Mark Gowan's Blog, page 19

The Monday Blues

Every Monday morning is peculiar. It’s just another day. I think we all know that, but at the same time…it’s Monday. The dogs bark a little more, there’s more tension, tiredness. The week lies ahead and Saturday is a dim light at the end of the five-day tunnel. It’s an old story but one that is repeated endlessly.

And why? Why Monday?

We work, often, from Monday to Friday but why is that a reason to dread. Work ought to be good. In the best of worlds it is something that we are happy about, something that gives our lives meaning. Of course, there are so many people that must work, they must do anything in order to make a living. This is most of the world. But chances are if this is being read, those people aren’t you.

Recently I went by the cemetery where my family is buried and I cleaned the gravestones off, removed the grass and washed the granite a bit to make the names legible. My wife went with me. As I looked down at my father’s grave I commented.

“This is everyone at one point.” I said.

And this is everyone some one point. A marker that is often forgotten, a grave in a forgotten cemetery. And so why Monday? Because we forget that there are just so many Mondays. Be happy that we are able to have the Monday blues.

Value

What we value and why can often say a lot about us. Value is not so straight forward as one might think. Value is often measured economically, by money. But, this is really the lowest common denominator. Think about it.

“I value what I can buy.”

But what other ways can value be measured? There are platitudes.

“I love my family”, “I love my kids”, ” love my work”…

These things cannot always be translated into value. They do not necessarily mean “I value…”. Value is a choice. To love one’s family or kids is not a choice. The key word to test value is “why”.

Why do you love to buy things?

Why do you love your family?

Why do you love your kids?

Why do you love your work?

Somewhere in there is value, stuck between the words that we use.

Sometimes we value things that we shouldn’t. We “put a price on…”, we “worry about what others think about…”. So value is something that can change, and perhaps it should. Like most other things in life, value is acquired through experience, through knowledge, through learning. It is not just that we simply have information, we can do something, or we have acquired a skill.

Change yourself by changing what you value.

A Little Soap Box

If we are to progress in any meaningful way as a species we must overcome the particular fears and beliefs that have defined us throughout history and continue to define us today. This idea is not new. The idea to overcome humanity’s shortcomings by changing not only the way we think, but our actions and the reasons that we act is one that has been presented by great thinkers throughout the history of our species. We simply must learn to listen to them.

There are three frailties of humanity that stand in the way of progress. Make no mistake, these frailties do not stop progress completely, but only slow it down. The first is tribalism in all its forms. There can be no “us” versus “them”. Where there is patriotism there is nationalism, and where there is nationalism there is war. We have come to the point in our history where we cannot afford war.

The second shortcoming that will define humanity’s future for better or worse is ideological belief whether it is in a religious form or a political one. Ideology is a certitude that leads to tribalism, to the death of curiosity and to confusion. Our ideologies, if they define us, take over us and create a concrete bunker in which intellect dies. Our ideologies are born out of fear and arrogance. Not knowing an answer is always better than creating one out of thin air.

The third is as old as the gods and is known by many names: selfishness, avarice, greed. To have enough is something that does not come naturally to most of us and to have too much is something that is not often enough recognized. We have many excuses for our greed ranging from family to individual rights. Greed is too many times measured economically, but its seed is psychological.

The question must become what kind of society do we want to live in? The question will become what will we have to do in order to achieve this society. The question is simply when will we have to decide these things and how.

A Free Ride

I often hear the platitude that everyone needs to carry their own weight, and that there are too many people wanting a free ride. I agree. If only…

If only corporations would pay the taxes that they owe.

If only corporate welfare was ended.

If only Wall Street quit begging for handouts and stockholders quit demanding more and more tax breaks.

If only corporations quit off-shoring jobs to slave-labor countries and calling themselves “American” companies.

If only monopolies quit masquerading as free-market capitalism.

If only Citizens United was overturned and corporations were not given human rights.

If only the rich couldn’t buy the laws of this country.

If only we realized that no one is self-made, that no one “did it on their own”, that everyone owes something to someone else.

If only this country believed in actually educating its citizens.

If only the middle class didn’t have to support the industrial-military complex for the sake of jobs to a few and the endless wars that corporations fuel.

If only these things were addressed then I would have no problem picking up the slack of those few others that might want a free ride.

Some Times

Sometimes in the early morning I’ll wake up. I won’t get up, but just lie there with my eyes open and watch as thoughts pass by the inside of my eyes. Sometimes they float and sometimes they fly. The early morning is a grey time when colors are subdued, they don’t get in the way of the world, they don’t cover up the truth, the reality. They accentuate the world in a way that is blinding. The morning gets its time to live if just a little. It lives and stretches its wings and we lay in our beds or sit in our chairs and think.

Different places have different things to say. Listening takes time and patience. Sometimes I think that some places are shy, they don’t want to interrupt, they don’t want to get in the way and they have to be coerced, coaxed lightly. Be gentle with new places no matter where they are, no matter what they are. They don’t always have a choice. There’s those places that are talkative. They talk about nothing and go on about everything. We all know the type. We all know that they are nervous inside, they are afraid. We just don’t know what. Other places are those quiet places, sometimes out in the open and sometimes in the corners of our eyes as we pass by.

There was an old tree the other day and it had a palm tree growing out of its trunk. A big one. I felt it was lonely, standing in a field. I walked up to it and lay my hand on it. The vines had grown alongside and it had shoots coming up around it. It knew that it was a thing of the past, a thing that had once stood among many. But now it stood and held a palm tree in between its limbs. Sometimes such things just seem normal. There is no explanation. It’s just how things are and there is nothing else to do.

