We are the world.......each in our own way

Hi folks, and welcome to my world. Literally, welcome to my "world".

I have one, you have one, everybody does.

We as individuals have our own worlds that we live in, our own unique way of seeing things. That's not news, most everyone knows that. But something I thought about recently made me think a little differently about me and my own particular world, and then of course, it made me think about everyone else's world too.

If you look up the word "unique" in a dictionary, the definition reads something like this: "Existing as the only one or sole example; single; solitary in type or characteristics" (thank you "dictionary.com"). Now think about that for just a minute. The "only one" or "sole example". "Solitary in type or characteristics". That means that each and every one of us is truly the only one of our kind, there are no others exactly as we are. Sure, we're all human, and we share genetic factors among us, but even so, our minds are not at all alike, each of us is "unique" in that aspect.

Remember my last post, about religion? This uniqueness we all have is another reason why I think that we are so diverse in our religious beliefs. None of us see things exactly the same way, so that's why I said I thought it would be better for all of us if we just did our own thing, and left everyone else alone.

What I'm getting at here is that each and every one of us is alone in our thoughts, and we are therefore alone in our perceptions. No one else can ever see our lives as we do, just as we can never see anyone else's life as they see it. We each inhabit our own unique "world", and as we travel through life, even if we have others that walk closely beside us, experiencing the same things, we are still left to perceive it all through our own eyes, and take from those experiences what we decide to take. We can never know anyone as well as we know ourselves, nor can we say we can feel something exactly the same way someone else does.

But, again, none of this is news. Everyone knows they are their own person. But what if this "own person" thing extends into the spiritual realm? What if, when we leave these bodies, our spirit is also unique? Makes sense, right? The point is, it's not just here, on earth, that we are unique. When we leave these bodies and revert back to our "energy" existence, having all of time and space at our fingertips (at least I hope so), we are still the only one of our kind, in the entire universe. There is no other creature exactly like me, none exactly like you. We will still exist as a unique entity, experiencing everything in a unique way.

That puts everything in "perspective" for me. It tells me that in truth, I have no one to answer to but myself, no one at all. Even if there are more advanced or more evolved beings out there, "gods" so to speak, they can't see through my eyes, and even if they can or could, they are still viewing what I see through their own perceptual "filters", so again, they are not truly seeing things exactly like ME. I choose for myself what I choose to see, I choose what I want to learn, and I choose how I want to live, whether here on earth, or "out there" after this physical life is over. I cannot say that anyone else chose it for me. I can't say that anyone else is to blame for what happens to me, I can't say that anyone else "made" me do something. But I can also say that only I can assess my own life, only I can say if I've accomplished what I should have, or for that matter, I'm the only one that can choose what I WANT to accomplish. No one else's opinion on that, ultimately, really matters. Because I'm the only one I have to be comfortable with.

When you really begin to step back, and think about your existence from the viewpoint that only YOU can have, you begin to see that a lot of what you do to impress other people is completely unnecessary. We humans have this tendency to want to be like each other, we want to "fit in", it seems natural to do so, it makes us feel better to "belong" to something. But when you think about how unique you are, fitting in seems like the opposite of what should be done. Maybe what we should all be doing is taking our own "route", living how we want to live, and not be worrying about what anyone else thinks of it. I know this enters the world of "self worth", but if you know you are the only one, then there's really no one else that you can compare to, no one else is better, worse, or anything in between. We all exist. And that's it.

It's a pretty big leap out of "normal" thinking, to see oneself in that light. It means forgetting about anything anyone else is doing, forgetting about what anyone else is telling you you should be doing, and forging your own path, just because you CAN. Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to others at all, it just means that you should not just do whatever someone tells you to do just because they are someone you "look up" to. When you're a kid, of course you should listen to your parents, they have lots of great insight on how life "works", and what are good ideas for things to do, and what may not be. They can teach you about things that you haven't been able to experience yet. Sometimes they might seem like they are overly restrictive, but parents tend to do that, because they are aware of the dangers of life, and want to protect you from them. But it doesn't last forever, and when you are grown, you can then make all the "important" decisions without anyone else's input. Until then however, you ARE still making decisions for yourself, in how you deal with the situations you are in, in how you feel about them, and how you react to them. So it's no different than how adults think either. We each have to live with ourselves on how we decide to feel, because everything we do is a choice, even our emotions.

