"The ABC's of Staying Young"

       Tomorrow, November 12th, is National Philanthropy Day, the day I'd like to remember my Alma Mater, Smith College. Those happy days, filled with youthful exuberance and joy!  I had come from war-devastated Germany where even years later in 1953 the stores were empty; we had nothing to eat. The daily noodle-soup lunch at school—thanks to America’s extraordinarily generous Marshall Plan—had kept us alive.

      Since November coincides with the publication of my fifth book, “The ABC’s of Staying Young,” I’d like to donate all royalties from the sale of the book on November 12th to my Alma Mater. After all, it was the memory of college days and the radiance of youth that inspired me to write the book.  I wanted to discover and rekindle the secret of youthfulness in order to retain it for life.

      Your purchase of “The ABC’s of Staying Young”—be it for yourself or your friends—will be greatly appreciated. Your generosity will touch the lives of others too.

      The book is available on amazon.com, specially priced at $8.95, and for Kindle devices at $3.99. Excerpts, reviews and more details on http://www.mimiart.com/Rosis%20books/index.html

      Or go directly to amazon http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+abc%27s+of+staying+young

      Until next time,

     Rosi

Happiness

What is happiness?

Is happiness the joy that the weekend is near or the prospect of dining out? Or is it the purchase of a new laptop or a great new car? They certainly can make us feel good, but sadly, that feeling may last only a few hours or a few days and then it will fade away.

What then is enduring happiness?

Long-lasting happiness is a feeling of contentment that is not dependent on external events, but something that springs from within us. It’s caused by our attitude, that is by the way we view the world. Is our glass half empty, or is it half full?

Long-lasting happiness is within reach for all of us. The primary step is to accept life and whatever it may bring. This includes life’s many hardships.

Once we whole-heartedly embrace life in all its diversity, our negative emotions, such as hate, anger, jealousy, desire, and thirst for revenge, will diminish — a good thing since they are the cause of much agony and pain. In effect, we are much better off when we focus on counting our blessings.

 In addition to accepting life’s complexity of events, it is important to find meaning that reaches beyond the satisfaction of our personal desires. The discovery of a purpose in life is often the cause of deep happiness.

Albert Schweitzer, the great physician, philosopher, musician and medical missionary in Africa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his book, “Reverence for Life,” put it this way: “Those among you, who have sought and found how to serve others, will truly be happy.”

Around two thousand years ago, a Greek slave called Epictetus heard two adults discuss philosophy. He was still a child, severely crippled, but the topic so enthralled him that he asked his master’s permission to study it.

The young slave learned eagerly, and gained wisdom and respect. He was eventually freed from his bonds and spent the rest of his life sharing the wisdom of his beloved philosophy with humanity.

One of Epictetus’ maxims for achieving happiness advocates accepting events that we cannot change:

Conduct me, Zeus, and thou, O Destiny,

Wherever thy decree has fixed my lot.

I follow willingly; and, did I not,

Wicked and wretched would I follow still.

Not many mortals will reach a perfect state of inner contentment, such as the Dalai Lama or Epictetus found. But we can get better at warding off unwarranted discontent, and get closer to finding happiness.

Until next time,

Rosi

25th Anniversary of East Germany's Collapse

On October 4th, 1989 a tumultuous uprising agitated the East German city of Dresden. After 44 years of Communist rule they had enough.  Thanks to humane-minded Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Hungary had eased its border control to the West, but East Germany’s Honecker wanted no part of it—the iron curtain was to stay closed.

During that summer some 200,000 East Germans tried to make their way to Hungary and escape across that border to the West. Honecker panicked. He forbade all travel to Hungary and reinforced border control. Agitated would-be refugees flooded the embassies, they were determined to leave.

The situation became desperate and Honecker agreed to allow 5,000 refugees to leave, but not for Hungary. He “expelled” them to West Germany in “sealed” trains.

Thousand of refugees started protesting, cowing the state’s police. So a second set of trains—tightly sealed—was allowed. It became known as “the last train to freedom.” Yet thousands of restless and desperate refugees were left behind and refused to go home.

