Living without money

An inspiring story I read in The Times that I thought I would share. Being that I consider shopping a hobby (joking...well not really lol), I couldn’t live this lifestyle but I think it’s a very interesting story.

By Stefanie Marsh

Twenty-two years ago Heidemarie Schwermer, a middle-aged secondary school teacher just emerging from a difficult marriage, moved with her two children from the village of Lueneburg to the city of Dortmund, in the Ruhr area of Germany, whose homeless population, she immediately noticed, was above average and striking in its intransigent hopelessness.

Her immediate reaction was shock. “This isn’t right, this can’t go on,” she said to herself. After careful reflection she set up what in Germany is called a Tauschring — a sort of swap shop — a place where people can exchange their skills or possessions for other skills and possessions, a money-free zone where a haircut could be rendered in return for car maintenance; a still-functioning but never-used toaster be exchanged for a couple of second-hand cardigans. She called it Gib und Nimm, Give and Take.

It was always Schwermer’s belief that the homeless didn’t need money to re-enter society: instead they should be able to empower themselves by making themselves useful, despite debts, destitution or joblessness. “I’ve always believed that even if you have nothing, you are worth a lot. Everyone has a place in this world.”

But the homeless of Dortmund seemed not to take to Schwermer’s plan, few ever turned up to the Tauschring. Some, they told her angrily to her face, felt that a middle-class woman with some education would never be able to relate to the circumstances of the dispossessed. Instead it was mainly the unemployed and the retired who began, in snowballing numbers, to flock to the Tauschring, their arms full of things that had been lying around their homes unused for years, or skills that they possessed but no longer exercised: retired hairdressers volunteered to cut the hair of out-of-work electricians, who would wire their kitchens in return; retired English teachers gave language lessons in return for the services of a dog-walker. The point was, not a single pfennig changed hands.

The Tauschring grew exponentially, was written up glowingly in a couple of local papers and turned into something of a Dortmund phenomenon. Its success also prompted Schwermer to ask serious questions of herself and her way of life. “I began to realise that I lived with so many things I didn’t need. So I decided that I wouldn’t buy anything without giving something away. That’s how it started. Then I began to really think about what I needed, clothes for example, and noticed that I could easily get by with what I could hang on ten coathangers. Everything else I gave away. I had so much stuff in the house that was superfluous. Getting rid of it was a relief.”

After a while even her vast collection of books began to assume an excessive presence in her home and one day Schwermer marched to a second-hand shop with her entire library. “The woman in the shop was upset. But I felt that giving them away was a good thing. I love books but I knew I had to get rid of them. I didn’t miss them, which surprised me. I just wanted to pare things down to their essentials.”

What had, in part, led Schwermer to her conclusions about “stuff” was a year of psychotherapy after the breakdown of her marriage in the mid-1980s. It was a difficult year, she remembers: “I was in floods of tears nearly every session, but at the end of it I felt so happy and decided that I wanted to live more simply. I also wanted to pass on what I learnt in therapy to other people, and that’s when I began to train as a psychotherapist.”

Other things changed. She took up meditation and began to realise how dissatisfied she was in her job. “I was always ill with flu or had backache and never realised the connection between my physical symptoms and my unhappiness at work.”

In the wake of setting up her Tauschring, she began to experiment with other sorts of jobs on the side. “I was working in a kitchen for ten deutschmarks an hour and people were saying to me, ‘You went to university, you studied to do this?’ But I thought, well, every person has an intrinsic value, why should I be valued more for being a teacher or a therapist than for working in a kitchen?”

The more ascetically she lived, the happier she became. By 1995 she was deeply involved in the Tauschring, house-sitting for short periods in exchange for cleaning or light maintenance work. She was buying virtually nothing: “When I needed something, I found that it would just come into my life. My glasses, for example. There was an optician who was a member of the Tauschring and he gave them to me in return for some therapy sessions.”

