Colada

A drink of Knowledge Wisdom and Change

"Each man (is) the architect of his own fortune."

Appius Caecus

FREE OR NOT FREE

     Oh what a beautiful sight, that great LADY standing with her touch held high in the air, lighting the path to the land of of the FREE. This beacon of HOPE, the ICON of FREEDOM that greets immigrants coming to American to have more of what she has to offer, FREEDOM.

     There are as many definitions of FREEDOM as there are immigrants. You are not force to do something, nor are you force to make a certain choice, or to take a certain route. You are FREE from the oppression and forces of a tyranny

You are FREE TO MAKE A CHOICE.

     Do you know the different between a thermostat and a thermometer. Do you know that there are two type of thermometers one for the mouth and one for the other end? I will tell you the different, one CONTROLS and one REACTS, and most of us are born thermometers, in that we REACT to every outside force. Some of us learn to be a thermostats and are in CONTROL early in life and some never learn.

     Take a real close look around you, at people you know, people in prison, people in high places, people that you come in contact with, and yourself. You will more then likely see in play, what I called the 30 SECOND RULE.

     OK! Jack, what is this RULE and what does it have to do with FREEDOM OR CHOICE, you ask? If you look at things that we or other people have done, good or bad, if we or they had only taken 30 SECONDS to THINK ABOUT THE OUTCOME OF THIS 'FREE CHOICE.' WOULD WE/THEY HAVE MADE ANOTHER CHOICE?

     Have you not found yourself in a argument and as soon as you said something, you WISH YOU HAD NOT? How about you said YES or NO to something and no sooner then the words came out of your month you WISH THEY DID NOT?

     Is your EGO YOUR BOSS, YOUR DRIVING FORCE in that YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO BE RIGHT AND THEY (who ever they are) ARE WRONG? How about you find yourself likening or disliking or maybe even having a deep resentment for something you have NO CONTROL OVER. I HATE it when it RAINS.

TAKE 30 SECONDS AND RETHINK YOUR LAST CHOICE.

     What you think are FREE CHOICES, have turn out to be chains, that not only hold you in place (think of the elephant) but they sap you of your energy and make it harder for you to move forward, in that you have to stick to this CHOICE or you have one bad CHOICE on top of another one.

     I know that we all use information to make CHOICES, BUT more times then not it's our PERCEPTIONS that RULE. And PRECEPTIONS are real even when it is not REALITY.

     In research done by David Perkins at Harvard, "SHOWED that NINEY PERCENT (90%) or errors in THINKING were errors in PERCEPTIONS NOT LOGIC." If your PERCEPTION is faulty then your CHOICE will be rubbish.

     There is a story of a young boy down under (Australia where a 1 dollar coin is much bigger then the 2 dollar one) One day his older friends offer him a CHOICE to take and keep the bigger 1 dollar coin or the smaller 2 dollar one. Johnny picked the bigger one, and they all laugh at him. And every few days they would let him make another CHOICE, and they would again go off laughing about his CHOICE of the BIG COIN.

     Well an adult, having seen how the older kids were laughing at little Johnny, pull him aside and said, "Johnny, although the other coin was smaller it was worth 2 time more then the big one." "I know that." answer Johnny, "but how often would they give me money if I take the smaller coin?"

     The PRECEPTION that looks at the CHOICE as a one time CHOICE would pick the smaller 2 dollar coin, but over the long run this PERCEPTION IS WRONG.

     Are your in CONTROL or REACTING? Are you THINKING or using YOUR PRECEPTIONS? One more thing, not only do they make thermometers for both ends, but the do not taste the same, and since (if you not the thermostats) you have to put the thermometer in you month to see how you are going to REACT, the taste will tell you what type of day you are going to have.

     Your FREEDOM TO MAKE A CHOICE is between your ears, it may only be a CHOICE to accept the way things are (it's raining) you can not control the weather. You can not fix the problems of the world and if you are not attached to the outcome then accept it. It may be the best FREE CHOICE YOU MAKE.

You are FREE TO MAKE A CHOICE,

MAKE IT THE RIGHT ONE.

                                                                                              Jack Boston