Opposites

I was reading an article, or actually more of a review, about a book called Going Sane by Adam Phillips today and a lot of what his book had to say triggered different philosophies I seem to always have in my life.

The essence of this book (or what I got from the review that I read) is about how our culture today has obsessing thoughts of trying to be "happy". Part of the article lists off books whose titles include some form of the word "happiness", and mentions how they "arrive unbidden by the hour. "

I think a lot of what this article had to say (http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/healthmindandbody)

is true.

We do obsess about being happy (or unhappy).

Think about it.

There are a lot of unhappy things about the world. And we are told over and over again that the meaning of life it to be happy. That is the goal to strive for. When you look back on your life at an old age you are truly happy with your accomplishments and what has happened in life.

I agree, I think our goal is happiness. But as the book says, our approach to this happiness is making us unhappy.

We think that just because we are going through a rough time in life (could be days, months, years) that we are not doing what we should be doing. That something is "wrong" with the way we are living or the way we are feeling.

But how is the trait of being unhappy suddenly an un-human characteristic?
Who said life had to be perfect and happy all the time?

A lot of you probably think the same way I do, and although this might not be the complete message of the book, it did trigger some thoughts in my own mind.

Going off this unhappy/happy topic...

I think one important thing people have to understand is that life has its opposites. And without these opposites, some things, maybe even all things wouldn't exist (Depending how far you want to go into it).

Let's think about this for a second. In Dane Cooks word's "Chew on it".

How can we be happy without first feeling pain?

How can we be honest without first knowing lies?

How can we be smart without first knowing of morons?

Everything has its opposite, a ying-yang for your boom-bang type dealio. You are going to have negatives in your life regardless of how positive you try to make it. And those negatives are good in the sense that we wouldn't know fully of the positives unless we saw from the other side.

Take for example

love and hate.

If we had a world without hate, everyone would love/like eachother correct?
If everyone loves/likes eachother, would we really know what those emotions were?
Those would just be emotions we always would have. It would be normal emotions. But is our definition of love normal by any means whatsoever? It can't be. If it was, why would something like love be strived for by a majority of the population, if not all?

Now this does not mean that

"Oh Matt thinks that bad things should happen in the world, so lets go beat up
someone or become a murderer or something".

It just means that our life is full of opposites, and yes we will go through negative times. But the thing to do with these negative times is to learn from them, and know that you have just found a new appreciation for positive things in your life.

Because when good things then start to happen, you will love them even more.

So stop worrying about being happy.

And

just

be

happy

I know easier said than done. But its worth a shot for all of you depressed souls out there.

I'll leave you with a quote from Aldous Huxley, brought to you by Sandra Kiume's review of Going Sane by Adam Phillips...

“Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.”

Are we sleep-walking through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams?

I recommend a movie that all of you should see.

Some may think it is weird. Some might not get anything in it. Some might get only a little out of it.

But regardless you should see the movie. It is called: Waking Life

There is so much going on in this movie, it is pretty hard to explain in words. So many different concepts, theories and all of them more thought provoking then the next.

One part that really got to me was when this old man was talking in a bar. He talks about how there is a bigger gap between the average man and "philosophers" or human beings that do great deeds for mankind (People like Einstein, Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi) than there is between a chimpanzee and the average man.

And his question was,

why is it that there are so many people, but so few of these great men and women?

We think of ourselves as smart intelligent people, but most people don't even get close to where Einstein was. And I am not just talking about science and math, because I feel like Einstein knew a lot more about all subjects. I feel like he had a more rational but at the same time 'think outside of the box' mind. And what does he mean by saying all this. And why is there such a big gap? Well he says you can find the answer to this question by answering another question.

What is more of a universal trait in all humans...fear or laziness?

Why do we not reach our potential? Are we too afraid to fail or are we just content by living mediocre lives and coasting.

Now I would definitelybe the last person to say that 'coasting' through life is a bad thing. I do it all the time. There is less stress, you don't worry as much, and I believe in the end you are more happy because of this. You get more things done because you are coasting. If that even makes sense. Who knows.

But the point is, is there anything that really isn't possible for us? Think about it. We are told throughout our childhood that "you can be anything that you want to be". So we decide to be something and know that if we try, we CAN do it. But then at the same time, throughout life, we are told we CAN'T do certain things.

A kid has a dream of going to the NBA but he is already a senior in high school and has tried out every year and has not made the team. Realistic people would tell him, you know what your NBA dreams aren't going to happen bud, maybe you should try being an engineer or something like that. So what will the kid do? Of course sooner or later he is going to give in and give up his dream. Because he has people telling him that his dream isn't going to happen. There are always people telling us we can't do certain things, or saying "wow you are ambitious" when thinking in there head, wow thats not going to happen. It all comes down to the laziness/fear factor this guy is talking about. Can we really not become the NBA star that we want to be? Or are we just too lazy, too afraid, to go through the work to get where we want to be. We already have these traits deep within us, and it is just fed and fed by these can'ts and won'ts.

Maybe deep down people are afraid they are going to work really hard for something that they might not really like in the end. How do you know if you like it until you try? So we settle for mediocrity. We settle for being average. But hey, some people don't give up, they are not lazy, they are not afraid and they are remembered forever.

Way to Go.

Einstein, Lincoln, the person who invented sticky notes

Way to Go.

If only I had the ambition right now...but it is in there. And I'm not going to let things tie me down to what I want.Maybe we should listen to what we were told in elementary school.

You can do anything you want to do

A New Blogging Experience

So, I decided that I love to put my thoughts into words and due to this epiphany I am starting a blog about everything that I think.

This could be anything. Movies, Music, World Events, Local Events (Michigan/East Lansing), Job Life, Philosophical questions.... the list could go on forever really.

They say that to get actual readership for these things that you need to have a "niche market" ..something specific. Something very specific.

Well thats just not me.

I hope you enjoy every minute reading as much as I do writing about it.

And "it" being whatever "it" may be.