It was in 1996 she realised that “I had to go farther” and took what would be the most radical decision of her life: to live without money. She gave up her apartment and teaching job and resolved to live nomadically, an “extreme lifestyle”, she admits, moving from house to house, in return for menial work. Her new way of life was intended as a short-lived thing: she had given herself 12 months. But she found herself enjoying it so much that it never really ended.

Thirteen years on, she continues to live according to the principles of Gib und Nimm. “Life became much more exciting. More beautiful. I had everything I needed and I knew I couldn’t go back to my old life. I didn’t have to do what I didn’t like, I had a more profound sense of joy, and physically I feel better than ever. Living without money was just the first step. I realised that I wanted to change the world and I wasn’t going to do that by looking after someone’s cat while they were on holiday.”

She still lives — a week at a time — in the spare rooms of members of the Tauschring, cleaning or working in return for accommodation. Only very occasionally has she had personality clashes with her hosts and she tries to resolve any tension within herself “by going for a walk”. She has emergency savings of €200 (£180) and any other money that comes to her she gives away. “I decided it was OK to collect my pension but I give most of it away, except for what I need to pay for train tickets.”

She has no health insurance because she didn’t want to be accused of scrounging off the state. Instead she relies on what she calls the “power of self-healing. When something hurts, I put my hand on it and say to myself I have the power to heal myself and the pain goes away.” What if she becomes really ill? “Cancer? Then I suppose I’ll die. I’ve already prepared myself for death several times — times when I thought, ‘This is it, it’s over’. But then I got up the next day and everything was fine.”

Her entire material world is now contained in a single black suitcase and a rucksack. No photographs because, she says, “I don’t need them”.

In the flesh Schwermer is charming and engaging as well as lively and youthful-looking with strong jutting teeth and eyesight that she says she has halfway managed to correct herself with exercises she has picked from the people she meets. She is well dressed, neat and tidy and, it may come as a surprise given her lifestyle, 67 years old. Her two children — now a music teacher and a therapist — support what their mother does although the family don’t spend Christmas together. Though single, she has relationships every now and again, but is adamant that any love affair will always come second to what she calls her ideological work with Gib und Nimm. “I can imagine having a serious relationship with someone who is spiritual and who believes in what I’m doing, but not one where I live in a nice big house. I can fall in love but I can’t imagine living with someone. ”

Given her constant roaming about the country, it is almost impossible pinning her down. We met in the Greenpeace offices in Münster, near Cologne, where she was to address a group of young people who had been inspired by her work to live without money for week (Schwermer spends much of her time giving lectures about her lifestyle). Accompanying her was an Italian/ Norwegian film crew and we watched as successive teenagers stumbled in and out of the office, having been given the task of bartering for food with the offer of work. “We already live in a barter economy.

We go to work to get money. I want to go farther.”

What is farther and how far is far enough? Ideally, Schwermer would like to lead by example and give other people courage to change their attitudes towards money and how they live in and contribute to society. The pressure to buy and to own, she feels, has intensified in recent years. Consumerism is essentially about “an attempt to fill an empty space inside. And that emptiness, and the fear of loss, is manipulated by the media or big companies.” There is a fear, she says, that in not buying or owning an individual will fall out of society. The irony, she claims, is that material goods can never plug a spiritual hole and shopping and hoarding are more likely to isolate people than bring contentment. Does she intend to start a revolution?

“No, I think of myself as planting the seed,” she says. “Perhaps people come away from my lectures or seeing me being interviewed and decide to spend a little less. Others might start meditating. The point is that my living without money is to allow for the possibility of another kind of society. I want people to ask themselves, ‘What do I need? How do I really want to live?’ Every person needs to ask themselves who they really are and where they belong. That means getting to grips with oneself.”

Does she really think that she can convert other people to her life philosophy? “Yes, that’s our future. One day we will all live without money, because we don’t need it and because it is only a burden. We’re the way we are because it’s how the system allows us to be. We can buy everything we want but we need so much less than we realise. If you think that the capitalist system we live in now is the only system, well that’s just ridiculous.”

