The sun sets on another day…
Sunset was a surprise, and there I was with just a smile, and no way to go further. I laughed and enjoyed it all, as in the end, it was beautiful after a very long week.
It’s been a tough week. I’ve kept a positive attitude, but I have taken a beating. Days with no sleep and the constant cough have been difficult. It is also dimmed my senses making it a lot of fun to enjoy all of the time that I’m awake. That part is very unimportant. Instead, today I considered how our senses help us shape the world that we understand.
I had a fantastic discussion and listened to a friend’s tell me about his perspectives on a variety of written and media-based materials. I have known this friend for a long time and value his opinion and approach to life even though he has often been an outsider. Although I’m not sure that he keeps a positive attitude as much as I do, he definitely does not keep a negative attitude. There are many people that walk through the neutral areas of life and that’s a good thing. I hope I’m wrong, but I also hope that at some point he is able to swing to a more positive side.
During the discussion we talked about some media-based items that perhaps did not relay all of the necessary information in a cohesive manner. To watch a movie or a video or even many representations nowadays you not only need to be able to see what’s on the screen, but you need sound for music, dialogue, and more. We discussed this and a variety of options for improving but what fun is it to rewatch a movie if you don’t remember or if you couldn’t see. I don’t think it’s much fun at all. Then again, I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen Star Wars, Aliens, and a host of other movies that can boggle the existence. There are just some things that even though you know it by heart it’s a joy to watch.
My point of this rather weird post for the day is that we are responsible for how we see the world. If we use only one of our senses to determine were defined something, in the end we are defining nothing or only a small piece of a much larger picture. I am reminded of the movie Star Wars because the Millennium Falcon was more than just a freighter, it had a lot of special modifications under the hull. Clive Cussler has written a series of books about the Oregon, and in those books the ship is far from normal. Simple observation just wouldn’t cut it.
In the grand scope of things though, I would like to think that most media, whether it is a book, movie, or more have more than one story and more than one meaning that they are trying to convey. I strongly feel that sometimes even the author isn’t completely sure of what they’ve accomplished. I know that in a short story that I wrote called “Monster”, that a reviewer from a contest company explained the story as a societal work that was eye opening in many ways. That could only lead me to one possible exclamation, “did I write that?” I did know that I had pushed a lot of personality into the story and in doing so, as i reread it after that unique review, I saw what the reviewer saw and realized the story had taken a life of its own. I do know that in many things that I write I add in a significant portion of similar anecdotes in order to help the stories characters be more realistic.
In some movies I have walked away with a sense of understanding of something greater. In some movies I have walked away flipping my lip up and down wondering if my brain was dissolving. Still I tried to look for redeeming qualities especially in books and movies.
As I considered all of this I thought about people. It’s the same way. Somewhere underneath there is a definition for everyone that applies only for the moment when you are interacting with them. In the middle of all of that they are constantly undergoing changes and constantly growing. This means that tomorrow you may not know them anymore but today perhaps you had common ground and that came from your senses.
If you boil down the Maple syrup, use all your senses to decide things about people. Don’t give up and assume and fill in the blanks. Try to understand that everyone is going through something. That includes you. Take a step back and realize how fantastic you are and how sometimes people don’t understand you, then realize again that you are special. One more time perhaps, you are special. In some ways everyone is, and it’s important to remember that we have only our senses to trust, and with an article i had just read, there may not be just five of them.
So as the sun sets on another day, i feel like i’m rambling. It’s nice to ramble every once in a while and although this particular post isn’t necessarily the most linear series of thoughts, if you look back at it, maybe it is. Trust yourself to be the awesomesauce that I know you are. Use your senses to see other people in a positive light. Mostly, find the fantastic things that you can do every day to be the wonderful person that you are, and stay healthy, it’s a lot more fun. Thanks for being here and keep making a difference, no matter what.
Sleep sweet, love life, and see, hear ya later…