An Escape Route
There are many things that scare me about life.
I was searching around on you tube a little while ago looking at random videos as I do when I'm bored and ended up coming across this. (I would recommend anyone planning to read further watch this video or the rest of this post will probably seem somewhat thesisless) Now, regardless of the authenticity of the woman in question, there is no negating the authenticity of the topic and it's relation to human beings in general. Likewise, in relation to other emotions, there is no denying the scope of inquiry as to the effect we allow them to have on us, be it hate, lust, empathy, remorse, boredom or whatever you want to pull out of the hat.
The internet is a unprecedented tool, which obviously for better and worse, has the ability to connect people with one another. Considering this, and the things I've seen and read here (and the people I've met over the past 5 years) I've been wondering to what end the human psyc can reach, if indeed there is such a thing as an end or a human psyc for that matter. Afterall, most action and reaction in this world is caused by it.
Which brings one to the question of what exactly emotion is and what drives it. Chemical reactions in the brain and the body? Or something more, something infinitely more spiritual. Or then again maybe a mixture of both? Because when you think about it, while chemical reactions are responsible for thoughts and feelings, neither the latter or the former are physical manifestations in themselves and it begs the chicken and the egg question as to where chemical reactions come from in the first place.
I bring all of this up because I've been thinking lately about a couple things. First, I've been considering the different ways one can succeed or fail in life due to external influence of the Systems Theory on the emotional spectrum. Of course such words as "succeed" and "fail" are entirely dependant upon the individual undertaking them in their own lexicon, but I would still argue everyone has boundaries which if passed or not reached define those words. Secondly, I've been considering the extremes such emotion entails and what a massive pool that would make up if it could be manifested into a physically observable thing. If you can for a moment, if you're lucky enough, think of a memory you share with someone who meant a lot to you and way you felt when in their presence (the fading of the external world into none existence). Now imagine that a billion times greater and combine it up into little pill someone could swallow to make them feel whole and imagine the absolute euphoria that would follow./ Next however, imagine a violent moment or physical confrontation you've also been in where pain was fully present. Then imagine all of the murders, all of the rapes, all the torture, all of the beatings going on right now, and then consider the affect it has on each and every victim and their families, and then imagine all of that loss thrust like a knife into your gut and the resulting agony that would exist in one person if they ever were forced to bare it all./Next, imagine or remember a time where you had to degrade yourself in order to make ends meet (bill payments anyone?) There is a scene in Cinderella Man where Russel Crow's character, after his wife has to take their children to their grandparents so they don't freeze and starve to death, is forced to go to social assistance and then to his old boxing collegues in Madison Sqaure Garden and beg for enough change to pay his electricity and heating bills. He walks around to each person in the room in a state of what a description of complete uselessness would fail miserably to describe./ I think as human beings we can get so deep in these things, whatever extreme they may be, and then not know how to handle it. Fear, ladies and gents- it's a lack of control.
I fear dying alone. I fear living alone. I fear failing to help those that matter most to me. I fear my myself. I fear not being able to be an honest human being. I fear what the future is going to bring to society. I fear inadequecy. I fear fear itself. I fear failing to help those I don't know because I know everyone is the same when it comes to the basics. The latter and the third to me most of all represent failing on a human level and are consequently the most important to me. I fear them as failure because they're not necessarily problems that can be fixed easily. You can't look into a book and say "ahhh, yes, that's what I was doing wrong and here is the action needed to rectify that. God bless Newton".
That's most certainly not to say applied science and math can not be applied to socio-personal, economic or political problems (for every reaction there is and equal and opposite reaction, duh) but human minds are not books. They can't be opened and examined and then be proclaimed understood. There is too much information that is constantly being changed due to billions and trillions of external and internal stimuli smattering together and bouncing off each other like atoms in the sun.
I don't consider all of this with an intent to confuse or depress anyone, but more for the opposite effect- not to explain the unexplainable, but simply to justify it.
Never forget that perfection's only imperfection is itself; because it, like the universe, will forever be expanding. Maybe if we actually bothered to sit down for a second we might realize that imperfection is perfection in the sense that you've already reached your destination. Maybe then we'd all stop weighing ourselves down and be content for once by enjoying what's here instead of wondering about what's not. That's not to say wondering doesn't drive people to do good things, it drives us to do great things; but destroying yourself by guilt or self pity is just as inhibitive as ignorance itself. As human beings we don't work in spite of struggle, we work because of it. The whole of human history has been filled with evolution specifically because we were forced to deal with problems which were both external and internal.
