2012--Pay it forward.

    So here we are, a new year, and I finally decided to get to writing a blog. Not because I haven't wanted to, but honestly, because I've just been that busy.
    As many of you know, I participated in a video contest back in January for Nutrex. I truly do appreciate each and everyone of y'all that took a moment out of your day to vote for my video. It was a great expierence, and I have already come to the decision to do another video later this year. I have some training to do for my next video, as for what I have planned is going to be something truly incredible at my level.
    So, what has the past few months been like for Shane. Well, I have been surrounding myself with some great people and organizations that I am excited about. I am still a fanatic about Nutrex, and that will not change. But I have recently been getting to know the people at Savage Sports Performance, and FatGripz. Though I haven't started to use any of the products from Savage Sports, their knowledge and training expertise is un-matched. They are extremely helpful and professional. The people at FatGripz are just simply amazing. I have been using their product in my training for the past few months, and the product is just an absolute gem. It is one of those products that actually delivers what it promises to. They even back it up with a 60 day guarantee.
     I've also gotten to know a wonderful individual more and more recently in the past few months. His training, his knowledge, and his professionalism is un-paralleled. His name is Chris Pluhacek and he goes by the moniker of Iron Spartan. He is a sponsored athlete at Nutrex, and is just simply amazing. Check him out at his facebook page. He has helped take me a new level in my training, and has pushed me to a level I never thought or dreamed to ever try for. So to him, I owe a debt of gratitude.
      However, the bottom line still remains: Without the support and strength of my loving wife and dear friends, I still would not be where I am at today, and where I am heading to this year. 2012 is going to be a major milestone for me, and I don't want to hype it up much too early in the year. I would rather save it as a surprise.
     So, how does this all apply to the overall scheme of the title headline? Simply put, if you get an opportunity to surround yourself with  people who make you want to be better, to push yourself harder than you thought you could do, make sure you not only thank them, but try and pay it forward. Show the same kind of love, and help someone else out. We can't succeed in life on our own, and it is only respectful to show credit and appreciation to whom it is due. Not only will it make us feel good for acknowledging those that have helped us, but it makes those we acknowledge feel good for receiving the recognition. Knowing that your help and time invested into someone is appreciated makes us be more willing to help someone later on down the road in life.
   

This is my opinion, and you won't change me

    Ok... I'm a grown man. I am a father of 3 wonderful, beautiful girls. I have a very lovely and supportive wife, who takes me for my best and worst days. She has learned ( though her path has been painful ) to take me for all my quirks. Especially when I get on a rant about any subject. I have great acquaintances, and some very wonderful close and dear friends.
     This year has been a year marked with highlights, some successes, some failures, and I have had the most wonderful opportunity to meet some very humanitarian type people and invite them into my heart as I hold them very close and dear to my life. I can only pray that this upcoming next year will be filled with opportunities to get to know some more people and really appreciate their value and worth in my life. NOW.. having said all of that,  I shall proceed onto my rant...
     How damn emotionally lazy have we become as a society of adults that when one person extends a sense of well being and cheer to reply with  " Same to you "? Same to you? Same to me? SCREW THAT! Folks, to me, that is the equivalent of a man extending his hand out in friendship and another man just looking at him as though he were a leper. Where I come from, if a man extends his hand out in kindness or friendship, you had best shake that hand back. If you don't, you are insulting the man and might as well just spit in his face ( to which, you'd most likely end up getting into a tussle and one person is gonna get a few scrapes and bruises from it ).
    I'm sorry, but if I tell a person " Merry Christmas " I mean it. Especially to those that know how cynical I am or have been of most holidays. I expect a damn " Merry Christmas to you as well " back. If you don't mean it, then tell me to go fuck off. I don't care. I'd much rather have that told to me, than " Same to you " or " Same to you and your family "...
     That brings me to another point. Why is it now, that when we extend a greeting of well wishing around these holidays ( I'm speaking of the time frame from Thanksgiving to New Year's ) and we use words like " Merry Christmas " some people look at you as though you just told them you just raped their favorite stuffed toy or cat. I'm sorry, deal with it. We are in America, and in America, though as understanding we may try to be of other cultures, we still celebrate Christmas. This country was founded on people wanting to be free from religious persecution and prosecution. Christmas has the word Christ in it, and Christ is the center of Christianity ( which ever form you so choose to pick... Mormonism, Southern Baptist, Pentecostal, etc etc ).
I have spent Christmas in other parts of this wonderful country, and they have other holidays that coincide with it. For example, in Detroit, Michigan they also celebrate Kwanzaa. I don't know much about the holiday, why it is in existence, but while I was there, we had to be aware of it and respect it. I can tell you, that it is a mostly African American celebration. Cool. Great, I never noticed a huge difference surrounding Christmas with the influence of Kwanzaa.
      So tell me this... because the United States of America is a country sworn and dedicated to give people the freedoms that our fore fathers fought for with their lives and spilt their blood to give us, to ensure we could pray to the Gods of our Faith free from persecution, we should be required to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, just to be politically correct? Why? You come to America from what ever country... to be what? Ultimately American right? So, you ultimately receive a driver's license or some form of identification issued to you by a representative entity of the United States Government correct? Correct. You enjoy the freedoms of getting to choose your career field or job, or where you want and can afford to live. These are all freedoms that we the people of this country get to enjoy. But yet, somehow I am expected to be weary of other people's feelings and emotions when it comes Christmas? SCREW THAT! I will not appease the masses and say Happy Holidays when what I truly mean is MERRY CHRISTMAS! I can guarantee that if any of us that are Anglo Saxon went to a different country of a different race and they celebrated a holiday that we didn't like or that we didn't understand or that was against our ethnic heritage, that said country wouldn't care. They'd look at us as the outsider and we should expect to be treated as such.
    Society today as a whole, a whole folks, not individually, has become the great divide and eternal Grinch of the Christmas spirit. People just accept and fall into a slump of acceptance when it comes to being concerned about a person's feelings when it comes to certain holidays. You never hear anybody saying " Oh, we can't say Happy Valentine's Day anymore because Valentine's Day's mascot is a little fat kid running around in a toga, and wouldn't you know it, there is a little fat kid running around in a toga who has taken offense to it, so now we must call it " Happy I heart you day " "... What's next? Halloween. I can just see it now. " Folks.. we can't say Happy Halloween anymore,  because there was dead spirit who got all offended because he didn't get enough candy ( or SOME other ridiculous buffalo chip excuse ).. so now, we are going to call it Happy Orange Gourd Day "
    Do I sound like I am going too far? Perhaps so, however, sit back and look folks. This is where it's going to. Oh dear god, don't even get me started on Happy New Year.. Nope, soon, if we allow it, we will no longer be able to say that either. We will have to say Happy 12 MONTHS, or Happy 52 weeks, or Happy 26 payche... wait, can't say that right now, for some, the economy is so bad, they can't really say that they will get 26 pay checks in the next 12 months.. my bad. OOPS.
    Anyways, my point being... if someone says Merry Christmas to you, say it back. Even if you don't mean it. Be a civil adult and muster up the nuts to just say it. Get over it. You expect me to respect your wishes and beliefs, well dammit, respect mine.
     Merry Christmas everybody.... I love each and everyone of you. I mean that, in all sincerity.