It’s that time of month again…time for my column.  I’m not sure how many of you regular ChristopherDixon.com subscribers are reading this, but I have to believe that there are some of you who are reading this on a regular basis.  You may wonder what inspires me from month to month, and that is a fair question.  Most, if not all, of the time, it comes from real-life experiences.  The rest of the time, it comes from recent things that I have read that really motivate and inspire me.  This month’s column is a healthy mix of both cases.

I am a huge fan of Dave Ramsey.  And while I have been lax on implementing every single one of his precepts, I find that his advice is sometimes just the kick in the pants that I need.  And so, with that preface, I offer you these practical survival tips for the recession.  Some people are espousing the idea that, as a nation, we are emerging from the recession, but I’m not so sure that I am ready to claim victory. I believe, as I’m sure many of you do, that we still have a long, long way to go.

So, without further ado, let’s launch into the tips:

1. Hug your husband/wife/significant other:  There is no other factor that plays into broken relationships more than finances.  If you are facing financial difficulties, rather than retreat into isolation, share the burden.  Nothing heals like sharing the load, and there is no reason to “protect” your spouse from the difficulties that lie ahead.  Last time I checked, one of the common vows during a wedding ceremony states “for better or worse.”  There is nothing noble about hiding the worse from your partner in life.  Tell them.  Hug them.  Tell them you love them.  And then forge ahead.
2. Set a budget, and live within it:  I heard a rather sobering statistic yesterday.  Nearly 40% of Americans spend more than they make on a monthly basis.  Where does that extra money come from?  Credit cards, loans, and even some far more nefarious sources (ie, PayDay loans).  For many, there is no controlling the income aspect of our budgets.  However, what we do have exclusive control of is the “outgo”.  How much do we spend on cable/satellite TV?  How much are we paying for our cell phone plans?  Is paying for High Speed Internet really worth leveraging your financial future?  Hardly.  There are many ways that we can trim our spending, some less comfortable then others.  But what is more uncomfortable?  Living paycheck-to-paycheck, or eliminating a few luxuries from our lives?
3. When there’s too much month left at the end of the money, make sure you have a place to live and food to eat:  Dave Ramsey espouses prioritizing the bills.  I happen to agree with this, quite whole-heartedly.  He states that there are “four walls” that MUST be paid every month:  Rent/Mortgage, Utilities, Transportation (ie, car loan, insurance) and Food.  When it looks like you aren’t going to make budget, these are the four things that MUST be paid.  You MUST have a place to live; you MUST have heat, water and electricity; you MUST have a way to get to and from work; and you MUST have food for your family.  Everything else can wait.  Do you really think that your Citibank Credit card is more important than these things?  If so, you need to seriously re-evaluate your priorities.
4. Debtor’s prison hasn’t been around since the 1830s:  Naturally following from point number 3, it bears stating that if you can’t make all of your payments every month, you ARE NOT going to jail.  Will the creditors call you and harass you?  Probably.  Can they threaten to sue you?  Sure they can.  Will they sue you?  Probably not.  Are collectors calling?  If so, it is their legal right to call you, but they are paid to threaten and get results.  But, that doesn’t really matter, does it?  Their threats are mostly empty, and at the end of the day, if you don’t have the money to pay them, you don’t have the money to pay them.  They’re just going to have to wait.
5. Stop inviting disaster:  Christmas and birthdays come at the same time every year.  There is no reason to “freak out” when these things are approaching.  Make a plan early on in the year to pay for the items that these events entail.  If you haven’t, then it’s time to scale down.  It’s better to just give a greeting card with words that express your love to someone else than leverage your future to pay for a gift that you can’t afford.  The second that you bust out the credit card to pay for birthdays and Christmas is the second that you break down and decide that you must spend more than you earn.  STOP IT!
6. Finally, explore alternatives:  If the “four walls” are busting your chops, find alternatives.  Utility bills kicking you in the teeth?  Turn the thermostat up!  No one ever died from living in a house where the temperature is 78 degrees (in fact, since moving to Texas, I have found that to be the status quo).  Grocery bills making you pull your hair out?  Last time I check, rice and beans are pretty darned cheap, and fairly nutritive.  It may be time to suspend the weekly steak and shrimp meal and start trimming down the food budget.  Is your rent too much?  It may be time to look at cheaper options.  It’s painful…I know.  But, the fact of the matter is, you will never get out of the position you are in by simply doing the same thing you’re doing now. 

