Spring is here and summer is just around the corner. That means its time to get the pool in shape. I must be honest, we neglect it during the winter months. We basically take a break from cleaning and maintaining it. About all we do is keep the debris out of it. We rarely even add chemicals.
The Filter
The summer rehabilitation begins with the addition of chemicals and steady filtering. Swimming pools use a cleaning system that pumps water through a filter and back into the pool. The filter traps the impurities from the water and allows the treated water to move back into the pool. The dirt and grime from the pool stays in the filter, but the filter eventually gets clogged with all the dirt and then it must be cleaned.
When the filter is dirty, the cleaning system does not work as efficiently. It actually must work harder to pump the water through it and so it loses its ability clean it in a timely manner. If the filter is not cleaned, it doesn't really matter how long you run the pump. It simply does not work. If you want a clean pool, you must have a clean filtration system.
Under normal operating conditions, the filter must be cleaned three or four times a year. Because we let the pool get so dirty over the winter, we are cleaning it daily. It is amazing to see how quickly it becomes clogged. Our pump is running 24 hours a day right now. The only time we turn it off is when we are cleaning the filter. The water, despite nearly a week of filtering, still looks unpleasant, but we are making progress.
What We Take In
Yesterday, as I was cleaning the filter, I though about my own filtering system. Today, we need to be much more vigilant then we needed to be 20 years ago. Then, we had policies and guidelines in place that filtered information for us. Today the internet and the relaxation of broadcasting standards means that we really operate most of the time without any other filter than our own.
I like the freedom that we have, but I understand the cost too. Our pool of information is corrupt and dirty. but that fact is not the real problem. The problem is that many of us are not maintaining our own reservoirs. We allow anything and everything to jump into it and the filth that now comes so easily into our lives is clogging our personal filters. They are struggling to keep up, but they are not doing the job.
The use of pornography is at an all time high, and it is now as popular or more popular among women as it is men. We can barely escape its influence. It is in the popular shows, and now it is even in most commercials.
Its impact is corrupting our leaders in politics, entertainment, athletics and business. None of them seem to be happy when we discover that they are caught in this trap. Each of them fight to get back what they had, a clean bill of living. Of course, this is not the only influence that is sullying our living pools, but it is one of the major ones. For many of us, it is time to clean the filter, and it will need to be cleansed many times before we can eliminate all of the filth from the information pool.
Raise the Bar
From the windows of our home, we barely noticed the dirt in the pool. It wasn't until we had a couple of warm days that it began to really look bad. If we had turned on our filter system a week earlier, and added some chemicals, it would have become crystal clear much more quickly. I am often amazed at how much energy we spend thinking and worrying about our water supplies and how little we spend thinking and worrying about our information supplies.
My invitation for you today is to look inward and begin to clean up. Yes, it is much more difficult to escape the dirt today, so I dare you to be different. I dare you to step out of the normal world and into a cleaner way of living. I know it won't be easy, but you can do it. It will make you a better leader, and a better person.
Is your filter on?
Are you maintaining it regularly so that you can keep your reservoirs clean?
Are you will do what it takes to only allow clean water in?
I believe that when we strive to live by pure and virtuous principles we are more likely to be happy. These filters provide the safety we need to really enjoy life. None of my children were willing to jump into the dirty pool. We must not be willing to live in a dirty world either.
Live Today! Love Today!
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