Resolutions? Nonsense!

We can change any time we want...right?

(Image from care2.com)

This is just to cover the aspect of making New Year’s Resolutions each year and to also just have a personal idea of why we even do it. New Year’s is known to be the event that triggers a change in someone’s life, almost like an excuse to have to change. But the question I wish to pose…is why do we need an excuse or a world event to make us change?

New Year’s Day is not like a once in a lifetime charity event, by the time we begin to think about resolutions we have already had probably several of these days saved up over the years. It’s not like suddenly the day appears out of nowhere, it has been around for a long period of time, but for some reason the mainstream world decides that we should all (and only then) reflect on our lives. But why do we wait so long for an excuse to change out lifestyles, and is it even realistic to simply ‘forget’ the bad things you’ve done in the past? Those things you wish to forgo and simply push away, but yet still exist no matter what you do.

I believe the answer comes in the area of the mental mind. We feel propelled to change only when we are comfortable because everyone else is thinking about it at the same time. Almost like we aren’t afraid to change our haunting lifestyles because others are doing the same thing, it’s the sheep follow sheep method that strikes again. It always pains me to see people being afraid of changing even though their lives are realistically and evidently going down a dark path. They are simply afraid to go against the dominant thought process that everyone else understands and breathes by. It’s almost like some terrible creed, a creed that says not to follow your own mind to change because nobody else is doing it.

Remind you of anything? Some sort of modern communist empire we fail to see maybe (I need to do more research…)? I believe it is why we choose this part of the year to change in comparison to a time in June, and I find it rather strange and bizarre. There’s no reason to make resolutions at all because most of the time they are known to fail unless they are life changing. So in fact, any sort of behaviour change we want to make might have an inevitable end of not actually being changed in the long run but the short.

From what I understand, Resolutions are made as an excuse to make us think we are improving as people but in fact it’s all in the mind as we can change any other day of the year. Terrible…but again subjective. Right?

New Year's Death-Day

Deaths appear when least expected?

(Image from Sevenponds Blog)

New Year’s Day, a time known for celebration of the New Year, a time for change and revival…but also a time for death? The transition between 2011 to 2012 brought yet another round of drunken actions and activities that have led to violence and harm.

One of the largest talking points was the apparent murder of a 42-year old man in Luton, UK. Ryan Curtis, 18, had been charged guilty of murder after stabbing the 42 year-old Michael Geffken. Geffken was a German national who reportedly lived in the UK for a long period of time. It is unsure why the teenager acted in this way, but rumours have begun to point towards drinking and pure spited violence.

Horrific Family murders also hit the UK on New Year’s Day as well, with Michael Atherton blasting her partner, sister and also niece with a shotgun before firing the weapon at himself as well. Stepdaughter Laura managed to escape the scene of the crime by running for her life. Another incident occurred on the same day where Kristy Treloar was reported to be stabbed to death and shoved into a car in East London.

All of the events mentioned may have come just as coincidence on the stroke of the New Year, as similar events have occurred worldwide throughout the year of family members murdering others because of some sort of action. An example could be back in August, 2011, where an American man murdered his family upon the news that is wife had a lesbian affair.

Back here on Australian soil come the actions of a drunken maniac playing with illegal firecrackers in Melbourne. The 34 year old suffered critical injuries when the firecracker went off at a party nearby his face. Other injuries occurred when an 18 and 49 year old also faced injuries from firecrackers they held. Personally, the warnings are obvious, and fireworks and firecrackers are illegal around Australia for a reason. It is now being rumoured that the laws may start to become a pure reality in the light of the events on New Year’s Eve.

These are just a few events that have occurred spreading from pure murder to drunken accidents, but the death rate of major celebrations leads many to wonder why such events even occur so often. Do we need to rethink the meaning of the celebrations, and the amount of violence and threat that it may have within?

Tears of Forgiveness?

Rainclouds forming in my head,

I've let them down once again,

Pleading for Sunshine,

When evades me life to the death.

Light in the bright sky,

Fades in the night,

Glancing at myself again,

Is it them or is it I?

So I beg for Forgiveness

Seems so long to get,

This songs about Rainclouds,

Which just never seem to set.

As I reach the grave,

Wonder why all the strife,

But I realise that the knife,

Has just scarred me for life.

When do we forgive? Or should we ever forgive? 2012 is now upon us, but really has anything changed? Should the past be forgotten so simply and easily? Well guess what...realistically nothing has changed and what you did in 2011 is still there. It still exists. So before you go off thinking your off the hook for everything you've ever done in life, think again.

