Let me get to the point: there are no tricks to ease my problems into the past. No quick solutions to the work required to reach our goals and define ourselves. There is work and time necessary in everything worthwhile.
But BINGE WATCHING?!?!?- Yep, that too. When we watch our favourite shows (hello Bob’s Burgers! ❤ ), We are analyzing the shows in terms of each character’s relationship with the others’. We decode the meaning behind jokes, and put ourselves in similar situations… How many times have you told your TV something like “No! That is NOT Ariana Grande! Obviously, it’s Janet Jackson!” *referencing a flubbed Jeopardy guess earlier this week*
Fictional TV has similar effects, *person is chased by a stranger* everyone watching, “IDIOT! Do not run into the dark alley I would____, instead!” Some activities are less involved, but if you aren’t thinking in some way, taking in information and analyzing, then you are dead by definition. Even meditative clearing of the mind takes effort, and a lot of it.
There are ways to do almost everything more effectively which require less energy, less work. Work will remain part of any successful venture no matter how much you believe in reductionism. Effort is living.
Here is an illustrative example, When I was in the 7th grade I did a personalized pysED program with my aid. One other student and his aid spent the time with us. My goal one afternoon was to walk up a ramp using the rail one the left side, I hated the idea. walking with a single support is hard, and up hill!!! I knew my aid must despise me, but I wasn’t any sort of rebel. I began to do as I’d been instructed.
The other student began to beg his aid to let him try the same activity. He had a muscle wasting disease that was hastened by usage, so my friend was denied. What I was doing was a great effort, and a great freedom. I asked both adults what kind of life this boy was getting if he could not accomplish and experience things. They said, in essence, they wanted to extend his life.–They seemed to think the ability to watch others for a longer time was better than using a shorter time in a way that was filling.– Cerebral Palsy forced me out of many things deemed “Unsafe,” or too “Hard/time consuming.” I will tell you, having to watch others always makes it worse.
The point of this post is not too complex: most fads, tricks, or shortcuts offered to us are nothing but placebos with bows on top. These things play on our psychological desires to conserve energy for better things and be better people. How much of what we seek to make easier/shorten is life itself? The boy from my story is likely no longer alive. Each time the idea of editing my writing, or exercising or speaking fills me with dread I remind myself how many stories and lives in histories around the world are remembered as purely gold stickers and golden spoons…. And My friend would love to be able to struggle, even if he just hit the floor.
SickyBeat 