Filipinos and Why I Bother to Write About My "Degenerative Neurologic Disease"

I am a doctor with young-onset Parkinson's disease. After my diagnosis 5 years ago at age 44 my life changed but my neurologist told me two things that stuck: "keep moving, " and, "make hay while the sun still shines." The first was a nod to exercise and to stay involved in life, and the second, "do it now." First I explored Asia, did a lot of writing and then, took an assignment from a US research firm in the Philippines. I spent two years there and learned a great deal about being happy. Filipinos were designated by a study in the British journal "The Economist" as the second happiest culture in the world. I took notice.

These were relatively poor people but each took a great deal of pride in whatever capacity they served whether it be in a job or as a family member. This was a place where maids ("ya-ya's") and fast food workers were no less happy, pleasant, or proud; and each treated their functions with no less importance than that of real estate tycoons and high level government officials. I met all of these and came back feeling that it was essential if I were to "keep moving" to rework my own purpose. I could no longer execute medical procedures with a slow unsteady right hand, and daytime sleepiness made a call schedule next to impossible. I needed to serve in some new capacity that stirred enough tireless passion to get me out of an indulgent sleepy malaise and back into life.

I had done a great deal of writing for my research and in logging my experiences during the time in the Philippines and at the suggestion of a close friend, a pediatrician who was enjoying my emails that chronicled my often insane time there, began writing about Parkinson's. Thus emerged my new mission and purpose: to utilize a love for writing and combine it with my medical knowledge.

I started to research and write and distill all the random information out there into a structure that I hoped would really educate people facing Parkinson either themselves, via a family member, or as a caregiver. That source needed to be constructed with good information easily digestible by anyone.

As part of that structure I wanted to create an online community of sharing. Thus Dopadoc's Parkinson's Journal has become a major focus. In it's rather short life I have asked almost every day, "How can I make it better, more interesting, more useful, and more interactive?

Regarding covering the actual field of Parkinson's disease, I dove head first into finding out what works, what might work, what's just plain Vodoo, what to expect, and how you and your loved ones can deal best with this condition. I want to share this knowledge with you and learn as much as I can from your input. I invite participation from, patients, doctors, family members, friends, researchers and anyone just interested in this condition and in finding better treatments and even a cure someday.

And guess what? Like the Filipino "ya-ya" maid or the owner of Philippine Air, I have found a worthy purpose for now and can say that despite everything, I feel blessed and happy!

Marshall Davidson, M.D.,aka. "Dopadoc," a physician who battles early-onset (age 44, 2005) Parkinson's disease. He maintains the blog "Dopadoc's Parkinson's Journal" at http://www.dopadoc.com/

To quote, " I am a doctor with Parkinson's Disease. My friends and professional colleagues find it ironic that during my medical training at Johns Hopkins and my research training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), I conducted award-winning brain research. Before ever suspecting I had Parkinson's I wrote books, articles and presentations about the brain. Adding to this irony is that one area of strong research interest was dopamine, the brain chemical missing in Parkinson's. After my diagnosis 5 years ago at age 44, I dove head first into finding out what works, what might work, what's just plain Voodoo, what to expect, and how you and your loved ones can deal best with this condition. I want to share this knowledge with you and learn as much as I can from your input. I invite participation from, patients, doctors, family members, friends, researchers and anyone just interested in this condition and in finding better treatments and even a cure someday."

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How To Be A Great Song And Dance Man Of History

When I say the words "song and dance," I do not mean performance, I mean what all honest philosophers, pundits, and people have been saying throughout history. It is a big song and dance in comparison with the reality of what people have been doing throughout said history of the world. What I mean is, reality does not line up with the song and dance routines that have been done throughout history for honesty, reality and reason. What I mean is Jesus, the Buddha, Mohammed, Lao Tzu, Confucious, Socrates, Aristotle, Augustine, Rand, Aquinas, Plato, Spinoza, Hegel, myself included and all the rest of them. We are all just song and dance men who say one thing about honesty and living better lives, but humanity practices another thing altogether in the form of wars, disagreements, dishonesty, and things just get worse and worse. Indeed, we all are just song and dance men until humanity can practice a better way. "Honesty" throughout history has been the right hand operator friend of "it does not work and is not realistic but it sounds good in theory, but due to certain shortcomings, it will not work in practice."

