I was reading the Los Angeles Times yesterday and I noticed the big $.99 Store advertisement.   With the usual inexpensive items there were more fresh food products.  Amazing stuff if you know how to shop wisely.  I could buy 2 pounds of bananas for $1.00, very fresh broccoli for $1.00, celery, various bags of fresh fruit all for $1.00.  In the upper right-hand corner of the ad was the Bridal Registry.  That’s correct.  Along with registering for your wedding at Bloomingdale’s, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, you can now register at the $.99 Store.

What a sign of our times!  The store is very smart in picking up the need for wedding guests, who may be unemployed or underemployed, to be able to give gifts to the bride-to-be.  You can buy 10 plates for $1.00, or how about 2 bowls for a dollar.  Hey, you can even give the bride …

As I look at our great country, I can’t help but see wonderful people, doing the best they can with what they know how to do.  These are really the times that try men’s (and women’s) Souls.  As Charles Dickens said in his famous book “A Tale of Two Cities” 1859, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…we had everything before us, we had nothing before us….”  In short, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

What can we do to help our wonderful country in its hour of need.  In order for things to change in America, the people of America must initiate the change.  I know you are tired and weary of the sound bites, wars and uncertainty in your finances but you can make a difference.  Only …

Americans live in what is considered a No. 5 country.  That means all of us require freedom to be able to create and move forward.  The five is the progressive number.  It sits in the middle between numbers 1 through 4 and 6 through 9.  It can, therefore, see backwards–the past–and forward–the future.  It is unique in its ability to transform the past into the future and move itself forward.  This is the essential ingredient of progress.  Freedom to make change, learn from the past and move ourselves and humanity forward.

In our quest for progress, there is a tendency to do and over do.  We run marathons, iron man races, pump iron, push ourselves to exhaustion, do stomach crunches, yoga on steroids, take steroids and fill ourselves up with supplements without reflecting as to whether our bodies really want or need the supplements.  In short we pressure ourselves and …