Don't let your past decide your future

Current Mood: Tired
Music playing: Random, everything on my project playlist

It has been too long without a computer...And though I planned on waiting until I got my computer back full of music and saved links etc. to use at my disposal, my mind simply could not wait. There's a notebook full of ideas and thoughts that have been brewing in my head and one of them must be unleashed into the blog!

After such a grand intro...on with the blogging!

"Don't let your past decide your future."-Frederick R. Bliss

I was mindlessly flipping through a magazine while waiting for dinner to bake in the oven when I came across an article that struck me. I had recently been thinking a lot about the tumultuous last year and so when I came across this very interesting article, I knew I had to get my thoughts about it down. The title, "The Biology of Loss;" The article discussed the profound negative effect personal events can have on the brain. The article mentions a research in which 75,000 companies were traced by their performance 2 years before and after the CEO had experienced a family death. The statistics: financial performance declined 20% after the loss of a child, 15% after the lost of a spouse and 10% after the lost of other family members. The study showed that people that are grieving have increased activity in a very broad network of neurons linked with mood and memory as well as perception, conceptualization and the regulation of the heart and other vital organs. The more one dwells on the negatives, the more developed the pathways for the neurons become causing chronic preoccupation, sadness and depression.

It makes sense that the brain is inadvertently affected by how much you allow yourself to delve into matters in your head. When you think about how hard it is to move on after the loss of someone in your life whether it be because of death or other reasons, you feel the changes in your body; your heart literally aches, you don't feel hunger and everything makes you cry! So many people are driven to drugs to calm the nerves or are driven insane by their perpetual thought process, or even worse are driven to doing harm to themselves because they cannot find any other outlet for their frustration and depression.

I started thinking about my life, the lives of others I've known and wondered; if we live too much in the past tense does our present tense become indistinguishable?

I had my share of personal issues to deal with over the past year; no deaths, but death was on my mind with a few of my own family members and a multitude of other stresses of life. I remember engrossing myself in a negative state of mind, worrying, constantly, about others, about myself, about life. Even when things slowly got put behind me, I had trouble letting go. The grief I was putting myself through expanded the channels for those neurons to travel and I literally lost touch with reality; the past and present tense was one of the same, and the future tense did not exist. I've known people in similar situations, the only difference was the future didn't exist because they made it not exist, permanently... I completely agree that such extreme grief can cause the brain to act in certain ways; I definitely had an altered state of perception and I was often unhappy and depressed. Unfortunately this inadvertently affected the people around me...

If we constantly think about the past, how are we to move forward? We cant, we are unable to live in the present while dwelling on the past. We will always let opportunities and people pass us by because we're trying so hard to change the past that we create a false idea of what the present is and what the future is. Our perception of what is going on around us becomes so skewed that we eventually know no other alternative and the channels grow wider... If grieving has the capability of altering our mood, and even the productivity of our organs it makes living each day all the more difficult and if you don't seize every day then you just aren't living. Living in your past is like being trapped inside a bubble watching the rest of the world pass you by.

I remember an episode of Scrubs in which JD says, "every day is made up of tiny little tests;" as simple of a thought as this is, its incredibly relevant. We can't live in a world of what if's and why's because you can never answer the questions to the test correctly if you're constantly thinking about the what if's and the why's. "In the end it's the what if's that hurt the most." I've quoted Jeanette Winterson's book Written on the Body before, but in this case, the meaning of the what if's changes; the what if's hurt the brain, not just the heart. The what if's and the why's are past tense and when there is an overflow of them in your vocabulary and in your though process it makes it hard to distinguish what you are trying to live for each day. "My biggest fear will be the rescue of me."-Incubus. I've been able to find myself in a much better place then what I have been; yes, it took losing myself, losing friends and mending a broken heart to reach this place, to find myself, but it feels good to be back in my skin again. The past is now only relevant in that I passed one major test; I needed to feel those lows and I needed to experience those struggles so that I can stand here now, having learned and grown and not worry about looking backwards, instead look forward modifying the present tense for a better future.

