Passing thoughts...

Little did I know thinking of a secondary blog would be more cumbersome than thinking of the first.
However, the New Year has definitely shifted me to a more contemplative nature.

Particularly regarding relationships. Not limited to romantic relationships, but the relationships that exist between people in general.

For example, the relationships that people have amongst each other on the freeway. Someone could be tailgating you; or perhaps not merging into the passing lane near your on-ramp, simply so you can join traffic on the freeway; perhaps they just cut you off; or unnecessarily put you in harms way by crossing 3 lanes of traffic with cars oncoming. All of these examples could aggravate, irritate, and create animosity towards the other person. However, what if one of these said examples creates one of these said atrocities to you, and you honk, rev, swear and flip at them... and then find out the person was your neighbor? Your pastor? Your co-worker? Your boss?

Are you still angry? Embarrassed at the tantrum you just threw? Secretly resentful for their carelessness?
Say it was your boss... Are you still ready to get in his or her face and ask them if they got their license out of cereal box? Or at this point, is it easier to let bygones be bygones?

South Asia and her neighbors have just experienced a natural disaster that has claimed 150,000 people from at least 11 nations. In 2001, upwards of 2,800 people lost their lives after the terrorist attacks on New York and Pennsylvania. An outpouring of goodwill and compassion came from both of these travesties.

We can love and pity with the turn of the radio station or TV channel.
We can hate and despise within moments, over trivial and literally, passing matters.
How, as a people, are we so easily led to 2 extremes of human emotion?
Is this healthy? Have we become so wrapped up in ourselves that the merest inconvenience sends us on an entirely different emotional drift?

New Years Day

Around this time 16 years ago, I was asked by my mother what my New Years Resolution was going to be. I was just about to start High School, and was already familiar with some of the identity stealing perils of peer pressure.

After some considerable thought, I made it my New Years Resolution to endeavor to be true to myself over all else.

So, I feel it is equally appropriate that my first "blog" be on New Years Day.

With the beginning of a new year, of new challenges, new world events, new chapters in life...
If the excercise that is blogging is about speaking one's mind and discovering one's path, then I want my first message to be the mission statement for what is bound to follow.

So, to 2005 and beyond, and all that is to come, I hope that this blog will fill with my thoughts and insights, and that each post remains as true to my resolution 16 years ago.