Why We Are Who We Are?!

“I am what I am and that’s all that I am!” Popeye used to tell us—but, is it really as simple as it seems to be in the cartoon world? What I mean is, have you ever wondered why you are who you are? Why? You ask. I don’t know, I suddenly feel like the Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, contemplating life’s little mysteries. Thankfully I don’t touch that garbage.

“Get to the point,” you say. All right. It all started when I heard a song by Creed, this morning. “What’s This Life for?” is the title of the song and also a good part of the bridge lyric. I had been doing my weekly cleaning, and it got me to thinking how lucky I am to be who I am. What puzzles me, however, is just why I am who I am and where I am.

I know that my physical attributes are the product of my parents’ genetic background. I know that my personality, intellect, and any natural talents were partially inherited from my parents and also from my upbringing. Of course, skills and knowledge have to be honed and are not handed to you.

What I don’t understand is why the thing that makes me “me” was born into this particular body, to my biological parents, and in this particular place and situation. Why was my mind, my awareness, my essence—the thing that makes me recognize who I am and what my memories are—born into this circumstance? What plan did God or fate have in store for me?

Why was I born to parents named Maryam and Javad, rather than any other couple on this earth? Why was I born Persian, rather than French, German, Norwegian, American, or Native American, for example? Yes, my parents are Persian, but why couldn’t they have been some other race or color, as well? Why was I born in Iran, in city of Shiraz, rather than some other country? How did I get so lucky as to have lived a life largely free from any serious illness (that I know of)? Why couldn’t I have been born blind or deaf, or missing a limb, or mentally handicapped? “that thank God I have none of them” What makes me so special?

I’m not special—not in the sense that I feel haughty or snobbish—but, I am special for the privileges that I seem to have inherited and/or been blessed with. I can’t answer the questions that I posed in the previous paragraph. I don’t have enough scientific knowledge or memory of the answers, if I did learn them, at some point.

I suppose the answers to those questions don’t matter, except for curiosity’s sake. What does matter are the choices you make in your life that largely determine who you are, where you are, and why you are who you are, right now and from now on.

 

Goodbye Summer & Hello Autumn

 

Would You Buy That??!!!

If people had the ability and opportunity to create and broadcast a commercial for any product they wanted to endorse, what would it be? The possibilities might be endless, and I think it would be hard to decide on one thing that might be worth advertising.

Recently, since I been taking care of an elderly neighbor I been watching TV and seeing more commercials. It reminds me of why I don’t own a TV–I can’t stand commercials. I’ve seen one, in particular, that seems ironic and makes me ask why? It opens with a couple of kids doing the selling. Someone offers them pizza and French fries, and they ask, “Would you offer your kids a meal like like this?” Another one looks at some nachos with melted cheese and says, “No wonder my cholestrol shot up to 250!” We then see a picture of a wholesome turkey sandwich with lettuce and tomato, and the announcer tells us that these kids might be better off eating lunches made of Boar’s Head turkey. Hmm, it looks good, but frankly, I would not be moved to buy anything with the product name “Boar’s Head.”

That reminds me of all the numerous commercials we see that promote prescription drugs for ailments that we didn’t even know we suffered from. Things like restless leg syndrome and acid reflux, for example. Years ago, I don’t remember seeing ads for these conditions. You see the beautiful graphics and the persuasive comments and then, you hear the conditional caveats about how many of the side effects could include such serious problems as dry mouth, vomiting, sleepiness, heart palpitations, diarrhea, etc. I realize that they are required, by law, to disclose any symptom that might have been documented, but it really seems as though there are more adverse possibilities that could be suffered from these drugs, than positives. To think that you may be relieving one problem and encountering several more for your money just doesn’t seem like a logical choice, to me. I suppose there must be some people who suffer from these ailments who wouldn’t mind taking the chance, for the ease to their suffering. Luckily, I am not one of those people.

I suppose the drug companies have to get creative, as in the case of Versicare. I really like their animated pipe people but am glad I don’t have to take the drug and risk all the possible side effects they have to list in their commercials.

