Civilization & Evolution

Evolution seems like such a strange idea for me, when it comes to humans. 

How and why would civilization begin?

At the same time, how would humans survive without it?

I can understand kings being thought of as gods. Everyone is dying from starvation and freezing cold temperatures, and there is a man that can gather all the people and provide enough for them to eat, shows them how to build homes and gives them a place to stay and work. 

But why would that happen? Humans had to be able to survive on their own at one point if they evolved from something else. 

So why would an early human, who is struggling to find food, who can't store it because he doesn't have a refrigerator or a freezer, who is trying to take care of himself and his family want to take on more people that aren't his? 

Is it war & assimilation with other tribes?  Fear of the surrounding environment and a desire to have safety in numbers? 

Why would anyone else that is already established want to take on someone who is weak and afraid?  Why would they support them?  Why would we evolve sympathy, or empathy, or morals?

If it IS survival of the fittest?

Humans just don't fit into the evolutionary  discussion. 

Animals fit perfectly. It makes perfect sense with them. 

We're not from this place. Nothing about us makes sense. 

How do you evolve consciousness?

Assigning meaning

It's funny how we assign meanings to things. 

Sometimes there's just no reason for things happening the way that they do. 

The world doesn't have an alterior motive. It just happens. 

Stop trying to assign meaning to it. 

It's just life. Do what you have to do and move on. 

Today, while driving to see my son's band competition a guy passed me, while I was driving 35 in a 35 mph zone. Up ahead it turns to 55, and he passed me doing 60. 

No big deal. I catch up to him later because traffic is slower ahead of him. When he makes his turn, I look over and he is giving me the finger. 

What???!!!

Why?  That doesn't even make sense. Why would he do that?  

Here's the point. There are literally an infinite number of things that can be going through that person's head at that time, and for me to spend time (or waste time) trying to figure it out, is pointless. 

I could assign a meaning to it, but I would just be trying to appease my own mind. So why waste any time thinking about it?  Unless I'm going to stop and talk to the guy to figure out what is going on with him (which none of us EVER does) then why worry about it?

So back to my son's band competition. His school finished 11th overall, out of 15 schools, but 2nd in their class. While the first number was "meh", the second made me happier. 

But why should it matter?  I know my son is amazing, whether he plays the trombone or not.  The school worked so hard, and did so well. 

I watched a lot of practices and they NEVER did better before, but they nailed it this time. I KNOW what they accomplished, just as every other parent, from every other school who witnessed the result from all of those practices and all of the time that is put into marching band. They were incredible. These kids are as young as 13-14 years old and they performed SO well.

THEY PLAYED THEIR HEARTS OUT AND TRIED SO HARD. 

Whether they nailed it or not doesn't matter. Do any of the parents love their children less?  If there any that do, they shouldn't have had children. 

Why do we need someone to judge what they did?  Or give out an award. Especially when it is just coming from someone who is seeing the final result for the first time. 

Mr. Petrucci, great job. I'm proud of you and all of our kids. 

Don't worry about the results of the world, or what other people say. 

You can't always be #1 in the world, or even your neighborhood. But the fact that you wanted to be for us, your parents, means that you're already a success in life. 

Good job guys. 

Losing Control

Don't let anything bring you down, or anger you.  Let go of it.

It's not yours to carry.

Things happen and there is nothing that you can do about them, especially after they've happened.

As Bobby McFerrin so wonderfully put it: "Don't worry.  Be Happy."

There is just no reason to take the responsibility of everything around you.  YOU, and only you, are in control of your brain.  You make the decisions that make you angry, or that keep you happy.

Stop thinking about the past so much.  No amount of thinking will ever change what happened, or didn't happen.

The only things that you can do about something that has past, is hurt something or someone else (anger), hurt yourself (sadness), or let it go and live on (happiness, bliss).

You can still learn from your mistakes.  But don't dwell on them.  Dwelling on mistakes only makes you not want to do anything again.  Learn and move on.

Stop standing still because you're afraid.  Move forward...  Move along...  Go, now, and be anything...

