Just Another "Emotional Big-Mouth"

There is a world of difference between disruption and destruction. Disruption can be good in that it productively and convincingly intervenes into practices that have become accepted over time. Quite often these practices are outdated and need their inadequacies to be brought up for discussion and change. Destruction, on the other hand, causes right the opposite. It causes regression and the erection of more barriers. It brings a group's intentions into question as the physical actions do not represent what is being professed. It can repulse potentially influential supporters, against a cause. As obvious as the difference appears to be, there is confusion between needed disruption and un-needed destruction. Perhaps it is the individuals in a group who are attempting to be leaders and do not yet understand what a leader really is.  

 

It is important to do research on the groups that you think you might relate to. Groups gear their propaganda exactly in a manner that coaxes people into thinking that they have something in common with the group. It is important to be able to look past the propaganda and find out who the stakeholders in the group are. Understand the life-long consequences that will accompany the decision to join a group and do not make the decision based solely on how much "noise" a group or a person is making. It's easy to allow yourself to be worked up into a "feeding frenzy" from the environment that is created by "the noise". You could be joining a group for the right reasons and end up being the only one in the group that is wanting to do the right thing. Do not make any decisions without researching an issue from unbiased sources.  

 

Regardless of your position on various issues, political associations, or religious convictions, protect yourself from being a victim of "emotional decision-making". Don't become involved with just another "emotional big-mouth" that has lost control of their reasoning capabilities. Evaluate the person or persons to see if they are a true leader. Is the, so-called leader, in it only for themselves? Are they a responsible leader that will not lead their followers down a one-way path of no return, nor a path of destruction that can negatively alter a follower's existence for the rest of their lives. Once the goals of the group are achieved or the group evaporates over time, a follower needs to be able to keep living their life. They do not need to be forever entangled and affected by the bad decisions of an "emotional big-mouth".

 

Is the person or people in charge of your group of interest, leaders that are going to take care of you while in the group's quests, or are they just another "emotional big-mouth"? We really do need to know before promoting their cause or putting our lives and livelihoods in their hands.

Joe McLaughlin

09/17/20 

Voting to Save The Country

I do not like talking politics, but a few things have changed one of which is that I have simply had enough. Allow me to share my thoughts with you.

There are more than two options to choose from when trying to decide on who is capable of leading this country. Myself, I am damn tired of the constant disrespectful and negative comments about one person after another, even considering some very welcome accomplishments. On the other side, the mental capacities are undeniably fading and that is equally un-nerving. I am not going to cast my vote for "the lesser of two evils", as the expression goes, especially when there are other options and the future of this country is at stake.

The two dominant political entities have proven to the country that they cannot function together, to the point where the needs of their country have become secondary to the hate that they choose to exhibit towards each other. Thanks to the obviously partial media, these hateful behaviors are blatantly amplified and is what is fueling the hate on the streets and in the homes throughout this nation. These are not examples of decision-making and leadership that the great country we live in deserves. In fact, it will be the downfall of this country. As has been the case throughout history, great civilizations are not destroyed from the outside until they have destroyed themselves from within.

This also applies to all human beings. A person will not give up on something solely from external influences. It is when those influences affect us on the inside that cause us to "cave in". Regardless of who you politically support, look inside yourself and let your "gut feelings" tell you where the problems are. Be prepared for those feelings to tell you something that you may not want to admit. Know that what you are feeling deep inside you, way past all of the shallow and superficial stuff, is a higher power that will not guide you in error.

Hate has taken away so many opportunities and snuffed out so many vibrant livelihoods. Casting a vote that promotes the removal of political groups, that exhibit hate of any kind as a priority, will get the appropriate decision-makers on the job and making decisions that are timely and are good for this country.

If we do not take care of this from the inside, it will be handled for us from the outside.

May God bless us all at this crossroad in our lives.

