Roos' Razor

Life is all about what you make of it. It is that simple. Dress it up, dress it down, make it sparkle, make it dull, wrap a bow around it or cover it up, your life is created by your thoughts. No more, no less.

If you spend the day thinking about the worst that can happen, the doom and gloom, you will keep down that path unitl it becomes a narrow tunnel to depression, paranoia and self loathing. 

I am not saying that is the only cause for depression. I know depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and can be brought under control with the right combination of medication and better living habits. I've studied as a psychiatric nurse. I know the DSM V and the standards for mental illness. Just want to clarify in case I am giving the impression that depression is only caused by bad thoughts.

Happiness is a choice. Fear is a choice. Anger is a choice. We all make them. We all have bad days. We all get ticked off at the moron who is driving at 50 KPH in an 80 KPH zone and want to ram their car to get them moving, except it would cause damage to our baby Fiat.  Yup, on some days that is the only thing stopping me. But I digress. 

So if it is a choice, what are you choosing? Do you choose happiness, or do you dwell on the negative that is all around us? And when you think, what is in your head? Is it what you are lacking, or what you can create? Sometimes it really is that simple.

Ockham's Razor is a way to look at problems: when you have two competing theories, the simplist is the better one.

Roos' Razor is simple too: when faced with any problem, think of the most absurd explanantion and go with that. Trust me, life gets way more interesting. 

What is the point to all this? I tend to think the absurd. I can take any situation and see the humour, the whackiness, the inane craziness of life. It makes me happy. 

I read a headline once: Man Sentenced to Two Years on a Trampoline. My mind went into overdrive. Two years on a trampoline. Wow! Does he have to bounce all the time? How does he sleep? What does he do in the winter? How does he go to the bathroom? Why a trampoline? What did he do to get sentenced to two years? These, and a million other thoughts zoomed through my synaptic nerves until I read the sentence again and discovered he had been sentenced to a Trapline. I found this hysterical and even now, years later I can still see myself sitting in the house, alone, laughing like a loon because I am picturing this guy bouncing with a smile on his face as he looks into the distance. 

This is how I choose to see life. The comedy, the craziness, the absurdity and the joy. Does it make a difference? You bet it does. I tend to think of scenarios that may seem a little off the wall, but may contain a kernel of something that can be used somewhere else. As a writer, this is invaluable. As a Project Manager this allows me to see things others may not. As a person, it makes me laugh. And I guess that is the best reason of all.

Halloween, Religion and Candy Corn

I love this time of year! The Magic is in the air, the leaves are on the ground, and the kids are dreaming of candy corn.

I love the smells, the sounds and the sights as I see numerous pictures of Halloween, Witches, Ghosts, Monsters and endless horror movies on TV. This is what it should be like all year around.....well it is at my house. I keep my Bat Mat on the front door, hang bats in my Christmas Tree, have my Halloween/Christmas town set up usually all year around.

My family was born in Europe and we lived there for several years. Pagan and Christian/Catholic Holy-days were all melded into one happy tradition. In November the adults dressed up in costumes, danced and partied well into the night usually for a week or two on end, right in the midst of the Catholic Cathedral and among the statues of Mary at the side of the road.

Children played in the streets collecting candy and chasing the Witches. Men and women dressed in costume and everyone enjoyed this magical season. 

I wish we had more of that spirit here in Canada. 

In Mexico they have Day of the Dead and All Souls Day celebrated in a three day festival. Again, the Catholicism and Paganism meld into joining of forces and everyone celebrates the Dead. It is not a foreign idea to merge the two religions.

Only in North America have I seen the dichotomy of being a Witch and being a Christian. It is almost like we have not matured enough to see the goodness in both, or, the Goddess in both. 

One day, my little lambs, we shall come to realize that we have more in common than we think. 

It's A Man's World

Some things really upset me: Racism, sexism, ageism, any kind of isms. People are people, whether you are straight, gay, Black, Aboriginal, Jewish, Christian, Wiccan, Muslim, female or male. And the thing that gets me every single time is how people will push your buttons, turn on you or demoralize you for one of the above.

It happened to me during last year's innocuous 'Do Women Write Horror Differently Then Men' post. My gawd, you would have thought I was asking if men should be demonized and held captive for days while ripping wings off of butterflies and devouring children. I was lambasted, roasted, stalked, had threatening emails, terrorizing private messages and lewd comments. Nothing to do with the article. Nothing to do with the challenge. Just all threats and cowardly comments from weak-minded individuals who feared a woman asking such a dangerous question. Interestingly enough, only a handful of men actually read the posts, but none ventured a guess. Only the women did that. And no one got it right.

Now, I find out someone I know is being victimized at her place of work.......for being pregnant. She has been demoted, deducted vacation time for medical appointments, and basically being told to FO.

It is 2014. Women get pregnant. They don't do it to screw with the work force. They don't do it to get a vacation. They do it because it is their given right in this day and age to do so what they will with their own bodies. And now it is still being used against them. Why?

Women are told they can't get pregnant if it interferes with their job, they can't get an abortion because that is morally wrong, they can't have multiple sexual partners because that is morally wrong, they can't earn as much as men because they do not head households etc.

In this enlightened age you would think that people for one minute, one tiny little minute, would look back and see things from another perspective.

In this same workplace, the men are paid exorbitant amounts of salaries, given trips to Europe, take three hour lunches and that is fine.

But a woman doing the exact same job, plus filling in two other positions gets paid less, way less, no trips to Europe, works during lunch breaks, takes work home and when she becomes pregnant, is told she is a lesser human being.

Isn't it time to make things equal? Why do we, as a society, have "rules" for gender, colour of skin, who you sleep with, and what religion you are? Why, as a society do we allow minorities to overrule public and country 'givens' because we are trying to be politically correct? Insert "remove bacon from the menu in a restaurant in North America because it offends me".

Why can we not state what is obviously someone's messed up notion of how something should work when it is blatantly obvious? And why do we roll over and pee on ourselves when we see something is wrong and do nothing about it?

It is 2014. It is time we grew up as a nation and stopped treating each other as chew toys.


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