coping | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the tag “coping”

17 Oct 2014

Going to the Extremes

We want to embrace a position on things, everywhere we are being asked for our opinion. We want to look as though we are confident.We want to share why we feel the way we do, and in the end it puts us at odds with each other.

An example: People may say… you cannot like Green and like Orange at the same time- you are commanded to pick one. After all anyone who likes green surely cannot be an advocate of orange that the same time! Or at least that is simply what people tend to want you to think.

Choose! This is the world of choice- so why are you in the middle? That makes you seem weak, makes you look stupid or something.

The internet is based around this communication, the media demands it, social networks want to know,… inquiring minds wan to understand and they want an instant response. What do the polls indicate? Websites want your rating on everything, they measure the clicks to decide “interest” so they can continue to feed you more of what they believe you “like”

So in the end we look for the decision, winners and losers, haves and have-not’s, right vs wrong, “the time has come to stand up!”

And once we huddle around the decision, others “pile on”. They want to be acknowledged in being on the same side. Damn the facts, the hack with how people feel about the opposite things. They are stupid, ignorant, in the wrong “club” or the inferior political party. There is no middle ground, compromising would be a sign of weakness after all. Trust no one who contradicts your position in the choosing! They just don’t understand.

That is the extreme of my frustration I guess. There are not that many absolutes in this world when it comes to opinion. Some people even take the absolutes of the physical world and deny them. Like there is a place for “maybe” – but only when it means picking an answer with conviction.

ALL that energy. All that anger or resentment. All of the time spent. Debate is healthy, but arguing “opinion” is like saying “my opinion is better than your opinion” … it has some sort of laugh-ability about it really. And sadness

I know I have posted about this before- but I still believe: Life is short. Focus on positives, make the most of the passage of time.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Anger, coping, Definitions, Happiness, Ignorance, life is precious, Opinions, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Reccognition

29 May 2012

2 Comments

Some Days are Movies, Some Days are Books

Some days are movies, some days are books.

There are those days that seem really fluid, like some sort of compact movie with a plot that has a beginning in something simple and builds to an ending all balled up in 2 hours. It is like some director is moving the characters in and out of the scenes ( of which you all seem to be in). Or you are hearing the storyline unfold through a strange set of circumstances. Things are registering, things are happening, but in some way you are still connected in a distant way. There is a soundtrack complete with meaningful and selected subject matter intended to shape the mood. A lot of background is out of focus, but you don’t mind. You are seeing it as a sweeping story of your life.

Yet, there are other days that seem like a book. Each and every detail is carefully drawn out to get you to turn the page. The details are descriptive, intense and in some crazy way going in slower motion than you would expect. There is dialog that is meaningful, there are surroundings that have significance. But the whole thing feels like an author ( you actually) is building the plot like some final distant conclusion on a page near the back cover. And the characters are deep and move in and out of the pages like a rhythm that is comfortable, with room enough for several sub-plots.

So I know that I don’t always get to choose. It can be a surprise that can somehow be pleasant, or cause a lot of frustration. It’s like that feeling of being distracted when watching a movie with a lot of dialog, or looking up from a page in a novel and having to go back and read it again- just to keep the story in context.

Today was a movie. And now that it is nearly the end of the day and the credits will be rolling, thinking about tomorrow…well who knows? Kind of okay with that, brings itself some adventures that will always be adding to the plotline, always be making a new soundtrack or revealing a new twist in the characters with in.

Either way, I can make it work.