Testing Again
After a long hiatus through most of the summer, Duncan is getting back on track and back to training in Taekwondo. He has been working hard and practicing and is getting ready to test for his Blue belt already! Maria and I can get back on track and start training again soon as well.
I’m hoping to find a minute or two this weekend and take some photos of Duncan in his Do-Boke (uniform). With any luck, I’ll be able to post them here on the site. If I have time, I’ll try to get creative with some of the fun tools I have acquired recently. If I manage to get to this little project, I’ll post them here for all to see.
Congratulations Gene & Nikki!!
Special congratulations to our very close friends, Gene & Nikki, who are celebrating the birth of their brand new baby boy! We were visiting with some of their family at the hospital when he was born around the 8 o’clock hour. All are fine and in good spirits. Nikki was in labor for most of the day and looked very tired so we didn’t stay long last night at the hospital. Mom and baby are scheduled to come home on Thursday and Maria will be spending more time with them then. Congratulations again and we are very happy for the entire family!!
Open-Minded?
I witnessed an interesting discussion at work today. I normally don’t get involved in useless debate but this particular question has come up from time to time in other circles and I found it interesting to hear other perspectives on it. The cause of the debate was the ruling from a judge in good old San Francisco that basically tries to say that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. The discussion that evolved was really what it means for a person to be “open-minded”.
. I will save everyone reading this from having to deal with the name calling and general ignorance of those that mainly partook in the so called ‘discussion’. However, the key point that I saw in this debate was the meaning that one attaches to the phrase “open -minded”. In this debate, there were three schools of thought on the definition of the phrase, and they were:
1) In order to be open minded you must accept everything everyone else says or does, even if you disagree with it
2) Open-mindedness is simply not shutting out consideration to other people ideas but you still weigh out your options and may still stick to your own beliefs
3) Closed-mindedness is having a rigid belief structure and anything else then by default is open-mindedness. Keeping these perspectives in mind, you can probably imagine what a conversation was like amongst several people of differing opinions.
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For the sake of being thorough, I went to
Dictionary.com and looked up “Open-minded”. Following is the definition listed from the
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:
Having or showing receptiveness to new and different ideas or the opinions of others.
.Well, if we go by the definition set forth, it appears that those adhering strictly to the first and third personal positions mentioned above either don’t know or don’t care what the real definition is. Regardless of said ignorance, let’s look at the real definition and try to expand on it.
.Breaking down the definition, we start with “
Having or showing receptiveness to…”. What does that mean? I think it is pretty clear. It means you have or show the ability to consider alternate ideas or opinions. Note that it doesn’t say anything about adopting, accepting, believing, trusting, feeling, or sharing in this sentence. These are all meanings that some people try to attach to the phrase “open-minded”. Now you know that they really don’t know what this part of the phrase means. The latter part of the phrase: “…
new and different ideas or the opinions of others.” should really be broken into two more parts for further clarification. Specifically, there is a difference between an ‘idea’ and an ‘opinion’. Back to the dictionary…
.Idea: Something, such as a thought or conception, that potentially or actually exists in the mind as a product of mental activity.
.Opinion: A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof.
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Ideas are basically just thoughts; untested challenges of logic or emotion. Sometimes they are unconnected and pure, while other times they are expansions on other thoughts. An opinion is much different as it is adopted by a person as part of their belief system, regardless of the fact that there may not be any evidence or even common sense to back it up. Because of this difference, many people will view ideas in a positive light and disregard opinions all together, thus bringing us back to our original question: What is it to be open-minded?
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Based on these definitions from trusted references, it is pretty easy to determine that an open-minded person is simply one that is willing to listen, comprehend and consider what another person has to say at any given time, but is not bound in any way to give this information any legitimacy whatsoever nor should that person feel compelled to do so. It is unfortunate that there are some that claim to be the only ones that are “open-minded”, when in reality it is often those people that are perpetuating untruths and misconception about its true meaning. This all leads to the final definition for this little monologue:
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Reality: That which is left when you understand that a belief system is just a mechanism for interpreting what we cannot explain or comprehend.
Just an Update
Looking at the blog site, I realized it has been a little while since I posted anything there. I have been busy at work and home lately and have been neglecting the site. Sorry!
Overall, things are busy, which is generally a good thing. Maria and I are both leaving early in the mornings and we get home at about the same time at night – between 6:30 & 7:00. Maria squeezes in a couple of hours on the phone and computer for Nannies, Inc. before she turns in and I have been focusing on a new area of Nannies, Inc. to develop. (Stay tuned for future announcements on that new development.)
Nannies, Inc. is coming along steadily. With any luck, it will hopefully be able to replace her salary and she can devote her full time to it. She is fortunate in that she is able to answer the phone during the day while she is at work, and since 80% or more of the calls are the same thing, she has been able to take several calls per day without sacrificing her current job performance. The couple of hours at night is primarily devoted to computer work and sending out applications, which isn’t very exciting work after a full day. Just the same, it is the price for the choice of running your own business and she really wants it to be successful.
As my job calms down where I am currently employed, I will be able to help out more with Nannies, and eventually develop a part of the business that will help to replace my salary as well. That’s the idea, anyway, and some of our plans for growth and expansion will require my assistance. If things continue to move forward the way they are, this shouldn’t be a problem. Right now, I am working between 50-60 hours per week plus trying to research and develop this new area of Nannies, Inc. – not to mention the occasional computer work that I still do when called upon – so finding ‘spare time’ is getting tricky.
. My greatest fear is that we are taking too much time from our son, Duncan. He is still doing well with his school work and progressing nicely, but he is starting to show some signs that he is lacking some attention, or at least the attention that he is used to getting. I hope this can be overcome somehow. Being conscious of it helps, but it will take action to correct it if it truly becomes a situation. We’ll see what happens. He is more important to me than any business and I won’t sacrifice him for success. In fact, we have actually been talking about more kids, but that is a topic for another post…
