Books

My sister emailed me this today, she thought I'd appreciate it, considering that I loooove books. Oh, and she reads my blog, so she knows about my ridiculous, somewhat insane philosophies.

If it's too small, check it out here on it's original website

"Happy" Birthday To Me!

It's that time of year again.
A year older.
Precisely 22 years since I've started to breathe.

Everyone is asking me what am I doing for my birthday and the simple answer is: nothing.

Think about it.

Why should I be doing anything for it? If I want to look back over the year, be grateful, make counts on the past year's events, take upon new resolution, have a quarter-life crisis... it's my business. I do not need to throw a party nor do I need to go out to dinner with anyone to mark my birthday.

It's a day just like another, except that it means something special to ME.
Now if you were my friend and decided to take me out or to plan something for me, I will be happy to participate. But please don't ask me to plan it. Why should I plan my birthday when I am perfectly happy being with myself, at home or busy with stuff?

Don't worry, I know it's my birthday, I know it's a happy day (how could I forget with everyone busting my Facebook wall??)

But if you need an excuse to go party and be happy, feel free to celebrate St Patrick's day.

Talked into... MARRIAGE

This week, the question of the morning radio talk show was:
"Have you ever been talked into doing something you regretted?"
During the one hour of my commute, five different guys called to say they had been talked into marriage! And that they regret it....
Incredible.
I'm not even sure what to say.
Incredible... Stupid...Deceiving...
Thoughts?

Anonymously Written

I do not know the author of this guest post but I thought it was worth reading:

The inevitable is always somehow around that great corner of life. There is an old French saying, “What must happen, will happen”. This somehow seems to mirror the consensus prevailing around us. People, astute people at that, seem to think, nay – know, that the occurrences of the future will come to pass in the future.

But is that the real truth? Is there an inevitable; will the control of keys mandate a control of power? When one steps unto a freshly paved boulevard in Canada, how does one now that it, the pavement, will not open up and swallow him alive? How does one know that his next step will be forward and not backwards? Is there an inevitable or is this inevitability just a figment of our overworked and obviously under producing imaginations?

In my years of practicing psychotherapy, I have come across individuals who have denied the inevitably of the inevitable. Their personal experiences had led them down the path of the impossible, to a La-La land that we “normal” people could not possibly envision. They knew of an alternative reality, a realty that is neither here nor there. They saw sounds and heard colors. One patient, a wonderful South American coffee barista, described what he heard when the coffee beans met the grinder. But he did not describe the sound of the grinder; he described the sound of brown. It was a soft delicate sound; quite unlike the way the philosophers had represented the color and it had captivated him. Did he lie; did he tell me falsehoods and untruths? No. He did not lie. He had seen a higher reality.

You wonder, well, what is he trying to tell us? Am I haranguing or instructing? Am I helping you lead a better life, or am I placing a stumbling block in your path to stub the toe of your mind? Dear readers, I don’t know. I have simply brought you a rare medical case and I exclaim to you now, that in a way we are all medical cases. Your senses convince you of an inevitability; an inevitability that is frightening, but at the very same time utterly intriguing. Shall you forever remain a vassal of this brazen gambling of inevitability? This is a question that one must ask themself. This race horse called Inevitable can either rule you, or you can make the step and have it propelled into a factory and manufactured into glue. This hypothetical glue would keep you strong and firm, molding you into the first rate person that you know you can be.

But you fight and you struggle. You do not want to be known as that lunatic who bathes in the reality of colors, knowledge and truth. Medicine, dear readers, is an art not a science. So I urge of you, take the step. Our friend the barista did and he became a more fulfilled individual. An individual not held back by the petty boundaries that we in society have set up for ourselves. He flew to higher and higher heights. He touched the shady sun and felt the icy moon. He frolicked in the sky and drove the chariot of the tress. He was not insane. My friend the barista was a superior man, living in an alternative, nay superior reality. May we learn from him and keep him propped up on the pedestal of the mind, glamorously unafraid. 

Ha! Style...

I have very little time to write these days. It's part of being an adult with so many responsibilities, not always fun... Especially since like many other students, the Chag has definitely put me behind the program.

But that has not stopped me from enjoying the long hours of "people watching" during Simchat Torah and then again today, during the many hours spent doing homework at Starbucks.

See, I play this mental game where I see people and wonder about their life story. Some days I wonder if they are happily married, some days I wonder about their lifestyle, their childhood, anything. It keeps me entertained and I am getting lots of practice at making up fictive characters for when I will actually be a writer...

Anyways, lately my imagination has been a little thrown off by the new look guys have been endorsing.
 

           

                                   
                           
                        
I've been seeing more and more of guys, from white shirt black pants, to white shirt and jeans, wearing the Tom Ford eyeglasses. It gives them a quirky look and a whole different style that makes it difficult for me to go on and about who they might truly be.


Hey, I'm not complaining, finally some style that has reached our communities...

Good Old News

Whenever the future of  the printed newspaper is discussed, I think a big threat to it's existence is omitted in conversations: 

These days, it seems like Facebook is not only the main social network, it's also a main influence in the media diffusing world. People post links to articles all the time, and whatever gets posted repeatedly by different users goes viral. We, the members of Facebook, have the power to make the slightest speech/video/article... into the biggest news. We decide what news make it to our headlines, à la une ...

However, sometimes half of your "friends"- for lack of better word- are posting about the same topic, sometimes the exact same feelings or whatever it might be.  (If you need an example, do check up this post, PNN got me started on this involuntarily.) This viral handling of news in my eyes, devalues it, depersonalizes it and makes it bo-ring. 