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

Jesus traveled through Samaria where he came upon a well alone, while his disciples were in town buying food.  When a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well, Jesus asked her for a drink.  She said no, because Jews and Samaritans don't associate with each other.

Jesus explains to her that although the water he asks for will not quench His thirst forever.  He will be thirsty again.  All that drink the water will be thirsty again.  And yet she says no.

He goes on to explain that: even though she says no, that God, if asked, would say yes to His "living" water that gives everlasting life.  God, if asked, gives everlasting life, and yet she won't share her water which is nothing but normal everyday well water.

He explains to her that a time is coming where people will worship the Lord everywhere.  Not just on the mountaintop, or in Jerusalem, but everywhere.  He tells her that God's worshipers must worship in SPIRIT and TRUTH.

She says, "I know that the Messiah is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

To which Jesus replies, "I who speak to you am he."

She is telling him that she will receive answers from the Messiah when he returns and he is telling her: "You just did."

Sometimes we just have to open our ears and listen to God's word.  Stop trying to figure everything out for ourselves.  It's not all up to us.  Just do God's work and all will be revealed.


Jesus continues in this chapter and his disciples return and tell Him to eat.  He says that he has food to eat that they know nothing about.

Jesus sees that they don't understand and says to them that: "My food, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work."

He asks them how they wait for a harvest.  They wait months at a time for the harvest.  He says: "Open your eyes and look at the fields!  They are ripe for harvest."

"Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so the the sower and the reaper may be glad together."

"I sent you to reap what you have not worked for.  Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."

You've already won.  The work has already been done for you and you have God on your side.  We are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Go reap the benefits.

Remember

Everyone wants to be remembered.

Are we supposed to put all of our information down on the computer?  Is that how we want to be remembered?

How do you want to be remembered?  Like your Facebook posts?  In 100 years people will know who you are by the content of your Facebook account.  This is your legacy, don't waste it.  You only get one chance.

Why do we always worry about how people will think of us, or remember us?
We don't remember any of our ancestors.  It would be nice if we could know more about them.  Would it help us?

Does it matter if you are remembered?  It won't to you once you're gone from this planet.  So who would it matter to, if it doesn't matter to you?  Not even your ancestors will really care.  How often do YOU think of your ancestors?

Shouldn't we be putting all of our faith in God and only worry about how He remembers us?  Our bodies and the things we do are of this world.  We don't get to keep them, or use them as bargaining chips or credits towards the future.

Doesn't everyone eventually get forgotten anyway?  No matter how great you were on this earth, eventually there will be plenty of people (if not all of them) that won't have any idea who you are.  they won't even care to know.  So stop worrying about it.

Should we write everything down so that future generations can see how we lived and continue to move forward?  I think so.  I think that everyone should write though.

Start writing and making your own story.  Don't let someone else tell your story for you.  We should all be writing about our days, every day.  Future generations could use all of our knowledge.

Do God's work, Be good.  Be love.

Don't be fear.  Don't be afraid.

We are all part of God's plan.  Let go of your plans, and just do what you were put here to do.

There are many sets of instructions out there.  Use them.  Learn.

Computer/Brain

A computer's speed is only limited by the hardware running the instructions. 

The energy entering the computer runs at the speed of light (in a vacuum). 

Theoretically, a computer with the proper hardware could run every instruction/calculation/program to infinity and back instantaneously. With the current hardware limitations, a computer slows down when there are too many instructions to keep up with. 

However the better the hardware, the more it can handle at once. (More memory, more storage, more registers, more processing power (more units to keep heat down), etc.) 

Our brain is a computer. Our thoughts move at the speed of light as well. 

However, we are held back by OUR hardware. One of the problems with our hardware and current operating system is that it is ALWAYS running tons of programs all at once. 

When you meditate, go into a sensory deprivation chamber, or when you sit and listen to white noise and put half ping pong balls over your eyes, you are shutting down some of your programs and allowing for faster computation. 

THIS is why "moments of eternity" happen, when you meditate or sleep.  Your brain turns off certain functions and can process more in a shorter amount of time. 

(Your thoughts are technically experiencing a form of time travel) 

When we focus on one thing, and turn off all external stimulus, you can do just about anything you want with your brain. 

