Apr 25
1

The way that we live.

By | Blog | 2 Comments

There are incidents that really make you think about the way that we live. About the people that we are. No, I’m not talking about the incident in Boston, or Sandy Hook, or even 9/11. I’m not talking about a tragedy, or a massacre, or genocide. I’m talking about the day to day. The here. The now.

I’m talking about the little things.

For instance, I took my niece out a few weeks ago and we went to Peter Piper Pizza. For those of you that don’t know, Peter Piper is very similar to Chuck E. Cheese. For those of you that don’t know Chuck E. Cheese… I am sorry and I would probably make a note to bring this up to your parents tomorrow because you were kind of, sort of seriously deprived.

For the deprived, these places are essentially arenas filled with child-sized habitrails, dated video games, and overpriced pizza.

In other words, it is a paradise for children.

Now that we have established the setting, let’s get back to the scenario. We arrived at Peter Piper. I bought a package that involved a large pizza, a couple of drinks and some tokens to play games. When the pizza arrived, it didn’t take long to realize that we weren’t going to finish it. Not only were we not going to finish it, but we weren’t even going to eat half.

What the hell do you do with a half of a pizza?

Simple, you throw it away.

I know what you’re thinking. Why would you waste food like that? Why wouldn’t you take it home? I could. I could take it home, but let’s face it. The pizza in Peter Piper is less than mediocre. It rates somewhere between Little Caesars and those frozen dollar pizzas that you find in the end caps at your local supermarket and even then, even once it gets home, it will just sit there. It will sit, slightly askew on top of the gallon of milk and the jar of pickles that no one has touched since last August. It will sit there for three trash days because no one ever remembers to throw it out. It will sit there, taking up space and doing nothing more.

…but that’s not the sad part. The sad part is, I couldn’t just give it to someone. When we decided that we didn’t want anymore, it was still fresh. It was still hot, but we’ve delved into this sad little world where that’s not even an option. If I had offered it to someone, they would have looked at me like I was crazy. They would look at me, then at the food and immediately assume that something was wrong with it. That it had spit on it. That it was dropped on the floor. That it was drugged or tampered with, and to me, that is awful.

That is sad.

It’s sad because we live in this world where we have so much distrust, so much suspect, that we’re isolating ourselves from everyone. From everything. And it’s sad because it wasn’t always like this. We didn’t always frown at someone who smiled at a child in the supermarket. We didn’t always assume that they were dangerous, that they were a pedophile. We didn’t always assume the worst of everyone in every situation. We didn’t always have so much distrust, so much suspect…

We didn’t always have so much hate.

But we do.

And that makes you think. It makes you think about the world that we live in and the people that we’re becoming. The people that we’ve become. It makes you think about the day to day. The here. The now. It makes you think about the little things. About who we are. About how we live.

And I can’t help but take that and wonder where that is going to take us.

I can’t help but wonder where we’ll end up.

…or how we’ll end up.

And I can’t help but think that if we started small, that if we started fixing the little things, that things might not be so bad. That we might be able to acknowledge people as people again and that maybe someday, I wouldn’t have to throw that pizza away.

Mar 30
0

How does something like that happen?

By | Blog | No Comments

For as long as I can remember I’ve looked at everything around me and just wondered, “How does something like that happen?”

For once, I’m not being sarcastic. It’s just observation. I look around at everything and just wonder. I wonder where the idea came from. I wonder what the person that created it went through to get there and what pushed them to finish it, to pull it all off. That goes for everything. That goes for art, for music, for projects, for jobs, for everything. I look at it all and I think to myself…

“How?”

The answer is they just do it. They don’t think about it. They don’t tell themselves that they’ll do it tomorrow, or that they’ll start it on Monday. They just do it. This goes for smokers who want to quit. This goes for people who want to start working out. This goes for artists that want to get noticed. This goes for everyone. The only way to do something is to do it and as obvious as that is, it’s something that we never do.

I’m as guilty as anyone. I went to Rowan University for what seemed like (and kind of was) forever. Each and every year that I was there, I told myself that I would do more next year. That I would start my novel, that I would learn photoshop, that I would tour with my band, or that I would start a business. I told myself that I would always start something, that I would always do something, but I didn’t. I just told myself that I would do it tomorrow, or on Monday, or next year.

I always told myself, “Don’t worry. It’ll get done.”

In case you were wondering, it doesn’t. Monday never comes. Next year never comes, and nothing ever gets done. We’re habitual by nature and for that, we stick to our habits. We stick to our routine and what makes us comfortable. We stick to what makes us comfortable because it’s easy. Because we are what we are and overall, that’s not so bad.

But we’re better than that.

You’re better than that.

I’m better than that.

So the next time that you have an idea or want to quit or start something, don’t tell yourself that you’ll do it tomorrow. Don’t tell yourself that you’ll start on Monday, or next year.

Just do it.

Just quit smoking. Just start going to the gym, or running, or writing, or whatever it is that you’ve been telling yourself that you’re going to do.

Just do it and look back in a month, or two months, or in a year and think about how silly you were. Think about all of those days, or months, or years that you spent telling yourself that you would do something and think about how easy it was to get started when you weren’t waiting for something. When you weren’t waiting for tomorrow, or Monday, or New Years. Think about how easy it was to just get started and look back at all of the changes that you’ve made. Look at everything that you’ve done and revel in that. Revel in everything that you do.

Not everything will work out, but you’ll learn. You’ll do something.

And in the end, you’ll never look back and wonder, “How does something like that happen?”

Mar 23
3075

The Field

By | Food for thought | 2 Comments

In varius varius justo, eget ultrices mauris rhoncus non. Morbi tristique, mauris eu imperdiet bibendum, velit diam iaculis velit, in ornare massa enim at lorem. Etiam risus diam, porttitor vitae ultrices quis, dapibus id dolor. Morbi venenatis lacinia rhoncus. Read More