Is Islam to Blame for ISIS? Is Religion to Blame for Violence?

Over-generalisation

We shouldn’t blame Islam for ISIS, or Hamas, or Al’Qaeda, or even the countries: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran. It’s easy to, when the media place emphasis on the fact that these countries are ‘Muslim’ countries. 

However, we talk about Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran as though they’re the only three Muslim countries on the planet. We talk about groups like ISIS as though they’re extremists, but the countries aren’t, ‘that’s just how they are in that country, it’s not extremism, it’s their religion that females should be treated unequally’. 

This is incorrect. 

We should place ISIS and the above three countries into the same category of ‘extreme’. Stoning, beheading, FGM and general mistreating of women is extreme, it’s bad, and it doesn’t belong in the 21st century. But just because these groups and these three countries do this, we can’t just say: ‘That’s how Muslims are’, because it’s not, that’s just how ISIS are, just how Saudi Arabia etc. are. 

Also, it’s strange how Saudi Arabia, an ally to Britain, have beheaded 19 people during the time ISIS have beheaded 4, and we don’t hear about it on the news. This is because Saudi Arabia are a TRADE INTEREST. What they are doing is just as extreme, if not more so, than ISIS.

There are 49 Muslim countries. 3/49 is 6.1%. Therefore, what is being done when we blame Islam for what these three countries are doing, we are blaming 1.5 billion people for acts that around 289 million are doing. This is 19.3% of the Muslims that inhabit the world that we blame 100% of the Muslims for. 

It is therefore clear that Islam isn’t the problem, it’s these countries and their government. 

Does Religion Promote Violence?

Religion doesn’t necessarily promote violence OR peace. It helps you along your path in life, so if you’re a violent person, you’ll still be violent, but you’ll feel you may be able to justify it, (but a violent person would surely still be violent whether he has justification or not, the justification just makes him feel better about himself). If you’re a peaceful person, then religion will guide you through your peaceful life. 

There are Buddhists in Myanmar slaughtering women and children at the moment. 

There are countries in Africa, which are Christian countries, that perform FGM - Eritrea has almost a 90% FGM rate, Ethiopia has a 75% FGM rate. 

Is Buddhism an ideology that stereotypically promotes violence? Is Christianity a religion that stereotypically promotes violence? So we know that it’s people who can be violent, or governments which can be violent. Religion shouldn’t even come into it. 

Even if they try justifying their acts because of their religion, that isn’t relevant. As an atheist, let’s say I killed someone and said: ‘I’m allowed to, because I don’t believe in God and therefore don’t need to feel compassionate’. For one, this would be a problem of law, not religion. Two, would you therefore say all atheists are bad because I justified my murder with my atheism, therefore every atheist can justify murder? And three, would atheists agree that we don’t need to feel compassionate just because of the absence of our belief in a God? 

Religion isn’t a cause for good or bad, it’s a guide for whatever you want to be. Whether you have religion or not, you can be a good person, or you can be a bad person. I don’t blame the American government’s religion/religions for their murderous acts of bombing civilians and lying to its citizens, and countless other things, I blame the American government. I don’t blame ISIS or Saudi Arabia’s religion for their murderous acts and backward ways, I blame ISIS and Saudi Arabia. 

Stop painting the majorities with the same brush you paint the minorities with, that’s bigotry, and not compassionate, which is counterproductive when we’re aiming for a strong and beautiful society. 

Take care, 

ARK Walton

The Death of Robin Williams

Hello there.

I haven't posted anything on this particular blog for a long while due to being really busy, however, seeing the terrible news about Robin Williams tragically killing himself today, and seeing some people's reactions, has encouraged me to write something on the matter.

I found out about his suicide this morning when I woke up, after a long night of drinking. My friend wrote a status on Facebook claiming his "hate to a fictional being, God" for "leaving horrible people on the planet but taking people like Rik Mayall and Robin Williams".

I thought: "Wait, I thought Robin Williams was still alive?"

I asked everyone at the table, "Isn't Robin Williams still alive? I don't remember ever reading that he's dead." They all said he's alive.

I scrolled down Facebook and it was confirmed. I checked to see if it was a hoax, but it wasn't.

Robin Williams, a great comedian, a brilliant actor, and from what I can gather a wonderful man, ended his life today out of depression.

"There must be something wrong with the world if it can't accommodate Robin Williams", said Russell Brand on his "Trews" (True News) YouTube series, where he discusses current events and gives his (fantastic and well worded) opinions and analysis on the matters. 

I feel I can relate to Robin Williams in quite a few ways. I'm not at all claiming I am him, or that I'm a comical genius, before anyone takes it the wrong way, but I share the same sense of humour as him. I make jokes in a similar way, act stupid and loud and eccentric. I love to make people laugh, I feel happy when I do so, and I love to cheer people up. But, I also get sad, too; that's being human.