Think again. More on this later.

A Hellish Stereotype

Look at what we've done.

(Image from Sydney Morning Herald)

Whaling is only legal for scientific purposes in Japan, and unlike what many think, its not a collective positive response over there. Not all Japanese people are whale consumers or the supporters of hunting large whales.

According to the 2006 Gallup Poll by the Nippon Research Centre, over 95% of inhabitants in Japan had NOT eaten whale meet for a long time. Its eaten rarely, therefore it could immediately show some evidence that it is for a scientific  matter that the whales are hunted. I am not defending what has been done by the Japanese hunters, it’s a terrible thing to hunt down such gorgeous mammals, however the stereotype seems to expand over the Japanese people as well. There are many groups in Japan that see Whaling as a traditional, but there is an equal amount that see hunting and killing as unthinkable and illegal. Whaling is not apart of the Japanese culture, and anybody who has lived there will immediately understand that.

What Australians forget is that us too have engaged in Whaling activities in the past. It has been alleged that between 1820-30s the whaling industry was at a large peak in Australia off the south-east coast of new South Wales. A lot of coastal whaling outposts were established alongside the coastal areas in this time as well.

Over the course of time of sailing to the Antarctic Oceans, over 40,000 humpback whales were killed. Commercial whaling didn’t actually stop until the recent 1978 where 16000 sperm whales were killed from 1952 up to that point. The Anti-whaling policy began in 1979, it took over 150 years for this to be adopted by the Australian people, and an environmentalist approach began in Australia as a result.

The stereotype against the Japanese people is terrible and unjust, especially from the Australian people who have engaged in whaling for well over 100 years before this point as well.

Gaga's Anti-Bullying Anthem

Its a serious issue.

(Image from S.A.F.E)

The opinions of Lady Gaga, her music, persona, controversial clothing or whatever else people think of can be deluded by anti-individualists. On the 6^th of December, 2011, Lady Gaga visited the White House to discuss her new cause of bullying prevention. A crime that occurs consistently around the world on a variety of different level of mental and physical unrest. Bullying is nowhere a new thing in society, but something that is repeatedly growing and sometimes out of control.

Lady Gaga joins a host of sporting heroes and celebrities against the war of bullying in schools at a young and teenage age. CNN reported Anderson Cooper described cyber bullying as something that is unavoidable because it can occur even in the safety of one’s room. Cooper explains the use of words because “these words do have power and are used like weapons.” The safety of your own space and room can now be breached as never before even by our curiosity at looking a website, comments and other forms of communication with the outside world can be offensive and sometimes degrading.

Probably the most prominent figure in the war against Bullying comes from the President himself. President Obama has sent a personal message to all victims saying “you did not do anything to deserve being bullied.” The President understands the seriousness of the issue, he sent a personal message out. You would think all those who are the giver of physical abuse in schools would suddenly realise the error of their own ways. Musicians Madonna, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and even Justin Bieber have all given out a clear message about bullying. Their message is to start accepting yourself for who you are as a person, and to tell somebody of higher power the result of the abuse you receive.

These are commercially important people that dominate the entertainment scene around the world. Figures that people look up to in the modern day, and yet still the issue of bullying occurs around the world. An article from Kidspot.com.au explained that an estimated 200 million children are being bullied by peers, and as a result they are 3 times more likely to show depressive symptoms and ideas about personal suicide. This is a serious issue, and the statistics come from a variety of tests done in schools worldwide. In addition to these statistics, it is seen as a still rising issue in how more children each year seek help services as a result of bullying.

Domestically, 1 of every 4 children is affected by bullying and is a rising problem domestically still. http://www.bullyingnoway.com.au/ is a good place to start if anybody is interested about this issue, or knows anybody that needs help. Its about getting to the heart of the matter and weeding out how to stop it from ever happening again. 

Power of the Hand

Animal Farm is a novel I studied back in High School, and an experience I found to be extremely fulfilling and important. It’s a novel that can really help answer questions about what our world was before the present in a way that is understandable to anyone from any community.

It depicts satirically the Russian Revolution but in the scene of a farm, using animals as the real figures of the time. A phrase that I found interesting and extremely relevant was the idea that the Human Hand is our most powerful weapon. Strangely, I had never thought to myself how our hands have caused destruction, death, chaos and also the amazing positive things as well. It finishes the jobs that we want done, and is used for everything yet it is forgotten.