Though she no longer owns any of her own, she has written two books on her adventures (and has given away her royalties). The first, My Life without Money, turned her first into a minor hero in Germany in some quarters, the kind who, last week for example, was invited on to a late-night TV forum to discuss whether Money Can Make You Happy. Surrounded by dot-com millionaires and lottery winners, she spoke while the other guests peered at her, visibly disconcerted to meet a woman who had given up everything and who claimed to be happy. “I live completely normally, only without money,” she said. “There are people who do so in Siberia. And in Africa there are many people who survive only because they all help each other.”

Schwermer knows from experience that not everyone will take her seriously. When she began with her project, “I was attacked frequently by people telling me that I wasn’t living without money at all, that I was just being provocative or scrounging, which made me cry! But then I realised it isn’t just about giving and expecting something back, or about giving and allowing oneself to be taken advantage of, or becoming a victim. It is about the possibility of having another life, of letting go of the stuff around us and examining our deepest fears.”

She tells me about an episode three years ago when she became convinced that she was going to starve to death: “But I really asked myself what that was about and realised it was about my childhood, and it had no bearing on reality.” (Schwermer is the child of refugees who lost everything after the war). Her only real terror now is appearing in the media. “I hate being on TV because it makes me so nervous but I know I reach a lot of people that way.” The people she does get through to, judging by the demographics of the lecture halls she visits, tend to be women. Why? “Because women are more open to new ideas.”

Is Schwermer a lunatic? Certainly she has been called “naive” and “idealistic” by the author of an article in the right-wing Die Welt newspaper, who asked her whether she was pursuing a communist-lite agenda when communism has been proved to be a failure. “It’s true that communism didn’t work,” she says, “but human beings need to learn to be a little bit different before we can learn to share what we have. We are going to run out of oil in ten years. We don’t have infinite resources. That just isn’t sustainable.”

Is her own itinerant lifestyle sustainable? She thinks so. She feels young but, in the event of death, she has organised her own funeral. She’s “paid” for it by striking a deal with an enlightened clergyman, who agreed that she would cover the costs of the burial by offering counseling sessions for the bereaved. Such deals are a regular feature of her new existence: only the managers of the German rail network seem to be immune to her formidable powers of persuasion, hence the few euros she still needs at her disposable to travel long distances.

Schwermer often talks enthusiastically about “the new world” she is in the process of discovering. She is esoteric but not mad or prone to ranting. Most people find her to be engaging and likeable: there are now many members of her Tauschring. What about those who live without money but not through choice? What about the poor and the homeless? Has she ever converted a homeless person to her way of thinking?

“I haven’t managed to reach the homeless,” she says. “I did hold lectures for the homeless but only six or seven showed up. They didn’t want to hear it. One of the men there accused me of having ‘connections’, that I’d only been able to do what I have been able to do because I knew people. I do have contacts, that’s what this new world is all about, forging links and contacts. Otherwise it wouldn’t work.”

She never managed to convince her interlocutor and not long after their conversation he had resumed his place outside on the pavement begging for spare change.

Good Bye 2009...Hello 2010!

As the clock strikes midnight tonight, many people all over the world will be cheering and celebrating a new year. For many, a new year symbolizes more than just a change in calendar digits. The New Year symbolizes the possibility for a better tomorrow. Many people are inspired to create New Year’s Resolutions such as being a better person, losing weight, finding a better job, or spending more time with family just to name a few. I think everyone, regardless who you are, can always find something they can improve to make them a more well rounded individual. So if you’re thinking you want to have a New Year’s Resolution but aren’t quite sure what you want it to be, here’s some suggestions I thought of…

Volunteer
Speaking for myself, I’ve felt great internal satisfaction each time that I’ve volunteered. It feels really good to give back to the community and help others if you have the ability to do so. I have volunteered at food banks packing up boxes of food, I’ve also collected clothes for Dress for Success who provide work clothes and career development to disadvantaged women and I’ve organized and/or participated in multiple disease related fund raising events. I have to say that all of these activities have given me more fulfillment than a day’s pay. So if you are looking for a small way to make a big impact in your life, as well as someone else’s, I say volunteer. This is one place you will always be needed and they will always be happy to see you.

