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All Things Pondered Here

Pondering Many Things....

Life

II: Breaking the “Cancer Myth”

March 30, 2017 by Marko L.

“Necessity is the mother of invention”. Many of you probably heard this quote quite often, but I found it really applicable in my situation. Like I already mentioned, my family was faced with a problem and in order to take the best course of action, we needed to gather the necessary information. And my “invention” was the knowledge and willingness to face the music alongside with my dad and the rest of our family.

Know your enemy

Let’s start by simply clarifying what cancer really is. Many of you probably have a much distorted image of what cancer is and how it actually harms your body. The best way to explain is by making it simple.

Apart from just a couple of cell types (mostly neurons and some reproductive cells), your entire body is in the constant process of dying and regeneration. For example, your skin cells have a life span of around 10-30 days. In fact, most of the dust particles found in your home are actually dead skin cells. Pretty weird, right?

Take a quick look at the average time needed for cells to get replaced:

  • Red blood cells – 4 months
  • Liver hepatocyte cells – 6-12 months
  • Lung alveoli cells – 8 days
  • Tongue taste buds – 10 days

Right now you might start to wonder what the hell is really going on in your body. The things are really simple. Once an old cell dies, a copy of it gets created. Here is the interesting part: how the hell does the body know what type of cell needs to be created and where? Well, that’s where DNA and genes come in. Inside every one of your cells, there is a blueprint of your entire body. It is a set of instructions that every cell reads when it gets replicated and it determines its function.

So, it is basically a copying job of massive proportions. And in that process lies the key for every type of cancer on the planet. Mistakes in this copying process happen all the time. With millions upon millions of copying processes happening at any given moment, it is bound for some of the cells to come out sort of crooked.

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein

So here it is, in the simplest way possible: Cancer is a group of cells doing something they are not supposed to be doing.

Let’s give an example by using a type that strikes way too often these days: stomach cancer.

Like we already mentioned, intestinal cells don’t live long, so you can assume how much copying is needed to replace them. Mistakes happen and by “random chance” – this subject will be discussed later – you end up with a couple of thousands of cells that were the result of these copying mistakes. 99.999% of the times, these cells die off quickly as they are not functioning properly and the mistakes get corrected. Either it is the immune system that realizes these cells got crooked, or it is any of the millions of other factors, but the job gets done. In that regards, you can even go to say that each and every person on the planet has cancerous cells in their body, they just don’t get the chance to harm us.

But, every now and then, these cells survive and multiply (like the original cell was supposed to) and they now pass on the wrong information. And in there lies the problem. Normally, your immune system is pretty darn efficient when it comes taking care of threats that impact your well-being. But when it comes to cancer, the immune system has difficulties recognizing that these cells are harmful. And how it could, when it’s your own cells that are at the core of every cancer?

Armed with this basic understanding, you can get the sense of somewhat overly negative stigma that this condition is known for. Most of the time, the word itself is taken for granted and many people actually discuss it without ever completely understanding the underlying facts. You can also make a simple deduction as to why a universal cure for the cancer is yet to be discovered. Since almost every cancer is different and it is highly specific (to the person’s genetic code and all the other factors), there is a very likely chance that a single drug that can treat all types of cancer will never be developed. It is just too much ground to cover and many scientists actually believe (and from my personal experience I have to agree) that a tailored approach to each patient has far greater chances of being successful than a broad spectrum treatment. And there is also a huge difference between benign and malignant tumors and that aspect deserves its separate segment. I’ll cover this in the next chapter. Hopefully, you are now armed with an understanding of the subject and you are ready to understand the causes and effects of cancer.

Until the next time, stay well.

-Marko Lipozencic

Filed Under: All Posts, Family, Life Tagged With: Awareness, Cancer, Health

III: Cancer: The birth of the beast

March 30, 2017 by Marko L.

Armed with the knowledge of what cancer really is, I had the general idea where to look for the culprit in the case of my father. He was an active smoker for more than 40 years and, quite naturally, I assumed that smoking is what gave him cancer. But, there is a lot more to it than you would expect and I was surprised by the amount of cancer causing stuff we are surrounded by.

