Will Your Children Be Responsible Adults?

A basic law of physics states “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” If you push on a something, it will move, or push back. A ball will roll; a wall will push back and hold you up.

The same law applies to interpersonal actions. If you do something, there will always be a response, maybe not something you expected, but there will be a reaction. No action occurs in a vacuum.

When dealing with people, our actions can sometimes be misread, with others feeling everything from humor to anger. It would be easy to suggest that we have no responsibility for the  reactions of others to our actions, but this is not so.

If you smile, you will often receive a smile back, but not always. Sometimes the person you smile at will frown at you or growl. Usually, though, you can expect a smile.

If you hit someone, you can expect two or three things to happen. The person who was hit may cry or curse or be startled. He may fall or wobble. Most likely, he will hit you back.

From the beginning of time, Adam and Eve were given the right to make choices, to act as they chose. They were also held responsible. They chose to eat the forbidden fruit and were not allowed to continue to live in Eden. Their lives were changed for themselves and all their posterity.

It has continued to be the same since then. People make choices and must be responsible for the consequences of those actions. Focus on seeking wealth at the expense of family will distance them until the love and closeness is gone. A choice to be honest in your actions and pay your bills allows one to have good credit and trust from others.

Children must be taught responsibility for their behaviors. Children who do not receive this instruction become difficult to live with. They believe the world owes them a living. Nothing is their responsibility, the fault belongs to others.

Children have a right to learn to be decent adults. Though difficult, parents are expected to ensure their children have opportunities to learn responsibility. If they are not taught, society will suffer from more adults who blame others and expect special attention. For some it is too late. Some may learn. Please teach your children.

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Will Your Children Be Responsible Adults?

A basic law of physics states “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” If you push on a something, it will move, or push back. A ball will roll; a wall will push back and hold you up.

The same law applies to interpersonal actions. If you do something, there will always be a response, maybe not something you expected, but there will be a reaction. No action occurs in a vacuum.

When dealing with people, our actions can sometimes be misread, with others feeling everything from humor to anger. It would be easy to suggest that we have no responsibility for the  reactions of others to our actions, but this is not so.

If you smile, you will often receive a smile back, but not always. Sometimes the person you smile at will frown at you or growl. Usually, though, you can expect a smile.

If you hit someone, you can expect two or three things to happen. The person who was hit may cry or curse or be startled. He may fall or wobble. Most likely, he will hit you back.

From the beginning of time, Adam and Eve were given the right to make choices, to act as they chose. They were also held responsible. They chose to eat the forbidden fruit and were not allowed to continue to live in Eden. Their lives were changed for themselves and all their posterity.

It has continued to be the same since then. People make choices and must be responsible for the consequences of those actions. Focus on seeking wealth at the expense of family will distance them until the love and closeness is gone. A choice to be honest in your actions and pay your bills allows one to have good credit and trust from others.

Children must be taught responsibility for their behaviors. Children who do not receive this instruction become difficult to live with. They believe the world owes them a living. Nothing is their responsibility, the fault belongs to others.

Children have a right to learn to be decent adults. Though difficult, parents are expected to ensure their children have opportunities to learn responsibility. If they are not taught, society will suffer from more adults who blame others and expect special attention. For some it is too late. Some may learn. Please teach your children.

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Join the Semicolon Project–Save a Life!

In April the mental health community is celebrating the semicolon project. This project hopes to save lives of those with depression, anxiety, or who have contemplated suicide.

Why semicolon? The period ends the sentence, the semicolon suggests there is more still to say and do. Those who struggle with self-harming and/or contemplating suicide need to remember the events of today are not the end of the story. Rather than using a period, add a semicolon.

If you know someone who struggles, or if you are the one who struggles, remember the trials and problems of today are not the end, there is always more to your story.

All stories, including life stories, include challenges and struggles to make them interesting. The story doesn’t end in the middle of the struggle, it would ruin the story. The main character of the story grows and learns as they are challenged.

The same is true of the story of your life. No one lives a “happily ever after” live, who would want to, it would be boring!

We learn as we struggle and we grow as we confront challenges. It starts at birth. Little children fight and struggle to hold their heads up, to crawl, to walk, to eat, to be self-sufficient individuals.

The challenges don’t end as we reach a certain age, they only change. We have learned to walk, to eat without making a huge mess, and to take care of ourselves, but there continues to be challenges to face, trials to overcome. They make our lives interesting and help us to be better.

Even after the time comes that we are called home to live in another existence, we will face challenges as we improve our lives, to become better and grow to be the best we can be, to borrow an Army quote.

Join the semicolon project, for yourself and for your loved ones. Do all you can to prevent the premature periods in the lives of people we love!

Together, we can save a life, or many lives!

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How Can Artists Protect Themselves?

In 1998 the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA was signed into law to protect intellectual property. The main thrust of the act is to protect copyrighted works particularly in connection to technology—the internet and other digital media. If intellectual property is illegally copied, the website must remove it immediately, and publishers of intellectual property cannot distribute stolen or copied works.[1]

All this sounds like a great idea to me, as I am working on my first novel. Those of us who participate in the arts have an underlying fear that our work will be copied or otherwise stolen and used for the financial gain of another, to our loss.

To comply with this law, a DMCA Takedown Notice is sent to the site in which intellectual property is copied, demanding that the offending copied material is removed, or taken down. If the content belongs to one person and is claimed by another, the owner of the content can legally request it be removed, and expect that it be removed.[2]

I read something scary about this today. A novelist recently had her book blocked from Amazon and Smashwords because someone had sent in a DMCA notice, and as these companies obey the law, her work was removed.

The problem is, it was her work and the DMCA complaint was sent by someone who had cheated, lying that this work was not hers, for some unknown reason. Perhaps this person wanted to ruin her life, or steal her money. Perhaps she wanted to blackmail the author.

The purpose of this false accusation is not as important to me as the fact that her work was claimed by another, though it had been copyrighted. And the simple fact that it was copyrighted had no bearing on the take down. It is all one person’s word against the others—a classic “he said, she said” problem.

I’ve read a lot by other authors who worry that their work will be stolen and reprinted and sold on other sites, with the benefit of the sale going to others rather than the actual author. I see multiple examples of copyright infringement on photos and paintings, as well as music. This international Act was passed to protect the artist who created the property.

What do we do when someone uses the act written to protect us as a weapon against us? Can I share any of my work with another for help as a Beta Reader if I always worry about theft? How can I share even a small portion of my work in progress if I fear someone will copy it and then claim the total as theirs?

This is a problem for all artists, not just authors. What do we do?

What would you do? Do you have suggestions for me, an unpublished, yet, author? How should I handle this huge problem?

Please respond if you have a suggestion.

[1] Copyright Office Summary

[2] DMCA: Protect Your Content website

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