Return To Louisiana

As I wrote about last year, I had the opportunity to help my brother and his family move to Louisiana. At the time, I wasn't too impressed with the place. But since I was only there for one full day, I couldn't really reserve the right to judge. This year I was able to go back to Louisiana to visit at the end of October. I was very excited to see my brother and his family and to to get away from the monotony of day-to-day life, but I didn't hold out much hope for liking the South. However, after my vacation was over, I must say I was pleasantly surprised as to how much I liked it down there. Maybe it was because the weather was much more mild in October than it was in August when I was there before. Or maybe it was because I didn't have to help move furniture up two flights of stairs in sweltering heat. Or maybe I just had more time to get a feel for the place. But I would now rate Louisiana as one of my favorite places to visit and I hope to return there to visit again soon.

What is a vacation without pictures? Even though pictures never do a place justice, I took as many as I could just for a small reminder of what it was like. I will now share said pictures with the blogging world.

On the first day I was there my brother, David, took me on a walk around the lake on the Louisiana State University campus. This is the lake and the houses surrounding the lake. It was beautiful if not a bit hot that day. Many of the houses were decorated for Halloween, and boy do they go all out with the Halloween decor. We also saw a huge flock of pelicans out on the lake. If you look closely at the first picture, that white line behind the tree is all pelicans. We also saw quite a few turtles, although David said there weren't as many out as there usually are.

After the lake walk, David took me out to lunch at a burger place that had the most amazing duck-fat-fried french fries. The burgers were also very tasty.

Here is a cute little fountain at an outdoor mall in Baton Rouge.

My brother lives in Baton Rouge, so for one of the days I was there we drove down to New Orleans which is about an hour away. We visited an old above-ground cemetery and then walked around the houses in the Garden District. Once again, notice the amazing Halloween decorations. I was also fascinated by the architecture. I could spend days just wandering around looking at houses. Then it was over to Bourbon Street to explore the shops. There is a real sense of history there, and I feel inspired to learn more about New Orleans. Please ignore my fingers in a few of the shots. I obviously need practice using my camera phone.

We ate lunch in the French Quarter and I had a very delicious jambalaya wrap. (Most of the food I had in Louisiana was very good.) This is David and his beautiful wife, Stephanie.

Stephanie teaches at LSU, and one day she walked me around the campus. I even got to sit in on a couple of her classes. I was very impressed by all of her studies, if not a little humbled by my own ignorance. Here are pictures of Stephanie in here office, the LSU stadium, and the live tiger who is the mascot.

The last day I was there we went to the state capital building. It was more impressive than I thought it would be. Very large and important looking. We rode the elevator up to the top where you could have a very nice view of Baton Rouge.

So those are the highlights of my trip. I miss being there already, and I hope I can return again soon and bring Mike along with me.

Make Way For Emotions

Tomorrow is my birthday! I don't generally get too excited about my birthday anymore, but it is nice to have day where people wish you well and think of you. And then, of course, there is my wonderful husband who always manages to make me feel very special and loved on my birthday.

Shortly after my birthday I will be leaving for the land of the south to visit my brother and his family. I am looking forward to getting a break from the craziness of work and experiencing new things. But there are always challenges that come along with travel. The logistics never seem to work out like you think they will, and, at least for me, emotions can run high from so many changes to schedule and strange surroundings.

Speaking of emotions, I have been contemplating how big a role emotions play in human life. I think we like to think that we are rational creatures most of the time. But I think, more often than not, we let our emotions get the better of us. That can be fine sometimes, but it is not always a good thing. Think of a time when you got in a heated argument and you got so mad that you said hurtful things. Or a time when you just had to have that new item only to get it home and regret spending your money a few days later. Maybe you were having a bad day and you were rude to someone at work only to find out later that the person you were rude to is your new boss. Perhaps you hold onto objects that remind you of special people or experiences, just to have your present life ruined by overwhelming clutter. You could be so sad about the death of your dog that you forget about your other dog who still needs your love and attention.

There are many ways we can let emotions get the better of us, and usually it doesn't do too much damage. But just like anything in life, an excess can be detrimental. Let the clutter build up and you have an unsafe and unhealthy living environment. Buy too many useless items and you run out of money to do the things you really want to do. Neglect your living pet and you run the risk of having them taken away. Say too many hurtful things and you might damage a relationship beyond repair.

