A facebook friend recommended a movie, and while I have never actually met her, based on her posts and blogs that she has written, I had a feeling if she liked it, I would too.
Besides...with the hubby working nights, I am left with so much alone time, I am always looking for a good movie as a distraction.
The movie is I Am directed by Tom Shadyac. It is only an hour and seventeen minutes. And it is filled with really interesting scientific facts--that span everywhere from how yogurt reacts to our emotions to the effects our collective emotions can have on a random number generator.
It is a documentary. After a cycling accident left the famous director...I had never heard his name but you have definitely heard of his movies...Ace Ventura, Patch Adams, The Nutty Professor....anyway....he was left with a concussion that wouldn't heal. It prompted him to want to ask the world's greatest thinkers "What is wrong with the world?" and "What can we do to fix it?".
Me, being the overthinker that I am....let me stop here and point out that I find this to be one of my worst mental issues, don't think I mean this as "I think more than you, so nah nah I am smarter"...overthinking is not that, it is just the inability of my brain to not cycle through every scenario in the most mundane of life events, blowing the tiniest thing way out of proportion to it's actual meaning.
Anyway...I heard the question and immediately started answering it to myself....nearly missing the movie, as I had to reel myself in and shut up my thoughts not to miss any interesting bits! As the movie progressed I patted myself on the back because it was exactly where his answer was headed...we are all self centered and care about ourselves more than others. Should I have said "SPOILER ALERT"? Probably not since it's a documentary...the answer isn't nearly as important as the evidence.
The funny thing is..I was right, but wrong....but even more right because I was wrong....WHAT?!?!?
Follow with me...while watching I remember thinking "I love this movie but I don't get the title, he would have reached more people with a better title" I got the whole way through the movie not getting it....until he blasted me in the faee with it at the end..."What is wrong with the world?"...."I am"....so you see...I was right...being self centered is part of what's wrong with the world....but I was sooooo self centered believing I wasn't included in the problem, because I have gotten to the place where he is...realizing that life is so much more than how much stuff I can acquire or "making it" by someone else's definition.....so by thinking about me (ie being self centered) I missed the obviousness of the answer I AM and thus proving I am in fact still a part of the problem, we just can't stop making it all about us. Not sure I explained that well but you are smart you get what I mean...
I'm not sure if he comes out and actually says that self centeredness is the problem, but it is definitely involved as I see it...Competitiveness is about me...what can I get for me....
He focuses a lot on how competitive our society is...and how that has spread throughout the whole world. And how we approve of competitiveness and have lost some of our cooperativeness...and how we have twisted Darwin's words to fit with that philosophy...I'm not going to tell you the whole movie...watch it to see how he does that.
He doesn't just talk the talk...he follows through. He sells his 17000 sq ft Beverly Hills mansion, he stops traveling on private planes. He doesn't say what he does do with all of his money now, but he has realized this quest for stuff was insatiable and did not bring happiness. (On a side note...Rick Springfield (you know, MY idol!) also has this revelation when he has everything he ever wanted, fame, money, a beautiful wife and yet is still depressed).
Some people say that a big problem in our society is the way the media and Hollywood place so much emphasis on body image and I agree, but the underlying problem is that we teach our children that success is about "making it big"and not for yourself, but because of what others will think of you (see? same as your body image...it isn't about being healthy, but looking good FOR OTHERS!)...big being defined by what career you end up ....and not how noble it is, but how much you earn....it is defined by what you can get...you have to not just be a homeowner but have a big home...how nice is your car..have you travelled the world....why can't we be impressed by people who help the world? Why do teachers and firemen and cops make less than CEO's of banks or retail companies? Why are our priorities so fucked up??