Some of these may be simple, and some of these may be extremely difficult.  But, they are all do-able.  It is time that we stop lying to ourselves and start doing what is necessary.  This is your call to action!  Get up and start making changes. 

And finally, it would be irresponsible for me not to mention this:  If you are a Bible-believing Christian, it is your responsibility to carve out 10% of your earnings (BEFORE TAXES) to give to the church.  The Bible clearly states that if you are faithful in this aspect of the Christian discipline, that God will be faithful to supply your needs.  No if’s, and’s or but’s.  In fact, God asks in the Third Chapter of the book of Malachi to TEST Him in this.  He says that if we are faithful in our giving, He will open the floodgates of blessing.  Let me be clear.  I am not espousing the idea that if you give to God, He will make you wealthy.  But, what WILL happen is that you will find that your needs are met, day after day, and month after month.

If you are NOT a Bible-believing Christian, maybe it is time to explore it.  God IS faithful…I am a living example of that.  Even when times have been tight, God has always seen to it that my family’s needs have been met.  And believe me, in the unpredictable world of sales, that is a load off my mind.

Ready to get started?  Good!  Change is possible…it’s simply up to YOU!

Open the newspaper, or flip open your laptop in the morning and you are likely greeted by an onslaught of headlines that go something like this:

“Will Gas reach $4.00/gallon this summer?” 

“13 reasons the economy will never recover”

“Unemployment claims reach record levels”

It’s hard to escape the panic-mongering that is so prevalent in the media today.  It’s almost as if those writing the stories want you quivering in fear by the end of the article.  There is a new religion for the new millennium:  The Religion of Alarmism.  Alarmism sells papers, magazines and papers.  It can be titillating.  But, at the bottom line, it is destructive, both to mind and spirit.  I find myself rarely reading anything further than the title of these stories, because I have learned a very valuable truth in my life, from two very different sources.

The first is from The Bible:  “And who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life?” (Matt 6:27, NASB).

Being someone who does not like to take things completely out of context, I will give a quick background on this statement.  This was during the famous Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus is preaching about the importance of seeking after things which are truly important (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?).  He explains that the lilies of the field and the birds of the air don’t worry themselves with what they will eat or what clothes they will wear, because God ultimately takes care of them.  He continues saying that we (humans) are far more valuable than the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, so certainly God will take care of our needs.  Then he says the words above.

The answer to the question he poses is obviously “No one”.  In fact, I would put forth that worry actually has a tendency to steal hours from our lives.  It could come in the form of actually causing health problems that could literally shorten our lives, or it can come in the form of the wasted hours during our times of worry.  It doesn’t take much reflection to realize what a detrimental thing worry can be.

But recognizing the horrible effects of worry, and ceasing to worry are two entirely different things.  I think that we can all academically agree that worrying accomplishes nothing good.  It can certainly keep us awake at night, make us sick to our stomachs, and a whole host of other physical maladies.  But, in terms of accomplishing anything worthwhile, the act of worrying is entirely devoid of anything redeeming.

Which brings me to the second truth:  some people call it The Serenity Prayer, and it is used by 12-Step Programs the world over.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

While profound, this version doesn’t tell the entire story.  This prayer was actually delivered in a sermon by German Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and the original version is as follows:

“God give us grace, to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, the courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other; living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as a pathway to peace; taking, as He did, the sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trust that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; that I may be reasonable happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.  Amen.”

Striking isn’t it?  Look at all the great stuff that we can glean from this.  Here are my six favorites:

“…to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed…”  This should really set someone free.  As we live in this world, we need to come to terms with the idea that there are simply things that are outside of our sphere of influence.  The weather, the stock market, the government (even though they are supposed to be representing us…come on, let’s be realistic).  All of these things are completely beyond our control.  But it goes deeper…in this segment of the prayer, we are asking for the serenity to accept things THAT CANNOT BE CHANGED.  And there is one thing that I can think of, that is completely unchangeable, that holds so many people prisoner:  the past.  Did you do something that got you fired?  Could you have done things differently?  Probably.  Can you change it now?  No.  It will always be in your past.

