Tag Archives: Morals

Questions

The Influx

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By Jonathan Hilton

Day 68

In life there aren’t many experiences which bring large numbers of positive people into your life at once.  Each person making a lasting impact on you, whether it is big or small.  If you are a reader of this blog, then you have noticed my absence recently.

The great crew from camp after an unexpected dip in the lake. It cost me a phone but it was well worth it.
The great crew from camp after an unexpected dip in the lake. It cost me a phone but it was well worth it.

I had great intentions of being able to keep writing while working the hours that this great experience requires for the short-term.  Unfortunately life has gotten in the way, and my intermittent contributions will have to do until the middle of August.

Inspiration comes from life, and I think that to live your life to the fullest and gather the lessons that each day has to teach, you need other people in it.  There is a sign in my current office which I did not put there, but it serves to remind me about the impact that people have.  It states. “Everyone brings joy to this office.  Some when they enter. Some when they leave. ”  I have found these words to be true.

My current occupation is as an administrator at a small summer camp in Maine.  It is a fantastic place, and the staff that works here consists of tremendous young people.  I often hear people complain about the younger generation and the fact that they lack work ethic or morals.  I would challenge them to spend a day with the counselors at our camp.  You would be bowled over by character, determination, hard work and just plain decency.  They are all good kids who contribute greatly to the successful running of the camp.

Selfishly, the influx of all of these great people has made me a better person.  All people get down, and need an encouraging word from time to time.  Without even knowing that they are doing it, almost without exception this group of young people has encouraged me daily, and inspired me not only to advocate for them, but to remember my younger self and the dreams and inspiration that come along with it.

Often times as life moves along we tend to minimize the number of people in our lives as we become set in our ways and interests.  I know that I have been less likely to venture out of that comfort zone to stretch to try new things.  This entire experience has been a stretch and a growing experience.  I know that it is only for a short season, which gives me the strength to carry on through all difficult circumstances and also reminds me to cherish the moments that do come along.

Each and every person in this adventure, those that are here and those that have moved on have made an incredible impact on my life in a very short time.   From the owners to the girl who washes the clothes.  I am truly lucky to have been able to be impacted by these great people.  I am sure that just as quickly as we all came together, we will all separate at the end of the summer, but  the memories of this experience will last with me for the rest of my life.

 

Personal Projects

Are You Truly Living

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What is the difference between being alive and truly living?

truly living
Are you truly living?

by Jonathan Hilton

All people are going to answer this question differently depending on where they are in their life.  To me being alive is a fact of nature, and enjoying life and living for a purpose is truly living.  But how do you enjoy life?

Other people will answer this very differently.    It only takes a few visits to any number of blogs to experience the wide variety of philosophies and beliefs that exist.

Young people are struggling to master life, yet so hopeful about living it is encouraging   While older people are resigned to the fact that you may never figure it out everything there is to know about life, but they share their thoughts and experiences.

One of the things I like about reading so many different people’s opinions is to be exposed to ideas that are different from mine. Valid yet different and I think that is a powerful force of growth.  These are my thoughts on truly living.

The problem with Life

For me there is a question that came to me as I got older and thought that I was on the

questions about living
We all have questions, I know I did.

path I should be on. After carefully contemplating the experiences I have been fortunate enough to have in life I came to the conclusion that being alive was not enough and that I needed to start truly living and for me that meant I had to make a lot of changes in my perceptions of people, life, God and everything that at one time I was sure of.

I wasn’t sure what was “right”, but I knew there was more to life than a conditioned accumulation of material goods to supply comfort to life.

What comfort did I ever give to others? What did I contribute? Even as an educator, I was contributing stories about living which happened long ago, espousing the morals and actions that young people should aspire to follow, with the awareness of the world around me the size of the head of a pin.

I don’t think I  consistently enjoyed what life gave me. There are easy things to enjoy and appreciate, like those we love, and those that love us, a sunny, beautiful day, a large sum of money, all of these can be easily enjoyed, but how many people pass through a day without having gratitude for anything in their life, because they are too busy looking at what they don’t have.

I was one of these, searching for the right amount of stuff that would bring happiness with it. I never found that.

 The Past

Future past and present sign in the sky
Which direction do you follow?

One of the biggest problems people face,when trying to truly live is that they always seem to distract themselves from the moment they are currently experiencing.

