But It was this Emerson quote and David’s critique that really caught my eye.

“Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. — `Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Remembering this quote has protected me from so many instances of shame and self-doubt for things I’ve said and stances I’ve taken. One truth I keep encountering again and again is that one cannot stay the same person throughout life. As we experience more and more, our perspectives change and consequently so do our beliefs. Change is the unchangable state of the universe, so how could one’s beliefs stay the same throughout life?

Yet society seems to value a certain consistency of belief. We are expected not just to share our opinions, but to be them, to swear to them as a lifelong conviction. People proudly declare, “I am a conservative. I am a Christian. I am a Democrat.” If you equate your beliefs with yourself in this way, there is no room to ever genuinely reconsider, not without an insurmountable bias towards the beliefs you’ve already embodied. You’ll always feel a compulsion to protect those beliefs, as viscerally as if it’s your internal organs that are threatened, because you consider them to be just as much a part of you.

When someone is that afraid of being contradicted, they are no longer concerned with the truth, only with protecting their priceless investment in what they have said. To honor a statement you made yesterday as a binding declaration of who you are is a tragic, yet extremely common mistake. This is the fundamental error that plagues humanity: to mistake one’s ego for oneself. Enforcing an impossible, lifelong consistency in what you say and believe can only lead to dishonesty and despair.

Someone whose opinions change freely with experience is clearly someone who is not guided by dogma or the expectations of others, but instead by a clear internal compass of inquiry and honesty. To such a “pure and wise spirit,” it is far more important to seek the truth than to be regarded as having had it all along. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” said Emerson.

Whenever I feel a pang of regret for something I’ve said, I remember that all I did was speak what I thought at the time in hard words, even if today I speak different ones. It’s only human.

Via-Raptitude.com

If more people, god fearing and atheist, acted like this we’d be doin’ pretty good.

Thoughts?

We are able to be the first to report that the practice of “bed jumping” has been banned by most major US hotel chains today.

“Bed jumping” is a new internet sensation where people take photos of each other in funny mid-air poses while jumping up and down on hotel beds. The practice has lead the members of US Hospitality Trade Association to agree on an association wide ban.

A spokeswoman for the organization gave us this statement:

The new internet sensation of bed jumping has cost the hospitality industry almost $52,000,000.00 in the last quarter alone. Most customers are not aware of the high cost of commercial mattresses. While manufactures are prepared for children to “bed jump,” the mattresses are not designed for jumpers over ~100lbs. Preliminary tests show that a mattress needs to be replaced after only 10-15 adult jumpers.

In the current economic market, it is not feasible for our members to absorb this high cost. The ban is meant to prevent hotels from adding a “jumping charge” to every room they book, which would increase the rate an average of $4 for every night.

Apparently it’s a big problem! I asked her what would happen to someone caught bed jumping and she said that the hotel would most likely not call the police, unless the staff observed actual damage to the mattress, though they would ask you to leave!

Tis the season again, for two months of pain and misery that fill me with rage and bitterness for every Jesus lover out there.  I hate this holiday and anything related to it.  This is the king of all holidays, which pretty much starts the day after Halloween and doesn’t stop until 2 weeks after New Years Day.  I used to love the holiday, I even have white christmas lights (due to lack of another name) up in my room year round, I like the way snow looks, etc…  I hate this holiday for many reasons which I will now list for you.

1. the religious aspect:
    A. It takes the original pagan holiday “Yule” and turns it into something the catholic/christian church finds acceptable. 
    B. The holiday seems to be more about Santa Claus than about the birth of the deity of the religion that bastardized it in the first place.

    C. It lies to children, I hate liars (although it does give us a great piece of ammunition when people say god exists, equating him to Santa).

    D. It’s just another way for them to rub their religious beliefs in your face.  Also to any atheist here that say “merry christmas” what is wrong with you?  Stand by your religious disbeliefs and say happy winter solstice or something similar because I’d at least rather like to hear that out of you than what has been pounded into your skull by the theists.

2. the corporate aspect:
    A. The holiday does nothing anymore but encourage you to shop and buy buy buy and spend every dime you have on people who won’t appreciate it or remember what you got them (unless it’s REALLY good).  These days I ask for nothing, and when they won’t comply (they seriously won’t comply) I ask for money because at least then I can use it for something I really want then get something I’ll hate and find fault with.  They still get nothing, and maybe one day they’ll stop giving and I can be truly happy.  I hate mandatory gift giving and would rather get something home made and random if anything, not because a holiday requires it and a store offers it.

    B. Shopping for the holiday now starts in August, which you can imagine how annoying that gets.  Still the advertisements are at least reasonable until November.

    C. The spirit of giving is crap, what are you a communist?  You give to charity, you give because you’re told to, hell you even give because you HAVE to in taxes.  No one saves any money and therefore everyone goes broke.  People go into debt over this holiday and THAT ruins lives, just so they seem like good friends/relatives or to keep up with the Joneses.

    D. I don’t need a stupid holiday to show someone I care about them.  If I care I’ll buy them dinner or get them something at random if and when I think of it.  The people I care about already know I care about them and that’s what counts the most.

So to sum it all up, not everyone believes what they do, so they need stop shoving it in everyones face because it’s all just a bunch of humbug.

(I will say however it’s pretty awesome that I get the Grinch’s theme song as my ring tone on my friend’s phone, that was neat and really thoughtful on his part and better than any actual gift to me).