COFFEE BREAK 245

+ updated at 1:00pm EST on Thursday, January 27, 2011

+ ANOTHER REASON TO BE HOPEFUL FOR THE PLANET: Recent Opinion Polls show that 55 per cent of Americans rate President Obama favorably while only 19 pre cent rate Sarah Palin favorably.  I have nothing personally against Sarah Palin but she has a lot to learn if she truly wants to be a global leader.  I don't agree with a lot of Obama's agenda, but I do find him at least somewhat curious, imaginative, compassionate and open-minded.  He may indeed be rememberred as a great global leader.  I am glad that most of my fellow Americans are far more apptreciative of Obama than Palin.  Also, opinion polls reveal that far more Americans dislike the Tea Party Movement than like it.  Check out Polling Report.

+ Marc and Angel Hack Life: Practical Tips for Productive Living offers "10 Surefire Ways To Live Below Your Full Potential" by Celestine Chua.

+ "To have hope is not to seek the surprise of a Hollywood happy ending, which is unrealistic optimism. To have hope is to remain open to the possibility of surprise when everything turns out worse than we could ever imagine. Despair assigns reality a deadline, whereas hope knows that there are no deadlines. This is how hope truly thrives in the midst of hopelessness." - Brother David Steindl-Rast in COMMON SENSE SPIRITUALITY. Read an excerpt on Gratitude from this book.

+ Spirituality and Practice offers "Words Matter: Taming the Tongue, Renouncing Hurtful Speech, and Vowing to Practice Right Speech" by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat.  It begins: "America has become an adversarial culture where competition and winning at any cost are rampant in all departments of life. The hatred and paranoia of talk-radio hosts fills the airwaves with toxins that adversely affect anyone who hears these rants. Now this phenomenon has spread to large media operations like Fox News where ratings and corporate sponsorships seem to be dependent upon just how much the on-air personalities denigrate the opposition; tune in and you'll soon be treated to a smorgasbord of right-wing rhetoric about big government and other pet peeves of angry political analysts. Meanwhile, on the road, candidates smear each other in TV ads and casually call it all part of the game of getting elected. What we have here is a scary dumbing down of democracy, now regarded as an unsavory blend of entertainment and blood sport."

Another Excerpt: In his speech at the memorial service in Tucson on January 12, 2011, President Barack Obama pointed to a different way. He said: "At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do, it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds."

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