This is why autistic people are so good at certain things. They are not affected by all of the external stimulus that we are. They are free to use their entire brain to focus on a single problem. 

The saying is true: "You become what you think about." If you want something enough, you will get it. 

Our brains are incredible computers, if we REALLY, TRULY want something, then we have to take time out of our days to FOCUS on what it is that we want and find the proper instructions on how to get there. 

As this world has proved, time and time again, ANYTHING is possible, if you put your mind to it.

Weddings

Why can't every day be like your wedding day?

Everything seems so perfect. 

Message to Kids

If you want to get ahead in life. Impress the adults. Not the kids around you.  

You can impress them later. 

So I Had This Dream Last Night...

YT?The police run the show now.  Everywhere is literally a police state.  When they want money from you, they don't need to solicit bribes.  All they have to do is get your attention. They call to you and you're supposed to drop some money.  Sometimes they prefer your wallet or you whole purse.  I always keep an extra wallet or two on me just in case.

As I walk by a policeman, he calls to me and according to the custom, I drop some money.  After collecting my money, he comes up brandishing a dirty old kitchen knife and asks me:

"Can I kill you now?"

"No sir, if you kill me now, you can't get anymore money from me in the future.  Also, I'm very valuable to your friends, and they'd be disappointed if I weren't around no more."

"Well that's a shame.  I was really looking forward to killing you."

"Don't worry officer, one day my time will come."

After avoiding the pleasure of the officer's company, I continue down the glass alley towards D-7.  D-7 is the last of the occupied districts before the wastelands.

As you walk around D-7 you can see the strippers plain as day through the glass walls.  All of the depravity and waste of what's left of England is here.  It's all city now.  No green, and most people don't even remember what greenery was like.  It's all just steel, concrete and glass.

I look behind me and I realize that the officer from earlier is still on my tail.  He's either really curious, or his will for my blood is too strong.  Since I can't have him follow me to where I'm going, I lead him to a secluded area.

As I turn the corner, I slip into a small crack in the wall.  I can smell the officer before I hear him:

"Where in the bloody hell did he go?!  I know you're back here, I saw you!  Come on out and I'll play a game with you."

I can see him and he's spitting as he shouts.

"If you don't let me find you, I'll just go back and see if I can't find a kid that I can hurt instead.  Maybe it will be someone you care about."

I don't doubt it.

"You have a family?  I sure hope so... I can tell by the way you're dressed what part of the city you're from.  You look too clean for this shithole.  Maybe I'll just go back to your area and me and my friends will find someone you care about."

I don't have any family left, they already took that from me.  The thought of this buffoon hurting anyone else's family in my name is too much for me.  I call out:

"I'm back here," as I slip out of the crack behind him. "Don't hurt anyone else," the girls stop dancing in the windows and are now watching this bizarre scene play out through their glass walls.  "I'll do whatever you want, just don't hurt anyone else."

"Wise decision boy."

As he steps towards me, I pull out a retractable baton, courtesy of one of his fellow bobbies from one of my prior run-ins with the law.

"Where'd you get that?!" He screams.

"Oh this?  This won't be the last souvenir that I get from an officer."

"You sonofabitch," he yells as he charges towards me.

He lunges with his kitchen sword outstretched and I spin to avoid it, while simultaneously cracking him across the jaw with the baton.

"Aaaagghhh!!!  Yooobrokemyfuckkingjaw!!!"

Hardly.

As he comes back at me, I have to be careful.  He's angry now and less predictable.  He flails wildly as he tries to drive the knife into my stomach, cutting my shirt.

I move back as he slashes at my throat and continues his attack.

My baton rings true against his elbow and he loses the knife.  As he momentarily watches the knife fall to the ground, I catch him again across his face.

Before he falls to the ground, I'm at the knife picking it up.  I walk towards him as he lays there, half conscious and I whisper to him:

"Your people already killed my family.  I don't have anything left to lose."  I drive the knife deep into his stomach, before I leave it in his neck.

The girls who stayed and watched the entire show are screaming now.  I have to get out of here.  I've exposed myself.  I run down to the end of the hall.  To the end of D-7.

