Lifeboats And Thriving On the Outside.

Sitting under the shaded porch of relative safety, I spy a great and terrible darkness covering what was once my childhood places of joy. But, isn't this the very thought of each aging generation as it watches the creep of wrinkles cross the hand and head? Suppose for a moment that you think of it as this---all generations weep for the brightness and clarity of the past and loath the advent of what is to come.
This, and nothing else, is the great deception put on by the greatest of the deceivers. That all is not lost, the past holds you back, change is the future of things to come, change is always beneficial. This is the deception--that you do not need lifeboats, no safe haven, no safe harbor.
The lifeboat is the family--those bound to you by given blood and by the mixture of blood. Nothing else is family. You may speak of tribe, of community, of clan--you may and these are important for imparting culture and civilization but the lifeboat is the essence, the bedrock of culture. The family is the means that builds culture from one generation to the next. The family is found across all civilizations and times and where the family is weakened or cast aside that civilization soon dies.
Build a lifeboat and thrive while those on the inside culture wither and die.

Life and Discipline

I came across an interesting post by Dr Gary North in which he covers the development of task discipline beginning at a young age. Every parent should read this and every young person should have this or some similar system of task discipline in place by age twelve. Task disciplines are tools for achieving a goal, not ends of themselves. Don't get tripped up by this.

My favorites and some of which I already have a variation of:
  Adopt this as your criterion for decision-making: "Something is better than nothing."
  Adopt its corollary: "You can't beat something with nothing."
  Adopt its other corollary: "There is no such thing as a free lunch."

  When you receive a gift, say "thanks." It cost the gift-giver something.

  Do not use debt to buy anything that depreciates. 

A few of my own:

  Never marry your second choice; you are better off single if you cannot marry your first choice.  A second

  choice spouse will set you back twenty-five years and break your spirit.    

What is spoken inside the home always remains in the home....no exceptions.

Always be truthful, if at times you cannot be honest then be silent.

If someone sets a trap for you then be still until they snare themselves.

Respect and trust are difficult to earn and once lost never fully regained.

Never speak to your spouse when touching will better communicate your intent.