lazy 4-4-07
Everywhere I look I see lazy people. C'mon say it with me like the kid in the Sixth Sense; I see lazy people. Okay so I paraphrased him. We can be a lazy species sometimes. I'm not going to argue that we are lazier now than we've ever been, because I'd be both right and wrong. I'm also not going to argue that we are any more or less lazy than other species on this planet. I can only speak intelligently about my own species and that's probably a reach but yes we do some incredibly lazy things. Considering all of the gifts we've been given we can be pretty lazy in the grand scheme of things. I'm not here all gloom and doom though because I also know that on the other hand, we are an incredibly busy people. Has it always been that way? Just because I think we are lazy now that's not to say that we weren't lazy 200 years ago. But I would imagine that today's civilized person has a zillion more choices in terms of what to do with their time. So naturally attempts are made at saving time. People try to save a few minutes here, a few minutes there... it does add up. But what do people do with these gifts of time that they've saved for themselves? They take on more responsibility, more tasks, more work. That doesn't sound lazy, does it? Well to me, it's how we spend our time and not that we are spending it. We want things easy and fast. We have become lazy mentally.
I constantly see people talking on their cellphones while driving. Is this laziness or the product of a busier person? It seems like people are spoiled, especially the younger generation. You've heard stories from your parents and grandparents. You've heard tragic tales or racism, poverty, struggle and sacrifice. People had it hard 50 years ago and the people 50 years before that had it worse. I mean, they didn't even have portable phones? ahhhhhhhh! Why do we need to do so much at one time? I'm guilty of this too. I love to multitask. I love to immerse myself in 3 or 4 things at once BUT with that said, I can still get down with one thing at a time. I actually try to remember to do things one thing at a time from time to time. This is necessary because it is hard to focus when you are doing so many things at once, like driving and chatting on the phone. Your focus on each activity isn't what it could be if you were instead focusing on one. There's a trap too. The trap is that we've been multi-tasking for so long and have programmed our minds as such that if we just driving, or just on the phone, or just cooking a meal, we feel like we could do more. We almost feel bored. You think, hey I can do the laundry, cook, clean, watch this television show and feed the cat at the same time, but when you really think about it, are you doing those tasks as well as you could? We feel like we do them well enough though and that's lazy thinking that can bite us on the ass at some point when the tasks are really important. There are traps out there and if you can detach from all of your activities and toys and still know how to focus on things properly I give you much credit.
I think that with laziness of the mind comes softness. I don't think our minds are as tough as they might have been. I've been a huge fan of Mr. George Carlin for most of my life and one of my favorite observations that he has made and shared with us is his commentary on the continued pussification of American life. I think his quote was "now these soft, fruity baby boomers are raising soft fruity kids." With all of the advances in technology, entertainment, medicine and distraction wouldn't you agree this is true? We can't forget where we are from. We can't forget to know how to survive, how to struggle. Things may be easier but that doesn't mean that our minds shouldn't be sharp.
I'm not trying to lecture anyone or tell anyone how to live their life, because I don't even have a grasp on my own but all I'm suggesting is that we think a little more, stop trying to do too much at one time and reflect every day. I bet if we all did that some people might realize just how spoiled and lazy their minds have become. My blog on language a few weeks back was all about people getting lazy with their words. Now I'm talking about laziness with their actions, including their words. I'll provide you with some more little trite examples of what I mean. It seems to me we can't say someone's name if it's more than a syllable. Do you notice this? My name is Edwin, but other than my family, no one calls me that, especially the guys. Every guy I know calls me Ed. At least many women have the decency to call me Eddie, I dig that. Not that people calling me Ed bugs me, far from it. It's just something I noticed. I have it all broken down and defined right? Guys call me Ed, women call me Eddie and my family calls me Edwin. But this is something I've noticed with other guys for sure. It seems no one wants to vocalize 2 syllables when they can vocalize one and heaven forbid if your name happens to be 3 or 4 syllables! There's no way a guy will call another guy Christopher, Nathaniel, Alberto, or Timothy. Who are those guys? Oh, you mean Chris, Nate, Al and Tim. I'm not saying it's an exclusive behavior to guys, but it's more common for wang wielders to engage in such cock and bull endeavors of thought.