The past doesn't have to affect you if you don't allow it. Optimism is the best answer to fighting living in the past tense; you have to understand that what happened, happened for a reason and you can't change that, nor can you avoid the daily stresses of life, because as one man once said so eloquently, "Shit happens." That's the thing about life, you really don't have any control over it; what you do have is control over yourself and the decisions you make and so you have to be grateful for what you did have, what you shared with the people that are no longer in your life and remember that the heart of life is good.

All The Fish In The Sea

Current Mood: Pensive with a hint of cynicism
Music Playing: Jimmy Eat World, Chase This Light

I've always hated when people tell you not to get down about breaking up with a significant other, that there are so many other fish in the sea. Well sometimes finding that "big catch" is a lot harder then just throwing your line in the water. Dating is a lot like catch and release fishing. You catch a lot of fish and sometimes they aren't worth keeping so you throw them back. What people don't tell you is that when you catch that "big one" and you have to eventually throw it back...its still out there and you have to measure its grandeur against all the other fish that come along and tug on your line. If there are so many fish in the sea, why then do we play the game of catch and release? I guess if we kept every fish we would find that some are not worth saving, some are too small, or have an additional fin, or are full of parasites. Also, there are different kinds of fish out there; there are an estimated 15,304 species and an estimated 5,000 still undiscovered. (For real, I looked it up) Do you want to bring home a marlin or a dogfish? The answer seems easy enough... A fisherman's greatest story is about how they captured that magnificent twenty-pounder; they struggled to reel it in, and once having it, they appreciated its entirety... only to let it go. Maybe the fisherman's greatest burden is that there are so many fish in the sea...Well lets think about this (and for those of you that aren't following, we're not comparing fish to people, but fishing to dating, you dig?) We go through the struggle and we put the fish through an arduous struggle, and yet you would think it would be worth it, for the both of you to keep the fish... but no, we instead throw it back and continue to battle other mighty fish out there. Why do we fish anyway? People have devised ways for us to fish without even casting a line (dating services). Does it always make sense to walk away if we can't bring ourselves to keeping the fish? "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." (Chinese Proverb) Anybody can catch a fish, but if you learn the ins and outs of fishing, what spots to fish at, what kind of bait to use etc. maybe you can eat for a lifetime off that one big catch. Who knows, maybe its worth losing a lot of big fish and hoping for another big one on your last cast of the day...then maybe you bring that one home...

Organics vs. Conventional

Current mood: Contemplative, upset and slightly tired
Music Playing: The Decemberists, Her Majesty & Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace


I was reading the most recent blog from Epicurious titled, "Elitism in the Green Movement: Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and Dan Barber, chef from Blue Hill in Manhattan were part of a panel called "Hedonistic, Healthy and Green: Can We Have It All? in New York earlier this week. What they had to say got me thinking about food; specifically organics vs. conventional. First of all why do we have to label real food as organic and the other conventional? By definition, pertaining to the appropriate usage for calling food "conventional," conventional = conforming or adhering to accepted standards, as of conduct or taste/ pertaining to convention or general agreement; established by general consent or accepted usage; arbitrarily determined. How did spraying chemicals on our vegetables become an accepted standard? Who agreed to that? Apparently, it was done "arbitrarily." It hardly makes sense that we have to pay more for local organic produce then for something that was sprayed with chemicals and was transported from Chile. At the cost of oil, shouldn't it cost more do do this? Now conventional produce is the "general accepted" use, and organics is supposed to be for the more affluent population. Unfortunately the majority of us can hardly afford to spend the additional money to buy "real food." I try to buy organic whenever possible, and especially local stuff, but sometimes you have to draw the line somewhere, when the cost is so absurd, you can't bring yourself to pay $7.99 a lb. for organic asparagus. Pollan argued that, "cheap food is artificially cheap...the solution, vote with our forks and vote with our votes." Unfortunately most recently for us Sonoma County folk, measure M, could have been the start to something big around here; but sadly there were too many smart deficient people that didn't take the time to read the measure and comprehend what they were voting for, and the measure was voted down. But there needs to be something that changes via the vehicle of legislation. We either need to improve the standards of "conventional," or the government needs to understand that food is expensive, and there needs to be an improvement to the living wage so we can afford to eat better. The blog also touched on the possibility of eating cloned animals. Where do we have to draw the line to make this insanity stop? It's bad enough that we have allowed there to be a division of food, how far will we have to go to eat meat from a real animal? The author of the blog, Megan O. Steintrager, argues, "Organic will become unattainably pricey for most families, and there are millions who won't have any option other than feeding these faux animals to their children." Is anyone else absolutely repulsed by this thought? I can imagine my visits to the grocery store, deciphering between faux, conventional and organic steaks. The treatment of animals in slaughterhouses is bad enough, now I have to decide whether I can afford the extra 8 dollars a pound or whatever it might be to make sure I'm not ingesting meat with growth hormones or some crazy genetically altered matter that has created this rib eye! Why should we have to prioritize and put our rent, or house payment and paying to keep the house warm and lit over what we put into our bodies everyday? Somehow I see the future of food worsening and I fear for us all...

