On Writing My Blog

In 2018, I entered the 80th year of my life. It’s been a long, sometimes painful, other times joyful, often tedious or difficult process, but on the whole it’s been outstanding in numerous ways. By the way, this is not my epitaph, nor is it some prediction that I am seeing the end of my life. Actually, it’s the beginning of the next phase of my life.

In this new phase, which is clearly much closer to the end of my life than previous phases were, I have decided to start writing about what I have learned in these 80 years and what I would like to share with others before I can no longer do so. In today’s technology, I don’t have to write books or articles, I can write in a blog as often as I want and at any length that I would like. I can write about whatever I choose, although, I expect that much of it will be about psychology and human behavior, and much about our social, economic and political conditions of life. I love sports, sex, travel, and having fun, in general, but I’m not sure how much I may write about these topics.

The important point here is that I feel free to write about anything I want and I have the opportunity to do so, knowing full well that the public out there has an equal opportunity to not care about what I write or take any time to look at it. But it doesn’t matter, because this will be my discussion of important beliefs, thoughts, and observations that I have a desire to express.

I have developed many observations and views on various aspects of the way we as people think and act, and some of these views contradict the mainstream of psychological, and, particularly, psychiatric thought, while in other cases my views are on how my observed failures of our human services fields can be corrected.

I will also share my views on what makes us think and act the way we do, especially when we do things that result in harm to ourselves and those we care about, or, worse yet, to the general public, quite often by intent, or incidentally, but without concern.

I will share my views on institutions, in general, as well as more specific institutions such as schools, churches, and governmental agencies. Unfortunately, most of my views in these categories are negative and fraught with pessimism, but I have hope and belief that institutions, like individuals, can be fixed and improved.

I might even share my philosophy on life and the universe and how the two go together. These views are personal to me, based on my life’s experiences and education and not on what people have told me are the right ways to think or believe. Therefore, what I think and may write could be very touchy in terms of how others may view me. But I can honestly say that my views of the universe at material and spiritual levels are based on much of what our major religions have emphasized – love, care, unity – along with an integration of what science has explained about the essence of our material world, the universe and ourselves.

For instance, I know this: if you believe in God as the great maker of the universe and all in it, then it only makes sense that you have to believe that God gave us the intelligence that we have to use for learning about ourselves and our universe and for improving our lives, rather than to avoid using it in order to abide by the do’s and don’ts of some belief system or someone’s authoritative dictates. The same conclusion holds true if you simply believe that we are the product of universal matter and evolution.

In addition to the survival and procreation priorities that our bodies have been given, we have been given intelligence that allows us to see and understand, as well as create, beyond the immediate threats and demands of our lives. For most of my life, I have been dedicated to using this intelligence to the max, to understand the mysteries of our universe, our world and ourselves, and to envision answers and solutions to everything I can imagine, whenever possible. This has been a significant and, probably, the primary factor in my own personal growth.

I hope that my intelligence, along with my education and experiences of life have produced enough wisdom that is truly worthy of sharing with others. I remember when my father died, besides my sadness for his loss, how I lamented the loss of his intelligence and tremendous amount of knowledge with his death.

For the longest time I was bothered by the fact that so many people accumulate so much knowledge and wisdom that could be beneficial to the rest of the world, but it does not get shared and it dies with those people. For a long time, I have also been bothered by the fact that most people tend to reject or not see the wisdom of important knowledge that the wise persons of humanity attempt to pass on to others, and these people have to repeat the same pains and tribulations as those who preceded them in order to gain that wisdom.

Maybe someday humanity will move to the next level of awareness and begin accepting “real” rather than “fake” or distorted information as the basis for their own self-improvement and behaviors. This description of information is, of course, taken from the new language style that came in with our current administration.

I will try to present only “real” information that may only be distorted by my views and perceptions. But, I will never deny true evidence.

From the start, I have to make the disclaimer that everything I write here reflects only my views and in no way represents the views, attitudes or practices of the ASC Psychological Clinic or any of its talented professional staff, although I expect that some of them will probably agree with some of my views at times. And, they might even disagree with me at other times.