And sure, there's lots of decisions in life that we don't make for ourselves, but I believe everything is a step along a path, the path we've chosen to take. It may not always be pleasant, we may not always like where we are or what we HAVE to do, but we CAN choose not to feel badly about it. We can choose to see things positively, we can choose to let things go, and we can choose to take opportunities to learn from things we see as mistakes. And no one else can ever take that choice away from us.

Being unique is the best thing in the universe, there's freedom in it. Knowing I'm the only one is comforting, and I'm glad to be my own world. I hope you're glad to be in yours too.

Religion.....good or bad for mankind?

Hello folks, and welcome to another edition of Perth's Perspective. This time I'm going to talk about a subject that is very near and dear to most anyone out there, religion, and I'm going to start out by informing you that if you find anything about the post that follows offensive, you can simply stop reading. Remember that what I post here is my perspective alone, and not the opinion or perspective of anyone else. I am not out to attack or defame anyone or any form of religious practice, and therefore what follows should not be construed as such. Everyone has their own opinion, their own beliefs, and they are all entitled to them. Let's leave it at that, and everyone will be happier.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let's begin.

Religion. The mere mention of the word gets people fired up. And why? Because for most people, it's a very large part of who they are, the core of their belief system, and for lack of a better word, it's what "controls" their mindset, in their dealings with other people, and with life in general. It doesn't matter what country you live in, or what you do for a living, everyone has some sort of "system" of morals they believe in, things you do, and things you don't do, and most importantly, the belief in someone, a spiritual being, a "god", that has "control" over everything. Well, no, even that doesn't cover it, because there are some religions that think no one is in control. And some that think there are many "beings" in control. And some that think it's the stuff here on earth that we "answer" to, or that are sacred, and should be deemed just as alive and sentient as ourselves. Still others believe that we are just here, on our own, but that we get help from spiritual beings that are more "evolved" than us, but are not "gods". The list goes on and on.

To confuse things even further, within the same religious group, there may be several dozen different "denominations" or "sects", all who profess to believe in the same basic doctrine, but their activities and practices are different, as is usually their interpretation of their given religion's sacred text. All the mainstream religions have these "books", usually thousands of years old, supposedly written by the hand of their chosen "god" or a prophet who had the ear of that "god". They usually have guidelines on how we as humans are supposed to live, how to treat each other, and how we should deal with things should we find others who do not follow the same ideas. So, when different people, of different religious beliefs come in contact with each other, there are usually problems, and violence often ensues. Some of the books say that those that do not believe should be summarily executed. Others just say that everyone should be "converted" to that belief system, or suffer dire consequences in the "afterlife".

The question I have then, is religion a good thing for us to have? Should we trust in something so strongly that it moves us to try to control what other people do and think? I firmly believe that everyone is entitled to believe what they choose to believe, and that no one here on this earth is above anyone else, and has the right to choose for anyone else what they can and cannot do, or what they themselves choose to believe. Religion is what makes people do just that however, and it's so bad, it's become part of our systems of government as well. There's no such thing as a true democracy, because even in THIS country, the people who started things had a belief system of their own that pervaded everything that they deemed "right" and "wrong", so the system of government that they built followed those beliefs, even to this day. There were no other religious practices represented in the forming of the government, and while it is designed to provide representation for ALL people, the majority rules, and therefore, if the majority of people belong to one particular religious group, their ideas win. But why can't we have a government not based on ANY religion's ideas?

One big reason I can think of is that it would be difficult to completely separate religious beliefs from the making of law. People use their own moral code to create laws, and their moral code comes straight from their religious beliefs. It's like saying that you could create a law about murder, without thinking about whether or not you think it is wrong, and what penalties should be paid should a person commit murder. Each of us has an idea on that, and every one of us gets that idea from what we believe in our religious practice. I think some laws could be considered as "common sense", such as that law about murder, I mean, it doesn't take any conviction to any "god" to say it's probably not a good idea if the populace is allowed to murder each other without penalty, that would be called "anarchy", and there would be chaos.

