Insidious Adaptation

There seems to be a culture of underlying corruption, one of questions more than answers. Really, is all one has to do to corrupt or detangle another's beliefs is question. Is all the serpent did with Eve was question whether or not God meant this tree, this one right here? This little guy? It's a simple rubbing of a sweater that causes a bare thread to pop out and then a simple tug from it's owner that causes the entire piece to go to into the garbage real quick.  Lies and deceit are not as apparent as we would like them to be. Instead, for I love the use of my favorite word ever, they are, insidious. Yes, lies are sneaky little comments, jabs, questions, that to a person not very strong in their convictions tend to waver, fall, look back and be like, "whoa, that was quick." In reality, things are not as much a surprise until we look back at themt. On Netflix there is a docuseries (new word for the dictionary) about the 90's. I found it kind of funny...

"So then you are choosing to suffer?" "No, I am not choosing to suffer, but I do suffer." "Well, that is a choice is it not? Suffering is about how we interpret, through choice, our environment and the circumstances instances we experience." "I guess" "So then, the suffering you experience is based on choice." "Maybe..." Double-click for suffering.  On an unexpectedly warm autumn day, the air conditioning inside my office is particularly frigid, thus the interaction between extreme heat and extreme cool condenses on any surface flexible with the temperature, my client looks at me with a blank stare. "So, how's your week been?" "Good." He does this. He comes to see me, yet, refuses to willingly give up information. Sometimes I feel like some kind of private investigator, having to snoop around the obvious to get client to subconsciously tell me something to grab on to. "Yea, t...

Chameleons, are in fact, Chameleons. Not in what they are but in how they are a point of reference, an oftentimes derogatory one at that. "I was a chameleon." - A client in reference to mimicking behaviors. The same ones that interfered with his ability to grow as his own person. Chameleons are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. These species come in a range of colors, and many species have the ability to change color.- Wikipedia circa 2018 What happens when what was originally meant to be an adaptive behavior, for we all adapt, turns into loss of self? When exactly is the threshold where a man, loses himself, takes on the qualities of the environment, and then suffers due to inauthenticity? If we all adapt and grow, then wouldn't being a chameleon, be a natural thing, like a good natural thing? There is a line that we all cross sometimes where an efficient behavior turns into a troubled one...

Never have I ever sat in my house, listening to the latest beats, raised my hands, and start jumping around the living room, repeating the words that I knew of the chorus. Never, have I felt the need to get intoxicated to the point of not remembering anything while sitting at my kitchen table, eating stale popcorn from the day before. Never have I contemplated breaking a guys face while laying in bed at night prior to sleep. Never have I done these things, for they are absurd. Absurd only in context however. Absurd because there is nobody there. In all instances the thought never even crossed my mind to do any of those things, because by oneself, they make absolutely no sense. Even a few evenings in the early 20's I recall looking up to see myself reflected back from the mirrors on the dance floor of a local bar. I recall thinking, even in whatever state of mind I was in at the time, this is weird . Now, I can only imagine those same abrupt moves in my living room, sober, at 11AM...

It is the hopeless that need hope, for the optimists have it all figured out right? Like, would we listen to those who maintain a positive regard? Would we want a song about love, where everything worked out, the happy ending, the positive self getting all the stuff they ever wanted? Boring. That isn't worthy of our time. We need pain. We need to feel something and happiness is taken for granted. Get in touch with your spirituality, the fact that life here is temporary and that there is only room for love, removes a lot of pain. Unfortunately, art without pain, without sacrifice, is shallow. Optimism, positivity, they are good for self-help books, but for the real sellers, we need to have us some discomfort. There is hope in Jesus, he died for us after all. The original superhero, for no other Marvel Character did what he did, even in their fictional tales. We no longer live in the pain of death, we are now saved. Say that again using logic. It is as logical as the sun settin...

Risk it all, for the likelihood of getting caught is small, right? What drives a man to even ask? Is it God, his principals, long-standing beliefs he would die for? Is it a self-sacrifice where the whims of desire fall short to convictions? Or, is he driven strictly by selfish desires, fueling the mind to feast on something that it was never meant to. Lust doesn't always look like this... This isn’t to say that good men don’t have wandering eyes or minds, but that they become aware and know where that goes. The good men are humble enough to admit fault and do something about it. The good men are able to understand that it is painful and a lot of work to stay convicted and live according to these principles, however it is everything they stand for and to give in, means giving in on self. A man without his beliefs is nothing at all. It isn’t the wandering, nor is it the environment, but the possibility that lingers. Looking at a woman on a magazine cover, beautiful, sultry, pre...

