Still extremely sharp-edged, it seems...
Jan. 10th, 2008 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolven7In response to last night's post, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
n3m3sis42 said I don't have a problem with 2008. My only problem is me, really. I mean, there are external stimuli, but isn't everyone's real problem themselves and the way they react to said stimuli?
2008 itself seems... not that different from 2007, so far. I suppose that if I want it to be different, I will have to make it that way. But really, I see most years as "full of unexpected pleasantnesses, and unpleasantnesses that cause people to better themselves, via adaptation and boundary breaking".
I'm up at 3:30 am a lot. I don't stay up until then--I go to bed at a normal time, then wake up at 3:30 and can't fall back asleep. It's annoying. And I love R. Thomas.
To which I have said and will say the following:
It can be said, yes, that the stimulus response is the key, but the clarity of purpose and path on regards to figuring out the answers and Correct responses is not always easy. Sometimes figuring out which way to change is really quite difficult.
Every year can be that, if you approach it that way, but I think things have to show themselves in a way that you will be more like to Initially interpret in that light, before you can apply that rubric to the majority of things that come your way. I think that's why people place so much emphasis on the first experiences of "The New Year," and with whom it's spent; there's a kind of Sympathetic Magic we see to the First and the Rest.
When your year, day, week, month, lunch hour, or whatever other arbitrarily bounded piece of Time "starts" "badly," it becomes harder and harder to drag yourself out of that mode of thinking about it, the longer that kind of thing presents itself to you. (Curve - [My Tiled White Floor]). All the recognition of internal Stimulus/Response dynamics in the world won't help you until you've come to an actual Understanding of what you can do for yourself.
The wonderfully paradoxical thing about that is that the Understanding has to germinate and spread from the inside, but the impetus for it, the planting, as it were, can (and sometimes MUST) come from outside. That's where I find myself arrogant enough to come in, and where I'd be willing to bet you often find yourself: Pushing from the outside, gently nudging people to realise that they can change the way they interact with a situation, and trying to help them see how best to do that.
David Bowie - [Hallo Spaceboy]--- I see that as one of the many jobs of anyone who counts themselves a friend of someone. To be able to be there, nudge, shift perception, help a person be more themselves, if you can. But that's pretty presumptuous, pretty arrogant of me, like I said. You have to presume a lot to be there for someone, though... But I'm tangenting.
Panacea - [Hellbringer]--- The "new year," is for the reshifting of focus, retraining energies, and recognition of a new place in life. I would prefer if that were Every Day, for you, but I'm me, and you're You, so there we are. But since the New Year is recognised as a time, for that, and it's still only 10 days in, I think you can take what's happened so far, and filter it, shift ir, dissect and deconstruct it, and see what it has to offer you.
Some situations are unequivocally shitty. That's true, and I'm not saying that you need to slap a happy sappy veneer on everything, and make it Thorazine-Drip-Alicious, I'm just saying try to figure out what the shitty situation could be used to make way for, rather than thinking of it as Just punishment, from the universe. I tend to think of the bad things as the universe hating me, and my making them better as my sweet, sweet revenge. It's a pretty good motivator, Spite.
PJ Harvey - [Down By The Water]--- But that's all... Out there. Right here and now, maybe you're in the shit, and maybe we're all in it together, as Brazil tried to teach Sam Lowry, too late.
Don't Panic. Everything can be turned around, everything can be beaten, broken, ground to a fine powder, and then reconstitued for later use. Even you.
Think about it. I need to go eat breakfast.
n3m3sis42 said I don't have a problem with 2008. My only problem is me, really. I mean, there are external stimuli, but isn't everyone's real problem themselves and the way they react to said stimuli?2008 itself seems... not that different from 2007, so far. I suppose that if I want it to be different, I will have to make it that way. But really, I see most years as "full of unexpected pleasantnesses, and unpleasantnesses that cause people to better themselves, via adaptation and boundary breaking".
I'm up at 3:30 am a lot. I don't stay up until then--I go to bed at a normal time, then wake up at 3:30 and can't fall back asleep. It's annoying. And I love R. Thomas.
To which I have said and will say the following:
It can be said, yes, that the stimulus response is the key, but the clarity of purpose and path on regards to figuring out the answers and Correct responses is not always easy. Sometimes figuring out which way to change is really quite difficult.
Every year can be that, if you approach it that way, but I think things have to show themselves in a way that you will be more like to Initially interpret in that light, before you can apply that rubric to the majority of things that come your way. I think that's why people place so much emphasis on the first experiences of "The New Year," and with whom it's spent; there's a kind of Sympathetic Magic we see to the First and the Rest.
When your year, day, week, month, lunch hour, or whatever other arbitrarily bounded piece of Time "starts" "badly," it becomes harder and harder to drag yourself out of that mode of thinking about it, the longer that kind of thing presents itself to you. (Curve - [My Tiled White Floor]). All the recognition of internal Stimulus/Response dynamics in the world won't help you until you've come to an actual Understanding of what you can do for yourself.
The wonderfully paradoxical thing about that is that the Understanding has to germinate and spread from the inside, but the impetus for it, the planting, as it were, can (and sometimes MUST) come from outside. That's where I find myself arrogant enough to come in, and where I'd be willing to bet you often find yourself: Pushing from the outside, gently nudging people to realise that they can change the way they interact with a situation, and trying to help them see how best to do that.
David Bowie - [Hallo Spaceboy]--- I see that as one of the many jobs of anyone who counts themselves a friend of someone. To be able to be there, nudge, shift perception, help a person be more themselves, if you can. But that's pretty presumptuous, pretty arrogant of me, like I said. You have to presume a lot to be there for someone, though... But I'm tangenting.
Panacea - [Hellbringer]--- The "new year," is for the reshifting of focus, retraining energies, and recognition of a new place in life. I would prefer if that were Every Day, for you, but I'm me, and you're You, so there we are. But since the New Year is recognised as a time, for that, and it's still only 10 days in, I think you can take what's happened so far, and filter it, shift ir, dissect and deconstruct it, and see what it has to offer you.
Some situations are unequivocally shitty. That's true, and I'm not saying that you need to slap a happy sappy veneer on everything, and make it Thorazine-Drip-Alicious, I'm just saying try to figure out what the shitty situation could be used to make way for, rather than thinking of it as Just punishment, from the universe. I tend to think of the bad things as the universe hating me, and my making them better as my sweet, sweet revenge. It's a pretty good motivator, Spite.
PJ Harvey - [Down By The Water]--- But that's all... Out there. Right here and now, maybe you're in the shit, and maybe we're all in it together, as Brazil tried to teach Sam Lowry, too late.
Don't Panic. Everything can be turned around, everything can be beaten, broken, ground to a fine powder, and then reconstitued for later use. Even you.
Think about it. I need to go eat breakfast.
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-10 10:18 pm (UTC)Totally agreed. I think it's normal, at times, to go through a "wahhhhh, this isn't faaaaair" stage (or several) when dealing with a shitty situation. But most shitty situations can be used as a lead-in to something better, even if it's not an immediate something better.
I think you're right that sometimes we need other people to help focus us in the right direction if we are "stuck" enough, though.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-11 12:54 am (UTC)I had a bit of a stuck day, today, myself. Unpleasant.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-11 08:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-11 03:06 pm (UTC)