Unless you’re living in a cocoon, come from another planet or a former Republican Governor of IL, your probably aware of the grim reality facing the world today.

What might that reality be? Could it be the economy? Could it be President Obama’s plans to fix the economy?

The answer is no to all of these. it’s actually something that might hit home much sooner than any of the above. It’s actually a little statistic that came over the wire last month: divorce has spiked while the economy was tanking.

While this is good news for divorce lawyers, It made me feel sad for all those couples married and dating that find themselves facing a relationship crossroads.

Recently, I spoke with a friend that decided to call it quits with her husband after nearly 15 years of marriage. Mounting business losses and horrible communication skills spelled the end of what had been a loving and passionate marriage.

While many right now are blaming the economy for their failed relationships, my friend placed the blame squarely where it should be: failure to communicate. She admitted that she and her husband never built the proper trust and respect that comes from good communication and that when things went sour for them, there was nothing to bridge the resulting gap that came between them.

Right now, President Obama is trying to fix America’s broken infrastructure through a number of different measures including rewiring our electrical grid and fixing old sewer systems. The price for ignoring these things for far too long will be huge. If we had only updated and continued to improve this infrastructure from the beginning, the price to be paid would be far less.

I believe the same thing goes for our relationships. While there is no quick fix, if you wait too long to fix it, the costs to repair it may end up collapsing the whole enterprise.

President Obama\’s Stimulus Plan

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The New York Times article on the story can be found here.

If Barack Obama can run America without his Blackberry why can’t you run your life without it?

No longer will he be able to get instant updates on what the Chicago White Sox are doing or what his sister is up to in Hawaii. He won’t be able to check in with friends, family or other close confidants. No more Facebook, Yahoo, or Twitter for personal use. Barack Obama has become property of these United States.

I recently bet a family member that he couldn’t go a week without checking his Blackberry. He, like Barack Obama, is a Blackberry addict. My family member truly believes that he can’t do without it. Needless to say he declined my offer.

For a variety of different legal and safety issues, President-elect Obama is about to give up email and his Blackberry. Yes, after a long and storied affair with his Blackberry, Barack Obama will give his Blackberry up upon entering the Oval office.

I think this brings up some interesting questions that you might ask yourself.

Let’s say you negotiating to buy a new home and you’d have to give up email to seal the deal. Would you do it? Could you do it?

If in order to get your dream job, you’d have to give up Facebook, would you do it? Could you give up all email for the job? Could you give up your cell phone?

In the past, I have no doubt derided all these technologies as false prophets of personal connectivity. Remember the information superhighway? Or did you already crash along the way? These devices often serve more as barriers to creativity, our relationships and the personal connections we all crave.

Even worse, technology may have killed the art of conversation. Remember those? Where two people interested in what each other had to say, actually talked to each other in person. If you’re under the age of twenty-five, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. Just go ask your grandmother what it is and she’ll also regale you with stories of rotary phones and long distance calls

If you’re as concerned as I am with the state of communication in this great world of ours, then I have a quick and easy suggestion for you.

Take the lead of some of America’s leading companies. Companies like U.S. Cellular, Deloitte & Touche and Intel have banned emails from coming in or going out on Fridays and have in turn seen productivity and communication soar.

See their story here: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119205641656255234.html

These companies realized that an avalanche of impersonal communication will never be as productive as a heartfelt conversation in the flesh. So as fast and convenient as texts and emails can be, companies are finding out that they’re far more productive without them. Kind of ironic don’t you think?

Why don’t you take a leaf from their book and do the same?

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It’s now been over 50 years since Hugh Hefner started Playboy magazine, his little magazine for men about women, many of them naked. The barriers that Playboy broke are far too numerous to mention here yet bare (I couldn’t help it) repeating. While Playboy legitimized naked women it also served as a showcase for African-American musicians and various authors and artists that couldn’t get a fair shot elsewhere. Until Mr. Hefner, all of these great artists were confined to the underground of American society.

No doubt Mr. Hefner must have seen great promise in our next President, Barack Obama.

Whatever Mr. Hefner believes , the American people voted this past November, 2008 with their hearts, minds and ballots for the next President of the United States and chose the young senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.

The funny thing is, it may not be Barack Obama that saves our country and for that matter the world. It might just be Hugh Hefner!

Let me explain.

Some scientists believe that human beings have lost the ability to mutate or change their genetic code.

Why might you ask? Isn’t this a good thing?

Well, you also have to consider that humanity evolves through mutation. Through evolution we’re able to better adapt to our ever changing environment. Because of our adaptions over the last million years, we are who we are today. In a very real way, we wouldn’t be here if our ancestors didn’t mutate.

So the scary thing is that the human race may not be up to the challenge of the next climate shift, super volcano, or ice age. This may explain why I hate winter so much.

Thankfully, like a bad science fiction movie, science has left the door open for our redemption. As it turns out, the reasons for less mutation are twofold. Scientists have determined that there are fewer isolated populations on earth leading to fewer unique people. They have also documented that older men are having less sex and therefore fewer babies with younger women. Why is this bad? Well, older men’s chromosomes mutate more than younger men’s and this leads to more mutations in the older men’s progeny. Less mutation equals less adaption and less adaption ultimately means fewer people survive the next time a global disaster hits.

That’s where Mr. Hefner comes in and saves us all. Mr. Hefner has decided to not take this lying down. That is to say he’ll lie down and have sex with as many young women as possible. With any luck, he’ll have lots and lots of super babies with amazing powers.

By example and through plenty of Viagra, Hugh Hefner and others like him, will lead the way to the future of the human race!

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