What Was That Whitesnake song?

I was having a discussion with a friend on another friend's wall on Facebook.  The conversation had gone on for a while and it really was no different than any other conversation I've had with someone from the far right persuasion. Anyway, at some point during one of my replies I laid out my current political position. For the longest time I was simply addressing the individual but somewhere along the way I knew I was writing more to explain my observations and beliefs about politics to a wider audience. That audience is you, the person that can't believe I have the gall to claim I'm conservative. You, the person that thinks I always pick on the Republicans and am blinded by the star power of Barack Obama because I think he's perfect. You, the person that thinks I'm a flaming liberal.

Before I share my replies I've strung together on this blog, I would like to make it clear that I wasn't really accusing this particular person of having all of these traits or beliefs. I was using the word "you" to address an overall strategy that seems to be the consensus of the far right. The person I was conversing with took exception to that fact I attributed some derogatory terms to him. I apologized for my sloppiness in conveying my message and he was kind enough to accept it and understand it.

I don't share this conversation because I think it's terribly important. It's pretty long winded and won't be very interesting to many of you and I'm quite confident most of you won't even make it through the entire piece (if you even made it this far). I only share it because I know my views perplex some people on the right. I feel obligated to explain my philosophy from time to time because I collect more friends along the way that might have no idea where I'm coming from. I also feel obligated to share sanity with those out there that are in my camp. So often it feels like everyone else is mad - in temperament and sanity. If you are one of those moderate people that find yourself in my boat I know it feels comforting to hear or read words by others that let you know you aren't in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Hope this helps:

...you can keep labeling me whatever you want. The truth of the matter is it is people just like me, people that have always voted Republican, that swayed the last two elections. The fringe right has hijacked the Republican Party and it has turned off moderates like me. I'm not a hard core righty like you. I admit that. I lean right but am capable of leaning left. I'm not anchored to any one ideology but feel I mostly embrace a Libertarian view toward the role of the federal government. 

Instead of coming up with new ideas, you and your fringe crowd have chosen to do nothing but obstruct. You have taken a respected party and made it a joke. You don't understand politics enough to know you need to gain favor with the public, not call everyone a Nazi or a communist or queer or a Muslim. You chastise me for voting with the majority of the American citizens and imply you, the minority, know better than we do and we've all been duped. You only follow far right wing sites and denounce Politifact and even go as far as calling the Pulitizer Prize winning site a liar as well. 

You view me as your adversary and fail to recognize you need me on your side to win elections. You don't even believe me when I tell you I'm on your side because you can't fathom a real conservative could do anything but vote for the same exact party every single time. That makes you a sheep. Yet, you spin that into the fault is mine for actually using my brain. I tell you I think we should find common ground, because I know there are views we share, and you tell me there is no common ground to be found. You're the Little Engine That Couldn't. 

Win me over, man. Don't just regurgitate stuff I hear on the fringe sites. Until you do I suspect you'll continue to be disgruntled by the Democrats running the country.

I also agree that I'm not a hardcore Libertarian. I agree some of the things I've supported are counter to the Libertarian ideology. The world's not black and white. The reality is there are moderate people that can lean in either direction at any given time. My suggestion, and it's just that, is your camp find a way to stop alienating the swing voters. It's the Democrats and the liberal ideas you truly oppose. If I'm capable of returning to your side then why would you want to push me away? Instead of telling me I've been duped, how about winning me over with a new idea? 

I know you think Obamacare is a disaster. What do you offer to address the mess we had on our hands prior to the Affordable Care Act? Do you really believe we should just go back to what we had? No matter what you might think, the majority of the people that actually decide elections, those that are capable of voting for either party - or in some cases a third party, think we have to do something. 