I saw the sadness in her eyes as she left. She wanted something and didn’t know what. She wanted to stay, but she had to go. Sometimes we just have to let time pass and look out the window as the world passes us by. We get what we want just to find out that it is not what we wanted in the first place. Then, we are back to zero. The bags packed we pretended like it was nothing.

But sometimes we know.

The Other Day

The other day I woke up and thought about what I had done with the past year. What had I filled my time with, and what had I taken time to do? One more year had passed and although the endless parade of days will continue, my days are numbered. The days that we take for granted are days wasted. The days that we do not choose are days that are chosen for us. What is so important today that I cannot take the time to do something memorable?

Every day is a chance to change, to experience, to remember that today means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but that today means everything to you and me. It could be that one that I decide to follow a dream, to take a chance, to stop taking what I’ve got for granted or to leave something behind for good. It could be the one that I decide to push my limits, or to read a book. Perhaps it is the day that I pack the bag and head off on an adventure? Whatever today is it will pass and be gone, wasted or not, lived or ignored.

Days are endless and arbitrary. They are meaningless chunks of possibility that we can let pass us by or capture and create meaning if just a moment at a time. “What will I do with today?” can be the most demanding question, the most important question that we ask ourselves. At the very least it deserves a thoughtful answer because he quality of our lives depend upon the answers we give. Because one more year will pass and although the endless parade of days will continue, our days are numbered. The days that we take for granted will be days wasted. The days that we do not choose are days that will be chosen for us and we will be left standing and wondering what we did the other day.

Vikings On Two Wheels…Coming Soon!

We had just returned from a three-month backpacking adventure in Asia.  We had sold most of our belongings to do the trip and now were sitting in the kitchen talking to Helle’s parents about our future.  We didn’t know the answers to their questions, just that we felt like we were not ready to settle.  We didn’t want another adventure on the scale of the one we had had in Asia, but we did want to start thinking about that illusive future that they were asking us about. 

One day while working on the farm I went into the workshop to scavenge a part for the manure spreader and saw our bicycles sitting, dust covered, in the corner.  We had saved them from the pre-Asian garage sale.  I had done a two-week bicycle trip in Poland the year before with a friend of mine, and so I had bags and they were crumpled up in a box beside the bikes.  We had a little money left from the Asian trip and a little time on our hands before Helle had to make a decision about school in the fall.  Hmm…

Just a Quote

“I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few” -Adolph Hitler

An interesting quote in an interesting time. This is an important point given the state of politics and society today. It is a quote that both implies the nature of us all and that of our societies, our civilizations and many of our beliefs.

The word, “reserve”, has especially and important meaning for it implies that the speaker is capable of reason and that the speaker does not maintain it in all circumstances. It implies rhetoric and persuasion and motivation and rationality.

The word “use” refers to a conscious decision on the part of the speaker to differentiate goals, goals that are left vague and unspoken. “I use” refers to the speaker’s willingness to lie to some and present ultimate desires to others.

“For the many” must refer to the mob, to the masses, and the few to those who are privy to private information. This is not in hindsight, but simply common assumptions that would be made by anyone who thought about this. However, if most of us rely upon emotion then only the few would understand the quote.

Looking Up

It is within the annals of history that we can learn the underlying issues of the day. The unforgivable sin of unwarranted opinions held true and unquestioned; the absolutism of religious fear, arrogance and stupidity. Human beings have beliefs about their world, yes, but to force upon the world those beliefs is a human failure, a frailty of mind.

To argue against Truth is to cut off the very branch we sit upon. To insist upon respect unearned is to disrespect any act, any thought worthy of being respectful. To rely upon rhetoric over rationality is to be a liar and a thief, and to hide behind the guise of honesty for the sake of profit is to undermine the civility of any society.

There are freedoms and there are limitations, and these are not set in stone but are not easily moved once set by the forces of nature. The only way, the only viable path is to recognize the failures and mistakes that we and our forefathers have made. We humans are proud and arrogant, but we are also curious if only we would allow ourselves that magical perspective of wonder and surprise.

As Plato showed us, we are shackled in a cave and watch as prancing shadows amuse us, numbing us to our slavery, the ignorance and easiness that those that would enslave us rely upon for their own power, being blind as they are and lacking any foresight. The sun is shining bright if we only look up once in a while.

Life is Short

Camus once asked what will matter in a million years. There is another question that perhaps is more to the point, more personal: You might die today. What will you? Such questions seem platitudinous, meaningless. However, they are actually the most important questions we can ask. It’s not true that we don’t care, that we are apathetic about such ideas, it is that we are not hardwired to think about philosophical concepts such as purpose, meaning, importance.

It is not true that we do not have time. Think about it. How do we not have time to live our lives to their fullest? It is not true that we have obligations. Think about it. We the only obligation we have is to be the best that we can be to those that we love, to ourselves, to our societies. It is not true that we are not capable. Think about it. Human beings have the capacity to think beyond ourselves, to create, to imagine. Our intellect gives us the ability to be free.

Be happy. Stay healthy. Don’t waste your time being angry. Fight that inner-voice that beats you down at night when you wake up from a dream. Love yourself and don’t sell yourself short.

The universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old.

The earth is about 4.5 billion years old.

The average person lives for about seventy-two years.

What will you do with your 0.0000016% of the age of the earth?