Your Alien Brother from Another Mother

Tag: truth

  • Making Sense of the Pareto Principle

    The Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule, where 20% owns 80% of the wealth. The idea in itself was supposedly applicable in other areas like efficiency, where 80% of the output comes from 20% of the workers.

    While this is applicable to certain scenarios, using it as a catch all can be detrimental. My though about this is, in this world we were meant to serve each other and the higher up we are in the chain, then we have a bigger role to play. To be called “vital” should not be self serving rather it should serve the interest of the people. The world really isn’t in an ideal place right now, arguably people shift things towards their advantage. In this world, certain things are needed in order to move things properly and accordingly, this hurts because often times the interest of one view does not justify the interest of other another’s view. This is similar to what I wrote about earlier in the “Trolley Problem“. The “vital few” often times need to take care of the own tribe first which can be contradicting to the bigger picture. Power and control also play a part, because often we can be persuaded by different things depending on the situation that we are in.

    What happens if we are on the other side of the Pareto principle. Do we just stay still and wait until the 20% dictates what should be done? Maybe yes, if we believe in them even if it complicates all the things in our lives. Maybe no, if we want to move on our own way. In life there are certain boundaries, and we don’t necessarily have the means to cross those boundaries, I mean chance happens to all of us after-all. I think what matters is what we do with what we have, it doesn’t mean we don’t try to broaden our horizons, rather it just means that we hold on to the 20% so that we could better serve the 80%.

  • Reconciling Destiny

    The thought of destiny can be very beautiful, the thought that we somehow we are meant to be where we are. Is it a random chance? Is it so that we can enjoy life as is? If that is the case, how much control do we really have? What if we were born in the slums or a child from a poor family much more an orphan? Is it still destiny?

    Suffering is usually caused by our own mistakes and/or the actions of other people imposed on us, I mean no one wants to suffer right? In life, we don’t need much, if we have clean water, food and shelter then we are good. It is might not be much of a life, but we are living and we could work our way up towards something better so long as we have a choice and say on it. The problem is when we don’t have a say or we are limited by situations, it maybe economic, skills, circumstance or access. The problem lies in the part where people impose or force us to move a certain direction I think suffering is part of discontentment of people. Either we think things are unfair, unjust or we think lowly of other people.

    I struggled and wrestled with the idea of the unfairness of things, I couldn’t think clearly on how I would react if I was in the direst of situations. I mean would you blame an orphan about their current situation, and about not doing enough so he/she could get out of his/her situation? Rather we shift the narrative towards ourselves, our own control on things, how can I help, how can we create an environment that help foster a culture of uplifting. Often times we find ourselves powerless and lacking in options even when the intentions are there. Do we just move along and accept that we cannot do anything about things? Of course not instead we take charge of what we can do on our own and progress in our own ways, like joining a group, volunteering, making donations, etc..

    So what do you tell an orphan about destiny, I think the right answer is to be prepared. Foster that orphan and tell that orphan that it was destiny that lead you to me. Because something has tugged my heart strings to move in order for me to bring you home. I won’t have all the answers and I can’t save all orphans, but I can at least do one small thing in the hopes that others would follow.

  • Believing in Magic and the Supernatural

    If you saw something magical/out of this world and failed to capture it either with video or camera. How do you share it with others? What if it is just a situation like a small drop of rain out of no where, when there is no drizzle or no other source of water in sight. What if God suddenly wants juice while speaking Italian. Outrageous as it may seem certain things cannot be put into words without sounding cuckoo. While thinking about it, I figured you either need to talk with someone wanting to humor you, has a certain level of knowledge or interest in the matter, or have a certain degree of relationship or trust.

    It is almost impossible to believe given how things are now. Logic will counter magic any time. There are a lot of ways to do that, like straw-manning. Maybe humoring someone and sticking out until you know someone well enough is the only way to believe. Yet that is still not true, since what they say might not fall the same way for that person or certain situations could cause them to sway towards the opposing view. It is easy to discredit someone about magic, just say its natural and be done with right? Once we know everything about something then there is nothing to it anymore, no mystery and nothing to talk about. It becomes stale and not interesting anymore. Life can be like that sometimes, once you see all the things that life has to offer then there is nothing to it anymore right. Magic can only happen when we willingly go through the process with little to no expectation. It creates space for the spirit of the unknown to move. Instead of us all moving in different directions. Believing in magic is like being a child that is still at home, trusting in everything that their parent says. Until we step out and see the real things behind those stories. What do we then if we get hold of the truth? Do we then use that magic to reveal or do we keep it at the back of our minds that way the magic isn’t loss?