We've known for half a century the Democrats were trying to address healthcare. The Republicans did nothing and still continue to do nothing. This doesn't mean I think the ACA is a perfect law. It doesn't even mean I think it's particularly a good law, at least on its technical merits. However, I'm on board with trying to do something instead of opting to do nothing. Whether or not you agree with that philosophy, it is imperative you understand the reality of the voting mentality. I see no effort to intellectually figure out how to win voters from the GOP. I see nothing but obstruction and, ironically, regulation and restrictions on voting rights. Again, I'm not saying you have to agree with my observation. However, I am saying it would benefit the GOP, and you as well, if you at least recognized the amount of people that share my view. Calling reality "skewed" simply because the truth isn't convenient is a losing proposition. Insinuating everyone else is wrong and not even attempting to find common ground will bury your party in the long run.

Someplace Else

Every once in a while I get put to the test on a philosophy I have adopted that deals with my sanity and happiness. Several years ago I decided my only real purpose in life was to simply enjoy it. That seems so simple, yet, it's so hard to actually achieve. The philosophy that most helped me realize this goal was to remove my wants and wishes about reality and my environment and simply observe and experience. Again, a concept that seems so simple.

I am pretty open about my approach to my close friends and anyone that cares to know me at that level. It is because of many conversations with people that are very dear to me about this approach that I know it seems foreign to most people. I think the majority of them don't really believe me and think I'm explaining my philosophy tongue-in-cheek or simply kidding myself. The proof is in the pudding.

I don't have a favorite sports team at this point in my life. My friends that have known me most of my life would tell you I'm a Padres fan, a Cowboys fan, a Sixers and Flyers fan. I'm none of those. I was at some point in my life, but no longer. My friends that have known me most of my life would tell you I love to gamble on anything and everything. That's not me at all. At some point in my life that would have definitely be an accurate description of me. My friends that have known me most of my life would tell you I'm super competitive and have a strong desire to win at all costs. Not true at all. I don't deny that was me at one time. (I still win a lot but it's mostly just because I'm good. In other words, I can't help myself).

I completely understand that most people have no desire to take on my approach of simply observing. It doesn't seem "fun" or "interesting" or even "human" to people. All I can say is it works for me. However, there are still moments that occur in life that truly put this philosophy to the test. The Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman affair was certainly one of those moments.

I can honestly report that my discipline to adhere to this approach is as steadfast as ever. I don't deny there is an idealist that once existed in me and it still attempts to gain power and influence in my life when it sees an opportunity. And the "not guilty" verdict in the George Zimmerman trial was the perfect moment for the idealist part of my debilitated ego, something that once wielded great influence, to rear its head.

If I was the same person I was several years ago then I know how I would have felt when I listened to the court reporter clearly announce "not guilty". I would have felt like I was kicked in the balls. I would have been devastated, not by the simple fact George Zimmerman got away with killing a child, but moreover by the fact that reality was fucked.

I would have been troubled to be existing in an environment where people were overjoyed by the verdict and praised God for the blessing. I would have been sickened to live in a reality where people are ignorant to the obvious, the fucking obvious, racism that exists all around us. I would have been deeply bothered by the fact that the default setting is being totally cool with walking around with guns, ignoring the instructions by the police dispatch, approaching innocent 17 year olds walking in their own neighborhood, and then shooting a another person in the heart point blank because the confrontation that was self initiated didn't go as planned.
However, I was none of that. I was simply an observer. I didn't have a dog in the fight. It would have been too hard on me. Thus, I adopted this approach that removes me from those moments and my wants and wishes aren't factored into the equation of my experience.

O.J. got away with murder because a jury of his peers didn't trust the white cops. George Zimmerman was deemed legally within his rights to take the life of Trayvon Martin because a jury of Zimmerman's peers don't trust black people walking around in white neighborhoods. Why in the world would I let those facts bother me if they don't seem to bother anyone else? It would be a miserable existence, a painful one, if I sincerely cared about outcomes such as these.

Well beyond this one trial, thousands of black kids are unproportionately killed every year compared to white kids. A police officer is more likely to shoot a black kid with a wallet in his hand than he is to shoot a white kid with a gun in his hand. Blacks make up disproportionate numbers in our prison systems. Blacks were targeted in our last election and they had to wait hours in line to simply vote. Our president's legitimacy to hold the office was questioned and still a large percentage of our population sincerely believes he is a fraud and a plant. There are scientific studies that clearly show we are all racist to some degree. Minorities are racist to minorities, even their own race.

