Accounting for Heaven and Earth

Sometimes I have “insights” that are not fully formed, but I just want to write them down so that I don’t forget the ‘idea’. This is one of those times. I am just saying that what I am about to say may not make sense, not just because the reader has a different point of view, but because I have not clearly communicated my thoughts and impressions. Caveat lector!

I rarely think of my work as being related to spirituality. However, the past couple of days, several things have happened that have made me review or revisit how I look at Accounting. For example, there are times when a report or statement is one Cent off, and I cannot go forward without finding where that one Cent belongs. It is easy to “fix” things, but it cannot and should not be done, because: first, it is wrong, second, it just doesn’t work at times. For example, if you are paying $3 million and the report you printed out says you are paying $2,999,999.99, one may think that you can just give one of the payees 1 Cent. No, not really? If you overpay one of the people, they will come back and ask (may be), but surely if you underpay somebody, you might as well not do it in the first place. What if you narrow it down to a particular person? You see to whom the 1 cent needs to go, do you just throw it in there, on her account? Not really, it may belong to a particular invoice, or period (month, quarter, or year)… Things like this make accounting hell sometimes. You cannot check off something as okay (it foots) when it does not. You can bet on it that it will come back to bite you; well, most of the time. Most of the “checks and balances” that you find in life, have their source in Accounting. For example, if you make $1 million during the year, and you make this money from work, gifts, and businesses, you are expected to report that you made $1m to the tax authority. You may wonder, how would they know if you told them that you made only $0.9m? Well, for starters, your employer tells them how much they paid you. Second, the gift giver is supposed to report how much he has disposed of in gifts. Third, the people that made payments to you need to have backup for the claimed expenses, so there will be receipts with your tax id on it showing money flowing to you. Fourth, if you deposited any money in an interest-earning account, the bank has to report the interest that they paid you, and of course, the money you deposited will show. Last but not least, you cannot spend what you don’t have. By looking at your statements, the tax man can have a good idea of how much income you made. Of course, my list is not exhaustive, but it gives you an idea of how, given time, the tax man can figure out how much you made (or spent).

Accounting has another basic side to it, which may or may not be looked at as “checks and balances”, the double-entry system. For every transaction, there is a debit and credit to it. A simple example would be if you bought a one dollar pen for your business. This is an expense. Your cash would go down $1 (credit your books), your supplies (expense) would go up $1 (debit your books). At the end of the day, your debits and expenses should match.

One last point that I need to bring up, is budgets. It is hard to imagine a functioning business that does not have an accounting budget. This just shows you what you expect to make or spend for the year. The fun is in the details. But as the year goes, you periodically look at items in the budget and see if you are where you thought you would be at a certain point in time. If something is so below/over-budget, you investigate it before the year ends (well, usually).

Well, enough accounting. So I thought about that and I wondered if the principles of accounting are applicable to other non-monetary issues. For example, if somebody hurt my feelings, what would be the equivalent in accounting? If I sinned, what happens in Heaven that is similar to accounting? So here is what I thought of as a possibility.

Assume that we are dealing with Cash, and the normal (or good) balance is a debit. Let’s also assume that good acts are debits. Then if you help somebody out and you feel good and the other person is appreciative of your actions, and Heaven is also rejoicing, then:

Debits: your good account in your heart; the recipient’s view of you; your good accts book in Heaven.

Credits: effort needed to do the good act; the recipient “pay it forward” account; your sin book in Heaven(?).

Similarly, if you hurt somebody’s feelings intentionally for no good reason, you can make the necessary entries.

At the end of the day, how you feel, the financial health of the organization, you and your fellow men, will depend on how accurate and how good your books are. Just like in accounting for businesses, the accounting for both Heaven and Earth, doesn’t lie.

The closest I could come to relating the accounting budget to life in Heaven and on Earth, had to do with expectations and potential. I think that’s what an accounting budget does, it sets expectations for performance with the conviction or commitment that the organization has potential to live up to those expectations, whether it is to cut costs or increase revenues or both. So what are our expectations and potential. On the expectations side: we are expected to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we are expected to work as if we are doing it unto the Lord, we are expected to discover what we are good at and devote it to the betterment of ourselves and of the human race, we are expected to discover our potential… It is not an exhaustive list. I presume that God and our fellow men, from their exposure and intimate knowledge of us, have a good idea of what we can do/be. That being the case, I do not think it is outrageous to think that each one of us has a budget of good works that we are expected to perform.

