Shining Thru

How can you keep pushing forward when you don’t have a known direction?  If you don’t know what road you’re traveling down, it’s kind of hard to see over the hills in front of you.  Left or right?  North or South?  The various paths in life that pop up, almost like a secret shortcut…until you get inside the forest and get lost.

Directions in life are tricky….

Never knowing what is coming next, knowing that what you really want isn’t your call if you get it or not…knowing that your hands are tied and there isn’t anything else you can do but wait and see….but then how do you move forward…push on so to speak?  Do you just travel blindly or do you try to map out a new route?

All of the things that happen in life can pop up as obstacles.  Do you drive around, take another avenue, or simply travel over the hump?

I’m kind of tried of hearing people complain about people in public service jobs:  the cops only eat donuts and drink coffee, teachers are over paid babysitters, nurses only write things down for the doctors, or couldn’t make it through med school….

People make these complaints until they need that service from someone in the community and we wonder why these people are bitter.  They probably love their job, or they wouldn’t do it for the crappy pay.  But instead of thanks they generally get complaints and people who don’t understand why anything that they dream up might simply not be possible….

Why do people think that only their needs are important?  Or that they should always be the first priority?  Instead the people who try to do public services only end up being complained about and hated.  People only want to complain, without taking the time to understand what others have to do.  I think that people should really take the time to look at what other people have to do instead of wondering why they are not doing what you want them to do.

Why do people worry about what is in the past when there is no way to change it?  Why try to change something that is unchangeable?  Regret serves no purpose.  Instead of spending all of the time regretting the past, I wish more people would simply examine the past with an open mind and learn from it to make the future better.  Why try to undo what is already done while the future is still undecided.  The future can still be changed.  The future still hangs in the balance.  People are spending all of their time regretting the past and that only leads to not paying enough attention to the present or where things will go from where, which leads to more regrets.

I feel bad for people that live in the past instead of the present.  Although there are some people who don’t consider the present enough because they are so focused on the future…it’s like they fail to realize that we can’t get to the future without the present and that all of the choices we make now are the choices to keep them on the path to the future they want.  I know we don’t have complete control over anything like that…but why worry about what’s not right here???

Why is it that some people can be so careless with their words, thinking that nothing they say matters; when others feel like people should hang on every syllable? 

Some people will say whatever pops into their minds, no matter what the consequences, mainly because they never stop to think about the consequences.  They also don’t always realize that somebody might be taking all of their spoken thoughts to heart.  Sometimes things should stay in a person’s head.  I, for one, am very glad that people can’t read each other’s minds.  I would be really embarrassed if people could hear or see every thought that popped into my head, and I don’t think I want to know what everyone around me really things about me.

Then the other group of people, don’t seem to realize when what they have to say really doesn’t affect the other person at all, and is just a waste of time as far as the listener is concerned.  Sometimes I think these people need to take a step back and realize that not everyone is going to care, and they should not automatically assume that people do care about what they have to say.  Not everyone is going to have the same interests as these talkers, but these people just don’t seem to realize that not everyone wants to listen.  Not everyone wants to waste their time with what the talker feels is important.  Some people just want to know what they absolutely need to know and then move on with their lives. 

It’s always amazing how two extremes exist every day side by side.  I’m not sure how people don’t drive each other crazy every day.  Or maybe they do and we just don’t hear about it.

Choices rumbling around

Tumbling up and down

From side to side things bounce

Caught in a heated fire of decision

Pacing back and forth

The same thoughts over and over

Trying to make the chaos make clear

Nothing new….same facts as before

Indecision fighting to continue

Knowing you must choose

Every day choices feel hard

One after the other you fight the apathy

Relying on your feelings you fight the indecision

Reality closing in

Decision making ………………

I think our society is creating a lazy generation in the younger generation, both physically and mentally….but how has this happened?  Who’s “fault” is it that our kids complain about having to walk up stairs and aren’t able to take the elevator, or have to pick up their own mess, or be responsible for their own things and keeping track of them.  It also amazes me how the younger generation cannot seem to retain information, or carry it over from one class period to another….but who do we blame…is it any one’s fault? 

Why does there seem to be a whole category of reality TV shows that are devoted to showing how parents have screwed up their children?  Things like “World’s Strictest Parents” or “Supper Nanny” or “Nanny 911″  Seem to be making a killing in the world of reality TV shows…..when did parents stop parenting, when did parents decide that they needed to be more of a friend instead of a parent?  When did it become OK to disrespect your parents or take advantage of the things that your parents provide for you?  When did it become OK to not be grateful but always wanting more and whining about everything?

Was it when both parents had to start working in our economy?  Was it when technology became available to enough families that it replaced family time and babysitters?  What makes some of these people think that they owe their kids the right to be disrespectful, rude, selfish and lazy?  What is wrong with kids having to do chores or earn what they get?  Instead it seems like the younger generation as a whole seems to think that they are entitled to things and seem to expect things that they haven’t earned or even attempted to earn. 

I’m not sure when working hard became a bad thing and now everyone just expects things and seem to think that the things will just appear instead of someone having to work for them….I wonder how many teenagers today understand how much their parents pay for their cell phone, cable, Internet, etc…..

