So... today, is "Thanksgiving". A holiday based off of one single paragraph in history. I don't care, if it's true or not. One single paragraph in history is about as much evidence as we have for Jesus.
Normally, I discuss the facts, and then, propose a question, and state my argument for why what is considered "socially acceptable", "normal", is really not at all about morality. But today, I'm just going to talk about Thanksgiving and our families.
I have many friends who go home to a family, whom they don't get along with. But today, they, and all of us, should forget it. According to this paragraph in history, the natives shared their harvest with the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Now, it's true, that the Europeans had rather imposed upon the natives. They hunted their food, manipulated the land, they brought disease that these people had no immunities to.
But for some reason, on this day, the natives saw the Pilgrims suffering, through what "wrongs" they may have done. They recognized even these trespassers were human beings. Human beings who, in spite of their convictions, beliefs, and differences, could still starve; that they wanted to live.
Today is about "doing unto others as you would have done unto yourself." So, to everyone out there, who may go home to a family that you don't always agree with, or may not even like... over come your feelings, and see that still, there is a human being under there. You're all only here to do one thing; eat together- a metaphor for sharing life with one another.
So, even if it's just for today, let it go. Just be with your family, and don't worry about any reason they may give you to have conflict. All you're here for, is to eat together... nothing to argue about. It's just one day to set aside what you want, and share what you have- yourself, no matter how they perceive you.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Be Still
Destiny is not a preset determination, but ultimately is the choice every human being makes, by choosing to suffer or choosing to love, even those that make the chaos within generate hate.
Things you don't want to hear: issue #1
http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-facebook-induced-asthma-attacks-20101118,0,3964165.story
A kid gets dumped by a girl. His heart is broken. What does he do? Create a false identity on FaceBook and digitally stalk her, intentionally exposing himself to the fact that this girl is over him and has other possible suitors. Eventually, he has an athsma attack because of the stress (that he was putting himself under on purpose). Where were his parents when he was involving himself in this self-destructive behavior? And why the *hell* is everyone blaming the inanimate object that is FB, rather than putting this boy in therapy where he belongs?
The more I pay attention to the news, the more I feel like the host of an old school documentary, featuring a tribe of natives standing on a Volcano, about to sacrifice a virgin, screaming, "Bad juju made it happen! Sacrifice the virgin!"
Yes, society. Let's make it more ok for parents to not take responsibility for the behavior of their child, and lets make absolutely sure that we teach the children that they are absolutely not responsible for their actions in any way.
If it sounds like it's absolutely screwed up, that's because IT IS. A wise friend once said, "Throwing your kid into the pool doesn't teach them how to swim, it's an excuse not to have to nurture or encourage your child." Getting rid of Facebook, or the internet, or TV, isn't going to make your kid not have self-destructive behavioral patterns. You just don't want to pay to take your kid to therapy or have to put in the effort to teach him not to deliberately engage in things that irritate his condition.
The truth is, it's YOUR fault. It's our fault. It's his fault. And no matter how hard you believe that throwing a virgin into the volcano is going to solve these issues, it won't. Do something. Sit down with your children, teach them to respect themselves, and if they fight you too much, leave them in the woods like animals do with their defective babies, because if your child can't adapt or learn not to run into a bear cave, then he was probably meant to be eaten alive; that's a direct quote from Darwin (not really).
Though, I have to admit, if you leave them in the woods just once, they'll usually change their tune.
A kid gets dumped by a girl. His heart is broken. What does he do? Create a false identity on FaceBook and digitally stalk her, intentionally exposing himself to the fact that this girl is over him and has other possible suitors. Eventually, he has an athsma attack because of the stress (that he was putting himself under on purpose). Where were his parents when he was involving himself in this self-destructive behavior? And why the *hell* is everyone blaming the inanimate object that is FB, rather than putting this boy in therapy where he belongs?
The more I pay attention to the news, the more I feel like the host of an old school documentary, featuring a tribe of natives standing on a Volcano, about to sacrifice a virgin, screaming, "Bad juju made it happen! Sacrifice the virgin!"
