The Human Range....

I've discovered that the human capacity of dealing with things is quite high (through self presevation methods) and the range is quite wide but that the feedback to the brain and heart can be a bit narrow, or lacking in resolution. This is to say that things in reality that can have HUGE effects on a person's life may only cause so much of an emotional ripple in the human consciousness. (The one exception is the flight or fight instinct.) Conversly things that may have no immediate effect on a person in practical terms can be equally as disturbing as the thing that is "a big deal". Funny how that works.

My hypothesis is that we only have a narrow range of raw emotional feedback. We don't have a scale with enough paritions to be able to properly place and rate the things that effect us. This is probably due to the limited capacity of handling things... a self preservation mechanism developed to perhaps prevent trauma and all the physical and mental effects that can carry with it. Essentially I think that given the effect little things can have on us, I think we'd go all go crazy or drive others crazy if we felt things in a proportional amount.

Realizing this, its very easy to see why we constantly hear people say or hear ourselves say...."Put it in persepctive". "Keep it together". This time its our rational conscious part that serves to preserve oneself. Without putting things in the correct perspective we may just go ahead and do things based on emotional intensity. An example of this is in the workplace - lets say when you see a person work not on the critical path items when behind, but respond to cutomers who yell the loudest or whatever they are most personally anxious or excited about. This person wouldn't last too long because the critical items would not get done.

So to recap, we have....an unconcious emotional feedback control system that scales to what our psychie can handle, and a rational portion of our brain that puts things in proper perspective so as to act in the appropriate manner. Together they form the range of things we can handle.

Why am I thinking all this? On a somewhat personal note, there have been a few things that have gotten to me recently. Some had probably litle impact on me but rattled me a bit, and some truely were big things that shook me too...but definitely not so much as one would think if one were to use the small impact event's reaction and scale that up linearly. I was wondering how such unlike events in magnitude could ellicit some similar levels of emotional feedback to my psychie.

Song lyrics...

The following is an excerpt from song lyrics of a song I've been listening to on an album that I think is just microns short of brilliant for a debut album...

The song is "We might as Well Be Strangers" on the album Hopes and Fears by the group Keane

"I don't know your face no more
Or feel your touch that I adore
I don't know your face no more
It's just a place I'm looking for
We might as well be strangers in another town
We might as well be living in a different world
We might as well
We might as well
We might as well

I don't know your thoughts these days
We're strangers in an empty space
I don't understand your heart
It's easier to be apart"

Anyway, its really an odd thing...music and lyrics. Sometimes they just strike accord with what you are feeling at the time. Maybe they don't directly connect but in some round about way they do. It probably is not exactly the same situation as the song, but it makes you feel a a certain way because the music just draws you in. It makes you draw parallels and pull your own meaning from the song and lyrics. This was a song that did so for me recently.
Its really a good album too. I just wish they would rock out just once or do a happy go lucky song. As thought and feeling provoking as a good sensitive and reflective song can be... sometimes you just need more raw positive energy to get your mojo going.

So Mr. and Ms. DC's Random Stuff blog reader....when was the last time you felt in tune with certain songs and lyrics? Something other then Sir Mix Alot's classic tune there guys.... :-P

One week...

My last post was called "One Year". I thought I'd follow up with my thoughts on a shorter priod of time...the week. Its funny how fast a week can go by. Seven quick episodes in the saga of life. Heck, its been nearly two weeks since I last posted. Its also suprising given the short amount of time how much can happen and how that can effect one's mood and outlook. Actually it only takes moments for that to happen at times, but how often are we looking at the week ahead with the seemingly same view we had the week before? How refreshing is it to have a different more positive outlook? How crushing is it to look back on that same week and have the hopes you had dashed and have to look forward to another week without anything new or refreshing? Hey at least you can know....alot of things can happen in a week, and isn't that in itself refreshing? lol.

Oh and a big thank you to my buddy tommy for hosting a nice little bbq/poker day last week, and also to angela for organizing the lounge outting last week too. :-)

A Year . . .

A Year is 365 days, or as in a famous Broadway musical song lyric "525,600 minutes". It is roughly the time it take for the earth to travel once around the sun on its orbital pat. To people though, its a way to mark whats considered to be a substantial yet small amount of time. Its the way we relate our lives as a whole to the 4th dimension of the universe.

The average person lives to be almost 70 years old. 1/70 seems small, but if each one rushes by 70 isn't a big enough number or as the cliche says "life is too short". Funny thing about cliches - unlike others I find them to hold a lot of value. Life is ultimately too short. Once you got the hang of one phase of your life you are onto another.

I've had quite some time to think about things over the past year and the one thing I can never think is more true is that we people should honor and treasure those who are close to us. They teach us how to do things, share much of themselves not for selfish reasons. We don't often enough take the opportunities to honor and treasure these people. We wait for special occasions, birthdays etc. I don't advocate constant incessant reaffiramtion - for those that deserve this mostly don't need it or seek it. However, isn't it nice to hear once in a while out of the blue? Let sincere deserved compliments not be strangers from the breath escaping your lips and let your actions also convey your heart's will.

So, while we live day to day to day and year to year to year, we don't usually know how long our paths are crossed with those currenlty on the same one. That is why I beleive we should each make the journey better for each other while we can and share of each other our true and naked hearts. In this way each person on their life journey will be better for having shared the road even if the "forks".