I’m currently retrofitting my blog in several areas, including categories, tags, and themes (”theme” is the term WordPress uses to indicate the visual appearance, or ’skin,’ of a blog). As such, all categories except the default “uncategorized” have been deleted, and the theme will likely be changing many times over the next few days.
I’ll be adding new categories and tags as needed. Primarily I’ll do this whenever I write a new post. I also intend to go back over all 300+ posts and add new categories and tags as seems appropriate. Over time, I hope this will result in a far more sensible collection of categories and tags so that you, dear Reader, may more easily find what you’re looking for.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned… more content is right around the corner!
I once saw a beautifully decorative jar filled with seeds. I asked the jar’s owner what kind of seeds they were and she replied, “Those are Coast Redwood seeds. Coast Redwoods are among the tallest trees in the world!”
After some small talk we parted ways but the image of her seed-filled jar lingered in my mind’s eye. It certainly was a beautiful decoration for display, and the novelty that those weren’t just any seeds, but seeds from the tallest trees in the world, kept nagging me. After some deliberate thinking, I realized that I was bothered by a larger idea: the difference between the appearance of those seeds locked away for decoration and the potential in those seeds to produce a magnificent phenomenon.
Although there are any number of reasons why a person might desire such a unique and attractive decoration, the real value in those seeds is in their potential to become something greater than mere decoration. By confining those seeds within that jar, their innate potential to become the worlds tallest trees was lost.
Just as there are many different kinds of trees in the world, each with their own unique properties and appearances, so it is with human beings:
I believe that when people feel stuck in an occupation or profession that doesn’t recognize or utilize their innate abilities and interests, these people are less likely to experience a genuine sense of satisfaction in their work, perhaps even in their lives. And while their presence in that field or factory or office building may provide some decorative value, their innate potential lies dormant like those seeds in the glass jar.
On the other hand, when a person’s innate abilities and interests are necessary to their work, I believe that person is much more likely to feel an inner-pride in what they’re doing and, by extension, in who they are as a person. Happy people are more reliable, loyal, and productive workers precisely because their work feels less like thankless toil and more like an act of becoming (think Maslow’s hierarchy and self-actualization).
To become what we were born to become is perhaps life’s greatest truth to be recognized, and its greatest reward to be obtained.
Short and sweet: in 8 minutes, you’ll understand liberty far better than a significant majority of the people I’ve ever met.
I sometimes find the soundtrack annoying but you can always turn the sound down (there are no spoken words, only short bursts of reading to follow along). Welcome to the fold of the knowing, Friend…
As much as I enjoy blogging, I think I enjoy the level of social interaction that I get on MySpace just a teeny bit more. One of those benefits that I enjoy is getting to know others when they post informal surveys that inevitably find their way onto the publicly posted bulletin board area.
MySpace surveys ought not be considered legitimate measures of anything except, perhaps, the willingness of another person to share his or her answers. While I suppose some of these surveys may have roots in genuine psychological precepts, I think most are simply an expression of someone having fun by asking questions in the hopes that they’ll discover some new thing about people in the friend list.
That said, I thought I’d transport one of those MySpace surveys (that I answered this evening) onto this, my ‘real’ blog so that you, dear Reader, may gain a bit more insight into what makes me tick. I’ll just put on my vulnerable hat and — there! — ok, here we go…
1 - Why are you best friends with your best friend?
Because I’m a scary judge of character and he’s one in less than a handful of people that I unquestioningly trust.
2 - What bothers you the most about other people?
Speaking from personal experience, most of the people I’ve known in my life seem to embrace an attitude that I describe as “willful ignorance.” True ignorance can be rectified (because anyone can be educated in matters about which they’re currently less than well-informed) but to be willfully ignorant is to refuse an opportunity to become better-informed about a matter when that opportunity is readily available; I despise such an attitude and, by implication, the people who choose to be that way.
3 - Would you ever marry for money?
My own personal experience leads me to question the legitimacy of one’s ability to promise to be exclusive with/to another person for the rest of one’s life so it is highly unlikely (though not impossible) that I would ever marry again for any reason, including that romantic notion of ‘true love,’ which may be genuine in a moment but honestly — who among us can lay claim to know beyond doubt that not only we ourselves, but the object of our affection, is capable of keeping such a promise in all the fullness and integrity that such a promise denotes?
4 - Do you prefer to text message or talk on the phone?
I prefer to talk, whether on the phone or in person.
5 - Do you believe that 30 really is the new 20?
I’m not sure I understand what ‘the new 20′ stands for in order to comment on whether I believe that 30 is ‘it.’
{{ okay, who dropped number six? bastids! LOL! }}
7 - What is one of the toughest things you ever had to do?
Voluntarily leave a relationship that my head knew full well had developed into a detrimental state, but one in which I felt the most intense and committed sense of love that I’ve ever known (because she no longer felt the same about me).
8 - Name a challenge you are faced with on a regular basis?
Living peacefully in a society where the majority of people seem to be afflicted with ‘willful ignorance’ syndrome (see answer number two for elaboration).
9 - Do you cry a lot?
I did in the first few months following the event described in number seven but not now; grieved… healed… moved on and happier for it.
10 - Do you have a plan?
Abso-f*ckin-lutely! ;)
11 - Do you think its possible to only love one person for the rest of your life?
I think it’s probable that the question is poorly worded but to answer it as it is written: no.
12 - Are you close with your family?
In touch with various degrees of frequency but nothing that I would describe as ‘close.’
13 - Name one thing that you are good at?
Analysis.
14 - Name one thing that you are bad at?
Conformity for the sake of convenience.
15 - Your thoughts on Karma?
Sh… it happens. (LOL!)
16 - What does the 5th text message in your inbox say?
“Will 8:00 work?”
17 - What did you reply to it?
“K”
18 - What do you do for a living?
I provide leadership to a small team of business analysts engaged in a cutting-edge project environment (ok, that’s the ‘on paper’ description; in truth, I play navigate the bureaucratic headspace of several power-hungry executives for the purpose of working effectively).
19 - Do you honk your horn at old people when they are driving bad?
When they are driving “badly”? Not generally. I consider the horn a tool to be used when imminent danger is likely and not, as some people, simply as a means of expressing frustration and/or impatience.
20 - Why do you do myspace surveys?
Because I sometimes enjoy giving the appearance that I’m just another willfully ignorant sheeple; it confuses my ‘watchers’ — LOLOLOL!!! :)
I’m currently retrofitting my blog in several areas, including categories, tags, and themes (”theme” is the term WordPress uses to indicate the visual appearance, or ’skin,’ of a blog). As such, all categories except the default “uncategorized” have been deleted, and the theme will likely be changing many times over the next few days.
I once saw a beautifully decorative jar filled with seeds. I asked the jar’s owner what kind of seeds they were and she replied, “Those are Coast Redwood seeds. Coast Redwoods are among the tallest trees in the world!”
On the other hand, when a person’s innate abilities and interests are necessary to their work, I believe that person is much more likely to feel an inner-pride in what they’re doing and, by extension, in who they are as a person. Happy people are more reliable, loyal, and productive workers precisely because their work feels less like thankless toil and more like an act of becoming (think Maslow’s hierarchy and self-actualization).
As much as I enjoy blogging, I think I enjoy the level of social interaction that I get on MySpace just a teeny bit more. One of those benefits that I enjoy is getting to know others when they post informal surveys that inevitably find their way onto the publicly posted bulletin board area.