"The beauty of American arrogance is that they can't imagine a world where they're not a step ahead." Suarez, Vantage Point (2008)

Why is it that so many Americans believe that we are #1 in everything? A few stats below:

According to NationMaster the US is ranked 47th in life expectancy at birth! Almost 4 yrs less than if you were born in Japan.

According to infoplease the US is ranked 25th in Math, 12th in Reading and 20th in Science.

Now before you start calling me anti-american or worse, I love my country. The freedom that we share in this great country is priceless. But it is time to take some hard looks at the gap that exist between the US and other countries.

The chart below illustrates the difference in number of school days our children attend school. This was taken from an article from EDU in review. Is it anti-american to want my grandchildren to be given the same opportunity as the children from these other countries?

Let's stop being so accepting of death from known diseases

Why is it that we are fixated by obscure diseases?? The first reported case of H1N1 in the US got national news exposure as have reported cases of West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis. It's time to put our concern and resources to cure the causes of more common diseases that cause hundred of thousands if not millions of death annually. We have too many deaths due to cancers, diabetes, common flu, car accidents, etc and just don't seem to care proportionally. The odds are that those causes will get us too and not West Nile, H1N1, or Eastern Equine Encephalitis (E.E.E.).

According to WHO a few facts about diabetes...

• More than 220 million people worldwide have diabetes.
• In 2005, an estimated 1.1 million people died from diabetes.
• Almost 80% of diabetes deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
• Almost half of diabetes deaths occur in people under the age of 70 years; 55% of diabetes deaths are in women.
• WHO projects that diabetes deaths will double between 2005 and 2030.

My Mom died Nov 22, 1995 she would of turned 91 this Sept 24 but diabetes got her too.

"You can't achieve greatness by being ordinary"

Seems rather obvious but a lot of people do not seem to understand that greatness will not be thrust upon them. It takes hard work and some god given ability.

Paul's Bucket Theory

If you could somehow quantify all the qualities of a person and add them all together you would find that all of us have the exact same size bucket of abilities. Some of us have an abundance of ability in a one area while others have a more even distribution.

Offshoring - These jobs are never coming back

Wikipedia describes offshoring as "the relocation by a company of a business process from one country to another—typically an operational process, such as manufacturing, or supporting processes, such as accounting."

There is an alarming trend of companies that are locating plants in other countries due to the abundance of educated workers happy to be receiving pay at a fraction of an American worker. When you buy a PC these days it is probably assembled in China by an employee of HP or Dell. The only American involved with the purchase is the delivery man that brings it to your door.

The improvements in internet speed has enabled many jobs to be done remotely. In the past if a company was looking for a programmer they were dependent on the availability of local talent. Now the talent pool has exploded to be anyone, anywhere in the world with access to a high speed connection. Companies based in the US are employing workers located throughout the globe do just this.

The good news is that it has improved the cost margins of these companies and allowed them to keep cost down. The bad news is that these jobs are not coming back to the US. We have priced ourselves out of these types of jobs.

The other reality that Americans must face is that we are undereducated. We cannot keep spending less time educating our youth than other countries and be able to compete. It's time to wake up America and start valuing education, expand the school year and expand the school day. When we can start competing on education then we can start building a stronger workforce.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

If this is true then there are a lot of insane people out there. You see this all the time in people dealing with their weight, finances, relationships, work, etc. If you find yourself not making progress, step back, take a good look and ask what can you change to improve things.

Body, Mind & Spirit

Most of us have heard the phrase Body, Mind & Spirit. This term is used frequently within the holistic community. Something I hear in both my massage therapy and yoga business.

I find it curious though that most therapist when working with clients or working within neglect mind and spirit. They focus entirely on the body. Their work seems to be based on purely the physical without any thoughts to the health of mind and spirit.

A while back I had a chat with Trish Whynot about this. A couple of comments that she made were "If the fruit is bad do you examine the fruit to see what is wrong or do you look at the tree." and  "the physical is the end result."

If you want to fix the root cause then we need to look within at mind and spirit. The pain and discomfort that we feel is real, often very real. However, addressing only the body will not provide healing. Often the physical action that we all want to blame for the hurt is only the trigger. Emotional and/or spiritual imbalances within have made those areas of the body vulnerable.

Favorite Authors

Some of my favorite authors for self healing;

Donald Epstein, "12 Stages of Healing"
Louise Hay, "Heal Your Body"
Wayne Dyer, "The Power of Intention"
Deepak Chopra, "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success"

These authors have several books other than the one noted above that are very much worth investment of time and money.

Divine Alignment

I owe this term to a massage client of mine, David. Other terms for this are Synchronicity, the Universe, and Spirit. The non believers call it coincidence.