The novel explains how without our hands we would be nothing, just another ordinary species in a food chain. However, I also see it as a metaphor for something a lot larger as well. Everything we want to finish or achieve is all done with common thought and instinctiveness. Such as if we want to pick up a spoon or a cup, we use our hands without even thinking about it. It’s already triggered within us to reach out and grasp, so we have forgotten how we complete tasks that may seem easy and obvious. We forget how much power we already have even without mainstream factors of money or assets.

Our hands have been the cause of millions of deaths at the present and definitely in the past. They manufactured weapons to use to make killing easier, and to cause destruction easier. It all starts from the hand, and finishes with the hand. I admit, it was a real smack in face when I realised this through the novel. Maybe I should have figured it out earlier…

This wouldn’t be complete unless acknowledging the great things we have also done though. Such as the many saved from illness every day, charity work that requires the hands for help and even saving animals and showing affection. Our hands are the basis of everything we do on the earth. They are our puppets, and we can make them perform so much and allow them to affect and consume us. The power is near infinite, and up to us.

Tools of destruction? Or the tools to save the world?

A Quick Experience...#2

Is it such a natural feeling for us to want to empower ourselves over another individual? I find it so bizarre that it is built within us to be better than the other. Sort of seems like we really are greedy overall.

This experience occurred on the World Wide Web, on the social website and file sharing phenomenon of Facebook. A website that has attracted millions of personal from around the world to communicate and meet new people from around the world, but of course everybody pretty much knows this by now. However, it has become a war zone of the mind. A place where people can take information shared from other people and use it against them to better themselves. Political debates exist there, but more prominently are the social arguments over topics that should probably be kept personal. What people forget is that the internet is an infinite realm of information where everything written, recorded and clicked on is recorded somewhere and can be used. Facebook and other similar sites make this easier to do, and that is for accessibility (to transport information around quickly).

The argument was about a particular person’s opinion on the issue of musical taste. The other rejected their musical taste, and the argument reigned on. It always disgusts me when people try to make their musical taste superior to the other, because music is one medium in the world where things are all equal. Music is music collectively, and every song and note ever written is equal to the other. It’s so subjective.

However, the over-arching issue that struck me was how people fight for democracy and freedom yet still try to better themselves over other people. That isn’t democracy or egalitarianism, it is a call of dictatorship to spill your ideas over everyone else’s. So to this I question what people really want in the world. Do you want an equal society, or one that is based on your ideas alone? That is communism, corruption and also facism.  

What do we want as a species? The equal society we all speak and pray to have? Or do we just want the world to revolve around us all?

Pressure

Rafati's suicide attempt: the future of sport?

Respect is a virtue. Something we have to give to people when then clearly deserve it, and also when they don’t. It’s a sign of acceptance, that we must learn to improve ourselves in life.

Not long ago, a German football Referee under the name of Babak Rafati attempted suicide at a hotel room before a scheduled Bundesliga fixture. He was found in his bath tub, with his wrists slashed, by the linesman of the fixtures. There is no evidence or reasoning behind his actions, but is most likely to be for reasons outside the game and something that’s personalised. But this is a prime example of how pressure and a lack of respect can lead to dreadful results that sends perspective to the world. It is known that this referee was not the most popular of the German leagues, and his reception was not something was well happily received to any standard. But you hear these stories everyday of players and managers of a variety of different sports complaining about officials and their influence on the game. They are human, and they do their best to create fairness as best they can.

Rafati’s attempted suicide, personally, was something that needed more attention than what was given originally. Even though his actions were most likely caused by something outside the game and his job, it is still an indication that referees need to have more respect guided towards their way. I am a fan of football, so my article is based mainly around this area. Referees don’t have to explain decisions they make during games, and this is to protect their perspectives and reputations at the highest level. This is also done in a variety of sports where players are protected equally to defend their ideas and opinions on why things were done. Officiating is a very difficult task, and something that requires years of experience to gain fluency. It’s a job that is hard to get respected at. I personally was very upset at the news of the attempted suicide, but it should be a large warning shot towards all sports around the world of what outcomes we possess.

We don’t want sports and entertainment being placed into the lines of purposeful death. We have to start remembering that sport is only an entertainment factor that the world enjoys thoroughly and loves endlessly. But away from that reality does not change. Away from it all the world keeps moving and what we believe affects individuals in certain ways may not be anywhere close to what is really occurring. 