What I'm talking about however is making law about things that, in my mind at least, ought to be a personal choice of the individual, and not the choice of those in government, or any group of individuals that finds that choice offensive to their own beliefs. In this country, it's things like who can marry, while in other countries, it's things like who have jobs or own a business. Personally, I think the government has no right to make those decisions, as they do not affect the populace as a whole, but are rather the choice of each citizen individually. But those religious beliefs creep into the minds of those who make the laws, and then therefore, the laws in essence ARE that religion. As a matter of fact, I just read today that the word "religion" in some ancient languages was synonymous as the word "law". The pervading religion was in fact the "law" of the day. But should it be that way for us today?

Many people in ancient times did not know how to read and write for themselves, and so they depended on their leaders to give them the direction they needed on what was acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Religion gave them that. They knew exactly where they stood in the grand scheme of things, and what was expected of them in their society. But today, with the internet, and the ability of global communication, and education systems that have most citizens able to read and write for themselves, is it really necessary for our governments to decide what is right and wrong for us as individuals? I think not.

There's no easy answer to the "religion" question. Some things about religion are great, it gives us a moral compass, it gives us something to share with our fellow believers, and it's very good for humans in general to feel like there is something out there to strive for. But when it is used against others of differing beliefs, I see no good coming out of it. Only hatred, bigotry, and violence. All through history we see it. Wars have been started and fought over religion. This god or that god's name has been used in the subjugation, torture, and mass murder of millions of innocent people. Everyone's common sense sees that in retrospect, those supposedly religious acts were in fact atrocities against mankind. But what if no one is killed, or tortured? What if they are just prevented from making a choice that should be theirs, because of a religious government? Is that any LESS a travesty?

What I wish is that people could and would see PAST their own religious beliefs, and realize that some things are not their place to choose for someone else. We've even got big businesses with religious affiliations trying to make laws now. They come out saying that they support one decision over another, to attempt to sway those in the government to vote that same way. And indeed to try to sway the public to see it their way too. But it's still a religious issue. There is no cause for any business, whether private or public, to become involved in a law that pertains to a personal choice. NONE. Leave the people alone, let them do what they want, as long as it does not harm anyone else. That's just common sense. They might as well come out and tell us that it should be a law that we can't eat where we choose, we can only eat at THEIR establishment, because the others are "wrong". It's a personal choice that should not be dictated to me by anyone, or otherwise, we don't live in a free country at all. Let's just have them tell us what car we can own, or where we're allowed to live, and better yet, let's have them tell us in what profession we will work. Yeah, seems moronic, sure, no one would live with that. But it's ok with us to let the government tell us who we can marry? Really? Wow, that's pretty amazing. I could have sworn it was my choice who I picked out as a spouse. Oh well, I guess they'll pick me someone that suits me, and I'm sure we'll get along just fine.

Makes sense, right? That's religion for you. Sometimes it's good, but at times like this, all I can say is that it's BAD, very bad. Let's keep our religions to ourselves shall we? I have mine, you have yours. You have your personal decisions, I have mine. Can't we all just leave it at that?

To Boldly Go...Where Perth Has Never Gone Before...

As I mentioned on Facebook last night, today's post is about some things I have never talked about before, but I have some strong opinions about them, and I want to be heard. So, here I boldly go......

I write here in my blog to voice my perspective on life, on things I see or hear, or just to generally think aloud about what's on my mind at the moment. But the longer I have traveled this path I am on, the more I have begun to realize that my perspective is not enough. I see the world from one tiny viewpoint, as you the rest of you, granted, but the problem I see is that there is so much more happening than I or most of us can perceive, it's almost useless to take those perceptions as "truth".

Think about what you see on the news everyday. Death, destruction, this or that is the next thing that can kill you, oh look, another crooked CEO or politician has been indicted for fraud, or money laundering, or just plain heinous acts of cruelty or violence. Same sex marriage, this person loves it, this person hates it, they all publicize their very strong opinions on it. Personally, I myself am beginning to wonder why it is we have to "claim" a particular gender at all. I'm not 100 percent sure, but I have reason to believe that when we are not actively incarnating in a human body, in our spirit form we do not have a "gender" at all, or, we can choose which one we appear to have.

I just feel like all this "stuff" that we concern ourselves with here, during these lives, is scarcely the point of living. So what if two men or two women want to get married? It's their lives, let them deal with the ups and downs of marriage just like the rest of us, why does it have to be some big huge issue? So a group of humans were taught as children that a marriage is between a man and a woman, and that means that the rest of the human race HAS to think so too? Whatever, SCREW YOU and that book you love to quote to make yourself feel important, and take your tiny view of the world and keep it to yourself, and leave the rest of us to do the same! I'm sick of hearing about it! Let people do what they want, just as YOU get to do what YOU want!

