What Happens When I Forget My Notebook

            So I had planned on posting something tonight that I had written and worked on at least a little bit, but I went away for Labor Day weekend and forgot to bring along my notebook and I have nothing pre-written to post.  So I’m just going to talk about whatever comes into my head.  For years my family has been coming up here, a small town around a lake.  There’s no TV, and we just recently got Internet.  Thinking about people traveling up here to live like this makes me laugh a little bit.   Not so long ago the big cities were where everyone wanted to be, the places where magic happened.  Now everyone wants to live as they used to, minimalistic.  They want to recapture that magic that still exists in these small patches of society.  They come here to reminisce and remember what it was like as a kid.  They want to escape the adult world and live in their childhood again, and the closest they can get to that is escaping the urban world and just running away from any sort of big city, to get to the place they used to use to escape from their school and social lives over the summer, only when they get there its their children who live that way instead of them, the kids are the ones still living as kids, and we don’t think twice about why we were taken up here as a kid.  We just welcome the fun. 

            

As usual I would love it if you would comment and if you have any thoughts on this post or others you can email them to me at harpestey@yahoo.com. 

Free Will

One of, if not the most important issues throughout mankind’s brief history is freedom. Freedom as a man to do what you please when you please. Commonly referred to as simply free will. Its constantly been taken away, bought, and then taken away again. Even today while we hold truths to be self evident, free will is still monitored and in some places, taken. Especially in religion. God gave man free will, regardless of your religion, yet we are forced to follow so many rules. We are required to do so many things for the church or the synagogue and if we question anything ever so slightly we are dubbed a polytheistic heathen. I know god works in mysterious ways and it is not yours to question why but my only question is, if god gave us free will, why does he expect us to blindly follow him and not question any of his supposed doings? Or does our concept of free will not actually exist. Could the higher power be teasing us with the idea of free will, giving us a taste, but really be controlling every aspect of the story. Life is chock full of these types of situations. You have the convenience of a telephone, yet you lose the charm of distance and your privacy. Food for thought.

Please comment and tell me what you think at harpestey@yahoo.com

The American Dream

When emigrants came to America, they all talked about the American dream. Having money in your pocket, a nice coat on your back and a house on the corner with your family living happily inside of it. They’d talk bout the homes with the white picket fence and the wonderful families they were working for back home. Taking their kids up to a nearby lake for a weekend vacation. And when they were coming over that was al a possibility, maybe a long shot, but they had a chance. Work hard on a ranch, or building a railroad to make your stake and settle down. Millions of people bought into the American dream and a few of them actually found it. Nowadays people buy into that very same dream, but they have no chance of actually getting it. Because that white fence is painted jet black and the lake is covered in oil. That house is in the city and their jobs are as bad if not worse then what the original dreamers had. The American dream still exists, although the American reality is much worse than that dream.

Please comment and tell me what you think at harpestey@yahoo.com

Love

Love is something everyone experiences, or at least everyone wants to. Most people see it at one point in their lives, but not all can follow up on it. Most get what, or who, they love even if it’s just for a shot period of time. People know when they love someone; the generic signs are all there. Falling asleep with them in your head, being a great mood after talking to them, rounding every street corner just hoping they’re there. But beyond that who’s to say if I love someone or not? Because of my age I cant know what that is? Well I may not know what your definition of love is, but I know mine. I’ve talked to different people who say there in love. Every time the describe it, its completely different. Whether it’s a pain in your chest whenever they’re not with them, or being annoyed by the little things they do, and loving every single second of it. See I’ve realized that asking the question “what is love” doesn’t have one real answer. Because there is no one thing called love. The real question should be, what is your love. Everyone’s is different. So telling someone they don’t know what love is, is a load of shit because they very well may know exactly what their love is, just not yours. Love isn’t a thing its something you feel, and you can’t put on universal definition on something you feel, its different for everyone.

Any thoughts on this post? Tell me at harpestey@yahoo.com

Death

Lately I’ve talked a lot about life, different aspects of it and sometimes how to live it. But one thing I never mentioned before is death. Now I just want to raise the question, why do people fear death? Honestly why are we so afraid of dying? Is it because we stop living? Because we don’t get any warning to tie up those infamous loose ends? Is it because we just stop living without that dramatic death we all dream of? Or is it simply because we have no way of knowing what’s on the other side? Just the fact that something either incredible or terrible awaits us on the other side, but there’s no way for us to know what to expect. So naturally we expect the worst and fear death more than anything. But who’s to say that the Christian heaven isn’t ALL that waits for us? Or what if its something even grander, something so great the human mind cant even fathom how truly fantastic it is why cant we be excited for death without being labeled suicidal? Or maybe were looking at this all-wrong. Have you ever considered that this world is another world’s hell? And death is simply a sweet escape? No matter which of these ideas is true, Peter Pan described it best when he said, “Death, will be an awfully big adventure”

Any thoughts on this post? Tell me about it at harpestey@yahoo.com

Speech

Have you ever stopped to think about how incredible speaking is? The fact that I can think a word, and then say it without anything in between is incredible. Just read this out loud and think about the shape of your mouth for each syllable. Its incredible that you can just make audible sound without thinking it through piece by piece. Try to just take the word apple. Without making noise think of how you would form your mouth to make these sounds. Don’t actually form your mouth though. It probably took you a few seconds to do that and yet you can say apple in less than one. Likewise writing is the same way. Just thinking a letter or an entire word to write is enough. I don’t need to think about crossing my Ts or dotting my Is. I just do it. These two things are, in my own opinion, the most incredible advance mankind has made bar none.

Learning

When I was a little kid I sat in class learning because I thought it was fun. The topics were fun the way I learned was fun. Throughout junior high it slowly shifted from learning for fun to learning for college and beyond. It became all about grades and less about fun. Which is exactly y how it should be. Learning for college is how you get into an Ivey league school or the school of your dreams. Learning for fun is how I learned every Springsteen record in chronological order. Learning for grades and college is how I learned to factor a trinomial. Now you tell me which is more likely to get me into Stanford. Admittedly learning for learning’s sake is how it should be done, however the world has turned to a point where that just isn’t good enough. You cant get by on just what you want to learn you have to follow by what other people want you to learn. It’s the only way to get by. Because if you’re defiant the modern day big brother we call education is going to catch up to you and force you to learn everything. No matter how much you don’t want to.