Yes, society. Let's make it more ok for parents to not take responsibility for the behavior of their child, and lets make absolutely sure that we teach the children that they are absolutely not responsible for their actions in any way.
If it sounds like it's absolutely screwed up, that's because IT IS. A wise friend once said, "Throwing your kid into the pool doesn't teach them how to swim, it's an excuse not to have to nurture or encourage your child." Getting rid of Facebook, or the internet, or TV, isn't going to make your kid not have self-destructive behavioral patterns. You just don't want to pay to take your kid to therapy or have to put in the effort to teach him not to deliberately engage in things that irritate his condition.
The truth is, it's YOUR fault. It's our fault. It's his fault. And no matter how hard you believe that throwing a virgin into the volcano is going to solve these issues, it won't. Do something. Sit down with your children, teach them to respect themselves, and if they fight you too much, leave them in the woods like animals do with their defective babies, because if your child can't adapt or learn not to run into a bear cave, then he was probably meant to be eaten alive; that's a direct quote from Darwin (not really).
Though, I have to admit, if you leave them in the woods just once, they'll usually change their tune.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The Girl I Love
Today you fly across the country. Today you take the steps to chase after something. To pursue a happiness you do not believe you can have where you are.
When you told me, I said that everything you needed was inside of you, that we make our happiness. It seems like I don't understand what you feel, but believe me when I say that nobody knows more about the suffering in your heart than me, and none on Earth could possibly ail to remedy your pain so badly as myself.
Nothing can make you stay. You were already gone the day you made that choice.
So I simply want an opportunity to say that you taught me more about love than anybody to have loved me- because you taught me without loving me. You set me on fire, and I never burned out.
That love is not an emotion, but an action based on an emotion we cannot possibly put into words. When you made it clear that me suffering over you not loving me, was making you suffer, I had to learn to put it aside. To just love you and keep loving you, and show you that I love you, no matter what man came into your life and left you. That, to love you, I never needed anything from you- that all I needed, was to do; was to simply go ahead and love you, and let go of my standards of what love had to be.
I never kissed you, I never held your hand, I never hugged you, but every time we spoke... every time we laughed, cried, smiled, or hurt each other, was a life time of happiness in a moment. Every day with you was as if I had met you, grown old with you, and died with you, and that I would do it again tomorrow, and the day after, until time stopped.
I hope you find what you are looking for. I hope he's the one for you. But most of all, I just hope that you are happy.
I will love you until the day I perish, and every life after.
When you told me, I said that everything you needed was inside of you, that we make our happiness. It seems like I don't understand what you feel, but believe me when I say that nobody knows more about the suffering in your heart than me, and none on Earth could possibly ail to remedy your pain so badly as myself.
Nothing can make you stay. You were already gone the day you made that choice.
So I simply want an opportunity to say that you taught me more about love than anybody to have loved me- because you taught me without loving me. You set me on fire, and I never burned out.
That love is not an emotion, but an action based on an emotion we cannot possibly put into words. When you made it clear that me suffering over you not loving me, was making you suffer, I had to learn to put it aside. To just love you and keep loving you, and show you that I love you, no matter what man came into your life and left you. That, to love you, I never needed anything from you- that all I needed, was to do; was to simply go ahead and love you, and let go of my standards of what love had to be.
I never kissed you, I never held your hand, I never hugged you, but every time we spoke... every time we laughed, cried, smiled, or hurt each other, was a life time of happiness in a moment. Every day with you was as if I had met you, grown old with you, and died with you, and that I would do it again tomorrow, and the day after, until time stopped.
I hope you find what you are looking for. I hope he's the one for you. But most of all, I just hope that you are happy.
I will love you until the day I perish, and every life after.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
On Yaweh and Judaism
"
"This is such a weird subject. It seems to me like they didn't really become so monotheistic (so easily).
