California, through the action of their Supreme Court, has this week redefined the word "marriage," joining Massachusetts as the only two American states to change the meaning of that word. (I hope they notified Webster.)

For all the ages of human history (until our present day) the concept of "marriage," has consistently meant: "the mutual relation of husband and wife; the institution whereby men and women are joined in a special kind of social and legal dependence for the purpose of founding and maintaining a family." (From Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary) As far as I can discover, the comtempory idea of same-sex "marriage" has never been known in human history prior to our time. (Can anyone give even one historical example of the extremely radical idea of same-sex "marriage?")

It looks like CA and MA have already gotten to Webster. I just went to the online dictionary at Merriam-Webster and it has a second definition of the word "marriage" as also being a same-sex relationship. 48 states still define marriage by the ages long historical definition, yet Merriam-Webster dares to redefine it in their online dictionary. What presumption!

Does the etymology of words mean anything or is our culture entitled to override their historical meaning and do what we want with them? And what about the idea behind the word. What right do we have to tamper with a beautiful concept that has served the human race for thousands of years?

What if CA and MA had both declared that the government couldn't ban the registration of bicycles as "motor vehicles" -- that bicycle owners have the "human right" to register their bicycles as motor vehicles? Wouldn't that be nonsenseical? People could register their bikes as motor vehicles until the sun melts, but their word game doesn't change the reality -- bikes are not cars and trucks! In the same way, getting the government to call a homosexual relationship "marriage" and Merriam-Webster to so define it as such, doesn't change reality.

Nothing in the world is worth improving more than you are. Because of your tremendous value, the best use of your thoughts, energy, time, and effort is to invest in improving yourself. You can work to make improvements in your home. You can strive to improve your work place. You can struggle to improve your financial status. But if you really want to work on something important, work on improving yourself!

Self-tech is the scientific and systematic approach to self-improvement. It is knowledge and technology applied to you, by you. Self-tech is the steady attempt to recognize, experience, and enhance your personal value.

To a large degree, self-tech is common sense applied to yourself in an uncommon way. Self-tech is taking the free information and knowledge about how to effectively operate yourself (which a great many folks ignore) and consistently using it to make yourself better day by day.

Self-tech says: "As a human being, I am the most advanced, sophisticated, complicated, powerful, and important computer on the planet and I am going to learn to use myself to produced and run all the good programming I can. I am going to make me be all I can be."

Edwin T. Freedley put it this way: "He who seizes the grand idea of self-cultivation, and solemnly resolves upon it, will find that idea, that resolution burning like fire within him, and ever putting him upon his own improvement. He will find it removing difficulties; searching out or making means, giving courage for despondency and strength for weakness."

It seems that almost everybody is into something and has his or her thing. There are very popular things like: sports, shopping, music, and partying, There are common things like: making money and watching TV and movies. Many people nowadays are even into things that a generation or two ago were considered immoral and/or decadent. But hey, its their thing and it is not politically correct to criticize someone's thing unless . . .

Somehow, with all the things to choose from, I got into an odd, not very popular thing. If I even mention my thing, I get criticized, In the midst of all the hoopla for tolerance and acceptance nowadays, my thing is almost completely left out of popular television shows and movies. If my thing is portrayed at all, it is pictured as something boring, ignorant, and/or judgmental. So what's my thing?

My thing is a passionate, moment by moment relationship with Jesus Christ. It's awesome! Jesus is the most exciting person who ever lived and I get to interact with Him through out the day. He encourages me, strengthens me, comforts me, challenges me, corrects me, and thrills me everyday! Now I'm not talking about religion -- about going to meetings and following lots of rules. My thing is relational, not religious! It is experiential! And wow, walking continually with Jesus makes every day exciting.

Sometimes I feel weird that in this day of almost universal toleration, my thing is so shunned and rejected. But since I've been given something so wonderful as a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I can't be bothered by lack of popularity and other people's negative opinions. Loving Jesus -- It's my thing!

Motivation Quotation: "Millions of people live fractionally every day, getting only a portion of the joy to which they are entitled, robbed of power and satisfaction by fears, uncertainties, restlessness, and spiritual loneliness." --Roy L. Smith

Huge Motivational Portion: Why should we settle for a little motivation and joy when we can have "joy unspeakable and full of glory?" Why should we accept fears, uncertainties, and restlessness when we can experience "peace that passes understanding?" We don't need to be robbed of power and satisfaction. We can overcome. We can live in victory.

"Vast numbers of people go everyday as victims of wild impulses, swept along by the forces they have never learned to control, beset with difficulties of their own making and overpowered by passions which were designed to serve them, but which have turned upon them and enslaved them because they were not disciplined." --Roy L. Smith (Yes, it takes discipline. To get above a fraction takes action, Jackson!)

"All people can reason, love, create, improve, and develop; and any creature who can do all those things must be called great." --Roy L. Smith (You are a championship human being and you deserve more than a fraction.)

"The individual who cannot maintain a good opinion of himself finds life unbearable. Those things which undermine self-respect corrupt life; those things which contribute to self-respect enrich us." --Roy L. Smith (Isn't it time that we began to think and behave like the incredible beings that we are? R-E-S-P-E-C-T yourself!)

iCi -- Internal Combustion Ingenuity -- is the flame of hope that burns in passionate human hearts. It is the fuel that fires the engine of positive innovation and creative transformation. Through the centuries Internal Combustion Ingenuity has been given many names: wisdom, vision, inspiration, revelation, conversion, genius, enlightenment, insight, sainthood.

iCi is the inner ability to leave the path of familiar ideas, routine thoughts, and habitual concepts and to explore and soar beyond the bounds of hog-tied thinking. It is the perspective that sees more than the routine and the regular. Internal Combustion Ingenuity looks beyond the hype and sees the reality. It moves past the immediate and beholds the eternal.

Like the gasoline that powers the internal combustion engine, the fuel that drives Internal Combustion Ingenuity is costly. Those who step out of line with the mundane and the traditional -- the seers, the innovators, the geniuses, the prophets -- are often mocked, rejected, and persecuted. But their courage to boldly speak and act according to the light that they see, regardless of the personal cost, has made this world a better place.

Internal Combustion Ingenuity works againsts self-interest and seeks the good and the righteous and the benefit of mankind. That's what we desperately need in the 21st Century -- iCi!