One thing your teacher never told you in school is this: you should be stealing anything and everything you can. 

WTF you say?

The definition of stealing:

3. To get or take secretly or artfully

Consider this. Ever since you were a child you have been copying and stealing from people.  You have stolen from your parents, your family, your friends, your teachers, your hero's, and even from fictional cartoon characters.

Some might want to call this something else, but in it's simplest form we have been stealing ideas, images, thoughts, actions and habits from people since the day we were born. 

1. To take (the property of another) without right or permission.

This is the stealing that get's you sent to jail (sometimes).  Think about this.  If you steal a car, you are going to jail.  If you steal a candy bar, you are going to jail, but are we not all taking things (stealing) from those around us every day?  Are we not taking ideas from others and building on them?  Are we not taking style ideas from pages of magazines and copying them?  Are we not stealing another person's idea or concept and incorporating it into our own lives without them giving us "specific permission" to do so?  

 

2. To present or use (someone else's words or ideas) as one's own.

Every single person reading this is guilty (or blessed) of doing this every day.  We steal an idea from a TV commercial, from a meeting we have, from an email we receive and we spin it into our own way of thinking, our own way of speaking.  Almost every idea is a growth from a subconscious thought you had while learning from someone or something else!  Every person on this planet is guilty of stealing every day when they hear a joke, then later tell the same joke.  

3. To get or take secretly or artfully

I like the idea of this stealing because I do it every single day.  I love to take photographs.  Did I create the things I shoot?  Absolutely not, but I steal those images and use them for my own benefit, for my own enjoyment, for my own fulfillment.  Does an artist painting a mountain create that mountain from their own coincidence?  No, they steal the image and present it to you and I in a way that is done with their own art and mental ability. I believe this type of stealing can help and benefit all of us.  I consider this type of stealing to be the foundation of our own respective growth physically, emotionally and spiritually.

I challenge the notion that stealing is wrong.  I believe we should be stealing good and positive things every single day we are alive!

 

STEAL WISDOM!

STEAL LOVE!

STEAL HEALTH!

STEAL PASSION!

STEAL FAITH!

STEAL EXPERIENCE!

 

Final thought.....

Surround yourself with places, surround yourself with opportunities and most of all surround yourself with people that are worthy of stealing from!

97.8% of the day I'm a happy go lucky Irish guy. 

However on occasion I get upset. Here is a brief list of things that get my shamrock undies tied up in a knot:

-Baby mama drama
-People who drive the speed limit in the fast lane
-Any person who abuses a child
-Catching an edge while snowboarding
-Forgetting where I parked my car when I'm a t the mall
-A steak cooked well done when I ordered rare

I have something else that drives me nut's. So much so it deserves it's own bullet point. 

                                         RACISM  (or at least the idea of it)

WHY IS IT WHEN A CAUCASIAN SAYS ANYTHING NEGATIVE (EVEN WHEN CONTENT IS TRUE) ABOUT OBAMA, POVERTY, WELFARE, OR ANYTHING ABOUT AN AFRICAN AMERICAN HE OR SHE IS LABELED A RACIST or BIGOT?

ON THE FLIP SIDE OF THE COIN IF AN AFRICAN AMERICAN CALLS A CAUCASIAN A CRACKER, HONKIE OR SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT A CAUCASIANS ANCESTRY IT'S CONSIDERED FUNNY, AND NOT RACISM? 

I know this is not doctrine 110% of the time, but I have seen and experienced this trend for many years.  I follow current events and it's becoming sadly evident how our society in general (pretty much every human being) wants equality, but what we are really asking for and what we really want is "special" treatment or exceptions for our own color, ethnicity or sexual orientation that gives us just a little bit more.  A little bit of an edge over the rest of society, over the other races and creeds.  Of course EVERYONE says 'no way, that's not what I'm asking for', so what exactly is it we are all after if so much talk about RACISM still exists?  Why is it if a white coach is hired over a black coach, we (we being society and media) jump on the fact it's due to race?  Why is it when a black guy is beat up by a white guy it's due to race? 

Besides my son's 3 year old tee ball team, THERE IS NO LONGER AN EQUAL PLAYING FIELD FOR ANYTHING OR ANYONE ON THIS PLANET!  Not for white's, not for blacks, not for anyone.  No one gets the same salary.  No reality TV show has all the singers being voted for equally during the show.  There is simply not ever going to be a time or place where everyone is equal.  Period.  Society has moved (and will continue to move) in the direction of survival of the fittest. Sure in God's eyes we are all the same, but in reality I do not know many people in this life that can say they see or treat everyone equally.  So why cant this just become reality vs. being labeled oppression or racism? Why is it every time a white (or any color for that matter) news anchor calls out our pathetic excuse for a President, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the ACLU demand that the network fire the anchor on the base of RACISM or BIGOTRY?

Think I'm wrong on this?  Answer these questions.

-If you are white and you see a group of young Latino's or Blacks walking on the same side of the street as you looking a little "shady", what is the first thought in your mind?  Don't lie to yourself, you know it's fear/ anxiety/ a desire to be on a different street!

-If you are an African American who loves football, explain to me how you felt during the hiring process of the Notre Dame head coach position back in 2001/2002?  EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE was screaming RACISM when Ty was not initially hired as head coach, even though he was more than qualified.

