We ran over our monthly internet usage limit sometime late last week. Not a big deal... I had TV to entertain me. And since I'm done with school, I didn't need internet. So I started writing in my notebook... that this is what I'd post when the net would come back. I actually had a few entries ready for today. But now... they kinda don't seem as important as this one. Or maybe since they're out of my system, I don't feel the urge to post them here. So...this is the thing: you can't take anything for granted!
Everything lasts for a limited amount of time. Everything. Ppl's regard for you, your regard for ppl, relationships (including blood ones), friendships, precious times, special ppl, nice weather, a song, a ride, a day, sweet feelings, pleasant thoughts, good looking views... everything! So even when you're not feeling happy about something in your life and you come across a playful puppy, smile! If you're sick and you go to get yourself some tea or something and look outside the window and see rain, enjoy it! Ppl in your life accuse you of not being loyal to them after years of sacrifices and selfless deeds, ppl that you killed yourself for, and you happen to spend a beautiful morning on a lake, let the waves carry you off to your fantasy land. Just enjoy whatever comes your way. Before you know it, it'll pass you by.
One more thing: Don't care about ppl. I know it sounds selfish, but it's true. "If you're selfish, you get what you want". Care for others only to the extent that you can stand to look at yourself in the mirror. That's it. No need to shed blood for them. Keep your Lord happy, then keep yourself happy. Those are the only entities that you'll have for the rest of your life. Everything else is a space-filler in the book of life.
Showing posts with label Lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lessons. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Nailing It In
Humans are called social animals for all the right reasons. Although we come this world alone, we don't exist in isolation. If we did, we'd develop a whole array of emotional, psychological, and physical problems. We need people around us to live an overall healthy life. The interactions from those around us help us in many areas of life. Yet sometimes we forget some pretty obvious rules dictated by common sense, and say or do things to others quite inconsiderately, forgetting to keep in mind that one day we' be at the receiving end of such acts too, for what goes around, comes around.
Here's a list of what not to do when in a particular situation:
Situation:
Someone is just witnessing a horrible road accident, that involved their mom.
What Not to Do:
Don't tell them the severity of it or how much the victim suffered, or how careless the other driver was.
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Situation:
Someone's deceased mother in the Critical Care Unit, and her kids and husband are in the worst form of emotional pain.
What Not to Do:
Don't talk about the hardships you're facing in finding a suitable guy for your daughter.
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Situation:
Someone opens up their heart to you, telling you the dodge life just gave them, and they're looking for comfort.
What Not to Do:
Don't overlook their hurt by saying 'it happens to everyone, that life's a bitch and they should move on'. [A hug or pat on the shoulder, careful listening, and a few phone calls per week are what the situation demands].
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Situation:
Someone tells you how hard life has become after a significant loss.
What Not to Do:
Don't argue (or even talk) about the insignificance of the loss. It was their loss - you don't know crap about it. Pitiful sympathy is an absolute no as well! [Do the things recommended in the previous situation and think of practical ways to share their burden].
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Situation:
Someone tells you how much they miss someone they've lost.
What Not to Do:
Don't, in any way, tell them to be patient. If you do and they kick you where it hurts the most, I'd come and kick you there too.
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Situation:
Someone's life takes a total 180 turn and they're not themselves, or their old selves, for the next few months.
What Not to Do:
Don't complain about their attitude. They're having to reconstruct their whole worldview and they need time.
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Just follow some basic rules of courtesy. Think before you speak and then place yourself in your addressee's shoes and think some more. Think while you're speaking and then think after you're done speaking. There's nothing physically hard in the tongue, yet it can manage to have the head broken!
Here's a list of what not to do when in a particular situation:
Situation:
Someone is just witnessing a horrible road accident, that involved their mom.
What Not to Do:
Don't tell them the severity of it or how much the victim suffered, or how careless the other driver was.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Situation:
Someone's deceased mother in the Critical Care Unit, and her kids and husband are in the worst form of emotional pain.
