Thoughts on Death and Life..

The main news story that will more than likely be talked about for weeks to come, will be the passing away of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Death is a regular part of every day life and when we hear the death of those who have been immortalized or are such a vital part of our culture, it gives a dose of reality. I'm not one who believes that humans are going to be immortal, but I do think that one day will come when I will no longer be on this earth. The clothes I wear, the books I have stored up, the friends I make, everything one day will not remember me.

Think about it, in fifty years, nobody will know I ever breathed on this earth.

Yet, there are some who believe that they will be remembered for a long time. Look at Hedi and Spencer Pratt, they are everywhere in the news. People are disgusted at their childish behavior and some people wish that they would be the ones who are deceased. Yet, the attiudes that they present are almost shocking, they want alot of attention and they're getting it right now. But in 25-50 years, will anyone remember their tyrate on TV? I don't think so.

What am I trying to say?

Enjoy the day..it might be your last.

Why?

Thinking About Play

I recently came across an article by one of my favorite websites on the importance of play. This blog is currently in a series about using this month become more masculine by doing simple tasks like performing service, doing a debt reduction program and checking yourself for cancer. At first when I read this article about playing, it sounded almost in contraction of what I was raised to believe. When I was a child, I was told once I was an adult that I could no longer play because I had to be responsible and get a job which would take away the opportunity for playing. As a child, this reality struck a nerve because I wanted to find time to play, no matter what I was doing.

However, both being a working man and a playing man seem to go hand in hand. The following quote that the article references from the National Institute of Play shows this balance:

“Play refreshes a long-term adult-adult relationship; some of the hallmarks of its refreshing, oxygenating action are: humor, the enjoyment of novelty, the capacity to share a lighthearted sense of the world’s ironies, the enjoyment of mutual storytelling , the capacity to openly divulge imagination and fantasies, … These playful communications and interactions, when nourished, produce a climate for easy connection and deepening, more rewarding relationship – true intimacy.

Take play out of the mix, and like the oxygen deprived cyanotic, the relationship becomes a survival endurance contest. Without play skills, the repertoire to deal with inevitable stresses is narrowed. Even if loyalty, responsibility, duty, and steadfastness remain, without playfulness there will be insufficient vitality left over to keep the relationship buoyant and satisfying.”

That's why I am a firm believer in doing activities that are out of the box and will continue to play as long as I live.

President Barack Obama, Commander in Chief, Fly-Swatter Extraordinaire.

What Does A Dictator's Son and I Have In Common?

I have been using computers since I was six or seven years old. I was eight when my mom snapped this picture of my older sister and I, while we were in the middle of one of our many games on the computer. I remember the day that my father told us that we were going to be getting something called "the internet." I was confused at first what this meant but when I looked around the "communities" and saw that what it meant was interacting with different people all around the world, I was hooked. I remember finding it very exciting to communicate with people from different areas within the US and abroad. My parents didn't worry too much about their eight year old son chatting with strangers, only rule was I could not share our family's email account or tell anyone my "ASL" (age/sex/location). I followed this rule religiously until I met "Gabby." I was in an IRC chatroom for young people and Gabby was one of the more interesting people I encountered in the chatroom. She was funny, smart, flirty and she was able to construct her sentences well. I was in love with her, even though I had not seen any pictures of her and I wanted to know more about her. I remember the rush that I felt when I gave her my email with the hope of having one on one conversations with my internet crush. After I hit the enter key on our old mac computer, terror came over me and immediately I felt sick to my stomach.


Recently, I read this story about another young man who developed an internet romance with a woman he had never met before. They would chat for long periods of time and sparks began to fly between the two lovers. Unlike most of the internet romance stories we hear on the news that end tragically, it has a big plot twist almost like in a movie. The young man is the son of former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his woman is actually a 46 year old male journalist from the states. The journalist was using his dialogue with the dictator's son to reveal how the Cuban government has forbidden their citizens from getting online via their homes or internet cafes.

After I had told my parents that I told Gabby our email, I was told not to do it again and to be more careful of who I shared my private information with whoever I talked to online. Now as a long-time internet user of fifteen years, I have better discernment of who I share my information with. Castro's son should have been more careful of his 'net fling because of the consequences of his actions.

College Peers or Heroes?

As I compose this blog entry, I am also listening to/kind of watching the ASU baseball World Series game. When I was a child, I loved watching ASU sports every moment I could. The athletes I would watch or hear on the radio were my heroes, as a boy they seemed like superheroes achving the unbelievable. I watched Bill Frieder coach the SunDevils to monstrous wins and devestating defeats, I was at the edge of my seat when ASU almost won the national champtionship only to lose in the Rose Bowl, I loved listening to the play by play on the radio while I tried to emmulate the actions I heard.

I was deteremined that I would become an ASU SunDevil, graduate at the top of my class, join a faterity, play one of the sports, date and marry a cheerleader. When I got accepted in ASU, I was estatic. My dream was coming true and I couldn't wait for classes to begin. I had similar emotions like when I was a younger boy eagerly awaiting for Christmas to arrive.

I'm a senior right now, in fact earlier in the day, I applied for graduation which means my undergrad life as a SunDevil is coming to an end as I will walk in December. I didn't play any college sports, the fraterity life no longer appeals to me, I have not met a cheerleader that I would consider marriage with and my gpa is average. Yet, while watching the SunDevils try and get a win from Texas, I feel very connected to my fellow SunDevils. They have walked the same halls that I have, pulled all nighters in the library and some, their college lives are coming to an end too. Instead of looking at these peers as celebrities who are distant from me, I see them as peers, who experience the same joy and pain that I have faced.

I think that being a college student during the same time as these guys helps put a heavy dose of reality into my thinking. It makes these athletes seem more human than superman which makes me cheer them on more passionately and geninuely as I see them as people, who hit the snooze button, dislike Scantron tests and are not too different from you and me.

Twitter and Community

When a friend of mine pointed me to check out this video. I think he was trying to make a point to me as I tend to give people a daily account of my life with my twitter. Its facinating to see how a website that limits the updates to only 140 words or less. It is a fun activity trying to sum up your thoughts in a quick and to the point fashion. Yet, I think this video highlights something that is more foundational than people having the need for atttention. I think social media sites like Facebook and Twitter help fullfill the need that people have for community or having people around them. It may not seem exactly like that they acomplish this goal but those sites help people feel like they belong to one another and I think that can be a good thing. For instance, I am "friends" with several people whom I've known for years which we are truly friends but others are ones that I have met at parties or casual functions, so it is hard to classify us as friends. But yet it is helpful in the building process because you can see what interests or hobbies other people have, but also you can see more to the person than what you encountered when you met them in person.

Still, I think this humor filled look at the life of twitter can be a good reminder for us all. We need face to face friendships and not just ones that are online. There is something to be said about spending quality time with people outside the sphere of tweets and wall posts, it helps people grow closer in ways that twitter and facebook will never achive.