Only That Which is Beneficial

There are so many choices to make in life. From the moment we wake we are faced with the choice of whether or not to get out of bed, and it doesn't stop until we fall into that blissful state called sleep. Negative things are easy to recognize and most people do good to avoid them. Things like, oh I don't know, playing Russian roulette or eating at MacDonald's seven days a week. Some things are not so much of a hazard to us, though they are not in much a way beneficial either. Something like watching soap opera's or Jerry Springer religiously. Maybe you only eat fast food once a week, certainly not a hazard but definitely not beneficial either. It is however a daunting task to strike everything from your life that is not beneficial. You must start with small steps and remember to keep on stepping forward. I personally chose to cut out soft drinks and fast food from my diet some time ago and while at first it was a little difficult I know get sick to my stomach if I consume either one (That's tells you how bad they are for you). My next step that I began, but have faulted a bit lately, is reading more. Slowly as you cut out the things that have no benefit and add things that do you will see a renewal of life within you. You get out of those idle states of living and enter into rewarding progressive life. Here is a test for you, and I am going to try to do it too; for the next week when you find yourself plopping down on the couch to watch some TV get up and go for at least a half hour walk, do some yard work, read a book instead. Do that for at least a week and see if you don't feel better about yourself.

Fake

So many people now a days are straight up fake. Not only do they lie to other people but even worse they lie to themselves. Some people are so engrossed with their own lies that they begin to believe the lies themselves. Me and a close friend were talking last week about this very topic. Neither one of us could see how that is a fulfilling lifestyle to be living. All it can do is cause more headache in the long run. Ultimately I believe it comes down to the fact that they are unhappy with themselves and therefore live in this made up world of lies to escape the reality of things. They are to busy witting a fictional novel to their life that they fail to realize there is a non-fictional version that everyone else reads. Now not to say I have never told a lie but I am an extremely honest person, and I feel like I have been that way most all of my life. I just don't see much point in lying, you only have to tell more lies to cover up the original. When other people do this it is actually somewhat amusing to me. It may be wrong but I love to only partially call someone out on the lie. Don't call them a lire straight out, tell them their story doesn't make sense. Then watch them backpedal and try to cover up their fallacy with more falsehood. It is amazing to me how far some people will go to cover their own back. Wouldn't it be easier to say "you know what, that wasn't true, sorry" or better yet to not tell the lie in the first place? Be real with other people and most importantly be real with yourself!

Is Ignorance Bliss?

Everyone has heard the saying "Ignorance is bliss", but is that true? Being that I am a fan of Rage Against The Machine I know a lyric of theirs that says "if ignorance is bliss, then knock the smile off my face". After all who wants to be ignorant? I am pretty sure that almost everyone wishes to be knowledgeable. Although I must admit that there are some things in my life that I would not have minded remaining ignorant about. Alcohol and sobriety is something that I would like to use for example sake, I think it will reach the largest audience. Once you get drunk you are no longer sober. Even once you "sober up" you are no longer ignorant of the concept. It is like if you lose your virginity. Even if you choose to practice abstinence after the fact, you will never be a virgin again. So once you break your sobriety you can never be sober again. This is why if you know anyone in AA they are always a recovering alcoholic, never a recovered alcoholic. I used to be the guy that said, like Zach from Rage, "knock the smile off my face" but as I get older and as I have made some big lifestyle changes I am wondering if in some things ignorance is bliss. At the same time though all the things I am no longer ignorant of have created the person I am today. I am happy with who I am and wouldn't want to change anything in the past because that would most definitely make me a different person. I have heard it said many times but most notably in the movie Fracture "knowledge is pain". I find that to be true but I still wish to seek out knowledge and wisdom, why is that? Maybe ignorance is bliss, but ignorant bliss is not ideal. What do you think?

Relationship Rant

I don't really know where this rant is going to go but the general subject is something that has been a nagging thorn in my side for some time. There are so many things that I don't even know where to begin... how quick are we to get out of an unfulfilled relationship but jump right into another one that is just the same? Why don't we take time to ourselves and analyze ourselves? Why are we so quick to find a flaw in our mate? If we really loved them wouldn't we be able to look past those little misgivings? Whats wrong with getting to know a person before dating them? Shouldn't your significant other be your best friend as well? To me friends should come before lovers. If a guy doesn't show romantic interest do you believe he is not interested at all? Is there such a thing as a perfect relationship, or just perfect love that can endure an imperfect relationship? I've yet to meet any couple that has never fought. Marriage is a promise to your spouse. Fewer and fewer people are able to keep their promises now a days. Why do arranged marriages work? The couple simply accepts their role and learns to love each other. Is their love any less fulfilling than the next couple? It is statistically proven that couples that live together before marriage are more likely to divorce once they are wed. Possibly because they were apprehensive about the commitment in the first place which is why they had the "trial move in" period. Why do so many girls always claim they want that "good" guy but they always choose the "bad" guy thinking that they can change him? Why do so many guys want a sexed up girlfriend and then are pissed off when she cheats on him? Why, why, why... does anyone have an answer?

