December madness.

I wonder what drives people into this december madness, and i mean the christmas holidays. My parents went along with it too, especially my mother. Sending lots of christmas cards to relatives and hanging all the received cards on a string on the wall. I'm sure some of the received cards were exactly the same as the ones my mother had send. If you think of it, sending a piece of cardboard with a romantic picture on it only to receive the same pieces of cardboard again. Because one has to do this.

Then the holidays themselves. This requires a lot of shopping, and in the case of the two christmas days falling on a monday and tuesday, an enormously amount of shopping has to be done. Then the parking lots of the supermarkets are too small in the two days before the holidays. Houses need to be decorated too of course.

There is nothing wrong with decorating the house and have a feast, with or without presents. But why can this only be done at christmas? Why not pick a random date on the calander and do this? Why be afraid that people say that you're odd for doing so? Why be a sheep? 

Pink.

I can't remember where i got the idea from that pink is for girls and blue for boys. Thinking back to the seventies when i grew up, and seeing old photos of that time, colors were bright and plentyfull. The color pink was not fashionable then i guess as it doesn't show up much on photos of the seventies. But as an adult man buying clothes or other things i needed in life i never bought something in pink, as i did have it stuck in my mind that pink was only for girls.

But when thinking of it, it is just silly. How can a color be only male or female? It's just a color. And it's not proven that only/all female human beings like pink and male human beings like any color except pink. Pink is for girls and blue for boys is nothing more then conditioning, and it seems that marketing plays a big role in it. In the same line marketing is conditioning little girls into the role of mother and housewife. Just look in any toyshop or look in any toy brochure. As if there is no free choice.

Human beings have a brain that can think and reason in an independant way. Human beings don't need to be told what choices to make, they can do that themselves. But i wonder how many are actually really making their own choices. The choice of being a sheep or not.

Bikers

Not long after i got my drivers license for driving a car, i also got my drivers license for riding a motorcycle. Shortly after that i bought a motorbike, a not so old second hand 600cc bike. Soon i grew an interest in old bikes from the seventies but mainly to ride them, not to work on them to make them better or to restore them. None of my bikes were 100% original, i liked bikes that were a bit different. At first i wore a full face helmet which i thought was not so practical when wearing glasses. So later i bought an open face helmet which was much more practical. I wore an old leather jacket which i had since i was sixteen years old. I also had thin leather pants which were later abandoned for warmer thicker pants. If it was warm in summer i wore jeans.

Sometimes when i was wearing jeans some other biker in a full leather suit with protection would point out to me that riding in jeans was not safe. I always ignored them. They were right on one point, when falling at speed and sliding over rough tarmac a full leather suit with protection keeps your skin better protected then jeans. But it was my choice to wear jeans and take the risk, i did not need someone else to tell me i was wrong/stupid.

When riding old bikes the electric system isn't always as good as on modern bikes, so on bright clear days i was riding without my lights on. The only (light) accident i had in twenty years was when i had my lights on. What saved me was anticipating on possible dangers and i had time to brake before hitting a car whose owner didn't see me. As with the jeans other bikers would point out to me that my lights were not on while riding, even on bright sunny days. Again it is my choice, and from my own experience i can say that having lights on doesn't save you from accidents, attentive and sensible drivers will save you, and anticipating driving yourself. Ask an ambulance driver who drives the best visible brightly colored car you can imagine how many near misses and accidents they have.

While bikers can be so proud of their individuality, from my own experience i can say that the biker world is made of sheeples. I was one of them. Riding a custom made chopper wearing the "biker" outfit going to biker meetings doesn't make a person an independant individual. You're going to meet people who do just the same as you, want to look the same as the others, and talk the same talk as everyone else. Even if someone belongs to a group where everyone rides a bike that they like, and are not trying to fit in by riding a certain type of bike, it doesn't make a person an independant individual.



 

11 november.

Here in the Netherlands and in some other parts of Europe, is a tradition called "Sint Maarten/Martinus" on 11 november. Not everywhere this tradition is done the same, but it mainly involves children begging for candy. Children make a lantern themselves, or their parents buy them one, and with that lantern alight the children go from door to door, sing a song, and expect to get candy for it. It is not known with certainty where this tradition comes from. 

