Ahhhhh...

Hello, my notorious philistine friends from around the world and the web! For all those that didn't look elsewhere for their blogging fix, I applaud you. For those that left, well I can only hope you come crawling back soon.

Enough about the past, though. I currently have brought myself to be concerned by things that we know to be true, and the things that we learn to know. I don't speak here of book knowledge, bravo to all the folks who love book learning. The type of learning I've been thinking about is more of a trait learning, especially learning those traits that we disbelieve.

I'll use an example to illustrate my point. The other day I was sitting with a firend of mine for tequila and a bite to eat (One without the other is just a shame, a shell and exemplar of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts) and we were discussing realtionships, especially attraction. I was asked a question about who we find attractive and what we can do about it, an without hesitating my response was "We choose who we are attractive to, end of story." This was actually pretty surprising to the both of us, especially my companion, who I'm sure was expecting quite a bit more; honestly I was expecting a bit more.

But that's what it was that's how it is and it summs it up perfectly. I haven't always thought that way. In fact, to be honest I railed against that idea for a very, very long time, but in the end I came around. Not because I wanted to mind you, but because I was forced to, in order to get on with life.

I'm assuming here that our natural inclinations are the primary factors in contentment. The things we did as children, the loves that we've found along the way be they australian rules football, long walks on the beach or a flaming marshmallow: those activities that leave us inspired immediately. Even some of the things we have learned to love, like beer, asparagus and public speaking, I would argue are natural inclinations that have been recently opened to us. I would also call this individual complete, for the things that they aren't engaged in just don't matter for awhile.

We are trained however, to hold more important things dear. I've called this domestication, and here I will call it just plain wrong. Wrong because I will fight anyone who says that an evening in good company is not more valuable than overtime at the office. Wrong because no one can tell me that seeing the foliage isn't superior to watching tv, wrong because in the end we are taught to think that there is fault in the world around us.

Who's idea was it to teach unhappiness? Where in the book of life do we get off being suspicious, or having to scrupulously examine every detail of our decisions until they are nothing more than a cost/benefit analysis? Why did I have to learn to look for features of people, rather than the time I have around them (I say this on behalf of all those who agree with me)?

These are the items I worry about, the beliefs we disbelieve. All of the items what we just can't put down, like worry, like oversimplification, like overcomplexity. All of the instances in which we are taught not to believe our own instincts, to learn the "right" way to think about things. Forget that I say. There are some very basic and known ways in which our minds go wrong, and all people should know and understand what they are. Other than that, our decisions should be guided only by our own notions of what is correct and not.

Rant over. Just be aware of what you are forced to hold by the beliefs that you have. For example, in my little tequila answer I realized that by not trusting my instincts in the matters of love and affection, even in something as trivial as a quick answer, I realized i was also forced to believe other things about myself and the world that I don't really espose either.

Which leaves just a quote: "When it somes to actions and others there is nothing more than meets the eye, but when it comes to ourselves it is everything but that."