We have subconscious biases that dictate our actions and we have no honest dialogue about our reality and why it is the way it is and why we behave and think and believe the way we do. We celebrate the right to arm ourselves and stand our ground, even to the death, against one another and we have no idea why this is our reality. Half of the population feels like reality is "broken" at some level and the other half believes it's patriotic to kill and a blessing from a loving creator. People would willingly choose to take their children to a theater where everyone is armed because that makes them feel "safer". Over half of the population truly believes the world will come to an end during their lifetime. Climate change a hoax. Evolution is just a theory. Elvis alive. One would go insane if they sincerely wanted the world to be a better place and let the failure of achieving this outcome effect them in any meaningful way.

I am so thankful that my ability to experience the joy of reality isn't based on my desire to have reality cater to my wishes. I experienced a news story that gained national attention about a year ago. I experienced a trial that accused a man of murdering a boy. I experienced a jury acquit a man and validate a law that allows people to believe whatever they want when it comes to defending themselves and kill other people that are perceived threats. I experienced a family suffer and grieve. I experienced a family feel elation and freedom and patriotism and faith. I experienced a population that felt good about the outcome and I experienced a population that was pained by the outcome. What I wanted to experience and how I wanted to experience it are irrelevant. Those are only obstacles to obtaining happiness.

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjust the sails." ~ William Arthur Ward

Bilifuster

Almost everywhere in the world people that hold Libertarian views are considered to be very left leaning. Here in the United States our Libertarians seem to align with the far right.

The ideology of the average American Libertarian is a mixed bag for me. I really side with their ideas more than any other political philosophy but really take issue with some of the positions they are willing to take and defend in order to never budge an inch from their sacred principle of very little government.

The Tea Party houses a lot of Libertarian individuals. I have continually knocked those in the Republican Party that have allowed those in the Tea Party to hijack the GOP. This isn't a knock on the Tea Party. Those that have "primaried" Republicans and voted for Tea Party representatives have only played by the rules. They have rallied and found a voice and that's the American way. I'm knocking those in the Republican Party that didn't have enough foresight to see the damage that would be caused by allowing a third party into one of the two main parties. I suspect those in the traditional GOP were willing to chalk up, what seemed like, political wins in 2010 (an off year when the minority party usually does well) and only imagined the Tea Party being a thorn in the side to Obama and not their own party.

Rand Paul, son of Dr. Ron Paul, is a Senator from Kentucky. Jim Bunning, a former Major League baseball player and a Republican, had been the Senator since 1999. Prior to that Bunning had been a member of the House from 1987 to 1999. In 2009, Bunning noticed he was suddenly having difficulties raising campaign funds and he announced his retirement at the end of his term in 2010. Up stepped Tea Party favorite Rand Paul. Rand defeated a Republican, Trey Grayson, in the primary and cruised to beat a Democrat in the general. He caucuses with the GOP but he's hardly a traditional conservative that fits the Republican mold. He's very much like his father in this aspect and the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

On Wednesday Rand delivered a good old fashioned filibuster on the Senate floor. It went on for over 13 hours. He voiced concerns over the President's ability to order drone strikes on American citizens. Dr. Ron Paul voiced this concern the first time President Obama used a drone to kill an American citizen without a trial and simply by Executive Order. Rand Paul was pointing toward the inability of the Obama administration to simply say it was NOT Constitutional for drones to be used against Americans on American soil. He chose to use the nomination of John Brennan to head the CIA as his stage because Brennan supports the current Obama policy when it comes to the use of drones.

Guess who doesn't agree with Rand Paul and his filibuster? Did you guess Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham?
"If Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously, he needs to do more than pull political stunts..." ~ John McCain
"...to my party, I'm a bit disappointed that you no longer apparently think we're at war." ~ Lindsey Graham

Guess who did agree with and support Paul's filibuster? Did you guess Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, both Tea Party favorites that beat Republicans in primaries. Did you guess Democratic Senator Ron Wyden?

