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 ………………
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.
The miracle of life is seen in a child’s smile, heard in their laughter. It’s the gentle touch of a loved one, because you’re scared or sad, or just because they care. The caring of those who love you reveal the miracle of life. The passion that we all have is swallowed up in the monotony of every day life. Gets lost in the darkness of responsibilities and procedures. The things we need to do instead of what we want to do. When did life become a day of routine, we did society as a whole lose the passionate spark for staying alive? Is it possible for one person or a couple to keep that passion alive within themselves? When did society start forgetting that life is a gift…a miracle that we should celebrate, not simply endure? Life is a precious thing, and yet it is cast aside by so many in our society, in many different ways. It some cases people see life as expendable. In some cases they just stop caring what happens in their own life…could be any number of things, but it all comes down to the same thing, it is sad the way we don’t value life in our society any more. We have turned our lives into simply scraping by, getting through today so that we can worry about tomorrow when it comes….how sad.
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.
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?
Perception
Reality
Spinning Round
Never stopping
three stories, one event
three people, never the same
three views, nothing similar.
what truth is in perception
what beliefs are insulted by the other
When one disagrees
Who is in the right?
Who knows what is true?
It doesn’t matter in the end
Perception is the only reality.
Perception, Truth, Reality….
It’s strange when you think about the relationship of these three words. Your perception of the truth is your reality…it doesn’t really matter what other people see as true, because the truth is different for everyone. Three people could see the exact same thing happen and yet three different stories will come out of the event…how is this possible? Who is telling the truth? How can everyone be honest and yet no one know the truth? These are all questions that I’m sure police officers have to deal with all of the time.
Is there such a thing as absolute truth? If our perception is our reality, and reality is what you live by and how you arrange your life, then does an absolute truth really exist? And if it does exist, does it matter? Is it important to know the truth or simply what you believe to be the truth. Some people can live in denial for weeks, months, or even years about things that they don’t want to admit to themselves is true. They could have proof right in their hands and still go on believing other wise. For them, their beliefs are their truth because they can’t handle the thought or don’t want to have to handle the thought of another reality. They want things to stay as they are, and the only way to keep reality from shifting to is to hold on to that false security… to put up a wall and convince yourself that nothing matters except for what you “know” to be true.
A person’s mind is a very powerful thing. I think that there is a lot of truth to the phrase, mind over matter. A person can convince themselves of just about anything if they really want to, or sometimes need to, just to survive. Does it matter that we know the truth, or does it matter that we understand our perceptions to the point where our reality will help us to survive? Does any of it matter beyond what goes on in your own head?
It’s interesting to think that we only see the world through our perspective, it’s like we wear blinders to the rest of the world or to the way other people see it. The way we were raised is “normal” to us, but to someone a block away may have lived a completely different life growing up and might think that your way of life is odd and unusual. There is nothing wrong with the fact that I don’t think that “normal” actually exists, at least not past our own reality and concept of it. The problem is when we don’t stop to consider or respect the fact that other people are going to see things differently than we do. The way we see things is only our perception. We can’t dream of what might go through someone else’s mind, even if they are in the same situation as you and seeing the same thing as you, they could be and probably are having a completely different experience from you, especially if they have grown up living a different life style than you.
I don’t understand why people can’t stop to consider that their way isn’t the only way, and just because people see things differently doesn’t make them wrong. I wish people could open their eyes and see things beyond what is right in front of them. A lot of time people choose to be blind to certain things…I think that politicians do it all the time. Things like public education is changed all of the time by politicians, but the likelihood of their children going to public education and having to deal with the result of the laws being passed is slim….if there is any chance at all…their kids are going to private school, and therefore I can’t imagine that these politicians have any idea what it is like for a teacher to have to stand in a public school classroom and try to enforce a law made by a politician that has never had to teach or deal with their child in a classroom that has to abide by the law.
I think that we are all guilty of being blind to another person’s point of view at one time or another, but I think that as a society we should work harder to find acceptance in our differences and simply be open to the fact that not everyone sees things the same and everyone’s experiencing something differently, despite the fact that we are all in the same country…we should really take the time to consider what another person might be seeing or experiencing.
I think that we have sold the younger generation short by telling them that they can do anything and become anyone that they want to be. We make them feel like they are entitled to whatever they want, which is only limited by their imaginations. there is nothing wrong with wanting our kids to be more successful than us, but to make that happen. I think we need to introduce them to reality instead of only letting them dream. Dreams are not bad things, but if the youth of today has never had to work hard for anything and don’t know how to make a plan to achieve a goal, if they simply expect things to happen then those dreams will never be reality. No matter how hard they wish for and blame the world for their problems, if they were never taught responsibility and hard work, they will end up with nothing.
I don’t think it’s fair that we are teaching all kids that everyone should go to college, no matter if they are inclined to academics or not. I don’t think it’s fair that we are not encouraging our youth to follow the trades that they have a passion for and insisting that “No Child is Left Behind” and that everyone should go to college. Maybe not everyone wants to go to college….but what is more important is that we are not preparing our youth for college because we are lowering the standards to the lowest common denominator so that No child will be left behind. It is impossible to think that every child will always learn at the same pace as all of the others in their age group, across the country and across cultures….the only thing we are doing is setting them up for failure as a whole generation. I’m afraid that except for the few kids who are going to work hard to get what they want despite society getting in their way, the rest of the rising generation is going to end up with nothing but empty dreams.
I was watching a very interesting show on the National Geographic Channel today called “Inside a Cult.” It was a very interesting documentary about several of the big religious cults that have been exposed in the US. The show focused on the compound of Strong City. This group believed their leader was the Messiah, but their “Messiah” ends up not being able to accurately predict the end of the world and instead is instead taken and prosecuted for sexual relationships with minors that also lived on the isolated compound.
One of the most interesting parts of the documentary was when it showed the members rejoicing over what was suppose to bring about a change in body for their “Messiah” but yet nothing happened that day. As it turned out the world did not end on October 31, 2007. They had a psychologist who studied different cult behaviors, she kept being brought on to interject comments on what was happening. After we saw the members rejoicing despite the fact that nothing happened on the date that had been proclaimed, the psychologist came on and stated that in cases like this where the cult has completely consumed their lives, instead of abandoning the beliefs that they are hanging on to, it is easier for them to distort their perception of reality to match their beliefs….Strangely enough none of the members or the leader would comment on his supposed change in body.
Although the psychologist was referring to the mindset of cult members, I have to wonder how often people do the same thing in every day life…..How often do people want and/or need something so badly that they begin to alter what is real around them to make themselves feel better. Some people would argue that is all religion is in general. Others would argue that is all life is….what is reality??? Isn’t everyone’s reality how they perceive it, even if it is not what is actually real, what is real is what we believe to be real. How can we tell the difference between actual reality and our perception of reality?
Do we all live in an altered reality? If so, what is it that makes us decide who is a part of it and who is not “normal”? Maybe there is a common understanding of the reality that we all experience… Look at it like this, if there is a fight that happens and ten people are watching the two people fight. There are twelve different interpretations of what happened for things it escalate into a fight. All versions of the story might have comment threads, but everyone’s perception will be just different enough to be declared their version of the story, their truth. Is this how life works? We all live with the common grounding to the world, but have our own perceptions from then on?
cnj222 | 
10 2nd, 2009| 