I have decided to re-visit my post which was called "Those Who Walk the Grey" to further elaborate on that topic. The reason for this was not just to update my picture which I have done to better exemplify the idea being shared, but also because I have been seeing this premise show it's head in more aspects of my life. In the war between good evil there seems to be more then simply piety needed, but an ample understanding of the darkness and what it the nature of it is. As one who has studied psychology I can tell you that there is much peril to gain an understanding of the inner workings of them who both wrought and have touched evil. To understand the darkness that dwells in others one must venture that darkness themselves. That is not to insinuate that to understand a heroine addict the person trying to help them must try heroine, but that their mind must touch much of what the mind that used the heroine has touched. To help the individual overcome the psychological need for their behavior one must in-turn sully their own hands to pull those that dwell in darkness toward the light. Becoming a mediator of that which is needed one must find the middle ground of the individual to find who they in fact are underneath all that which can be perceived by the naked eye. One must find the whites and grays of the individual to see what led them to the black. Their base need and desire which led them into the dark places in the first place.
The one who walks the grey will be perceived often times as black by those who think themselves white and white by those who think themselves black so that their touch will have significance on them. Showing those that walking darkness the light, and showing those in the light where they touch the shadows. For in this land which men would paint in black and white, there are no such colors of men only varying shades of grey. No non-subjective truths nor provable lies for the universe is vast and our minds narrow. So I must walk the grey finding virtue in those who have lost it and immorality in those who see themselves as moral. Sully my hands so that others can forsake the dirt. For in a world of black and whites one must walk the grey.
It has been a long time since I have wrote anything, on this blog or otherwise. There have been several times in which I sat down and started trying to write something and have been unable to do so. It has almost been as if my brain has been totally burned out of all its creative juices. Many things I suppose could have been attributed to it, life as of late has come at me pretty hard. Admittedly I have found myself at a big lack of motivation to do so also, probably attributed to the fact that it hard to write things for others when your pretty sure nobody is reading it, which I know is contrary to what I said was my original reason for writing it. I have also been "Going Poe" on myself as of late due to my lack of grammatical prowess , I find simple ridicules mistakes when I read my own writing so I am sure others have done the same and been scared off while reading my blog. As of late however I have been looking for an outlet and a place to organize my thoughts once again. Therefore, I shall redouble my efforts and begin once again to write in this blog whilst remembering my original reason for writing the blog in the first place.
For my first blog back I have decided to sit down and elaborate a little on why I think my brain has been frozen whenever I sit down to write a blog. In thinking on this subject I find myself first turning towards the fact that as of late I find myself bogged down in many left brain activities. The "Left" side of the brain is of coarse the side of the brain that controls logic, and reason. Though the left side of the brain is quite often the side in which the world is most focused on and seems most worried about it does very little to promote the creative thought one which my logic is organized when writing. A balanced use of both sides of my brain has always been something I have prided myself on, which unfortunately has been a luxury I cannot afford. The rigors of being a parent with two children under the age of four with house, financial, and altruistic worries has retarded my creativity. The brain like any muscle may atrophy if it is not appropriately exercised. This lack of exercise has left the right brain(if one doesn't know which right brain in-tales one should see the diagram at the bottom of this blog).
To give my brain a bit of a spinal tap I have spent a big portion of my day drawing and exercising that side of my brain. I have even given myself to start writing things with my left hand instead of my write to make sure I use every opportunity to release the ice and muck from my brain. I find my life has more color and meaning when I strive to balance myself and now I find myself not only having things to write about but motivated to do so. So if you find yourself in a similar situation or even just a bit of a rut I would take this opportunity to give your Brain Freeze a Spinal Tap.
Life in our society can be very interesting, with so much social turmoil present in so many different facets of our life whether it be religion, government, or science. Tolerance is a word that everyone turns too thinking that all of the worlds problems would be solved if people were more tolerant of others. When people tell others to be more tolerant however, deep down they really aren't wishing for tolerance they are thinking the world would be better if people were more tolerant towards me and my beliefs. For why would they be preaching for others to be tolerant if they themselves hadn't already decided they couldn't tolerate the intolerance?
As you grow more and experience more life you come to realize that people all have very different motivations and backgrounds which lead to differences in opinion, wherein to obtain a world with so called "perfect" tolerance it would have to be one without beliefs and individuals. Logically for a world with perfect tolerance to work the world itself would lose its diversity and everyone would conform to a certain universal belief system or no belief system at all. The reason for this is we live a world of right and wrongs, and that is not just in a religious aspect. As infants from the moments we gain our senses we start learning and deciding the "rights" and "wrongs" of life in learning or how the world works and how we ourselves are suppose to interact with this world.