What is the 'best'?

Dedicating our lives to becoming the ‘best’ can be something addictive, incredibly competitive and also dangerous when that dream is placed into the wrong hands.

Becoming the best at something constitutes of a goal that is almost nearly impossible. It is hard to illustrate the best human, in fact its nearly impossible. This is because the term ‘best’ is so incredibly subjective and opinionated that I don’t understand why the word was even created. It is simply a measure of quantity to put yourself over another person, and that in itself is already segregation and inequality. It is fine to be better at something than someone else, its natural. Some people have certain qualities that allow them to excel faster or better at certain tasks or skills, but that doesn’t necessarily make you the best person for the job because you might lack in some other area where another succeeds in.

If we believe truly in some sort of biological ‘best’ gene that is within one of our species, we are very much firing shots in darkness and hurting ourselves in the process. If there was a perfect gene then evolution, life and everything we strive for as a species would be worthless. Why would we continue to push forward if the perfect gene is out there. It isn’t, and it never has been. Evolution is based on the fact that no gene is immune to everything, and that a weakness is always evident no matter what the cause. We breed as a species randomly to hopefully find a gene that will cover a certain weakness, and to create newer genes into the massive population so we can improve ourselves but not individually become the best.

The search for the perfect or best aspect is one with no end, but yet we are obsessed with it naturally. That comes with the will for us to improve as a species or race, to continue overcoming the challenges that our world persists over every second of our lives on Earth. 

Windows

Reflecting the world for the whole of my life, and this is my only life. The only one I have ever known. I sit, like many of my companions, high in the skies or lower to the earth beneath. All we do is gaze at two separate worlds split away. A world outside, and the personal world underneath the safety of the ceiling. It’s strange at how things differ. As soon as they walk outside, they change dramatically as if they are searching for a place of happiness away from their own safe house. They change to suit everything I see all the time. I see it change repeatedly, its all I do. Just look out on everything I see.

What if someone with a mind and some reality in a physical sense could see the outside and inside worlds all day for the rest of their lives? What would they think? Does that strike fear into us at all, how we can be watched by something that seems so inadequate? Who knows?

The Killer Instinct

Stop. Make It Stop. Stop. Stop.

The realism is that the pain doesn’t stop for just you. If you are affected, there is a large chance that many other people worldwide are as well. People seem to forget that there are billions of people in this world, and that what may be happening in their lives is completely unique to their own. Of course this may be the case, maybe you are the unique individual in the world. But the killer instinct comes in knowing where to stop yourself from believing things that are a manipulation of your emotions.

From my experience, the human mind is naturally creative. We have the ability to see something we want, and visualise us doing thousands of different things with it that may benefit us or demoralise us completely. I think this ability is important to understand, because it’s what (in many cases) sets us apart from other species in the world. Our intelligence is beyond anything we have ever come across, and it is dangerous and that has been proven. We are always trying to think of newer ways to make our lives better, to fulfil ourselves and that is a basic principle of an organism. How am I going to get from here to there? It’s a basic idea and perspective.

We need, altogether, to start thinking of how to stop ourselves from making things out as something fake and unreal. If one was to study for an exam, and they believe they have done 5 hours of study when in fact they only did 3 hours with a lot of breaks and relaxing time, then they are lying to themselves. It’s almost as ridiculous as lying about what time it is. We need to develop the instinct to stop ourselves from making situations better than what they actually are. We spend our lives lying to ourselves that things are improving and we are all happier, and the past is forgotten. But in reality, the past is never forgotten. What has happened in past will remain there, and it won’t just disappear. It frightens me when people try to forget the past instead of learn from it. How can anyone move forward in life they are not willing to learn about past events in their lives and throughout the world? We function because of what has happened in the past!

Overall, we need to learn control. We may be unique at the core, but on the outside we exhibit emotions that are similar to many around the world. With this power and intellect, we are blessed with the ability to change how reality has affected us. This habit causes ignorance: the will to forget or purposefully pay no attention to the actual facts.

When will the pain stop? When we develop that Killer Instinct.

To Put Into Context...part 2

We listen. We ignore. We complain. We never learn.

The biggest regret that I have in my life is the amount of wisdom and ideas that I’ve ignored when given to me for free. It’s free education, inspiration and instructions that come out of nowhere with no work required to achieve it, yet I ignored it’s perspectives and suffered in the future. This led to the thought of how the world has also suffered similar fates. War is a clear and obvious example of how we have not learnt from past mis-deeds, and also the existence of communism in the world.