Triggers

Gene mutations are occurring naturally in the body, but many other external factors contribute to the process. Let me start with an obvious one, the one I thought I was most familiar with.

Radiation

Let’s get one thing straight: you are surrounded by radiation all the time: Sun’s natural radiation, radio waves (gsm networks, wifi, television), natural element radiation (like potassium 40 isotope), etc.

The thing you have to realize is that there are two types of radiation: ionizing and non-ionizing. I’ll try to explain it as simple as possible.

Radiation is basically a stream of high energy particles radiating from a source.  In the case of non-ionising radiation (wifi, gsm, television, etc), these particles go through your body without causing any changes. On the other hand, ionizing radiation particles (radiation from nuclear weaponry, nuclear waste, Roentgen tubes, etc.), sometimes cause changes in your DNA and that causes gene mutations and other problems. And as we know, that creates cancerous growths.

A natural question to ask is: if Roentgen causes cancer, how come it is used all the time? Well, another important factor is the time of the exposure. As it turns out, time is crucial when it comes to radiation. I often wondered how come when I go to X-ray my teeth, I get a Lead bib while my doctor goes behind a huge concrete wall imbued with Lead? Well, X-ray is a strong form of radiation, but if I get exposed to it once a year for a second, it makes no difference to me. But for a doctor who works with it 8 hours a day, the exposure is a lot longer and he needs more protection. The same logic applies to the Sun’s UV rays. Have you ever wondered why doctor tells you to immediately report if you have a strange mole on your skin? A mole is already a mutated growth, but when exposed to UV rays, these mutations can get worse and you can develop skin cancer. For that purpose, if you are planning to sunbathe (prolonged exposure to UV rays) you are advised to use sunblock. Arbitrarily speaking, “weaker” radiation over a longer period of time causes more mutations and negative effects than “stronger” radiation over a couple of seconds. To confirm the accuracy of this statement, let’s jump to another trigger and explain it.

Smoking

It is a widespread misconception that smoking causes cancer. Let me state something quite inflammatory: smoking does not cause cancer, directly. This last word is the most important one in that sentence. You see, the pure act of smoking doesn’t necessarily mean you are increasing the gene mutation in your body. But what, how, and how often do you smoke definitely affects the mutation rate.

Starting with what, cigarettes are the worse. Not because the quality of tobacco is good or bad, but because of the stuff they treat the tobacco with. Some chemicals have ingredients that increase the gene mutation rate and raise the likelihood of developing cancerous growths. But not only that, the radioactive Polonium and Lead in cigarettes expose your lungs to small amounts of ionizing radiation. Which brings us to how often do you smoke. Like we already mentioned, it is the prolonged exposure to radiation that causes more mutations, and you can see how that correlates to smoking. One cigarette is not harmful, but one every hour most definitely is.

Acidity

Your body basically uses chemistry processes to function properly. There is a thing called natural acidity of the body. Everything we eat and drink, do or don’t, affects this body state and in terms messes with our body chemistry. For example, carbonated water is acidic because of the CO2 that makes it sparkly. Does that mean that it causes cancer? No. But like we said, it messes with your body chemistry in a minute way. But if you combine all the minute triggers that you take daily, this acidity builds up. When this happens, your body struggles to function properly which again aids in gene mutation. So while this doesn’t directly cause cancer, unhealthy diets can increase (by a small margin) the likelihood of developing one.

Physical activity (or the lack of), obesity, inflammations, viruses can also have similar effects on your body.

There are plenty of other causes, but I only listed these because they have a much distorted public image and many misconceptions are held as science facts.

The hereditary factor

Finally, I want to address the hereditary factor. Sometimes, people are born with a predisposition for developing cancer. When you have a genetic predisposition, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will eventually get cancer. It only means that you are more susceptible to all these factors that increase the chances of developing cancer. That’s why for example, people sometimes (mastectomy as an example) opt to do preventive surgeries to avoid developing cancer.

