If those words and sentences could be placed in a square pattern with a third dimension, we could plot out each day of our lives within those boundaries. Over a period of time we would see there is a balance to our lives and we are generally right there in the middle somewhere. Generally is a pretty general term and does not say a whole lot.

For some of us our life would plot out around the top of the plot we created representing our lives. Each minute of every day is one big high pitched fast action picture book of wonders. By the time we lay our head on the pillow, we know it was one of the better days of our life.

For some of us our life would plot out at the bottom of the plot we created representing our life. Each minute of every day is one big disappointment and the only wonder in our life is the fact we made it though another day without disappearing in a puff of boredom. By the time we lay our head on the pillow, we know it was another one of the worst days of our life.

For most of us however, we would see our life is more or less in the middle of the plot we created. Some days will have been very exciting. Other days would have offset the excitement with a day or two of tedium. Over all though we are satisfied with our life and the path we are on. The downswings are offset by an equal or larger number of upswings. We tend not to mind those ‘bad’ days, because it helps us better appreciate the good days.

In my experience where we find ourselves in this life plot has a lot to do with our age and expectations. Generally the closer we get to getting truly old the better we feel life is. The younger we are the more boring and tedious we tend to find our life. I am not sure, but I imagine our gender also has a lot to do with how we feel about our life too. In many cultures gender makes decisions for our lives which we have no control over or say in.

I used to find life tedious and boring. I would compensate by causing excitement in various ways in those people around me. Usually by pushing buttons and stirring them up. Some days I was not even aware I was doing it. Other days I tried extra hard to get people wound up. One day I realized the amount of pain I occasionally caused in peoples lives trying to amuse myself, and I decided I would not do those things any longer.

The problem then was I did not know what to do. I was very fortunate as luck would have it. I was lucky enough to read and be told a few thoughts that changed how I managed my life. It did not happen over night, but it did happen, and still does happen. I want to share them with you. Here they are:

1. I am going to die some day, and I have the opportunity and tools to change my life if I want to.
2. I like people
3. If I change my mind, I change my world
4. When I feel really sorry for myself, I read the obituary. Obituaries contain the names of people who would give anything to trade places with me.

They were tough words at first for me to understand and harder yet to make a part of my life. Every day I would catch myself and remind myself of these thoughts. I think if we distill life enough, we can find one basic premise: Life is what we choose to make it.

Knowing we feel lost, or really are lost in life is the first step in finding our direction from our life compass. We each carry a life compass with us, but at times it becomes lost in our other baggage, and we misplace it.

When quiet time happens take some time away from distractions and think about what you have done with your life to date. What have you done that you really enjoyed? What have you done that you have not enjoyed or even been ashamed of? What have you done that you are proud of? What have you done that you are proud of and you would enjoy doing again?

There is no best path or direction anyone can give you for your life. The best anyone can do is use their life as an example, and provide possibilities you can incorporate into your life. Giving advice should be seen as others suggesting possibilities. In those quiet moments, think about al the possibilities for your future, no matter how silly they may seem at the moment.

None of the possibilities are silly, and all of them are possible. We are curious creatures, and we were made to search, question, and learn until our last breath, so nothing you can think of is outside the realm of your life possibilities.

Once you have a goal or direction in mind, start living your life towards that goal. Is what you are doing right now moving you towards your goal, or does it take you away from your goal? If it takes you away from your life goals is there anything reasonable you can do about it? Sometimes,  we have to take a detour to get where we want to go. If you get detoured, stop and chart out your course, you may be closer than you think.

Life is made up of challenges, both big and small. If there are no challenges in your life, you are either extremely fortunate, or you are flowing with the ebb and tide of life, and have decided that wherever life takes you is okay with you. Having an end goal however means that there will be obstacles in your path, and you will need to learn how to surpass them.

The journey of life is the main source of a full and happy life. Without an end goal and the journey to arrive at the place we wanted to get to so many years earlier is what life is all about. We set our life direction, and it is up to us to make choices throughout our day, year, and decade about whether we are on our chosen path or not.

Determining your life path and changing your mind next week is perfectly normal and is common in many peoples lives. Many multi talented people change their life course many times throughout their life, and live a full and happy life. Be cautious that changing direction often is not holding you in one place.

One caveat though if you wish to float through life and go in whatever direction life takes you. As life’s challenges or conflicts present themselves to you, and only serve to cause you frustration and unhappiness, it may be time to take a different approach or even a different path for your life because whatever you are doing is not working for you.

Make your plan, follow the direction of your life compass, and enjoy the trip. There are no right answers anyone can give you to your life. You are the only person who can decide your life path and how best to live your life. There are no right or wrong answers for your life until you explore the possibilities yourself.