Make a personal date
Do something just for yourself, by yourself once a week. Something as simple as a candle lit bubble bath, a good book and warm blanket, an old classic movie, a long walk...just take some relaxing time out for you.

Take a risk
And I don’t mean something little like eating chocolate when you’re on a diet. I mean a big risk that scares you and might even make you think you can’t do it…then…you DO IT! Something like, apply for a promotion, change careers, join an activity group etc. So think of one thing that has always held you back because of fear, and then overcome it. There’s a saying I love “The only things in life you regret are the risks you didn’t take”. So, TAKE IT!

Create a Bucket List
A bucket list is a list of all the things you want to accomplish or see in your life before you…well…kick the bucket. I have an ongoing list that I keep on my computer and honestly, over the years it has come in handy. Sometimes if I’m looking for something to do, I refer to my list. I have things as little as parks I’d like to go hiking in, to places I want to travel to sky diving. So create your list and then get to doing them and check them off one by one!

Challenge yourself…
I firmly believe if you aren’t continuing to challenge yourself, then you aren’t growing as a person. I read somewhere once that challenging yourself develops a healthy self esteem. So think of something you’ve always wanted to tackle and then take it on! It could be anything from a home improvement project to learning another language or a book that’s a tough read (I have one of these right now that I am trying to get myself to tackle. It’s called House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves). I feel I challenge myself every time I write for my blog. Of course, the world won't end if you do not challenge yourself, but the building blocks of success can be found in tackling hard projects.

Get a hobby
I believe many people lose their hobbies as they get older. I think sometimes life just gets in the way and your hobby takes a back seat. But having a hobby is a great way to meet new people and do something you really enjoy. It can be anything from joining a sports league like softball or bowling to knitting or scrap booking, taking yoga or picking up that instrument you used to play when you were in high school. Like they say, in order to be interesting, have some interests.

Create a vision board
If you’ve ever read the book or watched the DVD The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(book)) then you know what I’m talking about. The Secret is all about The Law of Attraction which says that our thoughts, both conscious and unconscious can basically attract the things that you want. It suggests having a vision board where you display all the things you wish for your life and have it in an area that is visible to you every day as a constant reminder of what you desire. So think about the things you want for your life and then display them on a vision board and see if The Law of Attraction can work for you.

Read a self improvement book
There’s so many out there that I have found beneficial. I mentioned my favorite book in a previous blog, The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav but there are so many amazing, well written ones out there. Self improvement books are a great way to experience personal growth. If you’ve never read one, you’d be surprised how much you can take away from reading a book of this type and incorporate it into your life and your personal development. Some books can be a tough read for some people so if you decide to try this, maybe it could also be the challenging thing you do for yourself.

Practice compassion
The world can use more compassionate people. I try to be compassionate of others and try to treat others how I want to be treated. I love the quote by Gandhi “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” If everyone practiced compassion, the world would be a much better place. The next time you’re out, think of this and see where you can incorporate it into your own life. It can even be something small like saying hello to a stranger, holding the door for someone or lending a helping hand to someone in need.

Tackle your weakness
Think about what your weakness is and then improve it. Are you a terrible speller or awful at math, do you curse too much, do you not have a large enough vocabulary? Whatever your weakness is, figure out how you can work on it and then challenge yourself to overcome it.

Set goals
They could be long term or short term, big or small but everyone should have goals. So define your goals in life and continually evaluate your current situation to make sure you are still going in the right direction to reach your goals.

Well, as 2009 comes to a close, so does this blog. I hope that you find something valuable listed here that you could use to enrich your own life. I wish everyone a HAPPY and HEALTHY New Year filled with lots of LOVE, LAUGHTER and HAPPINESS. 

As Benjamin Franklin said “Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man.”