We all know the corruption that exists in our empires of inhabitation, our local towns are filled with those with greed in their veins. Pumping their minds and hearts with dollar signs when opportunities arise. But where are those people who work with no reward? Charity. That’s where. The silent but yet effective volunteerism in the world that keeps the world alive and respectful. The thing that gets ignored in the mainstream media and society’s eyes could be what saves us from total corruption and social breakdown. They must be recognised more, and it delights me in how schools and other local organisations all donate annually and some even monthly or weekly.

It will be a tragic day when charity fraud takes over the main scheme of things. Can you imagine using images of poverty-stricken individuals and towns being used only for cash and money? It is dreadful, and yet it still happens. In 2009, 5 Muslim men were arrested due to charity fraud allegations against them. The largest Muslim charity was targeted after money was given to a militant Palestinian Organsation (as CNN described). Absolutely dreadful that people would use charities as a way to get money, a scam at the highest level of disrespect. But the main message here is: it shows the power of human greed and how it can affect people.

For me, we have to remember how much power we have as humans to cause havoc and destruction. It’s so easy for us to do, scarily easy in fact. As said in George Orwell’s Animal Farm: man’s greatest weapons is his/her hands. And this is true. Our hands are the basis for all destruction that has ever occurred on this Earth.

WE must learn and we must improve!

It’s in your heads.

Negative turning points in life can usually be sought out of a result of depression, disagreement and even failure. However, through such events and sorts is when experiences are formed, and also the will to avoid it from happening again. It spurs us to learn and improve the situation for the next time. Negativity inspires people to improve and learn their mental limits in life, and how far they can really go overall.

A positive attitude is mainly portrayed as more popular and even an easier way to live. Ignore the negatives and stressful parts of lives and concentrate on the next positive outcome, easy to do in the short term but not the long. In society, those with positive mindsets are treated and accepted a lot more than those who think any other way. Everybody enjoys a positive thinker in the group or area, they liven the mood and keep other people confident. It's good, really good but there are limits (as there is to everything). Optimistic thinkers excel in academics and in life generally, they live long, gain strong relationships earlier and are usually better off financially. But there has to be a downside?

Researchers from the Duke University have identified optimists at an ordinary or extremist level can being to forget and lose are of unique interactions and lifestyle choices they face. They forget that a bill or fine will appear to them for their house or car, or any asset they own. Positivity leads to forgetfulness of things that occur in reality, or that most people would think – negativity. This sense of forgetting falls under the term Optimism Bias.

Optimism Bias describes the tendency for people to be over-optimistic about the result of particular events and actions. It leads to false sense of security, and even the forgetting of consequences of safety. Simplistic examples can include: a child overestimating his/her results in an exam and even a person overestimating job offers and salary opportunities.

Sometimes, optimism bias can exist without knowing, or falls under the category of assumed knowledge. Motorists are an example in how they believe they are safer on the roads despite their smaller size. Same with how smokers think they have a better chance of escaping smoke-related diseases. It's a scary fact that some people think in this way, but is an extremist side-effect of optimism overall or even positivity.

Positivity and negativity, a fine line between both maybe. Or can they be brought together? Either way it's in your heads, and your decision. People will accept or reject you depending on your ideas. Make a choice and respect others, don't bring them down on their own ideas for it.

Listen

Hear that fading pounding in your ears. It's your heart heading closer and closer to infinite nothingness.

Happiness may not be the way forward either. Then what is?


 
Click

Learn not Fight

"A closed mind is like a closed book…

Arriving at the airport is already striking fear into the mind. It's created to be a death trap, a place where people now understand that it could be the last thing they ever see. Terrorism, bombs, explosives, knives and the sense of sitting in a tightly enclosed coffin hurtling thousands of metres above the safety of the earth. The media controls our mind in this aspect, by reporting on the latest emergency landings, crashes, bomb rumours and drug dealers trying to trade their stock through. Television shows such as "Borderline Security" also instil this fear of arriving and departing from an airport. The stress and nerves are so blatantly evident in the public people there, customs officers and even the janitors. There is a very fine glassed ceiling above that nobody wishes to break or cross the line upon. You just cannot be relaxed at an airport, and the heavy searches through customs make you feel guilty no matter how innocent one can be. Stereotypes, race and personal perspectives all come into play at this one place. You are one of many, and you may be the one that gets caught.