One of the girls, the only one not screaming watches me as I begin my ascent into D-8 and the wastelands.

In awe of what I've just done she follows.


Then I woke up....

Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake and others...

Sometimes I listen to the music of Jeff Buckley or Nick Drake and I'm sad. I don't think I should be, but sometimes I just am. 

They made 4 albums altogether and they are, all four, beautiful. Sometimes I wonder how you're supposed to feel about death, especially young death. 

It's sad that they're gone and never had a chance to see their success. 

At the same time, I'm glad that they never had to deal with the nonsense of fame. Or of getting old and losing what talent they had.  

Their talent shone for a brief while and their lives ended abruptly. 

It's not just them, there are countless others that we lost before we thought that they should go. 

It's not up to us, though. It never was, and it never will be up to us. We're conceived, we live, we die and we get no say in the matter for any of it. If we exist, we WILL do all three. 

Enjoy it while you can. 

The Future

We all think that at any given moment in time that we are the most advanced creatures that could ever exist. But did you ever stop to think that every human in history has thought this?

There could never be anything more, they said.  Yet here we are. 

100 years ago, 200 years ago, just 50 years ago, we never imagined that we would have what we have today. 

Cellphones?  Are you kidding me?  No one could have seen that coming.  Computers, cars, indoor plumbing, year round heat and air conditioning?  These are things of make believe.  

Don't think that this is all that there will ever be.

In 100 years, people will look back and say: They still wiped with paper? They still fought wars over oil?  What a stupid bunch of Neanderthals!

Think back JUST 5 years at a time.  

2009 - believe it or not, almost NOONE had an iPhone (or a smartphone in general). 

2004 - streaming videos online?  What is that - YouTube wouldn't be created for another year.

1999 - Google had only been around a few months and no one knew what it was. CDs and DVDs were the best!

1994 - cassette tapes were still the main format for music as was VHS for video

1989 - more than just a TV in your living room?  You must have lots of money (and space, those things are HUGE)
1984 - 30 years ago, we didn't have cell phones, we didn't have laptop computers, we didn't have GPS for your car, we didn't have CD players, there was no internet, no DVDs or Blu-Ray, no real options for sneakers and the original Nintendo was the hottest new toy.

The world changes so much every few years.  Don't be surprised if it's unrecognizable in 2019.

Imagination

Imagination really is something special. We start off with so many great ideas as children.  Then, when we get older, we are taught that some things can't be done.  Hasn't history proven time and again that we can do just about anything we put our minds to?

We need to stop teaching our children the word "impossible.". They should never even know that word exists. 

Imagine you brought someone from any point in history and brought them to our time. They would think that this is all magic. Impossible.  

But without the forward thinkers, without the ones who made the impossible, possible, we would never have gotten this far. 

Let your kids dream...  And when they dream, don't discourage them.  Let them believe that they can do it. 

Without impossible thoughts, there can be no innovation.  There can be no growth. There can be no advancement.  

Let your children change the world. 

Consciousness

How do we describe consciousness?  

Being alive and awake.  Realizing that you exist. Right?

If you believe in God, it's your soul. If you don't, then its something like an electrical impulse generated by your brain. Either way, it's indescribable and undefinable. There is really no way to prove or disprove either as fact. 

We know we exist, and we know that our brains produce electrical impulses, but where does that leave consciousness?

We can see a heart, we can describe what it does, and what it's purpose is.  We can see lungs and how they interact with the oxygen taken in and your blood.  We can see the brain and at least get an idea of where most things work, but we just can't pin down that consciousness. 

Science tells us that we are what our experiences tell us we are, but what about inspiration?  Invention?  Creating something that never existed in the past and making it real. 

How do we take two pieces of information and create something new from them?  What gives us that ability?  

Again, if you believe in God it makes sense: you receive Divine inspiration. 

If you don't believe in God, then what else could it be?  I've never read or written these words in this configuration before, what gives me the ability to do this?  

How does a storyteller, like Stephen King, write and create new stories about people and places and things that never existed?  