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas is my favorite time of year, not because of all the presents but because of the energy that seems to exist at this time of year. As much as I think the gift giving part of the holiday season has become too commercialized, I love the Christmas music and the gorgeous decorations in all the stores. I’m not one of those people though that makes myself crazy buying gifts, to me that loses the whole purpose of the holiday. I don’t make myself stressed out running all over the place or go into debt to buy tons of gifts. To me, the holiday is about spending the day with my family, eating too many desserts, listening to Christmas music and watching all the kids go crazy ripping open their gifts. Another thing I love about this time of year is New York City. Every year I go into the city to see the tree, look at all the decorated store windows, watch the people ice skate in Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park and sometimes fit a Broadway play into the day’s festivities. It’s a great way to spend a day during the holiday season.

I was trying to recall my favorite childhood memory from this time of year. I think it would have to be the family vacations to “The North Pole”. For a few years as a child, my parents brought me and my sister, along with 2 other families, which totaled 13 people altogether. The North Pole was really upstate New York but as a kid I really thought I was going to the place where Santa lived…there was even an actual pole in the middle of the “resort” made out of snow! I don’t’ remember a lot about those vacations but I remember staying in what I think was a log cabin, seeing Santa and his elves walking around, doing lots of kid oriented activities like decorating a Santa hat with my name in glitter and making various Christmas things out of those fuzzy wire pipes. That was a really nice vacation for us kids so I have to say “thank you” to my mom and dad for giving up what could have been a more “adult friendly” vacation to make memories for me and my sister at “The North Pole”.

Now, switching gears but staying in the Christmas theme, I thought I’d share some interesting fun Santa facts. Here in America, whenever we think of Santa, we think of a red and white older man with a bushy white beard and big belly who “Ho, Ho, Ho’s” down the chimney with presents in the middle of the night. Although this symbolic image is known around the world, many countries have a different image associated with the tradition of Christmas and gift giving. In Italy, La Befana is a good witch who dresses all in black and brings gifts to children on the Epiphany, 6th January. In Holland, Sinterklaas sails in on a ship arriving on the 5th of December carrying a big book which tells him how the Dutch children have behaved during the past year. Good children are rewarded with gifts and his assistant, Black Peter, takes the bad ones away. In Germany Saint Nicholas also travels with an assistant, known as Knecht Ruprecht, Krampus, or Pelzebock, and comes with a sack on his back and a rod in his hand. Good children receive a gift, but naughty children are punished by the assistant with a few hits of the rod. In many Spanish countries; Spain, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and South America, the children wait for the Three Kings to bring their Christmas gifts. In France, Father Christmas or Pere Noel brings gifts for the children. Switzerland has the Christkindl or Christ Child who bears gifts. In some towns children await the Holy Child and in others, Christkindl is a girl-angel who comes down from heaven bearing gifts. The Scandinavian countries celebrate with an elf, called the Julenisse or the Juletomte who bears gifts. And in England Father Christmas, a more serious and thinner version of Santa Claus brings gifts. North America is really the only country that associates the red and white jolly man with his sled and reindeer flying throughout the night of December 25th.

Do you know how the St. Nicholas image came to be this image? Well, depending on your age, you may already know this, but truth be told, I had no idea until I researched it. The American Santa was done mainly by Coca-Cola, the soft drinks company. Coca-Cola was struggling to sell cold drinks in the winter season and wanted to figure out a way to associate their product with the holiday season. Santa Claus had this enormous task facing him every Christmas Eve to go around the world distributing gifts to children everywhere. Obviously from all the flying and climbing in and out of chimneys all night, Santa would get tired and thirsty, so what better idea than to have Santa taking a break in his rounds to enjoy a Coca Cola? The scene with a red and white, round belly Santa drinking a Coca-Cola became synonymous with the winter season advertisements.

So as I “wrap up” (pun intended) my blog, I thought I’d share this short but nice Christmas poem I came across.

Christmas Poem ~ by Oren Arnold
Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.

Wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas Day! I hope that everyone has a place to keep them warm, enough food to keep them from being hungry and family/friends to enjoy their day with.

I am INFJ…what are you?