    Magic is something that was hard for me to believe in. Until we see incredible supernatural things, we settle on the shallow parts of magic without getting to the truth behind it. Yes, innocence plays a part but tricky part is remaining to be innocent while knowing the truth behind it all.

  • Knowing Someone When They Refuse to be Known

    We all hide behind walls, this is especially true in the day and age of the internet. Identity and hiding behind anonymity gives an edge, much like not showing cards during a poker game, we can bluff, lie and even lead someone on. Although, the knowing that I am talking about here is different, it is when we simply refuse to show our true selves.

    It is funny that we often hide ourselves in our emotions. Emotions are for sure part of our personality, but it rarely is who we really are. Think about it, when we speak with someone in anger, what shows up is the spirit of anger. We convey things in a fiery manner and utter words that we come to regret later, but what if we come to a conclusion that anger is part of our personality. It becomes deeply ingrained that we don’t even notice it. It becomes a justification, that creates a different persona from who we are normally. Severing the connection from our higher self, the one that sees everything from a wider view.

    Conversation happens two ways, its either we keep a higher trail of thought or we devolve into the same level as the other. Like water trickling down, we fill conversations with thoughts that helps the discourse to bloom into a meaningful garden of words. It tries to link both head and heart together so we could speak freely and openly about things that satisfies our needs. It gives and it takes, so we do not feel taken advantaged of and we do not feel heavy afterwards. To be lifted up instead of being brought down.

    Though as I was thinking through this, I realized that sometimes we also need to go down to the same level in a conversation. A heated discussion can bring out deeper thoughts and concerns that normally won’t happen in a objective talk. Balancing out the fire with an arbiter and or rules can probably help us create a healthy space to speak out. However, this depends both people respect the rules and bind themselves to them.

    Overall, hiding oneself is a defense mechanism… We just need to learn how to uncover, hidden things or concerns that we have. Being direct requires trust and a certain degree of understanding, knowing who you are speaking with and being attune to certain realities can help build either a beautiful garden or a cold chat.

  • The Other World the Counter to Nihilism

    There is currently a common thought nowadays of living dead or people that are alive but are dead in some way shape or form. The idea is leads me to think of how a nihilistic person would view the world today.

    Imagine you have a dream, simple yet true and readily achievable, however for some reason, you are unable to push through with it, as if stuck in a rut as all your options slowly dwindle down. Creeping like darkness in dusk, then finally you are in the middle of that abyss with just a lamp as your source of light. Nothing left, except a lamp to comfort you since without it you will be forced to journey in pitch black nothingness with no way to trudge through towards your goal. In my head that is what nihilism is, a swallowing up of all things hoped for, with no other thing left to pursue.

    In that meaninglessness, it is easy to find our minds wandering into a spiraling despair. Finding no drive and purpose to this very existence. So now what, how does the other world give meaning to this life? We assume that the other world is true and we should go prepare for it? Ehhh, does that mean I need to save a life so that I can benefit in the next life, the classic save a little girl from dying from a speeding truck so that we could get rewarded in the next life? That could very well be the real meaning of living, how we could save up for the next life.

    So should it be a heroic act or an undying self sacrifice? I think it is more than that, its about trying to reach out, trying bring something to the table, trying to fill a role in more that one aspect. Knowing that somehow things will move accordingly and appropriately. Trying to shift purpose in order to fill in the void for another person in the hopes that it will also fill in the missing pieces in our lives and ultimately collect enough credit for the next world. It doesn’t need to be grand or extravagant, rather it should just fulfill a role that is needed in the right moment.

  • Miraijin or Time Travelers

    If you know someone that could travel time, how would that look like for you? Is age not an issue for them or rather since they have access to any information in time, they know which action would lead to the best result. Imagine if you could potentially alter what happens to a world, what would you do.

    Most of the time travelers in movies and books tend to interact with people that does not share time travel capabilities. This is because certain interactions could potentially be harmful for people or there could be things that are missed or just completely left undiscovered or ignored. Think Marty Mcfly in Back to the Future, the possibility of erasing yourself because your dad missed the opportunity to get to know your mom. Now imagine time traveling is available for not just one person where they try to jump on top of each other thus creating a series of prevention of opportunities for one another. That is much like war at that point where chaos is the norm and all things are free for all, that is worse than any nightmare I could imagine.

    Though what I mentioned above is the scary bit, there are a lot of things there are a lot of convenient things like getting to know which horse would win a race or if you need to cancel a meeting in case the other party is a no show. It seems to me that regulating might be a challenge, though I would assume they want to keep a low profile and limit the impact of their actions thus there is a self regulation that happens innately. If you had that capability, what would you do? Would you abuse it? or would you lay low and create a small opportunities instead.