One of the funniest I’ve seen is the one for Ocean Spray cranberry juice. You see two guys standing in hip boots in a cranberry bog and singing about “bogercize.”  Now, that might sell me something. Then, there was the one that showed a Pepsi machine bumping into football players on a Super Bowl commercial, as one of their valued players who just made a big play. I think the one I saw this morning, showing a large “egg” doing things like riding a bike, in order to promote the wholesomeness of eggs, is modeled after that one.

If I had to create a commercial to advertise the human race to a life on some distant planet, I’d definitely opt for humor. Maybe, have a few people standing on a hillside, dressed as their favorite team mascot, and whacking each other on the head. “We’re not afraid to get a little goofy, not afraid to take a few chances, even if we may be a little hard to understand. Take a chance on us. At the very least, we’ll make you laugh.”

 

Her New 500 Miles & Her New Journey

I guess when we got a go we got a go, at least I am glad I got raised by two big music lovers who brought me up with there folk albums. R.I.P Mary and thanks to my parents.

 

Boston & Its Fake Punks

I used to live in Seattle, I lived there for almost eight years. I know the difference between punk and geek, Microsoft lover and apple hookers to even alternative music and the boring jazz from every coffee shop.

My  point is, In Boston there are only two neighborhoods trying too hard to turn the entire city in to second Seattle. From the neighborhood of New-bury street with its miss. desperate housewives walking along the shops to Mr. hot shot who could be either gay or straight.

There seem to be a school for graphic and web designing on New-bury street, not too far from a dinky book store with a coffee shop connected. In that book store every person you will run into is dressed as geek owning a Mac Notebook. Next door to the dinky book store a CD shop there retail have zero clue on how to dress like a punk and talk like a real grindg. I mean duud whats up with that!.

The second place is around Harvard University. In that neighborhood majority of people you run into they try as hard as possible to act like a geek and there hippie population can’t sit and chill for a moment.

All I can say these Bostonian who try to dressed and act like punk “grundg”, geek including 21st century hippies they will not ever be able to get there city to become as close as Seattle and Portland, OR. What a bunch of boring losers.

 

Marriage And Feature Mother In-law

In my resent trip in Iran I found out one of my relatives whos daughter was already “legally married” in the order of groom’s mother there had to be big wedding party  thrown. Of course the bride who is simple young woman who was not happy and I’m sure she went ahead with saying of “oh what the hell, lets get on with it and move on”

From the first day when I met the groom mother I sure instentlly did not like her “compleat control freak”.

Myself, when it comes to love between two people I don’t think that a ceremony and a legal document is required for any person to be in a committed relationship. I think that many people, even today are still marrying because of the social pressures and stigmas associated with it.

There are some people that are ill suited for marriage but not because they are not able to be in a committed relationship but because it just isn’t in them to follow the traditional aspects of marriage, so they never marry and speak against it and are “ill suited” for it.

Most couples marry because it was the right thing for them to do… most say that they did because it was the “right thing” to do, or it was because they felt some attraction to the person that they were married to and “everyone” does it.

Most of the time marital difficulties arise when two people think that they can change the other, and that their ways of doing things are the right ways. They struggle with the aspects of what they expected marriage to be like, and when their partner doesn’t cooperate or it doesn’t turn out that way… then there is difficulties.

I know from first hand experience, in this regard. I had in my own mind what marriage meant and the expectations were there for sure. In most relationships most expectations dose not manifest, you never can change the other person from whom they’ve became.

As for the institution of marriage… in today’s modern life style we are seeing it become outdated. I think that we are seeing the evidence of people being able to be in committed relationships that last for years and years without having to have a ceremony and a legal document. I honestly don’t think that other than for tax advantages, and legal issues regarding marriage, marriage would have already become extinct.

