Here There Be Monsters

It is peculiar that cartographers of old marked the edge of their knowledge with the phrase, “Here There be Monsters.” What might it have been that inspired them to say that? I certainly do not know, for while we live in a world that is full of monsters, they are only where there are humans. The monsters go where we go because they dwell within us.

Everyone carries their own monsters. Some of them are fairly harmless, like the monsters in the stomach of the poet Poetri. Others threaten to destroy the tenuous fabric of our society. Some monsters take the form of intolerance, bigotry, and hate. Those monsters we either fight all of our lives, or we give in to them. When we surrender to them we become monsters ourselves. Other monsters are less intangible. Disease, blindness, and mental illness are monsters in their own right. These monsters we can again choose to fight against all of our lives. If we do not, they turn us into broken shadows of what we might have been.

Often, we become so caught up in the fight against our own monsters that we forget others have even scarier monsters in their lives. Strangely, the people facing the most terrifying monsters are those that we consider to be the least able to care for themselves. Their monsters can never be vanquished, but every day they strive to overcome them. Perhaps even more peculiar is that these same people, who fight so hard against their own monsters, also seem to be the most at peace with the monsters they carry.

Special needs individuals are important, and many people don’t realize just how important. They are a constant reminder that there is a good fight to be fought, and that even when a grand triumph seems impossible, each day of life as a human being is a small victory. Every day they wake up and struggle to overcome the handicaps that have been placed on them. We often don’t realize how hard their lives are, yet to see their joy when they have accomplished something is a gift.

We need those reminders. We need to stop, look around, and realize that we are blessed. It is absolutely vital that we understand that everyone has troubles and that we are not alone. Most importantly, we need to know that every day is a gift, no matter what obstacles or demons we face: every day we can win a small victory, a small battle in a war against foes that will never leave us alone. These are the reasons we need special needs individuals.

Man in the Mirror/Child in the Puddle

As we walk through our lives, we build images of ourselves. A middle-aged executive with a neatly trimmed beard and a tailored suit will have pride when he looks into his silver edged mirror at his reflection. A drunk in the back alley with a weathered, scruffy face and no place to call home will feel shame when he gazes into a broken piece of a car mirror. Right?

Maybe not. That executive who sees himself in the fancy mirror knows things about himself that he may never share with anyone else. And who knows if he is proud of them, or ashamed. The vagrant, by the same token, may be a proud man fallen on hard times. He may simply be proud that he is still alive.

What we see when we look in the mirror is colored by what we know about ourselves. Life is a journey of self-discovery, and the more we discover, the more our reflection changes, at least to our eyes. Maybe you've had a certain haircut for several weeks and you get one that is drastically different. When you go home will you instantly know your own reflection?

If experience changes how we see our reflection, what do very young children see in themselves? The answer is nothing but simultaneously everything. When a child looks at their reflection, they have the ability to see what they are, and what they can be. They can see the five year old staring into the little puddle and the fisherman looking down on the ocean. They can see the six year old in the mirror above the sink, and they can see the doctor scrubbing up before surgery.

At some point in our lives, most of us lose that wonderful ability. The weight of our experience overwhelms the fragile wings of our imagination. We give up on the future, and let the past be what we are. We slip away from our dreams, and we hide in our memories.

I have a challenge for all of you.
Go find a mirror. Look into it, and no matter how old you are, try to see you the way your eight year old self would have. Forget, just for a moment, all of those heavy experiences, and spread out the wings of your imagination. Now, if you can, find a different mirror. (It's not vital to do this, but it might help you with your visualization.) Look into it and see yourself as you will when you are one hundred years old, looking back. Fold your wings of imagination, and see yourself with the happy contentment of memory.

Now close your eyes, clear your mind, and then look again at your reflection. Are you the man (or woman) your childhood self saw looking back at them? Or are you the child staring back at an ancient sage from the depths of a puddle? If you see yourself the way you imagined, then you have been blessed. If you see yourself the way you will remember, then you are blessed. And if you look and all you see is you, then look for your blessings. I promise there are more than you think.

When the Lights go out

Human beings have a tendency to oversimplify things. We would like to believe that the world is composed of paired opposites. Good and Evil, Hot and Cold, Life and Death, or Light and Dark can all illustrate our oversimplification.

     For now, Light will be the stand in for good, hot, life, and light, and Dark will symbolize evil, cold, death, and dark. (note the capitalization) Now, Light represents something we have, a quality, or a physical phenomenon which is observable. But Dark represents the absence of Light or a state in which those qualities or physical phenomena are not present. Now let us examine the realities of each particular situation. Beginning with light and dark, we will work backwards from there. 

    Light is a form of energy. Depending on what wavelength it has it may appear to the human eye as different colors or not at all. Light, in some form, can penetrate all substances. So to find a location that is completely without light is not really possible. So what is dark? It cannot exist if it is the absence of light. Yet we describe places as dark on a regular basis, so how do we determine them to be such? Truthfully we only perceive them as lacking light, because they are without the light we need to see. Even when the lights are off, there is light.

