Bitching with Dusio: It's Thursday, give it up!

Bitching with Dusio

The rantings, ravings and musings of a now mid-forties american male. Sex, violence, rock-n-roll. Also, emotions and all that other mushy crap.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

It's Thursday, give it up!

Thursday.

Does anyone get excited about Thursdays? I suppose there is someone out there who loves Thursdays. Someone who looks forward to every Thursday. Maybe Thursday is payday. Maybe that’s the day the spouse gives up a little somethin’, somethin’.
Don’t ask me why I am going on about this.

So I just got out of a sales meeting. It was your usual rah, rah, how to sell b.s. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy meetings most of the time, I like hearing ideas, and sharing experiences. Plus, the guy who was leading the meeting is someone I respect and I always feel like I learn something from him. Believe me, I’m not a natural salesperson. I don’t like selling people things they don’t want or need. I hate high pressure sales. His philosophy is nothing like that, so I appreciate that.
What I started thinking about during the meeting was something entirely different. It was a small meeting, just a few people. One of the guys is a 23 year old guy who is also the owner’s son. He’s a nice guy, doesn’t play up being the owner’s son. My issue with him is that he’s in that phase of his life where he thinks he knows everything or knows better. I was like that once. I hate to think about how dumb I actually was. Not intellectually or anything, but with life experience. He sat there in the meeting just basically taking up a seat. If he did contribute, it would be to tell how HE did things and how it works for him. I’m not saying anyone is right or wrong, that’s not the point. The point is to be open to new ideas. To listen to others experience and learn from it.
To me, the most important thing I’ve learned in my life as I’ve matured is that I don’t know everything. That listening and learning is the most important thing you can do. I want my mind to be a sponge. I want to hear all kinds of different kinds of things and go from there. I look at myself at 23 and think how ridiculous it was to be that arrogant to think I knew anything about life. Sometimes I wonder how I accomplished anything at that age.
I’m a firm believer in education at any age. I don’t know that it has to be college or formal, but learning. I’ve met plenty of kids straight out of college that think they know everything. There is a place for formal learning, but I’m a firm believer in experience. Keeping yourself open to new ideas and thoughts, accepting that there is more to the world than your scope; that is what I mean by learning.

Another thing I’ve learned is that knowing your weaknesses and limitations is more important than knowing your strengths. I know I have plenty of issues. I accept them and want to improve. Being honest with yourself is critical. At least to me.

I guess a lot of people go through self-exploration as they get older. I know I am traveling down that path. I want to know more about myself and discover any reasons or rationales for aspects of my life. But part of that journey for me is learning more about the outside world, also. To move beyond my limited little world and see what others see. I think so much of each person’s reality is based on where they live and their culture. Reality to me is what you see through your eyes and think in your mind.
What I consider normal is completely different than what someone half a world away might consider normal. It goes even deeper than that. A person who is sane sees the world differently than someone who is ‘insane.’ It doesn’t have to be that extreme. You, as a happy, positive person, might see the world as a place full of opportunities and pleasure, where as a depressed person might only see the world as a place where kids are murdered and people suffer. Brain chemistry may be the only true definition of reality.
I know there are theoretical physicists who ponder these things. Philosophers and great thinkers. I’m sure I’m only scratching the surface.
I’ve read about people who have an ability to associate sounds and smells with colors. When they see a certain color, they have a smell that they sense. Or, they will hear a sound and see a corresponding color. That fascinates me. I wish I could experience that. I’ve often wondered what it is about the make up of the human brain that makes everyone see colors the same. What construction of the brain has you see blue and I see blue. It’s as we are all similarly tuned to the physical world. But the mental world, they thoughts in our head, the things we feel; they are all dependent on each one of us individually. Why is that? Why is blue always blue, but moral isn’t always moral? Experiences, judgments, prejudices, they all play into this.

This is getting too deep for me. I need to do something shallow. Is Jerry Springer on?

posted by dusio @ 8/17/2006 10:32:00 AM

2 Comments:

At 10:58 AM, dusio said…

Ugh, it makes my head hurt, though.
At 12:29 PM, dusio said…

You feel free to read and post all you like. I'm sure I should be doing something else, also!

big beer night sounds good. So happy beer and happy it's-your-friday.