Protests and Their Leaders

As someone who has been a driver for ridesharing operations, I can certainly relate to the recent shooting incident in Austin that resulted in the death of a protester.  I have driven into downtown as festivals or events were ending and people are everywhere.  You turn a corner and you are in it with no way to get out.  The protesters, being in their single-minded state, do not realize this.  I have seen multiple videos and read multiple articles of vehicles that accidentally get caught in a protest and are forced to defend themselves against the protester's aggressions.  That is when people, usually the protesters, start getting hurt. 

 For reasons unknown, many people who are participating in protests seem to have the mentality that they can do whatever they want when they are protesting.  This way of thinking handicaps many protesters ability to have situational awareness, make logical decisions, and to be able to see what someone, such as a driver in a car that is trapped in the middle of a protest, is experiencing.  In this handicapped state, many protesters only see the vehicle as an unwelcome intruder and begin to take aggressive actions without stopping for a moment to evaluate what the situation may be.  Good people that get caught up in these surroundings can have the remainder of their lives ruined if good judgement is not used.   

 Perhaps it should be suggested that a protester not just blindly jump into a protest or a cause without first finding out who the leader is.  Are they really a leader or just another person with a big mouth?  Following someone or some group that is going to lead followers down a road that destroys the follower's lives, is in effect a dead-end road.  Find a different leader or a different group that is on a road that will end up at the desired destination. 

 The so-called leaders of protests with incidents, are not doing a good job in guiding "their people" towards an effective protest.  It would appear that many people may be attracted to the protest itself, but those people are not being attracted to the cause.  Too many protesters are "tagging" along for what they perceive as the "entertainment value" of the activity or the "social bank" that they think they will gain with their peers.  An effective protest leader would realize this and would find a way to get a committed follower instead of the troublemakers and thrill seekers that are only going to hold back the overall progress of the cause.  After all, it is not about drawing attention to a specific event, a specific group itself, nor the individuals in the group.  It is about drawing attention to the cause that will promote the desired change.  A dysfunctional, disrespectful, and destructive group is only going to accumulate more of those who are dysfunctional, disrespectful, and destructive which will diminish the credibility of any cause.  It will also have many of these dysfunctional, disrespectful, and destructive participants of this kind of group find themselves in local, state, or federal areas of detention where they will be more limited in their ability to support a cause.  It is not so much in the headlines, but lots of people are going to jail and to prison for the destructive and deadly acts that they are engaging in while supposedly being part of a protest.  This also puts the leader at the same risk, so it is worthy of the leader's effort to filter out those who are not true promoters of the cause.

 Being a leader is about making good decisions and helping to guide people in a direction that makes things better for them and for their lives.  There have been entirely too many examples lately of good intentions being led by individuals that are not leaders.  A good leader knows that tact must be used in effectively getting their message heard.  Having the biggest sign, being disrespectful, and yelling at the top of your lungs may not be the best prescription for a particular cause.  The way a cause is represented can have a huge influence on the outcome of the cause.  People who were on the side of a cause, have and will continue to switch sides on the issue.  Not because they feel any less committed about the issue but because of the way it is being represented by those who are supposedly protesting for the issue. 

What Would The Sign Be

Which group will be upset next and when that group does get upset, which group will be upset about the things that are done to appease the first group.  Then, are the actions that the groups take, any kind of indication of an example of what the group is promoting.  Are we trading racism for violence?  Is that what is being proposed by some groups?  You are racist so my solution to that is violence?  I really do not believe that there are only 2 solutions to this equation and I personally do not prefer or promote either one of those 2 solutions.  Violence is not going to change anyone until that person is informed and ready to change.  As an Uber driver I was part of a conversation with a gay person about what the rider had heard from a radio talk show host.  It had been declared that a specific day was the day for gays to "come out".  The rider went on to say that this was the most ridiculous thing ever as a gay person is not going to "come out" when someone tells them they should.  They will come out at a time of their own choosing when they are ready to do so.  Mandating change on issues such as this are no different.  People are not going to change because someone tells them to.  They must be non-forcibly informed about the elements surrounding an issue.  Then the decisions that they make will at least be informed decisions giving their opinions a better foundation.  It is highly likely that their opinions will evolve due to now having the additional information contributing to their decisions and just as in the example above they will change at the time of their choosing.  They most likely will change without even noticing that they have changed.

