Ed & Med

     We want everyone to be educated and healthy.  Our government makes sure everyone gets an education through public school systems paid for by our taxes.  Our access to education does not depend on the financial status of the family.
     Just as our minds need education, our bodies need health care.  Many of us pay for insurance through payroll deductions directed to private companies and to Medicare.  Many citizens, however, have no insurance for a variety of reasons.  They may be unemployed or too poor or sick to get insurance.  Our government is trying to make sure everyone has access to health care.  This necessity should not depend on the financial status of the family.
     Our full potential as a country will not be realized until all of our citizens have fully developed minds and healthy bodies.         

Outside the Box

     We are placed in many boxes.  Our parents made a box of safety so we wouldn't be harmed by others or harm ourselves.  Society makes a box of laws also for our safety so we don't harm each other.  Religions say that God created His box of guidelines to instill morality and enable us to have a better relationship with Him and other human beings.
     As we mature, we can decide if we want to be boxed in, conforming to perimeters set by others.  We may have outgrown or just don't fit into our present confines.  We can use our freedom, wisdom, and imagination to focus on what we can do instead of what others want us to do.
     We still need to abide the laws of civilization and try to make safe and moral decisions, but by designing our own lives, we can live outside the box.

Change Your Own

     When all your efforts have failed to change someone else, the only change you may be able to make is in your own mind and in your own behavior.  Of course, we all have faith in strong convictions and persistence, but sometimes the best plan is to relax and let others be responsible for their own behavior.  Even when their behavior adversely effects our own lives, nagging very seldom produces good results.  Putting our own opinions on hold for awhile may actually benefit the situation.
     If you are suffering over your lack of control over another person's life, you first need to stop the suffering.  Your unhappiness will do very little to improve the situation and may make matters worse.  Our first responsibility is toward ourselves and our own health.  Next we should try to understand why we want someone to change.  Maybe they need to improve their health or their relationships. 
     Everyone knows what it feels like to have someone think they know better than we do, insinuating that we are wrong.  Powers of persuasion have to be well-timed.  When our concern is considered nagging, we lose effectiveness.  Changing our own outlook and perspective may be all we can do until the other person wants to change.