There is nothing wrong with being an emotional person. But unless you learn to control them a bit, you may end up with some big problems on your hands. I am definitely not immune to emotional damage. I just tend to hide it better because of my introverted personality. However, I have found that it helps to step away from the situation, if possible, and let the emotions dissipate some. Take the time to set the emotions aside and think rationally about a situation, and you may just save yourself a lot of heartache.

Jars of Hearts

Sometimes I wish I could put a particular feeling in a jar and save a little of it for later. Like a snack that you can enjoy when you want it most. I remember generally how I felt at certain times in my life. I remember the happiness on my wedding day. I remember the freedom of my childhood. I remember laying on a blanket and looking at the stars. I remember the tranquility from a hike in the mountains. I remember the awe of holding a newborn baby.

But these feelings can be all too fleeting. Before you know it they are past, and all you are left with is an ever-fading memory. Some feelings and experiences you can try to re-create. You can go hiking frequently. You can look at the stars whenever you can. You can do a vowel renewal with your spouse. But often, the original feeling can never be duplicated. It's like emotions are as beautiful and precious, yet as fragile as a bubble. Here one second, and gone the next.

I have found that the closest thing to preserving feelings in jars, is exposure to art. I can listen to a song and feel something I had forgotten about. I can look at a beautiful painting and be reminded of a summer when I was young. I can watch a movie and be moved to the point of tears. I can read a story and be transported to a place where I was long ago.

Once in a while I get really morose about the end of really wonderful feelings. But maybe it is better this way. If we could bottle up our feelings and save them for later, we might just all go around as emotional wreaks. Or we may never go out again. Hording our precious memories. Never knowing that we had yet to taste the sweetest ones.

Inequality For All

The weather has been cooling off a little and there has been a lot of rainstorms lately, so I am getting kind of excited for Autumn to come around. It's this time of year that working at a clothing store is probably not the best thing for me because I love the Fall clothing. Give me boots, sweaters and skinny jeans any day over bathing suits and shorts. There is just something comforting about a cozy outfit, and I also love the Fall clothing colors like reds, browns, and burnt oranges.

I have often heard people mention that if someone doesn't like where they are in life, or want to reach a goal in their life, they need only to work their way toward it with everything they have and if they don't accomplish what they wanted to, it is probably their own fault or it wasn't meant to be. There seems to be a general belief that all people come into this world on equal terms, or if not, they can level the playing field with their actions.

This is true to some extent. A person who works hard to get a job probably has more chance of getting it than someone who doesn't try at all. Someone who was born poor and made a lot of money later on probably worked really hard to do that. If you go on dating websites and work toward meeting new people, I bet you are more likely to get married than someone who doesn't bother. But it is my firm belief that hard work doesn't always make the difference, and people are never equal not matter how we try to make it so.

Consider someone who is born with great beauty compared to someone who is born with a horrible disfigurement. No matter how the disfigured person tries, they will never look like the beautiful person, and will never be afforded the privileges that come with good looks. Now this disfigured person may work really hard and become a wealthy leader, and they may even get plastic surgery so they look more attractive, but does that make them equal to the beautiful person? No. It only means that they had to work harder to get a tiny bit of what the beautiful was born with, with no guarantee that it would even pay off.

I use beauty as an example, but of course beauty does not always mean you will have an easier or more successful life. It is only another variable in the infinite number of qualities that make us UNEQUAL. It is only easier to study because it is visible. But what about our invisible qualities? Our temperament? Our mental state? Our health? Our feelings? Even when we concede that people are not equal, we STILL tend to judge them on the visible and forget about the invisible. For example, you may see a homeless person and think, "Why doesn't he get a job? He looks healthy and he is not ugly. Getting a job can't be much harder than standing on the corner all day begging for money." But what do you really know about this man? Maybe he was born with a mental illness. Maybe he has chronic pain. Maybe he had several close family members and friends die. Maybe every time he tired to make a new start in his life, something terrible happened to bring him back down. You really know nothing, yet you judge.

The judgement of a homeless man may not be an everyday occurrence for you, but we judge everyone around us on a daily basis without knowing much at all. You think things like, "Why did that person cut me off in traffic? He must be an idiot. Why doesn't my friend do a better job at work? He must not be trying hard enough. Why doesn't my friend go to school? She must be lazy. Why did my mom treat me so badly? She must not love me."

The sad truth is that we make all these secret judgments when outwardly we are saying we need to celebrate each other's differences and embrace them for who they are. I think that the only way we can really accomplish this is to be understanding and accepting of others no matter who they are or what they have done. Give a kind word and some food to the homeless person. Smile at the person who cut you off in traffic. Support your friends through all stages of their lives. Love unconditionally.

