People cannot help the way they look on the outside. Their physical features are beyond their control. To judge a person by the way they look, to be inclined to someone who is naturally more attractive and assuming they are a good person is like judging a person by their family… there is an influence, but there wasn’t a choice. We always have to work with the cards that we have been dealt. It is up to us what we do with such advantages to rise above and be a better person because of it.
Month: October 2008
… you need to look back
I found this article from Outsider Online.
As Johnson explains it, Kelly Slater started riding new high-performance boards in the 1990s that were ridiculously thin and narrow. Slater, who’s known as”the Freak” for his extraordinary surfing abilities, could ride these boards with flair, but lots of other surfers couldn’t. Then the fish and other retro styles made a comeback. “You jump on there and suddenly you can glide again,” Johnson says. “I think about this in terms of music or anything: Sometimes things progress to the point that it’s not really progressing anymore. You get to this dead end, where you need to look back.”
Intellectuals, Obama and the WeatherUnderground
Okay, just a little food for thought… we are who we are and we are never going to be anyone else and can never really know what it is like to be anyone else. I am sure you agree with this line of thought. I am a white American woman, aged 28, who grew up in the center of California in the countryside between two rural towns, went on to join a sorority at Fresno State University but left and dove into mid-level management at the age of 20, lived in national parks for 7 years and then dramatically changed my life and moved to Brazil after falling in love with someone on foreign exchange. My story is completely unique, as your story is completely unique. I have definitely come across a variety of people in my life, but I will never know what it is like to be a man, or to be black, or to be an Ivy League graduate or to be the first black president of the prestigous Harvard Law Review. I don’t know what it is like to grow up in Hawaii. I don’t know what it is like to have a very non-American name. I don’t know what it is like to lack a father figure while growing up with my grandparents.
With that said, I do know what it is like to finally start to see the world and the US for what it is. To finally have that breakthrough moment where you say… humn… things just aren’t right… it doesn’t make me unAmerican, and it doesn’t make me unpatriotic, in fact just the opposite because it drives me to ask questions and to research to find the answers about what we do and why we do it. I feel more American now than I ever did and am grateful for this every day.
I remember watching the WeatherUnderground documentary a few years ago… one of many documentaries I have seen in my adult life and to be quite honest… even though I don’t agree with what they were doing, I understood why they were doing it. There is a big difference. People go about things the way they see best, we always try to do what is right, we try to follow through with our convictions – that is why people join the Armed Forces or join the clergy or go to a University. Everyone has a different and totally unique way of looking at things and working towards their goal. I think above all else, trying to understand the reason of why people do what they do is of the utmost importance. That is where the real answer is, at the root, it always is.
To be able to see things for what they are. To be able to atain a birds eye view is to turn a blizzard into a breeze as they say. To be honest this is why Intellectuals are Intellectuals. Those Intellectuals usually go on to teach in the most prestigious Universities and write books and become successful in the Academic world, this is no coincidence. They have the ability to see beyond what most people see and have revelations and realizations about the things that have always been right in front of us.
Yes, I can vote from abroad…
I have had many people say that they didn’t know that one could vote from abroad… and to be honest, neither did I until I moved here and decided to find out. There is even a Democrats Abroad group here in São Paulo that I have become affiliated with through the elections. It is wonderful to be around other Americans, expatriates like myself who know what it is like to live in a different culture, living a different reality. It is different, very different yet oddly similar in the same vein…
I Voted for Barack Obama
I voted for Barack Obama. I sent in my Absentee Ballot the night of the 2nd Presidential Debate between he and Senator McCain. Since the reality is that we live in a two party system and if I want to make change I see that you have to go a bit mainstream and have done so this round. So of the two major candidates I can certainly say that Barack Obama is my choice. He is an intellectual and this is apparent. He seems to take the high ground and looks out for the middle class that has been totally beaten down in the last few years.
He embodies the “American Dream” with all odds against him, yet he has been able to get to this point and I am cheering him on to continue. Can you imagine having the name Barack Obama growing up in school? Kids are ruthless and cruel, we all know this is the truth, and it is much easier to pick on the one that doesn’t fit in than to pick on our own crowd… I imagine that Barack Obama has faced a lot of ridicule over things that he could not change in his life. Along with that he is was born to a white mother and black foreign father, who left his life at an early age. All odds were against him. Living abroad with his mother for a short time when he was young and then returning to Hawaii to be raised by his grandparents must have been hard. He has had to face adversity in every aspect. His family didn’t have much money, they even had to rely on the government at one point in order to make it through tough times. Dispite all of this, he rose above and realized that he could change his life and his situation, so he did.
