The Android's Conundrum

Part I:

Often times, we -humans - find ourselves wrapped up in a puzzle. The puzzle begins somewhere around age 5 and seems, initially, fairly easy to figure out. At least at my elementary school, they provided motivational speakers who always told us to never say we can't do anything. Somehow, at almost 24, I find myself writing, my friends posting quotes, and my elders buying books about the same thing. Rarely do we live it out. Rarely do we act as if we can do anything.

Instead, we get married young, sometimes producing kids even younger. We resign to life in a cube. We search for a 401K and a healthcare plan, so we can put off dying. In the mean time, what we really put off is living. We give up. But we do it gradually, and we don't like to admit it. Our sense of wonder wains and is replaced by an easy chair and a sporting event. Ironically, the sporting event contains the type of people many of us are not.

But maybe we were once. Maybe we weren't at all. If we weren't at all, no harm, no foul. But if we were...just for a bit...why'd we give up?

This isn't meant to be a castigation, but an honest realization.

Part II:

3 Situations:

1. The middle-aged guy who sits home and watches the college team. Works the 9-5 and lives for the weekend. Has a wife, some kids. His daily office greeting is just about as predictable as his morning and evening shits, respectively.

2. The connected one. Apparently, in business, it is popular to have a "mentor." What makes a great mentor? I don't really know. But, I'd guess that number 1, you can't be a great mentor if you're not connected or well-off.

3. The Mexican immigrant aunt whose niece I tutor. Her dream is to learn how to use a computer. She's taking classes to learn and when I visit to tutor I've started working with her for a few minutes each time to show her how to use google.

I wonder how often these types think about each other? Put themselves in each other's shoes? Even cross-paths in a typical day? When we vote we presume to have firm stances on taxes, immigration, abortion, war. But do we know the soldier from the ghetto? Are we the well-connected business man with a solid upbringing and good education? Do we know what it is like to live in a really, really corrupt and poor nation? Do we know our advantages and disadvantages, our strengths and our weaknesses as opposed to our fellow humans? Do we care? Do we question? What's wrong with questioning? Have beers, have fun, but is there more to us?

Call it thinking outside of the box, but I think it is much more about thinking outside of ourselves. Thinking outside of what we think we know. Yes, it takes effort. Mental effort. But do it enough, action may even arise. The simplicity of a 5-year-old may even come out.

Le Shins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHTSxw6zN1E&feature=related