We are all the same

One of the most recurring concepts in teenagers is the concept of individuality and being unique. We are force fed the idea that we need to be unique and this manifests itself in various forms that may seem unorthodox. The first is the strive to perfection. When one strives to be perfect, they want to be on top. The core of social hierarchy is the inherent difference in the top and the bottom. The bottom is many while the top is few. Perfection is a way to climb up this system. The second is to be different from everyone else. Being unique is when people delve into the taboo of society. Trying things that are unknown to others and delving head first into the esoteric arts. The last is isolation. While this is the more difficult one to understand it all relies on an subconscious form of individuality. This form is when the individual removes themselves from society and creates an illusion that they are different from the rest of society; most typically the idea that they are not human. In reality people are nearly the same. The fact that these types of displays of individuality are categorizable show that all humans are the same. We all share the common methodology of thinking, what keeps us different and not a race of clones, is that we think of different topics at different intensities, one person may like history and know more about history and think more about history, while another might like something along the lines of astronomy. That is what defines our brains while our memories define our personalities. We all share this natural human framework that allows us to think in this way, and our thoughts are much more similar than most of us would expect.

Pay Attention to Others

The truth is that it's never about you. It's always about other people. This is something that one must accept to be able to move on in life, otherwise we will all remain fools. With this simple step in mind, we must realize what other people think and take from you. People are the biggest influence to others, there is no differentiation. A stranger can effect you as much as you best friend. The only problem here is that you can't change what other people do, so what can you do? You can change yourself, and this is what everyone should do. We need to start looking at other people and understanding their feelings and desires. At a certain point in one's life you need to realize that everything that humans do is manipulation of others. To accomplish anything one needs to manipulate others. But, not everyone really understands what others feel. While you may be thinking, I know what people feel, I can tell. Sometimes when one person seems one way, they can be having the exact opposite of that emotion. When a self-sacrificing person offers to leave a group so another can join, it's not always the best thing to do to let that person leave. Sometimes that person should stay. Every single kind person is self-sacrificing and to deny them of the group pushes them into more suffering. The hardest people to read are introverts. When you think they are doing one thing, they are really doing something else or want something else. Most introverts may have an outward appearance of disgust toward all others, yet they are usually some of the kindest people and best friends out there. While personally I am still working with observing people, I can't tell you how to pay attention and understand the feelings of others. The best advice is to think before you make a decision that effects that person. Everyone likes to have fun no matter how "kind" you are. It's not right to sacrifice one person for another, even if the group has a unanimous decision on it.

As humans, we need to be looking toward other people and begin to understand them. Just take a minute and review the decision and the effects on the feelings of the self-sacrificing person. Maybe just take a minute and watch what other people are up to instead of having conversations yourself. You may start to notice things.

The Easiest way to Change

There is a common saying that goes along the lines of, "It doesn't matter what people think about you, only what you think about yourself." This is used to cheer people up, however, this statement is only half right. Really what matters the most is what people think about you. No one will care about what you think about yourself because they won't know what you feel on the inside. They can't see into your soul. all that matters is what people think about you. In a sense the saying works like this; you feel better about yourself and then because of that you reform how other people think about you.

That's the theory at least.

So, how do you reform yourself? How do you change?

Change is one of the hardest things to do according the majority of people. The concept of change here is a mental change not necessarily a physical change, however a physical change may help to push along a mental change. A mental change is changing how you think or your viewpoints on something. How exactly do you change? To answer this question we need to examine what exactly changes people the most. In this case it's the environment around you that changes you the most. Also the best time to change is when you are young. Humans are born into this world similar to wet clay. You are very easily molded and your ideas can shift really easily depending on what influences poke at you. However as time goes on you become dry and solidify your ideals. It is still possible to change but it would take much more energy to do so. By now you may be thinking, I've probably lived enough to make it really hard for me to change or almost impossible to change. This is not the case. Everyone can change no matter what stage of life they are in. So how to change?

