Skill sets and sub-skill sets, racing and driving, paddling and swimming, finger painting and creating a masterpiece. Technically they are all the same thing – but in reality worlds apart.
Lets examine some examples of doing and doing well…
I think religion is a bit like communism – in theory its is wonderful notion (a community of people sharing for the greater good). But anything can be corrupted or misinterpreted.
My belief is that religion served a vital purpose many years ago and that purpose has been eroded over the last few century’s.
That purpose is primarily to make people conform to and live by a set of standards. Today we have laws to abide by (otherwise we will be punished) and socially reinforced norms of behaviour (which will leave us as social outcasts if we do not follow) that for the most part take away the usefulness of religion.
“Major religions are examples of ‘noble lies’ aimed at uplifting human stature.” – Jack Miller
I-ve heard the phrase before, but it never ceases to shock me – “Sleep when I’m dead.”
To me that is completely the wrong attitude – if you are not sleeping correctly death will creep up on you sooner. Sleep deprivation has enormous affects on your health.
In the short term it can result in muscle pain (the body heals stressed muscles when you sleep), irritability, depression, poor memory and more.
In the long term it can contribute to Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, mental illness, obesity and more. Sleep deprivation is even an effective form of torture.
Researchers have shown that people who have been awake for more than 16 hours are more of a risk driving than those with a blood alcohol content of .05 – it affects your motor skills and judgement. It is also shown to have a significant impact on school grades.
The rise of bullshit. It’s everywhere.
“If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” – Harry S. Truman
Or as my old teacher said – “If you cant dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with bullshit.”
In interviews politicians and the like dance around a question for hours with bullshit and bravado, ??like a bullfighter taunting and teasing the interviewer. Never standing directly in the way of the question, waving their red cape around in a flurry and simply stepping out of the way when necessary.
You may have heard about ‘the fog of war’ – where mistakes occur due to confusion, incompetence and enemy tactics. Perhaps the battlefield is too big and you are overwhelmed, or it may be you are unaware of what you may face.
I’m discovering more and more that there is also a fog of writing, where you get in too deep, too immersed in your own writing and things begin to loose meaning, direction – even all sense.
Lately whenever writers block sets in I have found myself writing about my family’s history with pets. Over my 23 years we have had that many that I truly could write a book about them. I haven’t got their yet, however from time to time I will share some of my progress in an ongoing saga. Here is the first part, which deals with some of our cats.
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My family home, a few acres of what could be classed as a hobby farm set amongst bushland (native Australian forest) is really a pet cemetery. I would love to see archaeologists digging up the grounds in thousands of years and trying to explain so many remains.
Taking pride of place amongst most of the unmarked graves is Dennis. Dennis was the wise Buddha of our family’s many cats. He eventually taught most of what he knew to Spaz, his prot??g??. They looked quite alike, both ginger, except Spaz was fat and had patches of white on his feet and chest.
What do you do when the world around you is getting hostile? When the people you loved and the people society tells you to trust, have turned against you? When even your beloved parents say that you are wrong?
Do you believe them? Do you give up your way of thinking?
What if they all believed you were lying about an illness that was crippling your life and your body? What if everyone believed you were making up all those symptoms that had ruined your life?
“Dream as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow.” – James Dean
Inspiration for me often comes from a number of odd sources. A former world champion motorcycle racer taught me some of the most important life lessons I have ever head and probably saved my life in the process. I also picked up some great advice from??paparazzi king Darryn Lyons’ autobiography.
Today I want to share some of the wisdom I have absorbed from long since departed actor James Dean.??His??actions spoke as loud as the words he made famous on and off the screen. The rising movie stars life may have been tragically cut short in motoring crash but he achieved more in his brief 24 years than most do in a full lifetime.??Fortunately for us he left behind a legacy of great work and wisdom to inspire all of us.
I’ve always looked for the more unconventional, less traveled path to get what I want. Very few people look beyond plan A; as a result, the conventional path often becomes overpopulated and hard to find your way through.
Today I’m going to share some interesting lessons from the music and book industries on the merits of finding your own way to success, rather than following the horde.
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Rocking to the Top
Listening to the radio the other day I heard an upcoming Australian pop singer talking about how she got her ‘job’, a record deal with a major label, and how other aspiring singers and bands struggle to get noticed.
They face a lot of crowded channels to get a record deals. The official channels are clogged and so are the unofficial ones. For every muso you hear of who gets a deal based on their myspace page there are hundreds of thousands of others with no luck.
I had been encouraged to read Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer by quite a few people over the last year or two. It sounded, good so I succumbed and ordered the book. The novel sat for several months in my anti-library until it called out to me a few weeks ago.
At first Tropic of Cancer failed to live up to the hype. Expectations about a book far too frequently lead to disappointment, and I nearly tossed the thing aside 90 pages in.
Foul language and debauchery aside, the book can be dull. Miller’s writing, to me, is not conversational; its stream of conscious and I could feel my interest waxing and waning like the moon. At times it is frantic and erratic, Miller is scanning the world and options before him. But then he finds a focus, the mind quietens and becomes more lucid. Life unfolds and so to does some semblance of a story.
