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Life is funny. It can race by you like a NASCAR driver on Meth or it can cruise sedately by like a deep river passing over level ground. Either way, if you're paying attention, you stand to learn a lot. I've picked up quite a bit in 48 years. Some of it has even proven to be useful. Today, I thought I would share with you some of the things I have learned...along the way.
If your dog or your horse doesn't like someone, you probably shouldn't either.
Ignorance is nothing more than a lack of information. Stupidity, on the other hand, is having that information and refusing to use it or refusing to accept the information in the first place. For this reason, ignorance is curable, stupidity is not.
Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. It's in the heart.
The only way to change a bigot is to remove the full diaper and replace it with a clean one. Anything else is a waste of time.
We've all heard "those who can, do...those who can't, teach." This is not true. The truth is, "those who can, do...those who can't, mock."
If cats were as smart as people say they are, they wouldn't need nine lives.
You will never get too old to need your parents.
When the police tell you that, if you're innocent, you don't need a lawyer, call a lawyer. I guarantee every man who has been exonerated by DNA heard those exact words from a police officer. That should be proof enough.
If you're unhappy with the government, don't blame the government. Much like your children, your leaders will do as much as you let them get away with.
If the saying, "guns don't kill people. People kill people" is true, then the same holds true for television, movies, music and video games. You can't have it both ways.
If you don't have the knowledge or the tools to fix something, call a professional. Machismo can be very expensive.
You can't blame the omelet for the eggs being spoiled.
Ladies, if you are starting a new relationship, let him drive on your first few dates. Why? Because men make love the same way they drive. If he's one of those guys who floors it when the light turns green, races to the next light, then slams on the brakes, this is good information to have before you slip between the sheets.
Faith can do as much harm as it does good.
Forty-five is not "middle-aged," unless you live to be ninety.
If discrimination is wrong when it works against you, it is still wrong when it works for you.
If it were true that we get smarter as we get older, scammers wouldn't be able to consistently and successfully target the elderly.
If it seems like nobody likes you, the problem is probably you.
The fact that people believe in "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" is the biggest reason the owners of Discount Auto Parts and The Home Depot are so rich.
Just as it is possible to be right yet remain uncertain, it is just as easy to be certain and still be dead wrong.
Most homeless people are just people who weren't rich when the bad thing happened in their lives. The Dupont, Hilton, Bush and Kennedy families are full of lazy people, addicts and the mentally ill, yet none of them have ever been homeless. Think about it.
I know your mother probably told you if you want people to like you, just be yourself. Unfortunately, this won't work very well if you're an asshole.
So, now it's your turn. Tell me what you have learned...along the way..
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Who Wants to Live Forever?
There's no time for us.
There's no place for us.
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us?
Who wants to live forever...when love must die?
- Brian May
As a child, like most children, I had my fascinations. History, society, technology and the future were the topics that most occupied my young mind. You see, for as far back as I can remember, I have felt like a man out of time. I have never felt that I fully belonged in this time in Human history. If you ever read a story or watched a Twilight Zone episode that involved someone who was suddenly displaced in time, that is how it feels to be me. I know. I'm frigging weird. I've learned to live with it.
I have always imagined what it would be like to go back to various points in history and see, firsthand, what it was like to live through those times. I have also wondered what it would be like if I could go far into the future and see how things turn out for us. This last musing naturally led to thoughts of immortality. What would it be like to live forever? To be able to watch it all unfold, see how (or, perhaps more appropriately, if ) we made it in one piece. Will we survive ourselves? As I have grown older, I have not lost my fascination with history or society. I have found, however, that my fantasy about living forever has waned. Understand, I'm not talking about eternal life in Heaven or Hell, nor am I talking about the eternal life in a Paradise here on Earth, like the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in. I'm talking specifically about the idea of living forever in the world as it is and as it shall become.
With the passage of years, two things have happened that have put me off the idea of being immortal. First, after much observation and contemplation, it has become clear to me that our world will likely never see an era of marked improvement. This planet won't get any cleaner. It is not one of our goals to reduce pollution. The damage we are doing to our planet will never diminish, mainly because not enough of us are at all concerned about the environment we create for ourselves and our progeny. Some of us don't even believe that pollution is bad. Many believe that the Earth and the resources upon which we depend are impervious to contamination, damage or destruction and even if they aren't, we are. This is nothing short of stupidity but it is a widespread and proudly held stupidity, therefore it is likely to be a part of our world view until the very end. There are people, many of them in undeserved positions of power, who could sit on a melting block of ice and swear that it is growing instead of shrinking. That they could do so vehemently and with a straight face does not bode well for our future.