I feel I have, in a much less genius way, a similar mind to what he seemed to have, except his spectrum was far wider - he was way funnier than I'll ever be, and he got way sadder than I've ever got (and I hope I never do reach that end of the spectrum.)

This is one reason his death upsets me, (other reasons include: he had kids, and that he got so desperately sad and depressed he felt suicide was the only way out,) because I feel like he's how I wanted to turn out when I get older: someone who will continue to be energetic and bring out happiness from others, be the person who people want at parties, be that person who can entertain and make others laugh, no matter what mood he's in. This man did these things, he cheered up those he came across, whether it was a paying audience, the camera crew, his family.

He was very similar to Jim Carrey in these ways, too, and Jim Carrey is my favourite person on the planet. The only difference between the two is that Jim Carrey has found happiness and contentment now, Robin unfortunately couldn't, he felt he was trapped, and now he will never find that happiness. 

Fox News, my favourite news team, (complete and utter sarcasm, I passionately despise them), reported his death earlier today, and the presenter said he was a "coward" for killing himself. I'm sure many agree with this, because it is seen as "an easy way out".

But just think about that for one second. You get so depressed, for months on end, that you can't see a way out of it. You don't enjoy anything anymore, you're just sick of living every day and being miserable. You may feel guilty for feeling these things, especially if you have kids, but the guilt adds to the depression, makes you even more depressed, you become disgusted with yourself. It sounds awful, yes? Of course it does. But how does tying a rope around your neck and jumping off a chair, leaving everything behind as your neck cracks, seem like an easy, cowardly option? 

If you think suicide is a cowardly way out, imagine someone you love disappearing tomorrow and being discovered with a rope around his/her neck, and then imagine someone coming up to you while you were mourning and saying "Well, wasn't he/she a coward?!" 

Feeling there's no way out of depression is tough, I can imagine. Getting help anyway, forcing yourself to try and get out of that rut must be difficult, extremely difficult. But ending your life certainly can't be easy, so how can you call someone in this state a coward, just because you don't understand how they feel?

I don't understand how they feel either, but I'm trying to be open-minded, and I'm trying to understand how someone might feel like this, so that one day, if someone I love or know gets in this state, I can try my very best to help.

Also, Sam Towers, some guy on Facebook, posted about Robin Williams saying: 'We all know who he is and we all know he's killed himself, big wow'. Okay, that's your opinion, but if someone's mother died, you wouldn't comment saying "I don't care about your mother, get this off my feed." 

He stated that soldiers die every day and don't get recognition so why should Robin Williams? I responded:

"The soldiers aren't forgotten, they're remembered by their family - people who knew them. I don't know any soldiers personally, so when I hear a soldier is dead, I think "Oh, that's sad, I feel sorry for him and his family", and then my day moves on. 

With Robin Williams, we all feel we've a connection with him because we've seen him on TV, he's made us feel something, whether it be happiness through laughter, or sadness through what he's acting on screen. 

Soldiers aren't personal to everyone, they don't make us feel happy or sad, we don't know them personally, we don't know them at all until we hear that they've been killed. It doesn't mean we aren't grateful for what they've done, but we just don't know them. We can't post on Facebook about everyone in the world that die every second, there wouldn't be time. We post about people we've had a connection with of some sort."

Of course, if someone you know is a soldier, you'd be sad if said person died, because you do have a personal connection with this person. But obviously, you're sad when anyone you've had a connection with dies, whether it be a soldier, a comedian or the man who owns the local shop.

The world can seem a sad place at the moment. All this Palestine and Israel conflict, the Russia and Ukraine conflict, the whole Iraq thing that's still going on, Fox News promoting terrorism, and now Robin Williams ending his life. But we need to try and learn from these things, try and take something positive from them all. 


People dying is bad. People hurting is bad. Soldiers dying is bad, and pointless. Robin Williams dying is bad.

Don't promote violence, because it isn't the answer. I think war is stupid, it's absolutely f*cking ridiculous to me. I think someone taking their life is extremely upsetting. We need to learn, from this, that depression is a serious issue, and that it could happen to anyone. Someone as lovely and funny as Robin Williams, a family member, a best friend. We're all people, we're all human, so look after each other. We need to be there for the people we love, and we need to make them smile, make them happy. If they're upset, don't shrug it off because you're busy. 

We need to take making people happy more seriously.

Take care,

ARK Walton.

Self-harm

This has taken me a long while to write about, and my first draft was over 5 months ago, at least. 

