moment of truth

It's universal, you play with fire it may hurt you
or burn you, lessons are blessings you should learn through
Let's face facts, although MC's lace tracks
it doesn't mean behind the scenes there ain't no dirt to trace back
That goes for all of us, there ain't nobody to trust
It's like sabotage, it's got me ready to bust...

But just as you'll receive what is comin' to you
Everybody else is gonna get theirs too
I ain't no saint, therefore I cannot dispute
That everyone must meet their moment of truth

Actions have reactions, don't be quick to judge
You may not know the hardships people don't speak of
It's best to step back, and observe with couth
For we all must meet our moment of truth

-Gangstarr, Moment of Truth

percolating thoughts (#10)

['Percolating thoughts' is an on-going collection of quotes I have found and gained wisdom from.  These are the ones that I've recently discovered and that I'm currently sitting with and reflecting on...]

"Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning."
-paraphrased idea of Viktor Frankl

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."
-Viktor Frankl

"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn."
-Hal Borland

"If you hate injustice, tyranny, lust and greed, hate these things in yourself."
-Mahatma Ghandi

“The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.”
-Meister Eckhart

worth

amy said,
"we care what people think of us, even as children we do."

yeah, i thought. we do.
we were built that way.
to have someone tell us who we are.

what if i lose that?
or rather, if i change
does my worth change?
i was never like this before, ya know.
splotches.
stains.
yuck.
i'm doing my best to let you wash me.
zeal and passion misplaced.
Time thrown away.

i'm ready for you to come and find me.
i'll be right here waiting.
to be found.

change blindness

In any given setting, we choose what's important to remember about our surroundings.  When details we don't think are important change, we often don't notice.  Up to 75% of the time, people don't notice a change to something the believe is unimportant.  I'm a fairly observant person, but it makes me wonder what things have changed in my everyday life while I've been unaware.

to love a person, place

This is from Kathleen Dean Moore's book The Pine Island Paradox.

In one chapter she reflects on these questions, What does it mean to love a person?  What does it mean to love a place?  And she answers the questions thus: "it means at least this: 1. to want to be near it, physically.  2. to want to know everything about it - its story, its mood, what it looks like by moonlight.  3. to rejoice in the fact of it.  4. to fear its loss, and grieve for its injuries.  5. to protect it - fiercely, mindlessly, futilely, and maybe even tragically, but to be helpless to do otherwise.  6. to be transformed in its presence - lifted, lighter on your feet, transparent, open to everything beautiful and new.  7. to want to be joined with it, taken in by it, lost in it.  8. to want the best for it.  9. desperately, and 10. to take responsibility for its well-being."

Dunbar's number

I recently listened to an NPR piece on Dunbar's number.  Essentially Dunbar's number is the number 150, and it represents the number of stable social relationships we can maintain.  For example, when companies have over 150 employees, employees no longer know everyone and can remember them by name.  This is also the number at which smaller hunter-gatherer societies max out, and so on.

When we live and/or work in communities larger than 150 people, there are social consequences.  Listen to the 5 minute NPR piece.  Very interesting!