Perhaps it is from this reason that people arrive in new countries fearful and protective rather than open and optimistic. The stress of the airport tears apart the soul inside of an individual, that large fear of danger that was so close. It takes a while to shake it off, and being in a new country with new cultures does not help at all. We become resistant to learn, hesitant to understand and end up fighting for our own culture to exist. Talking to people we know we can relate to instead of meeting others, locals, who can teach you so much. Many do sometimes question why people are closed minded to new places and ideas. The airport and its stress can be a factor, but I think an insight view into an individual can also bring out new answers.

Naturally, humans and really most animals on Earth are very proud. We have natural pride in our systems and protection over what is ours. We live to fight and protect what is rightfully ours to our own mind. Such as animals protecting their homes, we would protect our houses and personal possessions in similar ways. We defend our rights, freedom of speech for example, in ways of protests and in the past (even now) riots and violent ordeals. The things we hold dear to ourselves we will defend mercilessly. I believe personally that it is this problem that causes closed-mindedness over new cultures and ideas. We are so used to being in our own 'safe-spots' in our country, home and area. We are so attached to our friends and family, that once they are gone we will do everything possible to keep them near and known. It is easier to do because were used to it. The fact of learning something brings a sense of boredom to people, a sense that they will somehow 'lose' their own culture in the process, even as if they are abandoning or resigning from it. Become a traitor? Hardly so.

It is a cruel thing that people prosecute and attack others for wanting to go overseas and learn new cultures, that when that person returns home (supposedly changed) they are stricken down by people that were close to them. "You've changed, I don't like you." That sort of thing. In our society, it is from my view, that people (even younger children) just do not want to learn and explore until they are much older. Young teenagers hating school from an early age due to boredom of learning, even learning necessities of survival they just dislike acting in the way they are asked. Some people are racist to those trying to learn, scoff and laugh behind the backs of newcomers to the country or area (even school) because they are different. People stay away from them, it's an awful sight to see but (to my disgust) can be seen as quite a natural reaction. It brings down the aspect of equality in a group of people, they attempt to be equal but a media storm that arrays around them through television, radio and newspapers brings up an image. A stereotyped image of what that person is and what he does.

I will never forget turning on CNN in the wave of the "War On Iraq" and just seeing people (supposedly citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan) blowing things up and killing. Was I one of the few who just had yelled in fury how obscene it was that this is the image the media presented. The purpose may have been to show severity, but overriding that is the purpose to prove that they are the enemy. Propaganda shown helplessly in a nations face, and so easily done. That same example is shown for other cultures and basic stereotypes that we now take to far.

It's a sad thing. Really is…

Our minds are naturally closed, but now its definitely time to open them more and embrace. We are all individuals, and not part of any stereotype people may assume. Learn about new people, allow them to teach you their culture whilst you teach them yours.

…it's just a block of wood."

Drowning One’s Own Beliefs

One person cannot change anything fully. But anyone, being an individual or a group, can react and begin something that is so much bigger. Any idea, political party, protest or even social group all began with an idea between either one person or a small group. The idea would be spread to others with responses of hope that people would respond positively and join the particular cause. Join because they believe and find it worthwhile. The group would grow and prosper if all went to plan, even with cracks appearing in the surface and all the fact of perpetual succession would take place and others would control and continue the cause. The succession only appears after a long duration of existence. However, my main message here would be – why do so many people doubt a person?. Is it really so irregular to want to make a difference, why does society lower that below its mainstream quantities? Is it the fear that things will change? The fear that threatens to ruin one's life, change societies values so it doesn't suit his or herself?

Are we really that selfish?

It's a noteworthy point to make that we as general beings are selfish at our base level. Take away law, society values, disciplines and expectations and we end up like any other animal – we are equal. The only difference is we have the ability to learn and grow further, quicker and more efficiently than other species. But allow the highlight of the book Lord of the Flies – taking place on a deserted island, no law, no rules and no sense of control at all. The children went haywire. Instincts existed to go and kill, kill and hunt for prey, take everything due the factor of greed and threat that lay of death and starvation. The threat pushed them forward and the instinct to kill and hunt revealed natural abilities we all have. To kill can easily cross one's mind, and what stops us now from reaching that? Media, society and expectations not to do it and also the all-abiding factor of threat through the law. These have saved us, stopped us from going on an all-round onslaught.

