Freedom

It was a pretty day today and I am getting stir crazy either working or procrastinating all day, so I took a drive over to Eagle and Star. Eagle is 10 minutes northwest of Boise and Star is a bit farther. They both are a mix of old and new ranches and I think Star had more of those half finished planned communities that got caught in the housing crash, but most of Eagle looked like this,



This is on my way out of Eagle and back to Boise,


And this is back to Boise, right near my house,



The flat hill in shadow on the right is Table Rock.

Boise State beat New Mexico State last Sat 59-0, although BSU's ranking moved down to 4th.

I am super tired. I don't know if it is the season change or working on this business proposal or worrying about having an income or feeling discouraged. It's probably all of those things. I'm too tired for Wayne Dyer's version of enlightenment today, so I am picking my own topic, Freedom, with an excerpt from a pamphlet called "The Ten Cannots" published in 1916 by an outspoken advocate for Liberty, Rev. William John Henry Boetcker. There are several minor variants of the pamphlet in circulation, but this is the Patriot Post's version:

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves."

I'm a little concerned about the keep out of trouble one. There is a responsibility to being free, and I'm finding there is some self-discipline involved, also.