The Roots of Laziness, Woven into Our Options

I've been accused of being analytically fanatical, even paranoid. I am very literal, sometimes overly logical, my decision making tends to side with methodical, and the description I give to my thoughts is visually articulate. I enjoy dissecting ideas, thoughts, scenarios, and behaviors. Much the way I enjoy taking objects apart, observing their inner working functions, and moving parts. With a better understanding for how they work, I find a deeper appreciation of STUFF in general. My mind tends to work more scientifically than one being driven by fantasy or mystery. However knowledge of science allows me to write more terrifying and believable fantasies and mysteries!
On the other side of the scale, I am very human, extremely fallible, I do have a tendency to stand strong in protest for many things that I deem unacceptable, many would find this fortitude positive, however standing strong and protesting that which has already occurred and cannot be undone is futile. Although I inherently know that this energy can be put to good use elsewhere, I frequently find myself stuck in the rut of what is that's unsatisfactory and how it "SHOULD" be (according to my distorted mindset). Achieving preventative action, being proactive in the future is my main goal in every new found disappointment. 
I push beyond what it is, and note all of it's unfortunates, allowing my vision to illustrate what I can do to improve it moving forward. The sadness comes with the feeling of helplessness when I am reminded that I am but one woman, unable to change the world alone. I am frustrated by my failures, saddened, defeated, and disappointed that others do not share in my enthusiasm to raise the bar, and take positive steps toward creating a better life.
I don't see anything special about me. I think I am a bit more intense than most that I know, but not above average or UNIQUE in anyway. I simply see it my approach to life as a pragmatic one. Wherever and whenever possible, I own the errors of my neurotic ways and do not put it upon others to have to exist within my emotional wasteland. When I receive positive affirmation, it's equally important for me to take it gratefully, without ego, and to not be placed on any pedestal or to be labeled as anything other than me. 

I believe human beings form (in our own imaginations) ideas of what everything "SHOULD" be like. Society does this for us through the media, feeding us what to perceive as the "Perfect Family" from Leave it to Beaver or Happy Days, to the Brady's, the Bundy's, or even the Simpsons. We believe our family isn't "normal" if it's not just like the ones we see on TV and we place unrealistic expectations on our loved ones without merit. We mustn't forget that every resentment is rooted from our own expectation.

We spend our entire lives searching for acceptance, kindness, affection, and unconditional love. When we have it, we find it, or it finds us, and we fail to recognize it at all, we are so preoccupied with our obsession with setting the perfect stage, micro-managing everyone's time and how they spend it, passing out scripts to every character in our lives. We are trying create the movie that plays in our mind of what it's "supposed to be". It is impossible to manufacture "perfect". We eventually find that we've lost what we had because we spent so much time telling the people who loved us that they are doing it wrong.

We fall victim to depression and lack any feelings of satisfaction when fixated on all of the trivial things that we DON'T have. In turn, we fail to feel even the smallest sense of gratitude for all of the amazing things that we DO have. We CAN adjust the ways we think, and we can adjust our perception, merely by changing our perspective. This is true for what we have or don't have materialistically, what we get or don't get from our families, in our relationships, from our education, employers, and with regard to the quality of our own lives. Striving for what we want brings us leaps and bounds above wallowing in what we don't have.

Material has filled this emotional void for so long that when we are down it feels good to get something, to buy something, or for some people to steal something. I am willing to bet that if you were to ask a 10 year old kid in middle class America to give you a mental inventory of what he has at home, he can only tell you about the stuff that "makes him cool" or that which he has and other kids only wished they had... I am even more convinced that if you were to ask that SAME child what he was missing out on, or what he didn't have that he wished he had, that he would give you a far more detailed list.

I believe we as a society have become so lazy because we are addicted to all the "stuff" that provides immediate gratification, from fast food, to the internet, to smart phones, to alcohol, drugs, gambling, shopping, and sex and so on. We aren't willing to "DO" anything anymore, we want everything at our disposal.

Why go to a gym and WORK out, if this pill can make me lose weight?

Why go to the library to do research when I have Google?