It's a touchy subject and is hard to write about. (So give me a chance, I feel strongly about this topic.) But if we stopped it from being such a taboo subject, talked about it more casually, made self-harm less 'special', then perhaps it would become a less powerful option for people to choose when feeling down; it takes away some of its power and novelty, if you will. This is why I've decided to voice (or word) my opinion. Feel free to give yours. If you have any questions please feel free to message me. All I say is based on my experiences. So here it goes!

--

Self-harm seems to me almost as though it is sport nowadays. Whether it's casually scratching yourself with scissors because you aren’t allowed the next iPhone, or slashing open your wrists because life seems empty to you; self-destruction seems to be in everyone, and self-harm seems to be a popular option for dealing with problems, for kids, nowadays, when no others seem available.

Of course I shan’t name any names, at all, but it seems that a large percentage of everyone I know has done it, or still does. A very close friend of mine when I was just 12 did it. The person was 15, and when the person showed me the slices on the person's wrists, I was shocked completely; tears, confusion, disbelief. I was just twelve. Think about that for a moment. I'd just started secondary school, just left primary school where everything was simple and peaceful and the only problems are spelling tests and grazed knees. I was that young when I went from the happy, carefree life with close friends, to all of a sudden a world with self-harm, bullying, hate, discrimination, harder spelling tests and heartbreak. My own perfect world was ruined as a result of this; my best friends started insulting me because it was the fun thing to do, because I had long hair and liked rock music. Girls became bitches instead of friends. Boys became obsessed with fighting rather than Pokemon cards. And on top of all this, I had discovered that someone would actually drag a razor blade repeatedly across their wrist as a way to deal with emotional pain. 

My question was, “Why would anyone harm themselves? It’s counterproductive.” I thought that surely the reason you’re hurting yourself is because you feel everything’s coming down on you. But wouldn’t this be adding to these problems rather than making them go away? Answer: yes, it would. It makes problems much worse. Cutting those hurting you seems less counterproductive, (unless you consider the prison sentence, of course.)

So why do people do it? Who does it?

It seems, in my experience, that females do it more than males. Is this because they take emotions and feelings extremely seriously compared to how males  stereotypically take these things? Or is it in fact because females speak about these things more and males tend to keep things to themselves because it wouldn’t be cool to speak to a best friend about harming themselves? Perhaps females seek the comfort of their friends where males fear rejection of their friends? 

People who claim to have done it, or have done it, explain that it “takes their mind off things”. However, to me, surely it’s a constant reminder of “things”? When you get scars, you’ll be reminded of these times for the rest of your life; (or just look back and laugh at how ridiculous and dramatic you were as a child. Many kids are 13 and cutting themselves because of a 'heartbreak' and therefore the world must be ending for them. Once upon a time, poems were written because of this; why can't kids be encouraged to do that rather than self-harm? It's all about what the popular options are nowadays, and self-harm is a popular option. (I'll come back to 'Options' further down)). 

Now, I mention child as the stereotype here. It also seems to me that children/teens do it more than adults. Perhaps this is because I am a teenager too, and so the people I am close to are also younger and if they do it I hear about it, and won’t hear about an adult doing it. But in my experience, a large percentage of “self-harmers” self-harm merely for attention. I’m sure many people reading this right now are probably hating what they are reading, however, I am not going to soften what I say just for you, I am speaking, (well, typing,) my mind and what I think. 

It's understandable, it's almost a cry for help, but when it's a red line across a wrist rather than an actual cry, they get 'special' treatment. They get serious concern from teachers, and whispers from children in the yard. Serious attention. They feel special, different. They think people will feel sorry for them. The kid doesn't actually want to die in most cases, they just want the attention, probably to fill in a gap in their life. But to be honest, the whispers are insults. The kids aren't really viewed as special, but as idiots. Self-harming doesn't stop bullying, it feeds it. If we stopped giving this special attention, most self-harming would probably stop, as the majority is attention seeking. 

Don’t get me wrong though, I know for a fact some people do it because they actually believe there are no alternative options, that their lives are pointless and self-harming is the one thing that keeps them content. These people need to be shown other ways of dealing with problems. Afterall, we all face the same problems more or less in our lives, and not all of us self-harm. Therefore, self-harming isn't the only way out of the problems. 

However, many people seem to be doing it nowadays and then telling everyone they can about it, Facebooking about it, Tweeting it, taking pictures of it etc. These are the attention seekers, and more often than not don't actually need any help, they aren't really in any emotional dilemmas. (Self-harming accounts on Twitter etc.)  

When adults are depressed, they are serious about it, they don't want to walk about with scars on their arms. If they want to actually die, you'll read about them in the obituary the next week. We all have self-destruction in us though, and I suppose you could say extensive drinking is an adult's equivalent to self-harm. But the difference is the adult isn't claiming to everyone he wants to die. 

