Thy WILL to Succeed!! (Day #18)

Those who believe WILL succeed!!! 

Have you ever been at a place in your life where you weren't quite sure what to think of yourself and others? Exactly why it is you're doing some of the things you're doing or have done? I know you have because everyone must cross this path sooner or later. With a notion that everything you have done or was somewhat logical or slightly ethical at that particular point in time. Now, the people who think they know everything and everything are the ones who will also say they have never second guessed anything they have done and have done it all in a conscious, morally righteous state of decision making mind.... right.....keep telling yourself that as you make your gradual decent in what would appear to be an image being rewound.

Making mistakes and discovering new things is what being a human being in life is all about. We  have to learn from our environment, things that happen to us, occurrences that take place and then progress forward with the knowledge we gather from what has been (more or less) consumed. People such as John Locke and David Hume called this Epistemology, the learning of knowledge through experience. We fall down, we get up. Why did I fall? Can I correct this particular incident so that it doesn't happen this way again? Did it teach me anything else about myself and the way I go about things physically, emotionally and mentally?? You bet your bottom dollar it did. I (as of now) strongly believe in Epistemology and the idea that we learn things through experience. Some could argue that knowledge is already inside us, meaning we are born with it and we just unfold it as we go. Reading is a great way of learning new things about ANY subject, but you can't read about boxing and know what it's like to be in the 5th round of a title fight unless you've been in a fight like this before. Reading can only take you so far, but some of the most intellectual and smartest people I have ever met are consistent readers.I myself and starting to read A LOT more to further my knowledge in carious subjects.  

In my personal opinion there are two only two types of people in the world when it comes to matters of these, and that is the people who have the discipline to strive for their dreams to reach them by any means necessary, and then those who don't, those who go through life only searching for ways to make more and more money while they 'succeed' at a socially inept level. We all know these people because the world consists mostly of them. 

People, Deities, Beliefs and Good and Evil (Day #17)

I have a certain type of love for people, I really genuinely do. I want to believe that people are 'good'. Good in the sense that people care for others around them and would do things out of the kindness of their hearts to help others succeed as much as they would themselves... If not more, by putting another in front of you. You would be surprised to see that most would not dare to do so. I want to think that people are good in the sense that not only themselves exist in the world and other people actually matter.  LyLy and I were talking last night about the fact that we both always seem to look for the good in people. Even when we they are mean, angry, upset, rude or just nasty, we both tend to be naive and hope for good. Yes we both have things to work in this aspect, but then again who doesn't? If you're always seeing the bad side in/with people then you're the same as us but flipped. If you're stuck in between and you do a little of both, I would have to say you are a little confused with yourself and others in the world. Finding that happy medium could take as long as we both live to figure out, if even that. Will we both ever give up? Negative!! Giving up is not a option from any stand point for people such as LyLy and I. We are here to make a difference in the world and with the hope to see the world change and to become a better place by implementing our knowledge and understanding of good into the world. It just takes one person to start a world of change and the rest is up to the individual subjected by it and so on.

There are different variations of the words good and bad, or true and false; people use them to their advantage , or in some cases their disadvantage. These traditional and overworked ideologies are based on the human moral intuition (if you will). Some say we have gathered this intuition of good and bad (evil) from the religious perspectives, but then how did the ancient greeks know of these just, unjust, good, bad and evil moralities? Well....peoples such as the greeks were not monotheistic, but polytheistic, they believed in multiple different gods rather than one. People have been believing in deities since man can recall, whether it be one or many gods. These ways of belief have structured ways of thought through out history and through its societies/civilizations in countless acts of sentimental action. Because this is so, our way of life, outlook, culture, perception and very way of life is fixed. Is this a bad fix? No! But then again, who is to say otherwise? Religion has helped construct our determining factors of good and evil, what's worth doing during ones lifetime and what type of life to lead will direct in satisfaction and contribute to society or the well being of ones self and others through out. The Greeks knew that the individual was something 'key' in how we determine our ways of life. The citizen is what helps make life essential in communities, more organized, democratic and more structured. Before this idea of the individual, there was 'no individual.' It would be like a Dictatorship/Monarchical society where their word IS the word. Whatever they believed, you better damn well believe is what you believed, or off with your head it was hahaha. At this time in age to kill another human being for a dispute or adultery or whatever, was normalcy. It was the way of life and continued to be until around the 9th century a.d. when people were gathering multiple different monotheistic deity secs worldwide. This helped to control their populations and contribute to the well being of society. That and the fact that a lot of rulers, or kings wanted larger areas of land with bigger military of course. This point I am trying to stress, if it is not so clear, is that our perceptions and interpretations of good and evil have been accumulated over time to bring us to the ultimate ruling of what exactly it is that is good and evil. They have been written in scriptures, spoken by those who were either a son of god, or were approached by god. They have come in numerous amounts of different forms and not a one of them is wrong in my eyes. Because the development of a betterment ensure of peoples well being and success with the one life they are given is indeed a progressive step towards a better tomorrow and that my friends is worth dedicating ones life towards. Yes the individual wants and needs to be successful to a certain degree to help others achieve a level of success, but when we focus our all on ourselves and not others it contributes only to self demoralization. Break it down, what makes the good actually good? What makes the bad actually bad or evil? When you put the human life, when we all have come to understand is priceless (with the right amount of education), we see just what makes good good and bad bad. It circles ALL around the human life. We cherish it!! We cherish our own lives don't we? Yes, some to different degrees than others, but we indeed cherish life. 

