, just out of reach, and yet I know that it is meant to be shared and that there are people and places and things that will be affected if I don’t share it. 

I’ve had such a feeling nagging at me for the past couple of months, it will show up at the oddest times – like when I’m preparing to celebrate the holidays with my family, or look at my already full schedule with a sense of anticipation, or when, as now, I find myself called away from my evening routine to go answer the call, the feeling, the tug to do and say something more. 

What is my message?  What is the thing that I get to share at this time?  I work with hundreds of young people every week, and so perhaps the message I get to share with my audience – young and old – is about the character of the individuals who will soon be the officers, businesspeople, world leaders, and moms and dads of this world.  As one of my mentors describes it, I think I’ve “got my finger on the pulse of the planet,” and we need to know what is going on.  Here is what I’ve found:

1.       The number one concern of today’s young people is family.  This goes against the common idea that they first want to be “popular,” “successful,” or that they care more about their peer group than their parents.  Not true.  Most teenage rebellion is based on the fact that teenagers don’t know how to communicate what is going on inside of them, and their parents won’t take the time to listen.  This takes a different form and becomes more pointed when they mature.  I have had numerous conversations with college-aged men recently, in which they describe that the reason they want to get rich is to get their parents out of debt.   Most young people feel the weight of what their family is going through, and they see that the first step to fixing the world is fixing their family.  They want to help their parents

2.       Young people today are begging for – in fact, they crave – rules.  Not just any rules, however, they want rules that help them make sense out of this crazy world they live in.  In addition, they want someone who they can rely on to enforce the rules.  Want more respect from a teenager?  Make a rule, discuss why it is important, get an agreement to abide by the rule, and then stick to it.  If you miss any of these steps you are liable to lose trust. Teenagers are extremely observant, and the minute they can sense you don’t mean what you say, they feel like they have to be the one who runs the show, and they do it in a variety of ways – from rebellion to guilt to shutting down.  If you are a young person in this predicament, find a Source who you know will never change – church is a good way to go – and hold yourself to those rules.   

Part 2

So the challenge we all face with money, day-to-day, is simply this: do I choose to spend my life serving this tremendous master and slave driver, or do I choose to live the life I want, at the "risk of my life"? So many people subconsiously understand the principle behind money, yet they try to solve the dillema by earning so much that they "never have to worry about it again," or proving their virtue by pushing it out of their minds, or attempting to get back at it by criticizing "all those corrupt rich people."  None of these options, however, does much good toward the real challenge - each of these responses is still an indicator of a life that is dominated and controlled by money. 

And, how could it not be?  After all, without money, there is no life, right? 

Here is the great quandry of our modern world.  It is the great moral and social and intensely individual question that all must come face-to-face with in one way or another.  Do I trust money to give me all the things that I want and so desperately need, or is there another Source?  More than that, if there is another Source, can I receive these things without money?

Becoming New

The site is, and so am I!

Welcome to Light of Freedom, a place for me to share the things that really make my world go around, like well... light and freedom.  I am interested not only in government and world freedom, but also in the freedom of individuals like me and you.  And for me, as with Einstein, it is all about light.  I love sunrises, summer days, and Christmas lights, but probably my favorite type of illumination is the glow or sparkle that comes into a person's eyes when they see or feel or become something new, when they find a power or an idea or a strength that is part of who they really are and who they are meant to be.  That is what I spend all day every day hoping to create - the light of freedom. 

Take today's lesson, for instance.  Far too often I see people running around trying to battle the big bad enemy, the "master of the world," the "root of all evil," and everyone's nasty boss.  We let it manipulate, control, deaden and enslave us more than perhaps anything else I can think of, at least in the "free" world in the west.  We hate it, fear it, are angry at it, and spend our lives trying to get it.  You know what I'm talking about?  Dough.  Cash. Greenbacks. The Almighty Dollar.  Other US words include "gravy," "loot," and "wherewithal." (thank you thesaurus.com)

So what is the challenge about this stuff that provides us with movie tickets, ferraris, and gold watches?  Well, simply that it DOES provide those things for us, and a lot more than that.  What would we do without it?  The simple answer?  Die.  Yes, death.  Because whether we realize it or not, our subconscious brain also associates money with food, water, and shelter.  Every time we go to the grocery store, what is the common denominator? Money. When we make a house payment, what do we pay with?  Money.  Going back to its origins, we associate money with the things that will keep us alive. 

If we were to go deeper, then, we might begin to understand why money then has become such a source of such control and fear.  It may be that to truly be free in a world dominated by money, we need to have the same kind of courage that earlier people needed to face battles when conquering forces with swords and guns threatened their freedom.  What does this mean to us today, and what can we do about it?  Stay tuned...