Better company?

Ughhh. Their company has 10 Harvard graduates while we… Ughhh, we just don’t.

Better athlete?

Look how huge he is! I can’t possible take him down.

Better love?

Look at the size of her ring! She’s got the best husband in the world.

Better message?

That post is 1000 words, while this one is only 100, obviously this one sucks and has nothing of importance to say.

Oh, America – land of the big is better slogan. Judging on size is self-defeating. And pretty stupid. (Smaller is not better by the way – that’s just you, judging on size again.)

photo credit: Tobyotter

Yesterday I saw the future.

Not just once, not twice, but thrice.

Do you remember that scene from Minority Report where Tom Cruise walks past an ad and it recognizes him personally and talks to him directly? What about Johny Mnemonic, where Keanu Reeves surfs the web in a virtual reality environment? In a sense, that’s exactly where we’re headed. And frankly, I can’t wait.

But I can’t go about yelling “This is the future” all willy nilly. Don’t want to be compared to that guy on that corner downtown saying the same thing now do I?

So let’s look at the details of this whole interactive video thingy we have going on here.

“Not being racist is not some default starting position. You don’t simply get to say you’re not a racist; not being racist — or a sexist or a homophobe — is a constant, arduous process of unlearning, of being uncomfortable, of eating crow and being humbled and re-evaluating.” ~ G.D. of Postbourgie

You know what’s hard? Being good.

Doing the right thing and choosing the ‘right’ path is extremely hard. And it doesn’t get any easier with time (sorry to disappoint).

The only thing that changes with time is your reaction to the struggles in your life. Overtime, as you continue to pick the right, but difficult, choice it’ll become a habit. You’ll come to realize that the choice in which you struggle the most is most likely the best one. Sure, now and again you’ll pick the one with the least amount of struggling on your end – but you usually realize that you chose wrong (I know I have). Moving on from that in itself is a struggle. (Ask any ex-smoker, each slip up made it that much harder to quit, but they had to continue trying to quit.)

Unbeknownst to most is that we’re actually faced with tons of choices every day that require us to make a choice between the path of least resistance (struggle) and the path of most:

Search for eHow online and you’ll be bombarded with tons of How To’s and a thriving website. But try that with eWhy and you get a practically non-existent website.

How come there are no Why To’s on the web? And yet so many How To’s?

I do get it from a certain mindset –  the world is a scary place and it’s getting more and more complicated by the day. How To’s make it easier for us to do the things we want to do.

We want to bake a cake for our soon to arrive guests yet we don’t know how, we search “How to bake a cake”; we want to pick our own locks because we’re trapped outside with no key, we search “How to pick a lock”; we want to make money online because our jobs suck, we search “How to make money online”; And on, and on, and on. (Surprisingly one of the top hits for “How to” is “How to shower”.) How To’s help us in a moment of crisis, How To’s help us learn things we weren’t taught in school, and How To’s help us help ourselves.

But isn’t WHY as, if not more, important as how?

Shouldn’t we slow down a little and ask ourselves why we’re doing so and so? Why am I baking this cake? Why am I picking my own lock? Why am I working at a job I hate?

Something different:

I’m going to try something different with today’s post. Something less informative, but more touching. In a sense, more artistic. It’s written sparingly and all over the place; I wanted to capture the essence of thinking. We don’t think in straight lines – we think forward, backward, left, right, in rambles, and in spurts – all at the same time. So I didn’t want to write in a linear manner, it would feel false. But enough of my intro, let’s begin.

There isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you’ve heard their story. ~ Mary Lou Kownacki

I think the most beautiful pieces of art I’ve ever seen are people. People in themselves. People alone. People in groups. I guess that’s why I stare. Everytime I find myself looking at another person, truly looking at them, I find myself admiring them more than I ever could the Mona Lisa. I don’t know why but in that brief moment I see more than the exterior… It’s the little details that get to me.

Yesterday, as I sat down for one of my thinking sessions, I came to a realization that, for lack of a better word, astounded me. That realization was that we are all selfish. And not just at a minimum; entirely selfish.

None of us are selfless.

This doesn’t have to be a downer though (I’m not saying this just to ruin your day), there are many positives that come out of us being selfish. First of, the good news is that we are not intentionally selfish (which is a good thing); We are selfish as a by-product.

We are selfish as a by-product of us having feelings.

I’ll start from there.