I think back to my days growing up on a farm outside a small town.  We were not raised to be racist but everything around us was such that racism did exist.  No one knew that it was disrespectful and inappropriate because those were the surroundings that we grew up in.  Racism wasn't taught, preached or promoted to us but was subconsciously being passed on by the inferences in the things that were said, the way they were said, and by the reactions to what was said.  No one realized, or even suspected, that they were subconsciously passing on these racist tendencies.  In growing older and going out into the world, we began to see that things were not as they were assumed or suggested to be.  We begin to question why we would say the things that we said.  We became exposed to new conversations from a much wider variety of views and perceptions from a much wider variety of people.  We learned to listen with our mouths closed and to allow our evolved logic to take in the many opinions, that differed from our own, allowing us to further develop our own opinions into something that was better than it was prior to the conversation.

Every member of humanity must be taught how to pause, look inside themselves, and ask "why".  Why do I feel this way about a topic?
Why do I get irritated by the sound of that voice?
Why do I like to yell at the top of my lungs when I hear that song?
Why do I feel the way I do about people of another race?

Those are a lot of questions to be asked of ourselves but if "the why" is not known about strong feelings, then why are those feelings being allowed to dictate our actions?  Stop!  Find out why.  And just because your uncle or somebody else said that's the way it is, is not an answer.  It wasn't an answer when you were told that as a kid, and it is still not an answer today.  Why does it rain?  Well, that's just the way it is.  No!  We have access to limitless information in this day and time.  Look it up.  It rains because that is the evaporation component in the hydrological cycle.
"Yeah, I don't care about understanding all of that.  I just know how I feel," said an un-named racist.
"Why do you feel that way?"
"I just do."
If there is not a understanding/base for a feeling/position that one has on a particular issue, especially the heated ones, why would one think that they deserve to have a voice on the issue?  Know yourself and the reasons for your beliefs and feelings before trying to convince someone else about what they should believe and how they should feel.        

Racism should not exist.  The situation should never have been created in the first place.  What human being could be of the frame of mind to think that another human being does not have the same "natural rights" as they do?  I also wonder if these supposedly "superior" human beings, prayed to God without this ultimate violation of humanity even entering their thoughts as they prayed.  It would be the greatest of all ironies that they were on a path to hell even at the very moments they were praying to the heavens.  Statues that glorify these specific individuals should indeed be removed, in a controlled and non-violent manner.  Again, why were they put there in the first place?  Anytime something new is about to be introduced into a system, a process, society, etc., there should be a pause and consideration for how something new could affect the future.  There are many things, that once started, cannot be stopped.  Consideration for the future consequences of an action must be given.

All of us have feelings and opinions about how we think things should be.  Of course we think that our opinion is the correct one and all of humanity should listen to what we have to say.  Humans can be such single-minded, arrogant and egotistical individuals.  We become so worried and so worked up about so many things.  We march the streets, waving our signs and protesting what we want, for us.  It seems to always be about us.

Which sign would our mother Earth be waving if she were to protest?

Chickens

Why do people invest their talents, skills and passions into something that gives someone else, a person that most don't even know, a life that they wish that they had for themselves.  They sacrifice themselves and at times those around them, for their employer.  Why?

The answer for many is not that big of a mystery and it is also not one that most would find easy to admit.  People do it because they are too big of a chicken to invest their talents, skills and passions into a business of their own.  They are a big chicken when it comes to taking the risks that could be associated with having their own business and therefore they work for someone, who is not the big chicken that they are, and is willing to take those risks.  One of the risks this business owner is taking, is whether or not the employees that are hired are going to apply their talents, skills and passions into their job.  Are they going to be a big chicken and sell their hearts and soles to the business.

There are millions of big chickens that go to work every day.  They complete their required duties and leave at the end of their shifts.  They know in their heart that they have something to offer humanity but fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of ridicule, keep them from showing the world that they have something worthwhile that can make a difference.  The owners of the businesses these people work for are not owners of service companies, hotels, supermarkets, hair salons, etc..  They are owners of chicken farms.

