Do you know what my watchword is?

Balance.

It's very easy to look around and get depressed at what one sees if one does not take time to balance the view.

One sees suffering, poverty, greed, ignorance and the entire range of human failings and tragedies and one could easily generate an emotional reaction to all this that would bring down the house.

Instead, I have to force myself to look even closer and see the lessons being learned by all involved.

History repeats itself.

One has to accept this maxim. It is impossible to change a cycle in a single revolution. Man has made small, but definite progress in some areas and very little in others. Death wipes away many of the positive changes if they are not sufficiently rooted in the minds of the next generations. Each individual, however, has to go through this learning process by themselves. That's why the words or beliefs are always questioned and often discard or abridged.

America will go down. I have little doubt that America's finest days more likely than not, lie behind it. While I could rant and rave about it - it would do me no good. I need to look at the bigger picture.

The big view shows that while one nation or civilization sinks, a new one emerges somewhere else to take the torch.

If American industry is too stupid to realize that they have destroyed their customer base at home, that is their problem - not mine. Regulating them into obeying a "smarter" choice would likely backfire as all regulations do. They, just like individuals, need to realize the errors of their own beliefs on their own. Being forced only incites rebellion and actually focuses their limited mental resources towards seeking a workaround.

In a nutshell, I must accept that I cannot reshape the world to my liking. What I can do, is control the way I react to all the goings on of the world. In this way, the world has no power to control my happiness or determine my emotional state. One's consciousness is too important to be allowed to be played by the minds and actions of others.