Who knows what I'll think about something in 20 years?
I certainly don't.
In fact, the set of things I will be thinking about will be completely different than what I think about today in 2022. So, my thoughts today are just that, today's thoughts. I have no idea if what I write is correct, or studied, or even produced in a state of sanity. All I know is that my blog is mine, and I use it to capture what I am thinking about today as some sort of open diary of my mind.
Blogs are something like a "One Day Wonder". One could make the case for taking the volume of content produced and making a book about it. But, I feel like my posts are sort of random and not easily placed in any kind of order or "category" per se. I have no idea if they are even worth reading.
None of these are researched, scientific, nor well hashed out philosophies. These are at most knee jerk posts of what comes to my mind early in the morning. After all I don't necessarily write so people will read it nor spend much time with grammar, because that just slows me down and to be honest, my grammar is probably terrible when I write. I need to install grammerly I guess. I write because I guess I like hearing myself talk or something like that. It is a bit of a self-evaluation of sorts, because when I go back to read some of it I find it a bit disappointing. But, I don't care really. I just write and let the chips fall where they may.
I also don't write with any expectation that someone else might read it. Basically, I'm just trying to make sense of my world, as small as it has become.
When I talk I am often surprised by what comes out of my mouth. By writing I get to see what comes out of my brain, which is usually what comes out of my mouth unless I use a self editing part of the brain that filters content for public viewing. So writing has a filter to it that actually try to get away from so I can write in flow. This requires that my typing works well. Thank goodness I took a year of typing in high school. I'd be lost without it. The only problem really that I have with typing is the z and the y letters. On German keyboards they are in opposite places and it slows my typing down because I got used to the German keyboard. Oh well....
Are you a conservative or liberal? What are your political views? Who did you vote for? What are your religious views? Do you believe in God? What do you do? How much money do you make? How do you make your money?
I have tired of these questions. Sometimes I forget how I actually feel about these questions and try to answer them later realizing how silly it is to answer them.
How do I feel about these questions and what is my answer to them?
"It's none of your damn business!" That is my basic answer.
For instance, I can tell who is a Republican and who isn't. How? Because they usually always ask me if I am a conservative or liberal. A Democrat has never asked me those types of questions. Never. Maybe that is too strong a statement, but I honestly can't recall ever being asked those types of questions by a Democrat. I don't know why. So, I guess I am a Democrat, because those aren't questions I ask either. It is none of my damn business.
Now, why am I approaching this mornings post with this?
It is because I have been thinking a lot about the sanctity of the voting booth and how private that is kept. The whole point of voting is to cast your ballot anonymously. You vote what you think is right in that moment. Nobody should know how you voted. That is how we protect the sanctity of the power of the vote, so people can vote their own minds, and not be subject to pressures from society.
So, if the ballot box is a place of complete anonymity, why then would I compromise that sanctity by caterwalling all over the place about who I am going to vote for? It doesn't make any sense to have the freedom of the ballot box and then give away that freedom when I walk out the door and expose myself to any kind of social pressure or heaven forbid, pressure others. It is Un-American if anything ever was.
The longer I live, and the more experience in life I gather, the more I see the vital importance of keeping private the most intimate issues of our lives. We develop our feelings about things and somehow the human ego wants or maybe even expects others to agree with those feelings, opinions, and thoughts. But when we seek unity through agreement we will never find unity.
When we seek unity through agreement,
we will never find unity.
If we are to find unity it can only come through protecting the fidelity of our own convictions as well as the convictions of others. I do believe "E pluribus unum" to be one of the wisest and most genius statements ever made. Whoever came up with that is brilliant.
We can only be united when we preserve the sacred right for every individual to be different. Nobody need explain themselves to others. That is the basic principle of our Freedom.
I am reluctant to join things, ideologies, and groups. Why? Because there are some sort of unwritten rules, or actual written rules, which one has to adhere to in order to be a part of something. I'm not saying these are necessarily bad things, but it is just that I am not sure I can hold up on every requirement of any dictated belief system.