Joe McLaughlin
08/05/2018

One's World vs. The World

Quite often, while watching a television documentary or reading an article in a publication, there will be something in the contents of the presentation that will evoke thought.  For me, some of the most provoking of those thoughts tend to gravitate around the way human beings live and behave.  My wife and I often disagree on what an appropriate response is to the various situations that humans find themselves in, but recently we have come together on one fact.  The fact that there is an obvious difference between humans that are educated and have experienced the world on a larger scale, to those who are only interested in experiencing their own little senseless and selfish world.

There is an endless lack of understanding in my mind as to why many people think in the manner that they do.  There are times when I want to scream out loud at some of the ridiculous lives that people allow themselves to live in.  Why do they not want a better life for themselves?  Why do they surround themselves with people that are such bad influences?  Why do they not want to listen to the advice of those that have lived the same life that they are about to live?  Why do they think they know what they are doing when it is blatantly obvious that they do not?  In almost all cases the answers point back to a lack of education, not to mention a lack of respect for a great number of things, the lack of common sense and just being lazy.  They find it easier to go through a life of drama, turmoil and struggle instead of taking steps to change their surroundings for the better.

Being exposed to healthy elements in life, both personally and professionally, can make a huge difference in a life.  Knowledge and experience are two of those healthy elements that will contribute to good personal and professional health.  Knowledge is built up with education and also with experience.  Experience also has the additional critical element of building confidence.  Confidence is very important and with having and increased level of confidence, comes the additional responsibility of keeping that confidence in balance.  History is littered with short lived instances where individuals and their, out of balance confidence, have caused great suffering and setbacks to humanity.   Becoming an egotistical jerk can be just as bad as having no education at all and will not support the overall effort.  A person should always be able to accept the fact that no matter how smart or how good they are at something, there is probably someone that is better.  The success of the project is what is important and not who is the most talented in the group.

Interacting with other professionals and sharing information is both educational and just straight up interesting.  Every interaction gives fuel for future interactions.  Interactions provide experience that can be gained without having to shed any of your own blood to gain it.  Professional relationships that are forged, result in added resources and additional capacities that would now be available for both entities in the relationship.  Developing these professional relationships can help foster new ideas and allow for great things to happen on a larger scale.

The world is a very big place and full of many people, places and things.  There is much history with many lessons for humanity.  In equal abundance is the large quantity of science and technology that is occurring all around us all of the time.  It is so easy to be a better and smarter person if we can steer clear of the tendency to base our ideas on our own small set of experiences.

Joe McLaughlin

Sometimes when I am looking for a file in my computer, I come across things that I had written in the past.  I am not a very dedicated journal-er but I do like to write and quite often will write articles about how I am feeling.  Today I stumbled across a poem that I had written during the darkest time of my life.  I think that it expresses fairly well what I was feeling at the time although there are other things that I wrote during this period that are so much more desperate.  I wrote a lot during this time and I believe that writing these poems was one of the things that allowed me to make the recovery that I did.

The Battle Inside

Surrounded by loneliness,

So as not, to feel alone.

A heart so fragile,

Boasting a facade of stone.

Trying to gain strength,

With tears running down my face.

Striving for a future,

In a past, time and place.

Hanging on to the memories,

Wishing I could forget.

The sanity is my security,

Kept warm by the perpetual threat.

Bright flashes of wisdom,

Evolve into thoughts of anger.

A few moments of peace,

Make me oblivious, to the danger.

Cursing at each verse,

Of an old, religious tune.

Praying to live forever,

While hoping, the end is soon.

I slowly close my eyes,

So that I can see more clearly.

I quietly scream out loud,

So no one, will hear me.

