4.21.2013

Life is not a marathon




(Let me preface this by saying this has nothing to do with the Boston Marathon.  I also present the image not to evoke guilt or sadness, but thought. Not only are 20,000 physically dying each day from poverty, but billions of us are walking dead, at least to some extent. Of note, it's been almost 2 years since I wrote a full blog. WOW!)

Life is not a marathon.
I have nothing against marathons, but there is a time and place for marathons.
Everyday and everywhere are not the time and place.
Somehow, along the way of being human, we became convinced that we were production and consumption machines.
We forgot about freedom.
We became bound to nonsensical ideas.

Produce, produce, produce.
Consume, consume, consume.
We have an economy to uphold.
This is largely because money and ownership became rulers of people.
We take these things for granted, but they are just concepts.
To me, people are more important than concepts.
Life doesn't have to be about concepts, at all.
Our minds became bound by these concepts.

Now we think it's rational that a few people own most of the money.
A few people own most of the the land and the resources.
Now many of us work for those people to afford a little piece of land and a little bit of food.

We are so bound by our concepts and systems, that they became more important to us than the health of the planet.
More important than clean air.
More important than clean water.
More important than safe and healthy food.
To many of us, they became more important than our own mental and physical health.
Many of us have learned a survival mentality, rather than one of well-being.
We believe our systems that produce so many mental health issues and so much insane behavior are rational.
How many anxious and depressed people do you know?
How many people do you know who are not at ease?
Should there be so many?
And I'm talking about in one of the wealthiest nations in the world, where we still have loads of poverty.
I sponsor a kid in Kentucky through Save The Children.

I have nothing against hard work.
I've done plenty.
I just think that people should be working hard at what they enjoy.
Working hard at something you do not enjoy for extended periods, to me, is sad and unhealthy.
Should it be?

If the mass of people are not able to enjoy the best hours of their lives for most of their days, I have a problem with that.
I have a problem with the framework of ideas, concepts and systems that produces the outcomes we have gotten, and does not seem to be ceasing to do more of the same.
Why didn't we figure out a way where it is easier for people to make a living doing what they enjoy?
Does it, maybe, have a lot to do with the fact that we somehow became more focused on trying to fit into systems of ideas and concepts that only work well for very few people?
That we learned to take those systems for granted?
Should we take systems that don't work well for so many of our fellow humans for granted?
And they really don't work for anybody, if we make the planet uninhabitable in the process.

We forget that humanity inherited a free planet.
Food grew freely, and no one owned the land and resources.
We created ideas, concepts and systems that did away with that, and allowed for concentration of wealth and resources to the very few.
You reading this probably have enough, but a large part of humanity does not.
And most of you are still working jobs you don't love, and many of you for people you don't love to work for, because you feel you must do this to survive, or to have what you need or want.
It's a tradeoff that, to me, shouldn't have to be.

How much stuff do we need, by the way?
How many people have closets, rooms, garages filled with stuff that is never even looked at?
Why do we really need to produce so much?
Why do we need to consume so much?
How much of our behavior regarding production and consumption is healthy and rational?
How much of it is conditioned?

It didn't have to turn out this way.
We allowed it to turn out this way.
It's not entirely our faults, because we were conditioned to think the way we do.
Our ancestors, and now us.
The question is, where do we go from here?

I'm just sharing my thoughts.
I don't have the answers.
Change begins with questions and dialog.

The biggest issue, to me, is that I believe that the solutions have to come from out-of-the-box thinking. The solutions may have to include completely new and vastly different ideas, concepts and systems. The more we try and find solutions within the framework of ideas, concepts and systems that have already failed most people, the longer it will take to find solutions that work for EVERYBODY.

I was listening to the linked song when these ideas came upon me.  The vocalist repeats, "You have all the time in the world..."  I had to ask myself, why I feel like I'm in such a rush all the time. Why do so many of us feel that way?

Modeselektor & Thom Yorke - The White Flash (Robags Vatimafonkk Rekksmow)

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