Worth While

January is such a cold grey month that it makes me want to burrow under the covers and hibernate there until winter is over. I don't know if it is just me, but I seem to get so cold sometimes that it is all I can do to function on a basic level. I don't have oodles of money to be able to keep my thermostat at a toasty level, so most days when I am not working I simply wrap up in a blanket, hunker down, and ride it out. I'm not complaining so much as wondering how our forefathers did it. When your survival depended on getting up and making a fire, and feeding the farm animals, and caring for your family and your house, you had no choice but to get out of bed and do it. I wonder if I am a soft and flimsy product of human breeding, or if I could rise to the occasion when presented with the challenge. In either case I am not likely to find out unless I suddenly decide to take up farming in the middle of nowhere with no modern conveniences.

I recently saw some comments online in which people where arguing about the cost of getting celebrity autographs and pictures. One person was complaining that it was way too expensive and said he would never pay for it. Then he implied that other people would be stupid pay the asking price. Here is what I think about the subject. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, value is also in the eye of the beholder. I don't condemn anyone who sees more value in an object than I do because to that person the value of the object or service is so high that it almost doesn't matter what the price is. It becomes less about the money and more about the happiness that the objects brings.

I learned about different values of the same object when I saw a man on t.v. who was a hoarder. He had a love for cooking implements that would make him seem crazy to most people. When a counselor asked the man to picture another person owning and using one of his pots, his actually got very emotional.

This is an extreme example, and obviously it is not healthy to become so attached to objects that your house becomes filled with them, or you spend all your money acquiring them, or they disrupt your relationships with other people. But it is an example of how much happiness a person can get from an object. As long as it is not doing any harm, why judge what makes others happy? Possessions may not be the most important thing in life, but they sure can make it a little more bright. So why deny others their delights just because they are worthless to you?

Arguing With Myself

Happy New Year everyone! I must admit that the New Year is not a holiday I usually celebrate a whole lot, but I do like that is seen as a time of new beginnings and bettering yourself. I am always trying to be a better person, so New Years Day is not so special to me personally. However, it does make me happy that other people find meaning and motivation in the start of the new year.

Speaking of motivation, I recently realized that it is almost impossible to motivate myself to do something I really don't want to do. I wanted to write about this not because I feel like it is something I can change, but because I wonder how common it is. Is it like tickling yourself - other people can do it to you but you can't do it to yourself?

Take exercise for example. If I had planned on a regular exercise schedule, if the time comes for me to actually do it and I don't feel like it, no amount of persuasion from myself will make me change my mind. I can't bribe myself with rewards or tell myself, "You need to do this if you don't want to get fat." or "It will only take a short time and then you will feel accomplished." I just won't listen to myself!

It's a different story if other people try to influence me, though. I won't say it always works, but I am way more likely to do something for someone I care about than I am for myself. I wonder why that is? Am I more influenced by external factors than internal factors? Is that a bad thing?

I'm not saying I never set goals or try to get myself to do hard things. I do a lot of things that I am not too keen on doing. But I always know I can never fool myself into changing my mind, or bribe myself into doing something, or argue with myself over something I am already dead-set on. I suppose I just know my limits.