Online Journal

there's something daunting about an old flickering television, with a broken antenna. it reminds you that the television is just a tube. and the tube is just a vessel, for a signal. and there are zillions of signals being transpired all over the globe. but are all the little signals making one BIG signal that can only be seen by something too far away from earth for us to consider significant? what if our obsession with technology was helping something BAD find us? something that was having trouble finding us... until we helped "it" to see the LIGHT? 

light. 

it reminds me that electricity is a relatively new luxury. what a phenomenon it must've been to go from candles by the bed to florescence over head! and if a BRAIN discovered electricity, then maybe a brain is just a satellite for ideas... after all, ideas and thoughts are nothing but electrical impulses traveling at the speed of light. maybe words like "reflection" and "enlightenment" are just hints of SOMEONE'S knowledge of the full potential of the brain and the universal subconscious. what i mean is... what's that THING that we ALL know we KNEW before it was ERASED from our memory?  that secret that all "great" leaders seem to realize while most people are left in the dark... society is desperately searching for THAT thing in every new generation... we're like little kids who dropped their tokens in a ball pit at a carnival. and society is like an angry parent asking us to be responsible when all we want to do is play games...

"THINK! REMEMBER!" it tells us. 

"I'M TRYING!!!" you respond... 

sounds like an interrogation to me. 

(Like Neo & Agent Smith)

so, like are favorite heroes [of the movies and the shows... hopefully, even of our watered down history], we start taking a stand and start asking THEM the questions...

"What am I even looking for again?"

"What's it to you?"

"Who gave you the authority?"

"Why did you bring me here, if you didn't want me to have fun?"

"How did I get here?!"

"Why should I listen?"

anyway, the whole idea of interrogation was just a thought. the interrogator was once in the dark and got mad because he thought he was going blind. 

but see what thoughts can do? our thoughts and questions are electric, like light. the signals and technology that we obsess about are so external. "ME!" is all a signal says. static and signals distract us from our own distress calls from within. they distract us from ourselves. sir issac newton would say then that by the definitions of the physical universe, if all this light is distracting us from ourselves, then it must be attracting something to us. if we are the good in the world, then what ever we are attracting TO us that detracts FROM us must be BAD. 

anyway.

SEE what happens when you think about the little things? like TVs with broken signals? you make your own stories.

inebriated reflections on heartbreak

i found this in my facebook archives from my early college days and thought it was pretty funny but true.



“In the end, we all turn out to be the person we swore we’d never be…”

...It has come to my attention that in order to insure personal fulfillment, happiness, or whatever other terms you consider synonymous with love…YOU inevitably become a person you swore you’d never become. EVERYONE eventually ends up using other people to find the one person they were looking for in the beginning. Now, I finally understand the jack ass that told me “without heartbreak, there is no love (now in retrospect, I still hate him…now, for his nonchalant attitude about the whole thing and not the fact that he broke my heart).” One thing I will say is: I’m SORRY if I’ve ever been a nonchalant inflicter because the heart is a delicate package, and should be handled with care, even when the receiver eventually chooses to dispose of it. Return a heart carelessly, and it goes out and gets mixed up with other hearts until all are unidentifiable, and defective.


Ughh---It’s an uncomfortable satisfaction that accompanies the understanding of a past heartbreak. But the understanding assures me that this whole vicious cycle is not in vain.

three steps to increase self-worth:

What would we do without television and syndication? When I saw Aladdin was on TV tonight, I was besides myself like a child zealot.

I stand firm behind my beliefs that the Disney Fairytales ingrained a mythology about gender codes, racism, and fantasy into the minds of Generation X. But the reality is, we bought, we saw and we treasured those fairytales and the life lessons they subliminally taught us.


Back to Aladdin, I just wanted to highlight what I saw as "the point, behind the point," of  the three wishes.


First, let's remember the importance of the number 3. In numerology, as well as Child


ren's literature, the number 3 represents the trilogy; specifically, the triangular components to spirituality. Interestingly enough, we are introduced to Abu, Aladdin's faithful companion (his monkey...smh, racist, but whatever) from the onset of the film. Then, we are introduced to the magic carpet... a representation of Aladdin's upward mobility. The trilogy is completed upon discovery of the genie in the lamp, who "illuminates" Aladdin to the possibilities of his life. This triumvirate is exactly what Aladdin needs to transform himself into a candidate for royal courtship.


His wishes, however, are what improve his worth...in particular, his "self-worth." Here's my breakdown of the metaphor behind the wishes of improving self-worth:

Wish/Step One: Getting Fit For Royalty

-The first step towards improving self-worth, especially in the matters of LOVE, is playing the part. From the onset of the movie, Aladdin knew, if given the opportunity, he would be able to show the world there was "so much more" to him than his exterior. The funny thing about the world we live in is that people need to respect the exterior before they even inquire about the interior (The Philosophy of Aesthetics). Dressing the part of the prince is fitting for acquiring the hand of Princess Jasmine, who knew wealth before she even met him and saw it in him despite his state of impoverishment. It's necessary to eventually rid yourself of rags for the one who treasured you when you were a peasant. Jasmine was worthy of his efforts.

Wish/Step Two: Rebirth For A New Life

- The second step for improving self-worth is the death of the old self for the rebirth of the new self. In literature and doctrines of societies that value enlightenment as a key to success, "the near death experience" is always partnered with a subsequent perspective change on the value of life. When Aladdin sinks to the bottom of the ocean, it prepares him for focusing on what is important for the next stage in life...whether that be marriage or a prospective Sultan.