Unfortunately these are tried and true, died in wool, written in concrete, branded in steel truths. Everyone is rewarded in the manner of everyone else like themselves. Everyone leads lives of quiet desperation. If you do not believe me, think of the people in your social group.

Everyone dresses the same, has similar tastes, all make about the same income, and they all have about the same expectations for their future. It makes no difference if the group you belong to is in their late teens, thirties, sixties, or somewhere in between. Everyone in your group will more or less progress and achieve at about the same rate.

It does not have to be that way though, unless you prefer it to be that way. Social pressure, a lifetime of listening to others expectations, and your beliefs all contribute to having a live like everyone else. Most people want the house, the car, the job, whatever group you identify with, everyone has about the same value set.

So why does everyone in that group deceive themselves by thinking they are unique and what everyone else will likely accomplish through their lifetime does not apply to themselves? I once read a definition of stupid as doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.

Hold up your hand if you suffer from doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. I am holding up my hand as you read this. Unless I am paying attention to what I am doing, I find myself repeating the same pattern over and over and expecting different results.

What is wonderful and important right now, is reading this and wondering if reptition applies to your life. If it does, it is your lucky day, because from this moment onward there is an opportunity to take a new approach to how you manage your life.

If you realize you have been doing the same things and hoping for a different outcome, this moment is the time to know and believe that nothing will change except the calander date. There may be an occasional fluke where something different happens, and your mind will jump on it reinforcing the thought that you are on the right track, but do not take one instance an place it above the other hundred or more instances.

Repeating the same patterns leads to the same results. Starting now, make an effort to change the way you do things. The first time, or the first twenty times may bring about change you do not want, but at least you are making changes, and you know what won’t work. Eventually you will find what works and your life will take off in the direction you really want it to go in. Of course you will have to take personal responsibility to step out from the crowd and dare to be different…and the crowd won’t like that.

This joke is probably thousands of years old. There was a form of it in the movie, ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’, in the parking lot scene. It is also a premise in many other books and movies. At the end of all of these, the logic is immediately apparent: Why waste energy on small stuff when there are more important matters coming up? When you are older you will have more to contribute. While youth is great it is not the end all of existence, there is much more to life.

We should be who we are. When I was younger I enjoyed knowing there was someone around who was older and had more life experience than myself. I could go to and use them as a sounding board to help me through a hard decision, and present choices I had not thought of. I have never wanted to live in a world like that of Time machine, Logan’s Run, Brave New World, or any of the other books and movies where young is all there is, and life is controlled. Where and once you reach a certain age, you disappear. That’s not living, thats a lie in action.

It is a disservice to younger people to be much older, and try to be one of them. A much better tact is let someone younger than yourself be younger, and you be yourself at your correct age. There is much more to be gained from the relationship, and more satisfaction for both parties.

Take advantage of your life knowledge and life experience, to help young adults make the world a better place rather than helping them repeat the same mistakes that have already been made. If you are a young adult, take advantage of your enthusiasm, and energy to make the world a better place, but stop once in a while and ask directions.

No one would seriously argue the generally hasty decision making processes of some young adults. They do things on an instant. They are driving to a friends house, and they show up late, but with a new car. They push too many limits, and sometimes they pay a tragic price, either in themselves or the harm they have done to someone else. Thankfully, our society is set up in such a way, the damage they can do is limited.

There is a reason why people must meet a certain age requirement, either by law, or by general consensus. The reason for an minimum age, is peoples life experience, and decision making abilities have to be at a certain level before they can be effective in certain life roles.

I think it is a disservice to yourself, and young people, to be much older pretending to be young. A much better tact is let someone younger than yourself be younger, and you be you. There is much more to be gained from life, and more satisfaction for everyone. Take advantage of your life knowledge and life experience to help young adults make the world a better place rather than helping them repeat the same mistakes we did.

If you are a young adult, take advantage of your enthusiasm, and energy to make the world a better place. There is a lot to be said for youth, and there is a lot to be said for the knowledge and wisdom of age. Think about how much can be said when the two combine forces! Don’t be afraid to be the age you are. If you do not be your age, the only person you are fooling is yourself. You are also cheating yourself of some very good years in your life, and you probably do not like the person in the mirror to much either.

Opening the door to discussion and poor people, there are many people in the world who believe in other reasons of why there the worlds poor exist. Some believe they were in a different reality or state of being before coming here. In that place, they plotted out their lives in great detail depending on what they need to learn or accomplish here on their earth journey. I can see how this thinking has appeal, as it is reasonable. It may explain why there is so much needless suffering and pain in our world, and why so little seems to be done about it that actually helps it.

Of all the people in these life situations, I wonder if any of them, even a large enough percentage of them to be a slight majority, feel they selected the life they are living? I can imagine myself, plotting out my life so it is comfortable, with a few bumps in the road, but overall an easy life to get through, and I have plenty of opportunity to accomplish what I think I should be doing here on earth.

