The Good and Not So Good Human Traits

I don't make resolutions when a new year arrives. I instead, set goals for my life & I set such goals throughout the year. In my experiences during the past couple of years, I have encountered people with personality & character traits so ugly that they have brought out the worst of mankind. I have also observed & been exposed to traits so awesome that they help people to forget that ugliness in this world even exists when we can see the goodness in others. I want to strive to exhibit the positive traits below, to the best of my ability. They are shown first on this list. This post isn't pretty or poetic, nor is the layout fancy. Heck, I'm not even going to make the format perfectly consistent & uniform. I don't feel like it. But I do believe the point I'm trying to make can still be made here:

Sisters

She was the 3rd daughter for my parents. They already had one son at that time & I'm quite certain my brother had hoped for a baby brother instead of yet another girl, but that was not to be. I'm hypothesizing here. I haven't actually asked my brother how he felt about having yet another sister in the family, but c'mon...what boy actually looks forward to being outnumbered 3 to 1 by sisters?

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To make matters worse for my poor brother, he had to wait an extra month to find out if he was going to have a little brother or not, because this little baby was born a month late...at least according to legend (every family has them). At last the day arrived & the doctor announced "it's a girl". I can imagine the dismay my brother must have felt on that day, although he likely was used to it by now.

Speaking of Politics....

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I am not a fan of reading political posts & so I'm about to do the very thing I hate to see...but something is getting on my nerves & I just can't remain silent anymore. I am talking about the constant posts on social as well as mainstream media about the upcoming presidential election & the obvious intent to persuade others toward a certain candidate. So with that in mind.....

We Have a Choice

Everything we do is a choice. Unless someone is blackmailing us, using extortion against us, or coercing us by force, we alone are responsible for the choices we make. 

Someone will say "but you don't know what he did to me...he left me no choice!".  Nope, wrong answer. We always have a choice.

"But she knows that I get upset when she does such & such. I had no choice but to show her that she can't get away with that". Again, we always have a choice.

"This person hurt my family member!" --- once again, we have a choice in how we respond.

"Yeah, but that person cut me off in traffic & nearly caused an accident" -- I can relate to this one...& yes, I have the choice in how I will respond.