Every Woman Has The Exact Love Life She Wants

Current Mood: Groggy
Music Playing: Death Cab For Cutie, Transatlanticism


I'm not ashamed to admit that every once in awhile, I enjoy watching a "good chick flick." Now there is a fine line between what is considered a good and bad chick flick, and so when I say "good" I really mean a good romantic comedy. The other day I was watching "The Wedding Date;" a decent romantic comedy, but it was on TV, and I had been sick all weekend, and I needed a break from the non-stop soccer marathon I had been taking part in. I remembered seeing it once before and thinking that it wasn't too bad of a movie; the plot is rather simple; girl hires male escort to make ex jealous, and ends up falling for him, and along the way they have a little squabble, but inevitably end up together in the end. There was one quote that seemed to encompass the theme of the movie, "Every woman has the exact love life she wants." And so I starting thinking...hummmmm... Perhaps this true... There are many different types of women in the world, and each one has a different "ideal" love life. Kurt Vonnegut once said, "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." You can't pretend to be someone you're not, because the truth will eventually show through. Some women may think they are one way, when in fact they are another; I know this to be true because I have seen it many times. The same can be said for relationships; some enjoy not settling down and living the single life, some play the waiting game, waiting for Mr. Right to come along, some seem as though they can't survive without a partner and so they hop from relationship to relationship never settling because they can't commit, and then there are the types that once they find true love they grab hold of it and get married. Guy's take note here, this is why women are so complicated, this is why you can't get certain girls to commit or jump into bed with you. I will speak on behalf of the male species in saying that we typically know what kind of love life we want too, but the difference is that we tend to make our intentions known. But it is, in fact our job as guys to find out what exactly it is that women want; this is crucial guys, we have the power to transform any girl into something different. Now I say this with benevolent intentions; we can reconstruct what she wants out of her love life by being an unequaled counterpart. It takes a work of consummate skill to do so; and often we are too fearful of the female species because they appear so elusive that we often don't ever reach that point of female enlightenment. But it's all about what the woman needs, and if she just needs a body to make her feel secure and comfortable, then thats all you will ever be, unless you show her otherwise. You show her what she's missing in her love life, and her love life changes... When a woman finds a guy who constantly reminds her of how beautiful she is, who will lie under the stars and listen to her heartbeat, or stay awake just to watch her sleep... who kisses her forehead, who thinks she's just as beautiful without makeup on, one who constantly reminds her of how much he cares and how lucky his is to have her, she has no choice but to change her love life, because once she has that, she won’t ever want to not have it. To the female cynics out there, you're love life is what you make it, and somewhere inside every woman is the desire to make one lucky man her last great romance."If you'd rather give up then try, then you will never find anything worth fighting for."(I think this was from a Scrubs episode) I thought I had found myself in one woman's last great romance, but as it turns out, she wanted to give up rather then try. But maybe she's got the love life she wants, maybe she's a relationship hopper, and when I thought I had completed my construction, she jumped ship. But thats the problem with relationship hoppers is that sometimes the best thing they've found is staring them right in the face yet they still let go, because thats all they've ever known. It took me awhile to realize that even though it was love, it may not have been everything I wanted..."Sometimes you have to get to know someone really well to realize you're really strangers." (Mary Tyler Moore) I'm at the point where I'm wondering if that made any sense at all or whether it was one long stream of consciousness/diatribe. Who knows...