Somehow, in some warped cultural American way, the Libertarian Party believes they have more in common with Republicans than they do Democrats. A real Libertarian would not identify with either party except when either party is attempting to reduce the government's role in our lives. Wanting the government to define marriage, not Libertarian. Wanting the government to fight a national war on drugs, not Libertarian. Wanting to engage in wars, especially unprovoked ones, not Libertarian. Wanting to spend somewhere between 30-50% of our budget on defense, not Libertarian. Whether the confused American Libertarian wants to admit it or not, they have as much in common with Democrats as they do Republicans.

There is no greater golden common ground between the Democrats and the Libertarians as there is within the ideology toward our military and our vision and strategy moving forward when it comes to national defense. For the longest time, many many years, the Republicans understood Ron Paul was dangerous to their ideology and refused to let him be taken seriously by other Republicans. It was mostly Republicans who called him "crazy" and a "nut job", not Democrats. Now his son is on the Senate floor raising the issue of the government's authority to kill its own citizens without trial and the traditional Republicans are painting him the fool. Too late. Too late. Way too fucking late.

Butterfingers

A couple of days ago I went to reach for my phone and lost my grip causing me to fumble it around in the air for a brief moment and then finally launch it a couple of feet right into my dog's large water bowl.

The part where the phone was bouncing around on top of my hands, just out of my grasp, seemed to happen very fast. Even the part where my last attempt to gain control of it actually caused it to travel a couple of feet into the water bowl seemed to transpire rapidly. Seeing my phone sink immediately to the bottom of the bowl seemed instantaneous. However, when I took a couple of steps toward the bowl and looked directly down at it and gazed upon my smartphone emerged in four inches of water it seemed time stopped for a moment.

I've experienced this sensation before in my life, I imagine most people have. Unfortunately, it seems we are more apt to have this experience in times of distress instead of times of joy. One scientist I really enjoy following is David Eagleman. He fell off his roof when he was young and had this same experience, time stopping, on his way to the ground. It influenced him so much he's devoted much of his life to understanding our brain and how it perceives time.

What seems to pique my interest in this phenomenon is the potential we demonstrate to actually live in each individual moment. Our thoughts all run together and time goes by and it's all just a comfortable and convenient and familiar blur to us. We have thousands and thousands upon thousands and thousands of thoughts and information running through our brain at any given moment. If we choose to focus on any of them at any instance it appears we are quite comfortable selecting one of two of them to hone in on and identify with. Sometimes we are forced to deal with several or a bunch or many or a ton at some random moment and it feels as if time stops to us when this happens.

What trips me out mostly about human behavior is how content people are to not know anything about themselves. In every room in my house I have at least one light switch on the wall. When I flick the switch up then the light comes on. When I flick it down then the light goes off. I seriously don't know much more about how it all works. Sure, I know electricity is involved and the switch acts as some sort of lever that redirects the energy to the light, which is made of a substance that illuminates when the electricity runs through it. But, if someone with some sort of amnesia started probing me on the exact description of what's going on then I wouldn't get very far.

Person with amnesia: How does that work?
Me: This switch allows electricity to go to the light.
Amnesia: What's electricity?
Me: Aaaaahhhhhh.....
Amnesia: Does electricity come from some other place? How does the other place get it? Do they create it? Round it up? Store it? How do they get it to your place? What's it do when it's at your place but the switch is off? Why does the light just burn out after a while?

I know there are some people that truly do know the answers to all of those questions and understand this thing we all take for granted quite well. However, most people wouldn't do very well explaining how the light works and they use them all of the time. Having stated that, I think most people could explain electricity and the light better than they could how a thought works in their own head. That amazes me.

Memories are complicated things. A memory is not just one single thing that is stored in one single place in the brain. It's a collection of things that is stored in various locations throughout the brain. When we experience events that cause our brain to retrieve every memory it has about anything relevant to the situation at hand I believe we experience a stoppage of time.

