Life's a Beach.

 

      

It's vacation time, and I am currently getting ready to go to Holden Beach, North Carolina.  As you can imagine, I'm getting really pumped.  By this time tomorrow, Ill be within sight of the ocean, shell searching, feeling the fresh sea breeze, and of course dining on delicious seafood!  The beach to me is just an awesome vacation spot.  I often think of how lucky those permanent beach bums are, With the panorama of the ocean outside their window day after day, and the freshest shrimp and fish on their plates every night.  But do those said bums really feel that lucky?  As spring has turned to summer, I have seen an increasing trickle of out of state traffic, all heading through the hills of West Virginia where I live.  Many of these cars have plates from such far flung places as North and South Carolina and Florida.  I Wonder why these beach bums are venturing nine hours or more north, to a landlocked, hilly state.  Could this be where beach bums go for vacation? I imagine the conversations that must be going on in the cars: " are we there yet?  I wanna see a real bear!"  "wow. look at all those deer kids"  "Smell that fresh air, I'm so glad we could make it to the mountains this year.  everything is so green and the weather is nice and cool".  etc etc.  So the beach bums head to the mountains, and the hillbillies head to the beaches.  Both I and the beach bums have valid points about how great the mountains and the beach can be.  How would our life change I wonder, if we had the same appreciation for our home territory that out of staters have?  How much would it increase the quality of our lives to walk out on our porch each morning and let the wonder of our surroundings wash over us as if we were experiencing it for the first time?  Like I said in the title,  when you get in the right frame of mind, regardless of where you happen to be at the moment, life's a beach.

Introducing Culture Thursday

    

"The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say."
~F. Scott Fitzgerald~

After some thought, I have decided to move up to every day posting!  This is quite a commitment given my workload at this time, but I feel that it is do-able with a little forethought and commitment.  I will be using my Tuesday and Thursday posts to open my information mine to you, dear reader.  I will post only the absolute best finds that I have encountered in my search for truth, culture, and knowledge.  Today I want to share with you the site of a philosopher named Ravi Zacharias.  Dr. Zacharias is in my mind one of the most lucid and eloquent reasoners alive today.  He speaks from a classically trained philosophic viewpoint, and comes to some startling conclusions about the trends of culture and where we are going as a people.  His site has made available for free a massive archive covering a plethora of relevant cultural topic.  I have never heard arguments stated so logically, so eloquently, in all of my searching.  check him out!

Culture Trends in America: The Illusion of Escalating Needs

Last Sunday I had an epiphany while attending services at my local church. This wasn't a moral or spiritual epiphany (although I've had some of those lately as well). No, this was an epiphany of a much more concrete sort. The lesson was dealing with cultural trends, which as you all know I have a great interest in. The minister was enumerating some features of our culture, among them was a concept that I found to be particularly insightful. It was titled the illusion of perpetually escalating needs. The gist is this: we always find something else to "need", and our consumer culture makes sure that its always there for the purchasing. And that's when I had my epiphany. I have fallen prey to this escalation of "needs" on at least a level. Raise your hand if you've upgraded your ipod, cell phone, or computer before you really needed to. How about your car, bicycle, or wardrobe? Can you see just how prevalent this concept is, and how deeply ingrained? Now, if you've read my previous post you know that I am a strong proponent of capitalism as a governmental model. It is however not without weakness, and this is perhaps one of them. The free market pushes companies to get the average individual to consume consume consume. And one of the most effective ways to achieve this is through the escalation of perceived needs. The tech world is positioned well for this strategy due to its rapid advancement and lowering cost. So now, in tech at least, we can have a new "must have" item every month. So the question is, have you fallen prey as I have to the escalating needs? Is this attitude wrecking your finances and stealing your enjoyment of life? I have made a list of three questions that you can ask yourself in order to escape from the escalator:

1. What really makes me happy? This is a crucial question. Many times we assume, without really thinking about it, that new gadgets will make us happy. If your like me though, a quick look around the house at all of yesterdays "must have" items tell a different story. It may even be helpful to make a list of things that make you happy. Most of the time, you'll find that they aren't the latest and greatest thing.
   
