Did you ever think about why your life is the way it is? Before I get into this, read the following sentence and count the number of times the letter f appears.
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC
STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS
How many did you count? Three? Would you be surprised to learn that there are actually six f's in that statement? How many times did you see the word 'of'? It's so simple, that our brain sometimes ignores the obvious even though it might be right in front of us.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
--Aldous Huxley
Let me give you something else to think on. Consider the following social experience.
Start with a cage containing five monkeys.
Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.
After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.
Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.
After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.
Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.
Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.
After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done round here.
So what does bananas and monkeys or counting f's have to do with invisible boundaries? The point is we see what we want to see. We do what we want to do as long as it is accepted among those around us. But is the world that we have around us reality, or is it just the boundaries we constructed to make us comfortable? Did the replaced monkeys ever feel the cold water? No. But they did feel the attacks and learned what not to do. There is an English proverb that says One who makes no mistakes, never makes anything.
Meanwhile, there are opportunities all around us every day to change our lives. Some may be attractive, some not. Just as when we don't see the 'of' because it is so simple, many times others have to point out the obvious before it registers with our brain.
Now, let me add another level of complexity to the situation. Everyone understands what 2 dimensional means such as a piece of paper - length times width, but no depth. 3 dimensional adds depth such as a box or a cube so that something can be stored inside it. The fourth dimension is usually referred to as time. For example, a person can occupy the same space that another person did earlier, such as in a bathroom. For many reasons, it's not a good idea to share the same space at the same time!
So where am I going with all of this? What if you had a chance to meet yourself 30 years from now? What do you think 'your older self' would tell you to do now? Do you think your older self would tell you take more risks or play things more cautiously?
The answer to this really depends on the choices your have made with your life to date. Have you made horrible decisions in the past that carry consequences you are dealing with? Or, have you played it safe and are stuck with your life being boring and uneventful?
Earlier today I was driving to an event with some friends. We were talking about the location of our destination. Since I was driving, I was familiar with one way to go. My friends knew the area better and suggested an alternate route. Let's say it took the same time to get to the destination. Which way was better? Was it the way I had gone hundreds of times or the new way? Was there something wrong with the new way? No.
It's just because I was comfortable with what I knew. Habits are familiar. Our lives are probably comfortable because we are used to our surroundings. But are those lives truly fulfilled? Is living a fulfilled life even a possibility?
Now that we have a new president-elect of Barack Obama, many think that he can bring change. Obviously, this is why he was elected. But I will challenge you this - name one example of just one person you know that their life was made significantly better by a decision made by the government. I would be greatly shocked if there is one.
All the time we wait for someone else to act. It's easy to blame our misfortunes on the economy or the government or the current target of society's persecution. What about us? Don't we make the decisions that direct our lives? Aren't we driving the car of our own life?
As I have described my motto in this blog many times, here it is one more time.
Information is not knowledge without action!
Knowledge creates choices
Choices allow us to change our lives
As always, the choice is yours! Choose your own path wisely.
When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with humility comes wisdom.
The integrity of the upright guides them,
but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.
Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath,
but righteousness delivers from death.
The righteousness of the blameless makes a straight way for them,
but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness. Proverbs 11:2-5 (NIV)
If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at the address below.
Email: DeltaInspire@panama-vo.com
4 comments:
Usage if proverbs..makes english sound more sweet & valuable then before....here i got to know some good tips on the proper use of proverbs...www.englishproverbs.net
do read it
"But I will challenge you this - name one example of just one person you know that their life was made significantly better by a decision made by the government. I would be greatly shocked if there is one."
How about the decision by our government, which is made every single day, to not launch a nuclear strike against Russia?
What about the decision to pull out of Vietnam? Was the ending of more senseless troop deaths there not a significant improvement in their lives?
What about the government's decision to clean up massively polluted waterways and the passage of laws of curb more pollution?
What about taxes to pay for police officers and fire departments?
What about disabled handicapped folks who can't work yet can get heathcare through Medicaide?
What about workplace safety laws?
What about child labor laws?
What about anti-monopolistic laws?
What about anti-trust laws?
What about the Bill of Rights?
How about anti-discrimination laws?
My guess is you didn't quite fully think through your contention first; which is OK, because everyone does that from time to time.
As countless lives have been significantly helped by government decisions there are also certainly countless harms perpetrated as well.
As citizens we must always keep a vigilant eye towards watching those in positions of power and authority and doing what we can to stop what we see as abuses of power or unjustified intrusionary influences in our lives.
Government will only be able to do what we allow them to do. If they are guilty of horrendous acts against us or others it is our duty to speak and act to try to stop the abuses.
Governmental decisions and actions can be unconscionable or beneficiant or anywhere inbetween. It is up to the citizens to watch them like hawks and take action when neccessary.
As they are currently scrambling to halt the destruction of our economy we must remember that it is they who were entrusted to never let such a possibility happen in the first place; and they blew it. For countless years they have been owned by the banking industry and international corporations. The little guy, who they are supposed to serve, is rarely served.
It seems that only when they are caught serving injustice do they try to save face with short lived placating changes. When the coast is clear they will sneak new laws back in to assist the already rich and powerful. They will start new wars and kill thousands or millions to aquire whatever they deem to be in the national need.
In the meantime they have also helped save lives through momentary bouts of sanity.
BTW, I really thought your story of the monkey cage was quite illuminating. We are probably all conditioned to greater or lesser extents in the same manner regarding what we allow ourselves to think and consider about any and every subject, most folks without having any clue that they are so encumbered.
Attempted brainwashing is everywhere. We are most all victims and we are most all perpetrators. Most Humans seem to have the need to be right and will defend those positions even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
There is information, misinformation, and disinformation.
What still shocks me is the amount of purposeful deceit and disinformation found almost everywhere. This planet is truly a maze of incomprehensible complexity.
To Evergreen 433: You make excellent points and I commend you for them. As always, there is the glass half-empty and half-full analogies. I'm guilty of just looking at the waste of government, the grandstanding and hot air that proceeds from the mouths of politicians with little action.
Well said and I stand corrected!
Delta Inspire
Thank you Delta.
I too generally rail at the workings and machinations of our federal, state, and even local governments. I'll admit that the past few years have been very... shall I say...challenging, to my personal mental health. I believe there has been a true usurpation of our constitution in numerous ways.
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