What Not to Do:
Don't talk about the hardships you're facing in finding a suitable guy for your daughter.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Situation:
Someone opens up their heart to you, telling you the dodge life just gave them, and they're looking for comfort.
What Not to Do:
Don't overlook their hurt by saying 'it happens to everyone, that life's a bitch and they should move on'. [A hug or pat on the shoulder, careful listening, and a few phone calls per week are what the situation demands].
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Situation:
Someone tells you how hard life has become after a significant loss.
What Not to Do:
Don't argue (or even talk) about the insignificance of the loss. It was their loss - you don't know crap about it. Pitiful sympathy is an absolute no as well! [Do the things recommended in the previous situation and think of practical ways to share their burden].
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Situation:
Someone tells you how much they miss someone they've lost.
What Not to Do:
Don't, in any way, tell them to be patient. If you do and they kick you where it hurts the most, I'd come and kick you there too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Situation:
Someone's life takes a total 180 turn and they're not themselves, or their old selves, for the next few months.
What Not to Do:
Don't complain about their attitude. They're having to reconstruct their whole worldview and they need time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just follow some basic rules of courtesy. Think before you speak and then place yourself in your addressee's shoes and think some more. Think while you're speaking and then think after you're done speaking. There's nothing physically hard in the tongue, yet it can manage to have the head broken!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Altruism Gone Wrong
One of the best things about attending a post secondary institution is the opportunity it provides for growth. In certain cases it's good to be knowledgeable about certain facts of life, and in others, ignorance is indeed a bliss. Just last week in one of my seminars I learned about eugenics in Canada. Not that I am a proponent of human kindness or a believer of innate goodness in mankind, the video shown in the class still broke something inside me. All the while we were learning about the horrendous ordeals brought upon certain "inferior" characters by the "superiors", I could not stop myself from forming an anti-parallel connection between this occurence and one of my professors. I had the chance to take a course with him last year, and I learned something quite wonderful about him:
He got married when he was in grad. school, and the woman he got married to was diagnosed with having Epilepsy, and she used to get frequent seizures. Yet he married this "incomplete" person. He took care of her to the point where he knew when her last seizure was, the day and the time, how far apart her attacks were, and so on. He would almost always catch her when a seizure would be coming on before she would hit the ground, and he would put his shirt in her mouth to avoid her injuring her tongue. When a person is in seizure, they are completely unaware of their surroundings and they have sudden and uncontrolled movements, including the chewing of their tongues. This severely damages the tongue and causes a lot of pain following the attack, and the pain lasts for 2, 3 days. He knew that if he didn't pull out his hand out of her mouth in time, she would definitely chew on his fingers, but he always took the risk of protecting her from pain, even at the cost of his own fingers. What touched me the most about this incident was one deficient (since no one is perfect) human's willingness to accept another deficient (hers was more obvious) human, and love and care for her genuinely.
When I was watching the video clip about Leilani Muir however, I saw some contrasts between the two incidents. How can a human, imperfect and faulty himself, make life decisions for another human on the grounds of the latter's supposed inability to do so? What can possibly enable a human to think that he should stop a life from coming to this world because the world is for the strong? What role does reason play in deciding on such matters? Life on earth can be traced to millions of years ago, and since then there must have been mutations in the human gene that cause a small minority of the population to have some developmental disabilities. It didn't screw up the world for so many years, what gave the advocates of the Alberta government's Sterilization Act the idea that it will now? The idea of removing "bad genes" from the gene pool comes from Darwin's proposed theory of evolution, but the very theory clearly mentions nature's way of ensuring survival of the fittest -- the "unfit" get eliminated out of the race anyway. So what was the rationale behind the catastrophe that took place in Alberta in the 30's? Doesn't the fact that such moronic law was practiced itself show the unsuitability of the board's genes to be passed on? Isn't it more dangerous to destroy several people's lives (as was done thanks to the act) than to have one person's intellectual life in jeopardy (as was the thought for those labeled as retarded)?
This atrocity is a mocking example of the equality supported by the justice we so proudly call blind.