It may be easier to judge than to love and accept. However, if you are judgmental, tread lightly, for you may not like it so much when it comes back around.

Ridiculous Religousness

I have never had a problem with people who are religious or spiritual in nature. In fact, some of those people can be the most loving, kind-hearted, wonderful people in the world. What I do have a problem with is people who accept their religion unconditionally without any thought into alternative beliefs.

I get it to some degree. You are raised in a religion, or you have a really good feeling about a belief, or it just feels "right". Feelings are not something to be taken lightly or easily discounted. Feelings can lead to a lot of important discovers about yourself and other people and life in general. The thing that I have a problem with is when people discount all other religions and believe that their way of doing things is the only "right" way. This really bothers me because who is to say what religion is right or wrong?

When asked how they know their religion is right, some people will say that they prayed about it and they had a good feeling about it, or God told them directly that it was the right religion. Well guess what? Billions of other people belonging to countless other religions have done the exact same thing and gotten the exact same answer that THEIR religion is right. It is pompous and ignorant to think that only a tiny fraction of these people got the correct answer.

So how do we know what religion to follow? The short answer is that we don't. I don't think anyone can know for sure that their religion is the best or true or ultimate religion. How can you know that you wouldn't have been a Buddhist or Hindu or Christian if you were born in a different time or place? I think the closest we can come to some sort of enlightenment is to explore every religion and people that you possibly can and try to gain an understanding of why each one believes and practices as they do. Only then can we clearly accept or reject these ideas.

Of course it is impossible to study every single religion in depth, which is why it bothers me so much when people reject all other religions. How can you know it is wrong if you don't even know what it is? Embrace your own religion and live according to its laws if you must, but do not reject others way of living simply because you do not understand it.

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

I admit I am the type of person to stick with what I know. Sure I will try a new food here or there or watch a new movie. But overall, I don't like going out and making big changes in my life. I don't sign up for things that require a big commitment, and I don't get involved in complicated issues. I play it safe and stick to my routine, and that makes me happy. But does it really?

You always hear people say how you only have one life, so you should make the most of it. But then you get bogged down by the daily grind and you think that because nothing really horrible is happening, you are living a good life. But is not taking risks and only surviving one day to the next really a good life? It's like spending your entire life in a waiting room only to say at the end, "At least I didn't have to hear any bad news from the doctor." But what if the news would have been good?! Or what if there wasn't a doctor at all on the other side of the door, but another amazing world yet to be discovered? Of course that is a stretch, but how are you to know what lies beyond closed doors and different choices?

What I am trying to say in a round-about way is that if you never take chances, you may never know the true joy and wonder that life can bring. Sure there is a very real chance of failure and sorrow, but isn't that a risk worth taking for a more fulfilling life? Would you rather have a story to tell at the end of your life, or a regret and emptiness? I, for one, would like the latter. Now I just need to gather my courage for venturing out.

Natural Selection

Most rational people these days accept natural selection as a sound scientific theory. But one thing I have always wondered about is what happens when humans intervene with natural selection? Humans can often control which species survive and even decide how they will look, grow, and act. But is this a wise thing to do? We may think there is no harm in creating chickens with larger breasts, or plants that grow faster and with less water, or pigs that are almost identical in color, shape, and size. (All of these examples, by the way, are things that really exist.) However, we can not always know the consequences for hundreds or even thousands of years, and the consequences we do know about are not always favorable. The pigs have to be isolated from any kind of germs because their immunity is so weak that even the slightest contaminant will kill them. The trees that grow super fast produce poor quality wood that is almost useless. Genetically altered animals everywhere are popping up with unusual afflictions and problems.

Plants and animals are one thing. But what about our affect on the natural selection of humans? Certainly human life is precious and no one wants to think about someone they love being the weak link in the chain. But if you think about it, there really is little room left for natural selection in humans. Babies that would have died at birth in the past now live very long lives. Diseases that would have killed millions are now being eradicated. While these are wonderful advances, I can't help but wonder what their effect will be down the road. Will people lose their immunity from being so protected from disease? Will we become less intelligent by making everything so simple for our children? Will we develop new disorders from preventing others?

Obviously there are no easy answers to these questions. We cannot simply let babies die or do nothing about disease. We can't be expected to go about things the hard way just because there might be some far-off consequences to the simple way. We can, however, think, consider, visualize, judge, postulate, and project before we make decisions that my affect the future of mankind.