In other words while living in a world of good and evil, of rights and wrongs, perfect tolerance cannot be obtain unless one decides to not take a stand for either or admits that neither exist.
Our life experiences are so different and varied that of coarse each individual is going to have different beliefs on what is "right" even without religion, government, or science. Because of this fact I find myself struck with a profound sense of irony when you see pictures of people holding signs labeling others as bigots when they themselves are participating in a form of bigotry against another belief. We can tolerate only as much as our own tolerance allows, which makes it a folly goal to try to preach tolerance. Instead we should teach RESPECT, respect for others and respect for ourselves. If we respect peoples ability to be an individual, there is no level of tolerance which can be surpassed, but a common standard for everyone. One cannot always agree with or tolerate the actions and thoughts of another, but one can always respect another. In that way we wont have those participating in the oxymoron of decided they cannot tolerate what they see as injustices any longer preaching tolerance, and people who have decided to label another a bigot because of their own bigotries.
Have you ever found yourself wondering why certain people whose lives by comparison of your own seem to have a better outlook on life? For instance an disabled man who seems to be overly positive about all that life has to offer even though menial task which you take for granted are unavailable or difficult for him. Ones perspective on life of coarse as we all know makes all the difference in ones quality of life, which makes it important to know why one persons is great and the other can't seem to make it out of their own shell.
Life as we know was never meant to be easy and seemingly the harder it is for the individual the more the person accomplishes in the end. In thinking of the differences between the one whose perspective is a negative one and the one that is quite the opposites we can think of these perspectives as being from different vantage points. For instance us who walk on the ground as God intended with nothing but our legs, would have a much different vantage point then one who walks around on stilts. Sure the person on the stilts life may be much more difficult then ours but they are able to see the path in front of them much more clearly than those of use who reside on the ground. Elaborating more on this same topic and thinking more on it in depth one must conclude that it is the difficulty of these individuals lives that in and of itself leads to this higher vantage point. It is this same vantage point that makes their lives though they may not accomplish as much as the rest of us in earthly terms of life makes them feel more fulfilled with the lives they lived. Doing something that challenges yourself, standing on these stilts even though it is difficult sticking to whatever it is until your accomplish what you set out to makes the journey all the more full-feeling when the journeys over. For in life as in sports, the higher the degree of difficulty the action you have performed is the more the sense of satisfaction which is gained after you have accomplished your task. As the man walking on stilts bares the pain and burden of walking on the stilts, he has also paid the price which needs to be paid for the higher vantage point which enlightens us all.
As the new year starts we find ourselves reflecting on our past year and deciding which of our past years goals we can build and which ones it would be better for us to burn. For all of our dreams at the beginning of last year some we have fulfilled some we are in the mix of making a reality, while others it would probably be better if we put to the flame and started over for lives change in a year our perception of attainable and meaningful goals change. For through the year some of our efforts will have proved fruitful while others will have been in vain and in there place others must spring up to replace and keep our lives moving forward.
For whatever reason some of our goals for the last year fell on the wayside and were neglected or forgotten, but does that mean they were not good goals in the first place. I heard on the radio the other day a man was talking about how people should only set goals which reinforce our strengths instead of trying to make a weakness a strength, in a sense building on existing buildings. This however I feel is a little short sided and neglects what actually leads to one achieving a goal which is hard work and not whether something is easy or not, which of coarse is a deterrence but not a deal breaker. One can achieve nearly any goal if the proper force and effort is exerted in that direction however in some cases one has to rely on chance for their ultimate goal to be achieve in which case one should be ready to set fire to it come next year.
One shouldn't worry to much about having to burn down something they spent there year building for as in nature ashes make good nutrients to feed the goals which will some day take there place . Skills acquired in pursuit of a goal will stay with you as tools in your tether which can be used to surmount other goals. So as one puts there eyes to the future whilst burning some of there past intention it is better to focus on what was accomplished than what wasn't after all even fully completed buildings are set ablaze to give rise to new ones
which will someday take there place.
A Few years back I was asked to do a seminar on the importance of family communication to peoples whose families have struggled in the past to do so effectively. In doing so I came up with a small model which shows how important it is and how the family itself can dissimulate over time because of lack of communication. This model which came to me is a perfect illustration of how both groups and families can fall apart because a rift in communication. We all know the importance of family and how it is the building block of society a beautiful saying I once heard was "It is hard to find an un-cracked egg in a broken nest." which I thinks exemplifies it as well as anything I have ever heard.
