An Interesting News Day

While yesterday was sort of quiet along the news front, today seems to be shaping up as a day of action.  From resolutions about Ukraine to a conviction in Qatar, these stories I'm going to share with you highlight what I believe to be some pretty important news.  So put on your serious faces and your thinking caps.  We're about to embark on a news journey.

The World Is a Beautiful Place

I can imagine many of you right now are thinking that my blog title doesn't account for all the bad things that are happening in the world.  But most of those things are caused by us, humans.  I'm not saying the animal kingdom is any less dangerous or terrible, mind you--but for the most part, a lot of bad things happen in this world because we are here.  That said, ...the world is still a beautiful place.

If you've ever watched children play, or gone to see something that you've been waiting years of your life to see--you will know a sense of wonder that is hard to put into words.

Sometimes, however, that wonder comes with a sense of disappointment, like the first time I went to Las Vegas.  It was fake and cheap to me the first time I went there, and from all the movies--I thought the place was going to be ...different.  I thought it was going to be magical--an experience that was going to change my life.

Still, there are beautiful things in Las Vegas, and the more time I spend there, the more I find little things that fill me with wonder.  If you do ever make a trip out to Las Vegas, I urge you to head out for a day to see Hoover Dam.  You don't need to take a tour, or sign up for some fancy helicopter ride.  Just go.  The view is amazing, and what you'll learn while you're there is worth the visit.  Also, if you haven't been to Mon Ami Gabi, I strongly suggest that you do so.  Take a seat out on the balcony there and watch people as they go past, enjoy the fountain show, and order yourself a nice bottle of white wine--especially if it's a hot day.

The point of my story is to illustrate that even in our disappointments, losses, and tragedies, there are still beautiful things that we can find--if we're willing to allow ourselves to be open to them.

Sadhguru has a story to share about this idea, as well.


Last, but not least, I wanted to share with you a really amazing image from an article I read this past week about an Indonesian volcano.

While the article goes on to talk about some of the injustices that are involved in sulfur mining there, I don't think it diminishes in any way the beauty of that place.  Though I do think that if we could use the wonder within us to create a better world in which injustice and pain were no longer created by us, ...that, too, would be a beautiful thing.

Reconnect

There are a lot of articles these days that are telling us how we ought to disconnect--set aside our cell phones, computers, and televisions.  And while maybe that's a good idea, I think the real message lies not in what we're getting rid of, but rather what we're reconnecting with--the people and the world around us.

And I think that's a pretty great idea.

Still, I have to commend the internet and our TV's when it comes to connecting us with other people--not just with social networks, but with games, world news, and even hobbies.  We learn about the troubles and trials of other people in the world, and oftentimes we are presented with the fact that in spite of our different languages and our different locations, we have a similar desire--to be free to do the things that make us happy.

And sadly, not everyone can do that.  Some places are beset by wars, unrest, and loss.  The very things that many of us take for granted are things that people around the world are fighting just to obtain--or maintain.

So maybe if you're sitting there watching football or the Golden Globes, spending some time with your family, cleaning, playing on the computer, or cleaning out your DVR queues, please don't forget that you are a part of a larger whole--that the world around you, while filled with many joys still holds many sorrows and injustices.

And maybe there's something you can do to help.

And if there is, I urge you to do so.

Reconnect with the world around you, and hopefully you'll find that in making those connections, you can bring a little more happiness into the world.

"Everything comes from the same source. You can be at absolute ease only if you experience yourself as a part of existence, not as a separate individual." -- Sadhguru

The following picture was obtained from Facebook, and was posted by Fantasy and Sci-Fi Rock My World.

The More You Know (The Longer It Takes to Write a Blog Post)

I read on Cracked.com today (while looking over an article about how self-improvement can make me dumber) that watching 24-hour news television can make me less smart.  Luckily for me (and perhaps for you, as well,) I don't do that.  But as I was going through my usual morning slog of news posts, e-mails, and stories that caught my eye while I was looking through my various social networks, it occurred to me that I spend a lot of time learning new things (ideally so that I can share them with those of you who actually take the time to read this).  And as I was going through all my usual interests, it occurred to me that every time I think I'm done with looking around for interesting things to read or look at, there's always something more that pops up.

For example: this morning I saw a post on MSN about a photograph that @NASA's NuSTAR telescope took.  I checked out the article, and while the details were about as exciting as reading entries in the phone book, I found a neat new word: pareidolia.  (Oddly enough, my spell checker is telling me that the word is misspelled, even though it isn't.)

So that prompted me to check out the link they had in the article about the word--which wasn't nearly as interesting.

What then, you may ask, is pareidolia?

Here's the definition from Wikipedia (Thanks, Wikipedia!).