I am INFJ…Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging. Know what this means? Well, neither did I until my Vice President came to me a few years ago asking me to observe my fellow colleagues using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator assessment. I was like….Sure! Absolutely! Yes, of course I know what that is! And then I quickly went online to gather as much information as I could to familiarize myself. Of course my VP realized I wasn’t a psychologist, nor remotely close to being able to accurately analyze their behavior, but he was looking to get a raw assessment of his team. So for an entire week during their annual sales meeting, I had to sit in the back of the room and secretly study their behavior using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator assessment. The reason I needed to “secretly” observe is so they didn’t change their normal behavior. For those of you that don’t know, like me, MBTI is a questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. Many companies use the MBTI as a tool for leadership training and development.

There’s lots of literature you could read if you wanted to learn about the MBTI assessment and how to use it. But for the purpose of my blog, I’ll simply say that, basically it’s observing behavior using four attitudes: Extraversion-Introversion and Judging-Perceiving as well as four functions Sensing-Intuition and Thinking-Feeling to determine how people take in information, make decisions and deal with the outer world.

Here’s a link to my good friend Wikipedia if you’d like to learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-briggs

So anyway, after doing this assessment of my team, I was really interested in learning more about my own personality type. I came across this online version of the test and my results were quite interesting! I have to admit I was shocked at the accuracy of the results as I feel this is spot on to my personality. Now, I know many things can alter a test’s results such as your mood at the time of taking it, having it in paper form rather than online etc however, given that the results indicated that I am “little more than one percent of the population”…I’ll go with it! I always knew I was an original! :-).

Take the test and see what you can learn about yourself! I believe this is an abbreviated version of the true test but it’s still fun to take. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Here is a summary of my personality type:

Idealist Portrait of the Counselor (INFJ)

Counselors have an exceptionally strong desire to contribute to the welfare of others, and find great personal fulfillment interacting with people, nurturing their personal development, guiding them to realize their human potential. Although they are happy working at jobs (such as writing) that require solitude and close attention, Counselors do quite well with individuals or groups of people, provided that the personal interactions are not superficial, and that they find some quiet, private time every now and then to recharge their batteries. Counselors are both kind and positive in their handling of others; they are great listeners and seem naturally interested in helping people with their personal problems. Not usually visible leaders, Counselors prefer to work intensely with those close to them, especially on a one-to-one basis, quietly exerting their influence behind the scenes.

Counselors are scarce, little more than one percent of the population, and can be hard to get to know, since they tend not to share their innermost thoughts or their powerful emotional reactions except with their loved ones. They are highly private people, with an unusually rich, complicated inner life. Friends or colleagues who have known them for years may find sides emerging which come as a surprise. Not that Counselors are flighty or scattered; they value their integrity a great deal, but they have mysterious, intricately woven personalities which sometimes puzzle even them.

Blessed with vivid imaginations, Counselors are often seen as the most poetical of all the types, and in fact they use a lot of poetic imagery in their everyday language. Their great talent for language-both written and spoken-is usually directed toward communicating with people in a personalized way. Counselors are highly intuitive and can recognize another's emotions or intentions - good or evil - even before that person is aware of them. Counselors themselves can seldom tell how they came to read others' feelings so keenly. This extreme sensitivity to others could very well be the basis of the Counselor's remarkable ability to experience a whole array of psychic phenomena.

Mohandas Gandhi, Sidney Poitier, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Goodall, Emily Bronte, Sir Alec Guiness, Carl Jung, Mary Baker Eddy, Queen Noor, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela are examples of the Counselor Idealist (INFJ).

A Day To Give Thanks...

So on this day of thanks, in spite of the current economic situation which I am feeling firsthand, there are still many things that I am thankful for…

~I am thankful for the childhood my parents provided to me. Because of it, I am a well balanced, secure and stable person.

~I am thankful that I have the knowledge and strength to consider a career change which could drastically change my future.

~I am thankful for my very large and very expanded family and the close proximity we all live to one another. I can’t imagine how life would be without all the love that fills our homes every holiday season and all year long.

~I am thankful to have so many lifelong friends from as early as grammar school for which I know, are true friends who will always be there for me.

~I am thankful for my health because I am all too familiar with how quickly this can change in a person’s life.