All of these contribute in a minute way to the chances that you will develop cancer. Coupled with the natural gene mutations, you can understand the importance of knowledge regarding the subject in question. And the reason I am actually sharing this information with you is because I now look differently on the entire matter. Many people, including me a couple months ago, have no idea about this and they are simply misinformed. Hopefully, this will change they way you look at it as well.

-Marko Lipozencic

 

Filed Under: All Posts, Family, Life Tagged With: Awareness, Cancer, Health

I: Cancer: The Most Dreaded Word Possible

March 10, 2017 by Marko L.

Often times when you hear shocking and unnerving words, your brain interprets them, but you don’t really feel and connect with them: genocide, terrorist attack, world hunger, etc. But, the most common one is quite surprising and tends to creep up on you: cancer.

Most of the people hear that word almost daily, myself included. But not until you meet with it in person do you actually realize what that word entails, what it brings, what it actually does. While many people react to it emotionally, something strange happened to me.

The ball drops

A parent will always try to put on a brave face in front of the kids, no matter the circumstances. And while the whole family was looking at a damningly bolded font on a white piece of paper depicting the harsh reality, my mind was racing as the word cancer sank in and took shape. My dad had it before (while I was in high school), beat it, but now it came back, like a hydra with two new heads instead of the old one we cut off. He was visibly distraught but still managed to put on a mask of bravery. My mom had already gone through all the scenarios in her head, and you could see that the bad ones held sway over the good ones. My sister, well, she is the silent one. She handled it in her own way, quietly and by keeping in solitude, seeking comfort in religion and prayer.

Coming back to a strange reaction, you first have to understand something about me. I am a problem driven person, meaning that if I don’t understand something, it interests me more than anything else in the world. And when I heard the word cancer, probably like many of you, I did not fully comprehend the situation. And as much as it may sound heartless and cold, my first emotion wasn’t hopelessness and sadness. I wasn’t thinking about the fact that quite possibly, my dad’s days are numbered. This was “the problem” for me, first and foremost. Maybe my sympathetic brain took a back seat in the wake of the news and my coping mechanism was to approach the situation from an intellectual standpoint. Or, maybe I am just built that way – a heartless bastard. This is perhaps the second worst thing about cancer: it affects everyone involved and has them questioning everything imaginable.

Everybody is different

If I were to give you a couple of guesses on what was my first emotion, many of you probably could never figure that one out. It was motivation. And it was stronger than anything I’ve ever experienced before. I was motivated to do everything in my power to bring the control back to our side. That is the most sinister thing about this disease: it takes away your control. You see, most of the time, a disease has a cause and knowing exactly what caused it brings you a dose of calmness and closure when you get cured. Not cancer. Whether they are environmental, genetic, or simply unknown, the causes rarely matter afterward. You know why? Because it usually takes time for them to affect you, and in many cases, you have no power over them.

After hearing this word, after comprehending that it touched me in the most personal way apart from having cancer myself, I was motivated to understand, to figure it out, to completely dissect it from each and every angle in order to be able to fight it. For my dad, my mom, my sister and myself. A struggle with cancer is not a battle of a one person against one enemy. It is a war that your entire family wages against a squad of shadow assassins that have no honor, no limit, no restraints, no compassion. I declared that war mere seconds after the news. Everything else in my life fell into perspective, nothing was comparable to the magnitude of that moment. It will forever be remembered as one of the defining moments of my life, a sort of a harsh reality check.

I know many of you can relate to this sinister word and have experienced its ugly influence up close. I demystified it as much as I could as I collected the knowledge – ammunition for the upcoming war. I only hope that some of you who are going through the same experience will find strength to fight and claw with all the things at your disposal. Raising awareness is the only thing I can do, and I will do my best to help others understand this disease in order to be able to fight it.

-Marko Lipozencic

Filed Under: Family, Life Tagged With: Cancer, Health, Motivation

The Things We Think Are Important…

March 8, 2017 by Dave

The things we think are important often are not.   While the things we think are not important, often are.

 

-David

Filed Under: Life

Can we consider plants as sentient creatures?

January 19, 2017 by Marko L.