I could go on and on with examples like this, and even though while reading this you say you see and treat everyone equally, you really don't simply by what your mind thinks, and your actions show.  Yesterday during a pretty heated debate with a buddy of mine (who happens to be black) my friend proceeded to tell me that "his people" (African Americans) have been oppressed and treated unfairly (by white's) for 400 years.  That we (white's) "stole" him and his people from Africa and that black people would never rise to any power or equality with a white person. This is the same friend who of his own admittance despises RACISM.  If he really did, and he really felt he and I were equals, why so much anger and frustration about the topic he claimed to not feel? 

LET ME SHARE THIS LITTLE BIT OF INFO WITH YOU! THE MOST POWERFUL MAN ON THE PLANET, THE COMMANDER AND CHIEF OF THE LARGEST MOST DEADLY MILITARY ON THE PLANET IS A BLACK MAN!  ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR TALK SHOW'S ON DAY TIME TV IS HOSTED BY A LESBIAN! (I HAPPEN TO THINK SHE IS AMAZINGLY FUNNY BY THE WAY!)  LAST BUT NOT LEAST THE MOST WEALTHY PERSON ON THE PLANET IS A MEXICAN!

Care to tell me where the oppression or RACISM is in any of this?  If a black man can become the most powerful man on the planet, if a lesbian can become the most popular TV host and a Mexican the wealthiest man on the planet, why is RACISM even in our vocabulary?  Most of all, why do the words come out of our mouth that we are "NOT RACIST" yet the very stereotypical, very RACIST thoughts exist and run rampant in each of our minds?

Remember in Dumb and Dumber when after going in the wrong direction Lloyd said "That John Denver's full of shit man".  Well, I hate to break it to you or say I told you so, but those Mayan calendars are full of shit man...

So now that we are climbing out of our bomb shelters, now that we know the debauchery of last night was an ill conceived idea, lets talk about moving forward.  Here are the 5 most important things you need to know since you are awake, alive and not smashed by a rock the size of Texas or sucked into a black hole with aliens and little green space people.

1. The end of the world will be when God wants it to be.  Simple as that. Stop worrying about it and stop listening to the guy tripping on shrooms running around in a diaper.  Wickedness is spreading, but you wont find an explosion date, flattened like a pancake date or any other date for that matter in a calendar, in a fortune cookie or on CNN.  Sorry to pop your bubble conspiracy theorists.  PRAY.

2. Since we all survived the fiery furnace, lets try and say PLEASE and THANK YOU more.  Manners..  Why are they leaving us?  Why is chivalry "dead"?  If you are a fella who does not open doors for a lady, do it or else my grandfather will come out of his grave and kick your ass.  If you have a problem with please and thank you, say it.  It's that simple.  Kids are killing kids, schools are being shot up and we as a society are trying to blame a cold piece of steel that sits all by itself minding it's own business as the problem?  Nope.  The problem is the fact our sons and young men don't know what it's like to have their asses spanked by their father, or their mouth washed out with soap by their mother!  MANNERS.

3.  Be a neighbor.  Look, I'm sure laying around my garage is a tool I borrowed and forgot to bring back.  I'm sure there are some toys or trinkets in my neighbors garage their like kids swiped from my garage one day.  The fact is I see you every day, and you see me every day.  Why do you keep pointing a gun at me when I drive by and why do I keep putting flaming bags of poop on your porch?   Let's call a truce and be nice.  Seriously, I know my loud music and late night parties drive you crazy, but you mowing your lawn at 4:33am hurts my head.  How about we just be nice to each other?  I'm pretty sure Jesus said something about loving your neighbor, and every house on my street is my neighbor.  (Even the crazy guy who freaks out about my dog on his immaculately manicured lawn!)  LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.

4.  Charity.  When was the last time we did service?  Not baking cookies and door-bell ditching them.  I mean going to a food bank, a homeless shelter, cleaning up the old lady's yard.  When I was a kid saying "I'm bored" was a bad as saing F*CK!  My mom and dad would have FLIPPED out on me because I had SO MUCH STUFF! I'm thinking one of the reasons our kids are wondering off is because they have never met or spoken with another child who lives under a bridge.  I doubt they have ever known what it's like to go to bed hungry.  I toss a hot dog into the microwave for 10 seconds and my kids are set.  There are children around the world that need help, that have outstretched hands.  Want to know how to stop school shootings and kids who play video games 10 hours a day?  Team them to use their time.  Teach them CHARITY.

5.  Finally.  The last thing the Mayans really wanted to teach us in this crazy hoax of a deal, they wanted to teach us to focus on the reality and the simplicity of life.  I've personally stayed at 5 star resorts all over the world.  I've swam with dolphins and purchased $100,000 cars.  Want to know what I know now that I did not know 5 years ago?  Going into the mountains with a $100 tent, some sleeping bags and a few cans of beans creates memories my kids actually talk about and remember.  Want to know how many times my kids asked me how much our house cost?  NEVER.  Want to know how many times my son asked how much horsepower my sports car had?  NEVER.  Want to know how many times my kids asked how many gallons of gas the wake board boat held?  NEVER.  SIMPLIFY.

I'm glad the end of the world never happened.  I'm glad the Russians are not parachuting into my back yard and I'm glad all the nukes did not go off at the same time. 

LIFE IS GOOD.   :-)