In my opinion, self-harm is a malfunction of the human. The whole purpose of life is to survive and continue, these are instincts. But, as humans are actually hurting themselves, or even killing themselves, then they are overriding this built in instinct and determination to survive. 

However, as social culture allows us to drastically change ourselves by the influence of others, (e.g girls wearing buckets full of fake tan, or boys dressing in jeans that show the bones in their legs,) then is self-harm just another social influence rather than a malfunction of the brain? People do it, perhaps, because in some sick way it's like a 'fashion' or crowd to be a part of?

Options

Self-harm shouldn't be an option for children, they shouldn't see it or think of it as an option. Remove the stereotype 'wrist-slitter' or 'self-harmer' and I would bet that most kids who would self-harm in this day and age wouldn't if they didn't know about it - if they didn't know of the option. The media shows the option, and kids acknowledge it and can use it. If writing deep poems was the next big stereotype (again) for unhappy people, then we might have more words rather than spilled blood. 

Thanks for reading. It's hard to word some things, especially when the matter still confuses or even scares me a bit. But it's about time I voiced my opinions about it, the blog has been sitting here, untouched, for too long! I hope you've taken something from it, a new opinion, a broader mind on the topic, or even a further loathing of me! Again, these are my opinions and experiences, any problems or queries, Facebook is available. 

Thanks!

Take care,

ARK Walton. 

Puff Pastry Pies

So once again, I have decided to write about another little thing that annoys me. Anyone who really knows me knows just how much I despise Puff Pastry Pies.

I'll set the scene.

Adam walks into a pub. The food smells excellent, the atmosphere is pleasant, and the scenery is appealing. He sits at a table and looks at the menu, and notices his favourite dish is written under "Pub Classics"; "Steak & Ale Pie with chips". He cackles with pure excitement, and even lets out a small dosage of urine. 

The waitress takes his order, and Adam goes to the bar to order his extremely rock n' roll drink, a J20 Orange and Passionfruit. He takes his seat once more, taking sips through a red straw.

As if by animal instinct, Adam can sense his food approaching his table. Or maybe he just uses his eyes. But either way, what touches down Adam's table causes his heart to fall onto the plate, which makes the waitress faint, hitting the elderly man in a wheelchair behind her, who rolls out into the road, causing cars to collide. A petrol lorry slides into the carnage and explodes, the shrapnel flying into the air, which hits a plane, which leads it to crash down into the local shopping centre, killing 1000s and ruining shopping sprees for many generations to come.

So what was on Adam's plate that caused such dramatic chaos? 

Correct. A puff pastry pie."

So what do I hate about them? 

Well, firstly, I can see that some people actually enjoy them, but I don't think it should allowed on menus under the name of a "pie". It's not a pie. This is hugely misleading. 

A pie, at least, to me, is the meat in gravy embedded inside pastry. Here is my dictionary definition of it. 

|    Pie; [n]: One's idea of Heaven. Something you don't just eat, but savour whilst eating.

"Please can Adam have that pie?" "Anything for the Master." "Thanks."    |

However, a puff pastry pie clearly is not this. A puff pastry pie is the lovely meat in gravy, but is instead surrounded by a containing device made out of clay. So where is the pastry? Well, it's hard to miss really. 

It's on top of the meat, indecisive as to where to be on the plate, and so decides to awkwardly rest above the contents of the would-be/should-be pie.

So how is this a pie? And more importantly, how do you eat this catastrophe?

I've tried it all. 
1. You can try peeling bits of the pastry off, and dipping it into the meat and gravy. 
2. You can cut it up and put it all into the gravy. 
3. You could try putting your fork straight through the pastry and trying to get to the meat as well, (but you'll find that you can't succeed due to the size of the pastry).
4. You could eat the pastry separate to the gravy.
5. You could hit it with a rock until it goes away.

Here, as you can see, most of the points are trying to get the pastry to interact with the gravy so that you can eat both simultaneously. But if you just had a proper pie, you wouldn't need to make all this effort, as the pastry and meat are already brought out to you interacting, the effort is completely reduced for you, and what you have in front of you is actually what you ordered, a pie.

As for point 4, this is completely pointless. It's like eating a stew but with a side of "big clump of pastry". 

My point here is that puff pastry pies are trying to be a pie, a stew, or just a pastry based dish, but as I've shown to you, the pastry is just thrown on top of the meat. It's like if I made toast for you in the morning, and threw a piece of pasta on top, and tried to claim it was an Italian dish. 