So, Bob Dylan in an interview, once said, "I am a song and dance man along with all the rest of them." With the paragraph above, I am delineating exactly what he meant by that statement. I mean the same thing. Why do I put this under "Arts and Entertainment: Philosophy," because this article is the ultimate song and dance, like Richard Gere playing the dancing lawyer in the movie version of "Chicago". We can all dance and be silly until we dance our way out of it, "it" meaning, the real meaning of reality, but we pay a great price for that. We pay by skipping over things we need to deal with.

So, I repeat, in my mind we are all just good sounding song and dance men until humanity can be evolved enough to put it all into practice. Sweat, sing and dance are the words that come to mind, like James Brown doing his dancing until everybody is in the heat of sweat and excitement entertained out of their troubles for a few minutes. Sure, I can dance around reality with the best of them, and sing a good song with the best of them. But ultimately it does all come down to how sane you are enough to sing and dance with us instead of sit in the audience and go, "Wow, he has got some song and dance routine. Is that for real?" I have to say that my song and dance is real, otherwise I would not be doing it and doing it consistently. So, am I just a song and dance man? No. But, until there is something better humanity can do than the great song and dance, that is what I am with every other conscious master. I am a big time song and dance man along with all the rest of them.

My name is Joshua Clayton, I am a freelance writer based in Inglewood, California. I also write under a few pen-names and aliases, but Joshua Clayton is my real name, and I write by that for the most part now. I am a philosophical writer and objective thinker and honest action taker. I also work at a senior center in Gardena, California as my day job, among other things, but primarily I am a writer.

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Genuine Clairvoyance (Keep Your Mind At Home And Improve Yourself)

The best way in life to improve yourself and everything around you is self improvement, not improving anything definitively outside yourself. Sure, that sounds closed minded and foolish in a sense. But, it really is not. Give me a chance to explain. Sure, controlling others instead of your self "sounds like fun" until you find that you have used your power wrongly. The right way to use your power is to benefit yourself by producing values for others and then they pay you for the services, not so much doing occult stunts and playing games of "power" and negative control with or on others.

Indeed, I quote and paraphrase Wallace D. Wattles in the most open minded way possible, "keep your mind at home where it will genuinely benefit you, for self mastery is more important than mastering others for the reason that to try to master others is inefficient envy or trying to live through someone else, both of which are logical and genuine impossibilities in practice and reality." Think and think deeply about that statement. All power comes from within us it is said? Well, more accurately then, all power is controlled from within us, but it does not come from within, it comes from existence God or the genuine almighty creator of us who are conscious, which I do believe deeply and no longer have any doubts about. Think about it, though, existence is the vehicle and we are the driver who controls it. That is what the statement "all power comes from" within really is "code" for: that sort of control over reality. In short, as "sons and daughters of existence or God," we are in the driver seat.

So, destructive occult stunts of controlling people other than ourselves and doing "tricks" is genuinely unnatural and unneeded at a very deep level once we realize our full genuine capabilities, and on top of that it is rather silly once it becomes a common ability that anyone can do normally. That is also my point. Nothing is amazing under the sun, except what is first discovered for the first few minutes that first person discovers it. Then after it becomes the normal thing to do, the next trick is discovered until all is discovered and "there is nothing new under the sun." So, do you see the logic when I say in my way, "keep your mind at home." So, when it is said that your kingdom is under your feet, you have an idea what is meant by that.

If you do not, get a mass market paperback version of the Dr. Russell Herman Conwell lecture "Acres of Diamonds" that he gave at Temple University in the early twentieth century. No one is a genuine failure that is genuinely realistic, honest and real all the way through especially when it comes down to keeping your mind at home the way I describe. So, what am I saying? No envy, no control stunts outside of yourself, and no misusing your power. Master yourself. Sure, I teach what I learn deeply and understand to the fullest through some of my worst and best experiences, in that order. But to master everything genuinely, you must master yourself first. That fact was even in all the "Karate Kid" and every Bruce Lee style Kung Fu or Karate movie ever made. The real magic is under your feet, all you have to do is discover it. I end there, because to my way of thinking, there is no other place than home to keep your mind, and you now have an idea of what I mean by "home," so I rest my case. Go master yourself, that is where it is at anyway.

My name is Joshua Clayton, I am a freelance writer based in Inglewood, California. I also write under a few pen-names and aliases, but Joshua Clayton is my real name, and I write by that for the most part now. I am a philosophical writer and objective thinker and honest action taker.
I also work at a senior center in Gardena, California as my day job, among other things, but primarily I am a writer.