When you pick up the phone to call someone and that person has just that instance called you. When you are talking about something and then you hear it on the radio or on TV or overhear someone else talking about it. These are not coincidences they are divine alignment. It is how we are all connected through a force and knowledge that is beyond our comprehension.

A few recent examples of mine...

Looking for my cell phone just in case someone calls and as I pick it up the phone rings. My daughter when witnessing this once asked me if I was psychic. No, just another case of divine alignment.

The weekend before Labor Day I was at a cookout at my brother-in-laws. I spent a few moments with my godchild that has been battling Chiari Syndrome about an upcoming operation she hopes to be having. That evening the episode on House had Chiari Syndrome as the diagnosis for that client.

Driving home one night I was chatting with my wife about how fear can be a motivator. Sure enough an episode on Law & Order SVU had a discussion about that. With the exact line I had said just minutes before.

I wrote before in a blog about my vision of where I wanted to work. I wanted it to be in a home near water. Well I found the home converted to a salon to work out of with a pool. Not exactly the kind of water I had in mind. Next time I need to be more specific... a natural body of water is what I wanted but had not spoken of.

This episodes of divine alignment are not always huge epiphany's they are often smaller events that remind us the divine is listening, communicating and guiding us. If you hear an idea or suggestion 2-3 times from different sources and you choose to ignore it. Consider for a moment who is really sending the message and ask yourself if you really want to ignore it.

I'd love to hear of other peoples experiences with Divine Alignment.

"For every point of view there is an opposite point of view"

We have a tendency to believe that our thoughts are universal truths. That not only are our opinions correct but every moral person must have the same thoughts - WRONG.

It is a very humbling thought that for every view/opinion we have that there is someone, somewhere that has the exact opposite view with the same amount of passion we have. The best example of this is abortion. People on both sides of the debate are just as passionate as the other side that their view is morally correct. Supreme Court decision frequently come down to a single vote, republicans vs democrats, conservations vs liberals are all examples of the diversity of thought among people.

While it is important to have opinions and to stick to your own values it is also important to recognize that others may not agree with you and that is okay.

"Never Underestimate The Power of Visualization"

This is a very important Whittism to remember. Visualization can manifest amazing events in our lives.

When I was in my thirties I heard a report that the life expectancy for those that work in a corporate environment until age 65. It claimed that the life expectancy was 1.4 yrs. Please note, that while this report did influence myself greatly, I cannot attest to it's accuracy. However, at that time I put my sites on an early retirement from Raytheon when I turned 55 in Oct of 2008. I started posting notices on my office with the count down. The first one was "238 more paychecks until retirement." We were paid monthly then.

Later on when I turned 50 I chose massage therapy as my new career after retiring from Raytheon. The plan was to get licensed, start a business and build the clientele so that when 55 came, I would be off and running. I would use my pension to help soften the blow of giving up my corporate income. I then started fantasying that if I got a voluntary layoff 6 months before becoming eligible for retirement I would get 6 months full salary as my severance to kick start the new career even more.

While attending DoveStar for massage therapy they would have us visualize the environment we wanted to work in. I would always visualize working in a building that had been a home or looked like a home near water.

I graduated from DoveStar in Feb 2003. While working on my web site for Elements of Bodywork, trying to get it to come up on the first page of Google, I found the web site for Shine Salon. It noted they had a room for rent. I drove by 92 Union St and saw that it was a salon that was in a converted cape with a pool in the back yard! Well I called the owner and after meeting with her, agreed to set up shop there.


Then in Feb of 2008 my IT group at Raytheon was informed they were looking for 50 employees to volunteer for a layoff! Needless to say I jumped on it. We agreed my last day of work would be Apr 30, 2008. Exactly 6 months before becoming eligible for retirement! Six months of full pay while being available to work at my new career with my first pension check deposited immediately afterward.

Coincidence? No way! The power of visualization.

"You can't fight hatred with hatred"

History has shown consistently that using hatred to fight hatred does not work. Somehow we seem to think that hating the people that do not have the same thoughts or philosophy as are own will change their thinking.

It is better to step back and try to understand life from their perspective. This might give you insight on how to improve the relationship with those that you have conflict with.

"Every client is a snowflake"

I loved this bit of advice from T.J. Sexton from the massage school I attended, DoveStar. While this was in reference to the field of massage therapy, it can be applied universally.

It is irritating that so many therapist treat all clients as if they all have the same body with the same set of troubles. The massage schools they attended teaches EVERY therapist to give the exact same massage. Their massages are the same for all clients instead of modifying the session to the needs of the client.

Thanks T.J.

What is a Whittism?

A Whittism is a quotation or philosophy of myself, the author, Paul E Whittier, Jr. They also include quotes that I have heard over the years that resonate with me.