The chemistry of fat is that of a carbon chain, up to 24, with Hydrogen attached. Saturated fats mean that all the Carbon elements are attached to each other with a single bond and the element is, "saturated" with Hydrogen. This is different than, mono, or poly unsaturated fats  in which, in one location (mono) there is a carbon to carbon double bond and a lack of hydrogen, or multiple areas, (poly) where this same thing occurs. Click Here for a whole bunch of info. The difference in each of these chemical structures isn't the elements involved, but the amount and strength of bonds that are involved that makes the difference. Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, in their elemental forms are the basis for all organic material and are not poisonous. However, in the right concentration or combination, kill a human with ease. The carbon to carbon bond, when the valence electrons combine with the nearest carbon in a chain of them rather than a hydrogen, does a completely different t...

The mist blows from across the lake. The sun's rays sparkling each particle as though the dust of diamonds has been scattered in the air, an abundance of shimmer. The ends of the lake wavering on the beach as though their defined line of wear is a clear boarder. The trees as a backdrop, numerous, a thick plethora of green and brown filling in their own gaps. The brush below is hard to determine where one ends and another begins, all to much to be significant, too picturesque to be identified. The mind makes sense of this nonsense. The mind takes in the scene, it's beauty, and without effort interprets into a feeling. The mind is capable of so much more, so much in fact, that the scene, her landscape, and what she presents through her natural beauty, the accumulation of organisms of all sorts, is mostly a blur, for you might not have noticed the detail if I hadn't brought it into your mind. Instead you might be consumed with a problem at work, or pain in your gut, for th...

On my way home the other day, after a day of interaction, paperwork, daily occurrences that tend to wear a person down, my mind wanting to disconnect from reality, decides to latch on to something extreme. As I was driving past an old, now-abandoned storefront, I noticed something peculiar. I saw a row of 6-7 police SUVs all lined up, some with hoods ajar, others just parked. At first I thought, Huh, wonder why those are there, is that a new police station? After a few more microseconds, my mind, free to do as it wants, went to, With all those SUVs there, isn't that a liability? From here, the fuse was lit, the reflection of sun in my eyes no longer the priority, and quickly I thought of lighting the SUVs on fire! Ah yes, that would stir up some talk around here. For this was an immediate thought post-lighting. Like a mackalov cocktail thrown from across the street at 3AM, igniting one, and like dominos one explodes causing the others to follow.  What a scene this would be. I thi...

That look, a reminder of a former self, a self that was better than this version now. That man I used to be, he was so much better than me now. He was muscular and cool, though he didn't see it at the time. This man gets brought back up whenever he is reminded of the superficial presentation of others he used to be, "in the mix" with. 5 years ago! That man, that front of a person, for he lacked anything real, he is exactly as I remember him, anything anyone else liked. He was a ghost, a mirage, giving everybody everything they ever wanted, at the cost of him. This was not noble, or, "nice" it was for selfish gain, for you to like him and gather admiration. Even a cloud or fog finds resistance to an airplane to vehicle passing through. He wasn't valuable, but was merely Santa's bag, giving the kids whatever they asked for. His own wealth put off, converted to a currency of here and now, that same "now," that is over, with no lasting benef...

"Well, he needs to do what is asked of him." "He needs to start talking about these things." "He needs to see his situation for what it is." "He cannot just sit there doing nothing." What is it that HE is trying to do? See, as humans we have this ability to communicate with one another, an ability that we take a little too far from time to time. Yes, we have lived a life of experience altering what we see as right and wrong, efficient or not, but it is not the life someone else lived, therefore doing what they need to do for them. I presented on people understanding context recently, for there I refer to the back story being a significant indicator of why or how people did whatever they did. Now however, I want to look at how people interact and try to alter, interfere, change for the better even, the lives of other. Whether you are a parent, a friend, a spouse, a family member, a complete stranger that simply notices the same poor be...

Me, me, me.... The guy hit the girl. She stole from him. The dog bit the boy. He wrote a self-indulgent blog post. All phrases, very true, very real, and whatever follows, deserves to happen. However, what if instead of just the punchline of the story is presented, we hear a little more about the beginning? What if instead we take into context the entirety of the situation prior to making any judgements on jumping to the end? For the first phrase, let us look at the entire dynamics of the relationship of the guy and girl. Do they argue a lot, are they in a relationship, do they know each other at all, what were they doing for this thing to happen? Looking not just in what the man did because that one seems to have presented itself already, but in what she did too. After all, though abuse happens both ways, there is typically some situation, some underlying thing that needs to be understood to get the entire picture. "Are you justifying abuse?" An emotionally-d...