Keep the Faith

I have nothing in my head to write about today. I think I am just having one of those days where I am not really sad, more disheartened than anything. Every time I seem to believe in people and what they are doing, they seem to disappoint me with their utter lack of long term faith. I wonder sometimes why people are satisfied with their two seconds of believing they can do anything, but when it gets hard they give up and succumb to the alternative. It is not as simple as unhappiness, but if something can be better or happier, why not? Am I crazy? Once you give up and lose faith that anything is possible, what do you replace that with? Is this what people mean when they talk about growing up? Does growing up means losing faith in God and yourself? When you think of it that way it’s super sad.

It’s interesting, people watch films where the protagonist is at the end of their rope, about to give up and turn to the “Dark Side”. They cheer them on with, “Don’t give up!”, and “You can do it!”. You see in their hearts they want the hero to make it, to believe in the fact that anything IS possible. Those same people who are cheering on the protagonist, are also telling their kids, lovers, friends, parents, etc to just grow up already. Grow up and just accept that this is the way it is, but nothing is a particular way. Why not cheer themselves and people they love on the same way? You might be surprised.

I know I’ve put this quote by Harriet Beecher Stowe in another entry, but when I start to get down like this, lose faith, or forget the times I did what was right, instead of what was easy and succeeded, I think of this quote,

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

Ain’t that the truth, so everyone reading this do me a favor and believe. We are all connected in this world, what you do affects everything and everyone, so just do the right thing.

Don’t grow up, instead just grow.

-Cara

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Reason 48 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, slaughtered 27 million pigs in 2005. Pound for pound this number represents, in equivalent human weight, the combined population of the 32 largest U.S. cities yet only 26 percent of all the pigs that are slaughtered in the country as a whole. North Carolina’s pigs alone emit the waste-equivalent of 40 million people, and essentially none of it is treated.

Supersaturated

The other day I did an entry based on my visit to stopbigmedia.com. I will not rehash all the drama, you can read it here if you want.

It leaves me sad to think about all that stuff….then tired from fighting the propaganda and advertising shoved down my throat while I watch TV, ride the train, walk the streets, listen to music, surf the web. I hear all the people telling me to then just turn it off, but do I really want to disconnect? How then can I fight the good fight to save myself and those who are still plugged in, which is the majority of people in the world? Plus, I am a super nerd and like following the evolution of technology.

Look, I’m not here to save all the unplugged people in the world. These 3 people can take care of themselves. I am here to help people like me who are excited for Season 3 of Workout, can’t get enough of Sandra Rinomato of the fantastical show Property Virgins. :D Someone who likes to sing a catchy jingle every now and again, and who has to get places in this supersaturated, advertising conglomerate called America. That is who I write for.

I was fighting with someone earlier in the day who was trying to get me to see the positive in something that was just super annoying and at that moment positivity was the last thing I was searching for, so just to be a jerk I started surfing the web for obnoxious positive quotes and “you-can-do-it”, “you-are-good-enough” crap to include in every exchange we had in this “debate”. Then a strange thing started to happen, as I read all these quotes and positive news, etc., I started to get in a better mood and feel more…positive.

For some it might be hard getting through the granola-ness of it all, my anger and desire to be annoying is what initially pushed me through it and then the good feeling I got kept me going…not bad.

Here is some of the positive sites I found for when you want to take a break from all the negative stuff surrounding you, but are too lazy to take yoga. ;)

1. Mr. Positive has a blog! All good news, all the time! “Mr. Positive” David R. Boufford is the Founder of PNN-Positive News Network, Inc. and also a business coach and consultant.
2. Then there is Positive News International, which has a US version as well. Positive News (PN) is a free, not for profit newspaper published four times a year. They report news from around the world in the areas of sustainability, social equality, education and happiness with a clear message that “another world is possible.”
3. A blog, Only Positive News, who quotes the awesome Maya Angelou, “If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” That’s positive!!! Their mission is to “remind you of all that is great in our world!” OK, sounds good.
4. Lastly I was going to list some positive quotes sites I went to, but they all have so many banner ads an pop-ups I am afraid it will bring you down. Instead, I will list some positive and/or inspirational quotes I really like and you can come back to The Day After whenever you need a little bit of love!!!”

Quotes

“Hope is the dream of a soul awake.” —French Proverb

“Leap and the net will appear.” —Julia Cameron

“I must create a system or be enslaved by another man’s. I will not reason and compare; My business is to create.” —William Blake

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” —Harriet Beecher Stowe

“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” —Isaac Asimov

“Never give up and never face the facts.” —Ruth Gordon

“What we need is to use what we have.” —Susan Sontag

“I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way…I can’t apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to… We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful…We realize that we are as ourselves unlimited and our experiences valid. It is for the rest of the world to recognize this, if they choose.” —Alice Walker, Democracy Now Feb. 13, 2006

Alright, I think that covers a vast amount of positivity. I am going to stop while I am ahead.

Keep it real.

-Cara

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Reason 31 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

The world’s exploding human population, combined with its sagging ability to feed itself, appear to be on a collision course. The Green Revolution, which facilitated much of the recent growth, has clearly stalled out. Indeed, cereal availability per capita has been declining since 1984, and the “promise” of biotech is far from certain or free of risk. Today, 70 percent of grain in the U.S. and 43 percent of grain worldwide lavishly go to feed livestock. And just as the world clamors for more grain to feed to animals, so people can eat them, per-capita world cropland declined by 20 percent in the 1990s alone. The World Health Organization says 800 million people in the world live with chronic hunger. More meat production is definitely not the answer.