What if, in God’s budget, He saw that for the world to be a good place to live, I would have to help one person every day or every week. I would also have to give 20% of my income to my church, etc. If I help twice that number, and give less to the church, I am sure it may throw off the budget, but I cannot say by how much. It is not for me to know what the budget is. All I can do is my best. Just like at a company, the presidential team may have the budget, which the man in the warehouse does not know of. The man in the warehouse just has to do his best; make the best nuts and bolts for himself and the company.

If men can plan things with extraordinary precision, be it accountants, rocket scientists or Chess players, why would God do any less? Why wouldn’t God have a plan or budget for enough food or medication for everybody? Why wouldn’t God have enough leaders and doctors and followers and … for the world to function properly? I believe God has it all properly budgeted. It is just that we don’t take time to figure out what’s important and how best to allocate and manage the resources that we are. We are self-managing resources in God’s budget.

Stewardship Sunday: make a baby for the Church or increase your weekly offerings by $4.58

Today is Stewardship Sunday. Today’s sermon was inspiring and funny. We were reminded that it is our duty to give to God what is not ours in the first place; that we can give through the things/property we own, through time/service, and through talents. One of my favorite Jesus’ sayings: if you cannot be trusted with small things, how can you be trusted with the bigger things. (Well, something like that!)

The funny part of the homily was when Father Vic told us that the Parish ran a deficit of about $70,000 last year. This was due to Teacher salary increments and lower school enrollment. The former increased the expenses, while the later reduced the income. Not a good combination. The Priests, (we have two), had come up with two solutions/alternatives for us: either we stop having 1 or 2 children and go back to the old Catholic way of 10 or more to increase future school enrollment, or we should increase our weekly contribution by $4.58(?)!!!

What a tough choice! (I may do both! I will just ask the Church to take care of all the expenses for the 10 kids!)

Thankful for life when you have nothing…

Here is a classic in my opinion. It reminds me that I can still be thankful even when I seem not to have anything to be thankful for.

Here is one more Nina Simone song/video that I really like.

Mother Teresa

Thanks to Paul Collins Collins Fine Art www.collinsart.com for allowing me to post this FINE ART here. I saw it a couple of weeks ago and I could not resist sending the artist a request for permission to have it here. I would like to buy this piece some day.

Open Book Secrets?

Why reveal yourself to the world?

A couple of my friends have wondered why I blog, and why I write about my thoughts (and feelings) for the world to see. I am not sure if I have given a complete and satisfactory answer to them. I know that I have given them an honest answer/explanation. Most of the things I share, are inconsequential to me (and them). People will know something about me, my thoughts and reflections, and then what? I understand the fear of sharing your life with “strangers”, but I am not sure there is anything a stranger can do with the info I provide. So I have no fears or misgivings about my thoughts/life being out there, even though I am a private (and introverted) individual. The thing that made me start blogging is that I have all these ideas that come into my mind that I never really share with anyone. Some could be helpful, some are just interesting that they even crossed my mind, some is just knowledge that I may come back to later, and some of it is just a way for me to let out the pressure, emotions, feelings, ideas, etc. I could have made it all private, where nobody could see it, but that would mean things that can help somebody would be hoarded. I am not sure I want to keep information that is useful for the general populace to myself. A way to overcome that would be to have several blogs… private and public. Kinda a pain. But that’s what I am doing… I have a private journal/diary… online! and I have a public blog. I share some of my thoughts and feelings at this blog. But not nearly enough. There are things that I cannot write here at all. What are my fears, desires, deepest thoughts, memories, food for thought, reactions, etc. Those are things that I have determined, I cannot share with the public because they are so so so… private and personal to me. I have also determined they would do nobody good if they saw it. May be people could take advantage of me then. May be some would be mad that I thought this of them. etc. So what people see here is not all that I am. I am not sure it is possible to figure out a person even if you read their most private diaries or journals. You will have a very good idea, and then what?

Why go online?