If we evolved from from the "primordial soup" at the beginning of time, what made us realize that we are what we are and that we have the ability to create and destroy and feel good or bad about it?

Evolution works in so many ways, but as soon as you throw consciousness into the mix it all falls apart.  How can you evolve a state of consciousness. How do you evolve lucidity?  What would be the evolutionary reasoning behind it?  

If it was something that we evolved, say, a million years ago, then why are humans the only ones that did so?  Why would anything want to be a platypus?

Why would we develop fear or sadness?  If our brains are constantly evolving into something better, then why aren't we all robotic beings, similar to ants?  Wouldn't the human race move forward so much faster if we never daydreamed?  If there was only focus?

All I can do is ask questions on this one.  You have to believe what you want. I can't change your mind or make you think the way that I do.  It's up to you.  

What Is Love?

What exactly is love and why do we care so much about it?  I understand lust.  I understand desire, but love?  I don't actually think that it's a real thing.

Can love be explained?  Can it be shown?  Can it be taught?  Can it be touched, seen, heard, smelled, or tasted?

They say it can be felt, but it feels different for everyone.  Sounds like something made up to me.

Imagine that I told you, that there is this thing called renk.

You can't tell renk exists using your senses.  People will tell you that they can feel it, but they can't really explain renk, other than it feels really good when you have it.

No one else can corroborate those feelings, it's just something you have to figure out on your own.  You have to define what renk means to you.

You basically have to make it up in your head, what renk is and run with it.  The you start telling people that you renk them, and they will understand what you mean, when you open a door for them, or take them to a movie.

You have to trust me, they'll feel it after you make renk with them.  When you renk with someone, you create a new being, and since that new being is part of the renk that you shared, you must renk that new being or else you're a terrible person.

Renk runs the world, and yet no one can see it.  It's rather magical.

Sounds stupid.  Because it's make believe.

It seems to me like another distraction.  Another way to believe that this life is more than just trying to move the human race forward.  Renk and love, these things mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

If you believe in heaven, must you LOVE in order to get there?  Do you have to prove your love to God, even though there is NO WAY to prove it?  It's impossible.

Since it's different for everyone, what if what you felt as love was the wrong thing?  What if you were actually feeling something else entirely that also has no explanation?

You can't explain a feeling.  I can't feel your words.

You say you get tingles, you say it hurts your heart when you lose it, you say that it motivates you.

Mint soap tingles, losing a job that pays well and you enjoy hearts your heart, money can motivate you.

Must be love...

No one can describe it, explain it, sense it or in any other way prove that it exists.  So why do we try so hard our entire lives to get this imaginary thing?

Just make it up in your mind what you want it to be, and live a happy life.  Stop telling people that you love them and looking for a similar response.

If you enjoy their company, tell them that.  If you enjoy the conversations, the intimacy (sexual or otherwise) or the work that you do together, then tell them.

If you enjoy having the same goals and working together to get there, let them know.  If you like being with them all of the time and would do anything for them, make sure that they know it.  But stop saying "I love you."  That has no meaning.

That says nothing to them about how you feel.

Imagine that their version of "love" is a completely different thing than yours. Imagine that their version of love is being able to laugh together, and yours is having sex.  You tell them that you love them and expect them to have sex with you and they're expecting to have a good time and laugh.

You'd look pretty dumb in that situation.  Might as well tell them that you renk them...

We're Already Dead

"Get busy living or get busy dying" - Andy Dufresne - The Shawshank Redemption

"Every man dies, not every man truly lives" - William Wallace - Braveheart

The world is full of people that are dead or dying. 

How do we live?  How can we do the things that we want?  

People ask these questions every day. You're in control of your own destiny. There is nothing standing in your way except you. 

Get out of the way.

What are we all so afraid of?  I don't get it. We'd rather die than go after what we want for fear of failure.

The things you fear are the things that make you alive. Think back to the worst moments of your life. Think back and remember how vivid those memories are. 

The truth is, you DO learn from your mistakes. You can remember them better than anything else. But you can't let your past mistakes make you afraid of living. You lived through it?  Great! 

If you're still here after a horrible experience, then what's next? 

