And To All, A Happy New Year!

A very wise man once said:

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.  - Einstein

As we start our countdown to celebrating the dawn of 2012, I can't help but smile when I think about the thousand and one "meanings" we attribute to a new year.

For some people I know, it means a whole night of drinking in total abandon and spending the first day of the year in a drunken stupor or with a massive hangover.

For several, it means a little more sedate, like revisiting a tattered list of resolutions made in the past year, only to re-write them again, on a new page, under a different chapter, but pretty much the same list, albeit with minor editions.

For others, it means rekindling old friendships and building new ones. Or trashing old ones and choosing a totally different route. Moving on from past mistakes, making a vow never to take the same route ever. 

All of these, remains to be seen, remains to be lived. We don't know really, there are no guarantees in this life, new year or otherwise.

I take a more simplistic approach to a new year. Something I can wrap my fingers around. Something I can completely and honestly relate with. Here's a quote that sums up, roughly right, my new year dictum; from Anthony Robbins, a motivational speaker in the 21st century:

"Live life fully while you're here. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect: just be an excellent example of being human."

Sounds simple enough, but tougher than you think. Being human, characterized by compassion and kindness is fundamentally tough and a stretch for most of us. For me, in particular. I reckon I start from somewhere based on birthright, year on year. And I continue to be a work in progress. The Dalai Lama is right, absolutely everyone in the universe, regardless of race or faith, can not survive without human affection.

If only for a day, or a week, or a month in 2012, people can see and act on an opportunity for kindness for other human beings and other forms of life, then who cares if the Mayans are right? The sun can explode on a universe of mankind that shines brightly in a sea of compassion.

So my dear friends, here's to making an end, a new beginning! My wish for you and yours, a wonderful New Year ahead! Cheers y'all!

HATE ON THE NET

The age of technology has paved the way to fingertip access to information; e-buying and e-trading; e-reading; bridging distance via web-based communication; facilitating simulated and vicarious learning; among all the other attendant consequences of the Internet Universe. As I write this post, someone would have likely invented a gadget more powerful than what either of us are using now to read this.


It is however unfortunate that for every breakthrough humanity is given, we almost always naturally destroy its inspiration as we ascribe power to ourselves to use these advancements as an edge to further improve our skills on hating, bullying, segregation, bigotry and worst of all, increase our cowardice as we hide behind the comfort of an electronic tool to commit these acts of inhumanity by judging and ridiculing other people, trusting that we are protected by some distant, geographical servers.


Do you really matter at all? Or what you think? Or what you say? I mean, seriously. Do you believe all that is possible just because ...?


In real life terms, there are very few people in this world who really matter to any one other person. In the same way, for anyone to matter a great deal to someone, all the time, is rare and far between. 


The downside of the Internet community and the social networks has unfortunately increased man's capacity to delude himself by completely fracturing his mindset to think AND believe that the total number of Friends that like you on Facebook or Follow You on Twitter or play games with you, are in any way a good substitute or equivalent to warm-blooded, tactile, present and real-life friends and loved ones, living right outside of the dark closet of your laptop or PC.


It's sad, no, I correct myself, it is tragic. People have grown accustomed to the "home-ness" of the little black (or white or alien) box, and the relative ease in using one of the most abused 3-letter word on the keyboard ...DEL. Delete, my dear friends, is not considered homicide.

The sky is blue, the clouds are white, and the air we breathe (as the last time I checked) is still tax-free.  The world to date has 7 frickin' billion people. There are around 100 billion galaxies and approximately 30 sextillion stars in the observable universe. And here is something I hope everyone who would chance upon this post would appreciate and feel humbled - an entire galaxy is seen as a small bright dot, a speck.


If you happen to love and be loved by one other real-life person in this magnanimous galaxy, consider yourself lucky.  Otherwise, you don't matter. Nor do I. Or anybody else. 


I can't, for the life of me, explain all the hating and judging, whether in cyberspace or in real-life.
I can't simply rationalize why one person can feel so superior over another.
How can one race be more intelligent?
How can one creed be more righteous?
How can one gender be considered more fortunate?
If your preferences differ, how can you think your preferences are better than anyone else's?
Wealthy and affluent? Who the hell cares? You're still smaller than a dot.


Now, (getting off my soap box), I am fortunate enough to have found a handful (emphasis on the handful), of online gems and another handful of loved ones and significant others who make my little speck in the universe glow with spectacular brilliance.

"It is better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for someone you are not."