Nothing profound today: just sipping my morning brew and pondering the concepts that most sum up our philosophy. Over on Facebook lately we've been stirring up some commenters who don''t like various viewpoints.

Sometimes they don't like that we aren't conservative enough. We've conceded to the left that sometimes -- just sometimes -- we'd like to see more social justice messages come from the right. Other times they think we are conservative scum profiting off the work of poor, non-white and LGBT workers. Not sure how they came up with the sexual preferences of our coffee farmers, but since they are Honduran and are indeed struggling to make a living, I guess their other characterizations are accurate. What I fail to see, however, is how purchasing the product they are offering for sale (amazing organic coffee beans!) somehow oppresses them and makes them poorer. Seems to me it could only help their situation.

Regardless, everyone has an opinion these days on how we should all go about living our lives.

Personal Responsibility

One characteristic of the American work ethic, however, has always been personal responsibility. Decide for yourselves how you ought to live your life. Read the books, do the work, have the conversations. I love this quote from Joyce Meyer in her book on The Making of a Leader:

One of the things we must understand is that there is no other human being on the face of this earth who is interested in developing our potential for us. Oh yes, we all want to help others reach their full potential, especially our children and grandchildren. But the bottom line is that none of us can do that for someone else, and no one else can do it for us. We must each do it for ourselves. We must each discover our own God-given gifts and talents, what we are truly capable of, and then put ourselves to the task of developing those gifts, talents and capabilities to their fullest extent.

That pretty much says it all. Do the work you are called to do. Do it well, and don't expect other people -- or the government -- to come swooping in to make life perfect.

We hope you all have a good day!