Pareidolia (/pærɨˈdoʊliə/ parr-i-DOH-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant, a form of apophenia. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records when played in reverse. 

The word comes from the Greek words para (παρά, "beside, alongside, instead") in this context meaning something faulty, wrong, instead of; and the noun eidōlon (εἴδωλον "image, form, shape") the diminutive of eidos. Pareidolia is a type of apophenia, seeing patterns in random data.

You can find the full entry here.

And here's the picture prompting all this learning.

So, what began as a harmless bit of curiosity about @NASA and the "Hand of God", actually turned out to be an hour or so of time spent reading and looking up a neat word on the internet.  The point being, of course, that I began to wonder if it were actually possible to know everything--that if I read every article and followed every link, would I somehow be endowed with a greater understanding of all things?  Or would I just be insane and sleep-deprived?

My conclusion is that knowing everything is impossible.

Which led me down my next path.   If knowing everything is impossible, how is it ever possible to know the truth--of anything?

@Sadhguru had something to tell me about truth, though.

Only a fool will talk about what Truth is. One who knows will only talk around it, because you cannot talk about it. You can only define and describe that which has some kind of substance, that which has measurable parameters, or boundaries. If something has no boundaries and no parameters, you cannot talk about it. 

All right.  So it didn't answer my question, but it led me to another interesting place--another way to think about truth, and since I'm all about seeking the truth of things, this, to me, was pretty interesting.

So where did that come from? you ask.

I happened to find it buried in an article, in which @Sadhguru was speaking to someone who had questioned him about thoughts during meditation, or kriya.

Which leads me to my final point: if Truth is boundless, knowledge endless, and my own capacity limited, what's the point of searching for something I will probably never find?

And to that, I can only offer up this: the more we know, the closer we come to Truth.  But it can sometimes take a while to get there.


I want to leave you with a few last little snippets of things that caught my eye today:

A fifteen minute preview of @RonMoore's new show, Helix from @TheMarySue.

A pictures of @JessicaChastain as Merida, again from @TheMarySue.

And finally a post from @GeekTyrant showing several more of the Disney Dream portraits.

Enjoy!

The Moments In Between

So I've been writing this blog for a little over a week now, and as the days go on, I find myself stuck sometimes, like today--trying to figure out what I want to say that I haven't all ready said.  I look around for something interesting to talk about and find myself at an impasse.

But you told me the possibilities were endless! you say.  You said inspiration was easy to come by!

And it's true.  Those two things haven't changed.  What's changed is my ability to make those possibilities and inspiration into something that is, in my opinion, worth reading.  And that, I suppose, is the hard part.

I could, for instance, talk to you about my gaming addiction with World of Warcraft.  I could talk to you about a few Kickstarter projects I pledged to last year.  I could even wax poetic, or talk about a new song I heard that I thought was interesting (or an old one that made me think of something interesting).  But none of those things have yet inspired me to write something interesting about them.

What keeps sticking in my head, however, is this idea that we live in a manufactured culture--one that spends millions (and likely billions) of dollars every year telling us that we need to buy something in order to be happy.  To fit in, we need to wear the latest styles.  To be considered wealthy, we need to have the latest gadgets.  To be fulfilled, we need to have these things in our homes.  And to be all that we can be, we need to buy organic, or take these drugs, or use these beauty products.

And I'd say I'm frustrated with it, but even I want to look pretty.  I want to be thin and healthy.  I want to live the way rich people do, and have investing problems like they do.  I want to have a personal lawyer who helps me with my taxes.  Hell, I even want a new TV, though I'm pretty sure the one we have is still good.

So I'm trapped--living in this ideal that someone else has created for me because they want me to live like this.  I'm a sheep being herded to the next big thing by the corporate shepherds and their political sheep dogs.

And maybe I don't want to be a sheep any more.

So here's this moment--this moment between deciding that something should be changed and coming up with a plan of action.  And suppose I made up that plan of action; there'd be another moment just like this one where I'd have to stop going over my plan and decide to actually follow through with it.

And I imagine a lot of us get caught up in those "in between" moments.  We doubt ourselves.  We're afraid of change.  And we're afraid of being wrong.

And I imagine most of us fall back into old habits.  We eat that extra cookie, or buy that thing we don't really need, sending ourselves further into debt.  We fall into the trap that tells us we aren't happy because we're not like all those people we admire and want to be.

And we decide that maybe it's easier being one of the sheep.