According to various sources on the Web, there are over 300,000 registered species of plants on Earth. Based on that statement alone, we can safely say that through evolution or clever design, their instinct for survival has helped them prosper. Even though you can draw the argument that some of their features resemble human senses, can you really say that plants can actually think for themselves? As we all know, plants are stationary organisms, which you must agree is an overwhelming disadvantage. Even with that, they make up a cumulative mass which is a thousand times higher than that of all animal species. This is where the adaptive skills of plants come into play.

Clever Senses

Just like humans, plants have a distinct sense of smell and can react rather quickly to chemical changes in their surroundings. When the fruit starts to ripen and release ethylene, neighboring plants begin to ripen faster. Here is another one: certain plants give off scents to attract insects for the purpose of pollination. Plants like the carrion flowers go to such extremes as to grow tiny hairs, become warmer and emit a smell similar to the smell of rotting flesh in an attempt to draw flies and beetles to expedite the process.

Passive reaction and teamwork

Furthermore, when pests, animals or pathogens attack plants, they react. The acacia tree, when grazed by passing animals, starts producing a chemical compound called Tannin, which makes their leaves extremely hard to digest. Some acacia plants were even known to produce enough of this chemical to actually kill an animal.

Plants are also known to work in symbiosis. Fungi, with their underground webs, can make a pathway between tree roots, which in turn allows the plants to exchange nutrients and information about their surroundings. Larger specimens of trees are known to nurture younger or shaded trees by sharing water and nutrients. This is especially prevalent in the exchange between evergreen and deciduous species. The evergreen species share their nutrients with the plants that lose their leaves during the winter, and this is reciprocated over the summer season.

Active reaction and memory

We left the most shocking examples of sentient behavior in plants for last. The Mimosa Pudica, commonly known as the Shame plant, closes its leaves when it receives an outside stimulus. This was developed to scare away insects that land on them. A scientific experiment was conducted, during which the leaves would be dropped from the height of 15cm and they would close when they hit the ground. After the scientists repeated the experiment for four or five times, some of the plants would stop closing. This effect would last for weeks at a time, proving that plants, in fact, could form concrete memories.  This was further affirmed when those same plants, during the period when they would not close when dropped, would close their leaves when being shaken, proving they react differently to a different kind of stimulate.

Now, not to get ahead of ourselves, plants are still missing key parts to be considered sentient beings. They do not have organs a brain or other similar organs deemed necessary by scientists for a creature to be considered sentient. And although they are missing an organ that would serve as a brain, plants still somehow manage to survive being eaten and overcome the fact that they are immobile without much effort. Plant sentience comes down to your definition of intelligence. If teamwork, environmental interaction and strong survival instincts are something you rank highly, then there is a strong case to be made for plants being intelligent. This is something to keep in mind when next time you get into a debate with a vegan about animal cruelty.

-Marko Lipozencic

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: Biology, Intelligence, Science

Kicking the laziness

January 19, 2017 by Marko L.

Hello, fellow procrastinators. How many of you sit around talking about the things you want to do or you’re going to do, just to never do them. I am talking about the people who are fully aware that they are burdened by laziness, but they just wallow in their own self-pity for not being as successful as they want to be. If that’s you, I have something to say that could change your life: don’t ever trust yourself. Actually, don’t trust your future self.

The procrastination fallacy

How often do you look at a problem and say I’ll just do it tomorrow? From things as simple as doing the dishes to going to the gym. How many times have you convinced yourself that your future self will have more motivation? It is plainly wrong! Here is why: if you don’t do it today, you won’t do it tomorrow. It is a cycle where you put off stuff for the next day only to get to tomorrow and utter the same words: I’ll start tomorrow. But the sooner you actually realize that your future self is even lazier than you are today, the sooner you can get stuff done.

The core of the problem

Getting things done and being productive depends directly on motivation. If you can acknowledge that you won’t suddenly, magically have more motivation tomorrow than you do today, which let’s be honest we know you won’t, you’ll start to do one of two things:

  • You’ll realize that the responsibility is left on your today self and get it done.
  • You’ll accept that you’re not gonna do that thing

And the second option can be okay too because realizing you’re not going to do something liberates you from the stress of not doing it. Then, you can move on and focus on other things.