He worked his way up to the Ivy League graduating from Columbia University and then Harvard Law School. Along the way he used scholarships and loans to pay for his education, like most of us have to. He became the first black President of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating he wrote a book and then decided to move to South Chicago to work for the people, creating jobs and opportunities, revitalizing the area. He taught at University of Illinois as well, another major feat. Then came his US Senate career, short as it may be, but then had the guts and the drive to run for President of the United States. He has let nothing hold him back, in fact it seems as though it has made him stronger in a variety of ways. He has faced adversity and has pushed forward to get to this point. I believe in someone who has this much drive and will to succeed.
A natural born leader, he spreads inspiration and hope. He is a motivator and can see the big picture. He understands what America is about now, where we have been and where we should go. He has had quite a life which has shaped him to be who he is today. I want someone like that, who has exposure, breadth and depth to lead our great nation. The time for change is now.
How do you get over someone?
How do you really get over someone that you have loved? Someone that you have truly loved? Is it even possible? After sharing a life with someone you are then a part of them and will always have their influence, good or bad, with you no matter where you go. No matter how far you try to go to get away from it all, they are still with you in some way.
When you put yourself out there and you love, and you receive love it is something beyond the universe. It is the divine goodness and feeling that overwhelms everything that is you. How do you and how can you stop something so powerful? How can you truly get over someone that you have felt this way about? How is it even possible?
Putting myself out there…
I have just posted a blog on my myspace site about honestthoughts.com and I feel a little nervous about it. I have kept my little project a secret for the few weeks I have had it going, but for some reason felt compelled to share it today. It is interesting when you put yourself out there. Is it some kind of ingrained worry about what other people will think of me after reading what I think and what I think about? Maybe. Is there a way to get over this? Sure… by putting myself out there… right?
For years I have remained so neutral on a vast number of topics, partially because I really didn’t have a stance but now there are only a handful of items that I am really truly neutral on… partially because I knew that if I did declare a side that I would and could be put into a corner and I really don’t like corners. I let the fear of it and the “bliss” within the ignorance is bliss comfort me… not any more. I cannot always ride the middle… I cannot always be PC or always put on a smile when I don’t feel it… I cannot anymore… and I don’t, or at least I am aware of it now and can choose to be if I want…
This is becoming more of a rant than anything and I feel it… maybe it is the same idea that when some people are nervous they just keep talking and talking… maybe that is what I am doing… more is less or less is more? how does that go? or more is really more? and less is really less? cirlces.
Turtle in a Dog eat Dog World
Last night I we had a yoga instructor come over and give us a class… boy was it intense, much more than any other type of yoga I have practiced in the past. It was wonderful and definitely what I needed. At the end of the session the curly dark haired yogi spoke about conscious breathing. Paying special attention to slowing down and being aware of our breath. This is something that I picked up from a special person over the years who actually used to hold their breath on a regular basis.
The yogi mentioned how a dog pants really quickly and dies at a young age, usually not reaching their 20th birthday. He then spoke of the turtle and how it only takes one breath every few minutes and can live hundreds of years. The slower the breath, the longer the life. This stayed with me until I wrote about it in my journal just before bed. I went just a little bit further in my thought process and connected that a turtle lives his whole life in the ocean or in some kind of water, how lovely. Hanging out, swimming, eating what you need, being totally protected with your hard shell only having to worry about sharks or human preditors. The dog on the other hand is everywhere. I thought back of the “res dogs” these mangy, boney, wild-eyed scary creatures that I’ve come across when driving through the Navajo Nation in Arizona. I then thought about the dogs that I see on the street with their tails in between their legs, curled up next to their homeless owners, both showing their bones through their skin wondering when they would be able to eat their next meal. The lifestyle is totally different between the two… the dog can be ruthless and will do whatever it has to in order to survive, its only now in history that we have domesticated them.
When I awoke this morning we headed to the Center of São Paulo so I could register for work finally and amongst all of the people I thought about my breathing. I thought about the dog versus the turtle and as everyone was rushing around me I thought as well about how we live in a Dog-Eat-Dog World, and in the heart of the city you cannot ignore this brutal fact. So does that mean, if you want to have a long life, you must not live in this environment, you must not partake in that sad ruthless world of Dog-Eat-Dog? Is that what separates those who live in the city versus those who live in less populated but beautiful locations like in the mountains or by the ocean? Less stress, no need to live at a face pace and less of a need to breath at a fast pace as well? Does that lead to a longer life? Probably so.
Even our Bones are Totally Individual
This idea of individuality has been blowing my mind as of late. I read today that you can tell how many times a person suffered from anemia by looking at their bones.
How can Politics get to this point?
I cannot believe the blatant lies that are being told every day to the American people.