Since the environment has the biggest effect on you, simply change the environment to change yourself. While doing this is a much more difficult process as the results of adjusting the environment may accidentally lead to unwanted side effects. If you manage to change the environment even slightly, you might be able to bring about a change to yourself. For example, you can simply remove some distractions from your house, such as your computer or gaming consoles. If you do this you will in a sense force yourself out of your original self and push yourself forward to do something else. In the case of abstaining from playing video games, you might end up reading in your spare time. If you fail to change the environment then you will fail to change. This is how Rehabilitation Centers work. You force someone into an environment where they lack what they most want. After starving them of this, they are forced to adapt and change to the new situation at hand and become independent of that factor of their lives. At a certain point they are put back into the world. They often relapse because of the fact that their environment has changed again. Since it was an old environment they can easily slide back in and in a sense they haven't changed.

The second thing to do that will change you, is to change your friends. This is much harder to accomplish but will guarantee you a change. It may seem hard to abandon your old friends and find new ones but if the situation calls for it, this might be one of the only ways to do it. While you may think that you can keep both friends, you will find it is very difficult to do while keeping them separate entities. This is not recommend and you should only use it as a last resort.

With all this change about the air, is this really change?

In a sense we can never change. There are two distinct parts to a human, the internal soul and the external expression. While we can change the external expression all we want, the internal soul is solid and will never change. It is the being that we are born with, it is all the skill that we possess and we can never change this, so in a sense we can never change, yet we can.

Universal Suffering

There are two very distinct entities, one that is the human aspect of me and another of a more ascended power. The ascended power has almost no control over my physical deeds and reactions, it is the thinker and the knowledgeable. He lives in a state of moral perfection and neglect that he disconnects himself from the physical realm. The human aspect of me is what drives me forward, a ecstatic and emotional being that is suppressed by the supposed wisdom of the ascended force. It seems like a parasite that infects the human yet it see's itself as beneficial. As the ascended power realizes that it requires the other half to survive, it attempts to wrestle control over the human side. However a ghost has no presence over the physical world and it proves near impossible to make any progress. Even in the face of horrible disasters, only the human side feels the pain, the ascended being looks on with a state of almost disapproval. In the face of such odds these two forces clash in a way unlike devils and angels do. The humans suffers all the pain from moral suffering while the ascended power has no morals. How can this contradiction live and survive in such a human world of today? It is the act of forfeiting that allows a relationship to become stable. Either one side or the other has to give up something, in this case one side gives up complete control only to realize it was a mistake. You never know what you have until you lose it.

Sounds like a story huh?

Love is Pain

A tear stained napkin
A food stained napkin
Crumple
The latter is gone
The tears remain

All alone
Love?

Work

I have work

I am doing work

I don't like doing work

I do it anyway

I'm tired

I keep doing work

The King and the Crow

In a world where animals can speak, the species of the world lived in harmony with minor exceptions. Within this world resides the Coalition of Birds. As a result of being unique to other animals, given their ability to fly, they banded together to form this group. They work and live in a community not so different than ours. The pigeons lived side by side with the parrots. Similar to our society, some birds are highly praised and others are lowly. The crow was one of the birds listed in the lower ranks along with the vulture and such. Birds held with high prestige include, the crane, falcon, or owl.

One day a strange beast attacked which resulted in the deaths of many birds. This was a tragic day and from then, the Coalition of Birds has come together to vote on a protector of their coalition. It was going to be a high prestige role, where they would responsible for protecting the coalition. The vote ended with a clear victory by the Peacock. Everyone admired the Peacock as he strode up to the front. The Peacock flared his feathers as he started to announce his inauguration to the world. The emerald shine of his feathers entranced the crowd. He has now been crowned king.

There was one bird in the back where she usually sat. Here the Crow had realized something. The Peacock is elegant beyond any other bird but there was one problem. The competition was one to protect the birds, not one of elegance. The Peacock had no way and no power to defend the birds. He was elected because of how pretty he was, not his capability to protect the birds.

In the end what did the crow do? Did she speak up and alert everyone of this crisis? Or, did she hide away being the peasant that she was?

I will leave the rest of the story up to you, the reader. What did she do?

Feel free to leave your ending in the comments