The sound of one hand clapping

When I heard the title of this post for the first time, my mind was racing with numerous images. Once the obvious image came and went (get your mind out of the gutter, pervs!) more images came to mind. Images like graduation, weddings, promotion, the whole lot. I decided to work backwards and started to think of the importance of clapping with both hands. The actual motion of clapping, if you think about it, has a Lion King-ness to it. You raise your hands to the heavens, grabbing all the good energy of the world you can muster, culminating in the transformation of those feelings into a load clapping sound which is then directly sent to the person intended like a sniper’s bullet. The motion you make is a circle.

Imagine trying to this wonder of natural expression with one hand. It’s really hard. Now the image of a war veteran with one hand or the infamous one-armed man is running through your mind. I figured that the clapping has now transformed from gathering emotion to directing it. This is like the pounding on a door or slapping someone in the face. I see a parallel to this and domestic violence, but that’s for another time.

(Source: http://www.activerespawn.com/)



But then I remembered one of the most beautiful things in the world. I saw two guys sharing a bromance moment by giving each other a high 5. It hit me, both men using only one hand to clap. That’s it! It wasn’t just a simple sound but what that sound represents. Anyone can clap by themselves, but the experience of joining another person in a tandem feeling that is so wonderful, that the two of you need to express it by uniting for a split second.

My two cent’s on the matter: the sound of one hand clapping is the sound of a moment in time where people are connecting in the many celebrations of life. We need to do this more often instead of celebrating alone on our own little island clapping with two hands, hoping someone will hear us. That’s my two cents, keep the change. 

All who wander are not lost

If there has ever been a mind that wandered so purposefully and productively, it was the mind of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, scholar and professor of Old and Middle English and writer of “high fantasy” stories and novels, such as The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
              

                                                     (Source: http://www.photographyblogger.net/)                                                                                  

The quote, “Not all those who wander are lost”, is part of a poem originally written by Bilbo, the main character from The Hobbit. Bilbo is describing Aragorn, the descendant of kings, and a king by birthright himself, who wanders unknown, unrecognized and unacknowledged, waiting for the right time to claim his throne;

“All that is gold does not glitter

Not all those who wander are lost

The tree that is old does not wither

Deep roots are not touched by the frost

From the ashes a fire shall be woken

A light from the shadows shall spring

Renewed will be blade that was broken

Crownless again shall be king.”

My two cents on the matter: The message here is clear – even though our purpose isn’t obvious and to others we seem adrift and without direction; it doesn’t mean we’re lost, or off track. Our lack of direction may very well be our deeper, more meaningful search or quest in this maze we call life. That's my two cents, keep the change.



The power of (doing) nothing

The value of waiting is overly despised and wholly underrated. We all, at one time or another, will be forced to wait either because we have to or because we are forced too. The delayed plane, the doctor’s surgery or waiting on the boss. It happens and as frustrating as this may be there is either the option to pace and complain and to worry. Or we can watch the world float by, see the myriad of different people drift across our paths and see them in our own light. The young men with ill-fitting suits and crooked ties, the ladies older enough to know better in knee high boots and short skirts, harassed mothers dragging children in their wake. This is the picture of life as it really, often lost now as we gaze franticly into our mobile devices and wait for the next tweet or status update.

So engrained has this online social connection become we often spend time with our faces lit by the eerie glow of the smart phone whilst in the company of real people, in real situations.

(Source: http://www.guardiansguild.proboards.com/)



It may seem strange for an author of a blog to suggest logging out.  On the other hand, there are plenty who advocate a day off from social media and I can see the attraction. But I wholeheartedly support the value of just being whilst waiting. You’ll learn more about life than any social network can ever provide and without the associated anxiety that can bring!

My two cents on the matter: log out and just be. Something that you could never have thought possible could occur and you were lucky enough not to have your vision distorted by the screen on your smartphone or the glowing “red eye” of a Blackberry. That’s my two cents. Keep the change.



How do you step from the top of a 100-foot pole

With a title like that, you know we’re not going to be talking about puppy dogs. No. Today I want to talk about the creative process—more specifically, what happens at the end of the creative process, when you take this thing ( whatever it is in your life) you have sweated and laboured over, and you have to show it to the world.

What if they laugh? What if they think you’re crazy? What if nobody likes it? What if it really is as bad as you think it is? Secretly, even though you’ve sweated and laboured, you’re still worried it might suck; some days you’re convinced that it does and feel like a goat. A friend of mine said that sending your voice/talent/work out into the world is like sending your kid off to kindergarten for the first time. You just hope and pray that their socks match.

(Source: http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-goat-standing-on-a-pole-image14703473 )

Standing our ground and taking that leap in your own life is hard enough, but on a 100 foot pole. Don’t underestimate the pole because the pole symbolizes a major contributor in your situation of navigating life. The pole represents fear. Climbing up the pole and balancing has been your journey up to the point where it needs to exist outside of your control and interact with the surrounding environment.

My two cents on the matter: We all have something to contribute. Perhaps you don’t think so, but we all have our art. It might be gardening, it might be baking bread, and it might be something that falls into a more traditional art form— writing, painting, and telling stories through film or photography or song. We all have our art. Don’t just walk of the pole blindfolded, see and absorb as much as you can because you deserve the view after your effort. It’s not easy. It’s never easy.  Without your contribution, the world will be a poorer place. That’s my two cents, keep the change.

