Shining Thru

I don’t understand the way some people think or logic their way through life….I was reading the news earlier today and was simply baffled by some of the comments underneath the articles from other readers similar to myself.  There was one article about a woman being shot to death in her home while holding her 3 month old baby and all but one of the comments that I read were saying what a bad mother she was and completely tearing her apart….and then another article was about how a teenager jumped out of a moving ambulance and died and there were only comments as far as I could see about how sad it was and how the family should file a lawsuit against the ambulance workers for not containing the boy.  Although I agree that because the boy had mental issues and the circumstances are sad and I feel for the family, I don’t understand how these are the same type of people completely slamming the single mother trying to raise her children.  Instead they are blaming her for the fact that some of her young children witnessed the shooting early in the morning when the kids should have been in bed…apparently it didn’t occur to any of them that the kids may have been sleeping in the same room as the baby and the mother was in there to pick up the baby since most 3 month olds I know don’t sleep through the night completely, or maybe there were woken up by someone breaking into the house, or the confrontation that could have been taking place before the shooting.  How can people in good conscience think that they are in the right passing judgment over a woman who just lost her life like that?  Not one of the comments that I read expressed any type of concern or sympathy for her children, they all just wanted to say how wrong she was for being a young single mother who was shot in front of her children, as if it was her choice, as if she was suppose to know she was going to get shot that day and have the kids pre-removed from the house….I wish people would stop and think before they shoot off their comments into cyberspace.  I have to wonder how many of those people would say those things out loud and how many of them are simply hiding behind the computer.  At least the things I say, I am not too ashamed to voice in real life.  I would hope that these people would be ashamed of their comments if the family of that woman heard them, but I fear that too often in our judgmental society, those people would still think that they are in the right, no matter who they were talking to.

Unfortunately for this young woman, so many people feel that they are in the right and have the right to say whatever thoughts pop into their heads.  Their attempts at thinking are sometimes pitiful and I am sorry to say that I live in a society that feels that they can pass judgment without knowing all of the facts in a situation and publicly post their blind comments about it on the internet.

The wind blows gently along the tops of the trees

Like a whisper in the ear, it gently passes not leaving a trace

Simply an impression

You wonder if it’s real, if it really happened

Did you just imagine or is it revealed?

Thinking too hard about what you can’t prove

What you can’t be sure of…

The hidden untruths

Lie deep within the unread rules

The gaps between the lines that you can’t write on

Something that is there but unseen

So many things in life

So many unseen futures

No where to turn where there isn’t a reckoning

It doesn’t matter if the glass is half full if it never comes off the shelf

Leave the things you know to yourself

Or fight through all of the unrecoverable facts

Thinking, breathing, living

It’s strange how some things are a comfort or give you a feeling that goes way beyond their practical use…like a cozy blanket.  There are many times I find myself covering up with a blanket while I watch a movie or tv not because I’m cold but because there is a good feeling that comes with being wrapped up in a blanket and relaxing.  Sometimes curling up by a fire or covering up with a blanket can give you a great feeling…

Sometimes buying yourself something small or going and getting something done that you’ve wanted for awhile can make you feel great about yourself, a real pick me up…even if the actual thing or action wasn’t really needed.

There are a lot of things that can have a mental affect that goes way beyond anything else.  Sometimes your whole day can be made better by seeing a smile or having a perfect stranger be nice to you…maybe something small but it means something.  It’s just like when you make a long road trip and you’re completely exhausted afterward.  Driving isn’t physical labor but mentally it can be exhausting, depending on where you’re driving and it what kind of conditions.

It amazes me and how powerful the mind can be.  If we only controlled all of the stress and worry and things of similar nature and used our mind to strengthen the good thoughts and happiness in our lives, I wonder how different life would be.  How powerful is the mind if a simple blanket or cup of hot chocolate can make us feel better….

What can be labeled as a major life change?  Having a baby, getting married….I think most people would agree that those are major life changes, but is it possible to have a major life change by simply having one thought or being exposed to one new idea?  I have to think that one thought affected anyone who had been in a major revolution and that the idea of  revolution changed their lives.  Can a small idea change your life?  Something small that you cling to and hang on to years later…maybe you don’t even remember where the idea came from, it just becomes part of you…or maybe you remember exactly where it came from…  Either way, I think that people gather small ideas and latch on all the time.  Reading a book, talking to new people, watching a movie…all of these things help shape us….even if we’re exposed to something that we don’t agree with, not agree shapes us in the same way that agree would.  I think that all new ideas have the potential to change our lives….

Ideas and words are extremely powerful and have the potential to change lives, start wars, maybe even change a culture…even if that change is spread through a widely read magazine or a movie that is passed from one group of friends to the next.  One word from a loved one can mean the world to someone or bring it crashing down around them.  One idea from a movie or a book or a comic can spin the mind into a whirlwind of thoughts and creativity.  Maybe changing the way a person lives and thinks forever….

What constitutes a major change?  Does it have to be a new life or can it be something that is planted into your life and grows to consume it?

“Look at these people amazing how sheeple show up for the slaughter.”  What a great line from a musical I was recently introduced to, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.  I think that this line is a great representation of what happens often in our society.  People following the media or their favorite politician…sometimes more likely is that they are following their parents’ favorite politician.  People that have a set time every day set aside to watch the screen of “big brother” and they simply believe everything that is said on their favorite show on Fox News or CNN.

