Shining Thru

Overwhelming it comes in waves

Unforeseen and unsuspecting

Comes crashing into the strong cliff side

The rock that has held strong for centuries

Slowly being eroded away, crashing wave by crashing wave

One tide change at a time

Even the predictability of the tide

Cannot control the force of the crash

The Underlying damage being done…the wear and tear

Soothing sounds that turn deadly as the undercurrent pulls

Down into the depths that appear so blue and clear from the top

The water edge grows closer as the strong stone slowly crumbles

And yet I enjoy the view from the cliff’s edge,

Staring down as the wind blows.

Why is it that one of the first questions people always ask you when they meet you or feel they have to get to know you is where are you from?  But it never ends with the questions….it’s like they have to make some type of connection with where ever you are from…”Oh I have a friend of my best friend’s cousin who once had a five hour lay over in the air port there”……

I think it’s pretty interesting the questions that people choose to get to know you through.  What is your favorite color?  Where did you go to college?  I wonder why we ask such random questions that really don’t tell you much about a person…or at least don’t always tell you much about a person.  It clues you in on some stereotypes and I guess gives the interviewer some type of sense that they have gained some type of knowledge of the person..as if knowing where a person is from combined with their favorite color, gives some type of deep insight into their psyche. 

When did we first decide as a culture that we need details of everyone we come in contact with…and when did these questions become the standard?  It just seems to me in all of the conferences and convention type things that I have gone to, very rarely does anyone ever ask me what I do that relates to why we are there working together in the first place…instead they think they need to ask some random questions because….society says so I guess.

Is it possible for some people to make any emotion that they experience on a regular basis into their security blanket?  Even if it is not a positive emotion, is it possible to become attached to it?  Is that why some people go after abusive relationship after abusive relationship?  Why some people don’t know what to do when a fear of theirs has been removed?…a fear that they have experienced and dealt with all of their life, suddenly gone…something like losing someone close to them, or poverty, or any number of things???

Is it possible that some people are so desperate for emotional security that they find it in any emotion available?  Can fear, anger, sadness, drama, confusion, all be used as security if they are all that are available?  I feel sorry for people who don’t get to experience, happiness and love enough to the point that they reach for something else, something negative, something that sets them up for failure….I would be scared that once you reach for those negative things as your security, you would turn down happiness even when it was placed in your lap because you would no longer know how to feel without the sadness, or fear, or whatever else you had been clinging to. 

I have met several people who don’t seem to be happy unless they have something to be unhappy about…I know it seems like a contradiction, but I know those people exist….I’m not sure how it’s justified in their minds, but I have to wonder if they have just become so accustomed to the negative that they fight against the positive.  Do they fight it because they are afraid of the positive, or because they are not use to it, or because they don’t think they deserve it, or for some reason that only they can understand?

I would hope that everyone would have something positive to cling to, but I know that unfortunately that is not always the case…as much as I may wish it was.

Stinging slap, pleasant sting

The bad can sometimes feel good

Why is it that although one person may be hurt

Another person can feel loved by the same act?

Some words can reach out and touch one person…yet offend another

Some actions can draw the attention of some people…and get the silent treatment from others

Some people like the very things another person hates

People are all unique in their desires and wants….

I wonder why we all work so differently and yet we are all the same being….

We are all humans, we are all people society…some of different societies, but all societies none the less

And yet some of the things taboo in one culture are embarrassed in another…

One thing tabooed and outlawed in your own culture and society may be the very thing that you want the most in life…

Why is it that some people are forced to hide what they want simply because of society protocol?  

I don’t think that desires can be controlled…we can only control our reaction to our want

Should a person downplay their desires because society says it’s not something that they should want to have?  Or should they fight to have it?  Should they proudly open up about their desires…or sneak around behind closed doors?

Sadly I think that most people would agree that as long as our American society stays as judgemental as it is, then we will have to suppress what we want the most, and keep it behind closed doors, or give up the idea of a professional life.

How do people control other people?

I think that we see this in action the most with parents and their children….even though some children seem to have reversed the roles while nobody was looking.  Sometimes parents control their children with fear, bribery, encouragement, logic, mind games, etc.  I think that most people take their own approach when it comes to parental control….just as I think children find their own ways of testing their parents and trying to get their control…

What is it about certain things that create certain reactions within us from another person, especially from someone close to us.  Screaming tantrums often get their way in today’s society; although I know that type of thing seems unbearable at times, is it really benefiting anyone to reward such behavior…what reaction within us causes us to lose our logical side for a moment?  Although it ends the screaming now, what happens the next time a kid wants something their way….or the next and so on and so on? 

What is it about guilt that seems to control all sorts of people, especially people that know you care about them?  I know I can be manipulated by guilt, as I am greatly affected by it and it can cause all sorts of stress reactions….I wonder what it is about that particular emotion that can really get to people?