See what I'm getting at here? How can my view of the world be taken as anything but my own opinion to anyone else who reads it or hears about it? Why then do some people think that THEIR view is the ONLY way? And why do they think they have the right to tell the rest of us how to think, and how to live? Who made them any different than me? My perspective on life is no better than anyone else's, and I don't see how even a large group of people with the same perspective can say that they are "right". There's so many other ideas.

I used to be like that. I used to think that I "knew" stuff. I was so sure about what the truth was that I believed it in my core. And I'm not talking about religion either. I'm talking about science, philosophy, anatomy, physics, you name it, I had ideas in my head that I KNEW what made the world go around. But the more I learn, I am finding that I "know" less and less. The perceptual ability of we "meatbags" is limited to only a short band of the light spectrum, and a similarly small band of the sound spectrum. We (on the whole) cannot perceive anything outside of what our paltry senses feed to our brains, but there is a shit ton of things going on right under our noses that we cannot in any way, shape, or form even detect, let alone understand if we could. We have been able, with technology, to verify that. However, we don't have the ability to see beyond what that technology can "see", so how do we know if there's MORE? We don't.

I am completely fed up with the human race. We piddle along, squabbling and fighting over things that don't even matter, instead of trying to better ourselves, trying to find out what's out there, and maybe even along the way evolving into something more than just primitive primates in a steel, glass, and concrete jungle. We believe in gods, and spirits, in thousands of forms of "deities", but instead of trying to find ways to become like them, we decide to do harm to our fellow man in the NAME of these gods, as if we have the right.

I believe that I am a spirit, incarnating a physical body at the moment, and even though the vast number of the world's "religions" have the same idea, no one seems to be concerning themselves with what is happening in the world that spirits inhabit. These are our own people, us, those not incarnating a body right now, and yet no one seems to want to bridge the gap, and those that do are called freaks and mentally deranged. Why? We all seem to believe that we either came from there first, and/or will be going there when our time as a human is done, so why is it considered "wrong" to want to see what their existence looks like? Why can't we try to pursue the realm of the spiritual without it becoming some freakish side show? It's just as real to us as the physical world is, so everyone says, especially those who proclaim to be religious, but any mention of someone attempting to communicate with spirits or to find a "doorway" to enter the spirit world is considered taboo, or just plain crazy. And I want to know why.

I myself have no extrasensory perception, I don't see ghosts, I don't hear voices, nothing. At least not to my knowledge. It could just be that I don't yet know how to listen to them or see them. But either way, I know and have known people who could, and I have not seen them as freaks. Rather, I have seen them as having been given a wonderful talent, one that I hope to have someday, if I am capable. There is so much to be learned from the Other Side, because they are not bound by the constraints of a physical existence. To be a spirit means to be perceptive beyond our imagination, to see into the past, present, and future all at the same time. It means being something more than a person worrying about who marries men and who marries women. It means more than the "9 to 5" drudgery we've gotten ourselves stuck in with all of our "civilization". It means more than worrying about how you will look in that outfit when you go out to meet your friends. There's so much more out there that has nothing to do with being a physical being, and I want to learn about THAT, I am DONE with all this garbage that is of no real use to anyone. I could not care less about who the next "American Idol" is going to be. I want to know how to evolve into something better. I want to know how I can learn and progress as a spirit, not a human.

Physically, I am male. Mentally, I am androgynous. I have no gender, or rather, I am both male AND female. So if I find a companion, that person is a companion, not a gender. If I decide I want to officially make that person my lifelong companion, whether or not that person is physically male or female makes no difference. That's MY perspective on the matter. I just wish the rest of the humans saw it that way.

I don't know what's out there. I don't know for a fact that there even is such a place as the "Other Side". I don't know anything about what anyone else is thinking, nor do I know how they feel. I am just me, and I leave everyone else to do what they want. I live very much in the moment, because I have found that I cannot take anything I saw or read or heard "before", and predict what will come in the future, even moments from now. So have your squabbles, take your life and live it how you want, it's your life. I don't know how it will turn out, I only know that I am fed up with what I see. I'm fed up with what I am. I want to learn how to be better.