As a child i went from door to door with a lantern singing a song and expected candy for it. I can't remember whether i have asked my parents why we did this, and not knowing myself why it was done or where it came from, i wonder if my parents knew anything about it. (Just now i looked it up on the internet) If i had children before i had internet, and my children were asking about it, i couldn't have given them answers. 'It's just what we do on 11 november'.

When a tradition has no meaning or even a history (the tradition seems fairly recent) then it's nothing more then sheep behaviour.

Nachman

You chose us when you decided to take a nap on my lap,
then welcomed your new home with a lot of noise.
You needed a lot of attention, and toilet trips,
made us lose out on sleep at night.

But you were very precise on your toilet trips,
never made one misstake.
Your appetite was huge and you liked everything edible,
as long as it wasn't mushrooms.

You grew fast and had so much potential,
but somehow you weren't able to learn.
Got friends with the cats,
could get cross at the playfull Boxer.

You were nervous and didn't like sudden noises,
maybe it's his Catahoula nature.
You were friendly towards us,
but didn't really liked to cuddle.

Then you became strange,
suddenly didn't recognise the cats.
When being afraid you chose to hide away,
instead of coming to us to feel safe.

We gave you the best life you could have,
as a dog with Hydrocephalus.
You just became two years old,
when you ended your life with a lot of noise

Busy.

At the moment i am occupied with a new puppy and reading a blog: The Wise Sloth . If you're reading my blog, you might find 10 signs you're a sheeple interesting.

Believing in God.

I believe that there is a God and with that i am the same as lots of other people. The way i see things however are different then how most others see their belief.

Some years ago i found God and i changed. I became a better person and i really believed that God helped me to be a better person. When i needed help then i just asked God to help me and He did. I was very glad that He helped me and wondered how this almighty God who must be very busy controlling the whole universe found the time to help an unsignificant person like me. I saw this as being a child walking on a straight and narrow path being guided and holding the hand of God. Then you grow up and you are no longer a child but become an adult. Adults are supposed to take their own responsibillity and should have learned how to live their life. This is where i am now. Still walking on that narrow path with God, but not holding His hand, i should know now where to go.

In my belief in God i am not a sheep either. I have dipped my toe in Judaism, and i litterally dipped my toe (and whole body) in christianity, but it wasn't for me. To phrase it in an other way, religion is not for me. It seems to me that religion is more about sheep herding then anything else. And i am not a sheep.
I have read the Torah/Tanach and the apostolic writings, but also tried to find the origins of these books. Why were these books written? What made them write these books and who wrote them? What were they thinking back then and how did the world look like back then? In searching for answers i did see things different, seeing what was written in context. Now i definetly don't see these books as the written words that came straight from God. The books are written by men, not because God told them to, but because these men wanted to write these books. Of course i make it very simple, but i don't like to make things more complicated then they have to be. This doesn't mean that i reject these books, there are a lot of sensible things written in these books. But also a lot of things that are irrelevant for me. So how do i know how to live my life the way God wants me to? Well, as written above the Torah/Tanach and many other books, and of course the internet are a great source for inspiration. And then there's my upbringing/conditioning and my conscience. These also tell me how to live my life and be a good person. And there's my common sense. Maybe the latter is the most important part of it all. Maybe God has put the knowledge of how to live according to His way in every human being, and it is up to us wether we use that knowledge or not. One thing i know for sure, God has created this world and everything on/in it, and He created human beings with a mind that can think and reason. And with that we have free choice. We can choose to do good and we have the choice to do evil. God did that for a purpose. But why?
It would have been so much easier to make us robots with a fixed program, but instead we are not. On the contrary, every human being is unique, there is not one person who is exactly the same as an other person. And why don't we celebrate this fact? If you think of it, the world would be very boring when we were all the same.  

But who is God and what does he want from me? Here's my very simple answer, He's my creator and He wants me to be the person who He created. And it's up to me to be that person.