Ask The Question, At Least

Einstein is quoted as saying, "any fool can build something bigger and more complicated."

So, the question each of us might ask of our self is this:  "Am I 'any fool?'"

He left out the part, I guess, about people who cannot or will not build anything.  Such folks don't build relationships, don't build homes, don't build on behalf of their employers, don't build anything productive.

Some build complaint files.  "My bosses don't understand".  "People here only care about money."  "No one wants to act ethically."  "Woe is me."

Some let life deteriorate.  We have owned several houses.  Most had been 'let go', and caused us as the new owner to begin to rebuild the house so it was fit for the next person to live in.  Maybe we were building bigger, and more complicated, but at least we were replacing the appliances, refinishing the woodwork, repairing the driveway.  "Am I any fool?"

So I am wondering about the question.  Maybe we need several questions.  Try these, and let us know what you think:

• Am I building small, tidy, less complex  stuff?
• Am I building bigger and more complex stuff?
• Am I building at all?
• Am I just letting everything deteriorate?
• Am I destroying most of what I touch?

What Are We Being Taught?

We are being taught.

From early days, stories, news pieces, TV programs, children's books, Internet sites all teach us how to think.  I didn't mention school.  We may or may not learn how to think in school.  If we are, usually we learn from what our peers and talking about, emoting about, and getting angry about.

We are taught to expect conflict.  The interesting stories are the ones with conflict.  If there is not conflict inherent in the story, teenagers will make conflict up.  It is not simply teenagers who make things up.  A friend went to a counselor to try to sort out some problems.  This lady counselor tried to get her to talk about the terrible things her parents had done to her.  As she told it after the session, "My parents were great!  My problems were not with them.  They were with peer relationships, and with myself." 

The counselor tried to "invent" conflict where there was no conflict.  She had been taught, simply by the media and by her own expectations, to find conflict, even where it does not exist.

One of the worst insults you can give a person is to call her or him "bland".  Bland means an absence of conflict, or the ability to deal with conflict and not become a "drama queen" or "drama king" about it.  Handle it and move ahead or sideways or wherever one wants to go.

We are being taught to expect conflict, and, if there is none present, to create it.

What do you think?  What have you experienced along this line?  Leave a comment and let us know.

One Size Fits All

Do you remember Tube Socks -- the one size fits all athletic socks that actually fit no one very well?  For some reason I got to thinking about that phrase the other day and I would like to think with you about it.

Do you ever wish that every doctor was the same as every other doctor -- especially the same as the very best "other doctor"?  Or that every computer geek could do what every other computer geek could do?  Or that every politician was like every other politician (hmmm -- can't think of that good example for the rest to follow?  I understand.)

Guys -- do you wish every girl looked like every supermodel, and that you and all other guys had the six-pack abs that are supposed to represent fantastic virility?

Well, maybe we can make that all happen.  With the new cloning procedures we just need to choose the two, or ten, or thirty "best" models of humanity and clone them.  With luck we will all dress alike, saving on dyes and textiles and putting fashion gurus out of work.  Models, too.  We could all be models, just wearing what we all would prefer.  We would all do the same as school.  No more grading on the curve, right?

We would all get the same diseases at the same age, take the same time getting over them, or. . .

We would all succumb to the same virus, and humanity would end up extinct.

Hmmm.  Maybe there are some benefits to diversity.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.