That which the traveler in his journey experiences will eventually shape his identity. So, here are the events as they unfold ....... © copyright by firstcomet
--Stanton Kirkham Dave
I recently set up a donation box in the main lobby of my dormitory to collect warm winter clothes for a local shelter. Today I saw my roommate donating a bag full of sweaters and shirt. The first think came to my mind was he’s getting rid of his old clothing. This thought was further reinforced with a piece of memory I had from his early Fall shopping spree. But, soon I realized I was labeling his actions as less than a noble act by attaching alternative motives to his maybe “wholly generous action”. Yes, I have become a cynic and I can’t find a way to escape from it! Why do I question people’s motive, and why do I give a higher weight to the less noble one? From a pragmatic point of view what difference it makes what the person’s motive is; all I’m doing is finding a match between a public need and individual’s desire to give away or to donate their belongings. There is no value judgment involved here!
Yesterday is Already a Dream and Tomorrow But a Vision, But Today Well Lived Makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness and Every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope!
We can't learn everything at once. We can't do everything at once. We can neither learn nor do effectively without thinking about what we've done. So pick a goal that presents itself and try to meet it. When you have, stop and rest. Think about what you have done and see what you've learned from it. Then, after your mind is calm and thoughtful, go after another goal. And again. And again. And again
This is a new topic that touches a very deep behavioral trait of those grew up under rigid educational or parenting systems. In particular, the more of a conformist an individual in such systems is the more stress he/she will face.
One definition of stress is the amount of energy one spends staying in an uncomfortable situation. In this sense the pain caused by physical exercise is a stressor, and the heavier your bench-press weights are the higher the stress.
The problem with growing up in rigid systems is that the individual has to constantly flight against his/her natural impulses. Ironically, the smarter you are and thus the better your performance record within the system, the more expectations are placed on you to conform to the norms. Therefore, the more constrained and stressful your life becomes. Eventually, you become your own worst critic and in a constant state of worry about how others might react to your actions.
How much you’ll miss out by not exploring the boundaries of your perception of properness?
"My only pleasure is to sit on a curbstone and watch the sky for an occasional bird flying south for the winter. I am not used to being so very much alone, and I can think of a few sweet faces with whom I wouldn't mind sharing my pillow when the hour for sleep comes around.... I'm listless, uneasy, dissatisfied, bored and fed up. I suffer from status insecurity, incipient mononucleosis, and sexual privation. I'm the little man looking around for some totalitarian movement I can join." –Stanley Milgram
The rain drops dissolving the ice cubes of longing
And the orange colored mangos dropping
In a sudden season of maturation!
… that the brain needs to categorize. And yet, imagination stems from the ability to break this categorization, to see things not for what one thinks they are, but for what they might be!
1) Perception->Categories->bombard with new experience
2) Fear response->stress, group-think, reframing events
3) Social intelligence-> familiarity and reputation, iconoclasts need connectors, butterflies do not change the ecosystem of the jungle ... trees do.
Just as my toast popped out
out of mind, my ego unwittingly dropped out
I bended over to pick up the junk
Just to put it back where it belonged
But then I saw two mice
Pulling it on opposite sides
So, I reached to my plate
And picked the only slice of bread
Split into half; one for Tom the other to Ed
Then, they both fled
And so I was left,
With the insipid ego instead!
The oaks, maples, birches, and black gums are all on full blaze and the squalling firemen are close by. Soon the foliage will be gone and the acetone adulterated fall rain will wash away all these dazzle of the scenic roads of this great state.
I thought, beyond this point
The road is barricaded, barred
No other eureka, no ecstasy
My share the stillness of a stale yore
Inculcated in the essence of now!
Captured in a force fields
Pushed to the left, then right
Prone and then Supine
Between us an empty space
Empty as the expression on my face
It’s your move I say
It’s your reaction, you may
It’s our interaction, you weigh
I nod, then wonder
Which force caused this, I ponder
Reflecting upon your face
And the certitude of your faith
And the strength in your voice
I wonder if I had any choice …
Hands to the left, hands to the right,
You wave at me good night!
Out in the open I see
The twinkling starts to be
Pulled to the left, then to right
via an incredible cosmic might
Austere but urged is the world
And thus it’s constantly twirled
Days after days,
Years after years,
Or so it appears!
The western rationale has stripped us from our value system and has not yet provided us with a substitute that runs or can potentially grow as deep within our psych; the only exception being science which provided us with a slow and tortuous road towards our fundamental quests (unfortunate is our dependence on our only source of inspiration to pay for our grocery bills). Materialism and sensualism has been offered as alternatives, but fall short in the grand meaning-ometer scale, in addition to being a game biased to the advantage of the westerners. There still remains those moments of emotional outbursts to fill the vacuum receptacle of our souls. So, we remain nostalgic and unsatisfied with the knowledge that the roads to past is not retraceable and the road ahead is covered by an impenetrable fog.
Do we ask questions to extract meaningful information from others? Not necessarily, sometimes we ask questions to smooth out social contacts by eliminating those awkward moments of silence. To what category the question “Where are you from” belongs to? What kind of information does a person’s nationality covey about him/her? What are the characteristics of a lazy conversationalist? How about the question “Tell me about your background”? It sounds more intimate and an answer to this question tends to be more informative.