"not all those who wonder are lost."
I like that saying. Not sure who came up with it but I like to think that it can have a twofold meaning. On one side I like to think it means purpose has the ability to exist without the individual possessing it even realizing what it is and that no matter how blind someone is as to their destination, there is still that indestructible thing embedded inside our heads called hope which keeps us walking. On the other hand I also like to think that in relation to the above paragraph, it means time is necessary for us to figure out that despite the external elements influencing our thoughts, purpose can be chosen by us . We choose to see what external factors influence our thoughts and actions just like we choose to see the half empty or half full...actually, for the sake of not sounding cliched I'm not going to finish that sentence. You know where I was going with it. I guess it's kind of a free will if you want it type thing.
What is failure or success? I think more importantly to be asked is what it is you can learn from those two whatever their meaning may be to you when they occur. I don't fear mistakes, they are and will remain as constant as breath itself; I fear not learning from them. That to me is failure. Of course that's not a new concept but it never hurts to remind oneself.
There are many things that scare me about life, but conversely, those are also the things that I also simultaneously love about it- I love being given the chance to learn. I'd choose to be overtaken any day by an interesting, if at certain points painful life, than an uneventful one. Because regardless of how I'm able to impact different problems, the way I react and don't react to them in the first place defines whether I fail or succeed.
What about you?
----------------------------------------
Edit- And it appears that over the course of the 12 days it took me to write this the user who posted the video I had linked at the top decided to remove her video and thus about 40 percent of this entry has now lost its meaning. Actually I shouldn't say meaning but more its emotional lace. The girl was around 22 and was posting about human beings and our willingness to pervert ourselves and do ridiculas things in order to fufill our needs of being loved by others. She talked about her now former boy friend asking her, in the past, to admit to a hit and run he did while drunk, and long story short, she ending up doing jail time while her ex was running around with other women. The topic from there just moved on to commonality of needs and a consequent inability to deal with the consquences of fufilling those needs and it just got me thinking about life in general.
If the video gets put back I'll up throw a fresh link up later.
I was searching around on you tube a little while ago looking at random videos as I do when I'm bored and ended up coming across this. (I would recommend anyone planning to read further watch this video or the rest of this post will probably seem somewhat thesisless) Now, regardless of the authenticity of the woman in question, there is no negating the authenticity of the topic and it's relation to human beings in general. Likewise, in relation to other emotions, there is no denying the scope of inquiry as to the effect we allow them to have on us, be it hate, lust, empathy, remorse, boredom or whatever you want to pull out of the hat.
The internet is a unprecedented tool, which obviously for better and worse, has the ability to connect people with one another. Considering this, and the things I've seen and read here (and the people I've met over the past 5 years) I've been wondering to what end the human psyc can reach, if indeed there is such a thing as an end or a human psyc for that matter. Afterall, most action and reaction in this world is caused by it.
Which brings one to the question of what exactly emotion is and what drives it. Chemical reactions in the brain and the body? Or something more, something infinitely more spiritual. Or then again maybe a mixture of both? Because when you think about it, while chemical reactions are responsible for thoughts and feelings, neither the latter or the former are physical manifestations in themselves and it begs the chicken and the egg question as to where chemical reactions come from in the first place.
I bring all of this up because I've been thinking lately about a couple things. First, I've been considering the different ways one can succeed or fail in life due to external influence of the Systems Theory on the emotional spectrum. Of course such words as "succeed" and "fail" are entirely dependant upon the individual undertaking them in their own lexicon, but I would still argue everyone has boundaries which if passed or not reached define those words. Secondly, I've been considering the extremes such emotion entails and what a massive pool that would make up if it could be manifested into a physically observable thing. If you can for a moment, if you're lucky enough, think of a memory you share with someone who meant a lot to you and way you felt when in their presence (the fading of the external world into none existence). Now imagine that a billion times greater and combine it up into little pill someone could swallow to make them feel whole and imagine the absolute euphoria that would follow./ Next however, imagine a violent moment or physical confrontation you've also been in where pain was fully present. Then imagine all of the murders, all of the rapes, all the torture, all of the beatings going on right now, and then consider the affect it has on each and every victim and their families, and then imagine all of that loss thrust like a knife into your gut and the resulting agony that would exist in one person if they ever were forced to bare it all./Next, imagine or remember a time where you had to degrade yourself in order to make ends meet (bill payments anyone?) There is a scene in Cinderella Man where Russel Crow's character, after his wife has to take their children to their grandparents so they don't freeze and starve to death, is forced to go to social assistance and then to his old boxing collegues in Madison Sqaure Garden and beg for enough change to pay his electricity and heating bills. He walks around to each person in the room in a state of what a description of complete uselessness would fail miserably to describe./ I think as human beings we can get so deep in these things, whatever extreme they may be, and then not know how to handle it. Fear, ladies and gents- it's a lack of control.