If you've made it this far down in the post, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to read my opinion, my perspective, on some very "sensitive" issues. I do not often broach such subjects, because I have feared alienating my audience. I have a different feeling about it now, I'm no longer afraid, I'm not worried at all. If a person wants to, they can read my posts or not read them, whether they agree or not. People don't come here to get their own opinions, they come here to read mine. So, I have done it, I wrote the post, and I am planning on writing similar ones in the future.

Here's to boldly going where I've never gone before.

Laborious Nights....My job...it's fun, but not easy....

As you may have seen earlier today, I promised a post about what it is I do at night, working for the largest retail chain in the world. (If you didn't see the post on Facebook, check out my fan page, and like it, to be able to see those status updates.....the link is there in the sidebar.---->) I am officially a "Frozen/dairy stocker", but I also double as a "Dry food-Gm stocker", where the "Gm" stands for "general merchandise", which is what most of the other stockers are called. The reason there is a difference between the names is because in years past, there was a different, and slightly higher, rate of pay for those working in the "cold" areas, but now everyone is paid at the same level, but the name remains. There is also the difference because in some stores, if you are a frozen/dairy stocker, that is all you ever work, those two departments, but, in my store, that is not the case at all, as I will explain later.

So what's a typical night like for me? Two words can sum it up very nicely, and those are VERY BUSY lol. We clock in at 10 p.m., and proceed immediately to one of the price checker terminals situated throughout the store, but we're not out to check any prices. We scan the bar code on the back of our name badge, and a screen comes up with a list of the tasks we will have to perform that evening. They are touchscreens, so we just touch the word "start" to start the task, and touch "complete" when it's done. The first task on the list is always the "meeting". The meeting is where the entire crew comes together (usually in the back of the store, in "Site to Store") and the overnight assistant manager on duty tells us about any relevant information we need for that evening, and anything problems or issues that have come up that we need to address. Personally, I like the meeting, because it gives me a chance to find out who's at work that night, because with a crew the size that we have, you can tell a lot about how the night is going to go by how many people are there, and who they are. If that doesn't make any sense, allow me to elaborate.

Many stores in this gargantuan retail chain employ a crew of about 30 to 40 people to stock the store each night. Just ballparking a figure in my head, I'd have to say that there are about that many areas or departments that have new freight that comes in every night, so having one person for each DOES make sense. However, the amount of new freight varies widely for each area, some have a lot, like softlines (the clothing), where all the "departments" are grouped together as one, or in the case of MY usual department, dairy, a very large department in itself. Others are much smaller, such as the stationary department, which is only a few short aisles, or even, believe it or not, electronics, which is one of the departments in which much of the stocking is done during the day. What I'm getting at here is that in some stores, there is a system in place where the same person stocks the same area every night, and they are not asked or told to go to any other area(s) that they are not usually assigned to. This means that while they are very very good at stocking "their" area, it is pretty much all they know how to do. Send them to another department, and they could not do it nearly as quickly as the one who does it every day. If a department usually has more freight than one person can run in a normal shift, then there is a mini "crew" of 2 or even 3 people that have that department, every night, for the same reason, because they know it, and can get it done faster. Sounds like a great system, right? Well, let's just say there are pros and cons. Let me explain how it's done at my store, and you'll see what I mean.

What MY store does is to take a much smaller crew, probably half the size in fact, and do the same amount of stocking in the same amount of time, because most of our crew can work just about any department in the store, and do it well, because they are trained to know just about the whole store, or at least be familiar enough with it to do any area they are assigned. A crew that can do that is a much more efficient crew, and is much more flexible, for management, since they can assign jobs to anyone, and everything gets done in a timely manner. It takes a certain type of attitude on the part of your personnel to be able to pull that off, a dedication to getting things done, wherever one is assigned, and it's not for the faint of heart, or those not good with change. That alone to me is why I believe that the crew I work with is one of the finest in the business, and I would even venture to say that you could take us, as a crew, to one of the stores with a much larger crew, and stock THEIR store faster and more correctly than their own crew. So when I say I like the meeting, because I can see who's working and how many people are there, it tells me a lot about how busy we are all going to be that night, and/or if we are going to be doing a lot of "jumping around" to different departments to get everything done.

