New Years Resolution - Sort of

This morning I was late to work, a great way to kick off the first week of the New Year. On the bright side, it was one of those new NJ Transit double-deckers. I felt a little claustrophobic on the bottom bunk but couldn’t stop thinking how neat the upgrade was.

I always feel like I'm the only person who can't sleep on these trains. I am the weirdo staring at you as you wake up from that comfortable rock-a-by-baby-on-the-train-ride sleep. On my sleepless train ride today I continued to ponder about numerous events around the world and tried to understand human nature to the best of my capabilities. I know I should’ve played solitaire on the laptop instead. Ignorance and apathy are bliss…at least they can facilitate the catnap. So here are some of the million parallel and perpendicular thoughts that ran through my brain this morning.

I have hypothesized that the vision/dream of a peaceful world is ignorant. We as humans are all created equal = Neutral. It's somewhere in our upbringing, our surroundings, our experiences, our influences etc. that the scales start tipping either towards harmony or discord. My premise draws from a few sets of common characteristics in human nature that repeat themselves throughout history.

The first set of antonymous characteristics is apathy for another's grief and compunction for another's good fortune. We are the quickest to switch from the emotion of "Oh that sucks for him!" to "Why me?" Each one of us has established our own rules to satisfy our conscience...some of us are over scrupulous in this area...and some of us…well that explains most of the problems in the world :). “Thou shall not covet”, it’s the most ignored of all the commandments or at least I fell that way. I’ll be the first to admit I’m guilty of both of these. I condemn my misfortunes and also seem to be preoccupied setting goals and material expectations based on the successes and possessions of another.
The lesson – We are always dissatisfied and yearn for more, i.e. contentment seems to always be in reach but we never quite get there.

The second is oppression based on perceived superiority and revolt after unendurable torment/injustice. The laws of karma repeat themselves throughout history like clockwork with a period of violent oppression followed by an equally vicious revolt. For as long as the human story has been recited this pattern is present. In the Upanishads, the demons slay humans…god incarnates as a human and slays demons to “establish equilibrium”. In the Old Testament, The pharaoh and his army persecute the Israelites and they are drowned by Moses with a lot of help from YHWH. Every news paper today shows the same themes across the world. All the civil wars in Africa, Middle East, Asia and South America present the same set of underlying characteristics.
The lesson– At least one side is suffering…It’s just the side that’s telling the story that shows up as the protagonist to our future generations.

Overstanding (as suppose to understanding…I know it’s not a real word) and Ignorance are the last set of characteristics. Knowledge is diluted and perverted by what we consider as sufficient information to satisfy our curiosity. Everyone is measuring what is right and wrong on different metric systems or at least what "is" and "is not". Belief is a funny thing, sometimes we become so strongly attached to our ideas that we fail to budge to flexibility of ideas around us. Religion and Morals are where the two characteristics become extremely evident. While there are those who believe in a religion so strongly that they believe that there aren’t any other possibilities, there are also others who just don’t give a Fuck. A little moderation on both sides could only help :) .
The lesson – We live in a finite world with infinite possibilities…learn as much as you can and be flexible to learn more.

The train ride lesson of the day – I need to revisit my New Year’s resolutions!