I Am Whatever You Say I Am

_{[3]<- What's This}

_{Waiting For: I AM LEGEND}

I don't believe in limits. I don't believe in these invisible barriers that the hard edged warden known as reality tries to enforce down unto us. I don't believe in "I can't" because there is nothing that exists in this universe that I am unable to learn. I don't believe in anything that limits my god given limitless potential. I still hold fast to the shiny silver wordage on the stickers my kindergarten teacher stuck to the top of my worksheets. "You are super!" "You can do anything!" "You are special!"

YES I AM. YES I CAN [Nutty Professor "Yes I can"]

How did I get this way. Most of the world holds selfishly to their shortcomings even going as far as often times using them as interpersonal identification. Most of the time we even describe people by what we perceive as their limitation as though we are verbally sizing them up.

*Phone conversation

"Look at Becky the fat girl.

You know the crazy chick that sits next to the guy with glasses, James.

Yeah, James. You know James, the sleepy guy with the crazy hair and the slight limp.

Yeah, Becky is mad because he's marrying my sister next weekend.

You know my sister!

Stacy, the one with the lob sided breast.

Yeah! That one."

We define ourselves and each other with the limits that have defined the world around us but can we break free of this prison known as reality and go beyond our limits?

Maybe I just watched a bit too much television as a child but I don't recall ever believing in limits. Seriously. Even hard defined and nature reinforced laws didn't hold me back. In my eyes everything I saw on television was fair game. Time travel, unassisted flight, super human speed, inhuman strength, telekinesis, teleportation, levitation, [term for shooting electricity from my hands] I tried them all. Observing adults thought that I was playing but I was for real.

I think I tried flying more than once. I keep having this recurring dream that I am actually soaring on a cushion of air and nothing more. Everything is so real. I can feel the wind resistance. I can feel the vibration of the turbulent sky and gravity both trying to reclaim their escaped prisoner. In those moments I am free from it all. Limits, liabilities, fault. There are nothing but endless possibilities and then.... I wake up.

I've never grown out of thinking that there is nothing that I can't do. I honestly believe that if I focus hard enough the rules of reality will be become momentarily unchained and I will be able to escape to a haven outside of the depressed race of humanity. I will be able to soar amongst the birds and run along the cheetahs. I will be able to swim with the dolphins and lurk with the slithering snakes. I will be more than the limits I was born within. The container known as human, further defined by race, age, gender, height, weight, income bracket, intelligence level, vehicle I drive, color I wear most often, woman I'm dating and/or married to, women I've slept with, house I live in, occupation, shoe size, running speed, criminal history, offspring, siblings, mother, father, cousins, penis! WHY WHY WHY!

Why does any of it matter? Beyond being descriptive introductions to define those we don't know we have taken it a step further to actually design the limits for which we hold ourselves back. We are plagued with a limited mind. A mind that, if allowed to, creates our prison for us. Throughout history men have proven theory's and ideas wrong but even modern science continues to tell us what things are possible and what things aren't.

A perfect example of the contradiction that is the modern world is religion. I honestly believe that religion has its place within our daily lives and modern world but not in its outdated 10th century representation. No matter what religion you practice it was probably founded way back before television, internet, toasters, telephones and even polyester fiber. (I'm gong to be careful with the following statements as not to offend any one persons' religion but please feel free to defend and/or ask any follow up questions you like before making multiple clicks on the inappropriate flag above, Thank you :) With a practice being formed that long ago you would expect a few major revisions along the way just to keep up with the times. Think about medicine. What if the practice of medicine was still in the form it was today as when it was first created. Would you really support and stand for blood letting and routine lobotomy's for mental patients [wikipedia Medicine history]? What about science? How far would we now be if those in Christopher Columbus's day won the debate over whether the world was round or flat? Would our airplanes exist? How about our satellites and space ships? So what about religion?