How to break the cycle

There are a couple of methods that can help you out with this. Here is the simplest one I figured out so far. When you start searching for excuses not to start working out, don’t allow yourself to think: “I don’t have time”, because when you do, you are simply saying that your health isn’t a priority. As a matter of fact, literally say this out loud and it will start to affect the way you behave: my health isn’t a priority, so I’m not gonna go to the gym. Here is another example: my friend’s event isn’t a priority, so I’m not going.

If those things sit ok with you, then maybe it’s time to start thinking about what things are important to you. When you become lazy, the only way you can change this behavior is by acknowledging that things won’t change on their own tomorrow. The next time you’re going to have to overcome the exact same laziness all over again. Seriously, you have to start getting used to overcoming your laziness.

Here is another interesting fact: Productive people aren’t any less lazy, they just realized they had to overcome the problem in order to achieve the things they want.

This is a tough habit to get rid of. Being motivated and keeping busy takes practice and it’s a skill that you have to do over and over to get better at it. Think about when you were a kid, your attention span was literally measured in seconds. As you aged and spent time developing skills by sitting in classes, engaging in conversations, your attention span increased. The same thing can be said about motivation: practice makes you better at it.

So if not being lazy would make you happier just remember this simple rule: Never trust your future self and if you don’t do it today, you won’t do it tomorrow.

-Marko Lipozencic

 

Filed Under: Life, Motivation Tagged With: Laziness, Life, Motivation

Are The Answers Really Out There?

November 26, 2012 by Dave

Do You TRUST That The Answers Are Out There?

ready to challenge your own perceptions? I was thinking about my post yesterday on running into brick walls in life this morning.   I think there is more to say on this topic.

The question is:  Do You Believe The Answers For You Are Out There?

Easy To Say,  Hard To Do

This question sounds very simple on the surface, but it is actually a very complicated question.   Your personally answer to this question is likely to be more complicated than you might want to initially believe as well.

A belief is not something you can just decide on once.  As soon as you say you want to believe something, there will often be doubts that spring up.  They will keep springing up over and over again too.

You can’t just squash them once.  You have to monitor your thoughts and alter your thinking over and over again.

If you don’t run into the problem that I just mentioned, it could be that you are believing in the wrong things.  This last sentence belongs in the ‘difficult to explain’ category.   But some people will immediately understand what I am talking about.   Just think about it more and you may see it.

Changing our thinking is indeed very important.  However, changing it in the right direction is infinitely more important.   If you alter your mind to accept wrong principles and you hurt people as a result, the consequences end up being severe.  Perhaps the even go beyond, fines,  incarceration and loss of liberty?

There Is Enough Anecdotal Evidence

There is plenty of evidence that you mind can affect your life in major ways.   The experiences of many people, both personal and from the perspective of an observer have been well documented.

One notable example that come to mind are the work of Dr. Bernie Siegel.   He was a surgeon who discovered that what his patients thought had a LOT to do regarding whether their cancer would go into remission or not.

He found that more self centered people, when they changed their mindset to a more compassionate loving one, would often find their cancer disappeared. (remission).    That is truly amazing.  He has written several books on the topic and you can read as many of them as you want.

Many similar stories from other sources exist.   There are remarkable stories that document the influence of our state of mind and our thoughts on our bodies and even our lives.

There are also stories that show the opposite effect.   Perhaps you have heard of a story about someone being told they had cancer when they actually did not.   Upon death,  an autopsy shows that there is not cancer.  So, what did the person die of then?   Bad thoughts?

Is Positive Thinking The Answer?

I’m not a big proponent of ‘positive thinking’.   I am certainly against negative thinking though, as it does little good.   The only time that type of  thinking is helpful is when you need critical thinking skills.

However, negative thinking in general, at best, does not help.   On the other hand, it is easy to see that it can do a great deal of harm.    So you might as well nix the negative garbage now.