The kind of funny thing is...I watched a Russell Brand stand up show the other night (The Messiah Complex) and his show aligns perfectly with this message in this documentary...how crazy is that? A foul mouthed, recovered Heroin addict gets it...and is spreading the same message...he points out that our culture values celebrities as our people to look up to and then he goes on to talk about who he looks up to. In an educational, intelligent and hysterical way he discusses Gandhi, Che Guevara and Malcolm X...with a bit on Jesus Christ and homosexuality. It isn't often you can watch a foul mouth comedy show that mentions the word cunt more times than I can count, talks about fucking your cat and end up with more knowledge than you went in with and a hope that some people watching get his message and talk about it, spreading it to help others see how silly it is to idolize celebrities.
But I digressed again, didn't I?
Hopefully I have left you with the desire to see not one but two shows that will get you thinking about your role in what is wrong with the world...and maybe if enough people get the message...some day in the far distant future the world will be a better place....for now I am going to just keep doing my little part...and that is trying to help people find their path to happiness, by letting go of the need to have stuff!
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Illusion vs Reality
So, you know me....or by reading these blogs you should know...I kind of let it all out there...I am not afraid to bare my soul.
I debated on writing this but since it's been weighing on my mind, I figured what the hell...write it and then decide if you want to publish it.
Tomorrow will mark one month since my supposed best friend stopped talking to me....for the second time in less than a 2 week period.
I say supposed because friends don't act that way...let alone best friends.
In my mind I always questioned the strength of our friendship, but I wanted to believe in it so I did. Just goes to show you that I am really good at not seeing things I don't want to see. Ok...I saw it but then ignored it.
I chose to believe I was just being my usual insecure self. Going back to my whole relationship with my first husband...so many signs he was a cheater but I didn't want to believe it until confronted by the girlfriend (and that was BEFORE I married him). He was "the best thing that would ever happen to me" as he reminded me quite frequently....and I believed.
But I digress...so the first time he stopped talking to me was because I was teasing him (through texts) that with my hubby's new schedule we wouldn't have time to spend with him and his husband. Nothing I hadn't teased about before and yet we always made time to see them, as we would have again. He ended the conversation with an abrupt..."that's fine, we can find other things to do" and proceeded not to call or text me...for days....which may not seem all that odd, except I receive numerous texts and calls daily from him. The following weekend he chose to go to his other weekend home, even though he hadn't seen his husband for a week and wouldn't see him the following week either....but he reallly wanted to snowboard. Or avoid Palm Springs....It kind of backfired when me and my hubby ended up spending an evening with his husband and some of his work friends. A very pleasant evening actually. After a facetime chat at the party, his hubby got us to make up and all was well until the following weekend.
Again a text chat started it...first after inquiring about what dinner my hubby was going to make and then making his usual snide comments, he had to throw in another snarky comment about whether our house was hot. I texted his hubby and told him that he better reel him in or I would be serious about canceling the dinner invite...we hadn't had them over for dinner in ages....one of the reasons being, he was never happy with what my hubby would prepare, so it seemed easier that we just go out to dinner, less anxiety and drama for all.
Unbeknownst to me, I guess this irked him...my unreasonable request to lay off the insults. (Apparently he can be offended the weekend before by my actual ribbing but I can't be offended by his serious jabs(he truly dislikes many dinner dishes my hubby prepares and constantly complains about how hot he is when in our house..so that isn't joking...)
So instead of bailing on dinner he comes and ruins the evening by not talking. It was extremely uncomfortable for the three of us, but especially his husband, who tried his best to make it less awkward....at one point he commented "I am walking on egg shells".
The really funny thing is the next morning he texts me..about how he ended up paying his handyman to change a lightbulb and a battery. A normal text as if nothing had happened. At this point I was still really pissed about the previous night but being the grown up that I am...still managed to respond with an "lol". And then...boom...that was it....no calls...no texts for days....once again his hubby tried to patch things up but I wasn't having any parts of it.....
Am I wrong? That isn't how people who like---even love---each other, treat each other. It is childish and ridiculous and an unbelievable way for a friendship to end. And yet...it did.
So now I wonder how I can mourn something that never was....there never was a friendship...it was an illusion...no different than the illusion of my first marriage. I wanted to believe I had a friend, a dear friend. But I fooled myself...all the evidence of his past friendships and their dissolution warned me, but I chose to ignore it. I believed I was different. I believed I mattered.
