Crab Mentality

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crab

No, crab mentality is not about approaching life as a grouch, crabbing about all the things that are wrong. It refers to an interesting phenomenon with blue crabs. When they are in a bucket, if one of them climbs out to escape, the other crabs will reach up and pull it back down.

It’s as if to say, if I can’t go, no one can! The behavior carries over to humans as well. Something about us almost revels in seeing someone else try and fail. There are entire TV shows dedicated to picking people apart. For some reason, people love a fall from grace. People will snipe at another person’s success and belittle their achievements to bring them back down.

We should aspire the be the crab that lends a helping claw. If we see someone going for something we should encourage them and help them in any way we can, just as we would hope others would do for us if we were in that situation.  The world is not a zero-sum game where someone else getting something means that you won’t. The world is a huge, amazing place and there is more than enough to go around for us all.

Music

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music

Music is a pretty incredible thing. It adds spice to life. It heightens the moments that it gets added to. It can build the tension in a suspense movie, bring tears to your eyes when you see something sad, or get your adrenaline pumping. There’s a song for anything you want to feel. For every triumphant moment or dark time, there’s a song written that relates to what you are going through.

Music also has this mystical quality to take you someplace else in your mind with only a few notes. Hearing a particular song can take you back to your high school dance or playing in your living room as a child in an instant. All the memories and emotions associated with that moment come rushing back to you. It can remind us who we were, or make us feel like who we want to be.

I recently had some people in my life share some of their favorite music with me, music that I would have never heard otherwise, and it reminded me of other good times. And I now have a song about eggplants to remind me of this period of my life too. Take time to appreciate the flavor that music has added to your life today, and maybe take a moment and share some of your favorite songs with someone you think might like it. You never know, it just might make their day.

Ghost Party

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ghost

“The scientists proved we’re all gonna die
They got charts and equations, the how and the why
You did not invite em and neither did I
But they’re here, drink up, we’re all gonna die”

– George Watsky, Ghost Party

One day, we’re all going to die. It’s part of the deal when we get the amazing opportunity to be alive. It’s one thing that’s true for every person, no matter who they are. Since we don’t know when it’s going to happen, it’s important to live as openly and fully as you are able, so that if you died tomorrow you can say that you did as much as you could, touched as many lives as you could, and took advantage of as many opportunities as you could with the time you had.

Homemade Action Figures!

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3D Printer

Today the internet has taught me about the existence of a company in the UK that does 3D printing. You stand in the photo booth, get your picture taken, and they send you your figurine in 3 weeks. It’s expensive and completely useless, but the 8 year-old in me can’t help but think it’s awesome. It would be cool to have before and after weight loss ones. Or if you had kids, take them in their Halloween costumes each year as a memento. That would be pretty hilarious to look back on in 20 years.

Patience

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“Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.”

– Barbara Johnson

They say that patience is a virtue and good things come to those who wait. For all of my better qualities, I remain hilariously impatient. I approach things earnestly and with sincerity. When I find something I enjoy, I often throw myself into with reckless abandon. Waiting is not something that comes naturally to me. But in life, all things are about balance. It’s about learning when to sit back and let things happen as they will instead of trying to hurry them along. All the desire in the world to see a flower won’t make it grow any faster, and there’s no sense in plucking it before it’s bloomed. Sometimes, the only thing is to let nature run it’s course.

Letting Go

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“That is why it is so important to let certain things go. To release them. To cut loose. People need to understand that no one is playing with marked cards; sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Don’t expect to get anything back, don’t expect recognition for your efforts, don’t expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood. Complete the circle. Not out of pride, inability or arrogance, but simply because whatever it is no longer fits in your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were and become who you are.”

– Paulo Coelho

Nature Loves Courage

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“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it’s a feather bed.”

– Terence McKenna

Memorial Day

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West Point

Memorial Day began as Decoration Day after the Civil War. In 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union Army veterans, established it as a time for honoring those who died in war by going to their graves and decorating them with flowers. Memorial Day isn’t just a day for honoring veterans of war. Living veterans of wars had the fortune to be able to go home. Memorial Day is for taking a moment to appreciate all those who were not so fortunate.

There is no arguing that war is an abominable thing. Within the horror of war though, there remains the fact that the people who did the fighting were people, they were human beings. Wars are filled with stories of humanity coming to the fore and people treating one another with mercy and compassion, people making sacrifices to save the others that they serve with. Wars accelerate the pace of those moments in life on which the destinies of entire generations of people are hinged. How many family trees are still growing today because someone’s grandfather did something extraordinary to save someone else? And how many people were never born because of the sacrifice a soldier made?

Regardless of your feelings on war, we can all take a moment to appreciate the humanity of the people involved and honor the memory of those who died. I originally had a quote to lead this post and took it down. To me it’s not about glorifying a flag or a country or a patch of ground. After you strip everything away, it’s about the people. It’s about commemorating the sacrifices they made when all they had were one another.