A smart man solves a problem, a wise man aviods it.

You see?


"Our job is not to set things right but to see them right."
-Eric Butterworth 

Are you a perfectionist? I am certainly have become one at times. But I've learned that over pursuing something is not perfection but obsession. This is to say I can live in moderation if I simply see things right but I could not if I try and set them right. I can't build a house in a day but I can learn how to design a foundation. Lance can't win the tour de france in a afternoon but he can take the lead. The line between setting and seeing has been a tightrope for many, a fall ending in a injury to confidence and certainty with no way back up for some. But the walk, if successful, can be one of joy and wonder. 

I got no empathy for you's

 "I feel you man."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAG0HkpDnaM

Most people on the planet have heard Bob Marley sing the words "one love", but how many know where he is coming from? Author Jeremy Rifkin certainly does and in this video (with great illustrations) he paints us a message; come together. I enjoyed how he stepped back in our past to show where we are and where we can go. We have come a long ways since our ancestors thousands of years ago, and now well into the electronic era, Rifkin calls for us to use our technology and compassion to create a new age of empathy. "Wide-minded" thinking to unite everyone and re-shape the way we look at the world.  Utilizing mirror neurons and the secrets of the human brain are very intriguing, the farther we look the less we know. Yet we know enough to ask some big questions and obtain some big ambitions, but with logic and optimism you can count my empathy in.

I feeeel good

"If you have the passion, you will win."

A piece of wisdom I heard last night talking about ribs and pizza. Passion is the driving force for creativity and success. Simply put, if you can follow your passion in life, happiness will not be far behind. You can't lose if you love what you're doing; work no longer becomes about what is left to do but rather what you are doing now. Artists like Michelangelo, Picasso, and Rembrandt, scientists like Einstein, Newton and Galileo, and actors like Newman, Nicholas and Eastwood would not be iconic names if they weren't driven by their passion. Are you?

Business vs. Happiness

A insightful talk about what really counts.
http://www.ted.com/talks/chip_conley_measuring_what_makes_life_worthwhile.html

This speech is chock full of good stuff. Is measuring loss of natural resource and rate of criminal activity a better evaluation of a country than the compassion and happiness of the people the live in it? I certainly hope not. Chip Conley looks for individual, emotional needs over the obvious meal and a paycheck. Allowing intangibles to take precedence over material needs not only lessens the obsession we have with every gadget and gizmo but also gives a appreciate to the simple things we may be overlooking every day.

Alone not lonely

"In solitude, where we are least alone."

-Lord Bryon

It would be easy to associate solitude with loneliness, as in todays society having entertainment or company at all times has become commonplace. But I see solitude as a human necessity. If we are never alone, how do we know ourselves? Loneliness comes when we seek the company of someone that is not with us, but this should not arise until we have acquainted ourselves with... ourselves first. I learned this growing up as a only child, there can be plenty of entertainment with yourself from time to time, since we are always changing our current thoughts and desires, getting in touch with your current state of mind can bring a surprising feeling of satisfaction and content. I never forget, I am not alone, I have myself. 

A wise start

I thought a suitable first post would be give two short essays by a personal hero of the world.


"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible."


What strikes me most about Einstein is his capability to captivate both the science and social world. His wisdom breached into life's treasures and he was not shy in sharing what he thought. Power through simplicity and peace was his way, a way I wish to adopt as well.