If you are going to talk about ‘positive thinking’ it needs to be the long term kind.  Not the superficial kind that is easy to lose site of.

As  Voltaire alluded to in his literary work, Candide, You MUST weed the garden of your mind.   Failure to do so can be disastrous.

As I mentioned above, it appears to me, and I hope you agree by now, that simple positive thinking is not the right answer.  You must work on your thoughts and alter your ‘state of mind’.  That can take work and time to really do.   You have to be on your guard against the negative all of the time!

About That Brick Wall

As I talked about before.  You have to trust that the answers are out there.  Otherwise, how can you ever find them?

We are so tiny when you think about the size of our planet, our solar system, our galaxy and finally: the Universe.   Despite all of the evidence right in front of your eyes, are you able to believe that the Universe is a fundamentally good and intelligent?

Do you trust that as you focus on good that you can find your way through the darkness and around your personal brick walls?    I suggest reading Zhuan Falun.   It’s a book that I have read many times.   Perhaps it is just what you need to view the Universe in a different way?

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Filed Under: All Posts, Humanity, learning, Life Tagged With: challenge perceptions, philosophy, the power of your thoughts, thoughts

The Twentieth Century Man

October 4, 2012 by William

Today’s Guest Post is From :

William Veasley is the author of Be Weird & Be Different where he blogs about inspiration, being different and how to find happiness in our daily lives. Need to clear your mind? Share your story here or tweet w/ me here!

The Twentieth Century Man

“Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

At the beginning all the way until the end of the day we are human beings. As human beings we have our wants, but most importantly our needs. At times, many times it is hard to separate needs from wants, but what must be done, must be done! The ever changing world makes separating the two extremely difficult, but we must not be blinded by what shines. The things that shine bright are never what’s needed, but always what’s wanted.

I see some people with a brand new IPhone, but I see those same people living under their parent’s roof as grown-ups or walking to the store when they’re way too old to have only their feet as a reliable source of transportation. Life is hard, but we make it harder when there’s no separation between our needs and wants. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Remain focused and keep rising up the elevator of life until you reach the top floor!

Preeminence of the Mind

I feel sorry for some people because they let money control them and totally destroy their values. These people focus on their next dollar and have no awareness of the world around them. Dollar signs cover their eyes making it impossible to perceive reality. These are people that take steps, but end up going in circles and never get anywhere.

Take a few minutes to reflect on your current situation. Is it any better than the one you were in last year? What about five years ago, how was your situation then? Dare I say, maybe it’s time to stop living off your parents, sitting around sucking up all their air, clean yourself up, get on your two feet and figure out what’s most important.

Mind Games

Every wonder why you have no money and when you do get a little, it never stays in your pocket for more than a day? Well, as honestly as I can say, I believe you are being played like a fool because you live your life to keep up with the latest trends. For example, instead of buying a nice car (Actually owning something), you rent the fanciest ones you can afford for half your life so that you look “cool” and or important. Instead of waiting until your phone contract expires you buy the newest version for full price might I add and they come out with a new one every year!

In reality, most companies plan out how to make their product line withstand the test of time. The new phone you bought probably could’ve been released five years ago, but the cell phone companies tricked you and got more of your hard earned money.

Everlasting Happiness

Deception is everywhere. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what’s going on and most probably will never figure out anything, but life will go on.

Happiness starts from within and if it doesn’t start from there then it’ll never be obtained or only temporally. You can trick yourself into thinking you are someone that you aren’t and buy material objects as a way to cover up empty holes in your heart, but the only one being fooled will be yourself.

If you desire an abundance of happiness in your life then forget about the outside and start searching from within because that’s where real happiness lies.

Last Words

Be smart, be strong! Most importantly do what’s best for your current situation. When you see something you feel is needed, at least wait twenty-four hours in order to see if you feel the same about it being a need. More times than none, you’ll realize what you thought you needed was simply a want. What’s needed isn’t always what’s wanted, but in those times you must do what’s most important if you want to survive on your own two feet. Life’s full of choices. Will you make a smart or, well, you know.

