Plus I found The Secret AND The Idiot's Guide to The Secret.

AHAHAHAHA!! Idiot's Guide to The Secret- a redundancy if I've ever heard one.

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Isn't the Secret just positive thinking? I mean...can you dumb it down more than that?

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Well the Idiot's Guide is longer than The Secret itself.

It's sort of positive thinking but it's the right kind of positive thinking. The kind that has been SECRET for many years and you have to do things to make sure you get the right Attraction. Or something.

I just turned to a page at random of the Secret. Did you know that all the great inventions (lightbulb,film, telephone) happened because of the Secret?

It's true "The only way anything has ever been invented or created is because one person saw a picture in his mind. He saw it clearly, and by holding that picture of the end result in his mind, all forces of the Universe brought his invention into the world, through him."

"These men knew the Secret. These were men who had utter faith in the invisible, and who knew the power within in them to leverage the Universe and bring their invention into the visible"

And see I thought it was a lot of hard work, trial and error, research and stuff like that.

Also according to the Idiot's Guide saying that you Need something makes you, well, needy and the Universe doesn't like that. The Universe likes it better when you WANT something because then you can take it or leave it and the Universe rewards that kind of thinking.

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Isn't the Secret just positive thinking? I mean...can you dumb it down more than that?

It is not just positive thinking. It is *magical* positive thinking. Like if you think positively enough, you won't get cancer. But it has to be "I thank the universe because it has made me healthy" not "I won't get cancer".

So if you are sick, or poor, or have any misfortune, it is your fault for not thinking positively enough. Because if you are positive enough and phrase that positively enough you will get everything you want. Which is why "The Secret" is so hated.

So I guess to dumb it down but be accurate, the way to summarize The Secret: "If I mentally phrase my wishes positively enough, they are the universe's command." Of course this is very 2nd hand.

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saying that you Need something makes you, well, needy and the Universe doesn't like that.

Wow. I think I met the Universe in a bar this one time back when I was single.

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Wow. I think I met the Universe in a bar this one time back when I was single.

I knew it. The Universe is a douchebag.

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Pretty much.

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The Universe is a douchebag.

That has always been my takeaway from The Secret.

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"The only way anything has ever been invented or created is because one person saw a picture in his mind. He saw it clearly, and by holding that picture of the end result in his mind, all forces of the Universe brought his invention into the world, through him."

In the case of Edison and the light bulb, it was that and trying 6,000 different filaments.

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Shitstorm.

Query, divorced parents or legal types:

I'm looking for really good resources, legal resources. I want to be vagueish, and I may redact this question after a day or so.

M's mom wants to write a will. Laudable and logical.

What she wants: (a) if she and stepdad (bio father of her 2nd child, T., 7 years younger than M, she and D's bio child) die at the same time, she wants D and I to take both children. We have agreed privately to each other -- D and I -- that we would do this.

Here's the sticky part -- (b) she wants stepdad to keep M if she should die before M is age of majority, to raise the children as brothers. I understand the desire to respect that bond. Stepdad is an okay fellow, we have no personal bias against him as a parental figure. But D and I both agree this is a no-go. D wants exclusive parental and residential rights, if, heaven forfend, this should happen. We would be happy to arrange for extensive visitation, but not to SD raising M.

D loves M. D is an involved, employed, fit, child-support paying parent with joint custody.

C -- If we should agree to Option A (raising T and M should both Mom and SD dying) we do feel weird about, if M was 18, and T was 12ish, taking custody of T. Which may sound like we're awful people, and raise questions about "Why would it be ok if M was 17 and T was 11" I KNOW -- I'm still struggling with this.

I don't even know what I'm asking for. Advice, pointers to resources...this just hit like whoa earlier this afternoon, and it's a really complex situation, and Mom is going to flip out like a mammal when (we are trying to postpone the convo as long as possible until we get ducks in a row) when she hears that we'll do A and not B.

I've been researching, and we may have to get a lawyer, I know, esp since the custody agreement was done in Kansas, where we live, and they live in Pennsylvania.

There's no illness or anything, this is just worst case scenario, but...well. SHITSTORM.

I'm just...I came back from the grocery store after having had a good morning writing and working on a resume, dealt with a tantrum (minor, yet took an hour) and planning on having the evening secluded in my office, and then THIS. I don't even know.

I'm very confused and stressed. And I'm SAD that everything has to be so fucking fraught.

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