I'm not saying that there needs to be a reform on the general morals and principals that modern religion contains (which are actually beneficial to society) but I'm hard pressed on the limits that religion sets on humanity itself. Those who read The Bible (also known as The Good Book, The Gospel, MY Right Arm, etc...) talk about Jesus as though he was there favorite cousin. Jesus could do it all. Jesus was the living legend of the biblical times. He could exceed the gravitational pull of the earth's rotation (he could fly). He could adjust his metabolic buoyancy so that he could stroll across the turbulent surface of an unsteady substance (he could walk on water). He could change the material properties of hydrogen dioxide to those of an alcoholic beverage created from the fermentation of grapes (he could turn water into wine). Jesus was the first super hero [Who will save us?] and to top it all off, he was only a man.

Now bible folk talk about Jesus this and Jesus that and they even hold on to the belief that he is one day gonna return but do they really believe the things they say or is saying those things so habitual that it just drips off of the edges of the regular conversational, defensive sentence structure. What I mean is in watching the news or reading the newspaper you see stories almost everyday of miraculous proportion. A man in New York jumped onto the tracks of an oncoming subway train to save someone [news story]. Or in California a group of firemen survived the intolerable blaze to extinguish an out of control flame [news story]. Or on the Simpson's Maggie saved Homer from drowning [You Tube Maggie Saves Homer]. Now, as much as Jesus believers believe in Jesus they are not willing o believe that any of these instances were Jesus manifested in human form. They will argue with you to the death that the Jesus they know has long black hair and fair skin and that he will come without fault or flaw and float on a cloud. The Jesus they talk about kind of resembles Fabio in description anyway.

But a man like Jesus, given exclusive lenience from the laws of reality by god, is one to be admired. We should all try to exceed our limits. Jesus should be an example not solely because of his sacrifice (which is mostly what religion wants to make of him, a glorified martyr) but his conviction to exceed the limits of not just reality but infinity. He believed that mortal death was not the end. He knew that your actions, ideas and emotions transcend your humanness into eternity. His name is spoken more than even our living relatives and we know they are just a phone call away. We should use his example or whomever example that can teach us a lesson in going beyond. People like Lance Armstrong [Lance Armstrong] surviving cancer and winning the Tour De France. People like Martin Luther King [Martin Luther King] who stood against what everyone else accepted as a reality and sought to change it. People like my own mother who doctors told her she would never walk again and she did [the five-o-5]. People who push the limits. Those are the ones I look up too.

So next time crazy eyed Tommy comes up to you with his yellow, gapped teeth tell him that you don't believe in limits and then ask him, "What would Jesus do," and fly out of the room contained within a bubble of confidence and content. At least that's what I would do.

Who will save us?

What is your definition of a hero? Think about it for just a second and then give me a complete

H E R O E S
“
Even though we have yet to explore the vast depths of the ocean, the immense breadths of the polar arctic or even the complex makeup of our own minds we are now pointing our shiny NASA death bullets at the planet Mars and beyond with prospects of colonization even before we have stepped one grimy Neanderthalic foot on its dusty red surface.
”

and honest answer. What comes to mind the moment this simple four letter word is muttered amongst the masses? Close you eyes and visualize what a hero looks like and what a hero’s job description might be. Think about what types of questions you would ask a hero in an interview and what qualifications and references you would expect from them before they could be officially hired. Now look around and count (out loud) how many heroes you personally know. (You can stop reading this blog for just a second to do that... Oh you're done already? Just as I suspected...)

