bradisonfire 2007-11-06 12:18:17

Hey there man, I stumbled upon this post 'cause it was under the 'artist news' section on the front page. I read it, and for the most part, agree with it. About a week ago I posted a blog on MySpace that talks about similar things, so I copied and pasted it here. If you want to check out some of my other blogs, they're on my page, and it's link on my Newgrounds profile.

I was on the phone with Charity for about an hour and a half tonight. I like talking to Charity, because she calls me on my bullshit. Every time. I respect people that do that a lot more than people that don't, mainly because I try to call everyone else on their bullshit, and I like it when someone returns the favor. I also tend to have more 'genius moments' when I'm talking to her than anyone else.

The particular 'genius moment' started off with us talking about the Shakespeare quote "To thine own self be true". True, it's saying you shouldn't lie to yourself, but, can you ever truly lie to yourself? The human mind can't trick itself directly, but rather, one can condition it to response in a predictable way. You can condition yourself to be a victim. You can blame others for your mistakes. It's easy, and it's made easier by the society in which we live.

For example, I started my state mandated alcohol classes last week as a result of my DWI. As we sat down, the instructor asked us each to tell everyone else why we were there. My statement was basically "I fucked up. I had to much to drink, and got behind the wheel, then got pulled over and arrested". The key words are: I. Fucked. Up. A majority of the others told stories of how they were the victims. They were minding their own business, driving home after a long night of debauchery, when suddenly an evil policeman swooped down upon them a wrongfully took them to jail. These were the responses the instructor expected. He gave us a lesson about "Those Sons of Bitches". It's always: Those sons of bitches pulled me over for no reason. I wasn't hurting anyone but they took me to jail just because I was drunk. Those sons of bitches searched my car and found a pipe, and they took me to jail just because of that.

You. Fucked. Up.

We all did, that's why we're in the class.

Driving while intoxicated is illegal. Drunk drivers kill people (thankfully I nor anyone else was hurt). I chose to drink and drive. I fucked up.

Driving with a pipe in the car is illegal. You chose to have it in there anyway. You fucked up.

Being true to yourself means not placing the blame on other people. You should take responsibility for your actions. Everyone should. It's not easy. You have to work at it, probably for your entire life. I am responsible for myself, no one else. It's easy to be led astray by things we see and hear. It's hard to stand up and say "I made a mistake". The key is to not consider them a mistake. They are learning experiences. There has never been a single human being in the entire universe that has never made a mistake. Jesus doesn't count, because most western religions consider him to be the son of God, and I will argue that he wasn't a human being in the traditional sense. The bible says he wasn't conceived by a human being, therefore he wasn't one. But that's a whole different argument. Back to the point.

Anyway, you can't beat yourself up over mistakes. Human have the most complex central nervous system ever known, yet we act like idiots. When a dog makes a mistake, say, he eats something that makes him sick, he learns not to do it again. That wasn't technically a mistake. It was a learning experience. However, it seems that when everyday people encounter learning experiences, they call them mistakes and beat themselves up over them for the rest of their life. We must stop.

To thine own self be true. You are responsible for the mistakes you make, and to are responsible for learning from them.

This leads me to my next point. Loving yourself. Yeah, it's cliched, but you will never love another living creature on this entire earth if you don't first love yourself. We project what we feel for ourselves unto others, whether subconciously or intentionally. If you hate something about yourself, you will hate things about others. Be true to yourself. We all have flaws. Take responsibility for them, and accept them. You are who you are, nothing more, nothing less. It's revolutionary when you accept who you are. Trust me, I know. The more we focus on changing things about ourself that are ingrained in our very souls in the first place, the more complicated life becomes.

There's no such things as a right or wrong way to have a relationship. It's a simple as being honest with ourselves, and accepting who we are, because once you do, you'll (without even realizing it) start being honest with other people and accepting who they are. That's the key to true happiness. It's contagious. You'll automatically attract like-minded people once you start living this way.

Earlier I mentioned my genius moment. Here it is (Chase, pay attention).

Someone places a glass, half filled with water, in front of you. They ask you "is the glass half empty or half full?"

Which one is it?

Here's the genius moment: It's neither. Whoa.

If you say the glass is half empty, you label yourself a pessimist, and an optimist if you say half full.

By labeling yourself either one, you are moving yourself farther away from "To thine own self be true". If you say "I'm a pessimist", here's an example of how a situation will play out:

Say you've met a girl that you really like. You consider trying to take the next step, maybe having a relationship with her. Ah, but you tell yourself "That will never work. I'm -(insert personal flaw here)-." That's pessimism. It will never work. You doom it from the start.

Say you're an optimist, and you meet the same girl. You say "Man, she's really cool. Sure, she has a few flaws, but who doesn't, right?" Then, something like this might happen: You'll start a relationship with her, then, six months down the road, those flaws that seemed so innocent at the start will have become so annoying that you break things off. By pointing out those flaws to yourself, and analyzing them, you have been in fact fertilizing them for six months until they grow into a twisted, terrible, evil thing. It will start haunting you. They will become the only thing you see when you look at her.

Alternatively, you may start having pessimistic thoughts that you mistake as optimism (by not being true to yourself!). You'll think things will get better then a little voice in your head will whisper no it won't.

People say "try to be optimistic". No, don't. Don't try to be anything. Just be true to yourself.

The glass is neither half full nor half empty. It's simply there. It's a glass filled with some water, and that's more than some people in this world have. You should grab the glass, drink it down, and instead of thinking "I'm still thirsty" (pessimism) or "That's good. I bet there's more" (optimism) you should just be thankful to have any water at all, and be thankful that what thirst you had was reduced, no matter by what amount.

That girl I was talking about earlier reduces your thirst by some amount, therefore, rejoice. You're better off than before. Never forget that. Then, if it legitimately doesn't work out, no one made mistakes, and it was simply a learning experience. You learned something about yourself, and surely she did as well.

You should have an attitude of gratitude, and to thine own self be true.

Lambinvoker 2007-11-09 23:16:16

Dang! That poem was deep.

I look forward to next week's.