I couldn’t really decide what I wanted to focus on today, so I’ll pick two or three things to share brief thoughts about.

1. There’s a lot of wrong in the world. If you have any doubt about that, check the headlines. On any given day, you will find numerous stories reporting tragedies. Children, women, and the elderly are abused. Innocent people are murdered. Corporations and businessmen steal from their clients. Drugs are ruining the lives of the young and the old, the rich and the poor, and the famous and the infamous. Politicians make promises they don’t keep. People are bullied for countless reasons, though the basic one is that they are different from whoever is doing the bullying. Here’s the thing. It gets to be so overwhelming, we think that what we do doesn’t matter because we can’t change it. To an extent that’s right. Individually it doesn’t seem we can be very effective in creating change. However, if enough people do the right thing, then all those individuals become a collective group, and that group can create positive change. We may not be able to immediately see the results, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

2. I saw a story that many parents have baby name remorse. That’s not a big surprise. Choosing a baby’s name is very important, and there are many things to consider. Typically, this name will last a lifetime, unless something happens that causes the child to change his/her name. All children are unique, and many parents want their children’s names to be unique. Having a name that fits the child is important, but you don’t want a name that is so “out there” that it becomes troublesome for the child.

3. A lot of people want to complain about the situation they are in by blaming something from their past, and typically, that something is their education. Just like everything else, you get out of something what you put in to it. Athletic teams who don’t practice, don’t win. Teams who don’t give it their all, don’t win. Investigators who don’t work diligently to solve a case won’t solve the case. Salesmen who don’t work hard at making the sale won’t make the sale. Lazy efforts get lazy results. Diligent efforts get diligent results. So for those who want to claim that a particular school or college didn’t provide them with an adequate education, they should first ask themselves what they put into it. Did they do their homework? Did they study? Did they participate in the provided educational activities? Or did they do just enough to get that passing grade so they could graduate and get out? I do realize there are a number of factors that impact one’s success, but a significant factor is what one puts into it. The efforts from everybody else matter very little if one isn’t willing to put the work in for him- or herself.