No Mistakes

 When we are kids, I don't think most of us give much thought to making mistakes.  If it isn't a terribly bad mistake (and let's face it, most childhood mistakes are not serious), then we just brush it off and move on.  It's when we move into adulthood  the stakes become higher, and the consequences more serious.  

Suddenly, we are "legal" and we can be arrested for mistakes.  They can cause serious physical and mental pain, and cost us dearly in loss of money.  Also, most adults don't have a caretaker like children do, so there is not that extra set of eyes to see when a mistake is likely to happen.  Of course we need laws and consequences to keep people safe.  However, this idea that we need to make mistakes to learn from them is suspect, in my opinion.

I hear so many people these days saying that it is good to make mistakes because we learn from them and thus become better people.  While I do believe that much can be learned from mistakes, I also think we are an intelligent species, and we don't necessarily need to make mistakes to learn things.

Think about it.  Do you need to be badly burned to learn that fire is dangerous?  Do you need to be homeless to learn how to get a home?  Do you need to have a heart attack to find out that eating bad food and smoking is not good for you?  Is it required for you to get into a car accident to find out that seatbelts are beneficial?  NO!  Of course not!  We can learn without experiencing.  It's called SCHOOL.

Sometimes experiences are helpful, or even necessary to learn something.  But most of our learning can be done without putting ourselves in serious danger.  In fact, we can learn many many things, just sitting on our couch on our laptop.  Imagine that?

I've had a fear of making mistakes most of my life, and I don't think there is not a reason for that.  I have been hurt, embarrassed, and cheated enough times to know that I don't want to make the mistakes that cause those things.  And why should I, if it can be avoided?

Mistakes may play some role in our lives, but I don't think they are as important as many people make them out to be.  As for me, I am perfectly happy making as few mistakes as possible.

Living Life

 As we come to over a year since the pandemic first started, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.  There are many people getting vaccinated and many public places are loosening their restrictions on face coverings.  This is all to be taken with a grain of salt, however, because many experts are still saying this is far from over.  There are new varients of the virus, which are more contagious, and it it is still unclear if the vaccine will protect against those.  Also, there are many people who, for whatever reason, still don't want to get vaccinated.  So I look hopefully towards the future, but still stand at the ready for further trouble.

I appologize for the long delay since my last post.  I guess you could say I had a drought of ideas, and only today have I thought of one of interest enough to me to bother writing about.  

I greatly dislike the saying, "Live each day as if it's your last".  I understand the sentiment behind it, and I agree that life should not be wasted.  But I find several problems with it, the first being that if you lived that way, you wouldn't get much accomplished.  Think about what you would want your last day on earth to be like.  I don't think many people would choose to go to school or work as usual, have sub-par food, and end the day with a boring t.v. show.  You would probably want to do something memorable like have a party, go somewhere beautiful or exciting, or doing something you love.  However, it is not practical to do things like  this every day.  Life is a combination of mundane tasks and pleasant moments.  There is no way to elimiate the mundane and still accomplish anything worthwhile.  The best you can do is try to have more good times than bad.

Now maybe when people say, "Live each day as if it's your last" they they don't mean it so literally .  Ok, well that still doesn't work for me.  If you are living that way, you are probably thinking a lot about death.  It is my theory that most people ignore the thought of death 99% of the time, because if they did think about it frequently, they would be very depressed.  Thus defeating the whole purpose of living a happy life.  I know there are those who can think of their own demise without much aggitation.  But, for the vast majority, I think those thoughts are not helpful.

I have heard of people who have had near-death experiences, and some say it is so wonderful on the other side that you would be begging to go there if you knew what it is like.  Where, then, does that leave the living?  Deeply unhappy because they can't yet have what they long for?  Unable to find purpose in life knowing that what waits on the other side is so much better?  I'm not here to debate the existence or non-existence of an afterlife.  I just think that it would leave most people in a precarious position if they felt caught between one world and the next.

For me, taking pleasure in the little things, helping others, working hard, learning, loving, and not dwelling too much on the past or future is the way to go.  It may not be a perfect philosophy, but I don't think there is one.  My hope for you is that you find what works for you, and when the end comes you are content with what your life has been.

Relocation Admiration

 Here we are one year into a pandemic, and I never could have imagined how this all would change our lives so profoundly.  There is hope on the horizon, however.  A vaccine has been developed in record time, and it is being administered as quickly as possible.  But, the trauma will still be there forever.  Millions of people have died or lost loved-ones.  Doctors have been pushed to their limits.  Riots and protests have become commonplace.  Everyone has had to quarantine, many have lost their jobs, and everyone's lives have been profoundly changed forever.  Let us all pray for healing and better days ahead.

Now on to the topic of this post.  I am often very interested in the reasons people move far away and stay in certain places.  Lots of people move for a job opportunity, and from what I can tell, that seems to be the main reason someone moves out of state or out of the country.  Still, many others move just because they want to be with a friend or lover, go to school somewhere, or they just want to experience a different place.

Not being a very brave person myself, I am often awed by those who make a big move and a new life for themselves.  Aside from the difficulty of just getting all your stuff to the new place, there are so many other challenges.  You have to register your kids for school if you have kids.  You have to learn how to find your way around the new place.  You have to start a new job or a new school.  You have to meet new people and find new friends.  You have to find the right stores where you want to shop.  You have to get your car registered and get a new drivers licence.  Also, if you move to a place dramaticallly different from what you are used to, you have to adjust to a new culture.  It all seems so overwhelming to me.

I suppose it isn't very stressful for some people.  Others are probably stressed, but they still take the leap.  I don't know if I could even do that.  Then again, I guess you never know until you try.  For now I will just marval at those who have the guts to try, and listen with great interest to their stories.