On Being Open

A few days back I was perusing the web and came across a very cool Italian site. They had a web badge you could add to your page supporting the Italia futbol team. Upon reading a little deeper, it was brought to my attention that Internet Explorer had no support for .png files. Shocked! Well, partially shocked. Ever since discovering the beauty of the Mac, I’ve learned more and more how incredibly horrible Microsoft truly is. Not only do they often copy the work of others and claim it as their own, but they do a crappy job at it. They try and wrap their proprietery crap around what was once good and attempt to pull the blanket over our eyes by calling it “the standard.” Hardly. I try to be open-minded about everything, but when a company fails to have the consumer (me) in mind, it’s upsetting. Granted, every corporation (especially publicly traded ones) are out to make a buck. That’s fine. So am I. But I try to do it while maintaining my dignity and compassion for those around me. I try to use the one big happy family approach.

While on the topic of being open, something a friend said to me last week has been on the forefront of my mind. “Why does everybody try so hard to believe in something else instead of believing what is right in front of them?” I’ve always considered myself to have a rather open interpretation of the world, but was never able to put my feelings into words until my friend did it for me. He was absolutely right. Why do we long for something “better” or even different instead of appreciating what we already have and making the most of it? There is absolutely so much beauty in this world (and I’m talking about this world, aka Earth) that not even 100 heavens could compete with it and come close. Often times too much time is spent fantasizing about magical lands and heavens instead of realizing this magical land we all live in. Now some of you may wonder what in the world (yes! this one) I’m talking about so maybe I should clear the mud from my statements. I’m talking about heaven and hell… xyz universe and abc galaxy… etc…

A photograph taken in Brooklyn hangs in my room and reads: I worry that religions start wars. Paul McCartney said it in an interview in 2001. I don’t think he could have been any more right. Religion. The belief in something “else” so strong that we (not me, they) are willing to kill in its honor. Seems a little bit over the top now doesn’t it? Maybe a little bit hypocritical even? I think we should all aspire to become more educated in what we were given and already have instead of feeding our brains with love songs and scriptures about and for something somebody made up many years ago as a scare tactic. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said it best: One nation, under educated, with liberty and justice for some. HA. Fantastic.

Marriage. It’s often been debated whether or not two men or two women (often referred to as gays, but I see them as people just like you) should be allowed to marry one another. To this day, it is only legal in one state for two men or two women to marry one another. How anyone in their right mind can say no to that is just out of this world (yes! this one) to me. To stand up to two adults who truly love each other and say, “no, i’m sorry, but that would degrade the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.” I’m talking now directly to Bush. If you’ll listen for about two seconds, let me tell you something that degrades the ‘sanctity’ of marriage between a man and a woman: maybe the fact that the divorce rate among US marriages is at all time highs (especially among Christians in the bible-belt) — or — maybe people like Britney Spears getting married in Vegas for fun. I don’t know, but those sound like better culprits than, say, two people who love each other regardless of their gender. (But that would require some to have an, oh, open mind and think for themselves instead of holding dear to an idea created so long ago that they’ve forgotten or don’t even know why it was even created.) A terrific article on marriage between two men or two women can be read here.

Scare tactics. Green. Yellow. Orange. Red. Yep, we saw red the other day. Are you scared? Maybe we should all be scared. I mean hell, they are trying to blow up our planes with shampoo now! But I think that’s what “they” want. I swear it’s like we are in elementary school again. (But on a much more grandiose scale). I don’t like what you do or believe so I’m going to attack you. I don’t like the fact that you are attacking me so I’m going to retaliate. It all goes right back to the same damn thing… believing in something else… It almost reminds me of, well, suicide. Shooting your own foot? Painting yourself into a corner? It’s all the same. We don’t like what the other guy “believes” so we make them an outcast. It hurts their feelings so they become enraged and believe that killing or destroying the lives of many is the answer. We push these ideas until they become so out of hand that we end up, well killing ourselves. But it’s all the same. The Bush administration uses the “security threat” scale to scare the American population into believing we’re the ones everyone should feel sorry for and the ‘other’ guys are the bad guys. And maybe they are, but you cannot argue the fact that no matter who you are or where you are from, the true human spirit is one of peace. We don’t go around killing people unless provoked by something or someone. Now I’m not saying we provoked “them” into killing “us” but somewhere, some time ago, somebody’s feelings got hurt because of someone else’s beliefs and now look what we have, a big mess. Scare tactics. We’ve dealt with them our entire life. Santa Clause – be ‘good’ or you won’t get presents under the tree; Boogie Monster in the closet – go to sleep or he’ll get you; Tooth Fairy – brings us money if we put our tooth under the pillow? ha. We grow into adulthood only to find out our parents tricked us into being good. Now one of those scare tactics most people never outgrow is the one of heaven – be ‘good’ or you won’t go here; hell – be ‘good’ or you will go here. Hello? What makes those so special? Nothing. They are all scare tactics to make people be good or else! or else what? I’ll burn in hell when I die? I don’t think so. Now wouldn’t it be easier if we were all a little more open-minded which would inevitably lead to more peaceful situations? Call me crazy but that to me sounds like the best approach to solving this crazy mess WE have created.

I guess the moral of the story is this: Be good, be happy, trust in what you see, do not hurt other people (especially by shoving your beliefs on them and telling them they are wrong, cause the one who is wrong is probably you!) Oh, and don’t use Microsoft Internet Explorer. Save the Web! Use Safari or Firefox!

support, Mac, open-minded, believe, Earth, heaven, hell, scare tactic, gay, marriage, suicide, trust

Add comment August 15th, 2006