All the Small Things

                I was watching my cat today.  It was the small one named Knight, a little black cat.  The big fat tabby named Captain was off doing whatever, probably eating, but Knight was sleeping on my computer chair while I read the first chapter of The Great Gatsby.  After a while he decided to get up and visit my window.

                That cat sat staring at the sky for almost an hour.

                That got me wondering.  What does the cat see?  How does he feel about that world he sees outside my window?  He’s so small and so primitive that he can’t possibly comprehend everything he sees.  While as humans we can look out the window and see a car and understand the basics of how it works, a cat probably thinks it’s an animal, just like a vacuum or a fan.  We see a house and know it’s a place where humans live, built with bricks and wood and metal and whatnot. 

                That brought me to a thought I’d had before.  Why us?  Why did humans end up here?  Did we just haphazardly evolve from lower creatures, or was it guided by something else, something more powerful than the human mind can comprehend (I’m referring to God)?  As a Christian, I certainly believe that, if evolution is true, then it was guided by God to result in us.  That, however, is an opinion.

                I am in the middle of conducting an experiment.  I invited four people of differing mindsets to a chat on Facebook and presented them with seven stories, and asked them what they got out of each one.  I was interested in finding out how people who are inclined to different states of mind will view different situations.  One person of the four has responded so far, and one of these stories is exactly what I am talking about now.  The story was that of evolution, with an emphasis on asking why we came to exist, and why we ended up superior to everything else around us (although I did not specify the human race in the story).

                The person who has responded, who shall remain anonymous, wondered whether this species will “…use its capabilities to take advantage of the other beings.” Are we here to oppress all the small things around us?

                Now I guess it’s time to present my opinion.  I am not a vegetarian, to put it one way, but I’m also not a ruthless killer.  I support hunting rules and punishing those who break them, because although we’ve set ourselves a world apart, we can’t destroy the world around us. 

                Like I’ve said, I’m no environmentalist.  I believe in alternative energy because it means it’ll take longer to run out of oil, not because it “helps the environment.” I believe in recycling because it means we won’t need as much raw material.  I will not support detracting from human society for the sake of Earth, but I also will not support detracting from Earth for the sake of black market money and law breaking.

P.S. I hope you all get my references to older songs in some of my titles (this one is by Blink 182).

Sleeping on my Face

                I woke up at 1AM yesterday and began a coughing fit that wouldn’t stop for more than an hour.  After inhaling steam, moving my humidifier closer, propping myself up to basically a sitting position, taking Dayquil (at night), drinking hot cocoa, drinking cold water, having a cough drop, and forcing myself to hold in coughs, I still couldn’t get it to quit.  It really sucks sleeping on my back (especially propped up) because I’m a front sleeper.  Of course, they tell you to sit up when you have a cough, so I did.  They say it lets the fluid drain down your throat better because of gravity.

                Then I had a thought.

                If I slept on my face, wouldn’t that prevent the stuff from running down my throat (thus causing me to cough) in the first place?

                No, the cough didn’t stop, but it slowed to the point where I could manage to fall asleep again.

                You can call me sentimental, but when it comes to anything I always count on the old and dependable stuff.  I listen to music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s (although mostly 70s and 80s), I have an MP3 player instead of an iPod, I have had the same t-shirts for three years, I’ve got a laptop from 2011, a car from 1998 (which I still can’t drive alone until December), and a mind that prefers the old-fashioned way of working things out instead of memorizing formulas and answers and definitions and such.

                None of that stuff ever lets me down as much as modern things do.  Facebook screws up way more often than my MP3 player does.  My '98 Chevy Blazer is nearing 129 thousand miles.  From what I've heard a heck of a lot of modern Toyotas aren't making 10 thousand.  The United States is still giving me the freedoms that people in most nations across the globe don’t have.

                Now, this may be because I sleep on my face too much, but the way I see it, what could be wrong with good old dependable punctuation?

Where the Streets Have No Name

                I was going to write about truth this week, but I gathered some new inspiration while listening to Where the Streets Have No Name by U2 and playing a single game of Solitaire...which it just so happens I won.

                I was considering life.  I do that a lot, I guess.  Life isn’t a game.  Some people like to say it is, but in truth it’s only a tutorial.  Every step of the way you are learning, the tutorial is teaching you things you didn’t know before.  It teaches you how to play a game that you will never play.  You never have to.  You take what you learn and you add on to it and by the end you either know everything or you’ve tried playing without finishing the tutorial.  There are people that don't finish.  Where does that get them?  Some jump off bridges, others hang themselves from the ceiling, and others suffer for the rest of their lives because they’ve learned a little, but not enough.  If you’ve got no idea how to play the game, why try? 

                Something else about a tutorial: You can’t lose.  It tells you everything you need to do.  It guides you every step of the way.  When you screw up, it puts you back on the right path.  You can’t really lose a tutorial; you can only choose to not finish it.  Now, sometimes the system crashes and you’re out of luck (car crashes, other accidents, etc. are what I’m getting at if you didn’t get the metaphor).  But don’t quit the tutorial.  You may say “Aw hell no, life doesn’t tell me what to do!” but it does.  The directions are at the top of your screen, you just have to see them.  They’re right in front of your eyes!  You really have to try to lose.  Way too many of us are trying to lose.  We’re trying to play the game without the tutorial.  Granted, it may be an incredibly difficult game we're learning to play, but remember, it really is just the tutorial.

                In The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale is trying way too hard to lose.  Finally he sees the directions that life has been trying to show him for seven long years.  I’m fairly certain he died satisfied.

                Life is not a game; it is merely the tutorial.  Take the opportunity to learn, strive to understand, and most of all, enjoy all of the simplicity and complexity that is life.

The Ultimate Showdown

                This is it.

                This place, an open field in the rain, is where everything you’ve ever done, everything you’re doing, and everything you’re going to do come together.   

                A flash of lightning.

                Looking out you can see every terrible thought, every broken promise, every failure to uphold the values that you set out for yourself to follow staring straight back at you.

                Another flash, and then a crash as the weight of all of the guilt and anger you hold bottled up inside smashes down on you as a gash appears in the Earth below revealing the hell you are most certainly going to burn in for every sin you know you’ve committed. 

                Every voice inside you is screaming for you to run, except one, and that voice is telling you to face your failures or else you will never again see the sun, but every time you’re about to step up your legs fire off like a gun and you run until you find yourself a little hole to hide in.

                Then you realize as your eyes grow wide that the gash in the ground that holds your demise is calling on you to recognize that the heart within you is greater in size than you’d ever imagined as your spirit cries, “Don’t give up now, you’ve not yet won the prize!”

                As you peer from your hole at the challenge ahead, you only wish more that you’d stayed home in bed, and the gash in the ground that is burning so red only looks the more daunting to your foolish head, but you drag yourself on your eyes filling with dread, as you seek to avenge all the blood that you’ve bled.

                It is your turn you see, as now is the time, to finish the course of this sad makeshift rhyme, the choice is now yours now go battle your crimes in this ultimate showdown of your short lifetime.

                The decision you’ll make is a great one indeed, choosing your fearful mind or your strong heart to heed, but know that each failure to win lays a seed, that perhaps next time you’ll let your heart lead.