 

Good Riddance Junkie Corporate

I never liked Sears, it always had crappie items from it cloth looking like came from some old warehouse that was locked for who knows how many years, to the house items that brakes less two weeks after it was purchased. Even my Dad who used to be a Mechanic from his experience for his job he never touched sears equipments. No wonder the Kmart has a  label as “came apart” of course is part of Sear and its merchandise is ten times worse. I just read in business journal Sears that owns Kmart is closing several of it stores in Minnesota. Good I am glad that ugly monster corporate that have ripped so many pockets and god knows where all that money went is slowly disappearing. Good riddance Sears and your stupid mini-me  Kmart “came apart”.

 

With This Economy Every Body Knows

By know every body knows who’s fault has been and who is the cause of this whole global mess. That son of the Bush sure left a big plate in Obama hand.

From taking jobs away from Americans and outsourcing them to India and China for labor cost. The big clash of Enron, to Halliburton , The Claps of Citi Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Vanguard, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs,AIG, the Federal Reserve even UBS one the strong Swiss Banks in United States, with CEO of Bank of America stepping down and letting the account holder to own the back. Just this spring I heard from a friend in Seattle Federal Reverse walked into The head quarter  of Washington  Mutual asking the bank to give itself up, How blunt and scary that sounds?. etc etc etc……..

Even just in the last December the truth came out about Bernie Madoff the former chair man of NASDAQ stock market, that I am glad he is behind the bars. What puzzles me the most with the way the economy is going down hell and more people losing jobs, what is going on in the twisted minds to increase the price of housing?

Few days a go I heard on the news the unemployment is close to 10%.  Know until today I have negative feelings about the economy, I used to be optimistic for the feature of this economy with a high hope, but know I much prefer to live in reality then day dreaming.

 

There Is A Season For Every One

A friend of mine who is a Native American send me this long quite:

Your Creator created you out of love. It matters not how you choose to serve the Spiritual Self and honor the Creator within yourself. It matters not what religion one would choose, only that there is recognition of the soul that dwells within the cavity of the body. It is the Divine Essence, the spark of light that is your spiritual self. Spiritual freedom blesses us with a deep sense of peace, which is not associated with external stimulus.

It is understandable the need for physical freedom, but we must obtain emotional and psychological freedom as well. We are on the road to freedom when we are able to express our uniqueness and creativity opening without being oppressed by others. We must be free to explore intellectually, to read at will, to come to our own understanding of the logical and illogical. Sometimes we might wish to explore the beliefs of other religions in search of our spiritual path, but regardless we need the freedom to worship and pray as we please.

Yet, above all else we must free our soul and have a unique relationship within ourselves, and remove distortions that cause us to become slaves to ourselves. Distortions are mis-beliefs or mis-conceptions that cloud our minds and hinder us on our spiritual paths which some might call our lower selves. We might have feelings something lacking within if we compare ourselves to our fellow man, or feel we are not good enough for the divine spiritual path God had entitled us to, which is our higher self.

To be spiritually free, there are some things and pain that we need to let go of, some real and some perceived, like not being loved, cared for, abused, hurt, disrespected, shamed, reproached, etc., etc.

 

To be Content In This Moment

My blogging here doesn’t serve much purpose other than to stay in touch with some very good people that otherwise wouldn’t share parts of their gifts with me. Occasionally something generates a  need in me to get something lined  up in some  recognizable thought patterns. It doesn’t  serve anyone  too well, but usually I’ve gotten emotional  enough to squeeze some  kind of  blog out. I do  so  much  writing in my “other” life,  that it doesn’t attract me much in my  spare time.

But I thought I’d share this pic quick. You  may  have seen it somewhere already.

Who doesn’t love stained glass? Or something that seems like stained glass? I sometimes spend time trolling the internet for images like this one. A good friend and I, a thousand miles apart go shopping and end up high, as though we’ve shared some expensive bong. Just sharing the time, each other and a beautiful focus, discussing each piece together takes us to this painless place.

Just look at this, so many views of the atmosphere. It gives you reason to appreciate each one nearly simultaneously, yet exclusively as your vision moves from one to another. Looking at this beautiful piece of art I feel like I’m consolidating all my emotions.