Our Bizarre Society of Intelligent Animals

 

 Depiction of the Western society vs. Eastern society. Food for thought- especially when you consider pros and cons on each side.

Society completely baffles me.  Sometimes I sit back and just watch the world whir past.  Everyone has something so important to attend to.  People are in such a hurry: they drive like maniacs, knock their shoulders into strangers on the street, and leave themselves an anxious wreck.  I cannot seem to understand how we managed to get ourselves into such a hurry.

But it’s more than that.  We spend an amazing number of hours working (or let me clarify, AT work, not necessarily working) every week, we complain endlessly about our jobs, but yet when we arrive home and find emptiness within ourselves still.

What is missing?  Everyone has a theory, but I personally think the complexity of what is missing is perhaps beyond the current reach of the human imagination.  Sometimes when I am most honest with myself I can feel that what’s missing for me and the answer is somewhat surprising: a deep connection to nature.  It surprises me not because the answer is foreign to me, but because I would not guess that connecting with nature might be the answer to my own hole in my existence.  I do also think that what is missing in society as a whole is much more complex.  It would take 10 human lifetimes to even sort through one of the missing factors.  I believe that doing so would be a monumental waste of time.   As I tend to be a bit more negative about the future of mankind and our society as a whole. I believe we have become so utterly individualistic in nature, that we should continue trying to form bonds because it is gratifying for humans to do so, but also accept the fact that this is our society now.  I also believe that we have destroyed our earth well and truly and probably do not have a hope in the world of helping it recover, especially as human numbers continue to exponentially increase.  

That being said, I still believe that each one of us should do our best to live a meaningful life and search for a feeling of contentedness.  Perhaps this is the best possible means of living out our individual existences.   After all, we are simply extremely intelligent animals who have built this bizarre society for ourselves.  Perhaps the lack of an overarching mastermind was always going to be the demise of such an abnormally intelligent group of animals.  You could write a book about this topic, but for now I will leave it at that.  But I challenge you to challenge my ideas, as always.

Idleness is the Root of Mischief

Idleness is the root of mischief.... ooh that sounds fun!

Have you ever wished that you could quit your job and live a life of leisure?  If you are in the working world, isn't that the most ridiculous question in the world?  Of course you do!! Or do you?

First of all, let me start by saying I am laughing at myself daily on this exact topic.  I just got out of a job that was sometimes very busy and other times quite relaxed.  But I had this job straight out of college for the next 5 years.  That means the last 9 years of my life I have barely had a chance to breathe, let alone stop and think about what I truly want in my heart.  Sure I tried, but man I had things to do, people to see.  When I wanted to go on vacation, I was typically taking the red eye flight to maximize time at my destination and to minimize the amount of days I had to take off of work.  Does this sound familiar?

So now I moved to Australia from the United States.  I am jobless.  I left my job in June 2012.  It was a job I liked, I liked the people, I felt good about my mission and our accomplishments.  I was both happy and sad to leave.  I was excited for the future, but I knew leaving a good job was a huge decision.  Who does that? Especially in this day and age of the economies of the world!  To quickly answer that question, but continue to my point, I had to move because my husband is in Perth, Australia (where I live now) and he has a commitment to his current job. Two years apart is plenty thank you very much.

But my point is now that I am living my own daydream, quite literally, I am driving myself stir crazy searching for a good job: time now.  Literally, I live 5 minutes from the beach, walking distance!  So why am I so desperate to work?  Let's explore this.

I began to think about our Western world and what it means to work.  In this day and age, man or woman, work means our independence, supporting ourselves and our loved ones, and often it is part of our identity. Yes woman too. Plus we are such a materialistic world now.  I want to buck that trend more than anything, but I feel like it is nearly impossible to hide from the reality of the western world while I live in it.  And I do actually quite like the western world, so I suppose I will look for a balance as life goes on.  And I say the western world because Australia and the United States are incredibly similar in many ways- so now I must generalize since I am learning about more of this "western world" first hand.

Now back to materialism.  It is an obsession.  Why is it that we constantly want to move up in the world?  I see many good things in working hard and enjoying the money we earn. But have you ever considered how much you actually enjoy your possessions?  Or if you even have the time to enjoy them if you are working so hard.  I will be the first to admit I am in love with my expensive bikes.  I used to own cheaper bikes and when I could afford to upgrade it actually did make riding more enjoyable.  So fair enough, I am guilty.  But for me, I hope it can stop there.  Does it now? No.  Will it ever?  I hope so!

How did we end up living to work, instead of working to live?  Does it make us that happy that this is an acceptable solution? I think only you can answer that question.  However, I will say that our culture has changed drastically.  Idleness is no longer bliss.  Just ask someone who is retired!  They will tell you how blissful idleness is... That being said, for creative minds, it gives us time to grow.  Oh and did you feel left out when I said that?  You are not.  For we all have a creative side.  My point is, perhaps you love your job, perhaps your family is okay with the amount of time you spend at work, you are a lucky person if so.  But you must carve out time for everything, including, shock and horror, idleness.  It is so good for you!  Yes, I am sure too much can be bad for you.  And idleness walks a thin line with laziness on the other side.  But perhaps we have to tread this line more often in fear of losing our creativity, or worse, the work life balance that is all important.

