Another break

Hello, everyone.
     I meant to have another post up by now, but I have been busy lately. In order to let me get everything straightened out, I'm going to take another 3-4 week break. I think everything should be taken care of by the 23rd of November. Hopefully by then, I should have another thought to share.
     As normal, the facebook will simply be updated when I have a phrase I think is worth sharing.

N.D. Moharo

Warm Milk

Sorry for the delay. I intended this post to go up last Friday but I got distracted by a deluge of obligations and other things. It's not much, but it is something that has been on my mind for some time.

         As I was growing up, I really had trouble falling asleep. Even the stuff I heard makes you drowsy and ready to sleep had no effect on me. Counting sheep was not a useful trick either. On the flip side, if I went to my parents bed, then I would sleep quite easily but they told me that I would have to grow out of it. So then there is that warm milk idea. It didn't work for me so well, but then I started to ponder why it might work for some people and not for others.
         When I did my research online, I found that there is no scientific proof to whether it should work or not. I read that some people say there is something inside that makes people tired, but then others retort that it's not enough to have such an effect. So if reasoning is not scientific, perhaps it's psychological.
          My argument is that the reason why warm milk might put some people to sleep is breastfeeding.  I would imagine that mother's milk would be warm and it would be a baby's comfort food. Now in my case, I'm told I was pretty quick to stop breastfeeding as a baby (chocolate milk is the answer). So perhaps that is why warm milk does not work for me so well, but going to mommy's bed would. It's just an idea. However, I would like to see a study that examines the correlation between people who were breastfed with those who can sleep after drinking warm milk.

Power Equality

It’s something talked about time and time again. Who’s in charge? Then it becomes who should be in charge? Unfortunately, we have a problem when addressing the second question. People look at a general pattern and say it should be different. Men, women, White, Black, Asian. None of those truly matter, but people argue about it like crazy. I was just talking with some girl who made the declaration, “Put women in charge!”

                The biggest problem with that kind of mentality is that it will never fix the core problems. Some people may think that is a big step for equality, but it won’t do anything. As long as you are thinking, “Only if someone of my race or gender was in control will there be equality” there won’t. That statement still invokes inequality based on something that does not matter. I don’t care if a man or woman, who is White, Asian, Latino, etc. is put in charge. What I do care about is the policies they represent. If one is advocating some certain group’s “superiority”, then he or she is not one to vote for, especially if we want equality.

                I saw an ad campaign that said to vote for three people for judge positions and one of the “biggest” reasons given was that they were women. Until then, I did not notice that fact, but because they mentioned it, I started to think, “They are trying to hide something, because that is not a valid reason.” It was a technique trying to evoke the “loyalty” of a particular group, in this case, women. This happened also for Obama. I noticed a few people voting for him just because he was “black”.

                If people want peace and true equality, these mentalities have to go. To promote your own race or gender is divisive. Let’s instead focus on finding the people who actually mean equality. The funny thing is that they may be the people not running on it.

The Fear of Being Misunderstood

I was reading an opinion piece when I came across some parenthesis. Inside were the words “again, generally speaking”. Seeing that brought my attention to the society we live in. There should not need to be anything to clarify that statement was a general one. However, perhaps because of the influence of the internet, we are more aware of nitpicking than we should. We are in a world where we have a fear of being misunderstood.

                Why do we have such a fear? Where does it emerge from? I will say it always existed, but now it’s more prevalent for a variety of reasons.

When someone says something, the anonymity and shield of the internet permits “trolls”, pretty much internet bullies and troublemakers, to pounce and remove focus from what was really important. If a quote is posted on facebook, there are enough people who focus on where it does not apply and for some reason conclude it never applies, they never understand the original message. Sure, it could be only 0.001 percent of a given population that does this, but they are vocal and at least appear to be legion. Hence the first reason is a combination of annoyance and, for lack of a better name right now, “drowning”. More simply put, “Trolls” are the reason.

The second reason would be Mistakes. We have enough experiences where we were misunderstood and it caused a huge mistake, problem, or confusion which later becomes a problem. There are also the cases when we were children and we felt misunderstood for what really happened. I still recall a moment when I felt like I could not reach my parents because they had a different idea ingrained their heads. It was certainly annoying and caused me a lot of trouble because they would not understand the facts. I also remember how a misunderstanding was the final straw in starting a “fight”.

I also remember some incidents while traveling. The language barrier helps us understand why misunderstanding is a pain. Sometimes I was told one case, but it was really something else. This led to me getting yelled at for doing what I thought to be right. In the work place a long time ago, I had a similar experience because one of my coworkers who was higher up would often yell at me over policy changes he misunderstood. It definitely did not make that a pleasant job. I don’t know about you, but I would think that “anger” is a good reason to fear being misunderstood.

Related to mistakes would be Misrepresentation. After being misunderstood, someone can go and misrepresent your opinion or words that can later harm you. This happens a lot when some words or phrases are taken out of context. This leads to extra trouble, or actual trouble, and needing to explain in detail what really happened.  Did so-and-so really say that? No, it was said by another parodying her.

The misrepresentation can be a big deal. It can ruin someone’s name and honor even though they should be perfectly intact. However, correcting misunderstandings is very difficult. People don’t like having to fix their ideas, especially after they have been convinced it was right.

So there are quite a few valid reasons for not wanting to be misunderstood. However, we can only do so much. If we let that fear take over every single action and word, we will probably stress ourselves out way too much. It can also harm relationships. It is important to remember that we are human and we make mistakes. We need to learn to move on from them as well as be open to forgive past ones that come from misunderstandings and work to correct them.