In this model it illustrates the steps in which these rifts occur over time and because of hardship there are 3 phases in this model.
Phase 1
Phase one is family/group cohesion which is what each of us should strive for. As you see in the diagram we have six individuals in this group signified by the red circles/jewels. Each is a little different from the other but it is evident that they are each sparks hammered from the same anvil. Each are connected by lines which one could imagine as strings connecting and supporting the group as a whole, these strings are symbolic of communication between each individuals in the group or family. You can see that each is supported and gains strength from the others making it look almost like a beautifully cut diamond.
Phase 2
In Phase two we see a diagram in which one of the sets of individuals has ceased to communicate for whatever reason whether it be a disagreement or simply that they don't get along with the other family member. Imagine that one of the lines or threads talked about earlier has been cut and then because these two points or no longer anchored to each other and therefore they have been pulled apart and the only thing keeping them together is the other points attacked to them. In this as threw science we see more stress is placed on the individuals not involved because they become mediums in the family for the two that or having the disagreement. Because of how groups/families are we see that now inside the family there are two groups because naturally some or closer too the other individuals than the other so that the even if they haven't taken sides in the argument it is the same as if they had.
In Phase three we see that everyone that was once in the group is now on there own signified by the difference in colors. This happens over a long period of time being in phase two because the stress which is placed on the other individuals in the group they decide that it isn't worth the hassle. This age tends to take place in older individuals who have there own children and grandchildren as well because the amount of relationships in there life has become so great in prioritizing they no longer have the time or energy for the original group/family unit. Because of the one relationship going sour it becomes inevitable that phase three is reached. I have had people ask me when I was teaching this concept if after phase three if they can ever make it back to phase one and my answer is most generally "no". This is because once phase three is reached there is no communication between the different individuals and nothing would ever bring it back to the terms it would have been in the first because the communication just is not there.
In short and after reviewing this model I would say make sure if you are the individuals who is in the disagreement it is your responsibility to make it right and at least come back to agreeable terms with the individuals. For as you have seen if you don't you will be punishing the other members in your group whether it be your family or a group of friends this group will dissipate and you will be the one to blame for it.
Symbolic Interactionalism is a sociological term coined by and popularized by George Mead and Charles Cooley. I have mentioned it in other blogs of mine it basically says that people speak, act, and interact with each other through symbols and through interpreting these symbols one can know their inner most desires and thoughts. To give some examples the clothes one chooses to wear is a symbol of how they want to be perceived by others. When one starts to view the actions of individuals as symbols of how they want to be perceived and who they are at very deep level without actually knowing the individual well.
This then opens the door for arch symbols which are symbols which envelop many different meanings which are similar but have commonality. To give a simple example of these you could read my Blogs entitles Pardon the Flame and Bottling Lightning which show how many deep meanings can be connected to seemingly small symbols. To better illustrate this concept one can look at the "Apologize" music video from One Republic; It is great because it tells a whole story just using symbols. So if you read what these symbols can mean and then watch the music video you can understand the story which all the symbolism tell. I will list a few of the symbols and their meanings and if you see what they do and how they interact in both placement and what happens to them you can understand the whole story.
Flower: Is often used as a symbol of love.
Water: Purity, innocence.
Doves: peace and freedom
Phone: Communication
Mask: Lies Deception
Heartshaped box: Right side up it is a heart waiting to recieve love: On its side it is an empty heart.
Vase: in the music video shows the relationship of the individuals because a vase holds flowers
One Upside Down Flower Falling into the vase: One of the individuals in the relationship didn't enter the relationship with the right intentions.
Wedding Ring also Wedding Figuring: Marriage.
Candles: Life cycle, (in this case the life of the relationship)
Glass Slipper: Fairy Tail ending.
Flower Blooming: allure, sex (the flowers depicted are not in the vase hint hint)
Mirror: Reflection (I would hope anyone who read my blog would know most of these)
Ink: the ink itself is black which is often dirtying or marking something in some way that cannot be undone.
pocket watch: time
Fire: destruction and cleansing
The rest of the symbolism come with how they interact with each others.
So after having watch it you should have been able to see a story of two people in a relationship in which one wasn't as committed as the other and ended up cheating on them. then the couple tries to get back together because they are still in love and then the person who was cheated on cant forget whats happened so this time the relationship break up because of them.
I hope you enjoyed my little teaching sections and I hope it helped you learn about how symbolic interactionalism works, though most symbols of what people do are implied by thinking logically it is a great example.
.png)