It may seem like life is tough in today's hustle and bustle world where we all grind to make it to the next paycheck but life is pretty good when we step back and reflect upon the animal kingdom. Normal life allows us the security of knowing our most basic of needs are going to be met. We might have to earn them but we are allowed to choose our paths and feel confident that we will have food and shelter and our lives aren't in danger on a minute by minute basis. This has afforded our brain the ability to occupy our sense of self with truly meaningless things on the overall spectrum of important thoughts in the universe. However, every once in a while we are forced to observe a barrage of thoughts that our brain has to evaluate and consider in a split second prior to advancing to the next moment.

I've had more important and life threatening experiences that have created this sensation of time stopping, but that doesn't negate the fact I still had this experience again when looking down at my phone at the bottom of the dog bowl. Obviously, I was going to reach down and grab it out as quickly as I physically could but before that actually occurred it seemed like a gazillion thoughts entered my head in regard to that one phone.

Is my phone really sitting at the bottom of that water? How in the world did that happen? Remember the last time I dropped my phone in the toilet and vowed to myself to never have my phone around water at all? Yes, I do remember that and that's why I had the phone over there by the couch and not by the water bowl? Oh, that's right. Man that was nuts wasn't it? I tried to grab the phone and I fumbled it and fumbled it and fumbled it and then eventually slapped it all the way across the room and it land in that little area over there that just so happens to be my dog's water bowl. I know. And what's really nuts is there are times that it's empty and this could have been one of those times but it just so happens I just filled it up with water. Yes, she was very happy when I did that. She's such a sweet dog. What if the bowl wasn't all the way full, but only half way full? Would that matter at all? Is the phone still screwed either way? I don't know? I wonder how much the protection plan is to replace it? I hope it's not much more than fifty or sixty bucks? I can handle that? What a stupid mistake, a fifty or sixty dollar mistake. How am I going to call Verizon to get a new phone on the way? How long is it going to take to get here? Two days, three at the most? I can do that. You might like it. No, probably not. I hope it's two days at the most. Am I going to be one of those people that have to post I lost my phone on Facebook and have everyone message me with their numbers? That's going to suck to have to replace everyone's number. Will it shock me to reach in there and get it? It can't shock me. I've done this before, remember? I do remember and it's been a long time since I've done this. I'm so bummed this just happened. Do I have any rice? I don't think I do? Remember that big bag of rice I bought and never ate any of it for six months and then through it away? I have a nice steamer I never use, what's wrong with me? I bet they could make a water proof phone if they really wanted to.

All of that, and much much more, in less than half a second went through my head. That's probably not that rare at all. What made it unusual for me was my ability to observe them all in such a short amount of time. I suspect because the event happened so suddenly and my reality was dramatically altered (I know losing a smartphone is so white people problems but let's get real. Having no phone, especially when living alone, sucks.) then my brain began retrieving every memory it had about my phone. Some of those memories triggered other memories and the stream of information was all being sent to some area that allowed my "self" to observe the process. When my "self" normally entertains or observes this amount of thoughts it occurs over a longer period of time. Simply reading all of them probably took a couple of minutes for most people. However, when we observe more thoughts in a given moment then we're used to, especially a plethora of them, then our sense of time is disoriented. It's easier to believe time actually stopped than it is to conceive we are capable of operating like this and think about that many different things all in one instance.

Even though any of the specific thoughts and ideas that went through my head in that split second weren't really that Earth shattering, what seems to be of importance to me is the process that allowed this to happen. The potential that exists to observe this many thoughts more often and on a more regular basis and not just in times of stress is encouraging to me. As crazy as this sounds, I believe it's quite possible harnessing this ability can actually lead to a quieter state of mind. When things become normal or mundane or regular occurrences then we seem to take them for granted and pay little attention to them. When we experience tons of thoughts all at once that is out of the norm and seems like a weird sensation. However, if we could make this the norm then I believe it would be much easier to achieve the silence.