Wish/Step Three: Adopting A Royal Ethic Code 
-The third and final step to improving self worth is having a strong ethical code that you stand by in times of great conflict and decision making. After Aladdin and the royal family are subjugated to abject humilation, the only way to defeat the a deceitful villain is by chaining him to his own obsession for power. After Jafar is defeated and the old order is restored, Aladdin chooses to keep his promise and free the genie instead of turning himself back into a prince. In doing so, he becomes a KING! To be truly worthy of the title royalty, you should realize you are no one's master. A good king wishes for the freedom of all his subjects. Especially the ones that helped make him into a King.

what are you so afraid of?

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself..."

- FDR

Do you find yourself think negatively? Don't lie, we all do, but WHY? That answer is relative to the individual. Consider this, though: 

We have bad thoughts because we are consciously or subconsciously afraid of something. 

A good friend put me on to the fact that most of our negative thoughts can be counteracted if we acknowledge that bad thoughts stem from fear. What are you afraid of? Recognize that if you stop fearing difficult situations and adopt a positive psychological mind state for problem solving...(i.e. "I control my reality with my thoughts"; "Dissecting a problem actively prevents the feeling of being overwhelmed...") you can make yourself happier! 

I know, easier said than done, right? Well, practice makes perfect so get to it!

use the yin-yang

  

Balance is one of the most crucial aspects of life; the masculine and the feminine, the positive and the negative, day and night, the good and the bad. Seeking balance in everything you do is the first stage to realizing that you reside within a sentient nation.


On a fundamental level, the human being can use the ying-yang as a reminder of the duality that exists within the self. Every person has characteristics of both the yin and the yang. Actively maintianing the balance in one self can begin as easily as making a conscious effort to embrace both your positive and negative emotions or giving thought to every action.


Once you have disciplined yourself to this mindset, the system of balance will be easily applicable to a grander scale. If the self is balanced, it will naturally want to seek balance with everything that surrounds it. Much like the balance of duality found within the self, so exists this same duality in nature. The individual who incessantly has great fortune bestowed on him or her, should be aware of those who have experienced tremendous losses. Those who have witnessed a series of unfortunate events, should continue to look for those who serve as reminders of life's inevitable pay-offs. Use the Ying Yang to remember to get balanced!

invention: the mother of necessity

Thorstein Veblen, Norwegian-American sociologist, economist and leader of the Efficiency Movement (famous for his Theory of the Leisure Class) said, "Invention is the mother of necessity." Reversing the first and last words of the original maxim, Veblen proposes an interesting argument for the reproductive nature of the relationship between invention and necessity.


Today, a friend told me their i-pod made them feel like they NEEDED music on their daily commute. While music can be an enjoyable way to pass the time, it is not necessary in order for a person to do so. This pushed me to think about why so many people I see on the Boston T or the busy city sidewalk share a need to be so plugged in. It wasn't until I passed an advertisement on the street for cell phones that I realized inventions bare necessity through the birth canal of marketing.  When the media attempts to prove a need for a given product or invention, it simultaneously plays on the average individual's inclination to lean on group think, blind following, and impulsive consumerism for industrial capital gain. In today's world, often times it is the case that the sentiments that drive us to define what we feel are necessities are constructed. Try not to confuse NEED for WANT. Things that are necessary need not be defined and artificial intelligence desires to grow more artificially intelligent.


When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he bore the light that exposed a vision for an illuminated world. A world that would sooner rather than later be on the brink of going blind, due to eye-for-eye mentalities and its captivation with staring at and reproducing artificial light. 

a moment in time

We've been taught that time is linear. Since we were young, we've been conditioned to incessantly fret about the future because we're constantly reminded of our end point. Many ancient civilizations, such as the Incas, Mayan, Greek, and Babylonian civilizations, had a different understanding of time all together.What if time were cyclical? What if all living beings are harboring a piece of energy that has existed since the conception of time and even beyond?


If this is the case, then the power of NOW becomes that much more important. Our daily actions wind about a universal cycle of consciousness. The struggle that all sentient beings face between triumph and failure has always been in existence and always will be in existence. Living in the moment every day of your life, trying to balance your own well-being with those around you, living to your maximum potential everyday (AS IF it were your last)--these are the things that allow us to escape the captivity of the watch.

life

In between a conclusion and a beginning, a string of events that brink from a predetermined awakening of consciousness draws a line to separate mere existence from habitual persistence. How soon we realize that there is a global network of billions of lines hugging the globe, all giving off a relatively powerful vibrational frequency due to their indestructible will to persist, is how soon we realize that we are all connected; all of us are necessary elastic bands bound to an unnecessary plastic ball that allows us to bounce from concrete foundations and glass ceilings in a very necessary, incomprehensible, multi-dimensional universe. That energy from our global network is the very essence of God and that's all there ever was and all they'll ever be: A global network of habitually persisting sentient beings working for the greater common good. Prayer, compassion and balance help us to discipline our conscious efforts to consistently work towards a greater environment for us ALL. When you reach your conclusion, you get the peace of knowing the generations to follow will all be nurtured by the balance of the global network.

L I F E is about remembering the reality of your duality. They may have made us plastic but that means we all can bounce!