Monday, June 30, 2008

What is the worth?

A well-known speaker
started off his seminar by:
holding up a $20.00
bill. In the room of 200, he asked,
"Who would like this
$20 bill?"
Hands started going up.
He said, "I am going to give this
$20 to one of you
but first, let me
do this.
He
proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill.
He then asked, "Who
still wants it?"
Still the hands
were up in the air.
Well, he
replied, "What if I do this?"
And he
dropped it on the ground
and started
to grind it into the floor with his shoe.
He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.
"Now, who still wants it?"
Still the hands went into the air.
My friends, we have all learned a
very valuable lesson.
No matter what
I did to the money, you still wanted it
because it did not decrease in value.
It was still worth $20.
Many times in our lives,
we are dropped, crumpled, and ground
into the dirt
by the decisions we
make and
the circumstances that come
our way.
We feel as though we are
worthless.
But no matter what has
happened or
what will happen, you
will never lose your value.
Dirty or
clean, crumpled or finely creased,
you are still
priceless to those who DO LOVE you.
The worth of our
lives comes not in what we do or who we know,
but by WHO WE ARE and
WHOSE WE ARE.
You are
special
Don't EVER forget it."

Saturday, June 14, 2008

I feel like writing tonight. Not sure what yet. My brain is just in the mood for some deep thinking, and I thought I throw some random stuff out there and see what I come up with.

Today, in real life, I attended a pig roast. The food was wonderful and, while my daughter was somewhat disturbed by the look of the pigs head in the garage, empty eyes staring at her, she had a good time swimming and otherwise.

Tomorrow is Father's Day, which, as is usual, turns into a somewhat stressful day for me, trying to keep everyone happy. It will work out well enough, I suspect. I plan to take my daughter out to the Cranbrook Science Museum (like I have for the previous two years), as she expressed interest in going again. This could be a wonderful father's day tradition. I love the museum my the ascots I heard.

Good night. too tired to write anymore.

Monday, June 2, 2008

The Singular Emotion

Am I angry? Am I happy? Am I sad? Am I depressed?

I envy those people who can define their emotions in a single word. So simple. So black and white. Just the simple ability to say, "Yes, I am angry."

It's never that simple for me. I look at what looks like a seemingly simple situation and see it all in five dimensions. All of the viewpoints, all of the uncertainties about my understanding of the viewpoints. All of the misunderstandings. All of the emotional issues allowing others not to see the situation clearly, and uncertainty about my own issues that may not allow me to see a situation clearly.

Just painting my emotions with the single color of, say, "angry" does not even begin to cover the full complexity of it. Too many other variables involved.

It is partially for this reason that I've been a strong proponent of the saying, "With Complete Understanding comes Forgiveness." It has been my experience that the more I understand someone the more that the reasons for their behavior the more that their behavior, be it "good" or "bad", becomes understandable...indeed, inevitable.

Do I paint with too broad a brush or too narrow a one? Am I too much a person who forgives first and asks questions later?

I'm too tired right now. "Anger" is definitely one of the emotions I'm feeling right now. Anger comes with several dozen other feelings. It's never by itself. Nothing in my life would ever be so simple.

Exhaustion is another feeling I'm having. I need a good nap. I cut out of work really so that I could get some rest. Don't want to spoil it.

Love you all

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Staying real in an unreal world

Second Life is, in many ways, the ultimate test of staying true to ourselves.

We can appear as anything we want in SL. We can be men or women, dragons or drow, angels or demons.

And when we can be whatever we want, whenever we want, concepts of physical beauty go out the window. True, almost everyone is physically beautiful in SL. But when everyone is the same it starts everyone on the same playing ground. Appearance begins to matter less and less the longer one stays in world. It is not the appearance on the outside that matters, but the character of the person on the inside that makes all the difference.

That is, of course, an overstatement. There are many people in-world who are superficial and will stay superficial for as long as they shall live. But those people are always out there, and we must learn to deal with them as best we can.

The real challenge is staying true to "the character inside." Second Life can be looked at as a training ground. All around us are temptations and various and creative ways to lose our souls. Experimenting with who we are is not a bad thing, but, ultimately, being who we are not will destroy us.

I'm talking about things like being true to our own personalities. Not condoning behaviors which we feel to be wrong. Not being deceptive when we don't feel ourselves to be deceitful people. Not hurting people just because we're anonymous and we can. Not giving in to peer pressure and give up being friends with people whom we would ordinarily stay friends with.

To thine own self be true. Learning who "thine own self" is is something that Second Life can help with. Sticking to that "own self" is a challenge that we must struggle with every day.

Love and Peace
Alphonsus