(VIDEO) UM--MY TOPIC GOT LOST ..

What Emily wants to talk about is her husband's way of thinking. But that is not what John Cullum is in the mood to discuss.

Never quite answering her questions, chatting a little about this and that, John explains why it helps him to examine complex issues in imaginary conversations with with philosophers like Aristotle and Stephen Hawking. 

ME TOO! YOU TOO!

All the women pictured in this issue, called "THE SILENCE BREAKERS," have been praised for telling how and when they were abused by powerful men.

Yes, they are brave. It took courage to reveal the details -- sexual specifics of what was done to them. And now there are shocking, detailed revelations from more than 100 young girls who were molested, abused by the former USA gymnastics team doctor, and sports physician for Michigan State University.

We're into the first phase of a revolution that may change the way children are brought up, and will affect our culture. But there is an element in what happened to the women on the cover of Time Magazine, the MSU gymnasts, as well as the Me Too women all in white at the Grammys, that is not being mentioned.

Being a woman, I know how I was taught from day one of my life to be female, be like my mother,  her mother, grandma and all the mothers before her -- to be sugar and spice and everything nice. To be sweet, charming, cute, sexy-seductive-lovable, in behavior, clothes, language -- in all the ways a baby, little girl, young lady, grownup lady, woman should be whatever she does, whatever career she chooses. It relates to why the gymnasts at Michigan State University didn't tell about the abuse for many years.

Your femininity helps get you to the next level and next -- get more help, more attention from the coach and other experts -- it gets you into meetings with powerfully important men and women who can help you be more successful. The women, and young girls who have been abused got themselves into a situation with an abuser because they needed something from the abuser.

And the abusers, the men, even MSU's sports physician, who've been taught, trained, conditioned by our culture from infancy as snips and snails, and puppy dog tails, into needing to do what they did -- that is not being mentioned either.

Hopefully, the thousands of things that shape us -- especially movies, television, music, and commerce-related ads -- what "Victoria's Secrets" sells us, what we buy, love to wear, and try to be -- will change.

It's starting to happen. It could change how males and females need to behave if we change the sugar and spice aspects of femininity, the puppy dog elements of masculinity, and become truthful, straight forward in pursuing our dreams, needs, and goals.

I showed this to my husband. He said, "Don't publish this, A lot of people are going to be offended by this."  If you're offended, I'm sorry but its what I perceive as the truth.

GOOD WORDS TO HEAR TODAY

Bill Gates, guest editor of the January 15, 2018 Time Magazine, an issue chock-full of hopeful events and optimistic people who are doing good things for the world, told the magazine's readers:

"Reading the news today does not exactly leave you feeling optimistic. Hurricanes in the Americas. Horrific mass shootings. Global tensions over nuclear arms, crisis in Myanmar, bloody civil wars in Syria and Yemen. Your heart breaks for every person who is touched by these tragedies. Even for those of us lucky enough not to be directly affected, it may feel like the world is falling apart.

"But these events—as awful as they are—have happened in the context of a bigger, positive trend. On the whole, the world is getting better.

"This is not some naively optimistic view; it’s backed by data. Look at the number of children who die before their fifth birthday. Since 1990, that figure has been cut in half. That means 122 million children have been saved in a quarter- century, and countless families have been spared the heartbreak of losing a child.

"And that’s just one measure. In 1990, more than a third of the global population lived in extreme poverty; today only about a tenth do. A century ago, it was legal to be gay in about 20 countries; today it’s legal in over 100 countries. Women are gaining political power and now make up more than a fifth of members of national parliaments—and the world is finally starting to listen when women speak up about sexual assault. More than 90% of all children in the world attend primary school. In the U.S., you are far less likely to die on the job or in a car than your grandparents were. And so on.

"I’m not trying to downplay the work that remains. Being an optimist doesn’t mean you ignore tragedy and injustice. It means you’re inspired to look for people making progress on those fronts, and to help spread that progress more widely. If you’re shocked by the idea of millions of children dying, you ask: Who is good at saving kids, and how can we help them do more? (This is essentially why Melinda and I started our foundation.)

"So why does it feel like the world is in decline? I think it is partly the nature of news coverage. Bad news arrives as drama, while good news is incremental—and not usually deemed newsworthy. A video of a building on fire generates lots of views, but not many people would click on the headline “Fewer buildings burned down this year.” It’s human nature to zero in on threats: evolution wired us to worry about the animals that want to eat us.

"There’s also a growing gap between the bad things that still happen and our tolerance of those things. Over the centuries, violence has declined dramatically, as has our willingness to accept it. But because the improvements don’t keep pace with our expectations, it can seem like things are getting worse.

"To some extent, it is good that bad news gets attention. If you want to improve the world, you need something to be mad about. But it has to be balanced by upsides. When you see good things happening, you can channel your energy into driving even more progress.

"That is what I hope you will take from this issue of TIME. I’ve asked some of the people I respect most to write about what makes them optimistic.

"You’ll learn surprising facts about the state of the world, and you’ll meet heroes who save lives every day. It’s a crash course in why and how the world is improving. I hope you’ll be inspired to make it even better."

Thanks Bill Gates for giving us these strong good words.  It's a never-to-be-thrown-out issue of Time Magazine.

The issue included:

"The Kids Will Be All Right," by Warren Buffet.

"Defending The Dreamers." by Lawrence Powell Jobs.

"Girl Power" by Malala Yousafzai.

"What Men Can Do To Help Women," by Bono.

"Precedent for Change, Time For Hope," by Avan du Vernay

"The March Forward," by Melinda Gates.

Born in 1955, William Henry Gates, age 62, entrepreneur,  author, philanthropist, with his friend Paul Allen, Gates founded and built Microsoft, the world's largest software company, and  became one of the richest men in the world. With his wife, the Melinda and Bill Gates foundation has  given $35 billion to charities.

(VIDEO) IS JOHN CULLUM DISCIPLINED

The CULLUM'S  don't agree about how they approach work, and life, in terms of discipline.  

In the course of a day, John Cullum likes to do what he's in the mood to do, while his wife, Emily Frankel, plans and organizes how she spends her time.