Some people are easily persuaded to change their minds or open them up to something, or close them to something by the people that are around them, or opinions they are exposed to in the media on a regular basis….some people just buy into everything that they hear if it sounds like there is a good case behind it, even when there are no facts to back it up…while others cannot be persuaded even when fact after fact is laid out right in front of them….

So what is it that people give into?  Is it the people closest to them?  The opinions and values they are raised with?  The media?  Or something else completely?

The red passion blossoming out of the bleakness

The gray, white and black, with a glimpse of color

The deep, bright red of passion and love bleeding out of the paper

The painted color that somehow brings life to the rest

The one image of color, a glimpse of passion in a world of grey

Inspiring image on the wall, a glimpse of hope and love and trust

The solid colors painted on, are able to bring your mind to life

Stir the emotions in your heart and the thoughts of your mind.

How can one image wield so much power sitting on the wall

A vision that you see every day, morning and night.

A constant reminder of a glimpse of unusual passion in a world of grey.

I wonder what it must be like to be completely immersed into a culture that is not your own…a strange language, strange sights, smells, foods….What would it be like to suddenly find yourself simply trying to understand and only hearing noise when people spoke to you?  What would it be like to not recognize anything that was going on around you as none of the customs you were use to were used in the new place? 

Would you fight against it, trying to bend all others to your own way?  Would you try to learn, become accustomed to the new things around you?  Would you become defiant and bitter, refusing to change?  I wonder what it must be like for people who have found themselves in situations like that….It would be a hard decision for someone to know what they should do in their new circumstances. 

How long would it take for someone to accept their new circumstances and learn the customs and language they had been thrust into?  Would everyone be open to learning these new things?  If they did learn, would it be for pure survival or because they were interested?  Would it matter the reason to the people around them, or would they simply be happy with the fact that the new comer was indeed learning?

Would it be possible for someone to forget the way of life they had been raised in?  Would it be possible for them to grow to like and appreciate if not even love their new society and way of life?

What it must have been like for anyone who was ever captured and taken into a new society, or someone adopted and taken to a new country, or people who go to a new place looking for a better life….

What is it about certain legends that make them stay alive generation after generation, never dying out into nothingness?  Why is it that it seems everyone knows some stories, people who seem to know nothing of the news today still know of legends that supposedly took place hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  What is it that intrigues us about stories like Arthur and Camelot?  Some legends are fairly recently, like all of the tales of the wild, wild west, but yet most people still want to hear the stories and tell the stories year after year, either to each other or are seen in movies and books…but they stay alive in some way.  Even though legends have been created right along with America, it still seems that the old legends from so long ago are the ones that survive.  Legends may alter and spins put on them at times, but still, they stay alive in the minds of generation after generation.  What is it that makes us want to keep believing, or at least keep honoring by retelling the stories from so long ago?

It’s strange that our bodies crave things that we are sometimes unaware that we want or need so much.  It seems that everyone’s cravings are different, some people crave foods and drinks, while others crave adventure, or sex, or maybe some other thing that they have to keep hidden away behind closed doors. 

How is it that soemtimes our bodies understand something that our minds cannot?  Why is it that we get these great desires that cannot be ignored, it’s hard to put them out of mind for awhile.  Sometimes a person’s mood can be changed by the want of something that they want so badly. 

Sometimes we want a thing because it’s something that we are use to and haven’t had in awhile, sometimes we might not know why we want a particular thing.  It’s strange the way our body works with our minds…making us aware of different things, hunger, thirst, etc.  It’s the same thing when we want a particular thing…I have to wonder what makes our bodies feel like they want a certain thing for seemingly no reason….

Have you ever met someone who likes to take classic, cliche sayings and twist them around just a little?  I heard one today that just made me laugh and I loved it instantly; “Imitation is the sincerest form of insanity.”  I heard that on the Dish tonight and I thought it was great, because sometimes it’s true.  Imitation might be flattering in some instances, but sometimes it’s simply because some people are crazy, or stupid and can’t come up with an original thought in their head. 

Hearing expressions like this one be twisted around always makes me think of the power of words.  Changing one word can change the whole saying drastically.  Words are such powerful things that my favorite author, David Turrill, wrote, “we name things to make them real.”  I think that he had a point, without a name, how do we talk about that thing?  If we can’t talk about it, we can’t express thought about a thing and therefore the thoughts are not put out into anyone else’s mind and are then easily lost. 

Words help us to make thoughts into reality.  I really think that sometimes the only barrier between a thought and reality is the words to clearly define and express something.  In a lot of ways, words hold more power than people may realize.  Words can comfort or hurt people.  Words can define and make something important, or blow off and make something disappear into the world of the unimportant.