When I pulled the phone out of the water, a mere couple of seconds after it landed in it, it was still on. I pushed the buttons and they all worked. I tried to make a call and the other person couldn't hear me and I couldn't hear them but I could if I put them on speaker phone. That was the only hiccup at all and it only lasted two hours and everything was back to normal after that. True story.

Whatever Will Bewildered Me

I have known for about a month and a half I was going to write this piece. It's the reason I haven't offered a blog piece since January 12. This was an essay I had been putting off for some time because I knew I was going to enjoy putting it together and I put off enjoyable things on occasion simply so I know I have something enjoyable on the shelf if I ever need a go to. I do this with movies or programs I have recorded on my television too. I know I'm going to love them so I don't watch them until a rainy day comes along. Kind of weird, I know. Anyway, I knew I wasn't going to write another article without doing this one first and I put it off all the way until now. It won't surprise me one bit if I bust out a few entries to my blog in a short time after this one because I've been thinking about the subject matter of them for some time now but vowed to myself to write this one prior. But that's just what I sense will happen and can't say for sure what I will actually do.

Play along with me for this little exercise. Pick your favorite eight songs of all time.  Don't rank them one through eight, just pick eight songs that are your all time favorites. That will probably take a couple moments so if you're really going to play along then go ahead and take the time to do that. I'll share mine with you in just a bit.

Have you picked your songs yet? Did you really? I'll still share mine with you even though I don't believe you. Here they are: 46&2, Sweet Child O' Mine, More Than Words, Under Pressure, Black, Pretender, Levon, and the entire Dark Side of the Moon album which is just one amazing song that plays perfectly to The Wizard of Oz.

Now I want to know what my actual number one favorite song of all time happens to be. How am I going to do this exactly? I could put them in little brackets and let them square off March Madness style and see which one prevails. I could split them into two groups and narrow it down to one winner from each side and then have those two songs square off. I could just start ranking them one through eight right from the start. I know what I'll do; I'll start eliminating them and the one that is left will be my favorite song.

The first song to get the axe is More Than Words. Thanks Gary Cherone for this beautiful melody and thanks for trying to make Van Halen relevant again but More Than Words is the first of the top eight to be eliminated.

Next to go is Levon. Wear your war wound like a crown Elton.

Third to go, meaning it comes in at number six, is Pretender. Keep fighting the foo, Dave Grohl.

Now I'm to the top five and eliminations are getting tough. I think the next song to go is going to have to be Sweet Child O' Mine. Where do we go now?

Number four is awarded to Black. Don't fret it, Eddie. I'm sure you're a star in someone else's sky but not in mine.

The bronze medal goes to Under Pressure. It doesn't matter if it's Mercury and Bowie, Harper and Vedder, or some dude with two Kermit the Frogs on his hands, it awesome.

I always loved Dark Side of the Moon but once I saw it played alongside The Wizard of Oz it skyrocketed to the top of my favorites. I know it could totally be a coincidence that "balance" is mentioned when Dorthy is walking on the fence right before she falls, or the music becomes frantic and hectic the moment she hits her head, or when she runs away the song playing on the album is titled "On the Run", or when Dorthy is experiencing the tornado in her house that is being blown across the sky the tune is "Great Gig in the Sky", or the moment she lands side one of the original album is complete and when it's flipped over it begins with a "Ching ching" when the door is opened and the movie changes to color, or a song is called "Any Color You Like" on side two, or the album ends to a "Thump thump" of a heartbeat and Dorthy is knocking on the Tin Man's chest at the same time, but I'm going with Occam's Razor on this one despite the fact all of the band members deny it. Why wouldn't they? It makes it more legendary.

That leaves the sole survivor as 46&2 by Tool. The only song that speaks to me more than this is Lateralus by Tool. Wait a second. I forgot about Lateralus. This song is definitely in my top eight. Hell, it's probably number one. I like it more than 46&2 so doesn't it have to be my favorite song of all time? If the song Lateralus was never written then 46&2 would certainly be my favorite song but since I know it has been written and I absolutely love it then it is my number one.