All that I ask, pubs, is that when you say "pie", and I order pie, I get pie. Not meat and gravy with a crispy cancer growing from it.

|   Puff-Pastry Pie; [n]: One's idea of hell. Something that causes chaos when placed in front of one expecting an actual pie. "How can we beat the terrorists, Adam?" "Serve them puff-pastry pies."   |

Thanks for reading!

Take care,

Adam 'ARK' Walton.

Selfies, Vanity and Cleavage.

Yes, it's been quite a while. 

I started a post on self-harm a few months ago, but 1000s of words later, I realised/believed I was rambling on too much with no real conclusion to aim for, so I put it on hold for a while. Therefore, I decided to write a post about something that seems to annoy me recently.

Selfies, (or self-shots,) for those who don't know, (but I'm sure most of you do,) are photos of one's self, usually just the face, but sometimes bodies are included, (preferably with clothes still on, if you're someone who looks like a 14 year-old mother of 3, or if you're someone I believe to have some self-respect).

For me, a picture with just the face on, or a picture where you're just posing with no actual story to the photo, should just be used/shared as a profile picture on a social networking site. Even then, there should be better photos of you to choose from; maybe when you went on holiday, or when you went to a gig. 

Photos are meant to capture an important event, a time that you want to remember, a time that you want to share with others. Standing in your mirror in your bathroom, I'm sure, isn't an important event, a time you want to or will remember, so why would you want to share this with others? It isn't a memory, it's a toilet break. These should be kept private. 

Sure, people do this (mainly girls; I'm not being sexist, just observant,) possibly to show off a new item of clothing, or a new hair colour, piercing, tattoo, whatever. But we don't need fifteen photos of this event, each with different lyrics from different songs as a caption that are totally unrelated to the fact your hair is now red. 

Now, I've covered the "selfies" that annoy me when there are hundreds of them posted, but the ones that really annoy me only take one for me to become annoyed.

The worst sort of photo is where (again, usually a girl) posts a photo of her face, covered in makeup, and there's no difference in that photo than the one she posted yesterday except perhaps the camera-angle. This is annoying as it is when it fills up your news feed, but what really gets on my nerves is, (and I think all guys hate this), when the caption is something to do with how their hair isn't done right on that photo, or an eyelash is slightly crooked, or they just aren't pretty at all. 

Diddums.

They clearly just want people to comment on this photo to say that in fact they are pretty, or their hair actually looks amazing on that photo, or that the crooked eyelash isn't really all that crooked. 

You could say it's a self-confidence issue, that this girl/these girls feel imperfect and wish to be told they look nice. However, when it's everyday, or when they have a boyfriend, or when everyone knows she's the most self-centred and vain person in all the land, it starts to get a little irritating. 

Why? 

1. When it's everyday, you're going to get bored of their face to the point where you comment saying "Yes, your eyelash is ridiculously crooked, and by the way, what hair colour were you going for? Poo?" (Said in a childish voice.)

2. When they have a boyfriend, they shouldn't need to put photos on everyday to be told she's good looking by everyone, to get confidence. If she does need to, she is extremely vain, and just wants to be told it by everyone because she already knows/thinks she is, or the boyfriend isn't good at being a boyfriend.

3. If you already think/know you're good looking, you don't need to remind us everyday with a new photo of the same face in the same room. Take a photo of yourself somewhere nice, make the photo actually interesting like a photo ought to be.

The final sort of "selfy" that I hate is where a girl takes the photo from above her face, just to fit her cleavage onto the photo. To me, there're only a few reasons why a girl must do this.

1. Because she thinks a photo including her breasts will help her finally attract that "ever-loving", "romantic" boyfriend she's always complaining she can't find. (And they wonder why all their exes used them for their body.) 

2. Because she wants everyone to see her boobs, because she wants to be a pornstar or a prostitute one day.

3. Because she thinks her boobs bring out the colour of her eyes.

Now, don't get me wrong. If a girl takes a nice photo that includes her in a pretty dress that happens to show some cleavage, great, that's lovely; I have nothing against these fleshy milk bringers! But if the girl has gone out of her way to get her cleavage in there, or she's lying down on her front to make them appear bigger, the above 3 reasons are all I can think that she must be thinking.

That's about all. 

To Conclude

I like photos that capture happiness, an event of some sort, or a photo that explains something/tells a story. I wouldn't mind a selfy from one person once a month, or maybe once a fortnight maximum, it entertains this person and gives this person some self-confidence. But girls, (and guys!) not every day please! Too much confidence in your body is bad, and if we wanted to see your face that often, we'd arrange to see you in person! 

Thanks for reading,

Take care,

Adam 'ARK' Walton

"So if you love me let me go, or run away before I know..." (8)

omg my neck is horrible here 

Ramblings of Life, The News, and balls.

