Life As Performance Art 193

"I often have to remind myself that we are not rational beings. We are instinctive, emotional, obsessive and reactionary, especially when our reptilian brain is allowed to dominate, and this seems to happen far too often. I have never felt motivated to destroy or undermine anyone, but I have seen it happen and it is one of the ugliest facts of our human existence. I think that instead of trying to understand why anyone would try to do that, I often try to do the opposite, to dedicate my life and time in the service of others, or of honouring and enjoying the beauty in our natural world and universe. There will probably always be evil as long as there is a world full of broken and festering humanity to harbour evil, but there will also always be good. Even in my most difficult interactions with others (today, for example, I was less than kind to someone who had recently done something to offend me), I try, if maybe on the late side, to appreciate the good that is in them as well, hoping that maybe someone will do the same for me should I be found not at my best." This I wrote last week on Quora, a social media forum for people who have questions about life, science, humanity, the universe, etc. The question was if I have ever tried to undermine and ruin anyone's life for them, which I have not, even if I have felt tempted from time to time. Quora can get pretty high-falutin and pretentious, sometimes a little bit lowbrow, but the site moderators are pretty strict about bad behaviour and are quick to call it out, and even to kick anyone off the site who gets nasty or personal. So unlike Twitter. So unlike Youtube. So unlike Yahoo. We need more strict moderators online, since freedom of speech is not the same as freedom to spew hatred. I have been getting bombarded lately with questions from Quora, which is to say, that they will send me some question that a member had written about their existential angst or whatever, and expect me and who knows how many other members to answer it, in a couple of sentences, or in a paragraph or two, sometimes in a lengthy, boring and pompous screed so turgid and laden with useless similes and mixed metaphors as to make my screed on these blog pages look as spare as one single tweet on Twitter (which I never use, fyi). Well, Gentle reader, today is Thanksgiving Day, and we have much to be grateful for. The fellow I mentioned in this post and I have been reconciled (we gave each other a hug in church yesterday) and all seems well with the universe. And I am grateful. My Colombian friend and I were on Skype last night. I told him I have bought my plane ticket and I will be flying down to see him for three weeks in February, after which I will be off to Costa Rica for the month of March. He still seems to want to see me, and I want to see him, and I am also thankful for this, because good friends are hard to find, and this one has turned into a very good friend. I am also thankful for the time I can spend again in Costa Rica and also for my friends there. And I am very grateful that, even with my low income, I am still able to make these trips into tropical and exotic destinations where I can also speak as much Spanish in one month as I will speak English for two months here at home. There are still a few months to go, four, exactly, minus three days. I woke up too early this morning and, following a light breakfast, will be returning for a nap of a couple of hours, then I will get up and get the bread pudding in the oven for my friends coming over for Thanksgiving breakfast. I am grateful to have friends with whom I can celebrate the holiday. There is a lot to be thankful about, but we also have to stop worrying about climate change, President Dump and China if we want to get the maximum benefit from the day. It doesn't mean that we forget about those things, but simply know when to recite the Serenity Prayer and move on with life.