So the big move finally took place, everybody is moved, but haven't settled in yet. [Note to Lester: I am SO sorry. I didn't think it was possible to progress the disorder to the level it is now.] While everyone might be anxious about their new surroundings or roommates, where everything is different and completely unexpected, sometimes to the point of uncomfortable, keep this thought in mind:
Adapt to change or die.
I think Darwin's theory still holds in how you live your life. In the short motivational book "Who Moved the Cheese?" (or at least I think it was called that, and I never read the book, I've only been given a description of it), if you are the lab mouse that has become used to where the cheese has been placed in the maze, and one day it was moved, you cannot dwell on the past of where the cheese has been. The mouse is puzzled at first, and the panics, but ultimately it comes to the conclusion that it must continue to hunt for the cheese, or else it will die of starvation. It doesn't like it, but it has to do it anyway. Then, once he gets used to the new position of the cheese after several more maze tests, the cheese stays, but a new, more delicious object is placed in a part of the maze that the mouse has never been before. He can smell it, and knows that it is better than the cheese, but he has to make a choice: Does he go after the new food, or does he stay back with what he has been given for all this time? (Keep in mind he can't eat the cheese and then go after the new object, that would defeat the whole purpose of the explanation. The scientists take him out and move him back to his cage after the choice is made).
Actually, I'm not sure if that last part was in the book. Please read it and then give me the gist of it.
The college life has been great for me. I've seen and learned so much. Somethings I know will irritate me, and others will make me look at things in different perspectives. Through wear and tear, I will have become a better man for it, and I hope I'm doing the same for everyone else around me.
*Sniff* I love you guys! This is going to be a great year, I can feel it. I can feel it like a rash... a rash of hope... a contagious rash.
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... and if the rash is a rash of hope, I guess the ointment would be the ointment of distress. You probably don't want to apply that. But you don't need to worry anyway, neither the rash nor the ointment exist. It was a metaphor. But that would be cool to have, like Fry's worms in that Futurama episode. I loved that one.
Friday, August 20, 2004
Movement is not a flavor of gum.
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2 comments:
There is a sense of futility in the hunt for cheese. To quote Billy Corgan, "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage". I feel like, why bother, you know. I've been hunting for so long for something that always elludes me despite my heartfelt efforts. Why bother? I have tried to protest in silence, but my efforts were in vain. Who would take note of a solitary mouse hunting for that which he cannot find in the maze that is life? Those that might only lead me in wrong directions or build up my hope, so ultimately why bother? What good will it do to continue to hunt when I know I will be fooled over and over again? Despite all of my resistence, I will still be a mouse living a life of captivity.
Well, like all analogies, it isn't a perfect match to the actual subject.
But the mouse has a choice, it can either decide that its life is meaningless, or it can find that is still fullfilling a purpose to the scientists, like testing a new memory medicine or whatnot.
In psychology, studies were done on dogs where a bell would ring and then they would get shocked in the cage they were in, and there was no way to avoid. At first, the dogs would howl and jump around and try to get away, but after it was done enough, the dogs realized that there was nothing else that they could do and just layed down, accepting the pain.
Later, they modified the cage to have a side that had a shock zone, and the other half of the cage to not shock the dog. The dogs that were subjected to the old experiment were placed in the new cage and new dogs that had not undergone the other experient were placed. The new dogs would jump to the non-shockable zone, but the "trained" dogs didn't even try to move.
So I guess I didn't really finish my thoughts the other day. Sometimes life hands you lemons, of which you can make a tasty drink, or a turnip that doesn't really taste good or make a good drink. You eat it anyway. Boxers get hit and knocked down. I hit on women and they mace me. It's all a rich tapestry.
Some people say that life is a bed of roses, they're nice to smell and to look at, but they don't realize that the gardener has to go through the pain of the thorns to remove weeds near them and to care for them to make it a garden to be proud of. If the gardener couldn't take it anymore, he woudl give up and the bed of roses would wilt and the place would become infested with weeds and bad bugs.
...Wow, I'm all over the place, I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say. I wanted to say "life is fun, but it sure ain't easy," but who knows what happened there. Maybe I need training by a qualified philosopher.
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