by

Lessons of Life…

Regina Brett, 90 years in age of

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio…Listed 45 lessons that life has taught him.

Below are 15 of my favorite…

  1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
  2.  Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
  3. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
  4. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
  5. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
  6. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
  7.  Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
  8.  It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
  9. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, and wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
  10. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
  11. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
  12. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
  13. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
  14. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
  15. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
by

Realism Idealism

Realistic :

  • Mansfield, Texas approx. 80,000 people
  • Average household income is approx. $126,000.00 per year.
  • Approx. 92% of the working population travel elsewhere to work.
  • They moved here (and travel to their work) because they chose to live in a suburban neighborhood with good schools to raise a family  away from the high-density, traffic and crime of Ft. Worth / Dallas.
  • Those people and the residents before us have established who we are today and paid the price to be…”Minutes from Everything and Second to None.”

Idealistic :

  • To increase population to 150,000 on 25% of the land that hasn’t been developed and add other amenities to accommodate that growth without destroying what has made us unique. Not possible.
  • To bring the majority of those individuals back to work here…that chose to be away from their work? Unrealistic.  
  • To have world-class amenities (not sure exactly what that means).
  • To be “everything to everyone.” Not possible

Growth is inevitable…but the right leadership should focus on making decisions to support what has made us desirable. The wrong growth will eventually drive the current population elsewhere…history will repeat itself if we don’t learn from it.  

by

Reduced to the Ridiculous…for interpretation

“A strategy used by breaking down what has been said or shown into a more simplified understandable illustration…if possible.”

In short …a method of taking “rambling misunderstandable rhetoric” and evaluating it to an understandable explanation…if there is one.

Example:

If you go the top of a mountain which is 36,000 feet and stand on the edge of a cliff and calculate that it would take 38 seconds to reach the bottom  traveling at 97 miles per hour if you should decide to jump…what would be the end result at impact?

Reduced to the Ridiculous…If you jump off a 36,000 ft. cliff…you will be dead when you hit the bottom…the end result.

Rambling misunderstandable rhetoric is usually for the benefit of the person making the presentation…to show superiority, misrepresent, or to confuse one not to challenge the content.

Never be afraid to challenge “rambling misunderstandable rhetoric”.

by

“It Just Wasn’t My Time”… 2018

A few months ago I experienced an unexpected episode…Cardiac Arrest.

People often use the terms heart attack and cardiac arrest as interchangeable, but they are not synonyms.  In cardiac arrest the heart rhythm causes the heart to stop beating.  Without quick treatment, it causes sudden cardiac death. The national average survival rate is a little over 10% and survival with good neurological function is little more than 8%.

I wasn’t familiar with the information above until after my episode…”I am one lucky guy”.

I can honestly say that my wife loves me…otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.  In the middle of the night she noticed that I was moaning but not breathing…she immediately dialed  911, and with the instructions on the other end of the phone she begin to perform CPR until the first responders arrived. With their training and equipment they took over and after a few minutes I was rushed to the hospital… where my wife was told of the statistics that I listed above.  If the roles were reversed I am not sure that I would have been able to deal with those words and expectations…she truly is the better half.

I was told that a series of techniques was used by the doctors and their staff to stabilize me and prepare me for surgery…at which time I received three stents in my heart.  My wife was told that the next 24 hours would be critical…and not to expect the best…if I survived.

I was in the hospital for four days…but it wasn’t until 3 days after leaving the hospital that I was made aware of what had occurred….even though I remember nothing during that 7-day period.   My wife informed me that after surgery (and regaining consciousness after the critical wait period) that I had normal conversations with friends and the hospital staff…well “almost” normal conversations…once again I had beaten the odds in regard to the neurological functions.  My “buddies” tend to disagree with that assessment.  My response to them…I went in “brilliant” and came out “normal” just like you guys.  That really is “guy humor”.

Seven days after the cardiac arrest my wife and I visited the team of first responders, doctor and the hospital staff to thank them for their help and involvement. I special thanks to the friends that reached out to my wife and gave support and encouragement…to all we are eternally grateful.

Life is a gift with an expiration date, but apparently… it just wasn’t my time.

Johnny J

Side Note:  Goggle the American Heart Association and learn more about the cause, prevention, and how to respond to someone experiencing cardiac arrest…learn CPR.