It's easy to hate and demonize people who say and do bad things. But it's not necessarily wise. When we demonize them and refuse to see any humanity in them, it diminishes our potential to deal with those people in the least violent way possible and resolve the conflicts. By fueling our hatred, we fuel their hatred. We increase the polarization and the extremism, and increase the odds of violent solutions that will likely impact badly on everyone. Better perhaps to try to see some good in them and use that as a starting point for healthy dialogue, a meeting of the minds, negotiation and compromise for the greatest good of all concerned. I might make the case, for the purpose of this exercise, that only God is 100% good and only the Devil is 100% evil, and the rest of us fall in between. Martin Luther King once said, "Hate the sin but Love the sinner." A tall order that may be impossible for us to achieve but worth the effort. In our daily trials and tribulations, I encourage all of us to hold Truth, Compassion, Calmness, Acceptance and Forgiveness in the forefront of our minds in all our transactions with our fellow creatures big and small. As Tiny Tim once said, "God Bless Us, Everyone!"

Donald Trump has already proven to be good for the economy and I'm not talking about the Carrier jobs. I'm talking about the fact that people are making tons of money writing stories, blogs, podcasts, etc. about the orange devil who is going to destroy the Universe. It makes good copy. There's still plenty of demonization and fear that can be churned up to terrorize the masses. If you are one of the masses that feels victimized and violated by Trump, I recommend the Serenity Prayer to accept the things you can't change and to have the courage to change the things you can. Not by protests, tears and tantrums but by true activism that can mobilize people in positive, peaceful ways.

Donald Trump has already proven to be good for the economy and I'm not talking about the Carrier jobs. I'm talking about the fact that people are making tons of money writing stories, blogs, podcasts, etc. about the orange devil who is going to destroy the Universe. It makes good copy. There's still plenty of demonization and fear that can be churned up to terrorize the masses. If you are one of the masses that feels victimized and violated by Trump, I recommend the Serenity Prayer to accept the things you can't change and to have the courage to change the things you can. Not by protests, tears and tantrums but by true activism that can mobilize people in positive, peaceful ways.

We profess our love for our loved ones in many ways. But, for many of us, our actions speak louder than our words: Irritability, anger, yelling, sarcasm, inconsideration, selfishness, thoughtlessness, pettiness, demeaning, and shaming, to name but a few of the abusive things we do. We toss these emotional grenades at our loved ones on a regular basis. Sometimes we apologize later for our bad actions. Oftentimes we don't. Instead, we play the victim and blame our loved ones for why we behave so un-lovingly. What's the result? Bitterness and very unsatisfying relationships. What's the solution? Self-awareness. Self-control. And forgiveness. Because the prime mover of our bad behaviors is resentments which we need to let go of if we want the relationship to heal.

We profess our love for our loved ones in many ways. But, for many of us, our actions speak louder than our words: Irritability, anger, yelling, sarcasm, inconsideration, selfishness, thoughtlessness, pettiness, demeaning, and shaming, to name but a few of the abusive things we do. We toss these emotional grenades at our loved ones on a regular basis. Sometimes we apologize later for our bad actions. Oftentimes we don't. Instead, we play the victim and blame our loved ones for why we behave so un-lovingly. What's the result? Bitterness and very unsatisfying relationships. What's the solution? Self-awareness. Self-control. And forgiveness. Because the prime mover of our bad behaviors is resentments which we need to let go of if we want the relationship to heal.

We tend to feel that we have the right to live but other creatures don't have the right to live equal to ours. We feel quite comfortable killing things that are annoying and get in our way. It is not a healthy philosophy. Killing anything, regardless of the reason, regardless of the justification, diminishes us. The prime directive should always be to make the effort to find a way to not kill something in our effort to get what we want. Taking pleasure in killing something is not good. Killing something unnecessarily is not good. It's always best to spare life rather than take it, to recognize that we are all part of the animal kingdom and we all have a right to live.

We tend to feel that we have the right to live but other creatures don't have the right to live equal to ours. We feel quite comfortable killing things that are annoying and get in our way. It is not a healthy philosophy. Killing anything, regardless of the reason, regardless of the justification, diminishes us. The prime directive should always be to make the effort to find a way to not kill something in our effort to get what we want. Taking pleasure in killing something is not good. Killing something unnecessarily is not good. It's always best to spare life rather than take it, to recognize that we are all part of the animal kingdom and we all have a right to live.

Judgment is born of fear. And from that fear and judgment comes the belief that we need to attack and destroy those we have judged to be our enemies. And from that comes aggression and war. In this Presidential election, fear and judgment of the other candidate and the other side was so intense that it led to good people casting truth aside, distorting facts, diminishing themselves by attacking, shaming, bullying the other side. If we can't make our case without lying and manipulating facts, then we have no case. We have no high ground. We have no validity. And we have no right to righteous indignation. We are children, all of us: immature, selfish, ego driven, prone to tantrums and tears. We need to grow up. Put our petty differences and judgments aside, and recognize once and for all that we are ONE PEOPLE and that for our species to survive, we need to find a way to embrace that ideology and appreciate that fear and judgment are the enemy, not each other.

Judgment is born of fear. And from that fear and judgment comes the belief that we need to attack and destroy those we have judged to be our enemies. And from that comes aggression and war. In this Presidential election, fear and judgment of the other candidate and the other side was so intense that it led to good people casting truth aside, distorting facts, diminishing themselves by attacking, shaming, bullying the other side. If we can't make our case without lying and manipulating facts, then we have no case. We have no high ground. We have no validity. And we have no right to righteous indignation. We are children, all of us: immature, selfish, ego driven, prone to tantrums and tears. We need to grow up. Put our petty differences and judgments aside, and recognize once and for all that we are ONE PEOPLE and that for our species to survive, we need to find a way to embrace that ideology and appreciate that fear and judgment are the enemy, not each other.

In my book, Forgive To Win!, I talk about Synchronistic Contemplations, which is an exercise we can engage in to examine the coincidences and other unusual events that occur in our lives, and regard them as signposts to guide us on our life path. I playfully refer to these signposts and clues as postcards from the universe that can help us if we decipher their meaning correctly and perhaps hurt us if we don’t.