Joe McLaughlin

11/17/2001

Light of Life

The loneliness and uncertainty of the haze approaches and surrounds me.  It takes the beautiful colors from me and leaves me with only monotone hopelessness.  Occasionally there are breaks in the mass and the brilliant beautiful light shines through.  I step into the light and bask in the warm, life-giving energy, but then the light moves away and I am once again left to fend off the demons of the dark.  More rays of light are visible nearby but I do not go to them because when I step into the rays they will only abandon me, leaving me to once again submit to the emptiness and hopelessness of the dark.

Then one day I am motivated to step into the light and then to follow it as it moves along the way.  I discover that the longer I am in the light, the more wonderful things become.  As I spend longer and longer periods of time in the light, the ray of light seems to become larger and larger.  Before long my world is once again ablaze with color and excitement.  How much time had I wasted in my self-pity keeping me from choosing to follow the light that was always nearby?

We allow ourselves to stay in the dark.  It is a decision that we make.  Happiness in life is not something that just happens, it is something that is worked for.  A conscious decision is made and the happiness is sought out.  Happiness cannot be had by just setting around wondering why it always passes by and moves on to others.  It passes by because it is allowed to pass by.

I repeat a phrase that I came up with a few years ago, and I stand by its truth.

Life does not care about you, me, or anyone. However, life will allow you to do anything that you want to do with it.

If the light of life is allowed to pass by, it will move on and leave you there because it does not care.  Action must be taken to make the light of life do wonderful things in each of our lives.

Not As Instructed / Dumbed Down

There are things we are taught as school children that are important tools and bench marks for us in life.  At the time we don't give any thought to the subjects and material that are being taught, as it is all new information.  Our young minds have not yet gathered sufficient data to allow for the formation of differing or unique opinions.  As we grow older and began to ask why things are a certain way, the answer in many cases was, "that's just the way it is" or "because I said so" and no further explanation is offered.  There are several things about answers like this that are not so good for the child's inquisitive and growing mind.

• the child is not learning anything from the person that is answering their questions in this manner
• they will learn to get more satisfactory answers from somewhere else, leaving the door wide open to persons outside of their immediate family having influence in their lives.
• it is a huge missed opportunity for conversing with the child about things that are much more important than Mickey Mouse and Chuck E Cheese.

The children grow up with the wrong idea about a great multitude of things in life.  Religion, love, music, history, politics and professional careers to name a few.  Textbooks contain information that teaches the child certain information, whether accurate or not, about certain things and in their minds that information becomes the truth.  Not enough emphasize is given to children in the teachings of logical thinking and how to allow their minds to focus on a thought and then to ask questions when a teaching does not seem logical.  Maybe there is a reason why children are not taught how to focus their thoughts at an early age.

Having the ability to submerge ones self into a thought or an idea and be able to think through all of the aspects of that thought or idea, is a powerful thing.  The challenge in being able to achieve this ability comes with all the stresses and distractions of life.  Having the mind in a peaceful state and being able to keep it in that state while thinking through an idea is very important.  This can be sometimes referred to as "focus" although focus is a more concentrated or directional thinking when there are distractions all around.  What is being discussed here is deep free flowing thinking without the distractions.

The question must be asked, where would a person or a civilization be without pointless distractions?  How would human thinking evolve if there were none of the pointless distractions from things such as the Kardashians, nagging spouses and sensationalized news media?  Even our fanaticism with professional sports can cloud our focus and skew our priorities.  The Keynote speaker at the Austin Black Chamber of Commerce 2015 Awards Gala, Shawn Taylor stated, "We don't need another baseball player.  We need doctors, scientists and engineers".  Statements from president Barack Obama, regardless whether you like him or not, criticize the Kardashian's reality television show for "altering the aspirations of youth".  Terrorism, soap operas, drug abuse, superficial "airheads".  Listening to a conversation between superficial "airheads" is not only one of the most painful events to have to endure, it is also equally irritating and pointless.  These are only a few examples of distractions that keep humankind from reaching a much higher level of being.