Secret Police and Stasi troops decided to fight these people and clear the station. Terrible scenes of violence and brutality unfolded. Extraordinary efforts of opposition leaders were able to bring about peaceful demonstrations, and they succeeded.

The movement could not be halted. It spread throughout East Germany, culminating in the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall. Putin was a KGB officer then and most likely saw it first hand, though all records of his where-abouts in 1989 have been carefully destroyed. He refers to the collapse of the authority of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe as the greatest tragedy of the 20^th century.

Yet it brought peace and freedom to many.

Until next time,

Rosi

To Work or Not to Work

Why would a nation that is deeply in debt punish those who work, and reward those who don’t?  Wouldn’t it get deeper into debt?

Why, surely. And then? Simple! It will print more money.

Indeed, our printing presses are vigorously at it. Soon people may need a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread. It happened in Germany in the thirties and it can happen here. Work needs to be rewarded and encouraged, so people find pride again in their civic responsibility. John F. Kennedy put it so well, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Sadly, today’s employment agencies go begging for qualified applicants. They say that those who receive unemployment benefits would jeopardize them if they’d return to work. So many don’t. Even their medical benefits are better than those of the working middle class, who pays a high price for them.

In an attempt to refute the accusation that the United States is becoming an entitlement society where social programs undermine work ethics, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showed where the benefits go. Among its charts is one entitled: "Wealthy Households Receive Disproportional Share of Tax Expenditures." According to this chart 21% of the country’s top earners receive a 90% “Share of Tax Expenditures.” Unfortunately, the meaning of tax expenditures is not defined. (Figure 3, http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3677 ),

Yet, many people do take pride in their work. Actually, honor and ethics are an innate trait of most people—well, for some it may be hard to resist the lure of government handouts. Would job training improve the situation? The job market is changing faster than ever.  Skills needed today did not exist twelve years ago.

Those who do work, tend to work hard and long hours to make ends meet because the government must take the money somewhere. That somewhere is the American working middle class. They are punished with higher taxes, increased medical costs, and endless restrictions affecting their business.

In 2013, an extra 3.8% Medicare surtax was levied upon people who have an annual income of 200,000 a year or more.

Since 2014, there’s a stiff “Marriage Penalty.” For example, a single person earning $300,000 a year will be in the 33% tax bracket; if both husband and wife earn that amount, they’ll pay 39.6%, a difference of $39,600 a year in higher taxes (U.S. News & World Report Mar 12, 2014 http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2014/03/11/how-much-the-marriage-tax-penalty-will-cost-you ).

One could go on and on, but enough. Who would forgo that grand feeling of having done a great job? The joy of accomplishment is often worth every drop of sweat and sweeter than government handouts.

Until next time,

          Rosi

The Meaning of Peace

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No word carries more cherished meaning for me than Peace. I endorse it with all my heart. Having grown up in Germany during World War II, the horrors of war are still vividly in my memory—spending nights in cold, dark, damp air shelters, always being hungry, destruction all around us, the air heavy with grief, the wounded and many deaths.

Peace. What glory to savor life!

Yet, scholars of history point to the indisputable perils of peace.

Peace brings abundance and comfort, enjoyment and pleasure, something we want to hang on to and safeguard. Yet such comfort leads to extravagance, privilege, lethargy and inertia.

After the First World War, Europe was tired of the horrors of war and desperately wanted peace.  Do you remember Mr. Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the Great British Empire “where the sun never set,” flying to Munich? He wanted to meet with the leader of his neighboring country and make sure that Hitler was on the same page and could be trusted.

After long chats with Adolf Hitler he returned home and pronounced to an eagerly waiting and delighted world: “There will be Peace in our time!” And the world eagerly cut back on defense spending.

Theodore Roosevelt would not have approved of Chamberlain’s political philosophy. “Speak softy and carry a big stick,” was his approach. In 1901 he sent his Big White Fleet, sixteen fine battleships around the world on a peacetime tour — to let the world admire the prestige and power it implied.

