Members Ernest Buckley Posted February 8, 2006 Members Share Posted February 8, 2006 A twist on the "The Thought of Art" thread got me thinking how much we are all so influenced in our thoughts by our upbringing and those who taught us as children. I have found that I have lost touch with many people and I think most of it has to do with the fact that I am constantly expanding my understanding of the world by not judging and just experiencing what everything has to offer. For example the last three digits of my cell are 666 and I remember the time I got to choose it. The girl looked at me and said why would you want that number, I responded, its easy to remember. She held satanic references to it. I thought how silly. Yesterday someone I know very well asked me to make coffee for them when they were already on their way to doing it but when they realized we had fresh beans, they felt uncomfortable grinding them and asked me to do it instead. I know this is a minor everyday occurrence but it makes me think how we often try to avoid things we are uncomfortable with or are not familiar with. I won`t even get into the religion thing here or politics but I have found that the older I get the more foreign my religion has become. I no longer practice it but when I do experience it for what it is, I think "how odd". I don`t know if this a mid life crisis at the age of 33 but things are no longer what I thought they were. I find myself taking a completely different stance on many issues from my family and friends and I`m just trying to decide if its because I no longer accept everything blindly and try to decipher it for myself or is it that I`m going through some sort of funk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MorePaul Posted February 8, 2006 Members Share Posted February 8, 2006 Consider that in both examples you are judging the behavior of others based on your perspective on the issue -- there may be more to their internal stories leading to their actions (including staying open to certain possibilities)and in those cases, it may be that one has simply traded one perspective for another Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted February 8, 2006 Author Members Share Posted February 8, 2006 Yes, I have considered that. Its a very valid point.Carry on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MorePaul Posted February 8, 2006 Members Share Posted February 8, 2006 rockon - after writing that, I was concerned it came off combative (which wasn't my intention) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted February 8, 2006 Author Members Share Posted February 8, 2006 No offense taken. Its a great point. i`m just trying to figure it out myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nat whilk II Posted February 8, 2006 Members Share Posted February 8, 2006 Originally posted by Ernest Buckley A twist on the "The Thought of Art" thread got me thinking how much we are all so influenced in our thoughts by our upbringing and those who taught us as children. I have found that I have lost touch with many people and I think most of it has to do with the fact that I am constantly expanding my understanding of the world by not judging and just experiencing what everything has to offer. For example the last three digits of my cell are 666 and I remember the time I got to choose it. The girl looked at me and said why would you want that number, I responded, its easy to remember. She held satanic references to it. I thought how silly. Yesterday someone I know very well asked me to make coffee for them when they were already on their way to doing it but when they realized we had fresh beans, they felt uncomfortable grinding them and asked me to do it instead. I know this is a minor everyday occurrence but it makes me think how we often try to avoid things we are uncomfortable with or are not familiar with. I won`t even get into the religion thing here or politics but I have found that the older I get the more foreign my religion has become. I no longer practice it but when I do experience it for what it is, I think "how odd".I don`t know if this a mid life crisis at the age of 33 but things are no longer what I thought they were.I find myself taking a completely different stance on many issues from my family and friends and I`m just trying to decide if its because I no longer accept everything blindly and try to decipher it for myself or is it that I`m going through some sort of funk? 33 is awful young for a "mid-life crisis". I would guess rather that you are in the stages of finalizing the identity formation that began when you were a teen.... Of course I'm only shooting from the hip in a guesswork fashion... I find, at 50, that my life has large arcs of departing from, and then returning to, the significant events and experiences of childhood. It's a though I have to, for a while, get away from my own conceptions of my childhood by setting them aside, and then at some later point, unlooked for, the childhood events return and I re-learn them, but altered by time, reflection, and subsequent experiences. It's one of my basic convictions that people grow like trees - they don't just spin out their lives like a storyline. Each year lays down a "ring" of memories and experiences that never really goes away, and the earlier, the more basic the formation is. You can certainly grow in a different direction than in the past (seeking the light is part of this elaborate analogy) but you always start in the place that "where you've been" has deposited you. anyway, my mind wanders as usual..... nat whilk ii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 2180 Posted February 9, 2006 Members Share Posted February 9, 2006 Sorry if I wrecked the - thought of art thread - with depressing political stuff..........but it helped me get back to painting in some strange way. The last few days I started back on a painting that needed to be done anyway and I started to realize after the feeling of working creatively started to wear-off, that, this is going to take some time to finish. But, it can be finished if I just look at-it one part at a time and the better I do those "parts" the better the finished product will be......... .......the moral of the story is, the only thing you really have to be concerned with is - maybe the world should just go screw itself, I'll not bend to your lowly and popular standards, if I get ruined by the flood and insanity of money and power freakism that seems to be the new status-quo, then I guess I'm the lesser being. Believe in thy-self..........to hell with all else. I sure hope that cheers everyone-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thefunkman Posted February 9, 2006 Members Share Posted February 9, 2006 The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half. - Dostoevski This is why I try to take a step back from time to time and evaluate how & why I do things, whether it's politics, what I eat, or my music. For example, I will occasionally quit playing the piano for a month or so, to try to flush out any habit-driven "crutches" I may have developed. When I get back onstage, new ideas are more likely to pop up instead of "the usual stuff." My latest: Someone on one of these forums recently said, "Don't 'speak' when you think." As someone who does commercial voice work and had been in radio for years, this hit me like a brick. I've been "internally emoting" all my life!! How inefficient...how limiting. Changing this will take some work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted February 10, 2006 Author Members Share Posted February 10, 2006 My latest: Someone on one of these forums recently said, "Don't 'speak' when you think." As someone who does commercial voice work and had been in radio for years, this hit me like a brick. I've been "internally emoting" all my life!! How inefficient...how limiting. Changing this will take some work! Yes, thats another great point. The process of thinking has been discussed before on these threads however I have yet to get into this subject on a personal level. In other threads it was about a book. I would like more people to chime in on their personal experiences of how they have shifted thei minds. I just find it very challenging to try to think differently from my past conditioning. The whole "non judgement" philosphy is an interesting one that I find does help me clear out the cobwebs at times but then I found myself falling back into old thoughts. Changing ones mind is very hard work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thefunkman Posted February 10, 2006 Members Share Posted February 10, 2006 EccentRick sez: ...people most often continue to live and think largely "as programmed" and in sync with a culturally-approved timetable, with many very often completely unaware that they are flying on auto-pilot. Others fully realize that they are doing so, but 'want' to live that way. Or as Schopenhauer put it, "We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LiveMusic Posted February 10, 2006 Members Share Posted February 10, 2006 I don't know when I reached the point you are at now but it wasn't far off from 33. In my 40's, it kicked into overdrive. Now, I'm 52 and pretty much at peace with "life." It's a bitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EccentRick Posted February 10, 2006 Members Share Posted February 10, 2006 Originally posted by LiveMusic I don't know when I reached the point you are at now but it wasn't far off from 33. In my 40's, it kicked into overdrive. Now, I'm 52 and pretty much at peace with "life." It's a bitch. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EccentRick Posted February 10, 2006 Members Share Posted February 10, 2006 thefunkman sez: Find out who you are, then be yourself. And vice versa! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted February 10, 2006 Author Members Share Posted February 10, 2006 The challenge of being yourself first is that we all seem to be on autopilot so its easy to get into the same groove and not progress if we are just being ourself. I think a conscious and very diliberate effort must be made almost at every moment to ensure some sort of progress towards becoming yourself. I know this is a little confusing but I find the saying, "Question everything" to be motto of late. Guarding all my thoughts at all times is tough to. Its an interesting wrestling match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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