Life

So, I decided to write about other aspects of my life that interest me, and funnily enough, life happens to be one of those things.

I'm sat here with an energy drink (a tragic addiction to the things), listening to Motley Crue and Miles Davis, (at different times), putting off revision, and decided to actually write up my ponderings from last night.

I've always had a philosophical mind, the ability to look at many things from different perspectives, putting myself in other people's shoes to understand them better, and the unfortunate ability to hurt myself with my own thoughts. (The over-thinking thing will be used for a later post.) Therefore, I took Philosophy at A Level, at my college. My teacher calls me a born philosopher, and I just smile at her and say: "Thanks, I know."

How I am right at this moment is mainly thanks to my Philosophy class. I built my first friend-group at college with people from it, (as we're all very like-minded) and I joined another friend-group that consisted of many fellow philosophers. I also met my girlfriend in Philosophy. So, for many reasons, I have a natural and acquired love for the subject.

Last night, I happened to be speaking to a few people about life. One wasn't enjoying it (life, not my beautiful words!) and so I was cheering her up, and decided to explain to her my thoughts on life to try and inspire her in some way or another. The other I spoke to is an author of a blog (http://www.aviatex14.co.uk/) that inspired me to create this one. He's a great guy, and surprised me a little. I sit next to him in Philosophy, and his intelligence in the subject made me presume he was a deep thinker, but he told me he was a "Blissfully ignorant being". He enjoys the good things in life and ignores the bad.

I then related this to myself, and wondered in what way I was like this. As you read this, (or maybe after, because you can't read whilst wandering off inside your head, simultaneously!) maybe see how much you relate to this, and then ask yourself if you should be more like it or less like it.

For starters, I pointed out to myself that I hated watching the news on TV. (When I say I pointed it out to myself, I wasn't sat in a suit, with a top hat to match, with a cup of tea, raising my finger to the mirror and stating in a Received Pronunciation accent: "Stay awhile, and listen, good sir!") Why don't I like the news? Sure, you acquire a sense of adulthood as you watch it, nodding along, stroking your small beard, because as a kid, you're brought up thinking the news is boring and therefore for adults. But now I step back and think about it, why do adults even watch it? I asked a few adults, and they say: "Oh, because it's important to know what's going on in the world!"

Is it? Is it really that important?

My problem with news, first of all, is that it's depressing. It's all focused on pain, suffering, war, violence, death and some strange creature called the "Recession." You switch on the TV, all cheerful, full of lovely food, bearing a cup of tea, and oh, the news is on! Within 5 minutes, you've heard about a missing girl, someone found dead abroad, a small Korean threatening to blow the world up, and about job rates decreasing.

Lovely.

So, I bring us back to why it's important to watch the news; "To know what's going on in the world." Why do you need to know about them people dying? Why do you need to know about a possible war? Like, really, need to?

It's not something you can change, there's nothing in your power of knowing this information you can do to stop these things. You might argue that knowing about deaths can make you more aware for self-defence tactics, for self-awareness when walking the streets. But unfortunately, no. 

Just no.

It's all common sense! Don't walk down dark alleyways at night, particularly if you're a young woman, wearing a short skirt. Don't go anywhere, in fact, if possible, at night if you're alone. This should be common sense really, and you don't need to know about someone's unfortunate death to learn this. Certainly not anymore. We've seen enough. Watching these things are depressing. I'm not trying to sound like I'm waving off these deaths as though they're insignificant to me. I'm pointing this out because they upset me, because I don't want to see a picture of a young girl who has had her life stolen from her. 

Remember me saying how I can put myself into other people's shoes? Sometimes it's not always nice. I imagine being the girl's parents, imagining how sad they must feel, having brought her up, seeing her as a baby, being excited about her birth, watching her go through school, getting grades, revisions, friends, heartbreaks. Then having her taken from them. I imagine being her boyfriend, (not in a sick way,) and how he must feel, having lost someone he loves in the blink of an eye.

I suppose it's in some ways necessary to hear about these things just so you can be grateful for what you have, but for me, it's too depressing. It starts me thinking about those that killed her, and they're the ones who's shoes I cannot put myself in, because I cannot at all begin to comprehend how you could want to kill someone innocent and young; or anyone at all. I try to picture being them, and all I feel is a confused buzz of anger and I can't concentrate: they aren't people at all.

But when someone says, after the death of a celebrity; "Why is it we only hear about someone dying if they were famous? What about the other beautiful people out there?" Yes, many beautiful people die everyday, but if we heard about them all, we'd become so insecure and afraid of our own mortality we'd end up killing ourselves anyway.