As you can probably already see, it is not an easy job, far from it. It is one where you have to be constantly moving, constantly working, and not allow yourself to be tempted to stand around and talk with your coworkers, or "goof off", because you know you have work to do, and only so much time in which to do it. Because there's another little gem this "system" has in place that is a key motivator. You are actually timed in each task you start, from beginning to end, and each task has a designated time in which it is supposed to be accomplished. Take dairy for instance. On a typical night, there will be 3 to 5 full pallets of new freight to be run, sometimes more, sometimes less. The freight manifest that comes in with the trucks when they are unloaded has a count of exactly how many cases of freight has arrived, and with that number, factoring in a number of cases per hour a person is expected to be able to run, a number of hours is generated, and that's the "time" you are given at the beginning of the night, for each task you are given. For me, it usually means anywhere between 4 and 12 hours worth of freight. And yes, there are nights in which you are expected to get more hours of freight done than there are actual hours in the shift. And it's entirely possible to make that happen, trust me, it all depends on what it is that you get. The reason? Because not every case you receive can actually go on the shelf. Some will inevitably be "overstock", and is set aside to be put on the shelves in the backroom. And when there's 12 hours of freight, you can bet there will be a LOT of overstock.

Anyway, without getting any more boring than I already have, trying to explain the intricate workings of the inventory management system, let me just say that on most nights, I have the opportunity to take whatever comes in on the truck, and get everything that will actually go on the shelf into its proper place, so shoppers have something to buy when they come in the next day. For me, it's a great sense of accomplishment, and at the same time, a challenge, because no two nights are ever alike, even if you work the same department. And then, there's a lot of nights, when you have no idea where you may be working, as has happened to me lately. They've hired 4 new stockers, and they are training them, in various areas of the store, so I have been out of my "element" so to speak. For a while now, I knew I would be coming in and working the dairy department, as I would be the one "on duty" that was the most familiar, and therefore the "best" at it, and I was content with that. But now, I never know what I'll be doing from one night to the next, and it's a little unnerving sometimes. See, as much as I've just talked about my "crew" working anywhere in the store, on many nights, we don't have to, and we stay in pretty much the same areas, or close at least, such as working one or another grocery aisle, which, once you've done them all a few times, any or all are very easy to go back to later.

But anyway, the last week or so has seemed even busier to me, stocking areas I am not as familiar with as dairy, and on top of that, last night, they had one of the new people stocking dairy by himself for the first time, and he was really quite lost, I felt bad for him. He took over 2 hours longer than his designated time to finish, which is really pretty good, considering how new he is at it, but of course management doesn't see it that way. They expected him to be finished in the time allotted. They prefer to throw someone in the "fire", so to speak, to see how they will handle it, and it's really how they see if someone will make it, under the system they have in place. Those that won't usually quit within their first week, because they either can't get used to working overnight, or it's more work than they care to do. Either way, I know if he stays, he'll be good, but to only be able to watch, and not help, well, it was hard. I wanted to show him so many things, to help him learn it, but I had my own work to do, and could only mention little tidbits in passing, because I did have the good fortune of being assigned to the deli wall freight, which is stacked together in with the dairy freight.

To bring this increasingly lengthy post to a close, I will say that I enjoy what I do, and do you know why? Don't you hate it when you go into a store, that you KNOW carries the things you love and want to buy, and you get there, and they are out of whatever it is you came to get? Yeah, I do too.

That's why I do what I do.

A little remodeling, and hopefully expansion

Hello folks, I hope you're having a good Wednesday morning.

I'm in the process of doing some work around here, on the blog, I've already changed the button, so if you have a button collection on your blog, feel free to pick up the new one. I'm also on the lookout for a new layout; I like this one, but it doesn't really fit my sense of "perspective", which is what my blog is all about, my own unique perspective on life.

I'm also doing some work on my fan page on Facebook, because I have not done very much to promote my blog, and while I love having you 43 followers I have at the moment, I would very much like to have more. If you have not seen my fan page, click on the link in the gadget over there in the right column, and while you're there, "like" it, and you will then receive my posts on your Facebook wall, rather than having to come to Blogger to see them.

So, that's about it for now. Keep an eye out for the changes, as they are coming soon, and I hope to see you here for the "grand re-opening" of Perth's Perspective.

It's been a while.....