But I leave you with this important thinking point.  Employers are now offering more time off than in the previous 5 years.  I asked a recruiting company why that was.  They said "because employees demand it."  So perhaps we are heading in the right direction.... can you imagine that?  I thought the media said we are going down the drain in every way possible? :)

Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier.  Simply meant as a reminder of the beauty of nature.  Take a moment today to stop and look around.

Will you forgive my quirks?

"I'm tired of people being ugly to each other." John Coffee, "The Green Mile"- thanks to a friend of mine who posted this on Facebook.  My friend and I were on the same wavelength that day as I was watching some negative, petty things going on between two friends of mine.  Since then, these two friends no longer talk.  What a waste of a friendship.  How sad that we cannot forgive and get past some of each others' quirks.  To me that shows a massive lack of self awareness.  If we expect others to overlook our quirks, how can we refuse to overlook theirs?

What if we could forgive each other and ourselves for being imperfect?  What if instead of responding with negativity to negativity, we responded in a positive, encouraging manner? Can you imagine the surprise and the (more than likely) positive response.  This not only helps the other person involved, but it makes your experience positive as well.

Do you realize the extremely powerful, positive impact you can have on others?

Check this out:

http://on.ted.com/Dudley

The Good Old Days

The good old days never really existed. They were just days, like today.  That's not to say that massive change has not occurred on this planet.  And that is not to say that many of us prefer more open space, less technology, or you fill in the blank.  But, in reality, all of us are going through the same emotions everyday just based on different or sometimes exactly the same struggles.

Be grateful for today.  For your life just the way it is.  Keep your goals, your plans, your hopes, your dreams. But today, be thankful just to be alive.

I recently made a list that I call my "daily reminders" to hang on my bedroom wall.  I see them every morning and every evening.  I do not always read them, but that sheet of paper alone is a reminder of my gratitude.

There are many things you may want to accomplish in this lifetime. And we can all relate to the terrible feeling of disappointment and regret in different areas of our lives when we don't accomplish, or perhaps that feeling of elation when we do accomplish.  When we do have regret, sometimes it is from areas in our lives that we have a desire to change and can actually change, but just don't have the discipline, knowledge, or you fill in the blank to actually take the steps to change.  But regardless of how much sadness, regret, disappointment you feel, there are so many more things to be grateful for.  Tap into those things because it is too easy focus on the negative.

It goes something like this... some are shallow and some are deep, but they are all real and honest:

Daily Reminders

I am so incredibly lucky.

 

I am grateful for…

A loving, supportive husband (and having found a man that is everything I could dream of)

The fact that he puts up with me 

Having Liam and Cooper in my life

An incredible family that never gives up on each other

A goofy, fantastic Kona Bear

My health

My Mother's love

My Father’s strength

My few close friends whom we have each other’s best interest in mind, always.

Many incredible friends all over the world

Finding an incredible coach and mentor

Having found a passion in sport

The massive improvements on my bike

I want to improve…

My patience

My ability to be kind regardless

By losing my desire to “get something out of every situation” especially human relationships—I want to give without wanting back…

My ability to “go with the flow” (smooth out my emotions)

My threshold for patience in the kitchen: spending the time to plan and cook healthy meals

Becoming even more mindful about what I put in my body (and Steve, Liam, and Cooper’s)

My swim (therefore… swimming more often)

My run (therefore learning to suffer more in training and racing…)

What if I embarass myself?

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." -anonymous

Sharing your honest insight on this world is a very difficult thing to do, your deepest thoughts.  I grew up in a household where this was not acceptable.  Why? It was our family's culture and perhaps because it is desirable to hide the negativity that is no doubt lurking.  There is something to be said for quiet suffering and "getting on with it."  You must do this in life, you must learn to do this.  However, there is also something to be said for thinking highly of yourself.  In order to do this, and this is one of the keys to feeling content as often as possible, you must understand that everyone around you is suffering in the same way.  The human experience does not differ as much as you might think.  This is the topic that I want to explore in depth. 

I admire writers of all kinds, especially when they publish honest books about their experience.  It is a very Western ideal to desire the creation in others of envy and jealousy.  Just take a look on Facebook.   This is not necessarily wrong and most of us are guilty of this.  I know I am.  The positive in this is that it can also inspire and encourage hope.  But it does have a destructive power to hurt and lead us all to wonder, "How do they do it? How are they so incredibly happy?"  Let us just go ahead and be honest, no one on this planet has truly sussed out how to be 100% happy all of the time.  So forgive yourself right now for never reaching that goal.

I am creating this blog because I am coming to realize my deeply analytical nature and my desire to share my thoughts with the world.  I struggle continuously with this desire because I also think, "who is actually going to want to read my thoughts?"  But finally today as I search on the internet for other's thoughts on various topics I am personally struggling with at the moment, I realize honesty is the key.  I discovered the beauty and freedom of honesty when I was about 5 years old, funny how it's taken me so many years to get on with the honesty.

One day I would like to write a story or a book.  I would like to share things I have learned in this life to perhaps provide some relief, hope, or simply share suffering and share happiness with others.  If I truly want to realize this dream, I have to practice.  So here it goes.