He got married when he was in grad. school, and the woman he got married to was diagnosed with having Epilepsy, and she used to get frequent seizures. Yet he married this "incomplete" person. He took care of her to the point where he knew when her last seizure was, the day and the time, how far apart her attacks were, and so on. He would almost always catch her when a seizure would be coming on before she would hit the ground, and he would put his shirt in her mouth to avoid her injuring her tongue. When a person is in seizure, they are completely unaware of their surroundings and they have sudden and uncontrolled movements, including the chewing of their tongues. This severely damages the tongue and causes a lot of pain following the attack, and the pain lasts for 2, 3 days. He knew that if he didn't pull out his hand out of her mouth in time, she would definitely chew on his fingers, but he always took the risk of protecting her from pain, even at the cost of his own fingers. What touched me the most about this incident was one deficient (since no one is perfect) human's willingness to accept another deficient (hers was more obvious) human, and love and care for her genuinely.
When I was watching the video clip about Leilani Muir however, I saw some contrasts between the two incidents. How can a human, imperfect and faulty himself, make life decisions for another human on the grounds of the latter's supposed inability to do so? What can possibly enable a human to think that he should stop a life from coming to this world because the world is for the strong? What role does reason play in deciding on such matters? Life on earth can be traced to millions of years ago, and since then there must have been mutations in the human gene that cause a small minority of the population to have some developmental disabilities. It didn't screw up the world for so many years, what gave the advocates of the Alberta government's Sterilization Act the idea that it will now? The idea of removing "bad genes" from the gene pool comes from Darwin's proposed theory of evolution, but the very theory clearly mentions nature's way of ensuring survival of the fittest -- the "unfit" get eliminated out of the race anyway. So what was the rationale behind the catastrophe that took place in Alberta in the 30's? Doesn't the fact that such moronic law was practiced itself show the unsuitability of the board's genes to be passed on? Isn't it more dangerous to destroy several people's lives (as was done thanks to the act) than to have one person's intellectual life in jeopardy (as was the thought for those labeled as retarded)?
This atrocity is a mocking example of the equality supported by the justice we so proudly call blind.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
The End Justifies the Means
I'm a third year Psychology major. I love my major and I love my career choice. There's nothing else I'd rather be studying than Psychology. Every morning when I wake up, I'm just so delighted to be studying something I'm so passionate about, and I think that's a blessing. But it wasn't always like this. I was a Computer Science major once and I wanted to be a Computer Engineer. I enrolled as a Computer Science major and thought that was my dream. When I couldn't get ahead in that program, I was really upset. I completed high school in a private, non-government aided school, and I didn't have many of the opportunities that most public school students do. But I went to my school because my parents wanted me to go there. When I couldn't grasp some of the concepts of Computer Science in university, I blamed my parents for it. Had they not forced me to go to a private school, I would've picked up the skills essential to do well in Computer Science. I ended up changing my major and I wasn't too excited about the change when it was happening. But just a year later, when I chose a career in Psychology, I was pleasantly surprised on how happy I was with my decision. I tried to look deep down in my heart to find an iota of remorse for not being able to get a career in Computer Engineering, and I couldn't. My point is, things happen for a reason. It all makes sense at the end. We just have to go with the flow, and have faith. "Everything is okay in the end; if it's not okay, it's not the end."
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Rust
by Mary Carolyn Davies
Iron, left in the rain
And fog and dew,
With rust is covered. Pain
Rusts into beauty too.
I know full well that this is so:
I had a heartbreak long ago.
Iron, left in the rain
And fog and dew,
With rust is covered. Pain
Rusts into beauty too.
I know full well that this is so:
I had a heartbreak long ago.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Inescapable Reality
I always believed in fate, but I guess I never really understood the concept. In life you go through so many ups and downs…you’re meant to go through them. If you accept this, it’ll make your life easy. What is to happen will happen, so why fight it? Try to make the best out and of it. “To bear is to conquer our fate.” – Thomas Campbell.
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