The truth be told, I knew all along I was going to forget Lateralus during this exercise. And I didn't really take a lot of time to form my top eight even though the top five is probably pretty accurate, but who knows for sure? It's possible another song could pop into my head and I really could like it more than I like song number six or eight or ten. I did take some time, actually several weeks, to identify my favorite song of all time. I didn't want to have another song pop into my head and replace it so I pondered the thought for some time and announce it to you with confidence. The more I think about it occurs to me I never considered the live version of Yellow Ledbetter. Hmmmm....

No matter what format I would have chosen to implement to determine my favorite song the result would always be the same, assuming I had all the songs in my thought process and wasn't forgetting any. Lateralus would have prevailed in a tournament bracket structure. It would have survived the elimination format if it would have been included. There was only one possible outcome and it was Lateralus. I couldn't have chosen another song. Which leads me to ask myself why I chose this one at all.

Do you choose your favorite song? Do you choose your favorite color? Taste? Smell? Anything? Could I just decide I like brown more than red today? I have no idea why red appeals to me more than any other color or why purple is strange to me. Why do I think pizza tastes good? I have no idea why these things are the way they are. I'm only aware that I'm aware of it. I can try to rationalize why a song appeals to me more than another song but I'm really only kidding myself if I honestly believe I had a hand in the process. We like what we like because we are what we are and the thing we call "self" has nothing to do with it.

Even though we can't exactly put into words what the "self" is to one another, we certainly understand what each of us experiences as self. It feels like we kind of exist behind our eyes, in our head somewhere, but we are more than just a byproduct of brain activity, we kind of exist is an unknown dimension. I said we can't exactly put it into words but you know precisely what I'm describing. That thing I'm describing is what we all believe to be our unique "self" that is in control of all of the machinery. That thing I'm describing also can't be found anywhere except in our own head.

Our brain is nothing but a super powered computer that attempts to make the best decision available to it to survive the day. However, it fails quite often. I drop my keys. Do I decide to do that? I get lost when going places. Is it ok for a man to say that? I push the wrong buttons on my Xbox controller from time to time. I sing the wrong words to songs I know. I write the wrong date occasionally. I try to rewind things on the radio because I do it all the time on my television. I dial the wrong phone numbers. I type the wrong letters. Sometimes I totally say the wrong word that doesn't even make sense. I read the wrong word. I reread the wrong word. I remember things wrong. I try to unlock my front door with my vehicle keys. I touch the hot water in the shower with my hand and think it will be hot enough or cold enough and will be comfortable when I get in. I order the wrong amount of food. I bounce checks. I chew. I'm overweight. I interrupt people. I procrastinate. I talk too much. Why would I choose to make any of these poor decisions? Am I stupid?

I'm not suggesting that thing that feels like the "self" doesn't really feel like the "self", I know it does. I am suggesting that thing isn't exactly what we think it is. It doesn't do exactly what it feels like it does. It feels like that thing can make decisions and alter the course of reality. I contend it only observes the decisions and the outcomes and the rest is an illusion.

 This doesn't mean decisions aren't made. That's a double negative there. Of course decisions are being made. Our brain is making decisions at a rate incomprehensible to the "self". It doesn't need the "self" to make decisions for it. Human beings existed without self awareness, at the sophisticated levels of modern man, for quite some time. We believe most all living things on the planet exist without very sophisticated levels of self awareness, if any at all. Yet, we believe we are different and are something more than all of our surroundings. We believe it because it feels like it.

We know the subconscious (the things we are unaware of) makes 99% of the decisions in our body and our lives. Yet, we still kid ourselves and convince ourselves we make the "really important" decisions. Have you ever been in your car and driven for miles and miles and were lost in thought and then realized you were at your destination? Were important driving decisions being made without the "self" making decisions? Have you ever "been in the zone" and allowed the brain to make decisions without the "self"? The brain does everything and makes all of the decisions and we aren't more than our brains. We are some part of it and we aren't even the part we think we are. I know people will argue disingenuously and say, "I know I am just my brain", but I don't know many people that truly think they are "just their brain". Almost everyone thinks they are something more than that, that thing I described earlier in a round-a-bout way.

