Dec
04

Having a Story to Tell

I will leave the full movie review of the movie Australia to my wife because she has more to say about that movie genre than I do. I actually have not seen many of the epic classic movies that everyone has in the must see list. I will say that the message I took from the movie resonates louder in my head than I thought a simple philosophical monologue from a movie could. Then I remember that the movie crash also had a similar impact with me on with its opening monologue.

Blogs can make people seem very one dimensional. There are a lot of things that I would like to share, but they do not lend themselves to this format or are too personal either for me or the people involved. Last time I wanted to share something that I felt was very important to think about I was accused of joining a cult. Maybe it has a little to do with the titles of my posts.

The message I took from the movie’s attempt at Hollywood philosophy was that to have a life you have to have a story. To really have a story you have to belong, and to belong you have to have love in your heart. I generalize ideas because I think it makes them accessible to everyone. I think the most powerful message in the world is that love, that intangible thing, is what life is all about. How to obtain love and deal with it by feeling it, giving it, cherishing it… that is the hard part.

This movie takes a step in the right direction by calling it a story. Christians call it the “the walk,” Buddhist call it “the wheel of life,” and I think everyone has the same message of living your life with love in your heart. You have to live your life like you are going to tell the story to someone and you should make Love the protagonist of the story.

Dec
03

Lots To Deal With

Ignorance and stupidity get to me. Even though I don’t adhere to the thinking that I am above anyone because of my education level, life experiences or overall capability to know little known trivia about any certain topic; I do let stupidity get to me. However, sometimes stupidity can cheer you up.

This year has been a tough one for many reasons. Scary because of the whole ear surgery and the possibility of becoming deaf. That is something that can be dealt with, but it would have been tough. The current state makes me think that worse case scenario I will have one good ear, but most likely I will be hearing better than in years past just after the beginning of the year. The rest of the reasons are related to people not appreciating what I do for them, its tough to do things and not get recognized for it no matter how much of a good Samaritan you want to be.

Appreciation is something that is not tough to get, it is tough to get from the people you want to get it from. Most people are very self centered in the sense that when you do something for them they can feel entitled to it. Those people I understand and accept like the are, the ones that I cannot stand are the ones that don’t see what you do for them.

I have been dealing with discrimination the whole time I have lived in the US. I made a conscious decision a lot time not to let it affect my view of people overall. I have dealt with people hearing an accent and associating it with mental retardation pretty well. However lately something that I did not account for happened, people started to be ignorant towards my wife. I cannot protect her, I cannot transfer my knowledge that people can be ignorant and associate being from another country with being uneducated and uncivilized. That was a callous that I had to grow on my own, and I wish I could shield her from having to experience.

I am very thankful for this year though, and when I complain about the tough times how lucky I really am does not escape me. Actually having people to complain to and care should more than make up for those that don’t even know how lucky they are to have me around. Through these tough times I have had great company and some very sound advice. I guess that is probably what makes it so funny now to see some of the stupidity I have seen around me lately.

Several things this week have reminded me about something I knew all along. Everyone has problems, everyone has things to deal with, but only your true friends can put their own problems aside while they listen to yours. A true friend never minimizes your pain while trying to mitigate it. A good person will always see pain as pain and never try to put a degree to it. I am extremely lucky to have plenty of people around me that have acknowledged my tough hear and have helped me through. For that I thank you, and I hope all of you know who you are; because having lots to deal with is no big deal when you have people like you around.

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