Tuesday, April 7, 2009

But I Do Know That I Love You

Just a follow up to my previous post...

After talking to a few people/readers, including my lovely grandmother, I came to the realization that my post was written hastily and without complete consideration of how I might be coming across to those not familiar with my motivations.

I am not anti-philosophpy, per se.

I am just confused by it. I am confused why it is so significant in society and why people take such interest and comfort in it.

As my grandmother put it (I might be paraphrasing a little bit here) "your writing seems to lack a 'live and let live' attitude.

I must say, I never meant for this to the case. That is how I live my life, or try to, every single day. I have no problem with how anyone choose to life their life, as long as those choices do not impact those around them negatively. I did not mean to preach, although I guess I sort of did near the end. I was simply trying to generate discussion, as opposed to squelch the opinions of others.

When I disagree with something, I am not dismissing it. I am challenging anyone/everyone to make me change my mind.

If there is anything I do know, it's that nobody really knows anything for sure.

So I will finish this off the way I should have finished the first one... what are your thoughts on philosophy? Does it inspire you? Interest you? Do you find it deplorable?

I am interested to hear your collective thoughts.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Don't Know Much About History



Oh. I thought there was a line about philosophy in there somewhere. It's history, then biology and then... oh. Swing and a miss. Oh well
At the very least, that old Sam Cooke tune reminds me of John Belushi in the university cafeteria, in Animal House. And that is something that is always worth being reminded of. the eyebrow before the Jello is classic.

Anyways, I guess I wanted to write something deep and insightful about philosophy but I'm not feeling especially eloquent, so I will just get it out there and perhaps generate some discussion.

I don't get philosophy. I don't get the point of it, in the long run. I guess people are attempting to find themselves, to see if different ways of thinking inspire them to see themselves in different ways and then maybe they'll act differently because of this. But what is the point of that? Do you really want to be acting a certain way because of an ideology or because someone else believed something and happened to write about it?

That would be as arbitrary as if I started to preach about the health benefits of corndogs, somehow gathered some followers and was thus in charge of the corndog movement. People following me blindly, simply because they wanted to buy what I was selling.

Maybe some philosophy is supposed to prevent this, to inspire people to question ideology and the status quo. But by following that philosophy, which already exists, are you not just perpetuating the idea that someone must tell you what to do, what to think, what to be?

I know that perhaps, some feel I am trivializing great thinkers and personal growth but so what? that stuff should be trivialized. It's mental excess, and it's over indulgent. Simplicity is under-rated.

Know who you are. Know what you value. Know what will never change for you.

The rest is just gravy.

Smarten Up

vig⋅i⋅lance

[vij-uh-luhns]
–noun
1. state or quality of being vigilant; watchfulness: Vigilance is required in the event of treachery.
2. Pathology. insomnia.

Origin:
1560–70; alter. ( -ance for -ancy ) of obs. vigilancy < class="ital-inline">vigilantia; see vigilant, -ancy


1. alertness, attention, heedfulness, concern, care.


Alright well, again, due to my technologial ineptitude, I'm not really sure how to get rid of all these links above, as I copy and pasted that definition from dictionary.com. but that's not really the point of this anyways.

The point is, that I do not stick with things.

Well that's not entirely true. I stick with some stuff. I stick with sports and movies and music. I stick with reading books. In fact I've rarely started a book I didn't finish, even if I hated it.

So why can't I stick with writing? I enjoy it. I think I'm half-decent at it. When nobody else is reading it, I write all the time.

I think I just need to get into a routine. I think whenever I realize I haven't written in awhile, I will remember that one time, I posted about vigilance. and I will be vigilant.

I realize none of this is groundbreaking stuff. I am just attempting to hold myself publicly accountable, in the hopes that it will inspire greatness or at least, consistency.

"vigilance is required in the event of treachery'

What a dire sentence. Who writes the dictionary, anyways? Do they use the words in different sentences for each volume? That would be wild.

I will now attempt to write something that is more relevant. Thanks for indulging me.