I can not on the other hand imagine myself choosing to be born, live and die, in a nameless slum in a mostly poor, under developed country. Somewhere where I would rarely go to sleep wrapped up in the contentment of my life. A life, where many of my brothers and sisters, and friends, died from hunger, or other childhood diseases would be terrible to live through. Or even worse, be one of the many thousands in war torn parts of the world where I would have been mutilated, and disfigured because I have the wrong family roots.

What noble spirits these people must have if indeed they plan out their life in such conditions that even the poorest person I know is living like royalty compared to them! I like to think I am a somewhat caring person, and I try to make this world a little better every day. But if all those spirits who chose a life of suffering get from me is a lukewarm effort to improve the world, I wonder if it is worth it for them?

Then of course some people feel that they live an impoverished life because they need to learn something from it. Edgar Casey who’s writings I have a lot of respect for is in this group of people. I remember reading Casey doing a reading of a woman with polio who had a crippled hip and leg. Casey in his trance-like state told the woman she was crippled in the hip because in another life she was a Roman citizen of some status who laughed while a woman in an arena was being savaged by a starving lion, and her hip was crushed in that lions jaws. Casey said this woman was paying the price for her actions. This version of life carries a lot more meaning to me, and is also much more sobering idea than the previous version, and thinking about it too long makes it somewhat frightening.

There is another group of Christians who take yet another spin on this thought. They feel that the bible verse about the sins of the fathers being visited upon the heads of the son’s is directly speaking of karma and reincarnation. The problems we suffer in this life are a result of something we did within three previous lives of this life. This is another idea that when thought about too long could cause some long term sleepless nights for some people.

Just to round things out, there are the children’s stories, where bad people somehow always meet with a bad ending. Somehow these stories make life a little better, leaving me with the idea, that everything balances out in the end. As an adult, it is just defining that end point where everything works out for the best that causes sleep loss.

Today this day is set aside to be grateful – here in my country. Grateful I am, that if any of the above beliefs are true that I am not among the starving, the poor, or the wartime victims. I am grateful, for a life that is stable, and as secure as I have a right to expect. I have good, abundant food to eat, hot water, and clean clothes. I am thankful, that while I may not be doing everything I can to make the world a better place, I happily do enough to look at myself in a mirror, and sleep at night.

I hope your life is filled with things that make you content. I hope you can look yourself in the mirror and know that you do what you can. Perhaps every one of those beliefs is valid and true, only our view changes. If those people did before coming here, choose that life of poverty and despair for me to learn from, I hope I am a worthy student. Finally, I hope we both do not look down upon those who appear to have less than ourselves, and we do what we can to improve their situation, even a little.

As the saying goes, remember the reason for the season. Happy Thanksgiving!

I have some guilt that comes out around this time of year because of three of the men that died working on the Fitzgerald. Their names are Bruce L. Hudson, Paul M. Riipa, and Mark A. Thomas, good men all.

I am not sure how I feel now knowing their names. I haven’t looked at their profiles, although I imagine I may some day. In 1975 I was living in California, when in mid summer I left and made my way to the lower Iron Range area of Minnesota. There was a family friend at the time who sailed on the Great Lakes for United States Steel Corp. He heard I needed a job, and made it possible for me to get my card so I could sail too.

I worked on the John Hulst in the fall of 1975. She was an old coal burner, one of the last of her kind to still ply the Great Lakes. The John Hulst would take on a load of Taconite pellets from around the Duluth area, and unload them in the Chicago, Gary, or similar area. It was hard work, and demanding as you spent little time anywhere other than steaming around from dock to dock. The thrill went a way about the beginning of October for me, but I stayed until the John Hulst docked for the winter.

The family friend who helped with my merchant marine card asked me if I was interested in winter sailing? Lake Superior freezes over in the brutal cold that drops down on her, but a few ore boats would continue to work for most if not all of the winter. It was dangerous work naturally, but the pay was increased and it was a lucrative offering. I asked if he would be sailing too, and he said yes he would. So I said sure, why not, I thought it would be more fun if there was someone on board I knew. My friend set it up and we had our report date to sail on the Edmund Fitzgerald as she made her transition from summer to winter sailing.

One night about five days before we were to report, my friend said he was not feeling that well, and he was not going to report for winter sailing. I replied, well if you are are not going, I am not going either, and it was settled just like that. I do not think I spent five seconds thinking about what I said. I knew I did not especially care for that life, so it did not take much to keep me off the boats in the winter weather.

The rest is history, except I remember this time of year, that a snap decision over a bottle of beer caused a man to die in my place. He may of been married, had a family, or wanted to earn money to buy a house, or any other number of wants that drive a man to do dangerous work. Of all the things a man should die for, I hope the man that took my place, had more noble reasons for winter sailing than I did for staying home.