Here's another one; we've gotten lazy with the separation of church and state in this country. Now more than ever God is appearing all over our lives. God has crept into our schools, into our homes, all over our money and throughout our government during the last 100 years. Did you know that "one nation under god with liberty and justice for all" wasn't even in the pledge of allegiance until 1954? Did you know our advances in technology and medicine are being slowed by religion? Scientists know that certain kinds of research will be beneficial to our existence and may save future lives but they can't perform that research because of many other people's religious beliefs. Are you kidding me? This seems completely idiotic to me. People have been locked up in padded rooms for believing so fanatically about things they cannot prove the existence of. The founding fathers were adamant about the separation of church and state. It was Thomas Jefferson who once said: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." Back then it seemed that the belief that religion could only hurt government and hold us back was strong and widely accepted and was a vital part of the laws that were created and are still the framework of our way of life. But now God is everywhere. He's on your dollar, your pledge of allegiance and slowly is working your way onto your science curriculum with intelligent design. When did religion become science? One of these days we will become the United States of Christianity if we aren't there already. You don't think the whole Iraq thing isn't about religion in some way? Would an atheist president have sent all of those troops? I wonder about that.
Okay, enough preaching I'll get back to more lazy behavior you can all definitely relate to. I hate when people are so lazy with their thoughts that they look outward instead of inside. Many times the problem is with you, but you don't know it or want to own up to it. So then the only way you think you'll feel better is to push your negativity outward to other people. I really try not to judge people. If I do it's usually silly or jokes. Some people aren't so light hearted about it. As a matter of fact, some people can be downright vicious venting themselves at other people. The much harder thing would be to look inward and tackle their problems, their demons and their fears. Instead they call someone names. Worst of all, they attack the wrong exterior factors. If you are angry you haven't been able to quit smoking, be upset with yourself and keep trying. Look inward instead of calling someone fat, ugly, tacky, poor or stupid. People make fun of what someone else wears instead of calling out the cigarette companies who control their lives since they smoke a pack a day. I hate that. It's lazy and hurtful. It's hard to deal with our problems and find the right solutions, but it's easy to point finger and place blame. It's easy to judge and push the negative energy outward onto others. They think it helps them to make others feel bad. It makes some people feel better. People have been perpetuating these brainwashed ideals on everyone but never stop to look inward to find out why they do that. They never stop to think about why they care so much about everyone's life but their own. It's very lazy and dangerous behavior.
Okay, I'm going on and on here. This is as much as opinion for anyone who will listen as it is a reminder to myself. Many things I post I post to reinforce theories or behaviors I want to emulate. So what I'm saying is I want you to be less lazy, especially when it comes to other people. But probably more than that I want me to be less lazy. I want to be less lazy with my words, my actions and my thoughts and if the length of this silly blog today is any indication, I'm off to a good start.
Everywhere I look I see lazy people. C'mon say it with me like the kid in the Sixth Sense; I see lazy people. Okay so I paraphrased him. We can be a lazy species sometimes. I'm not going to argue that we are lazier now than we've ever been, because I'd be both right and wrong. I'm also not going to argue that we are any more or less lazy than other species on this planet. I can only speak intelligently about my own species and that's probably a reach but yes we do some incredibly lazy things. Considering all of the gifts we've been given we can be pretty lazy in the grand scheme of things. I'm not here all gloom and doom though because I also know that on the other hand, we are an incredibly busy people. Has it always been that way? Just because I think we are lazy now that's not to say that we weren't lazy 200 years ago. But I would imagine that today's civilized person has a zillion more choices in terms of what to do with their time. So naturally attempts are made at saving time. People try to save a few minutes here, a few minutes there... it does add up. But what do people do with these gifts of time that they've saved for themselves? They take on more responsibility, more tasks, more work. That doesn't sound lazy, does it? Well to me, it's how we spend our time and not that we are spending it. We want things easy and fast. We have become lazy mentally.
I constantly see people talking on their cellphones while driving. Is this laziness or the product of a busier person? It seems like people are spoiled, especially the younger generation. You've heard stories from your parents and grandparents. You've heard tragic tales or racism, poverty, struggle and sacrifice. People had it hard 50 years ago and the people 50 years before that had it worse. I mean, they didn't even have portable phones? ahhhhhhhh! Why do we need to do so much at one time? I'm guilty of this too. I love to multitask. I love to immerse myself in 3 or 4 things at once BUT with that said, I can still get down with one thing at a time. I actually try to remember to do things one thing at a time from time to time. This is necessary because it is hard to focus when you are doing so many things at once, like driving and chatting on the phone. Your focus on each activity isn't what it could be if you were instead focusing on one. There's a trap too. The trap is that we've been multi-tasking for so long and have programmed our minds as such that if we just driving, or just on the phone, or just cooking a meal, we feel like we could do more. We almost feel bored. You think, hey I can do the laundry, cook, clean, watch this television show and feed the cat at the same time, but when you really think about it, are you doing those tasks as well as you could? We feel like we do them well enough though and that's lazy thinking that can bite us on the ass at some point when the tasks are really important. There are traps out there and if you can detach from all of your activities and toys and still know how to focus on things properly I give you much credit.