World, are we going down the Shitter?

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock on my cell phone, and then I received a Google alert about a new product on offer by Twitter. They are now able to take tweets from your Twitter account and print them on two-ply toilet paper for you to use in your own home. WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?

Believe me; I’m not for the Twitter generation. I think that social media is dismantling our ability as humans to come together and interact with each other face-to-face. This is the joy of being human. Animals congregate based out of physical or survival necessity. Humans can come together and use their voice to communicate not only what we need, but to enjoy each others company and build relationships. Social media like Twitter should aid that goal when it comes to long distance communication. What this means is that if you have the opportunity to directly interact with friends or strangers, do not rush to your mobile device. Think of the original chat room: a group of people chatting in a room not hiding behind an ego, self-centred persona that lives in a mobile device. We must come together, not apart.

     (Source: http://www.impactlab.net/2012/03/29/an-app-that-prints-your-twitter-feeds-on-toilet-paper/shitter-app/)



Back to this Twitter product, are we going to allow these kinds of ideas to exist? Then people react by saying that there is a market for it and they wouldn’t go through all this trouble producing it if there wasn’t a market. To me, that is too simplified. We can’t just create something and say it’s good. We should create things that are useful, fun, and enhance our lives over an extended period of time and not a fashion fad. The reason this ‘market’ exists is because certain people (due to their own inadequacies) turn to post ironic practices instead of stating what they feel. If you don’t know about post irony, read my blog post below about it

My two cents on the matter: There are many people out there with many ideas. We want to support and believe in them because we want to see them prosper, and also when it is our turn that they will do the same for us. But there are some ideas that add no value to our lives, instead they a created for short term fame and dollar signs. If some asked you if you wanted to be smacked in the mouth, you have the right to say no. Now imagine if we did this more often with the consumer industry, my how that ‘market’ will disappear. That’s my two cents, keep the change.   

Why Babies Are Dumb (And Why That’s Cool)

Babies are dumb. Maybe not as dumb as people who buy wigs for their dogs, but still, they’re pretty damned dumb. If you ask a baby to solve for x, the odds are the baby won’t even come close to getting it right.

So why are people so dumb at birth?

Well, there’s an evolutionary reason for it. And it makes good sense. Our brains continue to grow after we are born. A newborn’s brain on average weighs 360 grams for females and 380 grams for males, and at the age of 19, the average is 1450 grams for males and 1310 grams. Obviously, that’s quite a dramatic increase in size. If a woman’s body had to pass a full-sized human head, her physiology would have to cope dramatically. So the fact that mom doesn’t have hips twice their size is thanks to our brains continuing to grow after birth.

                                                  (Source: http://www.abeerfortheshower.com/)



The nice side-effect of our brain developing in this way is that we get brains that are actually “customized” for the modern world. Unless, of course, we’re Mormons. What I mean, though, is that many of the things that we take for granted like language and complex algebra are not instinctive. Your eyebrows raised there. I don’t believe language is instinctive. Grunts and coos and whatnot certainly are, but to move from those to a fully functioning vocabulary is not an instinct, it is something we are taught.

But the great part is that we can continue to learn. Current research shows that doing things like learning a language later in life (while frustrating) and performing other learning-based exercises can add years to our brains, preventing the deterioration that makes our increasing life expectancy suck so bad.

My two cents on the matter: The trouble is that we really don’t use our brains as we age. Once we hit that point in our professional lives where we no longer need to constantly be learning at work, we tend to get lazy, and our brains begin the slow but steady process of deteriorating. All in all, dumb babies are a massive benefit to the species. Even if they pee on us. That's my two cents, keep the change.

Post-irony, how ironic!

I think things that are hideous and bad are cool. This phenomenon has been called post-irony. “Post-irony” is the sarcastic liking of something that you are aware is uncool. Irony, really, kind of fits that same definition, but post-irony is usually defined by sincerity, whereas with standard irony everyone is aware of your sarcasm.

This makes it all but impossible to determine when someone is being ridiculous and when they are pretending to be ridiculous. To an uncool person, post-irony is the greatest thing ever. Nerdy glasses and T-shirts with stupid slogans on them like, “I can only please one person a day. Today is not your day,” are what I wore in high school as a result I was considered somewhat of a loser. Now, however, I can wear the exact same outfit and be cool and disinterested in a post-ironic way because now I am totally aware of how stupid it really is.

                                                           (Source: http://www.11points.com/)

But there is a line. There is still stuff that isn’t cool, even in a post-ironic way. For instance, there was a brief period of time in France last year where bulky, plaid jackets were the hip clothes. And we are all aware of America’s post-ironic love affair with trucker hats. But Alaskan ice road truckers, despite wearing those hats and jackets, were never cool. But there’s a coolness link between a skinny, handsome kid and the trucker hat that isn’t there for the everyday truck driver. This link of coolness is the core of post-irony.

My two cents on the matter: Post-irony is complicated but ultimately boils down to this: anything is cool. That’s my two cents, keep the change.