The Devolving Man

I would venture to guess I am the minority on the position I hold in this topic, but I truly believe the human race is devolving. Now don’t jump straight to a Darwinian evolution translation when I say devolving. I do not believe we are going to turn into whatever common ancestor apes and us are supposed to have shared (I personally do not believe in any form of macro evolution). What I mean by devolving is essentially we are getting dumber as a race. Yes we are seeing an explosion of technology which would seem to imply a greater knowledge but we are too dumb to stop and think of the huge and long term damaging effects that most of these advancements will have on our life and our world. I have heard somewhere before that the average human uses something like 12 percent or less of their brains capacity. Yet think of how much capacity our brain has at the mere 12 percent we function with, while this is astonishing the possibilities would grow exponentially with higher capacity. Could you imagine if we were able to harness even 50 percent? We would automatically be more than 300 percent smarter and still only be using half of our brain! If that were the case I would guess we would not need to write anything down to remember it, so as humans got dumber it is only logical that written language come about. Some would argue that it came about to communicate long distances but when written word came about the means of transporting these messages was by foot or the back of and animal. So then why wouldn’t the courier simply relay the spoken message rather than writing it down? I’m guessing they did until we came to a point where we could no longer accurately recall the message. Another thing that occurred to me as I was reading my psychology book is having to do with the advancement of science. With my previous "separation of body and spirit" blog in mind, as we discover scientific explanations for disorders such as schizophrenia we dissolve belief that it could be a spirit that is possessing the body. How though would a possession of a person by a spirit manifest in this world? Surely it would manifest in a physical way, otherwise we would not perceive it at all. So again we seem to be getting smarter by making scientific breakthroughs but yet are getting dumber by letting go of a higher knowledge. I am a firm believer that science and "religion" can go hand in hand. We need to spend more time quieting our hearts and minds and looking for knowledge we cannot read in books.

Division of Body and Spirit

First let me say that if you do not believe that you posses a spirit then this blog will not speak to you. I am not going to get into the matter of whether or not there is a spiritual world. This blog will be from the position that there most definitely is a spirit world and we all exist in it simultaneously to the physical world. It should be noted that God as a singular part of the trinity is wholly a spiritual being. This is where Jesus comes in handy, but that is not to be the focus of this blog. Being that we are physical in existence we have a hard time seeing the spiritual side of things. Often we will simply try to mesh the two worlds together, when in fact they are two very separate worlds. We try to apply things of the physical realm to things of the spiritual, when if anything we should do the opposite. One of the biggest (and you might say hardest to comprehend) is the idea of time. Outside of the physical world time does not exist. Even when people try to describe God they have a hard time doing it without the concept of time. Rather than saying that God always was and always will be I would say that he simply is. He never was or will be because this subjects him to time, instead he always is. I find it hard to even put this concept into words. How is someone supposed to put a spiritual concept into a physical language created by man? Perhaps it would help to give a definition of time. A simple dictionary definition will not do in this case so instead I turn to a philosophical definition I heard once. Time is quite simply the passing of moments. So based on that, as you sit there reading this, try to imagine an absence of time. Don’t look at it in a way where everything freezes, but try to look at it in a way where everything comes together at this very moment, and this very moment is all that there is. All of your memories of the past and everything in the future, all together at this one moment. I think that has got to be how it is for God, since he is purely spirit and has no physical concept of time. This is a big reinforcer in my belief of predestination. For if there is no time and everything happens in one single moment then the "future" has already happened. I could go on but as I said before this is a hard concept to put into words. I fear anything that I might add will only confuse the concept. So I will not add anymore, and hope that you can grasp what I have written thus far.