I have to wonder how some people can have so much information stored inside of them and yet seem to almost refuse to use their common sense to actually puzzle out their own original thoughts.  There are a few people who strive for the truth, think through everything…but the majority of people that I see around me most days makes me really wonder if  people even remember how to think for themselves any more?  I know that the younger generation expects answers to simply be handed to them…I have to wonder if they get that because their elders have simply resigned themselves to simply following whatever message is spread the loudest in the gossip lines of neighbors or on the most news channels.

Some people are intimidating with all of their knowledge and their great use of common sense, debate skills, etc….why are these people so hard to find sometimes…???  I’m glad that I have been able to surround myself in my personal life with intelligent people…but when I go to work I see what is outside of my own little circle…..Sometimes you wonder if some people are ever involved in an intelligent conversation about anything…..And if they do get involved if can they give any reasons for the opinions that they so strongly defend because that is what they heard on the latest news report….I love having good conversations and debates with people, but sometimes I am amazed at how people enter into such conversations without any actual facts to back up their opinions…or even solid logic to back themselves up.

Sheeple is a great term for how the majority of our society seems to be acting these days.  People question their best friends but believe what some “specialist” on the evening news says without hesitation….what kind of sense does that make?  I’m afraid for where our society is going if we (as a whole) continue to blindly follow and line up for the slaughter… sooner or later, we wont be able to avoid what we are asking for.  Put the axe in the hand of the executioner…don’t act surprised when your head is rolling on the ground.

Brick wall covered in dirt

Surrounds the trapped mind

Not knowing only wondering

Thinking chaotic confusion

Circles swirling in the entrapment

Tumbling, Spinning, Something Missing

Pounding want for understanding

Falls on deaf ears

Muted by the bricks and stone

Alone and cold, you wait

Fighting the natural instinct to scream

You wait, listen, thinking

Round and Round you travel within yourself

Discovering the own horrors and depths of your mind

Finding the enclosed space of your head and thoughts to suffocate

Arms wrapping around as the only defense

The bricks and dirt close in on the spinning mind.

Don’t know what to do

Don’t know what to say

Spinning all around at the end of another day

Long hours ticked by slowly, while watching the clock

Now that it’s hear and you give a sigh

Lost in thought and trying to remember to relax

Trying to tune out the list of things to do, knocking at your brain

Trying to ignore the things that have been waiting for you to come through your door

Just wanting to relax, recuperate before resuming the daily tasks of life

The responsibilities that come with being alive and dealing with other people

Responsibilities that come with being a part of society

Wanting it all to go away and to only be with the ones you love and able to relax and enjoy

Able to sit and breathe without worrying about what you aren’t doing at the moment

Able to embrace and enjoy the moment for the love that fills it

Do you ever feel like you ruin everything…that you are undeserving….that you’re tired of feeling guilty and sorry about everything that happens? 

Sometimes situations present themselves as if they could have been totally different IF only….

If only I hadn’t said that and ruined the mood

If only I hadn’t done that and scared them away

If only I had gotten there five minutes earlier

If only….

If we counted up the if only’s of the world, I think we would be wasting our time, just like we are when we can’t stop thinking about the IF ONLY’s…..It didn’t happen that way, you didn’t do what you think you should have done with hindsight, you didn’t get there at a different time, it happened the way it happened….why is it so hard for us as humans to accept the reality that we have created?  It seems like so much of the population spends their time on regrets instead of moving forward, learning from it and moving on….I wonder who much we could get done if instead of think about the what ifs and regrets of the world, we spent that time being productive and moving forward into the future…I realize that statement is slightly contradictory, but I think that it illustrates the point quite nicely. 

If only we spent less time thinking about and wishing for the IF ONLY’s…..

The way men and women think is completely and totally different the faster everyone realizes that the faster we will all be a lot happier.  Now I know that there are a lot of comedy bits about the difference in the way that men and women think, and everyone laughs, but what makes them so funny is that they’re normally true.  Women need to realize that for the most part, men are straight forward and honest and need the same in return, I don’t know why women expect men to be able to read their minds, or have some huge underlying message, or objective….Women on the other hand, are almost never straight forward about things and they get their hopes up when statements are made with “IF” statements….now if women stopped for about two seconds and thought about the actual meaning of the word IF they would understand that it’s just that, if this happens then we could maybe do this…..but instead women think that plans have just been carved in stone and are really upset when they don’t happen, or when they realize that the man didn’t have the same understanding…

Why is it that a woman expects a man to know that when she says she doesn’t want him to come to her aid, she really means that she is desperate to see him…why not just admit that you want to see him and then everyone will be happy because everyone will know where everyone else stands, what is desired, and how to achieve happiness in the situation….instead women as a whole (not all women)  make it way more difficult then it ever needed to be, but stating what is only obvious to them, not to anyone else, and if you call them out on it, they look at you like you’re the enemy and that you should have understood the first time. 

I really don’t know why men put up with women.  I have my guesses at what a man would tell you as to why they do…Generally when I wonder about something that has to do with a man, I simply ask him…and generally speaking the answer is a lot more straight forward and simpler than I ever could have imagined. 

I do wonder why men and women operate so differently and sometimes on a completely different playing field…

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?