Our scedules are very demanding. How do you feel we should we coordinate and prioritize our schedules? HDIFAMA?

Dear LORD:

Be with us as we are together tonight. I am so in love with my sweetheart. Be with us as we dialog together. Amen!

MDDL:

Your MEQ today has been your diligence in looking for an apartment for our son, Samuel. It touched my heart when you referred to him today as "our baby".

The way we have been coordinating and prioritizing our schedules up till now has been very ad hoc and very tactical. We tend to focus more on what is urgent, and less on what is important. I think we should make a longer term plan. We miss a lot by short term thinking.

The things that pay off in the long terms are things like your education, getting the taxes filed, getting out of debt, practicing yoga, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and the like. Plus continuing our spiritual pursuits and making time for our relationship. These are the top priority items that we should be focusing on.

We tend to get sucked into shorter term thinking about things like Samuel's and Jon's relationship issues, Jeanae's current crisis or drama, my job, your job, and the like.

I got in touch with this propensity for short term thinking a few days ago. There was a show on NPR which was discussing the issue of the GI bill. My life was completely transformed by the GI bill when my father was able to get an education and escape the cycle of poverty as a result of the benefits he received in WWII. It turns out that every dollar that was invested in educational benefits for veterans after WWII was repaid tenfold in tax revenues from the increased earnings these folks earned during their lives.

Which begs the obvious question: Why doesn't the government simply pay for college for everyone? Many countries do this. Ireland for example. Also Switzerland. All education is free because the government recognizes that people who earn more pay more taxes and thus the investment in peoples lives is a huge payoff.

So why don't we do this in our country? Because it takes too long for the payoff to occur. The period required is in decades not in the short term time horizon of most politicians. Thus, they do not fund education (or even the GI bill) nearly as much as would be appropriate considering the payoff.

This short term way of thinking is baked into our entire society. EMC is like this. I suspect that the Refectory Cafe probably is too. It is part of the insanity and dysfunction of our society that we ignore long term opportunities by looking at the short term. I see us doing that in our own lives. I do it in my life all the time. I am more focused on getting my expense report filed than I am on getting the taxes filed, although the dollar value of the taxes is at least 20x the amount of the expense report. Again, what is most urgent is not necessarily the most important.

I would like for us to really take some time to create long term goals and write them down. Then come up with measurable time periods for us to achieve those goals. Finally, I would like for us to figure out concreate, measurable things we can do to move towards those goals. I would also like for us to do this repeatedly and iteratively, on a scheduled basis. By doing this, we can actually move our lives in the directions we choose, rather than simply allowing life to happen to us.

The way I feel about this is very optimistic. I feel a level of maturity and optimism within myself that I have not felt in pretty much any other time in my life. The color is like a deep rich green, of abundant life, springing up from rich soil. It feels like health returning after a long period of illness, when you can finally breath again after a cold for example. (You know that first sneeze you have after being stopped up for a long time? Delicious!)

The feeling is definitely a 10. It is quite strong. I want for us to do this together. We can do this and we will.

I love you.

Love,
Me