Everybody is free

Every now and then I look back, in many ways. Today I (re)found a "song" (the guy doesn't actually sing) I heard a long long time ago. Every time I hear it, I hear something that makes me stop and think. See what you can find.

Everybody's free (to wear sunscreen) - Baz Luhrmann

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
Wear sunscreen!
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience...

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked...
You’re not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.

What ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance. Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you.

Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen...

Quotes from the shower (3... I think)

"Only the simple believe they can learn nothing from the small. The wise learn from all."

(previous quote modified by my editor with the following quote)

"The subtleness of the knife cuts deeper than the strength of the ax"

Own and other stories

I've often wondered about the lure of television as well as the lure that novels enjoyed in the past and going back even further, the lure of age-old stories transmitted from generation to generation by the only medium available then: orally.

Many people would simplify it with statements such as "The poor bastards havech empty lives they have to fill them with other people's lives". Well, if one doesn't stop to think a little it may seem a relatively "reasonable" explanation... but it doesn't really hold up then you apply a little logic. Otherwise, 90% (beware, I didn't look up this statistic) of world population could be classified as poor bastards with empty lives!

There must, then, be another explanation. The explanation is that men (as a species, not a sex, nobody jump) has the need to feed his imagination with stories, possibilities, impossibilities and dreams both own and foreign. No matter how full our life is, we will inevitably dwelve in an alternative world be it through television, cinema, books, comic books (graphic novels), heck! When you think about it, even catalogues! We may imagine outselves as owners of a product!

We have all had to suffer the talk about the idiot box, not without some part of reason. Although, if going to the cinema was free, I'm sure we'd spend loads more time there, too, lets be realistic. The fact is that man (see previous comment) is lazy by nature. It is preferrable to obtain the same benefit (a fed imagination) with less effort; reading implies, for example, having to scenify the situations in our head, whilst these are "just given to you" on the telly and the cinema.

I wonder if our ancestors had to endure the accusation about not using their imagination in something more productive like reading a book when they listened to the radio series. At the end of the day, they were also being given part of the job done already, too!

But getting back to the subject about why stories are so enjoyed, they drive us away from our daily worries and allow us, but for a while, to enjoy a holiday away from ourselves (however our lives may be). The only problem arises when people try to find in their daily lives that which they miss or most enjoy from these unreal lives: the drama, the unexpected turn of events, the euforia of success, etc. Or when they confuse reality and fiction and try to bring to normality certain reactions, attitudes or thoughts which are not normally found in real people.

A clear example of this is the world famous "american dream" which keeps capturing an ever growing portion of the world population, including our beloved politicians... But I'll go into that some other time...

I won't be as simplistic as to sat that television is to blame for certain dramas that really happen all to often. The blame cannot be laid on the gun but on the gunslinger. The blame is on who looses their sense of reality, on who doesn't have enough of a brain to separate reality from fiction, normal from fantasy, and tries to apply standards from novels to find everlasting happiness.

"Everlasting" happiness does not exist as such. It is an "american dream" whose only ultimate result is a constant depression caused by never arriving at an unreal goal. The successful attainment of small daily goals is our only way to reach satisfaction; to enjoy our achievements, at any level, to basically know when you are happy instead of worrying about trying to be happy. As my good friend and mentor, Guillermo, was saying to me yesterday, whilst talking about something else, if you only have one unrealistic goal in your project you are guaranteed a constant frustration. Setting attainable milestones guarantees a sense of progress, of achievement and therefore the realization you wish to achieve.

So, my friends, stop building movies, dramas, romantic comedies and senseless storylines. Reality is a lot simpler, easier, attainable and generally better. Crisis or no crisis, people still purchase, lovers keep loving, friends stay in touch and people still love, no matter what.

Life would be a lot simpler if we could only see how simple it really is...

Compromised... almost

These days everybody wants to express their passion in the clearest possible way, being the best in their environment, the ritchest, the smartest, the tallest, the most femenine, the most tolerant, etc. But we find ourselves with pieces of news such as the one that caught my attention this morning, namely, The Atheist Bus (I have a link to a Spanish paper in my Spanish blog, but there are plenty of sources.

In a nutshell, there is a global movement by an group of atheists which call themselves the International Federation of Atheists which proudly communicate to the world to stop worrying because "there is probably no God". They are so convinced of their own doctrine that they had to put the word "probably" in it, which, to my understanding, reliquishes all credibility. What would we think if the Church said "there probably is a God out there"? Or if our own government said we'll probably be better off next year? What if your boss said you're probably gonna be considered for a promotion? What if he removed the word "probably"? Wouldn't it show a little more conviction?

The word has probably (hehehehe) been put in just to smooth things out with the other side, the believers, which is even more absurd because I doubt very much it will be less offensive because the offenders are less convinced (apart from the fact that the Bible forces believers to forgive their offenders... but that's a different matter entirely...).

The funny thing is that atheism, if one looks it up (ok, not Atheism because that's just "the doctrine of the atheist"; search "atheist") is the denial of God, but this feels more like an "Anti-God" campaign rather than a "No God" campaign. What do they expect to gain from this? To gain more atheists that don't believe in God? Isn't this Federation there to promote Free Thought? Woudn't it be better to actually back this up with some more conviction than "probably"?

Are they not commited to their own ideas? But, if they are not convinced, why are they trying to convince everybody else? Do they expect to gain conficence through social acceptance?

... or are they just trying to get their 15 minutes of fame the easy way, through scandal?