Month: April 2016

Another 24 hours of life today for each of us…

AraLeave a comment

 

I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Dark brown hair, deep brown eyes, and a a lively, sumptuous energy in how she carried herself. I wanted to talk to her, but I delayed, anticipating that she wouldn’t like me.

Avoiding pain is avoiding the Way. The way of human life.

There’re things I want in life and the way to them is through pain.

Knowing your coming death, without fear, brings everything about life into focus:

Pain and discomfort are necessary to get to the things that make life worth living.

The rest is the boredom of day-to-day sameness until you die.

Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.

Please feel free to pass this along if you think others would enjoy it.

She said something, and I missed it

AraLeave a comment

Cell-Phone-Conversation

(1 min to read)

So that’s why I had to leave, she concluded.

Ack, what was she talking about?

She’d been talking about her mother, and how her mother had helped her sister, and not her, and then something…I’d gotten lost. I hadn’t been paying attention.

All attention is paid for. I paid my attention to…god-knows-what… instead of her. We all must lose something in giving something. Opportunity cost: I choose to go out to this movie, with this person, and so I don’t get to go to the park with that other person, or I sacrifice reading a book, or writing a book, or a writing a song.

And then there’s the attention you put towards everything in life. That attention is your time, and you’re paying it constantly, towards your choosing. But even when you’re not choosing, you’re still choosing to do something with your time. You’re paying… I’m paying… for everything, all the time!

The payment of your attention is a special payment. It’s the payment that invests. With the person you’re interacting with, you pay attention in order to gain something and give something directly back.

It may be the highest payment a person can give.

Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.

Please feel free to pass this along if you think others would enjoy it.

 

Look mom, no hands!

AraLeave a comment
CHI_DAY2_DSC5971
CHI_DAY2_DSC5971

He’s planning to double-cross her, acting like he’s working for her, but taking money from his employer and is going to turn her over to them in the end. But then he falls in love with her.

Brilliant. It had taken me too long to get to this story premise. And that was because I had kept stopping to judge my output and pet my ego and feel satisfied with myself.

But as soon as you start thinking you’re doing a great thing, you stop doing so great.

Step out of the present, and you’ve begun losing your self. You begin losing the connection to your actions. Because you have stepped out of reality.

Stay present and in the act, not on the judging. Self-assessment can come after you’re done. Self-congratulations? Rarely.

Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.

Please feel free to pass this along if you think others would enjoy it.

I’m going to my cave and find my power animal

AraLeave a comment
tumblr_lysot4CgqE1qf7853o3_500
I thought the instances on some college campuses to prevent students and professors from speaking certain words or certain ideas was just a fringe thing that was passing. Safe spaces where you didn’t need to face ideas that disturbed you: Today’s version of the New Age therapy from Fight Club.
But after listening to Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University, speak about being brought in front of an inquiry board and made to apologize for offending a student, and his observation that these situations are becoming more prevalent….well,  I think we may have a problem.
Some college leadership is caving in to demands by some students and are putting up obstacles to their education. Why would a professor risk pushing his students to debate radical ideas when he or she could be required to take the time to face some board’s review?
There’s a difference between hate speech directed at a person and describing social behaviors in the course of a classroom discussion.

Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.

Please feel free to pass this along if you think others would enjoy it.