Throughout history, civilizations have risen to power and then reclined in the glory of their might — unaware that others have dreams of glory too. Predators always, always abound, waiting to jump upon the unwary.

In Europe of the thirties, the idea of appeasement was coined, the idea of ignoring unreasonable actions and demands in order to avoid confrontation and preserve the peace. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect—appeasement became an invitation to attack. It’s been proven over and over again. As long as mankind is endowed with a lust for power, carry that big stick or be willing to crawl into the dark!

Peace by all means, but balance it with muscle to protect against the hungry world of predators.

Until next time,

Rosi

The Miracles of Nature

Miracles abound all around us and capture our imagination. Take a little baby, for instance. What could be more miraculous! Everything about it fills us with awe and amazement.

So helpless, yet it runs our life. So tiny, yet the volume of its voice cannot be ignored. So innocent, yet it never fails to get our attention.

How does Nature pull this off? How can Nature turn a young couple — free and unencumbered — into adoring slaves of this tiny creature? Suddenly, overnight!

It does not only happen among humans; it happens among animals too. We used to refer to it as the mother-instinct. But there’s more to it.

Researchers have finally discovered Nature’s secret, revealing again Nature’s infinite wisdom.  The enigma is veiled in the baby’s little head. That little head exudes a delicate, hardly noticeable odor. When parents nestle the baby’s head against their shoulder, close enough for the nose to absorb the fine scent, they will be caught like a fish on a hook. A deep, deep attachment to the tiny creature starts to envelop them.  Irresistibly, they fall in love with the baby and become devoted guardians.

What wisdom of Nature to prepare parents for the immense task that lies ahead—to protect the little one, to care for it and make life-long sacrifices for their child.

Researchers have found that siblings of the baby, no matter how young, are also affected by the baby’s scent, just as their parents or caregivers are. If they are given a chance often enough to hold their little brother or sister, they will love it and devotedly look out for it. As a result, instead of strife, envy and competition among them, there'll be more harmony and affection. It's a most worthwhile thing a parent can do, let siblings carefully nestle the baby.

Until next time,

Rosi

Freedom

Give me liberty, or give me death — brazen words boldly spoken. Freedom is part of our culture. It is part and parcel of our democracy. We take freedom for granted.

By freedom we mean personal freedom, the right to live as we please as long as we don’t harm others, national freedom implying freedom from foreign control, and political freedom, the right to vote and to be involved in the political process.

Three hundred years ago Voltaire expressed a similar sentiment: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. In modern parlance: “You may disapprove of what I say, but I will defend to the death my right to say it.”

We have fought wars to “make the world safe for democracy.” World War I and II are good examples. The First World War and the Versailles Treaty created a restless, disenfranchised people, with dire consequences, while WW II and the Marshall Plan were a resounding success, probably the greatest the world has ever seen.

Freedom is a luxury. We consider Freedom an essential criterion for political success, though those in power may argue that a staff of clever spin-doctors can achieve more. Historians, however, assure us that most of the world believes that Power, not Freedom, is key.

In a totalitarian government where power rules, the people are spared the obligation of making informed decisions, and are usually excluded from the political process. Democracy appears daunting to them, imposing upon the individual the weighty responsibility of self-government.

An effective democracy, however, requires a leader who is guided by a moral compass — such persons do exist, but can and will they be elected? History has shown that all great democracies of the past have declined when an ill-educated and disenfranchised population created the right environment for leaders with lust for power and greed to rise.

Freedom does not imply “free for the asking,” such as free medical care, free legal advice and free housing. A shocking 46,000,000 American families are presently receiving food stamps.

Not surprisingly, most of the world’s nations are currently ruled by powerful governments. Look at China and Russia, at India and the Middle East. Look at most of the nations on the African continent. Is it because the essential criterion for a successful Democracy calls for a well-educated people willing to fight for their freedom and their culture? Or is it the irresistible allure of power?

As Ronald Reagan put it, Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We can’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same.

Until next time,

Rosi