Reality Out of Sync

So, I noticed that Leesa was on vacation about the same time i was. As she stated, since we both took off at about the same time, we must be sleeping together. Trust me, that was definitely the case. The praise she laid upon me was mind boggling. Go me! ^_^

Sadly, that’s not really true. Even though Leesa is totally not my type, I’d do her. I know she’s feeling the love right about now. Anyway, I got back from the trip all in one piece. It wasn’t much to write home about, as is usually the case. My vacations never go the way people probably think they should. My vacations are the most interesting on the drive there and the drive back, or as some cases have had it the flight there and the flight back. I don’t like traveling because of the destination usually. I enjoy traveling for the arrival and departure!

Now, let me preface this with the fact that I have been to Florida before. I went when I was younger. Again, it wasn’t actually being in Florida that was most interesting. It was the getting there that was so entertaining. Yes, some incidents while being in the state were funny, it was all in the process of getting to where we wanted to be. You see my mother enjoys the leading driver role. She is a type A personality and so this role suits her. Well my mom has to have at least one mishap on the way. When I was a child, that mishap took place in a hotel parking lot on our way to Disney Land. She drove the front of the car over a pile-on and got us stuck. I don’t remember how we got off of that thing, but I was too weak to help my ‘already on his way to being tanked’ step father push it off. I think a tow truck was involved. My mother was excessively pissed off.

This time my mom managed to get lost by a couple of miles and that just set her off all the way. It wasn’t entirely her fault. I must admit that the signage that is on route 231 is just horrible all the way around. In one direction there are indicating signs telling you where to it branches into another direction (which it does by the way in case you’re interested), but in the opposite direction there is no sign at all. you just happily drive right on by it without cause for worry until you realize that the signs 5 miles down say nothing about still being on 231. That was special, let me tell you. So the cursing was quite extraordinary by the time my mother came to the conclusion we were going the wrong way. As a side note, my sister and I are not allowed to ride in the car with my mother. We have this nasty habit of laughing at everything and making fun of her and my step dad. Thus, we are placed in a separate vehicle with one another. Probably not the safest idea because we end up laughing so hard the driver almost causes a huge accident. Fun times.

I’m going to go out on a limb here. You’ll have to excuse me while I do this and hope to your deity that the earth doesn’t split open and swallow itself into a black hole or some mysterious singularity. My friend, Leesa, wrote down a phrase in her blog. What it amounted to was that the world would be a happier place if people lived the way they were supposed to live. My question then is how are we supposed to live?

That’s a pretty thought provoking question I suppose. Christian, I believe would point out that their ‘Good Book’ the Bible tells one how to live. The Bible doesn’t condemn slavery, but that’s neither here nor there I don’t suppose. I just am of the opinion that if we all lived by the Bible then a good portion of our society would be ’servants’ and that would be perfectly okay. I also think that the Bible would condone quite a few things that I believe go against the nature of man. Clothing for instance, farming, and beating one’s slave (servant as they are named in the Bible and so long as they live 24 hours after the ceasing of the beating you’re not at fault). I am aware that the ‘Good Book’ says that man should love one another as they have been loved by the deity; however, one only needs to read the Bible to understand it’s a very fickle love and wrought with all manner of servitude and conditions. I think it’s not necessary to enumerate.

Thich Nhat Hanh said the following: “A human being is an animal, a part of nature. But we single ourselves out from the rest of nature. We classify other animals and living beings as nature, acting as if we ourselves are not part of it. Then we pose the question, ‘How should we deal with nature?’ We should deal with nature the way we should deal with ourselves! We should not harm ourselves; we should not harm nature. Harming nature is harming ourselves, and vice versa. If we knew how to deal with our self and with our fellow human beings, we would know how to deal with nature. Human beings [and nature] are inseparable. Therefore, by not caring properly for any one of these, we harm them all.”

That is how we should live, but until people come to grips with the oneness of all life and not just the oneness of familial and friendly beings the world is not going to be a better place. How we should live, isin m y opinion “The thought of renunciation, the thought of non-ill-will, the thought of harmlessness. This, monks, is called Right Thought.” –Digha Nikaya

Now, you may be wondering how exactly that translates into how we are supposed to live. I’ll tell you! Well, actually I’m going to illustrate it for you by telling you the pillars of Buddhist living:

Right Understanding
Right Thoughts
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration

I’ll probably revisit this shortly, I am fuming still (sadly enough) over the theft of all my physical writing from my car.