2. What's Wrong with what I have? Yesterday, I noted that my younger brother was still listening to a old discman that I had given him when I got my first ipod. I've since upgraded three times and probably spent at least five hundred dollars on the process. Sure, I can carry all eleven thousand songs in my pocket, but do I need to? When I listen to the Zepp, does it sound any different than on my old discman? I don't think so. Asking yourself this question, I have found, will save you loots of money.
   
3. Why do I want the "new thing"? if your answer has anything to do with a new commercial or because your friend owns one, you're probably falling prey to the "escalator". If you didn't need it until you realized it existed, you probably don't need it.
   

If you consistently ask these questions, it becomes much easier to jump off the escalator, free yourself of "stuff", and just get down to loving each day. That's where it's really at after all.

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Here is a simply fascinating series of articles dealing with the concept of digital culture. Many thanks to Artmaker for the link!

5 Steps to Enjoying Each Day

“Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.”

~Eddie Cantor~

Anyone who's been watching the field of tech knows that the future is mobile. We all want our computers a little lighter, a little smaller, with more battery life and internet capabilities. Why, you may ask? Well so that we can get more done of course. So we can now take work with us wherever we go. As I was pondering this, it struck me as how we are all really missing the point. The original purpose of the computer was to free up more time, not take up more time. It’s the same with most of our technology. I didn’t have to bring in wood this morning, yet I'm warm, and breakfast is cooking. I didn’t have to draw and heat water over a fire when I took my shower, etcetera. We have all of this technology in place to save us time, and so it has. It is what we have done with our time that is the problem. Instead of using our free time to enjoy each day, we've used it to do more each day. Instead of allowing us to slow the pace of life a bit, it has allowed us to speed it up. Today we leverage the time saving aspects of technology so that we can maintain a quick, almost frantic lifestyle. Our lives have become so fast that even our leisure time is stressful and expensive. What would happen I wonder, if instead of filling our new found time to the bursting point we filled it with just a reasonable number of good things? What if we used our time to just stop and enjoy our day? Here are five steps that I have found help me make the most out of my day, instead of just doing the most:

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1) Get up early- I have consistently found that my best days are those in which I get up early. There’s something about not being rushed during those sacred morning rituals that really helps start the day off right.

2) Turn it off- We all love our gadgets, myself very much included. But if you can just turn it all off for even half an hour, you will be well on your way to really being able to enjoy the day. Our computers and phones speed us up far more than I think we often realize.

3) Don’t try to do it all- this applies to work and leisure. Take your day, pick only those things that absolutely must be done today, then do them. Then pick only a few things that you want to do, and really enjoy them. If you want to go to a movie, go to a movie. Don’t go shoppingthentothearcadethentotheputtputtcoursethenamovie. Just pick one thing, and really enjoy it.

4) Get outside- Walking to your car doesn’t count. Actually step out of the door and enjoy the day, it won’t hurt you. Literally take time to smell the roses, or whatever flower happens to be nearby.

5) Learn to say no- This is perhaps one of the most valuable skills that you’ll need to acquire if you want to enjoy every day. You may have succeeded in slowing your life down, but it’s all a moot point if you allow everyone else to speed you up again. Its hard to say no to coworkers and friends, but if you want to be able to slow down and really enjoy life, instead of just blitzing through it, that’s a skill you’ll need to master.

Culture Trends in America: a series

I'm definitely biting off more than I can chew. but thats how we grow as people right? James Russell Lowell said that it is not failure, but low aim, that is the true crime. So it is with those sentiments in mind that I am beginning a series on the culture trends at work in shaping the future of America. As a student of culture, I am fascinated by not only the scope of these changes, but also by the furious pace at which these trends are changing the social landscape. I will be breaking down this rather expansive topic into manageable chunks, each dealing with a different culture trend and its ramifications as to how we think, socialize, relax, etcetera. so get ready, the first installment will be up here later tonight with some luck!