“…the courage to change the things that should be changed…”  Lest you think I would end this article on a sour note, let’s talk about more positive things.  After we accept things that we cannot change, we then have to seek out the things in our lives that SHOULD be changed, and then attack those things with courage and conviction.  Let’s go back to the previous example of getting fired.  True, you cannot change the fact that you were fired.  But, is there something you can do to restore your relationship with the boss who fired you?  If there is, find a way to make things right.  If not, it’s time to start looking for another job.  Both of these are examples of things that could be done with courage to change something that SHOULD be changed.

“…the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”  This is critical.  We must get in the practice of understanding the difference between the things that are in our control and those that are not.  The realization that something simply cannot be changed should be completely liberating.  The realization that something CAN be changed should be entirely motivating. 

“…living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time…”  I think this is an overused cliché, but it bears repeating.  Worrying about something three days in the future does nothing but steal your joy in the here and now.  There are things to be enjoyed NOW.  Don’t let worry steal that enjoyment from you!  And just to make a distinction, I DO believe in planning.  Planning falls under things that you CAN change.  But if you have done all the planning, and you are simply worrying about something in the future, that falls in the category of things that you CANNOT change.

“…accepting hardships as a pathway to peace…”  This is a bit of a “tough-y”.  I could probably write a five article series on this alone.  But for now, suffice it to say that if you looked back over your life, and identified the times in your life that truly defined you as a person, most likely, a great number of those times involved hardships.  In hindsight, our struggles, and our perseverance through those struggles, make us who we are today.  If we can identify hardships as opportunities to grow, perhaps we can go through them with a better attitude.  Enough said, for now.

“…taking, as He did, the sinful world as it is, not as I would have it…”  Finally, this world is certainly full of disappointments.  It’s full of disappointing situations.  It’s full of disappointing people.  But, we must take it for what it is: the world in which we live.  We cannot re-make the world the way that we want it.  And it’s a good thing, because the way I would want it might be completely different from what you would want, or what Christopher would want.  At the end of the day, the world is what it is.  But, we have been given a life, and relationships, and a limited number of things that we can change.  So, we need to quit worrying about the rest of the world and get to work on the things that we CAN make better.

 It’s a lot to digest isn’t it?  And it’s one thing to talk the talk, but it another to walk the walk.  This is a discipline, not an intellectual exercise.  And the core of discipline is practice.

Whenever you feel yourself beginning to worry, ask yourself:  “Is this something I can change?”  If it is, then decide what to do to change it for the better.  If it is NOT, then do your best to stop worrying about it, and try to focus on something you can change.

And finally, because I think everyone should practice what they preach, I recently went on a mission trip with my wife to the Darien Jungle of Panama.  It also happened to be the last week of the quarter, and anyone who is in sales knows that is one of the most stressful times.  All orders have to be in, in order for them to be counted for commission.  In planning for this trip, I knew that I must do whatever I could to get as much business finished before I left for the trip, but beyond that, there was nothing I could do to do business once I left for Panama.  I prepared myself mentally and emotionally for being completely powerless during that week to change the course of events at the end of the quarter.  And, while tempted, I did not allow myself to think about work for the entire week.  It was difficult the first few days, but it became much easier as the week went on, as I focused on the tasks at hand (things I COULD CHANGE).

Just think how productive this world could be if we could all lay worry aside and focus on changing things in our power for the better.

God grant us serenity, courage and wisdom…

Okay, I admit it.  I am usually a harsh critic of the glut of “reality television” that invades the lineups of the major networks.  I always laugh about how even the name “REALITY television” is probably the greatest misnomer of all time.  However, lately, I have been a bit intrigued by the latest summer offering, “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here”.

