Weekly discourse

Charlie Chaplin said a funny joke to an audience three times cultivating laughter in the first instance. Substantially decreased laughter in the second attempt, and no laughter in the third.

This is broadly relevant to life, the things we enjoy may not be as 'intense' as the first time. Of course, this is important to recognise at all levels, otherwise we will be bouncing around looking for stimulus to grab our full attention. This is not sustainable nor true to your absolute core. Repetition and discipline is necessary for mastery.

Inversely, Chaplin speaks of the things that make us feel negative emotions: anger, sadness etc. It's human nature to come to the negative situation THREE times, just like the 'funny joke', yet our response is the same, if not intensified. Unlike the joke. This implies that we take good things for granted. We avoid the bad. We avoid the bad often because we cannot bear to sit with the bad and all its familiars.

We must learn to accept things as they come. We must learn to be solution oriented too. Both are important. Both take incredible amounts of time, effort and deliberation of the mind. Even the darkest things that happen to humanity, things happen unfortunately. We cannot try to 'forget it'. We need to face our deepest fears and accept them. I see people refer to this as 'forgiveness'. You don't need to 'forgive' the people who did you wrong (in that sense). You don't need to bring them into your house and feed them a meal. But to accept with neutrality is so powerful in overcoming negativity. Not easy.

When I was younger, even today, I enjoyed living extremities and was no fan of neutrality. I would partake in faux pas (extremely embarrassing acts such as headbutting a cake on my birthday) to get attention and laughter. I did not care about my own dignity so long as I got some form of positive response. Through reflection into my childhood, I can see how this matrix began to form and why I was the way I was. Irregularity is not a good thing. Extreme ups and downs are not necessarily a good thing, long term sustainable viability is key (investors, martial artists, long term couples, anyone who is dedicated to their craft would say the same). I'm concerned, through my own personal experience, the dangers of a society which is competing on getting attention, skipping important steps and all contributing to this 'matrix'. Who is going to feel the damages of this? The next generation.

Life is largely about managing incompatibility. This can be applicable on all levels: friendships, romance, on a personal/individual level, what you eat, your hobby. It can be seen as 'strengths vs weaknesses', 'likes vs dislikes', 'good vs evil'. Polarity and duality. The inverse, the other side of the coin, they are all natural parts of life. This ties in to what I was saying above about neutrality. Categorisation into two broad things: black and white, is an excellent way to get your head around the big picture. But to dive deeper, one must excel in seeing the many shades of grey in between. To find out exactly what shade you are, you have to read between the lines. You are only as strong as your weakest link. From a weight lifting perspective, you can only carry as much as your grip will let you. From a striker's perspective, you can only hit as much as your wrist and fist will allow. From an automotive perspective, you can only accelerate as fast as your tyres will allow for grip, regardless of engine power.

Control the narrative (your mind), you're your own story teller.