Believe as a child, respond as an adult...

As a man thinketh, so is it unto him. A summarised paraphrase of James Allan’s pocket book on morality and philosophy. I commence this blog not as a tool to proliferate my desire for world domination but rather to embrace the beauty and symbiosis that comes when humans work together for the greater good. Although in true Pinky and The Brain style, I can’t but be tempted to exclaim in that dry, obvious way that tonight’s goal is, in fact, one blog post at a time, to take over the world... To kick off today’s discussion, I want to comment on a perspective I came across recently. In an attempt to explain the merits of growing up over indulging in childhood, I was interrupted and corrected. Why should we grow up into adults and occasionally act like children? Shouldn’t we rather remain children but know when to act like adults? Wow! You know when you have known something all along and then someone verbalises it into eloquent existence and all of a sudden it’s clear as day?! Ta-da! Pretty much the way decent musicians put a tune and some lyrics together to artfully echo the song of my soul. So here I was with this fantastic thought! To believe like a child but respond like an adult! I mulled and mused and developed it some more. I wondered why we feel this urge to grow up? I asked myself: ‘Why should we or do we grow up?’ Perhaps we need to do this growing up thing in order to be successful...

What does it mean to live successfully though? In this day and age, living successfully may be interpreted primarily in a monetary sense. If you have the right job, the right salary, the right clothes and body size then you may be deemed successful in the eyes of modern society. If one perceives oneself and others through the same aforementioned societal spectacles, then one may be content at the level of conformity reached. Is this truly living successfully though? If all those material items are removed, are we successful? Or are we simply surviving. I feel that nowadays, and too often, people confuse survival with living. We survive from weekend to weekend, or from pay check to pay check. A life meant to be lived is one that is embraced every day. Can you look at your life, right now, at the day you are having and, with a smile and feeling of happiness, hope to have more days like today?

When last did you or I feel the true wonderment, and joy that a child brings forth every day? When did we replace excitement and curiosity with scepticism and fear? When did the magic disappear and how come there is sadness and darkness in its place? When did we lose the song of our humanity? And do we simply stay this way? This idea can be taken so far and discussed among shared minds. It could be spread like a Middle Earth map, on a sturdy wooden table, surrounded by dwarves and wizards. For I feel if I can approach this gem of a thought with the courage, determination and general stubbornness associated with fantastical dynamite sized miners, I may just change my song...

And please guys, this is a discussion of intellect and ideas so contribute all you want but keep it clean, kind and respectful (and humourous!)

Namaste and itadakimasu**

                                                           

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquette_in_Japan