Mike Ghouse speaks today on “A much better tomorrow” at College of Complexes

Mike Ghouse' motivational talk on “A much better tomorrow” at College of Complexes

It was pleasure speaking to a mature group of seniors, bankers, lawyers, politicians and activists. The conversation that followed was heart to heart, they were passionate about what they believed and that made the dialogue effective, as you are dealing with directness. Thanks to Tom Berry for organizing this dinner talk at Barbecs Restaurant in East Dallas. The forum is called college of complexes, which was started in Chicago in 1951 with a branch here in Dallas. More about it at http://www.collegeofcomplexes.org/2.html

My talk “A Much better tomorrow” revolved around these four items.

You can make your life purposeful, meaningful and enjoyable, and can choose to be the driver of your life or be driven by others. The choice, as well as the excuse, is yours. I pray that we retain the ability to choose what we want in our lives.

1. Starting life with a clean slate – our minds and hearts gets cluttered every day, and need rebooting through a variety of practices including a few minutes of silence,  meditation or prayers. I shared two heart touching stories about how to live (or die) in peace. I was glad to see a few women cry and a few men listen to it with pin drop silence.  It is good to be endowed with that emotion and let it be expressed. What does it take besides guts to clean our slate? It was an elaborate piece based on Michami Dukadam - a concept from Jainism (religion), where we boldly seek forgiveness and forgive other's short comings. 

2. Carving a Purposeful 2015 – It was mini-workshop in defining ourselves and assessing where we are, and what we want and how do we go about that.  All of us wrote the following 7 items and spent a minute or two in thinking about each one of them. We started with a mirror! Looking into the mirror and reflecting where we are on each one of these items - and if we hold this mirror next year at the same time, what will we tell the mirror what we did to change what we did not like?

Based on my articles at Huffington post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/2014-a-blueprint-for-a-pu_b_4517662.html

3. Holocaust and Genocides commemoration – it’s my story about Holocaust and Genocides based on my pieces at Huffington post -

I have invited everyone to the  8^TH Annual public event to be held in Dallas on Sunday 1/25 and Washington DC on Tuesday 1/27 – It is a community bridge builder.
 

The purpose of this event is education, information and activism. We hope to learn and acknowledge our failings and make a personal commitment to do our individual share of expressing, “Never again”.

Our mission is to create awareness of the inhumanity within each one of us and hope to find the solutions.

4. Gratitude – One has to learn to be grateful – it is a powerful energizer to those who bitch about things in life. It will change you completely. It is the story of Appaiah as narrated in my article at Huffington post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/interfaith-thanksgiving-story-of-gratitude-and-self-balancing-acts_b_2169789.html

Where Is Happiness?

Volunteer your time for others, not your own community or place of worship but strangers whom you will not see again. There is a joy in serving others.

Q&A – It was a delight to hear passionate expressions from the members of the group – be it God, Israel, life, Atheism, Islam or other topics. I am glad to see some people see beyond the idea of “promised land” and see the conflict in humanitarian terms. Because, I am a Muslim invariably standard questions come about – Why don’t the E-moms (Imams) condemn ISIS – of course they have, 60 E-moms have made a joint declaration, and every Muslim majority nation has condemned their acts, unfortunately the TV media does not cover it. If one of the Imams had said, “I justify ISIS” it would have been on the news cycle for months. Tiny bad news is a fodder for the media, where tonnes of good news do not get reported, and we fall prey to what we see and hear.

What we need to do contribute to a better world?

1. Questioning everything you hear or read 
2. Making an effort to see others' point 
3. Expressing gratitude for any good your receive
4. Forgiving and seeking forgiveness often
5. Resisting stereotyping others, it frees us 
6. Being kind to at least one person a day
7. Volunteering 
8. Respecting the otherness of others
9. Reading www.TheGhouseDiary.com

God has not signed a deal with any one behind other’s back, if God is a just guy, he would not do that. Indeed, God has not promised anything to anyone behind other’s back. Who wants a God like that?

God or big bang or evolution has produced as, we are a fact of life, and we have the responsibility to keep the world in balance and harmony. God does not meddle or interfere with our daily routines, it is up to us to preserve that balance and harmony, pay for in anguish when we mess it up and relish when we preserve it, if that balance is not achieved here, the carried forward imbalance will be handled by the mysterious almighty. 

Thank you
mike
Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916 text/talk
............................................................................................................................... Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. He is a staunch defender of human rights and his book standing up for others will be out soon, and a movie "Americans together" is in the making.  He is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post. All about him is listed in 63 links atwww.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.