So I mourn instead the ILLUSION of what I thought I had.
The past 6 weeks have sucked....I have been so bored and lonely with my hubby stuck on nightshift. It would have been nice to have my friend beside me. But, honestly, he wouldn't have been...because he always bailed when things looked tough. He bailed on his friend with the brain tumor, he would have bailed had I decided to separate from my hubby last year with the whole email debacle....he admits he doesn't want to be around unhappy situations...he is THE definition of fair weather friend.
And I knew this....yet I continued pretending we were best friends. Knowing this day would come. When I would be discarded and forgotten. I have my theories on why....but right now I can't separate the insecure from the irrational or the angry from the hurt.
I steered clear of having women best friends...the last time that worked for me was high school. College was a huge disaster...back stabbing bitches. And then I was married and had a kid and wasn't into that whole mom club bs....I loved my kid but I didn't want to be around other people's kids...eww!!
My best friend was my sister. And we all know how that ended....same way....something utterly stupid...that shouldn't end a friendship, let alone between sisters...it's mending now, but has a long way to go. We text..but still haven't talked.
I have always found best friends to be overrated. Again I should have followed my instincts.....but somehow I let him in...hell, I let down walls that I had only let down for my hubby. He knew all of my insecurities, all my crazy....and he stayed...so I thought it was real.
But a real relationship wouldn't end this way...if I mattered. If how I thought of us, was how he thought of us....we wouldn't be where we are today.
His hubby says we are both to blame. When I am wrong I will admit it...I am wrong a lot. I did nothing wrong....nothing more than trying to point out that the polite way to accept a dinner invitation, isn't to comment on the quantity or composition of the meal...you eat it and if you are hungry stop and get food on your way home. If you find my home uncomfortably warm....invite me to yours...or suggest a restaurant....stop accepting the invites...it's an hour...suck it up.
He was never the easiest person to get along with and he will be the first to admit it....and to tell you that he won't change. So he couldn't lay off on the touchy subjects...it was "walking on eggshells' and we weren't worth it....I wasn't worth it. We tried to accept him the way he was....but in the long run, we asked too much. And the truth of our friendship was revealed....it was fragile...so easily broken...because fantasies are just that ...a fragile version of reality, once you see the illusion, you can't unsee it...and all you are left with is the cold hard truth that was there was nothing there all along. I believed. And I will get over the loss, because the reality was I never had it.
I debated on writing this but since it's been weighing on my mind, I figured what the hell...write it and then decide if you want to publish it.
Tomorrow will mark one month since my supposed best friend stopped talking to me....for the second time in less than a 2 week period.
I say supposed because friends don't act that way...let alone best friends.
In my mind I always questioned the strength of our friendship, but I wanted to believe in it so I did. Just goes to show you that I am really good at not seeing things I don't want to see. Ok...I saw it but then ignored it.
I chose to believe I was just being my usual insecure self. Going back to my whole relationship with my first husband...so many signs he was a cheater but I didn't want to believe it until confronted by the girlfriend (and that was BEFORE I married him). He was "the best thing that would ever happen to me" as he reminded me quite frequently....and I believed.
But I digress...so the first time he stopped talking to me was because I was teasing him (through texts) that with my hubby's new schedule we wouldn't have time to spend with him and his husband. Nothing I hadn't teased about before and yet we always made time to see them, as we would have again. He ended the conversation with an abrupt..."that's fine, we can find other things to do" and proceeded not to call or text me...for days....which may not seem all that odd, except I receive numerous texts and calls daily from him. The following weekend he chose to go to his other weekend home, even though he hadn't seen his husband for a week and wouldn't see him the following week either....but he reallly wanted to snowboard. Or avoid Palm Springs....It kind of backfired when me and my hubby ended up spending an evening with his husband and some of his work friends. A very pleasant evening actually. After a facetime chat at the party, his hubby got us to make up and all was well until the following weekend.
