Life-changing things that don’t matter

“Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” - Plato

To talk only for the sake of communication itself seems pretty unnecessary for some people. Well, it probably is. But there is more to it than most may realise. Small talk is like grooming. Primates form bonds of trust and build cooperation groups. They groom each other to get food, sex or other favours.
Maybe we don’t go that far just with small talk but it’s in a way the best option to start a conversation to get to know each other. The special thing about this form of phatic expressions is that it serves to find a way to communicate. It’s about evaluating the spoken language, style and level. Some do this even only to overcome a waiting time or an uncomfortable silence. Imagine two computers just connecting to say ‘hi, how you’re doin’?’ - sounds a bit pathetic, doesn’t it?

In general, there are the following categories of conversations based upon their involved topics: ideas, concrete objects and facts, people, the self. Their different purposes are: extend understanding and awareness, consolidate a general view, boosting of self esteem, attracting attention. Anyway, to start talking about something with somebody, you might want to consider a topic that’s neutral, without heavy personal information and hard questions. Make the talking part easy by staying simple!

As your mind wanders, you may find yourself thinking about this one thing that’s never lazy. This one process that keeps on going till the end of your time. It’s the thought that never stops. It changes its face everywhere you look. Every different influence changes its way. Even when your body is sleeping, some parts of your central processing unit are still highly active.
From the moment we’re born, every sense is trained thus helping us to focus on specific things. Only after months and years of learning we’ve become able to focus on processes and their connections and therewith understand complex structures and our influence on those.

The problem arises when we’ve lost our interest in things. Without some special point of interest we use to wander around without getting the feeling of success. Focus is pretty important for anything you want to achieve. With all too far scattered interests you’re in danger of becoming a library containing short moments of nothing. Then again, if you concentrate too much, you become poison for yourself and others. Examples are: impotent top athletes, mad scientists, blind top managers - or as I may call them: failures in evolution.

Focus, but keep it real!

Wanderer:
Inmates of the Cebu Provincial Det. & Rehab. Center, Philippines ~ at YouTube
Körperzellenrock ~ at YouTube

Time froze. Her facial expression got tense. So did every muscle in her body. As she held her breath her heart seemed to beat as fast as it could. It appeared to be the only part in this world ignoring the stop. The place filled with a deadly silence. Nighttime put everything into a black coat. Rain clouds and mist killed off even the little light the scrawny moon would possibly reflect. In the small cone, the street light threw at her right eye and cheek, I could notice her pain.
I came closer. Despite the puddles of water all over the street my feet did not make any sound. I felt the heaviness of my coat while I was moving. I thought about the sins I committed and their weight sucking me down, deeper and deeper into the darkness. Yet, I was stronger.

I bent over her. Her hair had the colour of dark red roses. Her skin was pale like cherry blossoms and her lips shined like fresh blood. By looking in the middle of her eyes I could find myself surprised about the fascinating blue I was covered in. At this time, I was able to measure the full dimension of her sorrow. It was cold enough to see her last breath dispersing into the dark. A cloud released some light of earth’s oldest satellite. Suddenly, the focus of her eyes met mine.
Now, she remembered!

Every movement freezes in your mind. Actions become series of pictures. You feel widely awake and at the same time completely numb to direct influences on yourself. The drugs produced by your body are floating your blood circulation. When you think, time stops. Your heart pumps like it tries to drown out your breaths. All muscles and tendons are tense. Your thoughts focus at the current place and time. Everything is under your control. One blink to crush the city; one thought to destroy the world.
At this state, unexpected events are often the stinging pain of reality. Nothing happens without reason. But what if we can’t find the reasons? Does reality jab you in your back? One thing is for sure: you could process a thousand pictures a second; if the flapper comes when unexpected, it won’t help at all.

The question is not: to drink or not to drink. Rather, you should ask yourself: are you fly enough to open your wings even if the light at the end of the tunnel could meet up with you halfway with a hundred miles per hour? Regret only exists in life. What drives you when you bear that in mind? Is it yesterday’s memory, the thought of tomorrow, or the possibility of none?
Sugar makes your heartbeat sweeter!

Life is like this yellow curved fruit. You can put it in a plastic bag and within a week the only thing you can do is to throw it away. But that’s not all. Dip it in coffee and you got a vitamin and caffeine stick with an slight weird taste. Alright, what I really meant was that nothing is really straight. Life needs things to be flexible and bendable in order to fit together. The lesson here is to let yourself be a bit bendable. Don’t stick to every textbook you read and don’t be stiff like a saltstick. The time will come where the pressure on both of your ends will be to much and break you into pieces. Flexibility is a good thing. Not only in the gym.
Another speciality is the thick skin with the smooth inner potential fruitshake. Learn to accept those dark bruises on your outer layer. Time will heal them. There you are even superior to the special banana powers. Don’t let everything effect your inner-smoothie. You’ll only ruin your taste. And who will like you when you taste like an already chewed chewing gum?

After all, judge your monkey-cucumber by its skin very carefully. Most of the time, the inside will be sweeter anyway. Peeling will be worth the effort. And leave them on the tree while they’re still green. However, now I’ve gone off-topic. Security isn’t everything but flexibility is.
Be aware of a life shortage when living in a plastic bag!

A recent article about time stated that time as such may be only an illusion. It has to do with its importance in quantum mechanics and its conformity to the general relativity. Well, lots of science can make the head go round. At the moment, I don’t care much about quantum mechanics. But I care, like most of us, about the 25 days of holiday the same way I care about the daily caffeine intake to make the most out of the other days. So, what is time anyway?
Yesterday I listened to some questions from kids about time and speed on some radio show (Yeah, radio still exists!). One question caught my attention ‘How long can a day be?’. Seems pretty obvious at first sight. When you ponder a bit, you might realise that time can be described as change of one state to another. In a system without any change, it may look as if no time would pass. This means, the more accurate your clock is, the faster your time is passing. That’s maybe one of the reasons I don’t wear any watches.

The reason we invented time was to make synchronisation easier. In order to get the most out of our precious time we try to perfect our timing by making us slaves of an imaginary unit. We call it progress. I call it decreative. What I mean is that every step to rigorous accuracy leads to a loss in the experience of pleasure. A planning for events is more useful than to determine a specific date.
The only place we’ll ever travel to is future, and it’s just a matter of time!

When you’re even thinking about things you could do before you have to check for emails, you’re really in trouble. Procrastination is not only the thief of time. Furthermore, these little distractions you’re looking for are like stones in your shoes when you’re trying to walk over water. Actually, let me rephrase: if you’re already thinking about procrastination - which you’re obviously forced to at the moment - you’re merely swimming in the attempt to prevent yourself from drowning. Be honest, you don’t really have a chance of getting any further.
Sounds pretty bad? Well, it is! You should really stop reading and get on with your work. Except if you want to know what you could do to defeat your killer instinct regarding time. In that case, go on - but hurry!

What makes the things we have to do so easy to prolong and almost destined for postponement? Did you ever think about changing your motivation? Now, don’t tell me all you need is more time instead of motivation. That would be quite the exception and you wouldn’t need an advice. The difficult process is to focus on your current action to 100 percent. Before that, even harder, you’ll need to start. It’s fine to think about alternatives, but then just take a breath and start. Just don’t forget that distractions are evil. Try to avoid them anywhere possible.
Alright, back to work!