I have been transforming to having most of my stuff online for a while. Leo, at zenhabits.net made me realize that this was the right thing to do. He had his own reasons for doing what he does. He didn’t mention journaling. He, however, mentioned things like saving his photos and (other) files online. Of course, you can make these public or private too. You just need to spend some time thinking things over and learning about the system and yourself to see what’s best for you. Anyway, why go online? Well, several reasons. It is portable, as long as you have Internet connection. Thus you don’t have to carry a ton of things around and worry about losing any of it etc. I think it is secure. You don’t have to worry about somebody finding your stuff if you don’t want them to. Well, for the most part! Hackers or system failures or whatever can end up making your info open to the public or you can even lose it all. But I would rather have a stranger read my info and not know what to do with it, that somebody whom I have considered a friend or best friend, do the same and use it against me or get hurt or ask me a million questions or misinterpret what I wrote 10 years ago. I don’t have to worry about where I kept my diary/journal at all or who has access to it. If somebody figures out my username and password, props to them!

Why keep a journal at all?

You can look it up online to see why it is important to keep a journal. For me, there are several reasons. First, I forget important things all the time. Sometimes people get hurt when I don’t remember stuff. Sometimes I just appear dumb. etc. Keeping a journal and reviewing it every so often, enables me to help my brain remember things that are important or interesting, that I would otherwise not remember. Second, it helps me keep track of my goals, thoughts, visions, etc. David Allen said it best in Getting Things Done: “There is no reason for you to have the same thought twice, unless you really like that thought”… (or something like that). I want to record things and free my mind for the next thought, idea, vision, emotion, etc. Third, I think that when I write, I feel better… I know myself better… I understand my life better… I guess because I have to explain things - for example, why I feel a certain way, instead of just accepting the final product/emotion/thought/decision. There are more reasons, but that’s all I can think of right now. Oh, well, one more reason…. What proof is there that I existed at one time? If I look back to my great grandpa… the only proof of his existence is my grandparents and my parents and me.. I guess. There is no other record for me to see them. No pictures, no journals, no stories that anyone can repeat to me or let me read/see; nothing to tell me that he even envisioned my presence some day… well, I don’t mean to set a high standard or judge them harshly. May be it is not even important! But I would like to leave some traces behind. My thoughts as to how I would want to raise my kids and why. Why I would like my kids and grandkids to have a better life than I did/do, and what I am doing about it. May be in the future, somebody will discover how xgq3445(&&(>> (I don’t know what they will call us at that time!) thought. I don’t know. I think, therefore I am. I write, I am.

I may change my mind about all this some day!

Don’t slow down the good stuff

I was thinking about how addictions come about and how friendship and love get lost. How do people who at one time were absolute best friends end up not talking at all or run out of things to talk about in seconds? I realized quickly that the process is usually deliberate - (deliberate as in “slow”, consistent chipping and eroding, the way the elements turn rock into sand and soil).

Addictions: I have read or heard that people get addicted to good or bad stuff by starting off with small steps and then repeating them over and over while gradually increasing the time or amount of exposure to the addictive thing.

Habits: I have read or heard that if you do something at least once a day for 21 days, it will becpme a habit. It may be harder and slower at the beginning, but with more practice and exposure, you become good at it, regardless of whether the habit is good or bad.

Love and friendship: This I have heard, read, seen and experienced. You start off by not liking something that your buddy has done or said and you extend it to the person. You may start off by not doing something small that you always do when things are okay: cook or write or call or smile or talk or … thus denying the person something that has been a given or constant when things are okay. Next time something happens that you don’t like, you will default to doing what you did the last time, only this time, the not talking or calling or smiling or … takes longer. May be an hour. Next time, may be half a day. Before you know it, a whole week has passed. Then the rationalization is something like, “I guess I have proved that I can live without him or her”, or “since I have made it so far, why should I go back to the old stuff?” etc.

The point of the foregoing is that as the bad stuff picks up, the good stuff slows down until it all disappears and all you have is the bad stuff. You remain with the anger, the silence, the loneliness, the fights, the detachment, etc. The love, the laughter, the dancing, the companionship, the trust, the warmth… is gone.

Unless what you really want is to get rid of the good stuff, you ought to make the extra effort to make the good stay or at least not slow down. When it is hardest to hold hands, may be hold hands at that time. When you feel like not calling is the solution, call (unless you have a very good reason not to). When you feel like not looking into the other person’s eyes, do it. It doesn’t matter whether you always start. When you don’t feel like giving it a chance, do so. Don’t wait. If you wait, you will get good at waiting and doing what you do while waiting, and the good stuff will disappear.

