THINKING DIFFERENTLY & LIFE EXPERIENCE

Today I had a conversation with a good friend of mine, and during that conversation at one point she told me about how a friend of hers once helped her through a situation by pointing out things that she (my friend) already knew. Now, take a moment to read that entirely-too-long sentence again, and continue...

Oh silly, you already knew that. Why did you need someone to remind you? But is this really that silly of a thing? I think that most human brains carry more-or-less the same amount of capacity (as in the capacity of a hard-drive) in which to store information. What separates people from one-another is their varying abilities to connect that information in relevant ways. Connecting this information (such as the ringing of a bell being connected to the act of you striking said bell) is something that every human learns how to do ON THEIR OWN. There is no tour guide inside our minds showing us how all this different information is connected. We have to figure it out ourselves. And we never figure it ALL out, but different people are better at forming certain connections than other people, and vice verse, and so on...

So when you're faced with a dilemma that you just don't quite know how to work out, it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask a friend for advice. Because chances are they have a different method of connecting the information in their mind than you do, and then can QUITE LITERALLY making you think differently about the situation. Suddenly, the solution seems so clear...but you never could have known without that person showing you a different way to think. And that doesn't mean that person is smarter than you, they've just had a different life-experience than you. That's all.

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Expanding on Life-Experience:

I think a lot of people tend to think of life-experience as being comprised of major life events such as weddings, funerals, births, tragedies, triumphs, etc. But in reality, a lot more of a persons life takes place when major events aren't taking place at all. Life-experience refers to your unique experience from the moment of consciousness to the present. I'm willing to bet that your toy collection and TV played a bigger role in the development of your psyche than your grandfather's funeral did. Or even your high-school graduation. Your mind had already been developed by that point. You were an adult (by scientific standards).

Just something to keep in mind if you ever find yourself doing something like...say...raise a kid? It's the mundane, boring, every-day that takes up the majority of this person's life. How this time is spent is going to determine what KIND of person this child is going to be.

Of course, I don't have a child. So I'm no expert. But this is just common sense. And yet TV is still the world's greatest babysitter. Parents neglect to give their children the attention and support they crave due to a long day at work. And you can't really even blame the parents entirely, can you? I mean, a long day at work DOES suck. So the employer is partially to blame, isn't it? Yeah sure, why not? But does the blame stop there?

Not even close. Employers have numbers to hit and deadlines to meet. If they don't perform to those standards, then they get beaten out of the free market by a business who WILL.

I know I know I know...it sounds like I'm blaming capitalism. But actually, no. Not at all. I love the free market. You can blame capitalism for all sorts of social problems, and sure, it does deserve it's fair share of blame. But the only blame capitalism deserves is for taking advantage of result of a MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM. If that problem didn't exist, capitalism wouldn't even have the temptation of corruption.

The problem is our monetary system. There is no limit as to how much money can potentially be in circulation. There is no limit to how many dollars can BE SPENT in one day in America. Our money comes from a Xerox machine. We just make as much as we want.

Has anybody ever read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series? Which one was it where the beings from another part of the galaxy were exiled into space, and they happened to find Earth? Do you remember? Well, these people are buffoons. They crash land on Earth in some jungle, and start using leaves as currency. Of course this was hilarious. And Douglas Adams was an extremely hilarious author.

And yet...our money literally DOES grow on trees. We were taken off the gold standard in the 70s. All of the REAL money was sealed in Ft. Knox and heavily protected, to ensure that the only actual capital (aka "actual money") was never compromised (aka "put in danger's way").

Man...I sure hope our money's still in there. How long has it been since somebody's double checked?


Anybody know?