“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” (Sagan)

When you're a writer, everything that you do becomes research. You need to push the limits of your experiences in life beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone. If it's uncomfortable, do it. Feel every moment. See every detail. Whiff every scent. Every tiny molecule is observed, explored, cultivated into something that you can translate into the art of language.

Words don't seem to be enough to captivate that tiny thrill that you get when you see something perfect or feel something beautiful. But they'll have to do.

Everything that I do is research. Standing outside in the spring rain, cold drops plop plop plop onto your scalp, tracing your hair and down the back of your neck, traveling beneath the cotton clothes now gripping to your skin as the hair raises and your nipples harden. Everything sinful, sweet, painful and beauteous etches into your mind. You catalog it as something potentially useful and meaningful for a later date. You may not need to write about how sweaty your hands get when you grip the steering wheel of your car as you barrel through town during a tornado-warned storm right now. Someday, though, it may come in real handy.

Anytime someone asks you, the writer/director, why you're volunteering to be a nude model for an art class or why you're laying in a tub filled with tarantulas or why you're touring a morgue, there's only one legitimate (and halfway sane) answer: research.

The Art of Ambiguity

When Deepak was asked a question regarding one person's dilemma that involves feeling a bit anxious and out of control on Oprah's website, his response is vague and ultimately unhelpful. Oh, the convenience of ambiguity! You can say whatever you want, toss in some common sense with a dash of spiritual claptrap and sprinkle on a coating of confidence and you, too, can sound mystically profound! Unfortunately, if you were looking for evidence-backed advice for practical daily use, you're shit out of luck!

"Stand in front of the mirror and decide when you want to get serious." Is that not why this person wrote in for help? Oh, I see: they were just procrastinating getting help. I often request advice for a legitimate problem when I'm not serious about it. "At that moment, help will come, and so will change." (Cue puff of smoke as Deepak disappears into the night)

Alright. I'll stop picking on Deepak. Maybe I'm just being too cynical? After all, he may have something here. Let's try it out and see where it goes, shall we?

I stood in front of a mirror when I felt particularly anxious about something -- the direction that my writing was going was unsatisfactory, for instance. Alright, let's get serious, then! I looked at my reflection, dead in the reversed image of my eyes, and said aloud, "I'm ready to get serious...right now!"

If there had been a cricket in the room, now would be an appropriate time to start chirping. Yeah, OK, I've established my sincerity for needing help. So where was it? Maybe I'm supposed to be outside so I can see it when it falls from the sky? Am I standing the right way? I'll try standing more to my left. Hm, nope, still no help. Would I recognize it if it came? I started imagining a small garden gnome waddling toward me with an envelope in its paint-cracked hands -- the envelope would hold the secret to my temporary writer's block. I checked around the room, giving it a once-over look. Nope, no gnomes with envelopes.

Change will come? I rolled my eyes.

Yes, of course change will come. Change always comes. Nothing ever stays the same. For instance, I'm one minute older and feel one iota dumber for having done this. See? I have changed!!

So many people get away with offering bullshit advice like this all of the time, keeping their vocabulary purposely vague to stimulate the reader's imagination. The reader, then, will see the pattern and the solution that they've just imagined, and then credit the adviser for their pseudo-spiritual nugget of advice. Genius! You mean you can write any vague, positive bullshit, conveniently omitting any specific actions one may take in order to improve their mentality or their lives, letting the reader indulge in filling in the blanks, and then get credit for having helped them?! And then these people will willingly pay you to tell them things they already know? Where the hell do I sign up??!

Self-Help Claptrap

I am deeply critical of anyone who utilizes vague jargon such as "soul" and "spirit" and "opening up your heart." Sure, their intentions are usually to help influence a person to be kind, open-minded and loving. Their vocabulary fails to stimulate the mind in any real or lasting manner, however. The terms are completely up for grabs as far as their meaning is concerned. People may think they know what they mean, but you'll find that everyone's interpretation is at least slightly different.

These terms are used by well-meaning, dull-witted people (or business savvy people) in a bow-tied package for sale in the shapes of self-help books, CDs, DVDs, and articles. They are not practical and their effects are boiled down to an immediate sense of motivation with little to no sustaining impact. Their advice is to "open up your heart" or "search deep in your soul" or "feel your spirit." How? No fucking clue. They sure won't let you know. Is there some deeply ingrained knowledge that we all possess which allows us to understand exactly what it means to "open your heart" and how to do so? Not really, no. The reader interprets the advice in their own way, just as the writer intended with such vague claptrap, and they experience a momentary sense of hope. What happens the minute they place the book back on the shelf? That feeling dissipates and as the reader returns to reality and they are right back where they began -- with their familiar frustrations and inability to cope with difficult situations or people.

