Getting on the right track.

Two of my intentions this year are to eliminate debtand live with less. I am not doing so well with either of these as we head into the end of March. I have continued to buy things with my credit card and continued to have that want more attitude. Anyone else familiar with that attitude?

So in an effort to get myself back on a positive path towards debt free living and being content with what I have - which is really where I want to be - I figured I would talk a bit about it on here and then you guys can keep tabs on me. Give me a kick in the pants every now and then.

It has just become to easy to hit the enter button to buy three more books, a couple more of this and a couple more of that...and it adds up bit by bit to become one big BIT. At one point in time I thought that being at home would enable me to buy less...but the computer and high speed access has created just the opposite environment.

As I was driving to Fed Ex this morning I was thinking about all this...and I decided that I really need to follow one of the ideas in my book: stop & think before you speak. Or in my case, actually making myself STOP and think before hitting enter, before handing over my credit card, before that "it is no big deal" attitude creeps in and takes over. So that is what I will work on...maybe I need to create a stop sign to put on my desk as a reminder.

Ah, and my dice today say: walk purposefully.

On another note:
I feel the need to comment, at least briefly, on the Terri Schiavo case. My overwhelming feeling is that we have no idea what the truth is in this matter. Conflicting reports, allegations, etc. - how anyone can make a decision in this case is beyond me. Driving home from Portland on Saturday afternoon I heard a variety of stories on the case via the radio - things that sure made me feel like there was something not quite right. I am reminded once again about the role of the media in our world...their ability to create realities.

In college one of my favorite classes was called Politics and the Media taught by Robert Sahr. It was one of those classes that will always stand out in my memory as one that was completely relevant to the world in which we live. The main theme of the class is that perception is reality. The media is a machine that creates certain realities - whether or not they are completely true - and we, as a society take them as fact. Most of the time without question. We are too tired, too bombarded, too distracted with the happenings in our own lives to search out the real facts behind the condensed stories we get through the news. I think about this all the time whether I am watching TV, listening to the radio, or reading the paper.

The Schiavo case has become so much more than simply her story. It has created political, social, economic and moral discussions around the country and a complete media circus (not to mention a platform for politicians on every side to attempt to "win" in whatever that means to them) - and yet, it is about her. What did she really want? What were her wishes? If the simple truth were only known...