Author:   William Veasley is the author of Be Weird & Be Different where he blogs about inspiration, being different and how to find happiness in our daily lives. Need to clear your mind? Share your story here or tweet w/ me here!

Filed Under: All Posts, blogger, Blogging, Life, Therapy Tagged With: Life, living, philosophy

They Cannot Understand Your Answers Until They Have The Right Questions…

August 27, 2012 by Dave

They Cannot Understand Your Answers Until They Have The Right Questions

answers to questionsIf you have ever had important information that you know can help people, then you may have run into a situation where this applies.

Tell me what you think about that statement and what it means to you?

Ever had this exact feeling?   What situation where you in?

Is it impossible to help someone who is not ready for that help?

Leave your comments below.

 

About The Author

Filed Under: blogger, Life, Psychology, Self Improvement, self education Tagged With: philosophy, they can't understand

Achilles’ Heel – Achilles’ Last Stand – What Are Your Weaknesses?

August 24, 2012 by Dave

Achilles Last StandAchilles was an ancient demigod – part immortal but not completely.

He was born of an immortal mother and a mortal father.

His mother wanted him to be immortal and dipped him into the River Styx.

Achilles’ body then became immortal – no weapon could harm him – except for one place.

When he was dipped into the River Styx, he was held by his heel.

His heel was not immortal.    During the Trojan war,  the coward, Paris shot him in the heal with a poison arrow.

The arrow was guided by Apollo, the Sun God,  who had a few grudges against Achilles.

Achilles had killed a few of Apollo’s mortal offspring…

 

The Lesson In The Story

Each of us has weaknesses.  Knowing what they are can be just as important to our ability to navigate this difficult world as knowing what our strengths are.

Of course, no one likes to have limitations. This means it is difficult for many of us even acknowledge that we have weaknesses, let alone try to understand what they are.

In business, you would, of course, delegate  your weaknesses out to others.  This is assuming that you have such a position.   If you are not in a place to delegate work out, then you are either an employee or self-employed.

Having a business means that you have an entire system in place.  That system has a way to run and repair itself even if you are away.    If you don’t have that, then you probably don’t really have a business.

No matter how great we become, however, we can always be brought down.

This is the larger lesson in the story:  None of us are too great to fall.

We all have our weakness.

In life, we may not even see that we are about to take a fall.   That’s scary, isn’t it.

 

Why Do We Have Weaknesses? 


Drilling a little deeper:  Why are we this way?    You would think that there would be some type of pathway towards becoming better and better, right?

Human beings get sick, they age and they die.   But why is it that way?

I know that throughout history there have been many that have attempted to answer this question.

However, I have yet to find any teachings, writings or information that explains things as thoroughly as this book:  Zhuan Falun

Free copies are available in most languages at the FalunDafa.org website.

 

You Have Questions

Once we start to ponder our weaknesses,  we are led to more and more questions about ourselves and our nature.

If you stopped asking questions along the way, then it is time to start asking those questions again.

I know it is hard to get through the day as it is!   When you starting seeking the truth about life,  perhaps it gets a little harder – on the surface at least.

But I hold that life actually can get easier when you ask questions and when you start finding answers.    The right information can make a huge difference.   I suggest reading Zhuan Falun.

If you are struggling to understand why this world is the way it is,  how it works, and what is really going on,  then that book is for you.

Read through it once – all the way through.   Then see how you feel.   Read it again and you will have a new perspective.    It keeps going like that.

I have been reading it for over 12 years now.    I love what I get from reading that book.   You should read it too.
Achilles Had A Weakness

Perhaps if Achilles had asked more questions about his fate or his purpose for existence, he would not have met with the fate that he did?

Are we all moving towards a preset destiny?   Or, is it possible to rise above that and to find a better destination.

Who wants to be remembered for killing a lot of people anyway?   What is there in that?    We don’t need more heroes in the world.

We need more thinkers.

Do not share the fate of  Achilles.    Ask the questions that start to free your mind now…

 

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Filed Under: blogger, Life, Self Improvement Tagged With: achilles, achilles heel, achilles last stand

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