As for other news, like the recession, I suppose you may need to know if it affects you, but again, you can't do anything to change how it affects you, so why watch a programme about it, (and therefore endure learning about the deaths and wars) when you could at least Google it?

After this...

I realised that this was the only way I was in some way "blissfully ignorant".

Too many humans are too serious about things that aren't important. I'm sure you are as guilty as I at this. Some little things really get to me and I take them too seriously, maybe get angry or stressed. But then I ask myself; what are the only things I should be serious about, and therefore the rest I shouldn't take seriously and just take with a pinch of salt?

1. College and grades - I don't take college as seriously as I perhaps should, but I take the work as seriously as I can, I stress when I have deadlines, and I work hard to meet them. If I don't take it seriously, I'll get a bad job and possibly be miserable forever. (Though, you don't always need a good job to be happy in life. My aim in life is to be happy in life, but having money is something I'd like to have as well, so as I enjoy getting grades and working towards them, I may as well aim to get the money too while it's still fun to me.)

2. Music - my guitar playing needs to be taken seriously, of course. If I want to get somewhere with it, if I want to become a renowned guitarist, I need to put the work into it to deserve the fun I get from it.

3. My relationship - this is self-explanatory. I don't take my relationship seriously in a boring sense, as though I'm stern and strict with my wench. I mean seriously as in not being lazy, as in continuing to make the effort.

4. My family and friends - With friends, I suppose I'm a bit of a sinner. I don't make as much effort as I maybe ought to with them. I just simply don't have time for everything unfortunately. However, I still offer my support whenever they need it, and I take their opinions and feelings seriously. And as for family, again, life seems to be on top of me, I seem to not have much time with them as of late due to college, work, revision, music and my girlfriend. But then I realise that this is just growing up. But again, I try to take them seriously and what they want for me.

This means that I should take everything else less seriously. I didn't include myself on that list. I don't take myself seriously. I act how I want to feel, or I act how I want to be seen by others, and I enjoy being able to switch between how I act whenever I want. In front of my friends, I act crazy and energetic. In front my girlfriend's parents I am calm, knowledgeable, fairly witty but very polite. But I don't take myself seriously. I don't particularly care about myself. It doesn't mean I don't enjoy life, in fact, I love it. It just means that I think life is short, and I should do what I feel like doing, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

I know I may seem naive. There are loopholes in my reasoning. For example, to take a relationship seriously, it means I need to keep my job of which I find boring to be able to afford to take her out and treat her to a meal and so forth. Sure, we don't need to go out particularly to be in love, but again, I like to show effort and enjoy my time with her, and this does require money a lot of the time. But, as for what I mean overall, I don't mean to sound naive, but it just shows blissful ignorance of which I spoke of. 

I'd rather at least believe there is a way to live life to the full, even if it's a little unrealistic; and at least aim for some of these ways in which to live, if not all of them.

This morning, on my bus, a car pulled out wrongly, causing the bus to stop, and other cars to stop. Everyone I could see appeared to be swearing at him and being ridiculously angry. Even I gave the car a harsh look as we drove past. But then I thought to myself; "Okay, he made a mistake. It could've been dangerous, potentially, but no one was hurt." Then I went on to thinking that everyone will have forgotten about that incident within 13 seconds of it happening, except the driver himself. All that anger aimed at this driver, when all the incident really did was add about 10 seconds onto everyone's journey. I realised then that I fell victim to taking something too seriously again. Yes, I only gave a funny look, but it was the unnecessary anger I developed that I am focusing on. In an ideal world, whenever someone makes a mistake, everyone would smile, wave their hands to say: "Don't worry about it!" And get on with life. But unfortunately, we're far from that. I think we all need to become like that, or at least look back on it afterwards as I have, and aspire to change to become a more pleasant person.

So ask yourself, how seriously do you take things that aren't actually important at all? What 4-5 things would you say you need to be serious about, leaving everything else non-serious?



The Ball Analogy

So, as I cheered this girl up, I used an analogy to explain how we can live our lives.

I explained that I thought life was pointless. However, I explained that this shouldn't be a depressing thing at all. Just because we're little beings on a giant floating rock in a huge, unimaginable amount of dark space that bear no importance to anything except our own built society, doesn't mean we should be sad about it. We should embrace this, and realise that we are small, and that our time here is short, and therefore that we should try and enjoy it as best as we can. Some of us, like me, aim to be big, to be important amongst our race. Others are perfectly content with being small and to themselves. Whatever it is you want from this life, aim for it, or appreciate it if you are fortunate enough to already have it.

There are 3 types of people in this world, I think. I describe this with a homemade analogy; the ball analogy.

You are walking down a long, straight street, and you find a ball at your feet. (This sounds like the start of a song. All that rhyming going on. Mental.)