Find the next hurdle and jump over it. Don't be afraid of it.  You think that anyone ran through the hurdles the first time without at least clipping one? You watch the Olympics and the very best in the world still trip over the hurdles.  

This is pretty much ALL that they do all day, every day.  They still can't get it perfect.  The best in the world.  

Why?

They're Human.  Like you.  Like me.  Not perfect, not even close.  

Stop trying to be perfect.  Try something attainable, which is pretty much anything else.  

You can do it. I know you can. 

You're the one that needs convincing.  

The Past

"History"

I used to believe all of it.  I think I was just extremely naive.  I believed everything that anyone told me, or that I read.  

But how do we know ANYTHING?

Just because someone tells us doesn't make it true.  Also, believe it or not, reading it in the paper, on the Internet, or in a book is the same as someone telling us, and it STILL doesn't make it true.  So what do we know?

We know what we've seen ourselves and what we choose to believe.  

Scary thought isn't it?  

For all we know, Napolean Bonaparte may not have even existed.  We only take someone's word for it.  We CHOOSE to believe that he existed.  We choose to believe the stories.

We don't know anyone, who knows anyone, who ever met the guy. Every single thing you've ever read or heard about him may be completely made up, or at least embellished. 

It's been said that "history is written by the victors."  Now if you think about that for a moment, you'll realize that most of history is an embellished telling of a story. Always biased by who won the war, the battle or the argument. 

If a country conquers a land, the culture and the history of that land is basically overwritten by the conquerers. How can you tell what is the truth and what is a lie? What is fact and what is propaganda?    

My advice: Learn what you can, but remember to take everything with a grain of salt.  

Do you remember the old game they had you play in school, where they had you whisper a long secret in someone's ear and they tell it to the next person and so on down the line until it returns to you?

I think they were trying to teach this to us in school.  Remember that everything you hear has gone through a filter, unless you hear it firsthand.  Even then, you have to BELIEVE the person reciting it to you.  Is it exactly as it happened, or has it been embellished? 

Maybe the story is incredible, but it has been told to us in a way that makes it more believable.  

You never know, unless you were there.  

This world is a funny place, and what we think we know, is never really what we actually know.

Sleep

Sleep seems like a reset button.

Just silence. Quiet. Peace.

Your thoughts from yesterday, fade away.  As your brain gets ready for tomorrow.  You close it down, defragment and back up the data.  It's still there, just zipped away in a system folder.

Sometimes I wonder if there is another version of you in your dreams. That lives another life, with another persona.  Maybe when you're awake, is when that other persona sleeps, and sometimes dreams the crazy things that you go through in your normal day. 

Humans and Insects

I watch insects all of the time.  I see how we could be compared to them.  We have a central leadership that keeps us going in the same relative direction.  We mine, we build, we fight, we reproduce, we work and we die.  Some of us have figured out how to fly.  A lot of us can swim, but even the best of us is NOTHING like a sea creature.

The problem with humans is that as much brain power as we have in all of us, we have way too many drones.  Worker bees who don't care about anything but the work.  Wake up, eat, work, eat, work, defecate, work, eat, work, sleep, die.  That's all that way too many of us do. I wish I could see us doing more with our lives.

The Thing About YOUR Life

This is NOT YOUR world.  This is not just YOUR life.  There's more to this world than just what goes on inside of your brain.  You're not the only one who experiences love and pain and winning and losing and living and dying.  You're not.

If every single one of us all stopped to think for one moment, so that we could realize that there is more than just our own hopes and dreams.  That there are countless others that have an inner monologue.  That have their own, what I like to call, you.

Now when I speak of you I don't mean you as a person, or as a human.  I mean your thoughts, your mind.  The one you speak to when you make plans for yourself.  When you're just thinking.  You.

People don't think about that.  They just see a piece of flesh and don't attribute any thought to it.  I used to be like that.  I remember exactly where it changed for me:

I was driving home from work one day and there was a guy riding directly on my bumper most of the way.  Now we're sitting in traffic, on a busy interstate.  There are literally hundreds of cars in front of me that aren't moving and the guy in the car behind me is swerving to look around me and flashing his lights to try to get me to move faster or get over.  Remember, this is traffic on a busy loop going around Charlotte, NC at 5:00 on a weekday.