The premise is simple.  A group of (pseudo-)celebrities are plunked in the middle of Costa Rica in a rain forest.  They are given the basic necessities.  And then, they compete in horrific competitions (involving massive cockroaches, spiders, snakes and other creep-crawlies) to win certain “luxuries” like hot dogs, granola bars and other things that you and I might take for granted.  At any time during the competition, they can be removed by simply saying the words “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!”

With a couple of very minor exceptions, the celebrities have resisted the temptation to utter those words, and have continued on in the competition.  And yet, as I have watched these celebrities compete, I am reminded that there are masses of people in America who are looking at their current circumstances and are ready to throw up their hands and shout “I’m an American, get me out of here!”  They hope that simply by waiting for the show’s producers (in this metaphor, that would be the American government) to swoop in and rescue them from the shambles of their lives.

Well, if you read my last article, you know that I like to dispel myths.  And this month is no exception.  This month’s myth is the idea that the government can somehow fix this crisis that we are in.  The fact of the matter is, I’m not sure the government could bail me out of bed in the morning.

Somewhere along the way, the American Spirit has become perverted by the idea that if things get bad enough, all we have to do is throw in the towel and the government will come in and make everything all right.  To a certain extent, this is akin to “selling your soul to the devil”.  Every time that we look to some official body to “fix” things, we let a little bit of our self-reliance erode, forcing us to become even more dependent on those who hold the keys of power.  And the more we rely on the government to make things better, the more power we give up.  I shutter at the flippant use of the word “Tsar” in this current administration, and not just because it is the term that the Russian dictators used prior to the Bolshevik Revolution.  My fear is that we seem to use the term so willingly.

But, before I get into a diatribe on what I believe is wrong with this administration, I digress.

The fact of the matter is this:  if left to the government, the recovery will eventually sputter and die.  What we need is  complete change of attitude, and that begins and ends with US, the American people.  The first thing we need to do, however, is dispel the idea that we, as Americans, are somehow entitled to a life without trouble and strife.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

I would submit three things that we, as Americans, need to do in order to have the necessary societal “attitude adjustment” that will one day make us the greatest nation on earth—again.

1. DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING.  This country was built on ingenuity and perseverance.  Those qualities seem to have disappeared over the last 230 years.  Good ideas and hard work are the only two real keys to success.  And no, I’m not talking about inventing the next great invention — not everyone is an inventor.  However, everyone is creative to some extent.  And it is times like these that we need to get creative.  Are you one car repair away from going broke?  Get a temporary second job.  I heard that Domino’s Pizza is hiring.  Get up early in the morning and deliver the morning paper.  Start exercising that burger-flipping arm.  Do WHATEVER it takes.  Are you really willing to let your family go down in financial flames because you were too proud to take a job at a fast-food restaurant?  Remember, you aren’t entitled to ANYTHING.  You work to earn what you have, and if you are having trouble affording what you currently have, you can either give it up, or work hard to keep it.

2. REMEMBER WHAT IS IMPORTANT.  I know, I know.  Dining out three times a week is fun.  It keeps the kitchen clean.  But when the average bill for a family of four for dining out is somewhere in the neighborhood of $30, it starts not to make sense anymore.  If you and your family eat out once a week, over the year, you spend $1,500 on restaurants.  Three times a week?  A staggering $4,500.  Get the picture?  It might be time to buckle down and get some ground beef at the supermarket and fire up the grill at home.  Hot dogs?  Even easier.  If that car payment is looming, and you are wondering where the money is going to come from, don’t you DARE run over to Romano’s Macaroni Grill for dinner.  I say all this because sometimes we, as Americans, are very good at turning a blind eye to our problems.  It’s time to stare down our problems, realize that luxuries are just that, buckle down and remember the things that are truly important (unfortunately, a steak at Texas Roadhouse does not fall into the category of truly important things).