Person One: Picks up the ball, looks at it, but sees that it is a bit tattered and so rips it up on his journey, pulling at it, tearing it to pieces like a dog, until there's nothing but scraps left.

Person Two: Picks up the ball, looks at it, but then ignores it, just holding the ball in his hand, walking down the road until he reaches the end.

Person Three: Picks up the ball, looks at it, and smiles at the opportunity. He walks down the road, throwing it in the air, catching it, with the slight danger of dropping it, and even occasionally actually dropping it, but picking it back up and enjoying what he has found.

(Person Four: isn't a person. They're the accidents, the abortions, the one night stands. They ignore the ball and therefore don't have any relevance in the analogy.)


I think it's already self explanatory, but person one is the sort of person that disregards his life completely, not caring about it or anything around him. The word "chav" casually springs to mind, but there are others who fall victim to this way of life. Those who just had a bad upbringing, those who are just depressed, and those who tragically enjoy being self-destructive. (Self-destruction will be a later post on this blog. I have a lot to say on that matter.)

Person Two accepts his life, but that's all. The person rarely enjoys it, he's afraid to throw the ball in the air in case he drops it. This person knows that all highs have their lows, and would rather not have the high because he's too afraid of feeling the low. This person, in my imagination, is your average guy, trapped in the rat race of life. 9-5 job, decent pay, that's all. The pay is used on sustenance, maybe the odd one or two pleasantries, but nothing that makes him extremely happy. He may even have a girlfriend, but she's exactly the same, and they rarely see each other because they convince themselves they're working towards something, rather than accepting they already have something, but are wasting it in the false hope that there's something better in the future. They hate their jobs too. 

Just reading that sounds depressing, but it's not a dead end. Sure it's a risk, but if you hate your job and it stops you doing/seeing the thing you love, e.g your girlfriend, then you need to at least consider searching for a new job.

Person Three loves life. They accept there can be lows as a result of highs, and therefore appreciate the high moments even more, and grow from the low moments in the comfort that another high moment is likely in another few more steps. This person could be jobless and alone, or this person could be rich and in love. What's mutual is that the person really lives his life, appreciates what he has, takes and enjoys what he's earned and gives to and helps others to aid them in experiencing what he's experiencing.

Living life is doing what you enjoy as often as possible. You must have some sort of plan to keep it in order, I personally believe; otherwise you may find the ball rolling across the floor for too long until it reaches the end of the street. Whether it's drinking, smoking, playing, making music, making love, making money, helping others or giving to others that you enjoy, as long as it doesn't hurt others, and as long as it does indeed make you happy, do it. (It's probably best to have more than one thing you love doing, because if it's just drinking, you'll become an alcoholic that could hurt others.) 

Try new things, meet new people. Bored of your job after working there for too long? Get a new one. Don't trap yourself in the same environment for too long. If there's a way out, take it. (Leaving school after 5 years instead of staying on for two more years was the best decision I ever made. New environment, new people, new teachers; a great way to start fresh, and to keep your mind refreshed.) You've less than about 80 years to live on this planet. There are 100s of countries, cities and billions of people to explore. Why confine yourself to so little, and still say you live your life, (despite complaining about it)? 

You don't even know what life is. Nor do I, I understand this, but I am at least aware; I am just young and unable to live my life fully just yet. (However, if you thoroughly enjoy the life you do lead, then you are living, of course, just not fully.)

Don't complain about life being boring if you refuse to do anything about it, if you refuse to actually find life. Get off your ass and find something, someone, somewhere to make your life worth living.


To Conclude


Life is short, too short. If it's endlessly boring, change it. Make it worth living. Go somewhere, be spontaneous. Life is pointless, but it's even more pointless if you refuse to live it.

My favourite quote, (altered by me to suit me better), "Make yourself visible, no matter what, and free others from pain and suffering." (The original was "free from guilt", and was by Jim Carrey, my God.) Like the Buddha teaches, enjoy life, and help others to as well.

And I leave you now with:


A "funny" little story


My English teacher from secondary school once said, (I paraphrase as I can't exactly remember, but it was along the lines of):

"The person in this book knows how to live. He's off to do something with his life and enjoying it! You're all sat here like slaves, copying notes into your books, in your uniforms, all looking miserable!"

I said:

"So you're saying that if I stood up now and left, saying I was off to enjoy and live my life, you wouldn't stop me?"

And he replied: "No, but I know you wouldn't be off to actually enjoy and live your life. You'd go straight home and sit on your Xbox or something."

He had a good point.

Thanks for reading! Feedback is appreciated, find me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter @ARKWalton

Adam 'ARK' Walton.