Knives, close to home

You know those times when life is just great and every thing seems to be going smoothly? You know when, right in the middle of that, you get blindsided by a Mac truck transporting Secrets & Lies? I really, really hate those times. Say your having a great conversation with someone and things have been going well when right out of the blue they slip in one little line that changes everything. You know the ones that are couched so nicely in the flow of conversation that at first you miss them and then all of a sudden the ceiling falls in. Your first response is "What the heck did you just say?" Though likely as not you aren't so polite about it. Followed closely by the "You did what?!?" or other variations there of. And for some completely unknown reason people assume this is a great way to tell you. Personaly I like a little more warning so I can take a seat and maybe have a stiff drink beside me. I mean seriously you don't drop a comment like "I have cancer" into the middle of a sentence and expect a calm reaction from someone. I mean really, give them some warning. That kind of thing is okay when telling people your getting married or something nice like that but it sure as heck doesn't work for bad news. You really think people are going to love you for springing bad news on them? Or that the conversation can just keep going the way it was before? This doesn't even work in the movies, what on earth makes you think it would work in real life?!

The other thing about the revelation of Secrets and Lies, is how it changes everything. People who reveal them some how assume that by reassuring you with words that you will believe them that nothing else they said is a lie and that they have no other secrets. But it doesn't work like that does it? No of course not, if someone has told you a nice big fib then you find yourself questioning everything they've said to you. Even if the words are true the context isn't anymore, so like it or not what they said before no longer means the same thing.

I don't know, personally I just wish people would swallow their pride and tell me these things as soon as they happened so we could just get down to pulling the knife out of my back and start the healing process. It takes long enough, and is painful enough, as is with out the added damage done by keeping it from someone for an extended period of time. The longer the secret is kept the less chance there is of salvaging your relationship with that person. I really hate this stuff.

America or the world

Therefore a wise prince will seek means by which his subjects will always and in every possible condition of things have need of his government, and then they will always be faithful to him.
-- Niccolo Machiavelli,

"The Prince"

Just a thought but dosen't that sound a lot like how the American government is run? Bush is being persecuted, he holds sway over less then half the voting population in the states, and the justice system is after him for misapropriation of funds. Suddenly 9/11 occures and the US immediatly goes after Afghanistan. The new government is installed in Afghanistan and as things settle down the Senate, Congress, the American people and the other members of NATO want to know where Bush got his hands on his information and why he didn't alert them earlier. So Bush turns the heat on Iraq. Funny how that is? Then again if you look at the history of other Presidents, the intelligence agencies, the Senate, the millitary and Congress they have all been manufacturing events for years. Seems to me America isn't a country based on freedom but on control. How else do you explain their media? But then again is it really just America?

Imperfect thoughts on thought

What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output.
-- Sheng-ji Yang

Consider this carefully: how much more could you do if you were the master of all your output? Think of it not only in relation to sensory information but in relation to all things. It is no simple thing that is suggested here but the implications are huge. In fact it is safe to say that anyone who achieves mastery of any output rises above the norm of humanity.

Look at pain and the implications of mastering it. For women especially this holds great potential. If you could take the pain of the menstrual cycle or child birth and make it no more than a log entry in your brain, you could once again take control of events around you. Think of those who suffer constantly, their idea of pain is often way beyond the norm. Their circumstances often force them to take control, those who don't become bitter and angry.

Now take all of this and expand it: media, food, those you associate with, what you do, etc. If you begin to take control of what you put in you can master what goes out. In what way do you wish to become a better person? Find the inputs which affect this characteristic and take control of them; soon you will master the output and become who you wish to be. The basis of this entire idea is simply that of making continuous decisions about things that you would normally leave to the unconscious.

Yet I know that this quote missed the fundamental key that enables one to act upon it: hope. Hope is key, without it nothing stands and no one can control or master, for without hope is despair which is the absence of control or mastery. The greater a person's hope the greater their ability to succeed. So we find that the true question is then, in what do you place your hope?