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Philosophy's Great Minds And Their Contribution To The Bible Story

Any study of ethics and ethos must include a visit into the world of philosophy. Briefly, we consider several philosophy contributors: Aristotle, Kant, Descartes, Augustine, Sartre, Spinoza, and Jesus Messiah. We limit our philosophical giants to this august group in consideration for time and space. The biblical Jesus, of course, receives inclusion: without whom this article would lack purpose.

Aristotle, the Peripatetic, advocated the syllogism as means to establish truth; which process prefers an input from major and minor premise and thus to an acceptable conclusion. Aristotle's syllogism was akin to theocratic ordinances requiring two witnesses for God ordinance infractions or to adjudicate theocratic rules resident in God ordinances. Such influence to God existence and theocratic rule over the twelve tribes cannot be denied. Thus, we establish a means to reliable conclusion.

Roughly quoted, Immanuel Kant observed: 'No man has the intellect to deny another man's God.' Astutely, he posited limitations to enquiry's broader scope as it might pertain to the intangible. Then, Descartes coined the renowned adage, "I think, therefore I am." The two observations not only reinforce each other but establish immutability in God existence in its basic legal-historicism (atheists take note); even so, such does not prove the omnipotence claimed (theists take note). However, such philosophical profoundness leads to yet another great insight.

Jean-Paul Sartre extended Descartes astute observation to existentialism dimensions. Sartre observed contemporaries exercising freedom of choice and therefore earning the burden for any fateful consequences: witnessed where ordinary men assume roles best suited to their own occasion or purpose; thus, we address existentialism's definition. Simply, existentialism defines man's tendency to innovate existence-to adopt self-determination. This self-reliance was the one fault preventing righteousness for the patriarchs in Hebrews 11, though they had abundant faith. Existentialism attains better definition in a more familiar example: where, Christians play a sympathetic role during fellowship but regress to a lesser role outside Church auspices. We might recall, self-determination was the downfall of Eve and Abraham's descendants, who sought Paul's 'better thing' advocated in Hebrews 11:40; which better thing awaited the 'Grace' opportunity posited at Romans 11:6.

We find then, these great philosophers did much to limit and define the language used for principals and principles in biblical subtlety.

At his own intellectuality expense, Saint Augustine noted an existential failing when he answered a friend's enquiry: "What is Grace? He answered: "I know what Grace is until you ask me; but when you ask me, I do not know." Such admission might prompt further enquiry: What uncertainty in Grace definition elicited pause from the renowned Saint Augustine? Such candor prompts enquiry into the non sequitur conclusions rampant in modernist exposition and sermon. To be sure, Bible language is difficult; and the cause for Augustine's incertitude magnifies the Romans 11:6 formula for attaining election status; we paraphrase Bible text: 'If by grace, then is attainment no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if attaining election be of works then is it no more grace; otherwise work is no more work.' We commiserate with St. Augustine's uncertainty! And you think Paul is easy to understand? Paul is saying: 'works and grace are incompatible'! Works cannot be the 'stars in your crown' nor is 'grace' the 'unmerited favor' so popularly envisioned.

Problematic, modern definition compromises the 'grace' extent in Romans 11:6; here, Grace is a 'time expression' and not tradition's mistaken 'material benefit.' Such misunderstanding evoked Messiah's displeasure at Mark 8:21 for his Disciples when they failed to understand the time, progeny, and Ages semantic in loaves, fishes, numbers fed, and baskets of fragments. Do exegetes know? Actually, time is the single most urgent Bible topic. How would you respond if present at the Mark 8:21 query? Would readers respond differently today?

We have a duty to extract Bible semantics, to transcend mediocrity, and to further interpretive excellence. However, excellence is rare. Spinoza convincingly summed it all up when he said, "Excellence is as rare as it is difficult." But we can and must seek excellence in whatever our endeavor. You can fall short of pure excellence, but any degree of excellence is superior to its opposite.

Schopenhouer gave would-be philosophers their due when he accredits Spinoza: 'To be a philosopher is to be a Spinoist.' If you strive for excellence, we invite your attention to further readings delving into the philosophy of religion. Truth is stranger than fiction - stranger than the misinterpretation still holding forth in traditional teachings.

