Re-post (From my 23 year old self)

Three Levels of Conscious Reflection

“Every man participating in a culture has three levels of conscious reflection: his specific ideas about things, his general beliefs or convictions, and his metaphysical dream of the world.” -- Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 18 (University of Chicago Press, 1984).

“The first of these are the thoughts he employs in the activity of daily living; they direct his disposition of immediate matters and, so, constitute his worldliness. One can exist on this level alone for limited periods, though pure worldliness must eventually bring disharmony and conflict.

“Above this lies his body or beliefs, some of which may be heritages simply, but others of which he will have acquired in the ordinary course of his reflection. Even the simplest souls define a few rudimentary conceptions about the world, which they repeatedly apply as choices present themselves. These, too, however, rest on something more general.

“Surmounting all is an intuitive feeling about the imminent nature of reality, and this is the sanction to which both ideas and beliefs are ultimately referred for verification. Without the metaphysical dream it is impossible to think of men living together harmoniously over an extent of time. The dream carries with it an evaluation, which is the bond of spiritual community.”

My Specific Ideas About Things
Always eat breakfast. Make New Year's resolutions and follow through. Use post-its to organize everything. Only write in pencil (so you can erase). Respect your parents. Stop picking on your sister. Appreciate film. Eat well. Go places. Hang around those who challenge you. Continuously monitor your weaknesses. Put yourself in uncomfortable positions to test your strengths. Max out your 401-K and IRA. Keep learning. There is no such thing as enough shoes.
My General Beliefs or Convictions
Do good and good things will come to you.
Never stick with your first impressions of people.
Reality is relative.

My Metaphysical Dream of the World

This is it. Right here. Right now. There's no worrying about pre/post lives or other worldly things. All you have is time. You can't carry over or borrow it. Strictly use it or lose it.  So use it. And suffer the consequences. And reap the benefits. Just take it all in stride.

*What I can't believe is that I still hold myself to these very things five years later.

Real

http://sylviethecamera.smugmug.com/

“Our reflections rolled and flickered over the flawed old glass of the four long windows, with all the loveliness of Christmas past and for a moment it was as though everything had already happened.  We had loved and died and left no trace.  And what it wanted, what the whole world wanted, was to be made real.”

--Anne Enright, THE FORGOTTEN WALTZ

Run Team Kina

truly an amazing person. nominated for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Woman Of The Year and deservingly so. after raising money through her virtual benefit concert (video above), Kina set another lofty goal of raising $50,000 for a cancer research grant. too ambitious? her group of dedicated runners of RunTeamKina raised $71,886. 

the money she raised will go a long way for any lab needing funds. pilot projects are ideas that just need to get off the ground. once they have enough substantial research, the little idea can grow into a potential new way of looking at the scientific puzzle where interested investigators can fund a larger scale project. 

i was lucky enough to see her perform in NY recently and meet her backstage. she’s back from a world tour and her music is refreshingly original. her lyrics are relatable and you can’t help but imagine the path in life she’s been through. when here mother was Sick in the hospital, her lyrics resonated through to family members sleeping in waiting rooms waiting for love ones;  “somehow my love might make it go”. 

On Running

"As I've gotten older, I've gradually come to the realization that this kind of pain and hurt is a necessary part of life... Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent. 
That's what I basically believe, and I've lived my life accordingly. In certain areas of my life, I actively seek out solitude. Sometimes, however, this sense of isolation, like acid spilling out of a bottle, can unconsciously eat away at a person's heart and dissolve it... I think in my own way I'm aware of this danger- probably through experience - and that's why I've had to constantly keep my body in motion, in some cases pushing myself to the limit, in order to heal the loneliness I feel inside and to put it in perspective. Not so much as an intentional act, but as an instinctive reaction. Let me be more specific. 
When I'm criticized unjustly, or when someone I'm sure will understand me doesn't, I go running for a little longer than usual. By running longer, it's like I can physically exhaust that portion of my discontent. It also makes me realize again how weak I am, how limited my abilities are... And one of the results of running a little farther than usual is that I become that much stronger. If I'm angry, I direct that anger toward myself. If I have a frustrating experience, I use that to improve myself. That's the way I've always lived. I quietly absorb the things I'm able to, releasing them later, and in as changed a form as possible, as part of the story line in a novel." 

Haruki Murakami- "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running"

With so many running analogies out there, I think running more may lead me to more epiphanies. Time to run!

I'm Awake!

Between the recent heat wave and the early morning chirpings from the cheerful birds who live outside my window, sleep has become more hazy, leaving me in that in-between zone of half-awake and half-asleep.  And so, this morning, when I finally decided to open my eyes for good, it was a bit of a shock to find a spider five inches from my face.  Needless to say, my reaction is the same as this first clip.  

Mister Rogers Knows Best

1. Even Koko the Gorilla Loved Him

Most people have heard of Koko, the Stanford-educated gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in American Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English. What most people don’t know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fan. As Esquire reported, when Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what she’d always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off!

