What I've Learned

The old man said write about what I've learned. How I got here. It has been an exercise that has benefited me more than I could have imagined at the time. So what else? There is so much.

Something small. I've noticed that people forget. One minute someone’s a star and then all of a sudden they're a nobody. Have you noticed? Yesterdays Prince is today's Beyonce. How does this happen? You know how you're hanging with someone and they say ‘hey whatever happened to so and so?’ and you're like, ‘uh nothing. They just released their best album ever last month...’ and the person you are talking to just has no idea...

I think this is something else. I think it has something to do with the majority of people and their unwillingness, or inability, to really dig deep for stuff. Unless things are kind of thrown at them, they don't really know about it. I think this can help explain the phenomenon of how bills and laws that can affect our society very negatively still get passed all the time. People just don't know it’s happening. And the people in control know this. it is what enables them to commit great injustices against us without our ever knowing it.

I think this might also help explain how the cream doesn’t really rise to the top. Maybe it never did. maybe it was just an old aphorism that we always wanted to be true but never really found to be true. the cream stays down towards the bottom, hidden from view a lot of the time. not all the time. but a lot of the time. it is the nature of sharing this world with others. 

This is a record of our times. Massachusetts is voting on whether or not to legalize gay marriage. Personally I don't see what all the fuss is about. Marriage is marriage. Doesn’t matter if it’s a man and a woman or a man and a man or a woman and a woman. People fall in love and they want to get married. Why the hell not let them?

This ties in to something else I have learned. There always seem to be people among us who will put religion above the happiness of others. They will argue vehemently for their cause. And they will quote from their various religious texts as if it was the word of God. And to them, and this is the clincher, it is the word of God. Their God. We need to be compassionate to these people still. There is nothing inherently wrong with someone maintaining a healthy belief in a God if they so choose to. But we cannot let them in their quest to uphold the values proposed in their holy books stop others around us from being happy. There is nothing more holy than other people’s happiness. Many religious people seem somehow not to understand this yet. They will use quotations from their religious texts to keep women down, or to disallow gay people equal rights in marriage, and so much more. They are doing it right now. all over the earth. I have learned that when a person starts quoting from a religious text to prevent another person’s right to justice or equality or happiness, start running. There is an old saying that goes ‘only a fool argues with a fool.’ Simply put, it isn't worth it. They will catch up one day. Or they will die off. In the meantime, those of us who are more evolved, who understand that the happiness of everyone around is the cause of all causes, need to do our best to uphold this truth. Not just in our words, but in practice.

Enough said. On with our story...

The old man said write. Said I was in the void. I think a lot of us at this age are in the void. I have a feeling it may be natural at this stage. I do know that I feel better now than I felt five years ago. and I felt better then than I felt five years before that. That’s a good thing. That’s enough to give anyone hope. So I'll keep on writing.
                                 
What else have I learned?

I have learned never to keep gum in your pocket. It gets all messed up and you then you can’t chew it later.

I have learned that without the love of a good woman a man will age himself ten times faster. I don't know why this is.

I have learned that the earlier you wake up in the morning, the longer the day seems to last. For some reason it appears that time goes by faster at night. I wonder why this is?

I have learned never to pay someone all the money up front. Never. No matter what. People are never as eager to do a good job or complete a project when they have all the money. No matter what they say, no matter what they demand. No matter what their contract reads. Just don't do it. I have learned this. And along the same lines, always put it in writing. No matter what. A handshake used to work in the old days they say. I have never found this to be true.

Something else. Always be the one who presents the contract. He who presents the contract is the one who is in charge of the deal. It has taken me a long time to learn this. and a long time to remember that I have already learned this. Time and time again you can learn this one. Master it and you will always be the one on top.

Don't forget to negotiate. If someone doesn’t want to do a deal with you, if they don't want to work with you, then you shouldn’t want to work with them. if they aren't willing to negotiate then find someone who is. There always is.

I have learned that love just may be the most important thing there is. I have tried to fight this one. Desperately tried to make it not so. But when I look back on times when I was in love they seemed to be the most happiest days of my life. There is something to it. Something magnificent in romantic love between two people. It is no wonder that it is the one thing that everyone speaks about so often. Why it is in the hearts of us all. this longing and obsession for true love. I used to think that it didn't matter. That money and success and love of the self were the most important things. But I am starting to think differently.  I used to cringe at the thought of being married. Of being tied down to anything. To any one person or to any one way of being. But maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. Maybe we can create it as we want it to be. And more than that, that love feeling, there's just nothing like it in the world. It seems to be the key to life.

To be continued...