I fear dying alone. I fear living alone. I fear failing to help those that matter most to me. I fear my myself. I fear not being able to be an honest human being. I fear what the future is going to bring to society. I fear inadequecy. I fear fear itself. I fear failing to help those I don't know because I know everyone is the same when it comes to the basics. The latter and the third to me most of all represent failing on a human level and are consequently the most important to me. I fear them as failure because they're not necessarily problems that can be fixed easily. You can't look into a book and say "ahhh, yes, that's what I was doing wrong and here is the action needed to rectify that. God bless Newton".
That's most certainly not to say applied science and math can not be applied to socio-personal, economic or political problems (for every reaction there is and equal and opposite reaction, duh) but human minds are not books. They can't be opened and examined and then be proclaimed understood. There is too much information that is constantly being changed due to billions and trillions of external and internal stimuli smattering together and bouncing off each other like atoms in the sun.
I don't consider all of this with an intent to confuse or depress anyone, but more for the opposite effect- not to explain the unexplainable, but simply to justify it.
Never forget that perfection's only imperfection is itself; because it, like the universe, will forever be expanding. Maybe if we actually bothered to sit down for a second we might realize that imperfection is perfection in the sense that you've already reached your destination. Maybe then we'd all stop weighing ourselves down and be content for once by enjoying what's here instead of wondering about what's not. That's not to say wondering doesn't drive people to do good things, it drives us to do great things; but destroying yourself by guilt or self pity is just as inhibitive as ignorance itself. As human beings we don't work in spite of struggle, we work because of it. The whole of human history has been filled with evolution specifically because we were forced to deal with problems which were both external and internal.
"not all those who wonder are lost."
I like that saying. Not sure who came up with it but I like to think that it can have a twofold meaning. On one side I like to think it means purpose has the ability to exist without the individual possessing it even realizing what it is and that no matter how blind someone is as to their destination, there is still that indestructible thing embedded inside our heads called hope which keeps us walking. On the other hand I also like to think that in relation to the above paragraph, it means time is necessary for us to figure out that despite the external elements influencing our thoughts, purpose can be chosen by us . We choose to see what external factors influence our thoughts and actions just like we choose to see the half empty or half full...actually, for the sake of not sounding cliched I'm not going to finish that sentence. You know where I was going with it. I guess it's kind of a free will if you want it type thing.
What is failure or success? I think more importantly to be asked is what it is you can learn from those two whatever their meaning may be to you when they occur. I don't fear mistakes, they are and will remain as constant as breath itself; I fear not learning from them. That to me is failure. Of course that's not a new concept but it never hurts to remind oneself.
There are many things that scare me about life, but conversely, those are also the things that I also simultaneously love about it- I love being given the chance to learn. I'd choose to be overtaken any day by an interesting, if at certain points painful life, than an uneventful one. Because regardless of how I'm able to impact different problems, the way I react and don't react to them in the first place defines whether I fail or succeed.
What about you?
----------------------------------------
Edit- And it appears that over the course of the 12 days it took me to write this the user who posted the video I had linked at the top decided to remove her video and thus about 40 percent of this entry has now lost its meaning. Actually I shouldn't say meaning but more its emotional lace. The girl was around 22 and was posting about human beings and our willingness to pervert ourselves and do ridiculas things in order to fufill our needs of being loved by others. She talked about her now former boy friend asking her, in the past, to admit to a hit and run he did while drunk, and long story short, she ending up doing jail time while her ex was running around with other women. The topic from there just moved on to commonality of needs and a consequent inability to deal with the consquences of fufilling those needs and it just got me thinking about life in general.
If the video gets put back I'll up throw a fresh link up later.
posted by Daniel_v at 11:33 PM
1 Comments:
Live, love, learn. Any words of advice from me would just seem mundane at this point. But I can tell you've thought a lot about this and, although I admit not reading every last word on your lengthy entry, you make some very interesting arguments. I'll see you tomorrow and we can discuss it further.
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