Yesterday, I read an article by @Sadhguru that talked about managerial skills and the hallmarks of good leaders.  I expect it was intended for business leaders and the like, but I decided to read it anyway.  And I want to share with you something that he said:

Desires drive people: desire to possess, desire to achieve, desire to be recognised. If today you desire a new smartphone, tomorrow you’ll want something else. If I give you the whole planet and make you the queen, will you be fulfilled? No, you’ll want the moon and the stars. That is why turning inwards is very important. You’ll do things more consciously. Right now the world is functioning compulsively and that’s our problem.

So that started me thinking about the way we do things in the world: the way we choose to live, the way we look for answers, the way in which, in short, we do everything.  Do I do something to fulfill a desire, or do I do something that is fulfilling?  Do I stay a sheep and believe that what I'm being told is the truth, or do I pull the wool off of my eyes and find my own truth?

I'll leave you with one last article by @JohnCheese of Cracked.com.  He talks about what it takes to really make a change in your life--the things that need to happen to make it happen.


It only takes one little step--one moment that goes from thought to action--to leave behind the person we are, and to become the person we want to be.  So please, don't get stuck in all the moments in between.

Breathe

I suppose you could say this should go without saying, but far too often, we forget just how important it is.

And today, I got a lot of chances to realize that a lot of the time, I'm focusing on a lot of other things instead of just focusing on breathing.  I get caught up in wanting to do better, or do more.  I get frustrated about what I can't do or can't see.  I lament that I didn't do something, or something didn't go how I'd wanted it to.  And in those moments, I lose focus on the present.

I forget to just breathe it all in--and then let it all go as I breathe out.

In my Christmas card this year, I wrote a line that struck me as being wonderfully profound; so, I want to share it again here today:

Each breath is a revelation;

I think that revelation becomes much clearer near the end of our lives--those last breaths a few more moments that we get to spend in reflection, or with family or loved ones.  And as @Sadhguru points out (check in at about :59 seconds in for the beginning of his explanation), breathing is a very fragile thing--so simple, and yet so profound to our existence.

So for today, I want to leave you with that thought--that one little reminder.  When all else seems to be confusion, chaos, or disappointment in your life, just remember:

Breathe.

For the present is but a moment, and if you let it pass, a new moment will begin.

Live Life as a Pilgrimage

There is an opportunity in every moment of every day to be the person you want to be, and I'm pretty sure we miss more than half of those moments.  We miss them because we're looking ahead into the future, or upset that we're late, or worried about what someone else thinks of us, or just going through the motions of the day because "it's what I've always done".  And so, the person we want to be gets left further and further behind in the flotsam and jetsam of our lives.  And eventually, it gets so buried that some of us even forget to stop trying to be that better person we want to be, because really--what's the point?

But there is a point.  We wouldn't want to be that better person if we didn't have dreams and aspirations about what life would be like as that better person.  Maybe you just want to be skinnier, or prettier, or smarter, or working a better job, or enjoying life more.  But whatever that better person is, it isn't just going to happen.  You have to work at it.  You have to set aside time to focus on it.  You need to strengthen yourself against all those little things that wear you down and stop you from becoming.

But most of all, you need to not be afraid to make mistakes.  Or better yet, ...be afraid, and make them anyway.  How can you learn anything if you're never willing to explore the possibilities?

I've been reading some thoughts from a man in India.  I found him because I was searching for thoughts on yoga and meditation.  And as I watched and listened to the videos that this man had created, it made me ...happy.  Not because he had all the answers (though he has some rather surprising ones), but because he had this ...spirituality that made him seem both enlightened and down to earth.  And it was compelling--compelling enough that I now take time out of my day to read his daily e-mail messages and on occasion read some of the messages he's written on the webpage his organization uses to inform its followers of goings-on.

His writings today were about pilgrimages and why people go on them.  And I want to share a quote from that with all of you today:

"If this life is not constantly longing for something higher than what it is, that is not much of a life. If you are aspiring and working towards something higher, then your life is a pilgrimage."  -- Sadhguru

Now, while I may not agree with his spiritual beliefs, and I may not find everything he has to say true, the things that he does say make me think.  They force me to confront who I am and what I believe, and I think that makes me a better person.  And it is one of the reasons that I continue to be open to others' thoughts, opinions, and ideas.  I do this because I don't know what the right thing always is.  I don't know whose opinion is more valid, and whose facts are the most factual, but if it's important to me, I strive to find a truth and an understanding that I believe in with the understanding that I may learn something new from someone else that may change those beliefs and understandings that I hold right now.  But that, for me, is one of the ways that I become a better person.

Still, I think a pilgrimage is a greater growth toward humility--a journey that allows us to break down the comfort zones we've built for ourselves in the pursuit of something that we believe is important.

And I hope that in this new year, you can find that something important and journey toward it.  I hope that you will live your life as a pilgrimage.  And I hope that in becoming, you find joy and happiness in your endeavors.