Ben Winter, particles physicist, Bible scholar, and author of "THE GREAT DECEPTION: Symbols And Numbers Clarified," reveals there 'is' something new under the sun - that is, for modern Bible students. He addresses correctness of language and true intent of the major Bible topics: solves Bible mysteries, defines Gog and Magog, reveals Daniel He-goat's surprising identity, and dares to number the all important Ten Ages. Sign up for FREE book critiques at http://www.winterbriar.com/ and view more articles in blog format at http://blog.thegreatdeception.net/.

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Chinese Version of the Story of the Phoenix

It is delightful to find some same or similar figures in Western and Oriental cultures. This mythological bird is one of them. In the Western world, it is called the "Phoenix" or "Fire Bird." Oriental culture represented by the Chinese call the bird "Fenghuang." Japanese uses the same Chinese characters and call it "Houou." This sacred bird appears in various mythologies. It is not just a European and East Asian creature. The bird appears in mythologies of the Greeks, Romans, Persians, Egyptians, and Indians. The common characteristic is that this bird has eternal life. It jumps into a volcano to refresh its life and body, and flies again.

The Chinese version of this bird also appears in Zhuangzi, an ancient story by a Chinese philosopher, as the gigantic bird with eternal life called "Huang." According to the Zhuangzi story, a gigantic bird lives in the northern ocean. Under water, the ocean is shaped like big fish eggs. When the stormy season comes, it flies from the deep ocean. It looks like an island coming out of the sea. Emerging from the water, it now looks like a bird. It spreads its wings and flies south where the water of the Milky Way pours into the land. Huang flies high with its wings creating massive wind. The wind from Huang's wings gives new birth to plants, grasses, flowers, fruits, and animals in these lands. The bird is the origin of life, giving new life on earth by flying.

Sparrows and pigeons watched Huang flies long distances, laughed and said migrating 10,000 miles or more does not make sense, since they can fly 10-20 miles and find enough food.

These birds never understand that the foods they are getting are grown because the Huang bird flies.

This story contains some intriguing meanings. Those who are satisfied with the small world in which they are living can never understand the big picture. For sparrows and pigeons, the world is restricted to 10 - 20 miles from where they live. They will never understand that there is a wider world outside their territory. Those who stick to their own small world can never understand the expanse of the whole world.

The second interpretation of this story is to be one's own size. The Huang can fly high in the sky and travel around the world because it was created that way. If sparrows or pigeons tried to fly the same distance the Huang flies, they would get lost and die. It is safer and smarter to stay within ones own size and ability.

In ancient China, when a farmer dreamt of being a king, his family, relatives, and friends laughed at him. He told those critics that sparrows and pigeons will never understand the spirit and ability of the Huang. He did not become the king of the entire Kingdom of China, but instead became a regional lord, while his friends were required to serve him and follow his orders. The final point this story makes is that one can never be a Huang if he does not dream big.

Shaw Funami is an owner of "zhen international, inc.", known as a mentor for cross cultural relationship called "Fill the Missing Link". You can learn about his profile in Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/shaw.funami. Please feel free to contact him at "hisashi.funami@zhenintl.ws" or visit his business website. http://webtraffictoolbox.com/

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How Many Roads Must We Walk Down in a Lifetime Until We Reach Our Final Destination?

Some people get to stay in the same neighborhood, on the same street, in the same county, the same city as they grew up in, around, or on. Some folks are able to go to the same church for life, send their kids to the same school that they went to as a kid, and live the dream of the same job all of their lives.

Others have to walk down many roads, move many places, make many new friends over the years, lose their way, their accent, their jobs, go to new churches, become familiar with new areas, and start over.

Life is a highway of challenge for most people these days. Trying to work and make the ends meet, raising children while both parents have to work, and just trying to get along with the stresses of everyday life.

We all have to learn by experience, and live life to gain the experience with which to learn by.

I thank God that He is there to guide us down the road to where He wants us to be. I praise God who carries us sometimes when we can't find our way! I am glad he is the gentle Shepherd, who understands us when we don't even understand ourselves, and we can not find their way.

Some people are blessed to stay put, and enjoy the center of their universe where they are. Some of us have traveled far and wide, and back again, through our lives.

When you are a Christian, all roads lead eventually to your final destination one day, which will be your Heavenly home.

If you are lost and can not find your way. Just ask Jesus to save you. You will never be alone again, no matter how many roads you may travel in your lifetime.

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Does Good Breed Bad?

I Never Studied Philosophy, But What If?

Boy, The What If's In Life! As I look around and observe through a 20 mile telescope I see things that just do not make any sense to me any more. It seems I can remember a day when life did not have the stresses that it has today. For such a high Technological/Scientific Society we sure are missing the Mark. You Know? The Head of the Nail!