My frustration doesn't necessarily lie with the idea that I don't believe there exists a "soul" or "spirit," nor that the idea of "opening your heart" is a poorly explained approach to making use of the chemicals temporarily excreted and interpreted by the brain. It also doesn't lie with the fact that there are many successful authors out there that understand that this type of ambiguous writing sells well and that they take advantage of such a simple method of raking in the dough.

What upsets me is that so many people are gullible dolts who willingly spend $15-$25 on a single book that either explains absurdly common sense advice that people already know or that takes advantage of enigmatic vocabulary and phrases. Not only that, but they will also spend hundreds of dollars on "life coaches" and self-help "gurus" to listen to their horrifyingly inane speeches and workshops.

Why don't I get upset with the people who spread such nonsense? Partially because I envy them. They've figured out a way to make a decent living with very little work involved. Also, because I cannot fault them for helping themselves, even if it means being somewhat deceitful. Yes, of course I would love to get a chance to let them know that what they're spelling out to their audiences is complete horseshit. But they are not the source of the problem. They are merely a symptom.

The problem? The severe lack of critical thinking skills on the part of the audience. If they were smarter or if they employed their minds a little more carefully, those taking advantage of mysticism would have no audience, they would make no money, they would be forced to actually earn a living doing something legitimate. I can still get mad at them for saying stupid stuff, especially if they are some of the few who actually believe what they're saying. What really infuriates me, however, is the sheer magnitude of stupidity on the part of the masses.

Critical thinking skills. Logic. Reason. Rationality. Learn it, live it, love it.

Stranger!

Your religion is an avoidance of life. In vain attempts, you puncture reality with your improbable fantasies, thinking these rose-tinted-shit-stained glasses will be your salvation. You salivate at every minuscule sign that you might be right, clinging to the deck of your sinking ship and imagining that it's still bobbing safely on the ocean waves despite all evidence to the contrary. Right upon shore is a cool and sweet spring from which you may wet your dry and bleeding lips.
Your dehydration is not virtuous. It is sad and pathetic.

Pseudo-Nature Center

The Nature Center in Springfield, Missouri is a funny thing. Men and women and children flock to visit nature when the sun is high and the air is warm. Couples walk and hand hold the trails. Singles jog the paths to be surrounded by the pseudo-wild as though to recreate a sense of their primal selves. Gleeful children toss stones into the water and enjoy the simple splashing and consequential ripples. I can tell that mothers and fathers wish for their children to understand and enjoy nature and so they bring them here.

What's funny is how closed off nature is to us at a place like the Nature Center. A patch of forest spared a concrete lifestyle and surrounded by the roaring highways is not nature. A path laid in stone and gravel or soft bits of bark and wooden planks is not nature. Rails to separate you from this miniscule version of the wild is not nature.

The Nature Center is a place where people go to visit and experience nature much in the same way as people go to the zoo to visit and experience other animals. It's sanitized and kept at an arm's length away. After a walk through the trails set by man to lead them through a predictable trek, people run back home to enjoy their convenient lives away from nature, away from where they've come from.

It's funny to me.

What is rarely noticed can be so beautiful

My, how time flies.

The Joke's on You

"...the ancient biological need of the human species for a distinct tribal identity is a powerful force that cannot be subdued. As fast as one super-tribal split is invisibly mended, another one appears. Well-meaning authorities talk airily about 'hopes for a global society'. They see clearly the technical possibility of such a development, given the marvels of modern communication, but they stubbornly overlook the biological difficulties." (Desmond Morris, The Human Zoo, Ch. Two: Status and Super-Status)

So we will continue to form our cliques, our tribes, our groups, our clans, our families, our packs, our societies, our affiliations, our unions, our bands, and our troops. If we are not welcome in one, we will be welcome in another unit. If we are bumped from our leadership roles in one, we will split from the group of bipedal apes and begin another. We will squabble, we will laugh, we will break, and we will mend.

All in all, one must recall -- We are dancing this dance -- Climbing and falling upon one another -- Like a colony of ants -- Squirming upon this pale blue dot -- Suffering to love and loving to suffer -- As we live and age and perish and rot -- It's sad and it's funny -- How we forget to breathe until we choke -- And forget to see through the Magna Scope -- And completely miss the joke.

Failure to Communicate

Understanding humans, not just as people themselves, but as a species, is important when communicating effectively and with purpose. You may not have seen it this way before, but communication is an artful method of manipulation. We utilize words, written and spoken, and body language and our actions to provoke a certain response from other people. Understanding how and why people respond to certain circumstances and words is important during the interaction process.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for some people, many don't understand human nature or the art of manipulation. Men and women throw around words like they're a dime a million. They perform actions based on emotional whims, desecrating what our bodies and minds are capable of. They pay very little attention to what is being said and to what is being omitted. For those who know how to communicate, there are meanings and messages behind their words and their actions that probe for a desired effect.