Perhaps spending time with someone you love, reading a book, exercising, or doing whatever it is you do, because you allow yourself to be distracted by things that make you feel the moment you are in is not a good enough thing.

One distraction is the past, which often allows you to reminisce about the past and feel that things were so much better back then, when you were happy.

Often the past is not quite what we remember it to be and it really doesn’t matter in the scope of today.  It is over and gone, good or bad and to short change today for yesterday is selling something tangible and of extreme value for  nothing but a fantasy.

Often I had looked to the past to the good old days, which were nice memories, but other than lending experience to today, couldn’t help make me very happy or allow me to truly live.

 The Future

Others choose to focus on the future, planning and scheming the best way to route their lives to get to the point where finally they will be happy.  They think that if they  do this particular thing, at this particular time then I will be happy, satisfied, successful, or whatever.

The problem with this is that when you put all of your focus onto tomorrow you miss the great things that are happening today.  You can prepare for the future with the actions of today and enjoy today at the same time, the difference is that you don’t put anything off, like being happy and satisfied with life or anything else. Tomorrow may never come and rarely does it happen as you plan, so putting happiness off is a bad gamble that will most likely never pay off.

I’ll Be Happy When I am Rich

Materialism is another distraction that keeps people from enjoying the moment, often it goes hand in hand with waiting for the future, but tying your happiness into the acquisition of some material thing is going to stop you from appreciating today, because you are going to be thinking that happiness is going to come when you get that house, or car, or Ipad or whatever.

The satisfaction of that acquisition will be short-lived and soon you will be looking for the next thing that should bring happiness and satisfaction to your life, as you ignore the opportunity for happiness that you have in your experience today. Being grateful for what you have will allow you to enjoy the day. If you don’t believe me, then try it.  Be truly grateful for what you have.

Your Choice

choice for life
You can choose if you are alive or truly living

So truly living to me is the appreciation of what life is giving you right now in this moment.

That doesn’t mean that it will always be perfect. Sometimes there are painful things in life, and we have to deal with feelings that are not so nice, people get sick, accidents happen, people die, life is not perfect and there is no guarantee that everything is going to go your way.

However, there is a choice that comes pinned to each of those experiences to make it a positive or a negative factor in your life.  Only you can decide for yourself the difference between being alive and truly living.

What does truly living mean to you?

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People

The Forty one Year Fight

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Mike Martin and I have been friends for forty one years.  There are not many people in the

41 year fight
Even though Mike is always wrong, he still argues with me all the time. He is so stubborn.

world outside of your family that you have known your entire life, and still call them your friend. I am fortunate to have had a friend for most of my life, who is cantankerous, stubborn and is often not right about anything! He would tell you the same thing about me.  We work together right now and that leads to many conflicts about virtually every subject.  When I started this new Picture Project I was in between two of these conflicts, so it only made sense that the first picture should be a symbol of the fights we have on most days.  These “fights” are more philosophical battles, where we do not agree on much of anything.  But when the chips are down, I know I can count on him and he on me.

The core of our conflict has boiled down to the essence of our philosophies, and all of our conflicts stem from this premise:

My Philosohpy: That there is a right and a wrong, that everyone deep down knows it and that morality is definite and binding.  (he refers to this as black and white)

Mike Martin Philosophy:  That life is lived on a continuum of gray area, sometimes things are right, sometimes wrong depending on the circumstances.  (I refer to this as the whatever way the wind blows philosophy)

I could go into each of he specific debates that we have had over the years but when I write about it I seem to be even more clearly right than when the original argument occurred.  Needless to say that we have argued over philosophy, thought, morals, honesty, choices, how to stop drug addiction, and even judgments of others.

Needless to say these arguments have traveled with us from Belgrade all over the State of Maine as we have gone to different locations for work related stuff.  There are a few things we do agree on though.

*Greenville was a great place to grow up

*Our parents were pretty good people

*The Patriots and Red Sox are awesome

Having had some experience with people that are friendly to you face, but not really a friend it is good to know that even though we argue all the time, it is good to have at least one friend that I can count on, no matter what happens.

So this argument has been going on for 41 years and even though I am always right, it still continues, some day he may even get the last word.

But not today because as usual I am right!!!!!

fortyoneyearfight
Always appreciate your real friends.
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