The five o five : Friday, November 18, 2007

The Way You Do The Things You Do

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Watching: Temptations "The way you do the things you do"</sub>

Birds build nests. Beavers build dams. Bees construct hives. Groundhogs dig holes. Mary sews quilts. Tammy paints portraits. Joe works on cars.

Why do we human beings fill our short days with lots and lots of often meaningless yet fulfilling activity? We wake up (some of us) as early as 5am to do some project or task that really has no bearing or effect on our livelihood. We are dedicated. We are committed. We are serious about what we do even if it is just some silly random early morning blog project [what s the five o five]. It is our world and our contribution to the world. We love, cherish and protect it as though in its absence we would wilt away. Why is it so important.

B U S Y
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Salmon swim up stream. Bears hibernate in the winter. Caterpillars spin cocoons. Spiders weave webs. Why don't animals have our issues? Could you imagine the Paris Hilton of pigeons acting the way her human counterpart does? Can you see her lying around all day being chaffered on the hood of some limo while being feed gourmet worms and warm toasted Quiznos buns? Can you imagine her living this über plush (bird) life and then on one tragic evening she suddenly just get eaten by a cat? What if animals had television? Do you think that all of her pigeon compadrés would be watching the tragic event and mourning her passing?
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Most would say that humans do scurry around doing a whole lot o' nothing. If you pay any attention to the celebrity scene that's exactly what seems to be going on with our society. The media enjoys showing us the way these privileged individuals live. Their daily activity includes shopping, skiing, golfing, diving, hang gliding, skating, sun bathing, tanning, adopting random African babies for poor African countries [Rueters Angelina Jolie] and sleeping. They get to lie around and do absolutely nothing at all and this is the life that a lot of people are aiming for. So essentially we (the ones at the bottom) work harder so we can be like them (the ones on top). It almost doesn't make any sense. Why would you do more work so you don't have to do any work?

I'm the type of person that does a lot myself. I may have told you this before but my day is full of just as much meaningless activity as the next guy. I wake up at 5am to do this blog (of course) for about an hour.At 6:30 am I pull out my dance mat and do an 30 minutes to an hour of DDR [slashdot ddr workout] each morning followed by 200 crunches and 50 push ups [revolutionhealth.com]. I take a shower, get dressed then check my daughter out to see if she is ready for school. I drop her off at school and then I go to my job [SETT Myspace] at 8am (which is an hour earlier than the time I'm supposed to be there. I check my email; look over my bank accounts; review my budget [mint.com]; and then I set my daily to do list carrying over unfinished items from the previous day [tadalist.com]. Some mornings, in the midst of doing all these other things, I write poetry while I'm driving (in my head). During the course of my day (while at work), I answer phones, type up memos and other various documents. I assist (or I do it myself) in the planing of the after school rehearsals. I build websites [www.asublimecreation.com]. I design tee shirts [cafepress store]. I write blogs [sublime space blog]. I do this, that and the other. All of the above happens before its even 12 noon. After that my day just becomes more random but by the day's end, after putting my daughter to bed and kissing my girlfriend goodnight, I lay my head on my pillow ready to do it all again. But why?

Why do we waste our time waking up everyday doing little menial things and performing the smallest task that most don't even notice. When I started this blog it was just myself writing it and my mother reading it. How lovely right? No offense to my mom [the five-o-5] whom I love to death and respect with all my heart but why aren't us lowly servants of and the world getting more attention. How come when Britney Spears cuts off her hair [You Tube Britney Spears] there is a news crew and several International News Papers there to capture the act LIVE? Was it really that serious? Was it that significant an act? On top of that why do a lot of us get so tied up in keeping up with all of that garbage that we schedule our own lives around the T.V. programming that will keep us up [E Online Kim Kardasian] to date on the latest celebrity garbage [VH1.com I Love New York 2] that spill out of the privileged filth pile [e online]? Is it because we like to see other people who have done so well do bad so we can eventually take their spot? Most of us claim that the fame won't change us but who knows what 10 million dollars might make you do?

B U S Y
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So why do we do the things we do? I say its for our own sanity. Most animals live very short lives. So short in fact that we even count their years differently. They don't often get a chance to rest and relax. We do. But we, still driven by animal urges, try to make our lives a bit more meaningful then a dogs life. We try to leave something of ourselves (other than our debt and our carcass) to the rest of humanity.
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Salmon swim up stream. Bears hibernate in the winter. Caterpillars spin cocoons. Spiders weave webs. Why don't animals have our issues? Could you imagine the Paris Hilton of pigeons acting the way her human counterpart does? Can you see her lying around all day being chaffered on the hood of some limo while being feed gourmet worms and warm toasted Quiznos buns [quiznos.com]? Can you imagine her living this über plush (bird) life and then on one tragic evening she suddenly just get eaten by a cat? What if animals had television? Do you think that all of her pigeon compadrés would be watching the tragic event and mourning her passing? Do you think they would fly down to the scene and rally to bring the terrible cat bastard to justice? Can you see this cat being tried and convicted of the murder of Pigeon Hilton and then summarily sentenced to 90 years in the kennel with no chance of free time and no access to a scratching post? Can you imagine the news paper headline, "CAT GETS CANNED FOR KILLING PARIS THE PIGEON." Have I taken this too far? Well think about it.

A lot of what we do (or think we do) of any level of importance has little to no value at all (in the present anyway). I wrote about it before [Cruise Control] but this is a little different. This has nothing to do with our motivation because most of the time this is the stuff that we do while we are supposed to be doing the other stuff that we do. The sewing, the drawing, the building, the programming. Most of this takes us away from the real stuff we are supposed to be doing. The working, the planning, the cleaning, the responsibility. The only difference between us and animals is that animals have no choice. They are obligated to their nature. If an animal slacks off (such as miss Paris Pigeon) well those are the ones you see lying on the side of the road dead (I guess that is the same way it goes for humans too).

So why do we do the things we do [Yahoo! Music Temptations lyrics]? I say its for our own sanity. Most animals live very short lives. So short in fact that we even count their years differently. They don't often get a chance to rest and relax. We do. But we, still driven by animal urges, try to make our lives a bit more meaningful then a dogs life. We try to leave something of ourselves (other than our debt and our carcass) to the rest of humanity. We want people to remember us. We want people to love us even though we are no longer around. We still love Ghandi [WikipWdia Ghandi]. We still love Martin Luther King [Wikipedia MLK]. We still love Tupac and Elvis [Wikipedia Tupac] [Wikipedia Elvis]. We still love them and talk about them like they are still here. We still love Mother Theresa [Wikipedia Mother Theresa]. We still love Princess Diana [Wikipedia Princess Diana]. We still love JFK and his little brother RFK [Wikipedia Kennedy's ]. We love them because they meant something to us. Their little bits of nothings affect all us. What they did in their spare time was something of noteworthiness. No one remembers Paris Pigeon at all.

Are you doing something that will be remember beyond your mortal life? Will the world love you too? Can you handle it? Why do you do the things you do? You tell me.

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