I have often been accused of being a font of useless information. I collect trivia and minutia. More often than not from Media (TV, Film, Music).
The truth is, it is through popular culture that we draw the strongest analogies for representing life.
This being said, I also collect quotations.
I had a stunningly wonderful conversation via IM with rodneyorpheus where we discussed the idea of doing things because “It’s always been done that way.”
Inertia is a very difficult concept to work with. A body at motion stays at motion; a body at rest stays at rest.I hate that “we’ve always done it this way” attitude
Says Rodney:
I hate that “we’ve always done it this way” attitude.(snip).my answer to that is usually:
“so if someone does it wrong once, it’s bad – but if people keep doing it wrong for years it’s good. How does that work exactly?”
I commented to him that:
For me Thelema is finding Will by testing both sides of the coin to find the equilibrium
I have had conversations with people like this:
Me: “Well, there’s a job in food service”
Foo: “Ohhh. I’d never work food service.”
Me: “Oh, you know what it’s like too?”
Foo: “No. I’d just never work it.”
Well, I know it sucks. I can say I’ve worked food service. More than once. But how can anyone say it sucks unless they try it? Me personally, I’d really not like to spend the day lifting rocks. But I have a very dear Brother who not merely enjoys it, but from my understanding finds zen peace in the process.
Likewise… I can not say things like, “I’d never do acid.” or “I’d never reach across the table and slap someone for what seems to be no reason.” However, my inclination is that these things will not happen. But if the right time and the right circumstances were available… I would probably be open to experimenting with them just to get my own inner validation of the process.
The fact is… I’m willing to find the situations that make me test myself and my beliefs. I don’t want to discover that I have come to a stop. I don’t ever want to believe that I’m not growing in someway. For me the path to true will is testing myself constantly to learn who I am and who I am not. When that learning process ends… I guess I’ve pretty much found my Will and I’m done here in this place called ‘incarnation.’
Until that day comes…. Anyone want me to slap them across the table?
living vicariously
You know this is a writerish sort of thing. I have been told that if [insistance on experiencing everything for oneself and taking no one’s vicarious word] is a measure of whether or not a writer CAN be successful, that I could probably sell 10M of whatever whenever I get around to publishing. I am not so confident in my own writing, but it is an interesting point to ponder — history would seem to point that either writers “can’t take anyone else’s word”, or perhaps it is just those folks who can’t live vicariously who feel the logorrheic urge to document their wild exploits to folks who will only ever live vicariously, or well, who knows…
The main problem with “I’d never…” statements is that it leaves no room to change your mind. I like the idea that I am allowed and encouraged to reconsider and try again…