3. KNOW WHEN TO GIVE UP.  I’m sure that five-word sentence probably chills my good friend, Christopher, to the bone.  However, let me explain.  Is the car payment on that Lexus SUV becoming too much to handle?  Is the mortgage payment on that 6 bedroom house too much to bear?  Maybe it’s time to give them up.  Now, I’m certainly not here to give financial advice, but if your circumstances have changed, and you are trying to live exactly the same way as before, you aren’t thinking very clearly.  If you were barely able to afford your house payment, and then you received a 10% pay cut, common sense dictates that something is going to have to give.  Maybe it’s time to stop trying to sacrifice EVERYTHING ELSE, and get rid of the house and move down to something more affordable.  I realize that many people have difficulty selling their houses in this environment, but I can tell you this, with 100% certainty:  a house that is not up for sell has a 0% chance of selling.  Get that thing on the market.  Put the SUV up for sale, or try and trade it in for a cheap car that gets you from point A to point B.  That’s all you really need.

I’ll be the first to admit that living to excess can be fun.  But we have entered a no-nonsense era for America.  It’s time to buckle down and do what is necessary.  It’s time to stop looking to the government to save us, and start looking at practical things that we can do to make our situations better.

Reality has coming knocking…are you hiding behind the door hoping that it will go away?  Or are you ready to meet it face-to-face and deal with it?

This is the first in a yearlong series of essays that I will be writing for ChristopherDixon.com regarding the current environment in which we live. There is no doubt that these are challenging times. In many states, unemployment is approaching or exceeding 10%. Home foreclosures are still on the rise. Healthcare costs are the highest they have ever been. The Dow Jones is hovering at one of its lowest levels in nearly a decade. The US Government is ostensibly nationalizing some private companies, all the while dumping billions of taxpayer dollars into companies that have flawed and unsustainable business models.

When you pour all of this into a bubbling cauldron of unparalleled greed and recklessness, you have a recipe for a meltdown of epic proportions.

But, if you are like me, you are most likely shocked at the rapidity of the escalation of this crisis. We are left reeling, our heads spinning as we watch “The American Dream” begin to slowly fade. However, lest you think me a doomsday prophet, the theme throughout these essays is that we, as an American people, are BETTER than these circumstances, and if we do not possess the strength and fortitude to overcome these challenges, perhaps we are no longer deserving of the freedom and liberties that we have held so dear.

* * *

One of my great forms of entertainment is disabusing people of incorrect notions. It’s not that I enjoy telling people that they are wrong, but that I have a sincere desire to dispel myths whenever possible. We are living in a time of significant mythology. It is not a mythology regarding gods and goddesses. Rather, it is a philosophical mythology. We have been fed the same lies long enough that we have begun to buy into them. I will most likely tackle a number of these erroneous philosophies throughout the year, and this piece will be no exception.

In 1776, when The Declaration of Independence was ratified, I don’t think that even that Thomas Jefferson himself could have imagined that what is now the most famous line could have been twisted and perverted into what we have made it. That line is (sing along if you know the words): “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Beautiful, isn’t it? So what wrong-headed notion has sprung from these noble words? Simply this: that we are all equal…IN ALL ASPECTS. Wrong! If you read carefully, that is not what Thomas Jefferson and the signers of the Declaration said. The problem is that many people believe the words above, up to the end of the second phrase, and then stop there. But to fully understand what was meant, let’s go back a little further in time, and look at the documents that inspired this line.

The great English writer, John Locke, originally penned the phrase “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.” Locke clearly states that every person should have equal right to not be harmed, whether the harm is intended towards their life, health, freedom of possessions. Nowhere does it say that everyone is entitled to have what everyone else possesses. But, let’s look a little further. George Mason wrote something similar in the Virginia Declaration of Rights: “That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” In both of these statements, the equality that is spoken of is not absolute equality, but equality in the sense that we are all equally entitled to live our lives and pursue a happy life without threat of bodily harm, threats to our lives and safety, and threats to our freedom to enjoy them.

Unfortunately, the “…all men are created equal…” has come to mean something else in our society. People have taken it to mean that everyone is entitled to a 4000 square-foot, 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house that sits on 20 acres. People have taken it to mean that everyone is entitled to drive either a Lexus, Mercedes or BMW. People have taken it to mean that we should all be entitled to eat every night at The Melting Pot, Ruth’s Chris Steak House or McCormick and Schmick’s. People have taken it to mean that everyone is entitled to a 60-inch, flat panel TV in every room of the house.

