Education Is Your Responsibility

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."

-Mark Twain

According to abclifeliteracy.ca, 49% of Canadians adults have literacy skills below Highschool level. Reading is a lost art. We should never underestimate the power of a good book. In the words of Spencer W. Kimball "Man alone, of all creatures of earth, can change his thought pattern and become the architect of his destiny." 

The making of a man isn't determined by the school he attended as much as what he's learning on his own accord. To paraphrase Oliver Demille, from his book "A Thomas Jefferson Education", schools are responsible to train people to do specific/productive tasks in the society they operate in while it's the responsibility of the individual to educate themselves to become thinkers and leaders.

You don't have enough of a lifetime to become as wise as you can be relying solely on your own experience. Reading allows you to acquire part of someone else's life experience. Start reading for 15 min a day and go from there.

Depression - Seek Professional Help

"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."

-John Milton

Depression is a black hole that sucks the life out of an otherwise healthy individual and his entourage. The sufferer knows that his mind is in darkness but is powerless to change. If left untreated, he may fall into addictions that will provide temporary relief while while also becoming its own problem.

"If you're going through hell, keep going."

-Winston Churchill

If life has become nothing more than a burden, day in and day out, to you then seek professional help. Therapy, medication and lifestyle changes can help heal your mind. While life has its dark moments it's not supposed to be all black all the time. There's sadness but there's also joy and you're meant to feel both not just one.

Fight it, conquer it and inspire others to do the same.

Where do YOU get Your Information From?

My immediate family is unanimously on the same page when it comes to politics and we're always so surprised when we meet someone who isn't. "What sort of information does that person listens to?" we wonder.

A better question would be what sort of information are WE listening to? Since we're all on the same page, I think we can reasonably assume that its because we're all listening to the same information. If we had different information, we would be thinking differently.

The media shapes our thoughts and its important that we tune in to proper sources of information. In the West, truth is under attack which means that it's becoming increasingly difficult to tune in to facts. Some argue that social media can help but it's mostly just noise made by people trying to live off of their content.
The "truth" is that there's no ultimate source of information that we can rely on for news. If we keep in mind that some of these news outlet just copy from each other, and copying a lie doesn't make it true, it is almost impossible to determine facts from fiction.
Looking for information at the source usually helps however the source can also be lying.

Listening to experts, on both sides of an argument, is still the best way to go for information on critical subjects.

Science & Philosophy would Come Back if Destroyed

"Destroy all religious books, and in a thousand years, they won't come back. But destroy all science books, and in a thousand years, they'll all be back-because all the same tests will get the same results."

-Ricky Gervais

While I agree with the sentiment that Ricky is conveying we also have to remember that any book, based on history or fiction, couldn't come back if all was destroyed. I also believe that, while the stories of the Bible would be lost to history, some of the philosophical lessons would come back in some shape or form in similar ways as science would.

"Do to others as you would have them do to you."
-Luke 6:31

The Golden Rule is a simple truth that any future Philosopher could rediscover. Similar to Science, which I agree would come back, Philosophy would also see a rebirth given the curiosity of the human mind.

20 years of Growth and Counting!

I recently came across communication from my early 20s with an ex girlfriend and it felt like that scene in Interstellar movie where the main character was behind the bookshelf trying to warn his past self. In an instant, I could see clearly the growth I went through in the almost 20 years since.

Growth is subtle, we can't really feel it day to day or year by year but it's quite a shock when looking back 20 years. I'm not who I used to be but I'm only better in areas that I have actively worked on during this time as weaknesses doesn't go away on their own.

If my 20s were version 1.0 of me then I'm now at version 1.3-1.5 ... just not quite at version 2.0. While I see improvement, there's still some of the same problems.

"Mastering one's future must surely start with managing one's self."

-Shad Helmstetter

Who will I be in 20 years?

Will looking back to this day, in 20 years, give me the same sort of feeling as I had looking back 20 years back from now? Growth is intentional - my hope is that I will look back and be thankful for the choices I made today.