Have you ever wondered why or how someone particular got to be King or Queen? Sure, if you watch movies and assume any level of accuracy in them, some of the kings our world has seen become so through nothing more than force of violence. They were the strongest or they had the strongest army. That “strongest army” might also have simply meant most brutal or best armed. But when our world reached a point where Kings weren’t just the result of brute force, how was a king selected? As recently as the late 1700s, a new nation tried to select a man to be king. George Washington turned down the title and refused being “royalty,” but why was he chosen to potentially be such in the first place? (more…)

When we hear someone say, “He’s a strong person,” or “She has great inner strength,” it can mean different things to each of us. The word “strong” has a wide variety of definitions available for it, but the one(s) I want to concentrate on here are those relating to strength of character; strength of spirit. Hands down the largest message I want to impart in this piece is that just because someone appears to be strong… behaves in a manner that expresses a greater inner strength… is constantly helping others, DOES NOT mean that they aren’t fighting their own battles. (more…)

Sure, we’d all like to be rich. If you’re familiar with the Avengers in Marvel Comics, then you know who Tony Stark is.  It’s no surprise that, when asked which Avenger they’d like to be, most people answered, “Iron Man.”  When asked to explain why people most often cited the fact that Iron Man’s alter ego, Tony Stark, is mega rich.  And we’re not talking about millionaire, multi-millionaire or even billionaire kind of rich. We’re talking about STUPID rich – multi-billionaire worth HUNDREDS of billions of dollars.  Yeah, we all recognize that having that kind of money would probably enable us to make a few changes in our life that might impact our quality of life (quite possibly the biggest understatement ever). (more…)

…but don’t waste time to prove it.  What am I talking about?  In today’s world it seems, at least to me as I view the news, social media, etc., that there is a general call to perform random acts of kindness.  Further, it seems as if proof of such action is somehow required – as if you’re not really a good person unless you spend the extra few seconds to document your good works; as if you didn’t actually DO good unless you have evidence of such.  My challenge with that should be obvious:  good deeds are good deeds no matter how many witnesses there are or aren’t and the fact that you’ve done something good requires no more proof or evidence than the result of having done it. (more…)