As you feast on your turkey with all the trimmings today, remember to give thanks to all the people or things that enrich your life.

If you’re going through tough times and having difficulty finding anything to be thankful for, look around and find at least one simple pleasure that puts a smile on your face and give thanks for that one thing. My simple pleasure is my loving and loyal dog :).

Some fun random Thanksgiving Day facts….

*U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday in 1863.

*In 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt established the current date for observance, the fourth Thursday of November.

*Approximately 46 million turkeys will end up on U.S. dinner tables this Thanksgiving.

*Minnesota is the United States's top turkey-producing state

*U.S. farmers will also produce 709 million pounds of cranberries

*The U.S. will also grow 1.8 billion pounds of sweet potatoes and produce 1.1 billion pounds of pumpkins.

*Since 1947 the National Turkey Federation has presented two live turkeys—and a ready-to-eat turkey—to the President, according to federation spokesperson Sherrie Rosenblatt. "There are two birds," Rosenblatt explained, "the presidential turkey and the vice presidential turkey, which is an alternate, in case the presidential turkey is unable to perform its duties." Those duties pretty much boil down to not biting the President during the photo opportunity with the press.

*Pilgrims were familiar with turkeys before they landed in the Americas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Attitude ~by Charles Swindoll

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our Attitudes.

A belated Veteran's Day blog

Since Veteran’s Day was just observed this week, I thought this blog would be appropriate. I recently watched a documentary on an American soldier who was called back to duty in Iraq. I have to say, it was a heart wrenching documentary to watch. He already served for 3 ½ years in Iraq and was being called back again. The camera followed him for days prior to leaving American soil, then through basic training, with a final destination in Iraq. Once in Iraq, the soldier gave the viewer a glimpse of what his daily life was like while stationed overseas. This soldier was stationed in Baghdad. The poverty stricken streets and the barricades he lived within were as scary as I had imagined. Not that I was expecting to see The Ritz Hotel, but their living quarters were nothing less than the most basic of amenities…and as shown in the video, even the basics weren’t always guaranteed. The soldier commented on how he mastered the art of showering with a water bottle because they no longer had running water in their barracks. As I was sitting in suspense the entire time he was being filmed walking through the sandy, gloomy streets of Baghdad, it was hard to remember I wasn’t watching a drama series and in fact, this was someone’s real life. Wow, the dangerous situations all soldiers put themselves in! And to think most of them volunteered! It really takes a special type of person to enlist in the military. I personally, couldn’t do it and wouldn’t want anyone close to me to enlist either.

I realize it’s important to have a military to preserve our security however I don’t necessarily agree with our military going to war to resolve conflict. I know there are so many ways to debate the issue of war that it’s a dichotomy of opinions. I’m not going to delve very deeply into my own, often contradicting beliefs on this either, because it will be a never ending blog leading to no definitive right answer. I’ll say just this. I don’t claim to know all there is to know about the war, government, the military etc. but I don’t necessarily see how invading another country to infiltrate their government (as corrupt as it might be) and impose our belief system on them, is the right way to go. I realize the fact that there is no simple answer however, attacking these countries, risking so many of our young soldiers lives, spending exorbitant amounts of our money and essentially going to war for peace ,simply cannot be the right answer.

I think if every President had to enlist in the military prior to even considering becoming a president, they might not act so quickly on emotions when sending our troops into combat. That should be a prerequisite to becoming a president…makes sense to me.

I also think more should be done for those who serve our country, especially if they go to war. I decided to look up the number of homeless soldiers living in The United States. The National Coalition of Homeless Veterans is quoted as saying “Conservatively, one out of every three homeless men who is sleeping in a doorway, alley or box in our cities and rural communities has put on a uniform and served this country. According to the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Urban Institute, 1999), veterans account for 23 percent of all homeless people in America.” There’s really nothing I can say about this other than it deeply saddens me and more should be expected of our government as it relates to the welfare of our soldiers.

I’ll end this by simply saying, to all the men and women who have served, continue to serve and who will serve our country...THANK YOU for having the courage and bravery to do so!