How have you contributed to good and evil lately? 

A Forest of Kings...(Day #16 February 4, 2013)

Hopefully everyone had a great start to the week today, the day after the Super Bowl where the Baltimore Ravens pulled off a victorious win over the San Francisco 49ers in the 4th quarter when the 49ers almost came back to win it. I was rooting for the 49ers myself and didn't want the team who beat our Broncos to win, but then again it makes the Broncos not look so bad losing to the winning Super Bowl team. In the end it was a great season for the Broncos, the 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, so congratulations to them for taking it all the way home. 

I work weekends and got called to work today, tomorrow and wednesday as well, so I will be making some extra money the next few days, which I could not be more happier about, thanks to my awesome co-workers. I had a tattoo appointment today for 2pm, but I again had to cancel on my buddy who's doing my back piece and who did my stomach piece as well. I can't stand canceling on him, but I also need the money and extra shifts to pay bills and to be able to hook him up with some cash too even though I have already paid for the piece in full. This piece is a Alaskan Native American piece that is on a t-shirt that my mom gave me when she went to the National Native American conference in Alaska. Along with this Native piece, I have a n entire sleeve dedicated to the ancient Maya (Native South Americans, if you will), Egyptians, Inca's and Aztecs. I absolutely Love ancient history and can personally not get enough of it. My mom is such an amazing lady and has supported me my entire life. With choices/decisions, comfort, humility (or what I thought was at the time), peace, loving, care and never ending support in general.My mother has molded, shaped and carved me into the person I am today and I could not be more grateful and proud to call her my mom. She is simply amazing. 

I started reading another book aside from "The God Delusion" which I STILL haven't finished yet, and it's called "A Forest Of Kings." It is about the ancient Maya civilization and starts from the beginning where the Olmecs left off. It's the biggest book I have ever gone after and is irresistibly good; you don't ever want to put it down or get bored reading it. It's filled with accurate and concise facts about the modern and ancient maya culture. Giving distinct details on culture life, social life, agricultural life and their spiritual ways of life. This book was recommended to me by my philosophy professor my last year of my undergrad and he told me this book was the book for me. He told me about this after seeing my tattoos as I described them to him in a one on one meeting we had. He knew exactly what I wanted to read and how it would benefit my knowledge and understanding of the ancient maya civilization. I suggest if you want to learn more about this culture, then read A Forest of Kings by David Freidel and Linda Schelle. Absolutely Phenomenal!!!

Well...the rest of the week is work for the next two days, then two days off. Train (tonight) tomorrow, and wednesday night, go see the movie Parker on thursday during the day (a lot cheaper) by myself which I love to do sometimes and then dinner with my baby and my cousin Jessica on Friday night. I think we all might go see a movie as well, or just eat dinner and then hang out at one of our houses and watch a movie so we can talk, catch up and just have some good and much needed family QT. 

I hope everyone has an AWESOME rest of the week. Remember for all who struggle and feel lost that TOMORROW IS A NEW DAY and the day after that and so on and so forth. You can choose your future by doing what YOU want to do. A little words of encouragement for the day is that I quit chewing a few months back and went straight to Nicorette gum and have been chewing that for the last few months and wanted to stop that to so I am! I got the patch (only because I don't want to be an irritated angry person towards my co-workers, family or my amazing girlfriend LyLY) to ease off the gum as well and I wear the patch most of the entire day and if I feel necessary then I will have a couple pieces of gum through out the day. I went from chewing a can (a little more) each day, then to a LOT of gum in one day, to only a couple pieces a day while wearing the patch 3/4 of the day. I am ALMOST there!! My energy is better than it has been since I can remember, I feel more like ME than what I can ever remember and my senses are MUCH MUCH more clear than they have ever been. I encourage all of you to push for the things you want most in life and for me a healthy addiction free lifestyle is EXACTLY the life I want to pursue and lead. Love to all and Pay If Forward, even if your stubbornness wants to get the best of you, DO IT!!