From a societal perspective, the future is even more bleak. There will never come a time when the majority of us will be willing to put aside all the differences we create and imagine in order to do what is best for the only race that ultimately matters, the Human race. Humanity is determined to resist the idea that we are all one People and that we need to see ourselves and each other that way in order to ensure our own survival. If survival depends on accepting each other, caring for each other and cooperating with each other, and it does, we would rather welcome our own extinction with open arms than put aside our petty bullshit and save ourselves. Humanity's unparralleled ability to be deliberately obtuse will most definitely be our undoing because, to most of us, this outcome is preferable to exercising the humility necessary to let go of our many excuses for hating anyone who is even slightly different. Over the years, it has become clear to me that I have no desire to see how this ends, any more than I would want to watch a schoolbus full of first-graders hurtling over the side of the Grand Canyon. I know how that will end. There is no reason to watch it.
The other thing that has quelled my desire for immortality is a little more personal. Over the course of my life, I have been forced to bury nearly every person I have ever loved. At this point, all that remain are Anita, my kids and a handful of half and step-siblings. I am already tired of saying goodbye, even as I know that I have more farewells left to say before my time is done. To have this continue for generations, centuries, millenia, while I lived on and on, is an experience I have decided I can live without. The Human heart, at least on a personal level, seems to have an unlimited capacity, as well as a pressing need, to love. When all of your loved ones have died, it would only be a matter of time before your heart led you to open up and love again, only to lose them, too. I don't know how much of that a person could take before they went mad but I have no desire to be the test subject.
So, those are my reasons for not being in a hurry to achieve immortality. What about you? Would you be interested in the oppportunity to live forever? Why? Why not?
Let me know first, then you can call the nice men with the white coats and the neat little van to take me away...
There's no place for us.
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us?
Who wants to live forever...when love must die?
- Brian May
As a child, like most children, I had my fascinations. History, society, technology and the future were the topics that most occupied my young mind. You see, for as far back as I can remember, I have felt like a man out of time. I have never felt that I fully belonged in this time in Human history. If you ever read a story or watched a Twilight Zone episode that involved someone who was suddenly displaced in time, that is how it feels to be me. I know. I'm frigging weird. I've learned to live with it.
I have always imagined what it would be like to go back to various points in history and see, firsthand, what it was like to live through those times. I have also wondered what it would be like if I could go far into the future and see how things turn out for us. This last musing naturally led to thoughts of immortality. What would it be like to live forever? To be able to watch it all unfold, see how (or, perhaps more appropriately, if ) we made it in one piece. Will we survive ourselves? As I have grown older, I have not lost my fascination with history or society. I have found, however, that my fantasy about living forever has waned. Understand, I'm not talking about eternal life in Heaven or Hell, nor am I talking about the eternal life in a Paradise here on Earth, like the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in. I'm talking specifically about the idea of living forever in the world as it is and as it shall become.
With the passage of years, two things have happened that have put me off the idea of being immortal. First, after much observation and contemplation, it has become clear to me that our world will likely never see an era of marked improvement. This planet won't get any cleaner. It is not one of our goals to reduce pollution. The damage we are doing to our planet will never diminish, mainly because not enough of us are at all concerned about the environment we create for ourselves and our progeny. Some of us don't even believe that pollution is bad. Many believe that the Earth and the resources upon which we depend are impervious to contamination, damage or destruction and even if they aren't, we are. This is nothing short of stupidity but it is a widespread and proudly held stupidity, therefore it is likely to be a part of our world view until the very end. There are people, many of them in undeserved positions of power, who could sit on a melting block of ice and swear that it is growing instead of shrinking. That they could do so vehemently and with a straight face does not bode well for our future.
From a societal perspective, the future is even more bleak. There will never come a time when the majority of us will be willing to put aside all the differences we create and imagine in order to do what is best for the only race that ultimately matters, the Human race. Humanity is determined to resist the idea that we are all one People and that we need to see ourselves and each other that way in order to ensure our own survival. If survival depends on accepting each other, caring for each other and cooperating with each other, and it does, we would rather welcome our own extinction with open arms than put aside our petty bullshit and save ourselves. Humanity's unparralleled ability to be deliberately obtuse will most definitely be our undoing because, to most of us, this outcome is preferable to exercising the humility necessary to let go of our many excuses for hating anyone who is even slightly different. Over the years, it has become clear to me that I have no desire to see how this ends, any more than I would want to watch a schoolbus full of first-graders hurtling over the side of the Grand Canyon. I know how that will end. There is no reason to watch it.
The other thing that has quelled my desire for immortality is a little more personal. Over the course of my life, I have been forced to bury nearly every person I have ever loved. At this point, all that remain are Anita, my kids and a handful of half and step-siblings. I am already tired of saying goodbye, even as I know that I have more farewells left to say before my time is done. To have this continue for generations, centuries, millenia, while I lived on and on, is an experience I have decided I can live without. The Human heart, at least on a personal level, seems to have an unlimited capacity, as well as a pressing need, to love. When all of your loved ones have died, it would only be a matter of time before your heart led you to open up and love again, only to lose them, too. I don't know how much of that a person could take before they went mad but I have no desire to be the test subject.
So, those are my reasons for not being in a hurry to achieve immortality. What about you? Would you be interested in the oppportunity to live forever? Why? Why not?
Let me know first, then you can call the nice men with the white coats and the neat little van to take me away...
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