There are articles and documentaries available that suggest an organized "force" is at work on this planet to keep most humans distracted such that they are not able to focus on a thought or an idea long enough or deep enough to allow them to advance intellectually.  Some information regarding this "force" favors intelligent forms of life that are not native to this planet while other information points to the power of corporations and specific powerful individuals or group of powerful individuals.  These forces are not interested in democracy and work against the organization of large groups of people that come together and could organize to the point of "voting" away their power.   When the human mind is clean of distractions and can focus, incredible things are possible and these prohibiting forces would indeed be surpassed.

Our children are becoming smarter and smarter.  Common sense, logical thinking and good decision making skills should be equally as important, if not more important, than the traditional Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.  Giving them accurate information, un-sensationalized media and unbiased facts in history, religion, social sciences and geography should be mandatory.  When their fresh brains have an accurate starting point, humanity will be lead to a better place.

Thoughts in the Hand-Tool Aisle

Upon entering Sears for the first time in a long time, the faded habit of navigating back to the section where all of the Craftsman goodies are, seemed to instinctively take over.  As was the case so many times in the past, I approached the area with no particular goal in mind, other than to surround myself in shiny instruments that extended the capabilities of these incredible hands that God had blessed me with and that my father had taught me how to use.  I would scan the shelves and racks inch by inch looking for that device that would give me the advantage in curing an ailing piece of machinery or structural component of a building.  There would always be something new or something that I had not needed in prior visits, but at that moment my growing capacities came to demand it.  The thrill of the purchase followed by the anticipation of what I was going to be able to accomplish with the device attached to my hand, was a priceless motivator.

Those feelings are gone.  I do see intriguing and interesting devices that I could have used in my past, but nothing in this area excites me anymore.  I am unsure why, and if this is a good or bad thing.  I didn't wake up one morning and decide to change what motivates me.  In fact this change had been so gradual that I had not even really validated it until now as I stood in the middle of the hand-tool isle of Sears contemplating why I had not been here for so long.  

I always had good grades in school and never had to study hard to make those good grades.  My mother always made sure that the homework was done and would help when there was an obstacle to be overcome.  Anything below a "B" or "80" meant a spanking at home and frankly it was well deserved as we all knew that perfect grades were easily within my range of capabilities.  A low grade was almost always due to a moment of laziness or some form of rebelliousness, neither of which was acceptable.  There were lessons learned early in life, that laziness has no place in physical or mental strengths and rebelliousness must be thought out carefully and properly directed for a positive affect.

Pulling my thoughts back out of the rebellion, I tried to pick out a specific event or decision, as gradual or discrete as it may have been, that put me on this different path.  I had good hands and work ethic.  I had a good logical brain with common sense.  Perhaps it was about 12 years ago when I begin to realize the importance of good and readily available resources.  Becoming part of the associations that I participate in had been a completely new and incredible addition to my "resume".  Even more importantly, they had been good for me by bringing out social and leadership abilities at a level that I did not even know was in me.  Amazing resources.

I wasn't arriving at any conclusions and my thoughts were beginning to drift and compare the awaking inside me due to the associations, to a similar awaking on the football field brought out by our high school football coach.  My thoughts were clearly becoming more random.

"Can I help you sir?"  An employee had seen me standing in the middle of the aisle in a daze.  I was certainly in deep thought and he had halted the drifting thoughts with his question.

"No thank you", I replied.  "I just needed a break from a massive project funding worksheet that I will be presenting tomorrow and decided to come here and walk around a bit".

Its Love

With the recent changes that have come about regarding the laws of same sex marriages, I wanted to go ahead and share some chains of thought that I had been working on for quite some time.

First of all, why does one person become attracted to another person of the same sex?  No matter what you hear, no one really knows.  Not even those who are attracted to a person of the same sex.  Perhaps someday geneticists will discover an area in our DNA where our eye color, hair color, musical potential capabilities and the likes are located and somewhere in that area might also be our "pre-programed" sexual preference. 

No one really knows why people of the same sex can be attracted to each other and unfortunately "fear of the unknown" is a very real phenomenon amongst human beings.  If something is not understood, humanity has a tendency to default to fear, which leads to gossiping about it, demonizing it and making it illegal. 