I think that with laziness of the mind comes softness. I don't think our minds are as tough as they might have been. I've been a huge fan of Mr. George Carlin for most of my life and one of my favorite observations that he has made and shared with us is his commentary on the continued pussification of American life. I think his quote was "now these soft, fruity baby boomers are raising soft fruity kids." With all of the advances in technology, entertainment, medicine and distraction wouldn't you agree this is true? We can't forget where we are from. We can't forget to know how to survive, how to struggle. Things may be easier but that doesn't mean that our minds shouldn't be sharp.
I'm not trying to lecture anyone or tell anyone how to live their life, because I don't even have a grasp on my own but all I'm suggesting is that we think a little more, stop trying to do too much at one time and reflect every day. I bet if we all did that some people might realize just how spoiled and lazy their minds have become. My blog on language a few weeks back was all about people getting lazy with their words. Now I'm talking about laziness with their actions, including their words. I'll provide you with some more little trite examples of what I mean. It seems to me we can't say someone's name if it's more than a syllable. Do you notice this? My name is Edwin, but other than my family, no one calls me that, especially the guys. Every guy I know calls me Ed. At least many women have the decency to call me Eddie, I dig that. Not that people calling me Ed bugs me, far from it. It's just something I noticed. I have it all broken down and defined right? Guys call me Ed, women call me Eddie and my family calls me Edwin. But this is something I've noticed with other guys for sure. It seems no one wants to vocalize 2 syllables when they can vocalize one and heaven forbid if your name happens to be 3 or 4 syllables! There's no way a guy will call another guy Christopher, Nathaniel, Alberto, or Timothy. Who are those guys? Oh, you mean Chris, Nate, Al and Tim. I'm not saying it's an exclusive behavior to guys, but it's more common for wang wielders to engage in such cock and bull endeavors of thought.
Here's another one; we've gotten lazy with the separation of church and state in this country. Now more than ever God is appearing all over our lives. God has crept into our schools, into our homes, all over our money and throughout our government during the last 100 years. Did you know that "one nation under god with liberty and justice for all" wasn't even in the pledge of allegiance until 1954? Did you know our advances in technology and medicine are being slowed by religion? Scientists know that certain kinds of research will be beneficial to our existence and may save future lives but they can't perform that research because of many other people's religious beliefs. Are you kidding me? This seems completely idiotic to me. People have been locked up in padded rooms for believing so fanatically about things they cannot prove the existence of. The founding fathers were adamant about the separation of church and state. It was Thomas Jefferson who once said: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." Back then it seemed that the belief that religion could only hurt government and hold us back was strong and widely accepted and was a vital part of the laws that were created and are still the framework of our way of life. But now God is everywhere. He's on your dollar, your pledge of allegiance and slowly is working your way onto your science curriculum with intelligent design. When did religion become science? One of these days we will become the United States of Christianity if we aren't there already. You don't think the whole Iraq thing isn't about religion in some way? Would an atheist president have sent all of those troops? I wonder about that.
Okay, enough preaching I'll get back to more lazy behavior you can all definitely relate to. I hate when people are so lazy with their thoughts that they look outward instead of inside. Many times the problem is with you, but you don't know it or want to own up to it. So then the only way you think you'll feel better is to push your negativity outward to other people. I really try not to judge people. If I do it's usually silly or jokes. Some people aren't so light hearted about it. As a matter of fact, some people can be downright vicious venting themselves at other people. The much harder thing would be to look inward and tackle their problems, their demons and their fears. Instead they call someone names. Worst of all, they attack the wrong exterior factors. If you are angry you haven't been able to quit smoking, be upset with yourself and keep trying. Look inward instead of calling someone fat, ugly, tacky, poor or stupid. People make fun of what someone else wears instead of calling out the cigarette companies who control their lives since they smoke a pack a day. I hate that. It's lazy and hurtful. It's hard to deal with our problems and find the right solutions, but it's easy to point finger and place blame. It's easy to judge and push the negative energy outward onto others. They think it helps them to make others feel bad. It makes some people feel better. People have been perpetuating these brainwashed ideals on everyone but never stop to look inward to find out why they do that. They never stop to think about why they care so much about everyone's life but their own. It's very lazy and dangerous behavior.
Okay, I'm going on and on here. This is as much as opinion for anyone who will listen as it is a reminder to myself. Many things I post I post to reinforce theories or behaviors I want to emulate. So what I'm saying is I want you to be less lazy, especially when it comes to other people. But probably more than that I want me to be less lazy. I want to be less lazy with my words, my actions and my thoughts and if the length of this silly blog today is any indication, I'm off to a good start.