Shining Thru

What are the lines and boundaries of privacy?  What if you provide the equipment, do you have rights to know everything that happens with that equipment?  Or is there a line?  Who in their right minds, thought that the school district spying on their students through the built in webcams on the school issued laptops?

Reading the article, “School Officials Likened to ‘Peeping Toms,’” I was amazed that a group of people thought that it was a good idea to try and get a student in trouble, using illegal web images as their evidence….

Didn’t anyone think that it was a bad idea to record teenagers in their home without informing anyone or getting anyone’s permission?  Didn’t anyone consider that weird?  Would any of those school officials like to be viewed in their homes?  And know what goes on behind their closed doors?  I have a feeling that they will argue that because they were school computers they had the right to view whatever goes on around them, but I doubt that will go very far….I have to wonder how many charges and what kind of charges will be brought against this school district.

Interesting things pop up in the news from time to time, the stupidity of people continues to surprise me.

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.

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.

People’s different impression of God is so vastly different…some different cultures have multiple gods…some people believe in more a guiding force like fate or something similar….even all of the people who believe in the one all knowing…all seeing God..have incredibly different opinions of the personality (for lack of a better word) of that God….some people believe that he is all fire and brimstone..just waiting to throw you into hell…while others believe that is all loving and ever forgiving….some people believe that there is simply a higher life form such as aliens that live as we do, but are much more advanced and therefore have god like qualities. 

People’s beliefs are really interesting to learn about.  Especially believes on things that have no proof one way or the other.  At the very least, sometimes people can surprise you and give you something to think about that never would have crossed your mind otherwise…that is if you’re open to hearing other people’s beliefs and opinions. 

What is also very interesting is how our society pushes certain impressions of things like God and aliens….I once heard someone say that if a giant monster landed in a round or square space ship and came out with eight arms some people still wouldn’t believe that it was an alien…because we “know” what aliens look like…I am willing to bet that if we took a poll we would get just about the same answer from at least 90% of the population when asked to describe an alien.  They have been depicted for years and even generations now in movies and on TV, much less in books and comic books. 

How much influence does Society have on our beliefs?  What opportunities have we all missed because we refuse to see what is right in front of us or listen to something that seems off the wall just because we haven’t heard it before?

Can being too open minded be a bad thing?  When your thought process is fluid and you’re completely open to at least hearing new thoughts, even if you don’t take them on yourself?  Or is it what we should all strive for?  I think that one of he problems that we may run into if we are too open minded is being too easily influenced by the things that we encounter, media of all sorts for example, news reports, radio, TV, books, magazines…all of these things can influence you to the point where you adopt a pattern of thought or some outlandish idea because it is new and you want to explore it some more.  So you go on, thinking and living in the new idea and maybe even a whole mindset that you have just been introduced to, not realizing that it’s not part of your personality at all…that you might not even agree with it….I suppose that is the beauty in a fluid way of thinking, it might not be safe or fail proof, but it is intelligent and without risk we would never have discovery.  I think that the fear comes in when you lose control of how open minded you want to be….If you allow too much from the media inside the inner-workings of your brain, are you still thinking for yourself or simply absorbing all that you are introduced to , testing it, exploring it, and then discarding what doesn’t fit into your life at the time?

I heard on a movie once that love doesn’t have a time limit, it either is or it isn’t. 

I think that is a wise quote.  You can’t put on a time frame for the steps of a relationship.  Love either is or it isn’t.  It either comes or it doesn’t.  You can’t help the way you feel, it’s part of being human.  Which makes me wonder why our society pushes so hard to label what can’t be explained fully, it can only be felt. 

We are raised to believe that there are logical steps to a relationship.  You go out….date for however many months and then “get serious”….get engaged after meeting the family….and then get married.  Why do the steps have to go in that order, our society likes to push things on us that someone at some point decided was the “normal” thing to do.  Love and relationships is definitely one of the things that we are suppose to follow protocol with.  I think this is quickly changing. 

There are all types of families and relationships in our country today.  It is no longer thought of as normal to have two parents and 2.5 kids with a dog.  Some people say that is because our society is going down hill.  I disagree, I think that it is because we as people are giving into our emotions rather than our logic.

Now that doesn’t mean that I’m all for 15 year olds running off together because they think that they are in love with each other, but I do think that as adults we need to start looking at the world that has been created around us and not at what we have been raised to believe is around us.  As adults we should consider our options instead of throwing away opportunities because they are not believed to be “normal” in our society.  This does not mean to go and be stupid in the name of love, but it does mean to consider the validity in those emotions that you can’t control and you know are right. 

As another movie stated so plainly, “your life is defined by opportunities, even those you miss.”