The greatest thing is that whatever you choose to do, you live with the consequences. “He who seeketh, findeth!”

Thanks to http://www.golfvic.org.au/dir127/vgasite.nsf for the image.

If Warren Buffett were to live his life all over again…

If you were to live your life all over again, what would you change? The second richest man in the world, and the greatest investor who ever lived answers that question in the video below. Please click play and then drag the “VCR timer button” to 1:22:15 to hear what he says. When I first saw the video, I decided that I would never again, wish I was born a different person. Sometimes I fail and wish things were different, but all in all, I am happy with who I am… all things considered. I get back to this video when I feel down or I wish things were different or … if I can’t find things to be thankful for.

Pay it forward

I remember watching the movie, Pay It Forward, a couple of years ago. The only thing I remember about it, is the “random acts of kindness” that people extend to each other. You can read more about the move by clicking the link above.

What brought back the memories of that movie is a couple of kind acts that were extended to a dear friend of mine by complete “strangers”. These good Samaritans made an otherwise horrible experience, bearable and memorable. I wrote about the blessing of kindness a couple of days ago. It appears the blessings continue, and there is a reason to celebrate humanity.

How do you “repay” people for acts of kindness that they have given (to you or your loved ones)? In my opinion, there is no repayment. There acts of kindness indebt you to them forever, for you would not be the same person had they not intervened. Thus it behooves you to “Pay It Forward”. How often and how much? That depends on a couple of things. First, how much did your life improve because of the grace you received? Second, how much does the other person need for his or her life to significantly improve? Last, but not least, why are you doing it? (In answering the last question, you may want to think back and answer the question: why did that good Samaritan dress my wounds on that night?)

Choosing not to love

You can choose not to love and at the same time not dislike or hate or cause pain to the subject/object. In a way, you would act as if something or somebody does not exist.

Why would you choose to do that? For your own good.

For example, if you have cared for somebody for a long time, and it seems that your wants, needs, desires, expectations will not be met if you continue along that path. You have no reason to dislike the person, since he or she has done nothing wrong to you. However, for your own benefit, you may need to stop and change course. Choose not to love any more.

Another example, is work or play. I love Chess. It has taken loads of my time. There were times when I almost flunked in school because Chess came first, second, third, fourth and fifth. I am not sure where anything or anybody else came in. After Chess, there were Chess players, and then… may be family, other friends (non-Chess), and I was somewhere down the list! I should have chosen not to love this game so much (if not permanently, then at least temporarily, when life called).

How do you deal with the guilt, or other challenge, that dissuades you from the path of not loving? Just continue on the new path. If you stay on the new path long enough, it is going to be so hard to change highways.

What does it benefit you if you choose not to love any more?
- You gain self-esteem from doing something that you thought was impossible to do.
- You remove one of the negatives in your life… the frustrations and all that.
- If it’s a person you are dealing with, it may be that your absence or disappearance is what was needed for him/her to realize your worth.
- If it’s a thing, you may benefit from the controlled desire, the mitigated impulses.

How many pictures for a life story?

It’s been said, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. I decided to go through all my pictures and try to “reconstruct” my life from it. It was an enlightening undertaking. It was interesting to see myself change. To see the friends I have had over the years. I tried to figure out what I was thinking or feeling. It was interesting to see how my wardrobe changed, and I tried to figure out why it changed. Was it for a day or for a season. It was nice to remember the happy times I shared with some people that are now in the distant past or will soon move to the past if things don’t change. I miss(ed) playing Chess at tournaments and getting trophies. It was nice to see graduation pictures.

I decided to go through my pictures one more time and write my thoughts and feelings behind them… and I need to find a way to do that with the digital ones! I have huge chunks of my life without any pictures for them. May be I have emails? May be letters? May be memories? One of my friends once told me that it is not for the money, for what good is the money if you cannot enjoy it? It is not for the people to see, you have to be true to yourself. It is all for the memories and experiences; the stuff that makes you smile when you think back. As I grow older and wiser, it all rings true. Hopefully, I am able to create good memories for myself and other people as I pass through this life.

There are some things that cannot be captured on a picture or video for one reason or another, but there are there. Pictures are just a small part of the story… I wonder how many pictures would I need to tell my whole life story?

Another year gone, another one begins. Thanks for the past years and also for this new year.

For stories in pictures, here is a good site.