Thursday Time Machine: Learn to be Still

I have decided to devote Thursdays to advice that I would give to a younger me if I could go back in time.

Today my advice: Learn to be Still.

My whole life I have not been real good at being still. Now please understand that being still is COMPLETELY different than being lazy.

I will just tell you right now (and my wife can probably attest to the fact) that though I learned a good work ethic growing up I still have a firm grasp on how to be lazy. But when I say learning to be still I mean something else.

Most of my life has been lived as a vagabond, a rambling man.

I have lived in 9 different states (California, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Florida, and Missouri) and I wasn't even a military kid; we just moved often.

But beyond physically moving to different houses in different parts of the country I have never been really good at being still in my mind.

But what are you for?

"They have a cave troll." - LOTR

So, yesterday I had an interesting run-in with a troll.

For those of you not familiar with the modern slang use of the word troll, rest assured that I did not come across a mythological creature from a Tolkien story.

In modern use, a troll is a person who posts provocative and often off-topic statements in online environments such as blog comments, Twitter, etc. with the purpose of eliciting a strong response or otherwise derailing the conversation.

It all started when I tweeted that I thought that though it was very early in the primary season, I was impressed with Herman Cain as a candidate.

Almost immediately I received a reply about how Herman Cain was a poor choice because he does not hate Islam.

Normally I try to stay away from feeding trolls (a euphemism for responding to or acknowledging a troll's statements) but I guess I was feeling a little feisty because I replied.

Makes sense; right?!?

Essentially the whole conversation descended into a great deal of logical fallacies and assumptions being spewed by the troll, but the one thing I never got an answer to was what this person stood FOR.

She talked a lot about how she hates Islam...

And how she has a right to hate Islam...

And she has a right to say that she hates Islam...

And how I was trying to silence her, but she never really articulated a positive direction for her life.

Is it really so strange that I don't feel the need to make decisions based on a religion that I don't even practice?

I don't know about anyone else, but I am so tired of voting for someone because of what they are against or because they press all the right "fear" buttons.

What ever happened to leaders who inspired us to be better and to achieve more? Are we doomed to live in fear of the things we hate? Must we all sink to the lowest common denominator when making decisions?

Can we all just drop the hate-for-the-sake-of-hate and just start leading off with what we are for rather than what we are against?

I don't think such a thing would end conflict, as there are plenty of things a person can be for that have opposites, but at least we would start the conversation on a positive note.

I don't really expect many of the potential political candidates to read my little blog; but if they did I would just like to ask one question:

What are you for?