Bits of a life

Logic is a relatively new concept, it emerged with consciousness, and gave us a false sense of control over our lives. We felt freed from the vagaries of life. It was considered to be  the panacea, and the antidote against the rabid, mercurial nature of our existence. We wake up, make a plan, study different ways of achieving it, then we opt for the most logical path to take. In studying all the facets of a problem, we tend to overlook data that is not aligned with our thinking patterns, and our accumulated set of experiences. We, as a result, get a partial view of the whole situation on which we base our plans. Its akin to making a rash decision. In picking up a bag of chips from a supermarket shelf, we don't inquire about the origin of the potatoes, the different component of the seasoning. It would take us weeks, if not months before we could pick our snack. To circumvent that, we cheat, and use the price, the design of the wrapper, what the person next to us chooses as shortcu

Thinking and acting ad two different activities. It is almost as if these two undertakings were the fruits of the same thinking organ. Let's imagine that this sophisticated organ had a switch, that could either be pushed to the right, or to the left, depending on the given task. We flick the switch to the right, and it starts its logical decision-making apparatus. We move it to the left, and it sends a signal to our muscles to start moving ad take action, while it turns off the reasoning side of the machine. Most of us try to keep the switch in the middle. We make a decision and start debating its validity, while we are acting on it. It is as if we were in a casino, playing roulette. We pick our number, and instead of relaxing and watching the ball race around the wheel, we fret, fume and agonize over the results. Engaging in such conflicting activities creates friction and stress. It stalls our progress and undermine our efforts. When our brain is thinking, when we are in the &quo

We hear the word independence and we feel a warm, reassuring sensation that runs through us. We feel at peace, knowing that the vagaries of life will not have us knocking on doors, with pleading eyes, asking for a helping hand. It makes us feel superior, almost invincible. In our striving for independence, we want to be able to achieve, and attribute our accomplishment to our sheer dedication and work. We readily forget that, we humans, constitute the cells of a larger body called humanity. We forget, propelled by our individualistic drive, that the food and the shelter provided by our parents is the reason why we are still breathing. The roads that allow us to travel, the bread kneaded by our neighborhood baker, the vegetable that grow on the farmer land, the car that takes us to work. The examples are infinite. With all the money in the world, we couldn't get these things, if they are not available. We depend on each other, and all our victories are the results of a concerted eff

Being independent, being self-sufficient are buzzwords that we hear more and more, as some societies are making, or have already made the transitions from family-oriented to a purely individualistic communities. Relaying one's own devices to go through life leads to an existence of strife and struggle, but there is almost a sense of achievement attached to managing one's life without resorting to the help of others.  A premium is put on this mangled almost unrecognizable form of self-reliance. We sometimes understand independence to be the ability to achieve outside of the confines of the family, the group or the community. This perverted form of independence, creates selfish, cold individuals out of us. It creates individuals that can't trust anybody outside of themselves. Persons unsupported by their community become weak and scared. In nature animals and insects live in group, large or small. Within these groups, each individual performs certain tasks that advance the wh

Walking down the aisles of a supermarket, we get overwhelmed by all the choices presented to us. Shelves after shelves decked out with cereals, chocolate, chips and all varieties of snacks. Standing in the middle of this jungle of garish packages, we look around, pick up a package, read the ingredients, then we put it down and grab another. They all look similar but different at the same time. Finally, after a couple of minutes, we take a decision and we pick something familiar, something that looks and feels as a good choice. We often use the packaging, the price, the sugar content or the fat content as a shortcut, because we don't have the time, nor the expertise to thoroughly investigate each product that we buy. We use these attributes as an indication of quality. A higher price means a better products, and a well-designed packaging is a sign of high quality goods. We use reviews in the same way, ignoring the fact that we, as humans, although we agree on a lot of things, we hav

Our brain, senses and our bodies adapt to our environment. , habits and our way of life to make things easier for us. If our job if physical, our brain will direct its focus towards feeding our muscles to allow them to carry out our work with the least of effort. If our work is intellectual, our brain is going to neglect our body and privilege our intellect by directing most of its attention to the development of our neurons. When we overstimulate our brain watching fast action movies or playing saturated video games, that feature garish colors and dashing characters that evolve in  racy environments, we raise our threshold level for what looks and feels normal. Our baseline in no more the quiet stories that take place in the country side or the simple games that feature a simplistic design and primitive sounds, these things don't entertain us anymore. In certain countries where spicy food is a daily sustenance, a simple dish with basic condiments is flat and tasteless. In order to

The holidays are getting closer, and we start planning our holidays, from the destination, to the hotel we are going to book, to the daily activities that we are planning to take part in. Our holidays are laid out in minute details, filling out page after page of our notebook. Peeking from between its pages are notes and picture that make our book look like soggy cardboard fished out of a stagnant pond. At our destination things look a bit different, amusement parks are closed for renovation and the visiting hours of the museum have slighted shifted. We feel aggravated, and we start complaining about things that could not be changed to fit the instructions in our bloated notebook. We stiffen and grudgingly modify our plans. Our visits to these unplanned locations feel like the first day of kinder garden for a toddle that have been separated from his parents without previous notice. Whatever we eat makes us feel sick. The sun gives us headaches and the chats with fellow travelers feel l