I had this piece in my head before I learned of the ambitious plan of our president to map the human brain. Needless to say, I was extremely excited to hear this. In fact, it was the highlight of the address for me. We know so little about ourselves. We will dream away eight years of our lives (not sleep, dream) and we have no idea why. How can we not know why and how we dream but we're controlling a car on Mars right now?

We don't know why it feels like we are something that we're not. Many a great thinker has been suggesting it to us for hundreds and even thousands of years but we are closer to truly understanding it than ever before. Mapping our brain and knowing what a thought is and where it comes from is an exciting idea and a service to all things in the universe.

Friendly Skies

Imagine you have a very good job that provides well for your family. The job is in another city but the company pays for you to commute to work each day and your work day begins the moment you start to head to the job and your travel back home counts as part of your work hours. You work four days a week, Monday through Thursday, and you enjoy all of your coworkers. It's awesome and you love it.

To get to work each day you have to drive to your local airport and hop on a small commuter flight. The plane holds 24 passengers and each day you travel with the same group of people. The flight takes exactly one hour and you actually enjoy flying and the idea of having an hour (both ways) to get some alone time and work on whatever you need to work on.

One day a wrinkle is thrown into the mix. One of the passengers gets a little unruly about halfway through the flight and it creates tension. The route is very short but there is a small, fifteen minute window, where the pilot informs the passengers they can remove their seat belts. Some of the passengers take this time to visit the restroom or stand up to retrieve some things from the overhead compartment or even change seats if they want to talk with different people on the flight. However, on this day one of the passengers becomes agitated by the idea of other passengers not wearing their seat belts and begins to loudly voice his concerns.

This becomes the new norm. Everyday this same person flips out when the pilot gives the green light to remove the seat belts to the people on the commuter. One passenger, let's call him Leon for convenience, starts ranting about the danger of removing the safety belt . Leon screams and yells and tries to scare others into putting on their seat belts. It makes him nervous and uncomfortable to feel the need to wear his seat belt and observe others demonstrating such a carefree and nonchalant approach. It bothers Leon so much he feels the need to create a fuss about it.

How would you handle this situation? Consider Leon's actions disrupt from an otherwise peaceful and enjoyable flight. Leon's actions have turned this two hour window in your day (an hour at the beginning and end of work) from something you used to enjoy into something you dread. You know he's going to get loud and start going on about the fact some planes wreck and the safest option is to wear the safety belt at all times. You know he's going to purposefully ruin it for everyone else because he's not happy with the current reality of people standing up and or walking around. He's going to try to make it miserable for everyone else to enjoy the flight. Do you do anything about it?

I don't know what your choice would be in this scenario but I know what mine would be. At some point I would have to address this situation. My first option would be to try to reason with Leon. I would find out why he feels this deep seeded fear and try to present him with comforting facts about flying. I would explain to Leon that only 1 fatal accident occurred per every 2.5 million flights in 2012 . I would explain to Leon that I'm fine with him not removing his seat belt if he doesn't want to but he shouldn't feel he has the right to impose his views on the other 23 passengers that enjoy the rules as they are. What if that didn't work?

At some point, if Leon refused to respond to logic but insisted on creating anxiety in my life, I would turn the tables on him. I would find a way to make it uncomfortable for Leon to make it uncomfortable on me. I work very hard to enjoy happiness whenever possible. I'm not cool with others affecting my harmony simply because they are idiots and happen to be rude idiots at that. If Leon wants to live in fear then so be it. If Leon wants to round up four or five other people and convince them they should always be on guard and always be on the lookout for the worst then it is what it is.That's not my choice. When the situation affords me the opportunity to take off the safety strap and enjoy the ride then I'm going to seize the moment. None of this changes the fact that sometimes planes fall from the sky.