I picked a book of my library shelf up called " Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics" by Martin Ostwald. I believe the book was my oldest daughter's, left behind after her college days. I have not asked her if this was a mandatory read yet, but I will soon. I would like to discuss it with her sometime, but not until she has lived a little to experience some things in life.

But back to this Philosophy stuff.

First I have not finished the book. In matter of fact I have only read the first book. There are ten books, not chapters. But what I have read so far opened my mind and explained at least a little what I am seeing through the eyeglass. All of a sudden I was able to at least comprehend how and why we have arrived to these strange days we are in.

Aristotle was a student and a teacher in the years 366 B.C to 322 B.C.

I have always been a technical type person where reading weird stuff works for me, I can comprehend technical blue prints and manuals so boring stuff excites me and I can see where reading a book like this would be, lets say "Not" for most. To clarify, most people would pass this book up in a heart beat.
But for some reason "Philosophy and The Probability of The What If's" has always been apart of me.

The beginning of this book, The Introduction, talks about Aristotle's life's work and a brief break down of what will be discovered while reading this book. Martin obviously saved me a little time understanding what I was going to encounter when I read on.

As I started to read the first book the theme was "The Good". To understand the Good one would have to look at the activities of humans. In the Good everything revolves around humans reasoning. As this is what makes us different from all the other mammals on this planet. We can Reason and understand The Good and The Bad, make decisions from it in the direction of "The Good", always...period!

But the next twist was, how taking action, through our activities, that the Good can go to the Bad. This alone to me was an eye opener because the next thing all this related to were politics and how the Philosophy of the Good is Political for the whole of the Good knowing that there will be Bad because of the Good. To me that explained where we are at today as a whole, bottoming out on control of the Good. Where more Bad is coming out possibly because of the Over Powering of The Good.

It started to scare me while I was reading this stuff. I wasn't liking how I was relating today's world to what was being discussed 2300 plus years ago. We maybe great at Science and Technology and the Study of Politics and seeking "The Good" it has to make one wonder with the populations we have today how "The Good" is taking care of "The Bad".

I love Probability, The Barometer of Good and Bad

Even though I have never studied this stuff in school I feel after observing life, our activities and understanding that if it happens once it will more than likely happen again. The Odds of something happening can be predicted, calculated and determined with the probability to happen. Gambling teaches us this. So do the State Lotteries, Insurance Companies Practice it and obviously have it Down to a Clear science to be profitable at it enough to grow into empires of protection from the gambles of loosing ones life and or our possessions. What a biz, based on fear!

I Love a good metaphor that goes along with the science of probability to make a reasonable decision as to what is "Good" to avoid "The Bad". I think I make a lot of my decisions in my everyday life using tools like that. Where knowing something from experience and relating it to a real time situation that demands a quick decision and it is always to the "Good".

If I further break down my activities and decisions to the Good I wonder if I have categories of priorities for the Good. After all we make plans, we make decisions, we live for it and when you have it good you really don't worry about it. I remember those days, when I did not think about what others were doing with the "Good", after all the Philosophy for all is for "The Good" with the understanding that "Bad" will come with it in some shape or form.

The times have been tough, financially my savings and investments have dwindled to my personal property and I am hanging on to that. I fear going to the bar to socialize or visit someone in the evening and have a cocktail due to the Zero Tolerance Laws and getting pulled over while under the influence. If this is Good then why do I feel the need to socialize, eat, drink and be merry, which makes me feel life as I love to cook and entertain. But the cookie cutter Good says if I feel confident and want to gamble on living life the way I want to, without trespassing on someone I am okay there. But if I step onto our own state/county {the citizens own this stuff mind you) public infrastructure and you have had any influencing substance legal or illegal medicines in your body you are in violation. May it be a car, a bike, a go cart, a golf cart, a moped, a skate board or just walking. Even if there are no complaints from a citizen that someone trespassed against them the State will take it upon themselves to become the complainer against me or you. Now I ask you is Good reasoning or is this The Good dealing with what was created from the Good into Bad? It makes me wonder where it became law to curtail, judge, fine and tax the free travels of a human as long as the human does not trespass on another human, I thought that was what insurance was for.

Please feel free to visit Scott's Corner where I write many articles Blogging on a Shoe String Budget. Recourses and Information for todays main stream blogger.
http://scottwkelley.com/blog

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