Why read the book when I can watch the movie?

Why feel my hurt feelings when they make a pill, powder, or drink so I don't have to? 

Why go to work when I can gamble or steal for more money?

Why do laundry when I can buy more clothes?

Why wait to get home to my spouse when I can have whats here in front of me?

My theory is that we [Americans] are entitled, spoiled, and often unappreciative. I attribute this first to EXCESS and then to that insatiable "hunger for more" we experience before we're through with all that we have in front of us. I believe that we are a gluttonous society and we've demanded more and more stuff and when the price of the stuff was too high, we've demanded more options, and now we too many CHOICES of which SIZE, COLOR, or BRAND of stuff we're gonna get, and just gotta have. 

When traveling to remote places, I feel a sense of ease, or even serenity. Or a tranquil simplicity that just FEELS BETTER. Our bodies and our minds have a way of telling us when everything is alright. Although I have no desire to go and live in a cabin in the woods, I've definitely considered a life of fewer choices, concerns, or so-called "conveniences". In fact, I find that I experience more anxiety and withdrawal from the world when I can't choose the best option as it feels like the best distraction, or the lesser of a multitude of evils. This is not at all because I am indecisive, it's because the options are all the same, there is really not one that is better than another. Then I find myself feeling dumb having even wasted my time, and wondering what I might have been more satisfied to be doing instead. That this over abundance of choices are of things that aren't even really serving a single good purpose, other than to fulfill my need to be entertained in my selfish moment of boredom, and that moment has come and gone already. As a result, I can't help but feel a little ripped off, angry that I can't have that time back, and suspicious that I was purposely diverted toward one thing as a way to distract me from recognizing the truth about something else. I don't talk too openly on this as they build institutions for people who do, and there is a vivid assortment of pills used to counteract this sort of thinking, giving doctors job security and (what do you know?) INFINITE OPTIONS for treatment of an alarming number of patients who believe they are somehow "broken" and are desperately seeking some sort of fix.

Take the POWER Back, BREAK FREE, THINK FREELY

You and I couldn't possibly have anything in common today because: __________.
I'm black and you're white, I'm short and you're tall, I'm fat and you're thin, you went to Yale and I was in jail, I'm a Democrat and you're a Republican, you're Jewish and I'm Buddhist, you like cats and I like dogs, you prefer the city and I love the countryside.

As children, we are taught from a very young age to recognize and identify that which is "different" from ourselves. In some cases, this is where the hate seed is planted.


We all have a very human tendency to comprehend things in any number of different ways. Each one of us can hear the same story and interpret it differently, so consider the variety of factors, such as how the information is introduced or is explained to us, our level of understanding, how it is interpreted by us, and how we use the information, what if any will be incorporated into our lives.

What is the most powerful tool they have against us? 
The answer is us. 

With so many layers of fundamental differences, how could we actually ever see the root of our trouble is so simple?

This is precisely why there is such emphasis on our differences. Separation feeds ignorance and that will feed fear. This has gone on for generations and generations, and governments use it to cloud the fact that they are not the voice of the majority.

Unity builds strength to overcome and conquer.

Walk with me down the hallway of a very well known children's hospital, in one of these rooms to the right or left you may find your child desperately clinging to life while waiting for an organ transplant. For your entire life, you've been programmed to believe any combination of hateful things about a specific group of people living among us. Are you going to stop the very surgery which could save your child's life just to make sure that the organ she was matched with didn't come from one of your sworn "enemies"? Of course, you wouldn't. 

Can you now see that whether you see things biologically, fundamentally, emotionally, socially, or psychologically...  At our very core, we are all the same. We all have the instinct to bond with and be nursed by our mothers. We all long for companionship, learning, fun, love, sex, excitement, etc. We all require food, water, sunlight, sleep, and shelter to survive. We all have the same internal organs.

Perhaps before we take on marketing for "everyone on earth", we are best to start at the rudimentary. Shut off the TV and try to keep it simple by looking in the mirror with an honest focus. See ways we can break the cycle of negativity starting with things that we actually can control, ourselves. Maybe come up with a list of positives in our lives... 

