See Double You

I recently came to the realization that we are all just dumb animals.  Go to any public place such as a grocery store, shopping mall, or even just downtown, and you’ll see.   This link , not real different from this link , proves it.

Now granted, that’s a harsh way to open the gates on my annual pre-holiday commentary, but if you still maintain the ability of self-thought, and honestly take the time out to watch people around you, you should come to the same realization.  I spent several hours of my life this past week watching Wall-E with my children, and my wife and I both decided it certainly was more of an adult than children’s movie.  Though it was a computer-generated cartoon, it was essentially a movie with a substantial amount of meaning regarding how we members of Western society are headed in terms of laziness, excess, and overindulgance.  From the endless hits to the groin and clumsy stupidity that floods America’s Funniest Home Videos, to the fact that we are actually convinced to buy a fast-food hamburger because it now contains “real beef,” we heralds of a modern society of convenience have somehow convinced ourselves to blindly pride ourselves in our gluttonous ignorance.

Americans have just made one of the most important decisions in modern history by voting in a President running on the platform of change, but what most cease to realize is that it is now not our jobs to sit idle and wait for that President to create that change, we instead have to be inspired to change ourselves and the world around us.  It is this ignorant attitude created partly by the retail land of convenience that has confirmed that it is ok for us to think “its not my problem, let the other guy worry about it.”  We think that as long as our televisions are high-def, as long as Starbucks doesn’t run out of coffee, and as long as Kohls will be open at 4am on the day after Thanksgiving, who could care less about anything else.

Once again ladies and gentlemen, I emplore you.  Take one minute, take two minutes, take as long as is convenient (please, I don’t want to interrupt your television routine or current text message conversation), and consider how you live your life.  Consider what is truly right for this planet.  Consider what is right for your children, or your neighbor’s children.  Consider what is right for your town, your state, for Africa.  How are you living your life today, and how is it impacting those things that you think are right?  Are you eating right?  Are you buying what you should and from whom you should?  Are you buying too much that you’ll just throw away?  Are you giving when you can give?  Are you treating others the way you would like to be treated?  How many of those things you consider can you honestly say to yourself that you’re doing the right way.  This is the change you have to make.  No one will make it for you, and no one is going to force you.  You have to realize.

I recently learned that the first time someone in China actually inscribed the name of our country, he accidentally wrote it as “The United People of America” as opposed to “The United States of America.”  I think that was a pretty good mistake to make.

This holiday, make some change, see the difference.  The reward, a gift in itself, is priceless.

Ah the election…  Nothing unites a democratic country more than standing behind an individual or group of individuals to support them in their quest to become one of our nation’s leaders.  Whether it be at the local, state, or federal level, you can tell when election day is coming up when we see people’s front yards littered with blue or red campaign signs, and the media is stuffed chock full of blather related to the strengths and weaknesses of those on this quest.

This time around, I find myself much more aware of a significant problem with this entire process that I find counter-productive to what some would call an idealistic expectation of our future.  While these candidates throw themselves into the public spotlight, “unzipping their fly” for all to see, and we the people stand behind them, an overwhelmingly obvious wave of anger, hatred and ignorance passes from one citizen to the next as daggers of accusation and slander are thrown from both sides of battlefield.  From YouTube to local newspaper editorials, truth and more often rumors flood the public forums as we try to sway the decisions of our fellow voters.

I have already found myself caught up in this a few times, and each time I have had to remind myself that it is not healthy to speak negatively of anyone.  Though it is important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of those who we choose to be our leaders, it is also important to remember that every human on this planet makes mistakes.  Instead of generating negative emotions about these mistakes, we instead should be objectively taking them into account and making rational, intelligent decisions based on *facts* that take into account their strengths and weaknesses.  All too often we find ourselves easily becoming “sheep” to an idea or concept that poisons our mind, has a severe impact on our ability to make a conscious decision, and only makes us ignorant to the truth.  Too many people on this planet have become lazy in front of their televisions, computers, and even in their traditional ways that they refuse to use their own mind to make an independent decision.  At what point do you say to yourself, “what is honestly and truly the right way?”

Unfortunately, due to an overwhelming amount of negativity, hatred and ignorance in our world today brought on by bigotry, war, religion, as well as violence whenever we turn on the computer or television, most of us have turned off our ability to seek out this core belief in what is truly right, and have instead learned to feed and depend on these thoughts and emotions.  Prove me wrong, but show me one evening of television, starting with your local evening news, where hate, violence, and death aren’t what keep the ratings going strong.  If its not hate, violence and death, its usually slander and gossip, just ask Paris or Britney.  Ok, there’s American Idol and its relatives…and there is a glimmer of happiness there as people go on the search to fulfill their dreams, but other than that, all that I’ve seen is pain.  This my friends is why I’ve simply learned to turn it off.

So as election day  draws closer and closer, remind yourself that the gray stuff floating around under your hair-do is capable of much more than you ask it to.  Pull yourself away from the ignorant chatter, stop being lazy, and challenge yourself to become learned about something beyond how to program your remote control.  Do everything you can to make your best intelligent effort to create the world we’d all like to wake up one day to live in.  Its most definately not the easiest thing to do, but if each of us were to work a little harder at it, it could certainly be the most rewarding.