Happy Birthday

Time & Birthdays are funny things.  If you think about it, neither really exist.  Let me explain (it's not as morbid as you think).  We create time based on arbitrary placing of numbers which loosely connect to the rising and setting of the sun.  When, truthfully, time does not exist because this moment that you are in right now can feel like a minute when it is really 10 minutes therefore, our concept of time does not exist.  For example, driving home from work takes a few metaphoric seconds because we usually don't pay so much attention but when we are with good company, time can last forever.  We create our time.  We also create our concept of birthday.  Yes, we were born on a certain day in this arbitrary, perfectly random date of October 30, 2012.  When, truthfully, you are reborn with every inhale as life and every exhale as a death of that moment.  You are born every day, every moment, every year, every decade, every breath...and we must celebrate ALL of them.  And a very merry un-birthday to you. 

Am I missing something?

 Did I not get a memo that allowed us to tell each other we were wrong in our life's pursuits? 

As far as religion, theater, and other activities of life--if someone finds something that brings them purpose: who the Hell am I to say they are wrong.  Just as long as they don't try to convert me into a sect of religion that I have no interest in and as long as they don't berate me for not knowing certain so-called theater greats, then I'm fine.  Why can't we just let people enjoy things for what they are?  There is no right or wrong answer.  Why do we push things on people?  I am seriously asking you, reader.  This is not rhetorical.  Am I missing something here?

I understand that people have certain interests and opinions but in no way does that make them correct.  Why can't we talk like adults about things that piss us off or about things that rile us up?  This is the best way we, as humans, learn: through discourse in conversation!

I don't understand.  Am I being obtuse and am I missing a huge gap in my logic here or is this just "the way it is?"  'Cus fuck the ladder half of that statement.  Things are NEVER just the way they are.  We make things the way they are, we create our circumstances.  We make our world.  Oh, is that too ethereal for you?  Then either fuck off or step up to the plate: life is epic therefore our language and actions MUST follow suit. 

I want to know your thoughts.  Let's get a dialogue going here.

Fall is for crunchy leaves...

Fall is for crunchy leaves on the sidewalk.
As I walk to some prior engagement in mid-October, eyes straight ahead:
I feel it.  The first rain drop: solitary, wet, and full of excitement
falls directly above my lip, below my nose
in that crevasse space where, as the myth goes,
God  shushed you when you were born. 

I immediately recall memories of rain and become happy. 

A happy fall indeed.

On Education:

If you are not constantly questioning your education then you have no education at all.  

Self Indulgent.

Is this, what I am doing here with the blog, self-indulgent?  Quite possibly.  It's really selfish what I am doing, really.  I have created a platform in which I can save interesting thoughts and ideas and if other people, besides myself, are interested in them as well, then that's just a bonus, I suppose.

None of my thoughts are original, anyhow.  They are merely echoes and ripples of folks from the past who said awesome things that are worth repeating whether I am conscious of it or not.  In any case, even if I am not aware that I am writing about something somebody already said, it is necessary for me to put it in my own words, so that I have a better understanding of the topic.  You feel me?

What is cool and completely original about this blog (these combinations of words that become thoughts that provoke reflection and eventually action) is that NOWHERE else in the WORLD do all these combinations of ideas exist in one place.  That is what makes "Riled Up" original. 

At first, I thought this was a cool idea to share with y'all but now, after I've read it, it sounds like an advertisement for my blog and I sorta feel like a prick. 


Oh, well.  Fuck it!  :)  Enjoy.

"Not all that wander are lost." -Tolkein

Don't go thru the motions and NEVER follow other people.
Take different routes to where you are going.
Get lost.
Become lost.
Wonder--allow yourself to be tangential!
          Somehow it will all connect in the end!

What you have, what you are doing is an incredible gift.  Do not forget what you are and who you are.

Be different.  Be you. 

Notes to self (and others if applicable):

I could just be hungry.
I could just be thirsty.
I could just be tired.
Ya.  Ya-- that's why I'm feeling this way.



Stop rationalizing your feelings, your humanity, away.
Feelings and ideas are dangerous and raw and epic and beautiful. 
Let them be that way, whatever you are right now. 

There is no should.

There is no should.

There is only do and do not. 
Strike should from your personal dictionary, from your vocabulary: take it out.
There will be more clarity after this.

There is no should.

from the cool Seth Godin:

Free Range

Ways to improve your performance:

• Compete for a prize
• Earn points
• Please a demanding boss
• Make someone else's imminent deadline
• Face sudden death elimination in the playoffs
• Wear a heart monitor and track performance publicly
• Go head-to-head against a determined foe

The thing is, all of these external stimuli are there to raise your game and push you ever harder. They are fences to be leaped, opponents to be defeated.

The alternative is to compete against nothing but yourself. To excel merely because the act of excelling without boundaries or incentives thrills you.

And the good news is that once you find that, you'll always have it.



for more:  http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Secrets do not exist.

The secrets to life do not exist behind the gates of a school.  In fact, there are no secrets to life at all (though the learning institutions would like you to believe that there are so that you stay in school for a lifetime and spend all your wasted money because your supposed "teachers" are the only persons in the world who can endow you with these magical life secrets and thus, you are part of the club.  Congratulations?)  It's a big scam, you see.

The only things that exist in life are questions and answers, which exist both within and without you. 

There are no secrets; just questions and answers.
Secrets do not exist.
Do not subscribe to them.
Question it all- even my words here.
Draw your own conclusions.
Start your own club.
Secrets do not exist.

Here's to you

O, to be the poet on the shelf next to Rilke or Rumi; Elliot or Whitman:
completely eclipsed by larger anthologies, usually assumed to be a smaller version of the more well-known poets that surround it.

Here's to you, the unread words of the library!  Here's to your equal, surpassing beauty and wisdom.  By jove, you will be read one of these days!