Tag Archives: People

Tony's Posts

Comment or Friendship

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I fear commenting on stuff a lot of times because I am left-of-center on many issues. Everyone has the right to their opinion but when yours goes against many of your friends it can become a problem. There are times I need to keep silent so that friendships can remain. I don’t know but I don’t have a lot of really tight friendships in this life so sometimes I have to keep silent.

Maybe I don’t fall for the lemming thing and I have chosen to think on my own. Maybe not having a great number of friends has freed me to form independent opinions on things which has informed me about the world in a deeper way. On Facebook and even Twitter there are debates of the day which has raised the volume of rhetoric and venom among people who have been life-long friends. Perhaps I choose to be different and the voice of what is fair, just, inclusive and loving.

So do I comment or choose friendship…that is a tough one.

Tony's Posts

A Ramble About Calling Me “Bud”

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I have been in a couple of retail environments lately where male retail assistants have called me “bud” because they don’t know my name. Now I know I live in the south and for some it just comes naturally but for some reason when they call me “bud” it irks me. My grandmother called me “bud” on occasion but that’s my grandmother, she could call me whatever she liked, she earned that right. In a retail environment I would rather be called “sir” not that I am snobby but to me it makes sense to address strangers as sir and to be a little more formal. Perhaps it’s a generational as well as a cultural thing but I think the word “bud” is for a buddy or someone you know.

Also I hate the term “big guy”, yes I know I am a larger sized person but that one also makes me cringe. If you know me call me Tony or T-Bird, either is fine but if you don’t know me or any other person, start off with “sir” it’s a matter of respect that will be returned in kind.

Rambling, Tony's Posts

Rambling About Being Yourself and Keeping Up With The Jonses

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Being yourself is a challenge when you feel like you have to adapt to the whims and norms of others. Keeping up with the Joneses means trying to impress people by putting on airs and buying things of value so that you will look the part. Sometimes it means doing things that go against your nature. This evening an episode of the Andy Griffith Show, Andy sends Opie to a camp where Opie meets a boy from an affluent family. This puts pressure on the Taylor family to act differently and do things differently because they feel like in order to be accepted by the family of Opie’s friend.

This is a common theme when people who want to be accepted, to be in the in-crowd which means they have to live above their means. People are always trying to impress so they will feel included in society. We all want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves but should it mean selling our soul and compromising our core beliefs to do so.

I have seen people who have tried to keep up with the Joneses at a great cost. Everyone has a dream and we all want those dreams to come true but my friends people can pick out those who are less than genuine. Perhaps being realistic about who we are and where we are in life will mean you can be accepted by those who matter and will be with you for the long haul.

Be honest with yourself, with others and enjoy the blessings you have, because someone thought you would need them.

Tony's Posts

Thank you for your hospitality

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Whenever I visit your blogs I appreciate your hospitality. I think it’s important to have a blog that is welcoming to ones readers and encourages feedback. Of course its good to mind your manners when visiting a blog. You can do that by liking posts, offering positive commentary when possible and being respectful. A blog is an online home where you are a guest and you should never over stay your welcome, although I am not sure how that happens. Hospitality is an important concept in all of life. It’s important to be inviting and kind. Hospitality in life and on your blog is a two-way street my friends.

Hospitality is making your guests feel at home, even if you wish they were. ~Author Unknown

Tony's Posts

If You Want: Faith

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If you want to display something like the 10 Commandments in public, study them, live them, make them manifest physically. If you want prayer in schools, just pray anytime when others aren’t looking. If you want your faith to matter in the world make it worth believing. If you want people to embrace your faith share it in practical, meaningful, simple ways that will bring people to the table. If you want there to be more love in the world do it like Jesus, Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr and Pope John Paul II did. Remember the greatest thing you can do is to love and love fiercely.

Tony's Posts

A Place Where We Want To Live

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There has been a lot happening in the last few days. Some people had their world opened up while others seems to be in an alien land, well different from what they had always known. People who are different want to live equally in community with others and to have some human dignity.

Many people have more resources available to them that were once reserved for a few. What we have here is a selfishness that has been in play for years. I want people on the fringes to have what others have, acceptance, inclusion, love. The faith I ascribe to is one where God loves everyone, inclusion is the norm and hate and exclusion are shunned. The world is full of people who want the world to be their way, for people who are only like them. We need community to love the freaks and geeks like me.

Right now there is war and rumor of war along with a lot of hunger and famine and there is something we can do about it. We have to be the peace we want to see. Now is the time to make this world a place where we want to live and that place is for everyone.