The problem (and I suppose benefit) of human existence is that we are always looking for something that is bigger and better then what we already know [See the post I did about optimists]. Even though we have yet to explore the vast depths of the ocean, the immense breadths of the polar arctic or even the complex makeup of our own minds we are now pointing our shiny NASA death bullets at the planet Mars and beyond with prospects of colonization even before we have stepped one grimy Neanderthalic foot on its dusty red surface. Where are you going so fast? Why is it that the things we presently have or the world that presently entertains our curiosity seems to be the dullest thing that god could have ever devised to occupy our time? Why is it that something as magnificent as a sunrise, majestic as mountain range or miraculous as childbirth can not hold our muse long enough to be sung about, written about or blogged about on a daily basis. Instead our minds are being poured glasses of filth and nonsense. Glasses filled with gossip, violence and pornographic material all the way to the brim. Mental drinks are being mixed with Iraq and Kevin Federline (the equivalent of Vodka) as the base and The Dallas Cowboys, Barak Obama and Bill Gates (the sweet chaser) all blended into a toxic elixir which distorts our reality just the same as alcohol does. We closely monitor the intake and distribution of alcohol so why not the other crap (Brittney Spears, Paris Hilton, President Bush, Michael Vick, Steve O etc, etc...), Isn't it just as intoxicating?

So back to my initial question, "How many heroes do you know?" Modern society would have you think (with its' big budget Hollywood films with their elaborate plots and expensive special effects) that heroes are those individuals or beings that are gonna descend from upon high down to save us from who we are internally. Who comes to your mind when someone says "Hero". For some of us we think of that popular television show on ABC which tries investigate the idea of what it would be if Heroes (of the "super" variety anyway) really walked amongst us and how the whole of humanity respond to their presence. It does an ok job but it really just boils to down more special effects and a story about discrimination as usual. Why are our heroes are always freaks of nature? Spider Man got bitten by a radioactive spider. Superman is not even from here. The X Men are mostly all genetically superior to the rest of the human race and Fire Man... Ummmm Fire Man just saved some guys house from burning down.

Who is Fire Man you ask? Well he is just who he signed up to be, a distinguisher of fires too large for your kitchen fire distinguisher to distinguish. I know the people in California appreciate him. What about Police Man and Garbage Man? What about Dr. Man or Volunteer Man (I'm stretching it now). Why don't they have big budget films where they do what it is they really do? Is it because they don't wear capes? Is it because most of them won't look very attractive wearing spandex tights and brightly colored boots? Where are their trading cards? Didn't some of them die saving people in the world trade center and aren't some of them risking their lives everyday to protect us from us? Why is it that in Hollywood the "Spandex and Caped ones" have no respect for them tossing them aside so they can do the job of us regular heroes? Where are these flying freaks in real life? Are they in Iraq? NO! Are they fighting the fires in California? NO! Did the go down to Jena Louisiana to help protest the unjust system of racism in America? NO! So where the hell are they?

H E R O E S
“
The way they tell it even Jesus will be wearing a cape on his return but I for one hope he doesn't (capes if you haven't noticed are utterly tacky and distracting).
”

I'll tell you where they are. Go to your local school and peek into a classroom. Do you see that person standing in the front of a room full of restless and energetic pop and candy addicted adolescents? She's one of them. Now come with me into any random modern American living room after 7pm. Do you see that woman cooking dinner while on her cell phone picking up toys and entertaining the children at the same time? (Don't worry, she can balance that pot, math, and check book at the same time). She's one of them. Now follow me thorough this door here and over to this dimly lit food storage warehouse. You see that guy over there loading food pallets onto the back of that old roughly painted truck? How much do you think he makes an hour? Less than minimum wage I bet? He's one of them. Now turn in a full circle and visually take inventory of every other person in the room. Have any of them ever saved someone’s life (even in the most subtle of ways)? Has any of them taught a child to read, bought someone a cup of coffee, sat there and listened to someone talk about their day? Have any of them risked their own life to make a difference? Have they sacrificed their last dollar to satisfy someone else's needs. Now ask yourself do any of them wear a cape? Have you seen any of them fly down from the sky? How about superhuman strength, can any of them life a standard SUV? No. Well that's what a hero is. A regular person who cares to make a difference. Can't we just appreciate that without all the glitz and glamor? The way they tell it even Jesus will be wearing a cape on his return but I for one hope he doesn't (capes if you haven't noticed are utterly tacky and distracting). Maybe heroes don't need praise but they surely deserve it. I hope “I” in some way am praising the "Everyday Hero" with this blog. You guys are great. Thanks, from all of us.