There's references to Yaweh being a dragon floating around in many theories, and the whole story of Yaweh v Leviathan really sounds more to me, like power usurping within heaven, that Yaweh defeating Leviathan made it his kingdom, as the titans overthrew the powers, and the Gods overthrew the titans; a very popular part of semi-monotheism(?) back that long ago- basically every religion from back then, had a story about the main power being overcome by it's "child" (so to speak). But Yaweh is more benevolent than the other "dragon gods" (the story feels more like Prometheus than some others), so the reason that this transition is defining a new religion, is because your culture only transitions Gods, when the old Gods are no longer convenient. If the world is a lot more violent and scary, you don't blame it on the culture of humanity, you blame it on the Gods turning their back on you, so you elect a new God to over-throw it, and in exchange for your worship, he'll keep you safer, make you stronger, give you more wisdom...
There were a lot of kind of... sectoral groups in ancient religions; where say, in Greek mythos, they will acknowledge and respect all the Gods, but there may be just one of those Gods whom they believe is at the pinnacle of their local culture. Groups who are devoted TO Athena, TO Zeus, TO Ares, etc. So it was, to a degree, something 'kind of' monotheistic. (So it goes to say, that with time and sectoral cultivation, other ancient polytheistic religions could have produced a monotheistic religion.)
It doesn't make any sense for the transition between poly and monotheism to be so sharp, or else it would have occurred in a lot more places than to just... this one culture (and several thousand years later, a few others). I've even felt swept by the nature of a dragon of order defeating a dragon of chaos, how it 'creates', and how that parallels a lot of what was coming out of Asian culture at the time, too. Not to mention Sumerian culture! It's something developed over long periods of time by gradual, deeper cultural cultivation and separation.
Yaweh's transition is from the usurper in the name of good, to dragon slayer, to God of the people, is just a matter of time, not unlike the evolutionary path of many other religious views."
"This is such a weird subject. It seems to me like they didn't really become so monotheistic (so easily).
There's references to Yaweh being a dragon floating around in many theories, and the whole story of Yaweh v Leviathan really sounds more to me, like power usurping within heaven, that Yaweh defeating Leviathan made it his kingdom, as the titans overthrew the powers, and the Gods overthrew the titans; a very popular part of semi-monotheism(?) back that long ago- basically every religion from back then, had a story about the main power being overcome by it's "child" (so to speak). But Yaweh is more benevolent than the other "dragon gods" (the story feels more like Prometheus than some others), so the reason that this transition is defining a new religion, is because your culture only transitions Gods, when the old Gods are no longer convenient. If the world is a lot more violent and scary, you don't blame it on the culture of humanity, you blame it on the Gods turning their back on you, so you elect a new God to over-throw it, and in exchange for your worship, he'll keep you safer, make you stronger, give you more wisdom...
There were a lot of kind of... sectoral groups in ancient religions; where say, in Greek mythos, they will acknowledge and respect all the Gods, but there may be just one of those Gods whom they believe is at the pinnacle of their local culture. Groups who are devoted TO Athena, TO Zeus, TO Ares, etc. So it was, to a degree, something 'kind of' monotheistic. (So it goes to say, that with time and sectoral cultivation, other ancient polytheistic religions could have produced a monotheistic religion.)
It doesn't make any sense for the transition between poly and monotheism to be so sharp, or else it would have occurred in a lot more places than to just... this one culture (and several thousand years later, a few others). I've even felt swept by the nature of a dragon of order defeating a dragon of chaos, how it 'creates', and how that parallels a lot of what was coming out of Asian culture at the time, too. Not to mention Sumerian culture! It's something developed over long periods of time by gradual, deeper cultural cultivation and separation.
Yaweh's transition is from the usurper in the name of good, to dragon slayer, to God of the people, is just a matter of time, not unlike the evolutionary path of many other religious views."
Monday, November 15, 2010
Love
Life is a cup. Apathy is emptiness, and love is when the cup is full. To keep the cup full, we have to be willing to sip sparingly, and work not to spill it, and to pay to keep it full.
If we aren't willing to take the responsibility to keep it full, we don't deserve it.
So, don't let her forget that you love her. Show her that she is more to you now than she was, even when it first began.
Because now, she has had your time.
She has... shared your time...
She filled your cup.
If we aren't willing to take the responsibility to keep it full, we don't deserve it.
So, don't let her forget that you love her. Show her that she is more to you now than she was, even when it first began.
Because now, she has had your time.
She has... shared your time...
She filled your cup.
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