How can we change our kids back to the values of hard work and feeling proud that they worked hard for what they have instead of teaching them to look for the quick and easy way?  I really think that our society is slipping quickly downhill and this laziness and expectancy is only going to transfer into adult hood, if not with this generation, then with their kids when the kids today are raising their kids the way that they were taught by their parents.  I think that our society needs to be careful before we dig ourselves a hole that we cannot get out of….eventually there will not be anybody left that knows how to work hard to provide for all of these expectant people.

Who ever said ignorance is bliss is a liar.  I hate not knowing what is going on….even more than that I hate it when there are ignorant people around me….maybe some people can be blissful while ignorant, but not me.  At the very least their ignorance pains me.  I hate it when I feel like I’ve lost some of my intelligence because an ignorant person was around me too much that day….sometimes you’re stuck around stupid people and it sucks. 

Ignorance is only hurting the world.  I can’t imagine the changes that would happen if we could educate people on the issues of the world and actually have that information soak in.  All of the education in the world is never going to help our society if people aren’t willing to admit that we have problems in our society.  But nobody wants to admit that they or anyone around them is stupid or ignorant….

Some people like to gain knowledge and squash the ignorance in its tracks, where as other people just like to ignore the problems of the world, even while those things are staring them in the face.  I don’t understand how people can live like that…choosing to be ignorant.  How can a person not desire knowledge, I thought it was human nature for the longest time…and yet I see people choosing ignorance over acknowledging issues in the world every day.  Some people want to live in a book that is only painted with the pictures of their mind, their issues, their beliefs….not ever accounting for the fact that there are people who live outside of their eyesight, that there are people who don’t feel the way they feel, who don’t believe what they believe, who don’t know what they know…who know more than what they know.  I can’t believe that some people can be so ignorant and so vain that they seriously cannot see beyond their own front yard so to speak.

Could you kill the person that you love to save them from something worse?  Could you sacrifice breaking your own heart and rip it out as you declare your love for that person and kill them?  Watching The X-Men:  The Last Stand movie got me thinking about that.  It must be one of the hardest things anyone would ever have to do….right up there will having to decide weather to have an abortion or not if you know your child would have a horrible disease that WILL kill them before they are five and will only make them suffer until them….What do you do?  Do you give them the gift of life along with suffering while they are briefly on this earth, or do you spare them all of that and end it before it begins?  How can you ask someone to make that decision?

When the truth is unknown

When the truth is blurry

Step back and wonder….

Does It Matter?

What’s happening only matters if you care

If you put value on the action

The truth, is only true if you believe it

Perception is your reality,

No matter how skewed it might become.

Truth in the depths of your soul

Can it be ignored…can denial really last?

Can the mind cover up for what the heart feels?

What is the truth?

What you believe or what you see or what you feel?

What is experience other than what you think you experience….

Your perception of the experience creates the reality of the experience

Reality……

Only a matter of perception…

and yet people put so much weight behind it

Every one’s truth is different, but where does it come from?

Does it matter?  Is it important to know the ultimate truth?

Why mess with a reality you’re comfortable in for the plain truth?

Why change realities by allowing your perception to change?

What if things will be better?  What if things will be worse?

What if the truth scares you?

What if you’re reality is denial?

Should you search for the truth when you have already established your reality?

I think we are setting up the younger generation for failure.  I think that we are pushing for all of the wrong things, instead of trying to encourage things like hard work, and good social skills, showing respect, etc…we are trying to tell them to simply be positive…well being positive is great, but not always possible.  What about the child who doesn’t have anything to be positive about, doesn’t have a good family or a good  home life, maybe they are even scared to go home at night, how can you tell that child that they are not being successful in school because they are not positive enough?

I was reading a very interesting article the other day about psychology facts that we have been forced to believe or made to think were true simply because someone said it…one of these myths is about about self confidence.  The article made a great point about how we are teaching kids that they need to work for the wrong things, they need to be self confident, without giving them the tools to do so.  We aren’t teaching them good social skills or how to be successful in school, we are teaching them to be cocky, arrogant, and ignorant at best.  The author simply pointed out that we are connecting the fact that a child has self esteem to the fact that they are successful, when really we should be looking at the fact that the success is making the child self confident.  I would have to fully agree with this point.  What good does it do to tell a child to believe in themselves if we never teach them how to accomplish those goals we tell them to believe in?  It wont do any good for anyone. 

I do believe that a sense of self worth comes from many different aspects of a person’s life.  And having confidence can make things a bit easier for you, at least I think so, but I don’t believe that by simply believing you are the best, you will be…By simply believing that you will land a 3 figure job, you will….By only believing that you will be famous, you will….I think that we are only hurting our younger generation by feeding them these lies.  I think that we should be telling them that life is a struggle and if you want something that’s great, but you’re more likely than not going to have to work hard for it. 

Maybe we should stop trying to make everyone feel so good and simply be honest with them.  Lies aren’t going to help our children when they get out into the real world and experience it without warning.