We drown our beliefs a lot in everyday lives. We either take upon a society mainstream belief of the majority, or take on our own outcasted and disrespected beliefs we believe to be true and right. What choices do we make between all that…the choice really is yours.

What’s in the Mind?

Catcher in The Rye, randomness and influence…is that all I can really talk about on here? I do expect to touch a tad more on other topics, unless my opinions become so indeedly inexcusable and insanely dull then maybe the direction will change slightly?

Here's another poem, nothing ground-breaking but something nonetheless. These are created for your opinions, not my facts, but for you to peruse and make your own of, the meaning is whatever you take from it objectively or subjectively, lost or found and even like a game of hide and seek…you never know what exactly is going to be there unless you look..

Stop Breathing, Start Believing, Drop Dead (Sky Is Caving into The Soul)

Unmistakable lost of the senses of our own,

Conundrum of A forgettable cause,

No reason to understand or even forgive,

You've been hurt, you don't deserve our skin.

Priceless time but so little past,

There's no history so why create it fake?

Underlying evidence of a reason so buried,

Making the truth come out is nothing to you.

Leave it alone and let it be,

You shall suffer how it should be,

Death will not appear to the likes of you,

Creation has come to a halt because of you.

I don't want to take you on,

You won't learn and you won't take,

Just suffer away in the pain of the skies,

Red skies and dark blindness.

Your Loss. Not Mine.

© Lerock0 2011

The Catcher

It is of what I bring to attention here, to be something so influential to me as a person it washes my mind out and replaces it constantly whenever it appears. I read with difficulty. I have to admit, I do love books and the knowledge and emotion they burst out with from within but I sometimes struggle as a person to understand concepts and ideas being explored by the authors. It can be a confusing process to me, a process that requires a lot of research and one that is undeniably very long indeed. However, there is one text that I once read and re-read again so recently that caught my attention. A novel so refreshing to me, and so powerful to my soul, mind and even my heart…it piercing me inside at times. Knives thundering into my body, making me believe and understand, making me feel comforted and not alone. Allowed me to think in a new way, to see ones perspective directly from their eyes and truly learn about someone else. The Catcher In The Rye. The brilliance of the Holden Caulfield, a character I will never forget.

I grew a lot stronger when reading the novel. Holden Caulfield's direct thoughts are written word for word down on each page. You truly understand what goes through his mind. It's the amazing feature of Salinger's writing in the text, that he can pinpoint so many areas and emotions and expel them onto a page. It takes real skill and time to do so, a real skill I wish to one day master for my own. Holden is quite the teenage character, as I first read the book I was similar age to Holden himself and I could not help but notice similarities going through his mind and my own. The array of emotions that seem never-ending of anger, fear, greed and even displacement. The confusion of who he was as a person on the planet, where he was to go, the adventure he voluntarily undertook to find meaning in his life. What he did physically through his own thoughts, is a teenage dream overall a passage that we see in our minds of us doing. An adventure we find ourselves in where we wonder who we are, and how we are unique. What is different about us individually, what is our purpose here? Salinger outlines an adventure that we usually take in our minds and even down to our very soul or heart, we don't notice it often only when the hard parts hit – which can be more often than not. To read a novel that puts that into a physical masterpiece, of a character running out on his own finding his place in the world hits a real soft spot. I'm suddenly not alone, and I understand that many other people must also undergo similar feelings and curiosities. Questions that lack sufficient answers, or answers lacking detail or care. Our demands are so high, with Holden he wasn't ready for anything – he just saw a path and took it wondering where it would go. With teenagers today, I think that similar choice of a path is taken.

Do we follow the queue, or find our own way around?

It can be a rather strange thing to ask. But also a question that can be incredibly rewarding as a result if an answer resists. I believe it's something we ask ourselves someday in our lives, something we will eventually want to know the answer to. What are we as people? Are we really individuals? Or do we follow in Holden's footsteps to lead a new path with no ending or even a beginning…it's more a trap we collapse into where the story continues until the end…then more questions appear: what is the end?

I cannot recommend more than my life to anyone who has not read The Catcher In The Rye. It's a novel that must be read, and I implore anyone who is able to get a copy to go and read it. It is an adventure that connects your mind to reality, a physical and mentally strong reality. You will see what you think come to life right in front of you. Salinger's haunting and addictive writing style collects yourself to read the thoughts of Holden Caulfield. A protagonist? To me he is one of the best.

(c) Lerock0 2011