The Future

What will my future hold? How long does my future exist? Why can’t I let go of the worry involved in thinking about things that have yet to pass? I have always been a worrier when it comes to the future though you might not know it by where my life is now. You would think I’d of planned things a little better if I was constantly thinking/worrying about them. Although I am not sure I was or am fully in control of my life because I do believe heavily in predestination or for the philosopher out there hard determinism but with God being the causal factor. That is a whole other subject though. So back to the future, I find myself thinking of the future almost constantly. It occurs to me that this is a useless activity because the thoughts I think today have no direct affect over the outcome of tomorrow. Some would argue otherwise claiming that if you think tonight about eating cheerios in the morning you will wake up and choose to eat cheerios. I do not find the thought to be causal though. Perhaps you were already going to eat cheerios in the morning previous of the thought to do so. In that thinking the thought of eating them has become a mere production of something that already existed and thus is useless. Then there is the same scenario only when you wake up you decide to eat Wheaties instead of cheerios. So again the thought was useless because you woke up and did something contrary to the preceding thought. This is a very simple example and it can most definitely be dissected and complicated with all kinds of different considerations but in an effort to be clear and brief it is the one I will use. So with this realization in my mind I am faced with the challenge of letting go of the future and living in the moment. This is a daunting task as most all of my life I have been taught to think of and plan for my future. All I can know for sure is I am where I am at this very moment and that in the future I will be where I will be. So I am going to try to focus my thought on the thing that I most clearly know, which is where I am right now in the present.

The Good is Gone

This is something that hit me right in the face today and I realize I have been as guilty of it as anyone else. As I was leaving the parking lot of a local Raley's shopping center today there was a man at a crowded gas station who was pushing his van. As I drove up to him I could see he was obviously struggling to move the vehicle by himself. I even saw him give a few glances around seemingly looking to see if anyone was going to come to his aid. I did see a few people watching him but no one even flinched in his direction. Even after noticing this I caught myself thinking "oh, he'll get it", as I'm sure most everyone else was thinking. I'm glad that thought was quickly interrupted by another that said "your not in a hurry, and even if you were it will only take ten seconds". Ultimately I did stop and help him get his car to the pump. This is just an example that I experienced personally but how often do you see someone that could use some help and you just pass them by? I know I have done it far to many times. How much better would the world be if we made it a habit to stop and help each other in times of need, even if it's just something small and simple like my example? I know I am going to try my best to begin doing this, who knows maybe one day I will come to your aid when you need a little help.

Quotes

One does what one is; one becomes what one does.
-Robert von Musil, Kleine Prosa


A stumble may prevent a fall.
-English Proverb

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
-Francis Bacon

The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.
-Aldous Huxley

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.
-Zen

Eggs cannot be unscrambled.
-American Proverb

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
-Niels Bohr

You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
-Author Unknown

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
-James Thurber

The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.
-Bertrand Russell

No matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within the confines of your head.
-Terry Josephson

Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
-Henri Louis Bergson

If a placebo has an effect, is it any less real than the real thing?
-Nathaniel LeTonnerre

It requires a great deal of faith for a man to be cured by his own placebos.
-John L. McClenahan

Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses.
-Jean Baptiste Molière, Le Malade Imaginaire

There are some remedies worse than the disease.
-Publilius Syrus

The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?
-Chuang Tzu

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.
-Ludwig Börne

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
-Plato

To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.
-Rene Descartes

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
-Aristotle

There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
-Aristotle

The only thing I know is that I know nothing.
-Socrates

The unexamined life is not worth living.
-Socrates

Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
-Indian Proverb

He that is born to be hanged shall never be drowned.
-French Proverb (14th century)

If God lived on earth, people would break his windows.
-Jewish Proverb

Life is a bridge. Cross over it, but build no house on it.
-Indian Proverb

You can't wake a person that is pretending to be asleep.
-Navajo Proverb

Like a lame man's legs that hang limp is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
-Bible - Proverbs 26:7

Thoughts on Regret

I seem to hear more and more people claiming that they live life without regret, and at first glance that seems to be a blissful life indeed. After all, regret implies that there is something about your life which you are somewhat dissatisfied with. So someone that lives life without regret would be a person that is completely happy with everything they have done, and are doing (that's great isn’t it). This rouses an idea in me that they have never made any changes in regards to who they are, for if they are without regret then they have always been happy with everything, so then why would they ever change who they are? I think this regret free claim might stem from man kinds desire to be perfect, for if they have never done anything to cause regret they must have never made any mistakes (in their mind), and so they have lived their lives perfectly how they intended to. Also it gives them the idea that they are in complete control of their lives, so much so that they have had the insight to avoid all things that might lead to regret. But where would one gain this insight? The only way I could think to gain insight into events that have yet to happen would be God, but not everyone chooses to hear Him (surely if you choose not to believe in him you as well choose not to hear him). So on a human level perhaps the greatest insight one can have is in fact their hindsight, and in that is where the lack of regret would fail you. If you have nothing in hindsight that you regret you have no insight to avoid a future regret. So then you are doomed to stumble into the trap that is regret. To conclude this ramble I would simply say that it is purely human to have regrets and that they are valuable learning tools to avoid possible future regret. I hear people say they don’t regret something because they learn from it but it is the fact that you regret it that is teaching you something!