Random.

There are no Cinnabon stores within a 70-mile radius of my home.

That is all.

Idols

No, not THAT kind of idols - the ones that you grew up with, the people that you loved reading about, hearing about. The people you aspired to be when you grew up. (Mine was Gandalf.)

Eventually, though, we either become too cynical to have our idols around in our minds anymore, or - which may arguably be worse - we pick up a new book and realize that our favorite authors are killing them off, or changing them. The character is doing something you know in your heart s/he wouldn't do! How dare they!

For your idol has taken on a life of his or her own in your heart, in your mind. Grown into something that is more than the character, something that inspires you to be and become. When that dream dies it takes part of us with it - when we realizes that even our idols can fall, we realize that we can, too, and maybe the world isn't a place filled with opportunities.

Why is it that we can't hang on to that optimism? Why can't we retain the hopes and dreams that our heroes instilled in us? What is it about humanity that makes it so easy to fall, and so difficult to keep going? We need to keep our heroes within us, to always have that image of them prevailing and winning - but we also need to remember that they can fall. And it's okay. They make mistakes - so do we.

We are none of us infallible - all we can do is try to make our heroes proud.

A hiatus.

I know that I haven't been posting - and I'm not quite sure if anybody still reads this thing regardless. Either way, I wonder when people realize what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Does it come gradually? Do you always know what you want to be? Is there some kind of signpost where you simply decide to either acquiesce to what people think you 'should' be, or soldier on in the murky waters of uncertainty, trying to figure out who you are and what you want?

I think most of us don't end up doing what we think we want to do. However... what I want to know is: How many of us end up doing something better than what we'd started out as?

A break.

After a long hiatus...

I'm contemplating what to do with my life and this blog. I'm strongly considering a career change - solely because I think I would have a hell of a lot of fun in journalism.

Does anyone read this and have commetary? ^_^

Plan on getting into an accident soon?

None of us plan on getting into an accident. "I'm a safe driver," we pat ourselves on the back, warding off any thoughts of something that could potentially go wrong. None of us plan on getting sick; "It'll never happen to me," we insist, touting how well we take care of ourselves. The problem is, no matter how safe we think we are, there are other people out there that can influence whether or not we get into an accident, and sometimes, there is no amount of healthy eating that can keep you from, say, having a stroke.

This brings us to a topic few people want to think about - life insurance.

Advantage Term Life can help you save money on insurance, especially if you have a family. If you want to make sure your children are taken care of - or your spouse, or your cat, or what have you - after something happens to you, you need to have insurance. That's unfortunately the way the world works, now - if misfortune befalls us, those that we love most have to pick up the slack and take care of what we did wrong. If you have a family, you need to consider getting family insurance - now.

Thankfully, places like Advantage Term Life have quoting insurance services, a way that you can get a quote online to see if it would be better than what you have now - or better than nothing, if you haven't gotten insurance yet. People don't like to think about things like this - especially in America. It's difficult to contemplate that anything bad could possibly happen to us in a society where we shun the concept of death and illness (How many times have you said "passed away" or "he's left us for a better place" instead of simply saying "he died"?), a society where we demand our "birthright" of receiving everything we want and wanting more after that. Unfortunately, this is not the golden society we profess it to be, and people do get injured, people do fall ill and people die. Taking care of your loved ones is the best legacy you can leave behind.

It can happen to you - plan ahead.

Thoughts.

Children generally come into this world full of good will, innocence, happiness, trust, and faith. Adults are lightened by the presence of children - their overwhelming joy makes us recall what it's like to feel that way. As children grow, they slowly become jaded, bitter, trustless and faithless - most of the time, especially in America.

Why do we call this the process of growing up?

Why does becoming an adult mean that we must lose all inherent joy and faith that we were born with? What is it that makes it perfectly acceptable - and encouraged, even - to destroy the trust that we have in our fellow human beings? If we did not encourage this in our children, if we did not crush their hopes and their belief that they could be anything, imagine what this world could be.

We purposely take perfect creatures that truly believe that they can accomplish the world and demand that they limit themselves. We impose restrictions upon their psyches - you can't be an astronaut. You couldn't be the president. That's a nice dream, hon, but why don't you go to school for something realistic? Why don't you try for something that will pay you enough?

Why do we do this to ourselves and our children? I know that the reality of this world is one that is harsh and demanding, but teaching children that they cannot accomplish all that they believe they can is simply dooming them to repeat our mistakes: trusting no one, believing nothing, and hating ourselves without knowing why.

Self-injury, again.

This isn't about why people cut themselves... but the media's portrayal of it. Recently (about thirty seconds ago, actually) I was watching MadTV, and a skit came on about "Tickle Me Emo" or something similar to that - a black-haired Elmo that said things such as "I hate you," et cetera. All right; that was mildly amusing.

And then...

"Don't leave your Tickle Me Emo alone for too long..." It had a razor blade and slashed at itself a few times with horrific breaks in its fur and deep "wounds."

I should have seen it coming, but every time I see something like this, I'm incredulous. First, the fact that so many people see self-injury as a cry for attention - another way of whining, of being a "drama wh*re." Just another way to be "emo." The phrase emo is another rant entirely, but the fact that people equate something that is often a life-saving coping tactic with that "I'm going to cut myself because my mommy won't drive me to Hot Topic!" bull is insane. (And yes, that is a direct quote from an ex of mine - he was making fun of self-injurers.)

It is incredible that people cannot cope with the fact that yes, some people do harm themselves, in a mature fashion. I know that it's very hard to understand how people can actually do this - it's counter-intuitive to everything we know as humans. Yet we cannot be accepting or understanding - we ridicule, blame it on an attention-getting mechanism, and scold people for doing it, instead of sitting down and asking them if they need help.

We need to stop making fun of people that hurt themselves and actually gain the trust of emotionally vulnerable, hurting individuals that need help and support. Perhaps then they would stop doing something that you find so reprehensible and immoral, and would actually trust you. Perhaps then you would be a person worth talking to about problems and tough feelings. Perhaps then you would earn someone's respect - because anyone who reduces self-injury to "Wahh, I'm not getting my way so I'm gonna cut myself!" or something similar to that is no one I will ever respect.