Hi folks, nice to see you again. It's been over a month since I last posted. There was not much to talk about. There was nothing new in my life, things are still "go to work, come home, sleep at some point, go back to work" most of the time.

That's not to say that things haven't changed in my mind though. Daily events have a way of changing one's mind, sometimes slowly, and sometimes all at once. I've had both this last month.

I turned 41 on Monday, a week ago, and that's about the most noteworthy thing that's happened to me in the last month. Saturday night however, I did finally come to the conclusion that I have to completely quit drinking. I was only doing it on my days off, rather than every day, as I did when I was a lot younger, but, physically, my body can't handle it anymore, and I don't like who I become when I drink either. So, that's the end of it.

That was the "all at once" change of mind I had. The other changes have taken place more slowly, but they are no less life changing. I have come to realize that through all these years of life, I still had not truly done anything just because "I" wanted to do it. So I did a few things that I wanted to do. No one suggested them, I came up with them on my own, and I did them. Sure, I asked for feedback, because these "things" I did were cosmetic changes, but the ideas for them came solely from me. It's a step in a direction I intend to take for the rest of my life. I am going to make my own choices, and stop following what others are doing just to try to fit in. I have my own life, and I am my own person, and I can do what I want without having to ride someone else's coat tails, or have someone else's approval.

You might just say that I know longer care about what anyone thinks of what I do, I'm just going to do it, if it feels right.

And hopefully, I have another 40 years left of this life to find out where that will take me.

Observations.....and possiblilities

As I have progressed through this life, especially in recent years, I have made some observations.

There's a lot to be said for experience, and although my experience may differ from yours, I can say with some certainty that you may have made some of these observations as well.

My father used to tell me that "times change, but people don't". What he meant by that was that even though technology advances, and our political and social environment changes, our core emotions and reactions to things really don't change all that much. That small "quote" has stayed with me since I was a child, and I have observed in my travels that he was indeed correct. No matter what is going on in the world, people still have the same emotions and reactions to things as they did 20, 30, or even 100 years ago. Show them something new, something that surprises them, angers them, or makes them think, and they will inevitably react in the same manner even as they did long ago. Pass a law that squelches their freedom, and they will cry out for change. Tell them that they can't do something, that it's impossible, and someone will find a way to make it possible. The list goes on and on.

The thing I've noticed most of all is that people, in general, are resistant to change. They are resistant to new information that challenges everything they have ever "known" about life. That's why we have so much going on in the world right now about gay rights and belief in things that are outside of what is taught to us as children. "The world is like THIS, and that's just how it is, and nothing else exists." That seems to be what we are taught. People then make that "knowledge" a part of themselves, and when someone comes along and challenges that, people become angry and defensive, instead of embracing the new idea, even if only to agree that it is possible.

I believe it is dangerous for us as humans to take what we are taught, or even what we learn on our own, and make it so much of a part of ourselves that we are unable to see that there is so much more out there that we can't see. It makes us rigid, almost like we are building walls around ourselves, and it keeps us from seeing that there may be a lot more to this existence than we could possibly imagine. We've already seen that there are many other things on this planet alone, whole ecosystems, that until recently, were undiscovered, and still defy explanation.

What if there was a whole world, that all of us are connected to, that no one ever told us about? It's commonly known as the "Other Side", but I like to think of it as the real world. Sure, this planet is real, and so are we as humans, but the other side is just as real, and it's where we live when we are not human, in physical bodies. I was brought up to think that there was a heaven and hell, and that to get to heaven, there were certain criteria that had to be met, or you would end up in hell when you died. I was also told that I was born physical first, but that I had a soul, and that when I died I would become a spiritual being. But what if it's the other way around? What if I (and all of you as well) were first a spirit, and then decided to BECOME human, for the experience, and to learn things?

I cannot stress enough that opening one's mind to that very possibility is, in my opinion, the very key to our existence. Once you scrape away all the "physical" education, and get down to the very core of yourself, you begin to realize that this indeed is the way to true happiness. The minute you begin to think about the possibilities of existence itself, and start to wonder "What's truly out there?", you leave your mind open to all the possibilities that this universe has to offer. My one hope, for the entire human race, is that one day we will all get to the point where we can embrace both our physical lives, and what it has to teach us, but also our spiritual lives, and combine them into the existence that I believe they were truly meant to be.