I'm getting upset thinking that there is nowhere for me to go.  I'd like to get home too.  It's summertime so I have my windows down, as does he.  When he finally gets off at his exit, he hangs out the window and yells "ASSHOLE!" at me and gives me the finger.  This actually happened.  There was nowhere I could have gone, even if I REALLY wanted to let him by.

Now his exit was early on in my drive.  My exit was still about 30-45 minutes away.  Sometimes I like to ride with the radio off.  That's how it was this day.  I just kept wondering to myself: Why would he act like that?  He knew as well as I did that there was nowhere for either of us to go.  Then I thought, and this is very important in order to understand other people:  What if it was me?  What if I was the guy in the truck behind me?  What would make me act like that?

That changed everything.  I thought from his perspective and it immediately changed my brain chemistry forever.

What if he just got fired?  What if something happened to his wife?  Or to one of his kids?  What if he was having the actual worst day of his life?  You don't know.  I sure didn't.

I felt terrible.  I was getting upset, but maybe all he needed was some compassion.  There are so many things that can go wrong on a daily basis for us.  So many things that can get messed up, or not turn out the way that we wanted.

We don't have to pity people, we just have to understand each other.  Imagine if you were able to treat everyone as if they were your best friend.  Your favorite person in the entire world.  Even if it's you, maybe you're your own favorite.  Imagine that's who you're judging at the moment.

How would that change what you're thinking?  You'd almost certainly show more compassion.  You could show empathy towards them.

No need to let yourself get run over.  You just need to understand and try to find out why they are the way they are.  No one WANTS to be angry.  No one wants to be in a really terrible part of their life.  Not everyone can be helped.  Some people won't listen.  But, like I always say, if you don't try, then you'll never do anything.

So remember, this isn't just YOUR life.  It belongs to all of us.  Wake up and join us, stop shutting us out and let the fact dawn on you that you're not alone.  We're all here with you, and we've been here all along.          

The Thing About THIS Life

We are all going to die one day.  It's something that we should think about.  I think that we make the mistake of forgetting that this life is finite.  There will be an end to it.  You can be sad, upset, scared or worried, but it's something we have to realize.

The problem with the world is that we think that we will last forever.  So we don't make plans.  We don't try to live THIS life.  We act like we're going to get another chance.  Please, for your sake and the sake of everyone who knows you, understand this.

You DON'T get another chance.  THIS is it.  Don't put things off until another day.  Don't wait to get that job that you want.  You have to try NOW.  You want to be an inventor?  Go invent something.  It's not going to invent itself.  You want to learn how to swim?  Fly a plane?  See Paris?  GO.  DO.  BE!!!

People would be happier if they were doing what they wanted to do.  We all complain about being stuck in a job we don't like, or being in a relationship that makes us unhappy.  People are upset that they don't ever get to leave town, or that they've never been to this place, or that one.

No one is stopping you.  There isn't someone there holding you down telling you no.  The only person stopping you from doing what you want to do, is you.  Go do it.

Don't be afraid of death, just the same as you shouldn't be afraid of life.

People don't like to think about death because they're afraid of it.  They worry that life is pointless.  That there is no hope, "I'll never get where I want in life, so why even try?"

First of all, you can be anything that you want to be.  No one out there has anything that you don't have.  You're just a human being, just like they are.  There are no such things as monsters, or superheroes.  Celebrities are only real because we make them real.

Do you think that someone who lived in Machu Picchu cared about any Native Americans who lived in the Los Angeles area of California 600 years ago?  Do you think that they spent hours and hours trying to find out what they were doing?  What they were up to?

That's the world we live in now.  We'd rather live vicariously through someone else who lives thousands of miles away, than take care of our kids, or pay attention to our jobs, or live our own lives.

If you became the most famous person in the world, but you never did anything, what is your worth?  When you're dead and gone, how will history look back at you.  How will your children remember you?

People are afraid of death because they're either afraid that they'll go to hell or that there will be nothing after this and it's all over.  There IS something that comes after this.  And it came after for everyone else before us.