2. He Made Thieves Think Twice

According to a TV Guide profile, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”

3. He Watched His Figure to the Pound

In covering Rogers’ daily routine (waking up at 5; praying for a few hours for all of his friends and family; studying; writing, making calls and reaching out to every fan who took the time to write him; going for a morning swim; getting on a scale; then really starting his day), writer Tom Junod explained that Mr. Rogers weighed in at exactly 143 pounds every day for the last 30 years of his life. He didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t eat the flesh of any animals, and was extremely disciplined in his daily routine. And while I’m not sure if any of that was because he’d mostly grown up a chubby, single child, Junod points out that Rogers found beauty in the number 143. According to the piece, Rogers came “to see that number as a gift… because, as he says, “the number 143 means ‘I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’ One hundred and forty-three.”

4. He Saved Both Public Television and the VCR

Strange but true. When the government wanted to cut Public Television funds in 1969, the relatively unknown Mister Rogers went to Washington. Almost straight out of a Capra film, his testimony on how TV had the potential to give kids hope and create more productive citizens was so simple but passionate that even the most gruff politicians were charmed. While the budget should have been cut, the funding instead jumped from $9 to $22 million. Rogers also swayed the Supreme Court to allow VCRs to record television shows from the home. It was a cantankerous debate at the time, but his argument was that recording a program like his allowed working parents to sit down with their children and watch shows as a family.

5. He Might Have Been the Most Tolerant American Ever

Mister Rogers seems to have been almost exactly the same off-screen as he was onscreen. As an ordained Presbyterian minister, and a man of tremendous faith, Mister Rogers preached tolerance first. Whenever he was asked to castigate non-Christians or gays for their differing beliefs, he would instead face them and say, with sincerity, “God loves you just the way you are.” Often this provoked ire from fundamentalists.

6. He Was Genuinely Curious About Others

Mister Rogers was known as one of the toughest interviews because he’d often befriend reporters, asking them tons of questions, taking pictures of them, compiling an album for them at the end of their time together, and calling them after to check in on them and hear about their families. He wasn’t concerned with himself, and genuinely loved hearing the life stories of others. Amazingly, it wasn’t just with reporters. Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.

7. He Was Color-blind

Literally. He couldn’t see the color blue. Of course, he was also figuratively color-blind, as you probably guessed. As were his parents who took in a black foster child when Rogers was growing up.

8. He Could Make a Subway Car full of Strangers Sing

Once while rushing to a New York meeting, there were no cabs available, so Rogers and one of his colleagues hopped on the subway. Esquire reported that the car was filled with people, and they assumed they wouldn’t be noticed. But when the crowd spotted Rogers, they all simultaneously burst into song, chanting “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.” The result made Rogers smile wide.

A few more things about him…

9. He Got into TV Because He Hated TV. The first time he turned one on, he saw people angrily throwing pies in each other’s faces. He immediately vowed to use the medium for better than that. Over the years he covered topics as varied as why kids shouldn’t be scared of a haircut, or the bathroom drain (because you won’t fit!), to divorce and war.

10. He Was an Ivy League Dropout. Rogers moved from Dartmouth to Rollins College to pursue his studies in music.

11. He Composed all the Songs on the Show, and over 200 tunes.

12. He Was a perfectionist, and Disliked Ad Libbing. He felt he owed it to children to make sure every word on his show was thought out.

13. Michael Keaton Got His Start on the Show as an assistant — helping puppeteer and operate the trolley.

14. Several Characters on the Show are Named for His Family. Queen Sara is named after Rogers’ wife, and the postman Mr. McFeely is named for his maternal grandfather who always talked to him like an adult, and reminded young Fred that he made every day special just by being himself. Sound familiar? It was the same way Mister Rogers closed every show.

15. The Sweaters. Every one of the cardigans he wore on the show had been hand-knit by his mother.

Source: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/5943

Also, I would like to add one of my own:

16. He was a guest star on "Arthur." Which is arguably one of the other best children's television shows.  Nuff said.

beyond wealth

"Be like the jutting rock against which waves are constantly crashing, and all around it the frothing foam then settles back down. Say not "Oh, I am so unfortunate that this has happened to me." But rather "How fortunate I am that, even though this has happened to me, I continue uninjured, neither terrified by the present nor in fear of future."

-Beyond Wealth, Alexander Green

I was reminded by this picture to appreciate the intangible things in life. After wrapping up a weekend filled with old friends, new friends, and family, I wanted to express my sincerest gratitude for having these inspirational people in my life. Every experience and relationship,whether pleasant or not, has shaped the person I am today. Even books, as observed in a recent post "we are what we read?", have a profound effect on our thinking, which unconsciously translates to into our behavior.  My current read, Beyond Wealth, has had a life-changing effect on my perspective of, well, life. In it are 65 essays written by a former financial advisor, Alexander Green, who discusses a new kind of wealth, not in material, but spiritual terms. His insight is born from the work of great philosophers, thinkers, scientists, writers, and artists (Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Buddha, Shakespeare, Thoreau, Emerson, Gandhi, Einstein, and Tolstoy to name a few).

And so, little by little for the past month, each story has fostered my inner wisdom (using wisdom may be giving myself too much credit) in ways I didn't expect it would. Our world is governed by false values today - too many of us are chasing money, fame, status, and possessions. When and if we attain these goals, we would likely feel empty and hunger for more. As Green puts it "a successful life is not about the grim determination to get or have more. Nor is it about low cholesterol levels or intellectual brilliance or career accomplishments. It's about human connections: parents, siblings, spouses, children, friends, neighbors, and mentors." And that, is the only thing that really matters.