The laws of humanity will never be able to overcome the laws of nature.  There are perpetual processes in nature that every physical thing on this planet is a part of.  Just as it is impossible to craft a law against hurricanes to keep them from damaging the mainland, it is equally impossible to create a law that keeps the human soul from being what it naturally is. 

Love is also of nature.  The meaning of love has been perverted and mutated over the years causing the true meaning to be frequently illusive.  One of love's biggest distractors is sex.  Although love can evolve to and include sex, sex itself is not love.  Sex is a physical act (or acts) with boundaries and limitations.  Love has no boundaries and is certainly not governed by the opinions of humans.  Being able to see this issue from a purely love perspective, allows for a better understanding of how two people can be naturally attracted to each other regardless of gender.

Surroundings

People are indeed a product of their surroundings.  If a person surrounds themselves with hypocrites and thieves, they too will eventually become a hypocrite and a thief.  Contrary to that, amazing things happen when someone surrounds themselves with the positive and supportive components of life.  If a child grows up around people that have certain tendencies, the child will have been exposed to those tendencies and those parameters will become programmed into their minds as a normal and acceptable way of life.  It is up to the parents as to whether the environment that is created is positive and productive or negative and an encumbrance.  Irresponsible parents create an exponential deficit for their children to have to overcome once they are on their own in life. 

Ignorance is a direct result of parental irresponsibility and is inexcusable.  It is a  barrier in the evolution of humanity and a burden that consumes resources that should be used in more productive areas.  Ignorance condemns humanity to make the same mistakes over and over.

Ignorance is the source behind racism and religious persecution.  Otherwise why would one race or group of individuals, feel they are superior to another and who on Earth gave them the authority  to make that decision in the first place?  The ignorance that was passed on to them growing up or at some point in their life, led them to believe that all men are not equal.  In an ironic sense, they are exactly right.  However, it is them and those misled individuals like them, who are the ones that are not equal.  They have adopted this singular perspective that has been mistakenly coded into their minds as the will of the masses.  There are millions of minds and thousands of cultures in this world.  How ridiculous is it to think that the opinion of a single individual or a small group of individuals, is the only opinion in the world?  Differing perspectives and different ways of managing life's events, allow the mind to grow and allow humans to better understand life as a whole.

There is so much misinformation in the world.  Anyone can post anything on the Internet and millions of people can instantly see the post and form an opinion.  Many individuals form their opinions knowing little or nothing about the subject that they are forming an opinion on.  For them, what they see on television, the Internet or hear in the gossip chain, is good enough and is surely the truth.  They do not make any effort to research and verify these claims before spreading them on.  The irony to this is that it has never been easier in the history of humanity to research and validate claims.  The Internet and all that goes with it, brings the ability to seek out accurate information that is literally at our fingertips.

Facebook is a great way of re-connecting with old friends and also for staying connected with close friends and family.  Friends from the past that historically would have been lost to the evolution of life, can now be friends forever.  People from all over the world can stay in instant contact with each other.  It is easier than ever for someone to be able learn about other people and places, understanding aspects of life that they only thought they understood before. 

Unfortunately, Facebook also allows for people to reconnect with old habits and surroundings that perhaps they had grown out of or broken free from.  Everyone has a couple of those negative influences / friends on their Facebook.  The ones who would not be able to find the supermarket even if they were in its parking lot, unless they were told that it was across the street from La Pachanga club.  Those friends that post some of the most pointless information on social media pages, that only publicly reveal their inability to see the wonder that exists outside of the circle of ignorance that they are in.  These people are part of the negative surroundings issue and care should be taken to not have their influences around.

There is always hope.  Ignorance does not keep hope from being a force in peoples lives.  Perhaps those negative influences will find a way to become more positive and the good in those individuals will shine through after all.  

 

ignorance. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved June 01, 2015, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ignorance

 

Forward

I smell the smoke and feel the heat of the bridges burning behind me.  Perhaps I should have waited and gave myself more distance from my tried and true past.  After all, it is these very bridges that have kept me in life for many years now.  Can one really ever justify moving on when nothing is wrong with the here and now?  Is it fair to your past when all that was, is what has made you the person that you are?  Yet, all that was, is the source of the driving force that is urging you to move on.