OUR CHILDREN

You have to live for your children and all the ones that come after us.  You must. This is how we live on.  Everything we do as a collective people will be how we're remembered.  Will we be remembered as a version of the human race that was always fighting, or always striving to attain more?

Imagine that the entire human race was focused on ONE cause.  If we were all trying to make everything better for the future.  Coming up with ideas on how to fix the world and actively working TOGETHER to make it happen.  We'd see it done in our lifetimes and WE would be the greatest generation.  Every generation that came after us would look back to us and see that WE changed the world.  That's a world I want my kids and grandchildren to grow up in.  That's how I want to be remembered.

How Pointless are Paper Receipts?

So I've got an idea. I've been sitting on this idea for years now, and it looks like I'm never going to be the one to make it, but it IS going to get made by someone.  I hope at least.  It doesn't take a genius.

Receipts are useless pieces of paper.  Most of them get thrown out instantly.  We waste so much paper and so many resources to create all of this receipt paper.  It is ALL waste...

Every last scrap of receipt paper will end up in the trash one day.  The amount of water we use to create the paper, the amount of energy we waste manufacturing and transporting everything and the amount of trees we cut down are all pointless.  Not to mention the man hours spent making little slips of trash that NOBODY wants.

If we could save all of this and use it for something else.  If the 9.6 million trees that we cut down EVERY YEAR could be used to offset all of the CO2 in the air and create more oxygen, the air would be fresher and smell better everywhere you go.

We would have less water restrictions if the 1.6 BILLION gallons of water we use every year to produce the paper could be used for ANYTHING else.

Our gas and electric prices would go down, if the amount of oil we used for cutting down trees, transporting them and the amount of electricity we used for manufacturing the paper could be stored and used for something more productive.

Imagine the innovation if all of the people focused on getting us cheaper paper were working on something else.  Anything else.

But the problem is: No one wants to listen.  I've been talking to everyone I know about this.  I have an idea.

This WILL eventually happen.  Whether I do it, or someone else figures it out.  There will be no more paper receipts.  We can create a website where all of your receipts are stored digitally.  This should be mandatory. There shouldn't be an option.  You know it will eventually come to this.  We should start now.

You want to cut down the trees and use them for something else?  Fine, I don't think anyone has a problem with that.  You can build a house...you can make a lot of really useful things with wood.  Paper is just waste.  It's a complete and total waste of a tree.  We think we need it, but once we're dead, we've cut down a tree that is older than us and NONE of that paper that you have saved in a filing cabinet will be worth anything to anyone.

If we could piggyback on the machines that are already used by credit card companies to charge you, the information could be sent to the website, without anyone having to switch anything over.  Every single business that takes credit cards could do this right now with a software addition, or change.  A lot of POS systems are basically computers connected to the internet.

It would be easy.  Imagine if you could get rid of all of the paper receipts that you get every day.  That are thrown on the floor in your car.  That take up space in your drawer "just in case" you ever decide to return that thing...

Everyone would follow suit.  We're already trying to get paperless billing.  That would be one less thing.  No more junk mail included with your bills.  All that advertising that you don't even look at.

Imagine how easy it would be to keep track of all of your information online.  You could sort things into folders.  You could keep important receipts in a custom folder titled "possible returns."  You could keep business receipts in a folder titled "expenses."  Instead of having to keep them all in your wallet or your purse, you know that you'd have them online.  No more worrying about them getting messed up or lost.

We could do a lot of things with this.  I'm sure that more imaginative people will come up with more things that could be done with this, but it CAN be done and it WILL be done.  We just need to be the ones that do it.

But no one wants to listen to me.  Because you don't know my name.  You don't see me on TV.  You don't hear me on the radio.  I'm not famous.  I'm not in the public eye.

That sucks.

It makes me wonder how many more incredible ideas are either out there, or have disappeared forever because no one would listen.  Mine isn't even that good.  It's obvious.  It's been obvious for a long time.  Yet still, here I am without a soul willing to listen to me.

I hope that there is no one else out there with an idea that can't get made because you're a nobody like me.  It's a tough place to be.