Thoughts on My 30th Birthday…

Will we ever know how to really relate to our age? I think my confusion/apprehension (Can’t find the right word) comes from the mass media and movies where we’re blasted with age-defying creams, worried faces over “getting old” and the constant battle between “act your age” and “you’re only as young as you feel.”

Anyway, I’ve been on this planet for 30 years and I’m wondering what I have to show for it. What value have I added to this planet and to my fellow human beings? Have I uplifted anyone’s life? have I contributed to building something which will benefit people today, let alone future generations?

Bottom line: I don’t feel I’ve done enough, and I need to do more.

So my question to myself is this… what can I do to add more value? Where can I get involved and utilise my skills to make this world, or at least my world (i.e. my sphere of influence) a better place?

My answer is to constantly focus on making myself a better person – learning more, doing more to help wherever I see other’s need help but in a pro-active way, not a reactive way. Talking to people more… I’ve realised most of all people just want to be heard, so I should hear them out.

Whatever happens next, I hope I’m successful in this.

Why do I stay awake?

That’s Yusuf, standing next to the stove at 2am frying cheese and corn samoosas. He can’t sleep… actually it’s somewhere between not wanting to and just plain can’t.

“Hungry much?”
“Yes, much.”
“Can you do it in the dark? I can’t sleep with your bloody kitchen lights on.”
“Do you cook in the dark?”
“Oh shutup, I can’t talk at this hour. make some for me, I’ll have it in the morning… Taa… Taaa…”

Suddenly a conversation begins in Yusuf’s head…

Why does someone stay up at night? Why do I? What am I searching for, What’s missing that I need in order to get some bloody sleep? Maybe it’s because I work better at night… or maybe, I just have too much caffeine, well I do but that can’t be it, I’m practically immune by now.

Why am I here? No, that’s too broad a question. What do I want? that’s closer… Am I missing something I need?

Wait… why don’t I just go to sleep. I haven’t tried that. Lay down and eventually it should work, right? So why am I choosing to stay awake? Maybe I’m just screwed up… but everyone is.

What the hell is keeping me awake?

Maybe the philosopher’s had it wrong… maybe that is the ultimate question.

What keeps me awake?

Maybe I should sleep on it.

Friend

Where were they when you was walking through the dark path of sorrow and unhealthy self-flagellation for your failures? The ones who laughed with you way back when you were at primary school, at high school and at university. The ones who rode the tide across the happy days, sucking on the smiles.

And now when the darkness has come, after the glory days… when you hit that hard wall of reality and suddenly nobody’s smiling because nobody’s there. Except you, and you’re not smiling either. All you see is this mountain to climb, a long road ahead with little provision. All you have is you.

Does it make you wonder then, that your REAL friends, even those who did help a little, could only go so far… does it not make you wonder at the fabric of your life? Cloth stitched with decision after decision and it’s all up to you. You, alone, can take the action necessary and you alone should accept the consequences, the responsibility. Accept it. Take the first step up that mountain, on that lonely road.  The others, the ‘friends’, will follow you. But you have to lead yourself, and eventually them too, to the sunlit path of smiles and laughter.

You, are ultimately your only friend.

Recognise.

Is Advertising Really Pure Evil?

When it comes down to the bare bones of the issue, or is it the beating heart, whatever… the main thing is… they want you to buy more stuff. This is a pretty simple concept and it has been said before, blah, blah, blah. The power play comes in at the juncture where what they’re selling coincides with what you need. The thing which tips the power in the advertisers favour is when they convince you that you need something you don’t. This gets more complicated when you take into account wants versus needs.

Further complicating things is context. The context today is we’ve moved far away from worrying about needs. We WANT STUFF. Lots of Stuff. Shiny, pastel-coloured, Curvy Stuff which will make us happy and able to satisfy our every sense and then do it all again. We also want it all NOW. Instantly. None of this patience shit and waiting for things which are ‘worthwhile’… I know what’s worthwhile because I feel it now and I want it right fucking now.

I don’t believe Advertisers have any sway, not really, in terms of ‘Making us buy more stuff’. They are merely the temptation… WE make the choice. It is within us… the choice of wanting stuff we don’t need and also to want it right now. So is advertising pure evil? No. Advertising is just showing us what is within us… in the end WE choose. I would say that advertising is only evil if that is what we see within ourselves. You don’t have to buy the product and even if you do… do you need it right now?

Advertising is just stimulus and we can either react automatically to whatever whims and desires move us or be a little bit more AWARE of what’s happening around us and choose to RESPOND to stimulus in our own best interest.

Advertising is only really effective because we all only operate on auto-pilot, we set ourselves up with bad habits of wanting things we don’t need and things we want right now. So when it finally flashes before our eyes and ears we simply react. And, if we are all operating on auto-pilot, that makes us less human because the real thing which makes us human is our ability to choose.

You can’t blame the stimulus… advertising is not the enemy… you are.