    Life, as defined scientifically, has certain aspects or tenets which must be present for life to exist. There are many types of life, from bacterial and fungal to plant and animal. When human life ends, we call it death, yet to say that death is the absence of life would be a terrible misstatement. When we cease to breathe, a plethora of other lifeforms spring up and take our place. We decay by the efforts of hundreds of other lives, and without us, those lifeforms would cease to exist. So when our life ends, there is no absence, only a change. So death is not an absence of life, just a change in the type of life present.

    Hot is perhaps the least accurate term. It is very difficult to define, because each person has different tolerances of temperature. So let us analyze heat or temperature instead. Heat is a measurable quality, defined scientifically as the average kinetic energy of the particles of an object. Heat is present until the particles cease to move. The point where this occurs is called Absolute Zero. Absolute Zero does not occur in nature. So there is no absence of heat, and thus, everything is hot. Yet we feel cold sometimes. Even when we are cold, there is heat to be had.

    That brings us to good and evil. Quite possibly the two most nebulous concepts in the entire world. Good, for the most part is something that we define individually. In most cases how we define good is dependent on our own personal ethical code. Suffice it to say that what we define as good is all those things that are opposed to what is forbidden by our morality. For example, to Christians adultery is forbidden, so Marriage must be good. So good is simply the opposite of evil, and vice versa. At this point, you may wonder why Good and Evil have been included in this discussion. Pause and think. Is my morality the same as yours? Do all of your neighbors follow the exact same ethical code as you? This is why good and evil belong in the category of oversimplifications. 

    Human beings oversimplify things. Even on the darkest night, there is light. Even in death, there is life. Even in the coldest depths of space there is heat. And even when something seems truly evil to you, it may be good to someone else. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; so are good and evil. Don't let any Lights go out, because we will lose much more than we might gain if they are extinguished.

Is anybody There?

I tire of this Earth to which we cling. Surely there is something beyond it. A place where bigotry and hatred have passed. Where the inhabitants are not limited by their flesh. Isn't there someplace like that?

       There is a place like that; it isn't easy to get to. You have to be a good person. And then you have to die. At least according to two of the most popular religions ever....

But what if you don't want to die? Surely there's someplace more ... corporeal that fits those criterion.

Not on this world. Here, on Earth, each person suffers from the terrible conviction that their opinion is correct. Acceptance is a word tossed around by bigots while they wait for enough people to support them so they can enforce their opinions on everyone.

Look at Christianity. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Be meek and humble. Until you have a few hundred knights that you can attack the next kingdom with, or until someone does something that offends you. Then start a war. Better yet, start an Inquisition.

Check out Islam. Convert a city peacefully, conquer the next few, repeat.

Sadly, these groups aren't the worst offenders. Most everyone is prejudiced. Some are even bigoted, but no one realizes it. The people who claim that a police officer arrests black people more often than white people are far more racist than the law man they are accusing of bigotry. They claim that they don't want there to be discrimination based on color, all the while making discriminations. Saying that a black man should get the job when he and a white man have each applied and are equally qualified is just as racist as giving said job to the white guy because he's white.

It's not just racism either. It's every form of bigotry. Whether it's sexism or racism or ageism (or in my case IQism), someone in the room with you is guilty. I'm guilty. I'd say there's an eighty percent chance you are too. 

I know. This is drastic. It's controversial. I don't care. If you've read it, then take it in stride. Let it sit in the back of your mind and mingle with all the tiny little prejudices you have and don't know about. And next time you meet someone new, think about what your first impression of them is. Analyze why you like them, or why you don't. Be honest with yourself.

To tell the truth I don't care if you apply this to your life. But if you do apply it, I hope it makes you a happier person. I hope that it doesn't hurt your relations with people. Give everyone a chance. When they mess it up, give them another. Who knows? Maybe someday you'll see all the other sinners with you in heaven and be able to avoid judging them.

Take a deep breath. and then let go.

Breathe deep. In and out. In and out. When you inhale, feel the air filling up your lungs and your chest. When you exhale, imagine that you're blowing out something more that nitrogen and CO2. Imagine that all the negative things in your life are getting pushed out too. Now take another deep breath, and just hold it. While you wait for your body to make you exhale and inhale again, try to imagine that your mind isn't stuck in your head. Cast yourself out of your cranium and spread out over your body. Feel each hair, each nerve ending, and each cell. Feel your heart beating. Feel the blood coursing through your veins. Feel the microcontractions your muscles make to maintain your posture. Then exhale. Inhale again. Take a few breaths and bring your mind back to your skull. Inhale, Exhale. Inhale and hold. This time push your mind our of your body entirely. Let it float away on the breeze. Steer it down to the ground and check out the randomness of the dirt. Push it through a wall. Then pull it back to you. Breathe again. Close your eyes, and stop thinking. See where your mind takes you. It might be interesting...

--Random