For instance, when I accepted Christ and joined the church at 9 years old in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, I did so because of a feeling I had. It wasn't an emotional feeling, it was a sensory compelling that pulled me down the isle. When I did it I didn't agree to a bunch of rules. Nobody was expecting me to do it. Nobody forced me to do it. In fact, practically everyone was surprised by it. I acted purely on faith and I'm glad I did. Because for me it was the right thing to do at the time. I didn't do it for social acceptance or to make my parents proud, or to make any kind of statement. Honestly, I don't know 'why' I did it, it just happened.
What I am saying by this is that I was never a church goer, or a mountaintop church camp converted person. I didn't follow anyone. In fact, if I had been in such a situation I would have never done it. My folks always had to bring me kicking and screaming to church. The only times I went completely willing to church was because of music, to be honest. So, I am no saint, nor would I ever expect anyone to think it of me.
My faith is my own and it is only with 'God' that I have to reconcile myself. I don't have to prove it to anyone and in fact, no one can.
Freedom: To be who we are without having to justify it to others.
As Muhammad Ali once said, "I'm free to be who I want to be."
Today there is controversy over seemingly everything. Why should anyone have to explain their gender identity to anyone? What business is it of mine? It isn't my place to have an opinion on it. But likewise, don't expect me to embrace something I can't really understand. I don't need to understand it. Don't ask me for approval or disapproval, it isn't up to me anymore than telling a friend they shouldn't marry someone out of such and such a reason. If you feel a need to wave flags and march in parades, go for it. I don't mind that at all in fact that is part of what freedom is all about. But don't expect me to come to the parade. It's not my thing.
Maybe some will take offense to that. It seems to be what society is good at these days. Looking for things to be offended by seems to be a sport nowadays.
If freedom is what we want then why do people keep imprisoning themselves by telling the world every private thing about themselves as if anyone actually is concerned with the matters of others.
I want to see individuals without the glare of judgement blinding my view of their souls. I want to be able to talk with people about real things like the beauty of a sunset or the smiles of children. I want to love people for who they are and not who all of the labels say they are, because all of those things are worldly and have no importance in eternity. Those are matters of the ego and I am not impressed by them.
In fact, I am saddened when I know these worldly things about people because many are so tied up with all of these mantras. Their individuality gets completely lost out of a need to find an identity with some group, ideology, or whatever thing they find is 'important'.
Some of the best interactions I have with people is something like this...
I walk up to an ice cream bar and ask for a cone of Rocky Road. I ask how they are and tell them something nice about them or the day and we look at each other and just see each other as people and then say "Have a good day!" as they do too.
The reason that is such a nice thing is because they know nothing about me and I don't know anything about them. We are just people without all the bagage of identities. What could be more important than that? I'm not trying to influence them or find out what they think about this or that. I don't pry into their political or religious beliefs nor do I try to find out what their orientation might be. We are all just people.
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men (people)?
There are two sides of communication. The "sender" side and the "receiver" side.
When a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, is there sound?
The answer is, "There is no sound." Why?
Because there are only "Sound waves" or the effect of a trees displacing air with different frequencies based on the vibrations they make much like throwing a rock in the water.
For a sound to happen it must enter an ear, hit the ear drum, have that frequency translated into electrical nerve impulses to the brain which then categorizes it from the vast library of sounds it has learned throughout its life that ... aha! "A tree fell in the forest." Until it is defined by an intelligence a sound wave is only a wave, it isn't actually a sound.
So with communication it is the same. When someone says something it is sent off into the 'ether' as sound waves. Until they are heard and listened to they don't have any meaning, no definition. Just like a phone call, if the person being called doesn't answer, there is no communication no matter how much the person on the other end is talking.
This is how you starve the evil in the hearts of people. Don't receive that communication. Don't react to it. You may even hear what they are saying and be concerned about it for them and for society but one shouldn't react to it. Just let the noise die out.
Things like this are a cry for help. It isn't about the thing at all. It is about how people feel about themselves and life. To help this it is important to see the symptoms and treat the person by talking them away from the ledge not by confrontation but by simply speaking to them as people. However, I am no psychologist nor a therapist, so I don't really know and the example isn't really what I am talking about when I speak about communication.
Maybe I'll change in the coming years in my opinion on this, but that isn't who I am.
I just feel it is best to keep matters in our own lives private and live a happy life.
Many people who I admire from my past I never knew how they voted. I didn't care. It wasn't important and it still isn't.