On one hand it's beautiful for so many people across continents to be caring about the same subject, or protesting together via the net. But on the other, it's hard to believe in the New's value when it's broadcasting is too vast and in the hands of some who might not even care. 

ps: don't get me wrong, I'm glad Gilad is home 

Little Culture

Sorry for my absence but the traveling for the Chag makes it too difficult to post

The day following my outburst of frustrated feelings I expressed in my ranting on questions too which I cannot provide a rational, I found what I was saying in the French Literature. Now picture me reading on the train, with my studious glasses and my book in a foreign language. And suddenly, I smile. I clench my fist and  I think to myself, (maybe I was louder): "This is it, this is what I've been trying to say myself!" But I am not a famous author (yet) and my writing could use some work, so in the meantime I will rely on the infamous Jean Paul Sartre's talent. (1905-1980)

(notice he is wearing the Wayfare/Cat-eye glasses that are so in style nowadays!)

Anyways, Sartre is one of the founders of Existentialism which sort of dictates that a man is what he does and how he looks and nothing more. Basically, according to Sartre, Man is free in essence and his freedom is painful for it means he is responsible for all his actions. But until he dies, it cannot be said that man is because this is what his future acts will reveal. The day his character becomes fixed, all his deeds will have been performed, the line drawn, the sum totaled and choice and changes will no longer be possible.

Many do not appreciate this theory, and rightfully so at times, since this is not the way the Torah holds. I do not feel defined by this theory but certainly can identify to it as a young adult, in a growing state.

I simply cannot get used to the pressuring questions I'm suppose to answer when tomorrow is a new day, with new opportunities and new actions.

Guest Post - What Is Success?

 by nechama ralsk.
I'm sure you have seen them too.
those flashy ads that surround us,
promising us money,
happiness and instant success.
I'm sick of them all,
those that promise,
they will make you a millionaire,
and those that promise they hold the key,
they know the secret to life.
Each one fades with the next,
and it makes me wonder,
what really is success?
It's not money,
It's not those cures,
that take 15 minutes,
or even a year,
It's not some hidden key,
so what can it possibly be?

Success Is waking up each day,
knowing your not in charge,
knowing everything will be okay.

Success is knowing that you will fall,
a thousand times,
that you will fail once more,
but will go on,
with a smile on your face.

Success is being able to enjoy life's every moment,
knowing each one is precious.

Success is knowing you're not perfect,
and knowing that you don't ever want to be.

Success is being proud of who you are,
realizing you've made it this far,
It's in realizing that you are the only you.

Success is never being satisfied,
at where you're at,
always seeking to grow,
to be the best you,
you can possibly be.

Success is in charting your own course,
braving both the beaten path,
and making your own.
Success in in being who you want to be,
saying what you want to say,
crying and laughing when you need to,
It's in being you.
Success is in laughter,
Success is in tears,
Success is in smiles,

Success is something,
you have always had,
just waiting to be seen.
Success is something,
so far,
yet so near,

Success is something,
you should always reach for.


visit nechama's blog.

Where do YOU stand?

Wait... Me?
You're asking ME to provide you with an explicit rational answer as to where I now hold in life? Ha, maybe I should start giving out the link of my blog for those who do not know yet how much I dislike answering such questions.

A wise person once said to me: "It's not about being an introvert versus an extrovert, it's about the qualities and capacities that lay within you." The same way, it's not about how I define myself, it's more about what I do and what I aspire to be.

And I know that for many of my friends, no matter how close, the answer to the title question "where do I stand" is a mystery. Perhaps my reasoning is flawed, perhaps I do need to provide some subtitles to my train of thought and action for my friend to follow who I really am. Yet I do not, at least not often enough, and instead I feel the water with people I meet and wait to see what their understanding of me might be.

I'm uncomfortable with the verbal, I'm intolerant of the obvious when stated and I have no patience for the labeling.

Because I have travelled, because I've been gone and back, because I am not the person I once used to be (at least in appearance), I'm aware I easily confuse people. But those mixed feelings are positive.
I am growing,
Have been growing,
And haven't stopped growing.

So where do I stand? Bear with me, for I cannot name it.
I cannot etiquette myself at the moment you ask, for I cannot suspend time nor my journey...

Do Bad Boys marry?...

My friends and I, including Primum Non Nocere often joke about how I tend to be attracted to "bad boys". By Bad Boys, we mean the type of boys that might have a past but that certainly do not lack the personality to go explore the world and it's downfalls. There is a strong appearance factor and attitude attributed to those guys and I admit that those boys are the ones who intrigue me.

I meet my share of "good boys" who frankly, have no stain on their impeccable careers, their out-of-the-box thinking and their amazing personality. Those are great guys, and those are the ones I do not hesitate to set up with my closest friends.

Yet I fall for the Bad Boys.

I have come to realize that my attraction to Bad Boys, besides for leading me nowhere, also makes me feel misunderstood. To the world, Bad Boys indicate a very different type of breed in which the Boys are described by very selfish characters and incredible looser-type of personality.
"These are the boys you do not want to marry," I am often told. No, no one wants to marry a jerk nor a guy lacking brains. Nevertheless, I could see myself falling  (or have fallen) for a guy who has the depth and understanding of a someone who's been down the path of Hell but has come back. Not that he must, but since he did, I would appreciate the substance of his journey.

I am aware I just expressed a complex idea into two very simplistic paragraph but this might not be the last post on the topic. Then again, this does relate to my whole theory about being attracted to personalities versus actions or deeds.