I've become a little more aware of this when I was introduced to Mr. Hemingway.

What I wonder is when does Hemingway's theory of omission go further than intended? How much of what is interpreted in art more of a revelation of the character of the interpreter than of the story itself? I suppose this is what the Rorschach tests are for, but how are you certain that your interpretation of the patient's interpretation is more or less accurate?

Believing that you see the whole iceberg beneath the sea when you may be projecting yourself upon the material can be dangerous. It can mean the death of the art. It can mean the death of the artist. It can mean the death of millions of people if you apply this to certain ancient books.
Leaving the material vague and open to individual interpretation can also be beneficial to the artist. It allows each person to take from it something personal and very real to them, even if it's not the intended effect.

But when do you know that the hills like white elephants are really just hills with the beauty akin to white elephants and not a symbol of a distended and impregnated belly, a giant and impenetrable obstacle?

This goes back to the effect of when people lose control or feel like they are lacking in control, they find false patterns. Locating false patterns may be detrimental to particular conversations and relationships, but they speak volumes about the individual finding false patterns to those who listen.

For the sake of efficient communication, I beg that you attempt to understand the art of manipulation and the nature of humanity.

False Patterns

As human beings, we attempt to find patterns. We are pattern-seeking species. Recognizing patterns is beneficial for our survival, so why would this capability be discarded? Finding the purpose for something, the cause and subsequent effect, has allowed us to develop useful food gathering/hunting techniques until they've eventually reached epic proportions (see our genetic modifications of food to produce as much as possible for our constantly expanding populations). Our ability to recognize patterns has allowed us to develop complex systems of communication, of transportation, of social interaction.

It's no surprise that we would find pattern where there otherwise would not be a pattern. We actively seek them out, even if we are not completely aware of the processes our brains are engaged in. Even though we have the capability to consciously participate in critical thinking to determine if these patterns are, indeed, legitimate, many people are convinced solely upon their personal perceptions or anecdotal evidence.

Time and again humans have been misled by their pattern-seeking behavior. For instance, despite all evidence to the contrary, many people still choose to see a pattern between vaccinations and autism. Prior to researching this phenomenon of autism and its cause, vaccinations would sound quite plausible to people unfamiliar with the medical aspects of vaccines and autism. Around the same time that a child is vaccinated is about the time that symptoms of autism begin to sprout. However, since the medical community has been studying this pattern of cause-and-effect, they have not been able to find any link with vaccinations and autism (except that they coincidentally occur at approximately the same time).

People strive to find a pattern, a reason, a purpose for something that occurs. It helps us to cope with the phenomenon in question and allows us to have a sense of control about a situation that we might find ourselves in.

Belief in there being a supernatural deity or a meaning to life is no different. Though we have the natural instinct to locate a pattern that would offer us a satisfactory explanation for something that is otherwise mysterious to us, we must curtail this instinctive behavior in favor of something that will provide a more substantial explanation. Critical thinking and the scientific method are available for this very purpose.

We would like for there to be a "meaning" or "purpose" for our lives as homo sapiens and as individuals, an overall meaning that prevails all personal meanings. Based on how well finding patterns between cause and effect relationships have been for us as a species, it seems common sense that we would be able to use this same ability for things more abstract, like the meaning of life.

I believe that this is where our natural instincts for locating a pattern or a purpose fails us. We are misled by this capability time and again, in instances of ghosts, spirits, vaccines/autism, the Obama/birth conspiracy,  homeopathic remedies, and dream interpretation. Likewise, I would venture to propose that we are being misled by our need to find pattern and purpose in things more abstract and broad like an "ultimate" meaning of life. I remain unconvinced by the assertions made by those who claim that there is a meaning to life. Especially when that meaning includes a supernatural aspect.

Meaning Without God

Finding meaning for your life is the simplest thing for some people. They have a talent or passion since they were capable of consciousness, and they understand that this thing gives their life a purpose. Even still, despite this overall certainty, they may encounter situations where their certainty wavers. Many other people have very little clues as to what they want their life to be about, what gives them meaning and purpose for living. They may drift throughout their lives on automatic pilot until jolted with the realization that they live without passion or purpose, without that something or someone that makes their lives enjoyable every day.

If they do realize that their lives have been running on auto pilot, what do they do? How do they find out what will bring their lives meaning and purpose? What if they're informed that if they don't believe in the most popular god of the time, their lives will be meaningless no matter what they do?

I hope to give direction to many of these people. Those who are godless or who are simply unconvinced that any particular religion is correct have few options in the world as far as advice regarding personal meaning. Most self-help books or articles speak of the importance of "faith" and "spirituality" or "god." I hope to provide people with hope for meaning without these traits that, in my opinion, are not only unnecessary, but can be harmful to one's overall perception of life, meaning, purpose and goodness.