But, now the history textbooks will show that Barack Hussein Obama was chosen as the United States' 44th President. Cool.

As a man of minority status I found the so-called presidential race to be more than just a race over who had the stronger political stance and espoused the better position over currently contentious issues such as the economy, health care, the war in the east, and the environment.

It was a true race competition between another man of the majority and a man of minority.

It's not about what we are doing with ourselves and our Self's. Rather, it's how we do what we're doing with ourselves that matters. That's what brings the meaning in to life and nothing else.

There is nothing special that can be done that has wonderful meaning to it. Want proof? Two people can be doing the exact same thing and be experiencing two completely different outcomes of that doing. It's not in the doing, it's how the doing is being done. Nothing more, nothing less.

There is no answer to Life.

I've spouted off about this before. But this time I'm touting the whole perspective from two different places that are new to this supposed epidemic of obesity plaguing America's sidewalks, coffee shops, eateries, and fast food restaurants.

It's work.

It takes dedication, and passion, and commitment to the cause, and actually believing that one has something worthy to share. Nevermind holding onto the tenuous belief that others think that what one is sharing is worthy of their precious time.

To think that many tens of thousands of people read this writing of mine each month now is staggering. I never would've thought a mere three years ago that anyone would be interested in what I have to say. Nevermind commenting on it, or thinking about it or -- heaven forbid -- actually linking to my site from their similar work of Internet effort. This weblog is something that I never thought would amount to anything worthwhile, or worthy, to anyone.

If only one has ears to hear, it doesn't stop in what it wants one to know. It continues forward and continues to show one, sometimes in the smallest instance just what one is supposed to learn about oneself and then hopefully incorporate into their understanding of themself and then share that with the world.

For me, it's most interesting that this showing comes about in the smallest of experiences, especially for me one that was particularly painful to watch, and yet not watch.

I'll explain.

And then it happened.

The milk hit the floor and splashed out either a few small drops of spray across the floor, or, in the case of the milk jug, milk droplets and spray went over the entire bottom half of every kitchen cabinet within 10 feet of the event. Not to mention the bottom half of your trousers, or legs, or all up the dog's behind. Not a pretty sight to be a part of or view occurring, is it? Or was it?

But, here's where everything gets really interesting and will be the focus of this article and hopefully proffer cogent words to help you with your desire to be a better human being in your household. Again, if that's not you, then I'd advise you to stop reading and flip your attention over to another website or the nearby television listings.

At least that's what the greeting card companies want us to be thinking when we fork over our green to send and mail those trite words of thanks to the one parent we owe so much to.

Of course, some of us never had a mother, so to speak. We were given up at birth, or our mother died at birth, or our mother left at birth, or shortly thereafter.

Or, conversely, our mother chose to stick around and be there for all the scraped knees, fights, and snotty nose-wiping's that we needed kissing and tending to.

I know some of you might be thinking to yourself, 'Hey, André, what's the change from your usual ramblings?' But, again, I hope to be different with this article.

You see, sometimes a person needs downtime, that is, time when they don't need to do anything in particular. Time to be quiet. Time to reflect. Time to shut down the ever-present activities of the mind, which usually starts the moment we wake up each day and our mind 'boots up' with us.

Sometimes one just needs to take time to him/herself. Time to just replenish the supplies, so to speak. And this time can be time well spent. Or it cannot.

I know I've written about this subject before in another of my blog articles, but it's a good thing worth repeating. That is, each of us needs time to process whatever it is that we need to process, and using whatever medium we can or do have at our disposal is usually one way to go about processing the electrons firing in our head, and making them productive in some outer way.

Usually and hopefully not at the harm of another though. That's not productive. But find a way that allows for the release of whatever it is you find in your head and you'll do fine.

But, as we all know, Life goes on. It continues to slowly creep forward, with us as its usual unwilling participants, because we know better than it does as far as what's good for us. And what's good for those around us. Right?

How dare Life hide underneath that experience. Or within that event. Or not show its face to us throughout that struggle. Really.

I mean come on - I prayed, didn't I?

I begged and pleaded and hoped and bargained, and tricked my way to thinking that I could somehow convince Life that what I was asking for and surely knew that I wanted in that Life event was what I really needed. Didn't I?

And yet if only Life would see it my way, well, then everything would be just fine and dandy.

We all live on a pretty shaky foundation. Yet, all we are doing each day is standing on that foundation and doing whatever it is that we can muster to ensure that the foundation doesn't break apart and collapse, usually from right underneath our figurative feet. And that is where what I spoke about above comes into play at times.

Of course, we're not aware of this imbalance, and ensuing struggle to maintain and regain the balance. But it's there. And it haunts us daily with our unsteady gait as we hopefully traverse forward through life.

I recall a particularly insightful event when we were driving in my vehicle and the younger twins were in their booster seats in the back seat and their older brother was sitting next to me in the front seat, and one of the boys was making a repetitive clicking sort-of noise. Of course, I was paying attention to my driving on the Arizona freeways, but it was easy to notice that this noise being made was done intentionally, versus accidentally.

Anyway, the other two boys both said at pretty much the same time "That's annoying, stop it!", and that's when the insight struck me. That is, it became very clear to me that what was going on appeared on the surface to be about annoyance and being irritated by what was happening outside of one's Self; however, this was not the case.

Kind of hard to get out of if it’s something that you no longer want to do, or never wanted to do, or don’t want to do any longer, isn’t it? When someone else knows that you have a commitment to something you’re now held accountable, if at least figuratively. And so not following through with what it was that you said you would now puts you in a sticky situation that may take some finagling to get out of. Or some outright lying.

Isn’t it amazing sometimes to what length some people will go to in order to get out of doing something that they said they would do? You know what I mean, we’ve all been there. Something that they gave their word on or expressed that they would follow through with. But, alas, these days one’s word doesn’t mean very much anymore. Words are trite, diminished, and virtually meaningless.

You see, if what I write about offends you or irks you or riles you in any way, the only reason that that happens is not because of what I wrote and attempted to impart via this article and these words. No, rather it is because what I wrote, and subsequently what you read activated and energized inside of you something that resonated with what I wrote about.

And that resonation, that similarity, that mirroring was disturbing to you and you didn't like feeling that feeling inside.

And, voilà, you take me off of your 'favorites' list or 'bookmark' tab.

Think about that.

But, then, this begs the question as to why we don’t grow in our existence as we’re meant to do. The only answer which I am able to currently surmise is that we get in our own way. We stand in the way of expansion and growth, and understanding, and we put up our hand and say “Halt.” And, even sometimes, “Halt, who goes there?”

But, if one really allows themselves to get to a place of understanding of how the universe works, they will easily see that the universe is offering an opportunity to grow beyond the person that one now is.