What are we grateful for? What makes us smile?

Then take those answers and share them with another person that we may not appear to have anything in common with. Look at a stranger and find a positive about them, and pay them a compliment. Not to receive one back, but to know we dropped a hit of positive energy in their day whether they asked for it or not. Make a game of it, but be genuine in our words toward each other, even if we do this just once a day, it will change our whole world for the better. Providing our world with the counterbalance is imperative. It won't be long before we find out just how much the little things DO matter! 

We would probably benefit greatly by putting down the gadgets and "reality TV" and other tripe we've lowered our standards to be subjected to. This would provide us with a real-world ability to increase our awareness of real events happening in our world. People still do nice things, animals still save lives, kids can still be kind to each other, sunny days come after the storm which was needed as a way to cleanse the land, at times people recover from cancer and other diseases, accidents can often be prevented, tragedy narrowly averted, marriages can sometimes be saved, communities unite in times of disaster, even criminals are sometimes rehabilitated and choose to devote their lives to helping others. 

Test yourselves. Try to take a day, or even a week off... from TV and the so-called "news" that is being fed to us by the negatively biased media outlets. If we actually LIVE a little rather than EXIST allowing life to be force-fed to us from some man-made digital God, we might stop actively seeking the BAD in every culture, person, place, idea, opinion, or situation, and maybe even allow our minds to let in a few rays of GOOD again. 

If you ever wonder why small children are so full of love,

it's because they haven't been PROGRAMMED by news reports, in fact, when the news is on, they find something else to explore and enjoy... Perhaps it's an instinct or an allergy to bullshit!

We CAN all be happier, more content, and more motivated to make the NEXT positive change in our lives if we would just open our eyes a little wider, expand our focus, get off our ASSES, and use our brain the way it was designed... To think FREELY and to LEARN. 

WE STILL RESERVE THE RIGHT TO DECIDE HOW MUCH SHIT WE ARE WILLING TO TAKE!

Fanatics and Tyrants, Terrorists and Citizens

The conspiracy theorists and their internet talk radio shows are the real terrorist groups in this country, spouting off about a tyrannical government and selling their rhetoric and propaganda to weak minded people with less than ideal emotional stability. Telling them to buy assault rifles and prepare for government tyranny. Keeping them all on high alert after an election, giving them more reason to hate the current president, and telling them the media isn't reporting the truth about another school massacre, that the "killer" was merely a patsy and that the government is coming to your door next week, to take away your guns!"

Responsible gun owners, do not stockpile assault rifles in their homes, preparing for the "tyrannical government" to come try to take their guns. Responsible gun owners are the people who own a hunting rifle, even a pistol. Whether for sport or protection, they are not INVITING a firefight for any "government agency" who wishes to take their guns away. Fanatical crazy people are buying assault rifles and collecting them just LOOKING for a reason to use them. The government has every right to want to remove these automatic weapons from the hands of unstable individuals, however... for every legally obtained gun in this country, I am willing to bet there are several black market firearms. The real threat is not the people who allow the "government" to know they have guns in the house. Aside from the few idiots who are dumb enough to let them know they have multiple assault rifles... maybe THEY are the patsy's? How else would taking guns from responsible and sane people who register and apply for the necessary licenses help reduce the number of violent gun crimes in this country?

I think the government might have a better shot at trying to bring something to the table that might shut up the fools that are feeding the crazies, telling them to stop drinking the water and stop taking their meds... They are creating an army of domestic terrorists, fanatical and racist. Feeding their minds with thoughts of "race wars" and "FEMA camps" and "Lizard people" and so on. 

I do not like the direction that American society has turned in, however, I am a law abiding citizen. I'd feel far less comfortable around a racist, militant atheist, doomsday prepper than I would around a suspended cop with a drinking problem. 

I have come up with some great ideas in my life, every one of them someone else already beat me to... I am certain that if I can see a clear difference in the psychology of a lunatic with a gun and a responsible gun owner, that the government of the great country I live in can see it as well. My discomfort of fanatical behavior is based on healthy instinct, nothing short of miraculous given my history.