The People, They Are A'Changin'

I have been thinking a lot lately about how the people I have known have changed.
I look back and see the way my sister has changed over the years. The way my parents have changed over the years. The way sean has changed over the years. The way I have changed over the years. Every time someone has changed I find a direct correlation to the world they live in. Thats natural right? The cultural evolution of the society they live within. However this is not always a good thing.

If the society lives in a negative way, then the lives that it effects will negatively change. For example, Sean, a close friend of mine was a virtuous man all his life. He was a martial artist and a real man. I really appreciated him for who he was. That is because in the society and community he lived in, he was taught to be virtuous by his peers at his martial arts studio. His parents taught him right from wrong. Then he went to college to live in the dorms.

This was a huge difference from his life before. There was no one to teach him how to live his life. Instead you make your own rules. In his time in the dorms he "changed" I put that in quotes for a reason. He was no longer the virtuous person I knew, he was no longer the respectable man. The lifestyle in a dorm is that of decadent debauchery. It is disgusting when I think about it. Yet it is the life people will make for themselves. The reason I put that in quotes is because Sean didnt "change" to that lifestyle. Rather he lost himself in it. Everything he was he threw away. And yet several years after he got his own apartment does he look back and think what a fucked up place that was. Yes it was fun, but it was not who he is. Sean was not true to himself then. He still has the addictions he left there with, but he is definitely the Sean I knew.

People say change is good. And it is, so long as you change for the better. You look at the bums on the streets begging for money to buy booze. Their lives at one point or another changed. They at some point changed who they were and became that which they are. Change is good in a person only when it is for a better more moral self. I use the word moral lightly, as in NOT to be meant like the christian morality we all associate it to.

Ive been thinking about all this lately because I have lost another friend to the dorms. She is no longer the girl I knew. And maybe she will change for the better, though I am worried about when/if she ever truly faces herself. Perhaps it is none of my business, and I am certainly not qualified to judge, but I miss my friend.

I then start to think inwards. All the times I have changed. I am not who I used to be. When I have changed it has not always been for the better. But I am proud to say I never let the society around me dictate the way I changed. For some reason peer pressure has no effect on me. Never has. How then have I socially evolved to who I am? Perhaps I changed the society around me. Who knows. But that isnt important. What is important that anyone reading this takes away is this:
Never lose yourself in the society you are thrust into. Change, but change to be a better person. Evolve but do not lose sight.

Jungian Psychology: Of Images

I have spent many a long hour reading and studying Jungian psychology. Jung is the student of Freud but focus' more on the anima, animus, ego and projecting images. What I want to talk about today is projecting images.

Often times in our lives we find ourselves looking up to people and building them up in our minds that they become more than they are. A chief example is of all those who voted for President Bush the first time around because they believed in their minds that he would be like his father and some great man that would lead us through the troubles of september 11th. They built up all these great expectations and looked on him with awe as a leader of men, until that is reality slapped them all in the face and they realized just who exactly he was.

This image that we project goes both ways. Just as we may see someone as this great person in our thoughts, we can also see someone as a terrible bane of our existence. For example: There was someone I thought so terribly of, I looked down on and blamed the roots of so many of my troubles on them. That person to me became the scapegoat and a witch. When ever I was stressed out or angry I found myself blaming them and how they victimized me. I however realized that when I actually spent time with this person that I thoroughly enjoyed myself and that they were not the person I had created them to be. This is something everybody does. I would like to recommend that everyone stop and think to themselves. What images have I unfairly created for people?

Knowledge and Belief

A paper I wrote for freshman inquiry on belief and knowledge.

Knowledge and Belief

Knowledge and belief are two sides of the same coin that have been fighting over who is heads and who is tails for about as long as there has been cognate self aware life on this planet. Who is right and who dares to be proven wrong?

Belief is the acceptance of a theory or concept without concrete evidence. It is in short.. faith. Faith in something or faith that someone is telling you the absolute truth. Belief is often steeped in what is unexplainable. Ghosts, cosmic energy, God, karma and even the existence of a soul are all things that we can not conceivably prove with hard evidence. Not to say that there is no evidence supporting the claims, but rather that the evidence used is questionable at best. Yes, we exist on this earth, but it is not something we could have made, maybe God made it, thats what this book says. Someone cut me off in traffic and I become frustrated, perhaps I take that anger out on someone else. We can not prove that there is an exchange of negative energy even though we feel it and express it. Belief is a concept we understand but don't fully grasp. It is what I call an incomplete truth.

Knowledge is the understanding of a theory or concept through complete tests and concrete evidence. Unlike belief, knowledge is only knowledge when there is tested proof to explain a truth.

It is to say, I know this cup is made of glass because we can look at it under a microscope and see that the chemical compounds and carbon bondings are that of glass. It is to say, I know that paper burns at 451 degrees Fahrenheit because I can place paper in a closed off environment and test to see at exactly what temperature the paper will start to burn. When testing knowledge we use hard evidence to prove that we know something without a semblance of a doubt. It is in a sense, a complete truth.

If you take a step back and truly observe the two, one can see that they are two sides of the same coin. Though they constantly try to discredit the other, one could not exist without the other. Without incomplete truths there can be no truths to complete and vise versa. Ultimately it is only when we accept both sides of the coin that we truly become rich.

The Secret Recipie for the Ultimate Tuna Sandwich

The ultimate tuna fish sandwich.
Drain tuna
Empty tuna into a small bowl.
Mix in a teaspoon mayonnaise. Mix until it is evenly spread throughout.
Add few squirts of mustard for flavor (not too much). Mix until it is evenly spread throughout.
Add a dash of salt and pepper. Mix till satisfied.

I like to add pickle relish and hard boiled egg whites to the mix for a more complex flavor.

Serve on a hamburger bun like a Sloppy Joe.

Cheers and enjoy