The list of those who came before me is long.  It is with the greatest of respect for them and their accomplishments that I build on their achievements and learn from the expense and fallout of their errors.  To do nothing with what they have given me would be to provoke evolutionary suicide.  It is never finished.  There must always be the next "what if" or "what were they thinking".  Restless and inquisitive souls are some of the least understood and most criticized but yet they are the very souls that are needed to keep learning and evolution alive.

The Experiences Are Needed

The winter weeks leading up to Valentines day are usually accompanied by memories of struggles in past relationships and the things that were said or done as part of those relationships.  After February 14th 2002, Valentines day took on a much more robust meaning for me.  In fact, I would go so far as to propose the dedication of this day to all those who have fought so very hard, and succeeded, at getting out of bad relationships.  Not just any bad relationship but one that was so damaging that it would have killed, in one way or another, had it continued.  I would dedicate the day to all who had found the ability to gather any shreds of logic, common sense or minuscule pieces of will power still inside them, giving them just enough strength to make that final decision and see it through to the end.

There is certainly no shortage of clichés that are tossed around.  Far too often a cliché or generic comment is uttered out in a half-hearted attempt to show support or consolation for someone who may be ill or going through some tough times.  Sentiment is best expressed from the heart and is not something that requires effort when sincerely expressed.  When effort is needed, whatever "canned" words that can be thought of for the moment are used and therefore are not delivered with true feelings.  For example, it is easy to say, "forget about the past and move on" but is this cliche-ic comment a sincere comment that is coming from the heart and originating from a true concern for the well being of the individual or just something that someone felt obligated to say.

Regardless of how many times someone says to "forget about the past and move on", it would actually be irresponsible if we did forget about the past.  In fact we need all of those past memories regardless of how good or how hurtful they are.  We use those memories and experiences as a base for making future decisions.  The decisions will be better decisions because we have these memories and experiences available as part of our database for comparison.  The more memories and experiences that are in our past, the more successful and capable we should be at making good decisions and handling the many challenges that life throws our way.

Success is a journey, not a destination. - Arthur Ashe

Dreams

In going through my iTunes library, looking for a specific song, I caught my mind remembering faces and names of past friends as I looked over the almost 10,000 songs in my library.  After about the third time this happened, I stopped and opened up a new playlist and started shuffling these provocative songs into the folder.  Now that I was aware of what my brain was doing, it became the most interesting and at times emotional, form of mind game that I had ever experienced.  And these amazing things that were going through my mind, were real.  Real people and real experiences in my life.  As always, I began to evaluate what it was, about these specific memories in life, that made them so incredibly ingrained in my memory and why, for some reason, each of these memories had its own "theme song" associated with it in my mind. 

The simple answer was that each and every one of these memories were events and experiences that had happened for the first time.  They had happened with a close friend or someone who had gained close ties to my soul, even if those ties were only for a short period of time.  It was a memory of something as simple as having the best night ever while out on the town or it could be something a lot less simple such as a sexual relationship with a discretionless nymphomaniac. 

The more complicated and theoretical answer could be that perhaps it is during these "first time mind expanding experiences", new neurons are formed and become principle building blocks for future information and decision making.  Being the first building block would mean that the memory would be more prevalent than other memories and would always be with us as long as that neuron or neural pathway was alive.

What ever the true answer may be, one conclusion is for sure.  Dreams keep us alive.  They keep a lust for life and living in our souls.  The thrill of the chase as we do the things that we only "dreamed" of doing before.  With the results of those dreams being so solidly forged in our minds, they give us the ability to look back at the experience and draw wisdom for ourselves and others (especially after achieving some of those "best nights ever" out on the town).  Being able to hear the "theme song" that reminds us of that specific exciting event, is the factor that ties it all together.  It sings out to us letting us know that for an achievement in life to occur, all we have to do is dream.