Rgeneb14664

Super User

Truth as it currently stands...

posted 12 Jun 2012, 14:42
I make no apologies for the fact this is cut and pasted and not my own words. Sometimes other peoples words echo my thoughts and feelings more eloquently than my own. (Copied/Stolen/Pirated from IWTFY)

You will not remember much from school.

School is designed to teach you how to respond and listen to authority figures in the event of an emergency. Like if there's a bomb in a mall or a fire in an office. It can, apparently, take you more than a decade to learn this. These are not the best days of your life. They are still ahead of you. You will fall in love and have your heart broken in many different, new and interesting ways in college or university (if you go) and you will actually learn things, as at this point, people will believe you have a good chance of obeying authority and surviving, in the event of an emergency. If, in your chosen career path, there are award shows that give out more than ten awards in one night or you have to pay someone to actually take the award home to put on your mantlepiece, then those awards are more than likely designed to make young people in their 20's work very late, for free, for other people. Those people will do their best to convince you that they have value. They don't. Only the things you do have real, lasting value, not the things you get for the things you do. You will, at some point, realise that no trophy loves you as much as you love it, that it cannot pay your bills (even if it increases your salary slightly) and that it won't hold your hand tightly as you say your last words on your deathbed. Only people who love you can do that. If you make art to feel better, make sure it eventually makes you feel better. If it doesn't, stop making it. You will love someone differently, as time passes. If you always expect to feel the same kind of love you felt when you first met someone, you will always be looking for new people to love. Love doesn't fade. It just changes as it grows. It would be boring if it didn't. There is no truly "right" way of writing, painting, being or thinking, only things which have happened before. People who tell you differently are assholes, petrified of change, who should be violently ignored. No philosophy, mantra or piece of advice will hold true for every conceivable situation. "The early bird catches the worm" does not apply to minefields. Perfection only exists in poetry and movies, everyone fights occasionally and no sane person is ever completely sure of anything. Nothing is wrong with any of this. Wisdom does not come from age, wisdom comes from doing things. Be very, very careful of people who call themselves wise, artists, poets or gurus. If you eat well, exercise often and drink enough water, you have a good chance of living a long and happy life. The only time you can really be happy, is right now. There is no other moment that exists that is more important than this one. Do not sacrifice this moment in the hopes of a better one. It is easy to remember all these things when they are being said, it is much harder to remember them when you are stuck in traffic or lying in bed worrying about the next day. If you want to move people, simply tell them the truth. Today, it is rarer than it's ever been.

(People will write things like this on posters (some of the words will be bigger than others) or speak them softly over music as art (pause for effect). The reason this happens is because as a society, we need to self-medicate against apathy and the slow, gradual death that can happen to anyone, should they confuse life with actually living.)

Top Comments

3
SirSeedsAlot52804 • 12 Jun 2012, 15:10
The BlackBerry is the biggest scam pulled on the American worker lol it makes them work 24/7...suckers!!!
2
*CHIROX*3123 • 12 Jun 2012, 14:49
Nice post, words of wisdom.
Teacher comes from the latin 'to bring out from within' which most 'teachers' seem to ignore. They should concentrate more on the arts, dance, music etc in the early years of school rather than indoctrinating the 'obey your superiors' line they seem to adopt. Money is not the be all and end all of a happy and productive life.
2
AhrimanThorn12869 • 12 Jun 2012, 15:43
I agree with every sentiment here (and am guilty of doing many of the things listed here that I should not do) What probably stops us from enjoying life more than anything else, are our preconceived ideas about how we think things should be. Life does not care what we think it should be; it is just going to keep on happening to us right up until the moment we die, so we might as well stop fighting it for control, and start living it.

All Comments

1
TimeBandits15981 • 13 June 2012, 15:00  Show comment
I'm afraid I don't agree with all the above because I learn't quite a lot at school, college & university & frequently rely on that information everyday of my life. I am writing this because I was taught to read & write at school. However I do get the point you're trying to make, I think. I had a little smile at the comment 'violently ignored' though, as I tried to imagine how I would do this? biggrin
2
AhrimanThorn12869 • 12 June 2012, 15:43  Show comment
I agree with every sentiment here (and am guilty of doing many of the things listed here that I should not do) What probably stops us from enjoying life more than anything else, are our preconceived ideas about how we think things should be. Life does not care what we think it should be; it is just going to keep on happening to us right up until the moment we die, so we might as well stop fighting it for control, and start living it.
0
Rgeneb14664 • 12 June 2012, 20:31  Show comment
Should - That word should be banned wink
3
SirSeedsAlot52804 • 12 June 2012, 15:10  Show comment
The BlackBerry is the biggest scam pulled on the American worker lol it makes them work 24/7...suckers!!!
1
magicpotions1211 • 12 June 2012, 15:10  Show comment
Comment is deleted
1
Rgeneb14664 • 12 June 2012, 21:29  Show comment
Sorry about that magic I know I took the easy way out just pasting without commenting.
This piece was taken form a blogger called I Wrote This For You and I check in most days (updates are infrequent) usually to be met with some indecipherable (to me) piece of text or prose poetry but every now and again I am rewarded with the feeling that indeed the piece was written for me alone. That was the case today.
I was great at school, a real clever sod who didnt have to try to hard but I was a solitary boy and didnt make friends easily or, perhaps, even willingly. But ask me now what I learnt, academically I am stumped. I do remember tough times, hard teachers and a respect for authority that was instilled in me. Beyond respect, a fear of authority is what lasted into adulthood. All the things mentioned above, what to do in an emergency for example, are ingrained in us during our formative years. Sure we need to know all this but the feeling I get from this piece is that school and childhood as a whole teaches us how to survive, it doesnt teach us how to live.
This beginning then goes on to today, the strange standards we choose to live by mistakingly thinking they are important. I loved the part about trophies. Next time you see a grammie winner, or an oscar winner on the television and look on in envy remind yourself that they are being paid to take that award away. Takes the mystique and power out of the ultimately worthless trophy. But to extrapolate how many of the achievements that we everyday people strive for are worth the time and effort we put into them? Could we achieve greater happiness with less effort if we just stopped fighting the changes that occur in our lives and accepting what we have right here and now.
And finally that leads to the last point, an old saw to be sure but live in the moment. The moment we are living in right now is truly all we have. The future will almost definitely not be as we would plan it to be and our past can not be changed. Indeed if we accept the moment as the right place to be then our past, good and bad, happy and painful, is what delivered us here to this moment. The only time we can ever be truly happy is NOW. So I believe anyway loveliness
I think that piece said all that, more poetically and humorously than I could ever pull off. But in future I wont take the quick, lazy way out, I'll be sure to comment!
2
*CHIROX*3123 • 12 June 2012, 14:49  Show comment
Nice post, words of wisdom.
Teacher comes from the latin 'to bring out from within' which most 'teachers' seem to ignore. They should concentrate more on the arts, dance, music etc in the early years of school rather than indoctrinating the 'obey your superiors' line they seem to adopt. Money is not the be all and end all of a happy and productive life.
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