Plan For Tomorrow

Current Mood: Pensive
Music Playing: Radiohead, In Rainbows

It has been a year that I would much rather just forget… 2007 started with high hopes; I really began to appreciate the people that I was surrounded with, I looked to the future with a positive outlook and an ideal girlfriend to share it with. The end of 2006 and moving into 2007 saw some difficulties, a very ill sister and myself, in a struggle to find my scholastic identity. Things didn’t get any better for my sister in 2007, and it wasn’t before long that my dad turned up in the hospital, and it wasn’t long after that, that I found myself in the hospital. During this time, I finally started to feel good about school, but there were many other things that began to compound causing so much internal strife that I slowly found myself withdrawing into my head and no one was allowed in. I don’t know how I ever let myself become so despondent, but it festered and I became a person that I didn’t know existed, a person that I hope never returns. After such an optimistic outlook for 2007, between the health of others and myself and the thinning relationships with family, friends and girlfriend, I worked myself into a crestfallen coma that I nearly never woke up from. As hard as it was to endure, the break up of a relationship that I thought would last forever was the tipping point to set things in motion to breathe life back into my vacant soul and heart. I spent the better part of two months extremely inconsolable because in the blink of an eye, I lost everything, a best friend and lover, a home, a second family, friends, everything… My life was completely altered. While watching one of my favorite Scrubs episodes, I found a morsel of encouragement. In the Scrubs musical episode, a patient hears everything in song, and just before she goes in for surgery, everyone sings the song, “What’s going to happen;” the lines that are repeated over and over again are, “everything’s ok…nothings going to happen…plan for tomorrow…because you’re going to be ok.” I found myself so moved by this song that the waterworks started flowing, but as embarrassed as I am to admit that the last show/movie that I watched that made me cry was Scrubs, it's actually kind of humorous. It was this song that motivated me to lift my spirits because everything was going to be ok. During those two months I realized the importance of friends, and how powerful an impact they make on your life; I reconnected with old friends, even went to visit one in Portland, made new friends, and reinforced the friendships that I already had. I started seeing a therapist to help me get through this rough patch and help me realize things about others, and myself, and how to keep from reverting back to such a dark place. I found solace in writing, something I had forgot about doing. I loved to write, but had I got away from it for so long, and it was invigorating to dive back into a notebook with pen in hand. Writing helped me more then I could ever fathom; I blogged and I journaled and wrote more poetry in the last four months then I probably had in the past three years. In the end, 2007 went out in a rather un-exciting fashion, and it was rather fitting that it be so. New Years Eve encompassed what 2007 was all about, a few highlights, but mostly pretty shitty! I had an incredible dinner, had a few drinks at a bar with friends and ended up at a party where upon walking in the door I nearly got in a fight with a tight pants drunk hipster; Neil got attacked and nicknamed “hot dog” by some drunk thirty something Annie look-alike, but overall it was a rather uneventful and drab evening. But the way 2007 has ended has kept me hopeful for 2008, because it can only get better and everything is going to be ok. I’m emotionally stronger and healthier then I’ve been in some time I’m looking forward to the coming semester and meeting more new faces and living a whole new kind of life. There are already plans in the works for a two-week European vacation with Neil and possibly others, I’m continuing to write on a regular basis, and don’t be surprised if you find Neil playing an acoustic set with me singing the songs that we wrote in a coffee shop somewhere in 2008. I got an email this morning from a family member of some things that George Carlin said about the state of humanity that I found rather fitting to starting a new year. So I will close this blog with a few quotes from that… “We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness…. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often... We've added years to life not life to years…We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less…Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind…AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” So to everyone; remember to breathe life in everyday, because you only get to live your life once, so make the best of every day. So goodbye to 2007, you have been rather unkind, but there’s so much more to live for in 2008.