Good Golly! Your mom is an AMAZING person Linda. That is incredible. Next time you see her please tell her that she has mightily impressed me - all the way over here in Australia. She is a TRUE inspiration. Gary

Hey Gary; ========== Your mom is an AMAZING person Linda. That is incredible. Next time you see her please tell her that she has mightily impressed me - all the way over here in Australia. She is a TRUE inspiration. ========== Yes... yes, she is. When she was 13, her mother died in childbirth. She & her elder brother both quit school to raise their siblings, one a newborn. (Uncle Joe was 15, she was 13) When she got married, she brought the youngest two with her and finished raising them as she was having her own kids. Along with 8 of her own, we were also an interim house for kids pulled out of abusive homes, so there was always extra little ones to cuddle. If I can be half the person she is, I'll be happy. I guess that's part of why I just can't stand when people see only negative and think they are powerless. If a senior like Mom can walk a marathon to raise money for *sick* people -- with her heart monitor ticking away so she paces herself -- NOBODY is powerless unless they want to be. It's like your books says... it's about choices. We make them. We live them. Thanks for listening. : ) Linda

You make sure you tell her what I said Linda. And Art, if you would like a copy of my e-Book - "The Power of Choice" just let me know. I can zap it over to you in a pdf. Gary

Hi, Gary, I am always pleased to receive anything that will improve my knowledge but I wonder why what I see - which is the whole picture - is so invisible to so many people. I said very early on in this stream that there are exceptions - THERE ARE ALWAYS EXCEPTIONS! You cannot live your life meaningfully if you only see the exceptional. I am involved in many schemes to rehabilitate young and old people, most of my work is done by example. I will spend a day or two with an individual and simply show them how I do things and explain the 'why' of it. During this last, rather prolonged, attack of ill health I have been 'out of the loop' but have been enormously pleased to receive countless good wishes and small gifts from those I have worked with. The people I work with will have been members of the 100+ who did nothing - the very ones that PMA seems to want me to pretend do not exist. I had alweays thought my command of the English language was adequate but it seems to be failing me badly here because I cannot get across the simple fact that I cannot ignore 99+% of the community simply because they do not conform with my out look on life. There will always be exceptions - but there are less of them with every passing day - we are losing the older members of our society AND WE ARE NOT REPLACING THEM LIKE FOR LIKE!

Hi Art, ======================================================== Who shaped those 100+ people? Probably another 100+ similar people. And that is what is so frightening about society today. =========================================================== Yes, there are a lot of people in this world today raising some really indifferent, self-centred, nasty, rotten people. However, there are a lot of good people like yourself who still see the problems and can speak out like you're doing here. There's still hope for even the worst slimeball loser. Although most of them will probably never change, and will probably raise more slimeball kids of their own, a small handfull WILL get the message and change. What it takes is more people like yourself who take a stand for what is good and tell the world. It's no shame if in your whole lifetime only one person ever listens. If even one listens, (and you may never know), then you have lived a successful life, having been instrumental in getting that one person to change. If you've raised a number of kids who have the same kind of values as you do, then you've been even more successful in life! In that case, you've actually MULTIPLIED the example, message, and values you hold and added to the net balance of good in the world. Remember that no one can stand in front of a crowd and get them all to accept his or her ideas as a group. However, it's very possible to get one person to see the value of what you believe over time. Each person who "turns over a new leaf" is one more addition to the positive side of humanity. Just think one at a time, not collective. God bless, Dave