And this is one of the main reasons that we are where we are. All of the above statements are exaggerated for effect, but they are not far from the truth. But rather than focus on the falsehoods, let’s turn this around and look at the truth.

Truth #1: We are all equal to have the freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights. We are free to speak our minds. We are free to worship in the church of our choice (or not worship at all, if that is our choice). We are entitled to a fair trial should we be arrested. We are entitled to the right to assemble, and also petition the government to change should we feel that it is going in the wrong direction.

Truth #2: We are all equal in the sense that no physical or philosophical characteristic makes anyone different inherently from anyone else. We are equal in the sense that we should be free from discrimination based upon race, creed, religion and a whole host of other characteristics.

Truth #3: We are all equal in that we have the right to PURSUE happiness.

* * *

It is the misunderstanding of this third truth that is the biggest root of our problems. Notice that at no point, none of the writers mentioned above define exactly what happiness actually IS. Furthermore, the statement is NOT “…Life, Liberty and Happiness…”. It seems that many people leave out the “pursuit” part of it. These two misunderstandings combined have bred a society centered on wrong-headed entitlement.

First, we have an incorrect definition of happiness. There probably isn’t enough room on this website for me to try and explain what happiness ought to be. It is intangible, and my vocabulary is probably insufficient to adequately describe it. But, I prefer to think of it in different terms. I like to replace the word “happiness” with “contentedness”. “Contented” is defined by Webster as “feeling or showing satisfaction with one’s possessions, status or situation.” Unfortunately, it is a lack of contentedness that has driven our society’s thirst for more and more “stuff”. We need to stop looking to houses, cars, televisions, game systems, fine foods and social status to bring us joy. Instead, we need to look at the people who are important to us: our family, our friends, our community. Relationships are the source of true happiness and contentedness. Those are the things that we should treasure.

Second, we have an incorrect idea that pursuit automatically results in success. I have no illusion that if I pursued a career in professional basketball, I would fail miserably. I am not tall, I can’t shoot for three-pointers for anything, and I am not fast. Now, if I practiced day-in and day-out, could I become a decent basketball player? SURE! Would I be NBA material? Sadly, no. Furthermore, I could not be a psychologist, biologist, novelist or any of a whole host of other things. My talents do not lie in those areas. I have accepted those limitations. I am content with those limitations.

You see, this “pursuit = success” idea is pervasive in our society, even to our grade school children. I always cringe when I hear someone tell a child “If you put your mind to it, you can do ANYTHING!”. You may think me a heartless soul, but I think this is one of the greatest lies ever told. We each have our own special talents and gifts, and when we put our minds to utilizing those to their fullest extent, we can do anything that requires those talents. However, as I mentioned above, no matter how much I put my mind to being the fastest man in the world, it’s not going to happen. That’s not my talent.

But it is exactly this idea that we have fed to young children that starts the deep-seeded discontentedness in our circumstances. We think, “Why can’t I be a CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company?” or “Why shouldn’t I be making $350,000 a year?”. Clearly, from the fact that there is such a small number of people in America that fit into these categories, there is a relatively low probability that all of us are going to achieve those goals. There is nothing in the world that says that we are ENTITLED to these things. We are NOT entitled to a six-figure salary; some people may achieve that, but it is certainly NOT a guarantee. We are NOT entitled to buy a house that has an appraised value that is 10 times our annual salary; that is simply a recipe for foreclosure. We are NOT entitled happiness every single day of our lives; but we are entitled to contentment.

Entitlement is a disease that has infected our country (and many countries around the world).

It is now time to research the cure…

Stay tuned next month as we explore the cures to the societal equivalent to the common cold: entitlement issues.

Dr. Greever received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Missouri. In addition to being a prolific writer/author, he has taught numerous classes throughout the Midwest on everything from chemistry and laser photonics to motivation and current issues. In addition to his extensive teaching and writing, he has been instumental in highly classified anti-terrorism advising for the United States government. Dr. Greever lives in Dallas with his wife and daughter.