Dead is Trendy

Dying…

We’re all doing it. It’s probably the most popular activity in history, aside from being born. Statistically, it really blows everything else away. Whether we’re doing it with style or becoming the world’s most disgusting research photo, we’re all doing it. So cry out for anarchy… refuse to wear a toe-tag and call yourself an anti-conformist – but in the end, you’ll be doing it just like us.

Then there’s the question of not being dead yet. Some of us are dying way too fast, some just taking our time and even some are just taking a leap to try it. Not many people want to do it right now. And the ones that do are desperate to join the fad. Most often, one needs a great deal of experience before doing it with confidence. It’s no easy trend, but we can’t really get ahead without it, in many perspectives.

When you do die, it’s like an age-old party. Everyone comes to the party’s host, this being the dead person of course, and pays gracious respect. Then they join the crowd to be observed in their festivities. Afterwards half the party regroups somewhere to get inebriated. Romantic in a sense. The downfall being that the host typically pays the bill. But how different is that from being alive?

So where does the urge to rebel against it come from? It’s so popular that everyone in history has done it. How can it be so terrifying? For those who take their time, that is. For others who are doing it way too fast, there has to be some kind of underlying culture shock or psychological issue. It’s quite a drastic change to undertake with any measure of sanity. Unless all your friends have done it. Obviously pier pressure would be involved.

Inevitably, we will all do it. Some say there’s a party afterwards and all manner of people are smiling like idiots, welcoming you to the largest membership club in existence. Some say it’s finally over. No more having to choose trends or fashions.

I have to wonder; what do I want to remember the moment I realize I’ve been accepted into the largest membership club in existence?

Defines Us, Living

How does life and living define us? More importantly, how do we define it?

We’re all glamorous glory hounds that wish to be something great in our lives. Anything else would be Buddha or Gandhi. And we are not them, especially if you’re reading this blog. But our definition of it defines our pursuit of it. I would like nothing more than to have a huge publishing company read this and ask to release the many books I’ve written on my own terms. But alas, that will likely never happen. I would like that my efforts to save teenage street-rats became something wondrous, but it’s likely none of those street-rats remember my name.

Some would tell themselves that the pursuits of others are nothing more than wishful thinking while pursuing their own unattainable goals. Some would find a stroke of sheer genius-like coincidence that would propel them into a life of spotlight and recognition. But what I ask is; would they ever tell the tale as it really happened… sheer coincidence and the actions of others? And if one were brave enough to say no; how could they be so humble in the world we know today? Lets all watch the news and see, shall we?

We are destiny’s glutton for amusement. We will always prefer to take that path that leads us to the most glory. But can we resist it? That becomes the question most asked far after we’ve done the deed. Some of us, and I mean few of us, will run from such choices. Preferring to live in a time where right and wrong was simple and clearly defined. But more often than not, those few will be doing so because they have done the shallow deed of glory once or twice before.

But living life is full of these temptations of the ostracized persona. In times long since forgotten, all you needed was a good idea to receive that long awaited cheer of glory. In modern times, a good idea will end your career if presented to a superior paycheck. So now we sit silent, wishing we had the ear of those whom we would perceive rule our lives. Individuals whom were once like us… desperately waiting for a glorious break in the drab life of a subservient mind. But have they really broken free of it if they can’t simply listen?

In the end, we will all glamorize our days. Telling glorious tales of great moments in time that we could only hope had unraveled the way we tell the tale. Or could we just tell an honest tale? A tale of someone who lived in these times and knew their wondrous ideas would be silenced by those whom desired the glory for themselves and feared changes in the life that they could some day call glorious.

How will you tell your tales?

Why Are We Arguing?

Why are you arguing? Arguing is really made up of you, or someone else, forcing a point down someone else’s neck in hopes to win a moment of verbal dominance. If you stay objective, this is to be expected seeing as most means of exhibiting one’s dominance are illegal in most advanced civilizations. Seeing as we’re no longer allowed to beat each other over the head with large and heavy objects, arguing seems to have become far more common. Okay. So where does that leave the rest of us whom have no real urge to kill or maim people we don’t agree with?

It leaves us sitting, waiting and hoping that the arguer finishes so we can leave and perhaps never speak with them again. In the alternative, it leaves us sitting and waiting until we can burst out laughing about their determination and desperation to feel superior to us with words and opinioins alone. The most mindful and civilized of us quickly understand that this has gone beyond a discussion, and into passion. A distinct and dangerous line to cross. Others… well, they prefer to end the argument with statements of violence or simply slamming the preverbial door in our face, if not worse.

Another scenario is that the subject of our passionate discussion mistakes our display as a potential argument and simply withdraws into silence, aggrivating our passions all-the-more. So how can we discuss, rather than argue?

The first thing I try to do is to place myself in the other person’s shoes. Understand why they are so passionate and present my points in a manner that even they could rightiously shake their fists at. I try and explore why it is that their ideal has no real logical basis and why they might have come to that ideal. More often than not, I simply don’t. I just sit, waiting for their rant to make some manner of sense I can relate to.

In the end, the other person typically will need to display their dominance even more than before in order to save face from a logical, well researched perspective. This, of course, aggrivates them and drives them to extremes in order to seem more rightous and proud than me. And then, a month or more later, they silently and discreately give the subtlest of aknowledgements in order to save their pride but in the same token, gain respect that they do in fact have a brain and sometimes use it if so forced.

So if you’re the arguer, understand you’ve done nothing but show your dominance to no one but yourself for your own self-identity. And if you’re the discusser, understand that you’ve done nothing but show you’ll let an arguer win. If you’re both arguers, understand that you might wind up in a fist fight. If you’re both discussers, understand that you must take time to research and understand each other’s point.

If you’re like me, understand that you’ll always wonder why people feel the need to argue with you and that you’ll need to take self-defense courses to survive half the arguers you wind up dealing with. If you’re not, take some domestic courses because you’ll likely wind up serving a man who sees the world in a way that no longer exists by modern standards.

Arguing; the new method of violence and dominance.

Discussion; the new and old taboo of religion and politics.