  • A Deciding Factor

    When looking back in the past, we can always see the frame from a wider view. How things were set in motion because of an action and what we could have done better, what things we can do to improve the current situation. This allows us to make the right decisions and help us to stay grounded since we could not fully grasp the all the possible trajectory of each person. We can only estimate things if a person has unlimited options, thus if we want to come up with a concise decision then we must limit its uses. Think in terms of Subaru if he gets limited in one path, on the next revival he chooses a different path, choice is what makes us different from animals, we can always pivot towards another path that is not hindered nor limited. Everything comes at a cost and we must never discount the source of anything because it eventually boils down to one thing anyway. So when deciding on things, we must take into consideration all the factors that are involved, people affected by our decisions, effects of our decisions across time and how it affects the environment that we are currently in. Unfortunately, we have limited scope and view of our world. We can only control what is immediately in front of us and the things within our grasp in our short lifespan, I think we should consider things that helped us get this far and which things we should retain in order to move along the right direction.

  • Reflections and Renewal

    A new world requires a recount of the old one. If we have not experienced the old then we wouldn’t know what we want with the new. A child is disciplined when we don’t confirm to what is “correct” behavior, however who was it that defined the correct behavior. Why would we act in a certain way when we don’t have rules in place for our actions. In our world today, often times it is society that dictates what is acceptable and what is not. Comparing it to the old days, we have become more liberated and less concerned with judgement. “I have done nothing wrong”, “What I do does not affect anybody” or “everyone else is doing it” are common ways of thinking nowadays. Completely disregarding past norms, since they had little no benefit anyway. Bending and breaking rules, testing the limits of our new found freedom in order to be “yourself”. Innately, nothing wrong with that right? Having individuality makes us unique and experience is the best teacher after all.

    Our standards suddenly become miles apart from what we previously had. Was is it really all for free, I mean did we not lose anything in the transition towards this “new world”? Like shifting from black and white to colored, new seems to be much better than the old. Often times it is, since I am not typing on a typewriter rather on a laptop computer. This is true for technology, but is it also true for other things? What did we lose in order to get to where we are. Is it really negligible. In all honestly, I don’t know or maybe I fail to see what I am missing. Maybe all the advancements and the know how somehow overshadow what is sacrificed, or is it that we just fail to notice it because it is too mundane and nuanced.

  • The Bright View in a Dark Room

    It is a common anime trope to have a dense character in the midst of all the chaos, completely oblivious while still staying positive. This humorous parallel is often true both ways, we can either be super positive of a situation or super negative about a situation. A toxic positive attitude can disqualify what others are experiencing and prevent them from opening up and sharing problems and struggles they currently have. On the other hand if we view things too negatively then we can’t share successes and celebrate growth. Words are a reflection of the speaker, thus we learn to take in anything and digest it in order to bring life onto our words.

    Recognition of someone’s situation and their truth helps bring out authenticity and prepares us to plant the right thoughts that could bring out the best in people. Situations does not define a person’s capability to respond properly rather it creates an opportunity to learn to control what we say and do. Grips on reality helps us not fall into the stereotype of the above trope, rather it helps our higher self flow freely which stabilizes our emotions and reactions.

  • Nature Vs Nurture

    This is quite an interesting topic to think about right now. In the world of plants, there isn’t usually a need to nurture. What is the natural thing for them to have other creatures like insects pollinate for them and birds or small rodents to spread their seeds. Though in contrast when nurtured, the human would till the soil, sow the seeds, water and help maintain the land they grow in from weeds and other things that would hinder their growth.

    The same logic applies for growing a person, we plant the right seeds in their mind and heart, then we nurture them so that they would grow into the person we want them to be. On the flip side of things, we allow nature to take place and just have them learn things for themselves and nothing more, often this way creates a wild growth that could lead to an unintended direction.

    This is quite similar to tending to a house or a dungeon or even a pet. Without proper admin or knowledge, these would be neglected and not be up to standard of the owner. Then again often times the owners themselves do not know what it is they want, so we try to present them possibilities and ways to reach the desired goal. Now, we all know that depending on the person viewing the requirements, they all get to imagine a unique outcome to what the owner wants. Having all sorts of ideas can have positive or detrimental effects to the product because we either complicate things or we diverge from the original plan. Thus, sometimes it is good to come back to the owner to check if we are close to what it is that they want.

    Eliminating complex things and trying to make sense what the original goal is, helps us figure out if we really need nurture or nature to move things forward.