Again a text chat started it...first after inquiring about what dinner my hubby was going to make and then making his usual snide comments, he had to throw in another snarky comment about whether our house was hot. I texted his hubby and told him that he better reel him in or I would be serious about canceling the dinner invite...we hadn't had them over for dinner in ages....one of the reasons being, he was never happy with what my hubby would prepare, so it seemed easier that we just go out to dinner, less anxiety and drama for all.
Unbeknownst to me, I guess this irked him...my unreasonable request to lay off the insults. (Apparently he can be offended the weekend before by my actual ribbing but I can't be offended by his serious jabs(he truly dislikes many dinner dishes my hubby prepares and constantly complains about how hot he is when in our house..so that isn't joking...)
So instead of bailing on dinner he comes and ruins the evening by not talking. It was extremely uncomfortable for the three of us, but especially his husband, who tried his best to make it less awkward....at one point he commented "I am walking on egg shells".
The really funny thing is the next morning he texts me..about how he ended up paying his handyman to change a lightbulb and a battery. A normal text as if nothing had happened. At this point I was still really pissed about the previous night but being the grown up that I am...still managed to respond with an "lol". And then...boom...that was it....no calls...no texts for days....once again his hubby tried to patch things up but I wasn't having any parts of it.....
Am I wrong? That isn't how people who like---even love---each other, treat each other. It is childish and ridiculous and an unbelievable way for a friendship to end. And yet...it did.
So now I wonder how I can mourn something that never was....there never was a friendship...it was an illusion...no different than the illusion of my first marriage. I wanted to believe I had a friend, a dear friend. But I fooled myself...all the evidence of his past friendships and their dissolution warned me, but I chose to ignore it. I believed I was different. I believed I mattered.
So I mourn instead the ILLUSION of what I thought I had.
The past 6 weeks have sucked....I have been so bored and lonely with my hubby stuck on nightshift. It would have been nice to have my friend beside me. But, honestly, he wouldn't have been...because he always bailed when things looked tough. He bailed on his friend with the brain tumor, he would have bailed had I decided to separate from my hubby last year with the whole email debacle....he admits he doesn't want to be around unhappy situations...he is THE definition of fair weather friend.
And I knew this....yet I continued pretending we were best friends. Knowing this day would come. When I would be discarded and forgotten. I have my theories on why....but right now I can't separate the insecure from the irrational or the angry from the hurt.
I steered clear of having women best friends...the last time that worked for me was high school. College was a huge disaster...back stabbing bitches. And then I was married and had a kid and wasn't into that whole mom club bs....I loved my kid but I didn't want to be around other people's kids...eww!!
My best friend was my sister. And we all know how that ended....same way....something utterly stupid...that shouldn't end a friendship, let alone between sisters...it's mending now, but has a long way to go. We text..but still haven't talked.
I have always found best friends to be overrated. Again I should have followed my instincts.....but somehow I let him in...hell, I let down walls that I had only let down for my hubby. He knew all of my insecurities, all my crazy....and he stayed...so I thought it was real.
But a real relationship wouldn't end this way...if I mattered. If how I thought of us, was how he thought of us....we wouldn't be where we are today.
His hubby says we are both to blame. When I am wrong I will admit it...I am wrong a lot. I did nothing wrong....nothing more than trying to point out that the polite way to accept a dinner invitation, isn't to comment on the quantity or composition of the meal...you eat it and if you are hungry stop and get food on your way home. If you find my home uncomfortably warm....invite me to yours...or suggest a restaurant....stop accepting the invites...it's an hour...suck it up.
He was never the easiest person to get along with and he will be the first to admit it....and to tell you that he won't change. So he couldn't lay off on the touchy subjects...it was "walking on eggshells' and we weren't worth it....I wasn't worth it. We tried to accept him the way he was....but in the long run, we asked too much. And the truth of our friendship was revealed....it was fragile...so easily broken...because fantasies are just that ...a fragile version of reality, once you see the illusion, you can't unsee it...and all you are left with is the cold hard truth that was there was nothing there all along. I believed. And I will get over the loss, because the reality was I never had it.
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