Thought Question - Life is better when you...

http://thoughtquestions.com/archives/3768

Life is better when you...

• know what you want out of it
• know where you're going and where you've been, and what both mean to who you are right now
• have someone to walk through it with, no matter who that someone is
• take time to appreciate the good things in your life
• sleep well and eat well
• dare to dream
• go to new places, so you have new contexts and new awareness and new experience
• aren't afraid--of anything
• do the things you love to do
• have purpose, no matter what that purpose is

How would you answer the question?

Thought Question #916: When was the last time you did something for the first time?

(borrowed from: http://thoughtquestions.com/archives/3108 with all respect. All art and text there belongs to them.)

I don't think I can remember the last time I did anything big for the first time. I mean, two and a half years ago, I went back to school; it was my first time in gradschool, but it wasn't my first time in college, and if we widen my scope, it was definitely not my first time in school. It was my first time in Pittsburgh, though. That is a huge airport, but not as big as Atlanta.

A month ago, I moved up here on my own. It was a big deal, but I was moving home (defined as where your parents life, since I've never actually lived here before), not really moving out on my own as I'd originally planned. Turns out $2000 is not enough to move alone into a new state with all your stuff and still have enough to get a place to live when you don't have a job or savings or any idea what the cost of living is like*. It was a step toward something new, but I don't feel like it really qualifies as something new since it's not. It's just a shifting of old situations.

Also a month-ish ago, I finished a novel--and maybe that counts. I've written novel-length manuscripts before, but I've never launched into full revisions afterward, and this is a new thing: revising pages. Changing them drastically. Adding and subtracting scenes and making the whole better than the first incarnation of itself.

Yeah, that's it. That's my most recent new thing.

I think, though, that I'll start tracking New Things. I was told years ago (I think by the TV, so take that as you will) that in Japan, there's a saying that every time you try something new, you add five minutes to your life. Whether they actually say that or not, I think it's a good way to look at the world: as a buffet of new things you can try. We're all looking for ways to make our lives better, right? Well, variety does that. Newness and novelty do that.

What is your most recent new thing?

*It's a little higher than living in FL, but I hear the pay rate is better. I think that's why people get stuck in FL--the difference in cost of living and pay rates makes it hard to be able to afford to leave that sunny, bug-riddled sandbar.

Thought Question #902

(From http://thoughtquestions.com/archives/3064)

This is a tricky one, because I think the term is wrong. Being conscious of yourself is something I think everyone needs to have--how else are we supposed to know what our motivations are, what the results of our actions are, how we process information and make decisions? It's being overly aware of yourself, to the point of being unable to see the higher functions and only being able to see the little details and to worry about how others see them, that's the bad thing.

That being said, my immediate reaction to this question was everything. Depending on the day, I worry about my hair, my skin, how fat I am and how my clothes fit, whether I'm secretly sick and don't know it but others can tell and aren't telling me...I could go on. But I don't want to feed this nonsense, because I've realized it is nonsense. Most people don't look that closely at me, and I have other things to occupy myself with.

One thing I never feel self-conscious about in the usual usage of the term? My teeth. I have really crazy crooked teeth, but I don't worry about them. That's just how they are, and I don't believe that I should be forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get them fixed, and to suffer all that pain, when they don't bother me. They don't get in the way of talking or eating or making out, so why should I worry?

Thought Question #810: Every person needs______?

(From Thought Questions: http://thoughtquestions.com/archives/2760)

I think every person needs food, shelter, water and safety. That's Maslowe's old Hierarchy of Needs. But after that, there's the peak of the needs pyramid, and we get into the more interesting answers to this question. I think everyone needs love. People who aren't loved early and often (in the emotional sense, get your mind out of the gutter!) come out wrong, missing some vital part of themselves, unstable. Sociopaths and psychopaths, and not the the nice, clean, useful way of, say, Sherlock or Dexter.

I think everyone needs a passion, something they like doing, whether they're good at it or not, something other than how they pay their bills and whether they can afford three square meals, and all the other dumb things that clutter up a life and use up attention spans--something that they truly believe in, that raises them up above the mess of daily life.

I think everyone needs acceptance--both for themselves and for others. Everyone should be allowed to be who they are, and they should be able to extend the same acceptance to everyone else; I think the whole world would be a better, happier, calmer place that way. Governments would be forced to unwind from meddling with people's lives, and religions would have to be more open and caring, and everyone, everywhere would be much, much happier.

I think everyone needs progress, or at least a sense of forward momentum. Humans are built on change, adaptation and novelty; if nothing moves forward, we stagnate. If we feel like we aren't getting anywhere, we frustrate. If we feel like we're losing ground or going backward or sliding down, we lash out and get possessive. Grand Progress For the Human Race is probably not something viable anymore, in the broadest senses, because there are just too many people around now, with too many definitions of Grand Progress, but each individual in the world needs to feel like things are getting better. Like they're getting somewhere. Like there's something to hope for.

What do you think every person needs?

Thought Questions: What do you wish you saw more of?

From: http://thoughtquestions.com/archives/2639


I wish I saw more of my friends who have moved away, or whom I have moved away from. I'm working on this by slowly reconnecting with everyone, and when I have income again, I'm going to start saving up for an Awesome Person Fund, so I can afford to go visit people, and then it won't matter where I live, I can see whoever I want AND travel.

I wish I saw more people being nice to each other. I don't really see a lot of people being mean to each other, but there's a huge amount of people being indifferent, at best, and I just remember one time when I was on a bus in Orlando, and we were going through a sort of seedy part of town; there was a car that had died in an intersection, and this little old lady was upset about it, and these four rough-looking cholo dudes came and pushed her car out of the way and got under the hood and helped her get moving again. Those were guys who looked scary standing on the corner, and they totally helped that lady without any question or threat or anything, and it was lovely.

I wish I saw more of the places I used to live when I was a kid. I don't like going back to places I left because I hated them, but there were lots of places I left because I was a kid and I couldn't stay on my own--I want to go back and see them with adult eyes, see how they've changed, see how many of the people I remember still live there, see how well I remember where all the secret places are, and whether those places are still there. Dunoon, especially. I have dreams where I go back there, and walk along the Promenade and up Victoria Circle, and into the houses, and find ours there on the corner, and tell people who live there that I used to live there, and I planted all those daffodylls.*


*I know this is spelled wrong, but I like it better this way.