Rant #1 Emotions and stuff

[Eldora, Oracle of Alchemy]

Emotions are not good or bad, even though many people try to put those labels on them.  Emotions just are.  So I am going to rant for a bit about emotions.  We babble on a lot about philosophy around here and that is good.  But, we all have to deal with emotional stuff too.  If you think you don't, then you need to learn about the terrible secrets of space.  

It is our actions we need to judge, not our emotions.  How we treat other people, how we treat ourselves.  Not to find excuses, but just to admit we did something wrong, understand the reasons behind it, try not to do it again and get on with our lives.  To understand that not everyone plays by our rules, we each of us, have our own internal set of rules to go by.  These rules are not carved in stone.  When we find our own rules do not work for us, we can change them.  The people around us will freak out, more than likely, but really, anyone that hangs out with people like us should be expecting the rules to change in the middle of the game, come on.  

Some people do not deserve forgiveness, or at least we should go by the law, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.  The words I love you come from their mouths.  The words I hate you come from their fists.  When in doubt, a person's actions tell the truth better than their words.  But, if they seem to be doing too many good things, and too much flowery speech flows from their lips, beware, it may be the trickster in disguise.  I have seen more people fall for the trickster, it is really surprisingly sad.  If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

I sat with a friend of mine after her divorce going through stuff.  The day of her divorce her ex had given her a strange letter that did not make a lot of sense, but seemed to be designed to invoke pity, or confusion.  It did a good job with the confusion.  The pity, not so much.  Well, we sat there trying to figure out which pictures could be salvaged by cutting her ex out, which ones to keep and which ones to throw out.  She came across an old letter he had written when they first started dating.  She read it and wondered aloud what had happened.  I asked to read the letter.  Then I tried to explain that he had always been a manipulative prick, he was just a bit nicer about it in the beginning, so she hadn't noticed.  Then she read the letter again.  Then she began to understand.  

Terrible things will happen to you in your life.  That's just the way it is.  Can't be helped apparently.  Not your fault.  Don't let it get you down.  The reason people often think it is only them is that we don't tend to talk about the really horrible stuff.  Some of the most horrible stuff that can happen to a person leaves them feeling shame and it's not fair to them, really.  That is why so many victims of things have started speaking of themselves as survivors.  Incest survivors.  Cancer survivors.  It gives them their power back a bit.  I am not sure if it helps in the long run, but it helps them a bit and when really horrible things happen to a person they need all the help they can get.  

You will do stupid things in your lifetime.  The longer your life, the more opportunites you will be handed to prove this true.  Try to learn from your mistakes and muddle through.  Again, no one likes to talk about the stupidest things they've done.  The lying and cheating, the naked drunken dancing.  Well, people around here would talk about naked drunken dancing, but anywhere else, you're going to get weird looks.  And I don't mean the kind of weird looks you usually get either, I mean the should we call the nice young men in their clean white coats look.  

Forgiveness is important.  Not to let people off the hook, not to let them back in your life, but to get them out of your head.  An understanding and letting go.  And I don't mean the mamby pamby fuzzy wuzzy feeling kind of forgivenss.  Whatever kind of revenge you feel equals things out, then forgive.  Sometimes you can just let go.  And sometimes people fuck with you so bad you just need to fuck with them back.  But doing nothing should not be a long term option.  Cutting people out of your life forever is often a very good option.  Then they can't do anything else that you have to forgive them for and your life is easier.  There isn't any one way to do this.  The worse someone has treated you, the longer it will take.  Forgiveness is always for the forgiver, not the forgiven.  I forgive you because being angry is too tiring, not always because you deserve it.  

For these things are true:

1  If you cannot love yourself, how can you love anyone else.  

2  If you cannot forgive yourself, how can you forgive anyone else.

3  If you do not trust yourself, how can you trust anyone else.

4  If you have no faith in yourself, how can you have faith in anything outside yourself.

5  This is the fifth thing.

[East Coast Hustle]

well well well....surprised me with that one...very good...

9/10

minus one point for the complete lack of anything regarding turning cities to rubble. sorry, blame the russian judge.

[Eldora, Oracle of Alchemy]

well well well....surprised me with that one...very good...

9/10

minus one point for the complete lack of anything regarding turning cities to rubble. sorry, blame the russian judge.

Eh, I'm too much of a hippie to turn anything into rubble, sorry

[Zurtok Khan]

El, I wouldn't have anything to do with the idea of writting this, now would I?  Hehehehe.

Very good rant, my feelings exactally.

I'm giving you a 5 out of -23 for that one.

Although, El, I must say, you forgot to mention all the terrible shit Society(tm) puts on about emotions.

[Irreverend Hugh, KSC]

::applauds::

Very well done!

You would make a good therapist or a counselor. More of what this crazy world needs are open minds like yours.

[Eldora, Oracle of Alchemy]

::applauds::

Very well done!

You would make a good therapist or a counselor. More of what this crazy world needs are open minds like yours.

Yeah, but, I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaallllly hate paper work and suck at getting it done on time.  I get more real work done by saving that energy for wackos like, uh, nevermind.

[Eldora, Oracle of Alchemy]

El, I wouldn't have anything to do with the idea of writting this, now would I?  Hehehehe.

Very good rant, my feelings exactally.

I'm giving you a 5 out of -23 for that one.

Although, El, I must say, you forgot to mention all the terrible shit Society(tm) puts on about emotions.

I'll do that for the next one.  This came bubbling up for a lot of reasons and I have been writing it for a few days, I write a lot of stuff, it relaxes me.  Several people inspired me or annoyed me, but I refuse to identify which witch is which