If there is one thing that binds us humans together it is the fact that each one of us has doubt about ourselves in some subjective way. For one reason or the other we get hit with doubt usually at the most inopportune times. Like a baseball player striking out or a bowler getting a 7-10 split. If it happens once, doubt says that it can happen again. Overcoming doubt means that success is possible. It means that humanity has a chance to better itself. We all have that chance.

People talk down on philosophy for many reasons. But the most common reason is that they believe that thinking is the opposite of doing. That sitting around talking about life and the order of things is fine, but there ain't no money in it. Certainly it is an exercise in imagination when people engage in the "heavy" topics. However, those who believe that talking philosophy is a waste of time, that having a philosophical frame of mind is somehow damaging to the human soul, actually embrace the idea of having no philosophy. Having no philosophy is having a philosophy. It is the philosophy of nothing.

Have you ever had one of those days when you just weren't with the program? Well, I'm having one of those weeks right now and it's driving me absolutely batty. Every move I make feels like I am moving in slow motion under a strobe-light. Things are cloudy and my mind isn't thinking straight. I tried to take a nap, but my eye lids weren't heavy enough I guess. 

You have to start somewhere. Pick your spot and make your move. Know that the road will not be easy and you will be spending a lot of time alone. Once you get over the fact of being alone in your quest, you will feel more a part of things than you have ever felt before.

Life is a poem, a movie, a story as individual as one can imagine. Within the framework of life there exists ways to make your dreams come true. As long as your dreams are realistic, anything is actually possible. But dreams have to be deeper than money or fame or prestige-these things work just fine in the movies. They have to fit into your primary life, not the life that exists inside your mind (relating to media images and sounds). The dreams inside your mind, how you relate to movies and television programming; how you place yourself inside the story, are part of what is called The Secondary Life. It is fiction. It is where unrealistic dreams are manufactured and processed. The primary life is the day to day drag of having to do things you may not like doing for the sake of paying bills. It is difficult, but life is a poem in a movie... part of one great story.

Some people feel everything. They feel everything to the point where it hurts. They empathize with other people and feel their pain. This brings about anxiety which is caused from not paying enough attention to the self. But how? How do people just turn themselves off to the plight of other people? How can they learn to pay more attention to the things that have an effect on their own personal lives.... not in a selfish, uncaring way, but in a good way? Practice, practice makes perfect.

There is no pride in living a life for the shine in the eyes of another. If you want to be a good example for kids, for example, show them what it is like to follow your instincts and act with presence of mind. Teach them how to be respectful, thoughtful and kind. Teach them to follow their minds eyes and allow the symbolic gestures of the natural world to show them the way; the way to silence where the archives live and breathe stacked tall enough for more than the eternal glance. In those pages lie more than words. Inside the archives lies the love of many people who are no longer with us. Few of them lived the life of another.