Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Key To Happiness

I had a strange dream, in it I was searching for the Key To Happiness. I was told that in order to find it I must be guided by an animal who was usually evil, except when the weather was cold. If I could befriend one of these animals during a period of cold weather, it would guide me to the key.

It took a while, but finally I found one of the animals. It looked like a large black dog, but it hid among the branches of trees and other places high up. It was a scary thing, so I hesitated to get too close to it, and just followed, watching it. While it was on the eve of a barn, just above my head, I mustered the courage to speak to it. It stopped and waited, listening, as it watched me with intent eyes.

To my surprise, I befriended it by simply telling it I needed it to be my friend. With a fluid motion, it jumped down beside me and looked patiently up at me. Deciding I was prepared enough for a pretty long journey, I asked it to guide me to The Key To Happiness. It repled, "The key is not at a place, it is something you make. Only you can make the key to your happiness."

Then the scene changed, we were inside a large room similar in style to a Middle-Eastern hall, with rows of seating filled with all sorts of people. I was standing beside the black dog as it spoke to the audience. It was telling a Hindu man dressed in fine brocade clothing and a gold turban, "God is with all those who seek Him." With that, the man smiled peacefully.

It then spoke to the audience in general, saying, "Happiness is a road we must each choose to walk again each day, but it is a road we can only reach by using the key we have chosen to make for ourselves and then choosing to use that key. We can share our happiness with others, but we cannot give happiness to others. Personal happiness cannot be taken or given, it can only be chosen and made."

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Not taken or given? But it's common to try to give happiness to someone else, to "make someone happy," that doesn't work? It can only be chosen and made? Shouldn't that be the other way around, "made and chosen"? I see! In order to make it, I must first *choose* to make it.

Going back to the first, why cold weather? Could it be an allusion to needing a "cool head of reason" not muddled with the "hot" tumultuous emotions of anger, discord or displeasure? Also, why was the animal usually evil, except in cold weather? "Hot" emotions are evil, as a general rule, could that be it? The fact the animal was usually evil might mean it's more common to be in turmoil (evil) than at peace. That's sad to realize.

I'm not sure I understand it all, but some dreams are worth remembering anyway.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

"Political Correctness", the new brand of McCarthyism

For those of you who don't know what I mean, read a bit on Wikipedia about the infamous senator who inspired the term:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

A quote from the article:
"Today the term is used more generally to describe demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents."

If that doesn't describe today's "Political Correctness", nothing does. Way to go, all you pc-pushers, McCarthy would be proud of you. Just remember, every freedom you take away from someone else you also take away from yourself. "You can't say that, because someone might be offended by it!" can degenerate into, "You can't say anything, because we said so!" faster than you might think is possible.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Here's Some Stupid... The Oil "Crisis"

If ever there was anything that demonstrated the ingrained stupidity of the vast majority of the human race, it has to be the "Oil Crisis". Why? Because, since at least the 1950s we have had clean, all-but-free alternatives to oil, at least to fuel our vehicles.

When I was in my early 20s back in the 70s, I was rummaging through some old magazines my parents had stored and came across an issue of Popular Mechanics from the 1950s; on its cover it displayed what was, for that era, a futuristic-looking race car. What caught my attention was the headline for the article about the car, lauding the fact it had won some famous race using a revolutionary new engine powered by a water-turbine engine. This was not yesterday, this was almost 60 years ago!

The list of alternative fuels to power or vehicles is growing, yet we persist in our deathwish by burying our heads, and our hard-earned dollars, in the sand as we throw insane amounts of money at the Middle East to purchase their over-priced, over-prized oil.

The most stupid thing about it all is that there are many really cheap alternative fuels that don't even require a new engine-type to use them. With gas prices soaring to record amounts, it could only be our entrenched up-bringing that causes us to persist in our rabid devotion to something the entire world would be better off without.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Learning and Teaching

If we are interacting with something, we are automatically learning; if we are interacting with someone, we are automatically both learning and teaching. This realization, when honestly considered, can be scary for all of us who are not perfect.

Expedience

Contrary to popular hype, we don't live lives of "quiet desperation", we live lives of quiet expedience... desperation takes a lot of concentrated, long-term effort, and most people would rather not.