My Exploding Mind!!!!!

**** DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER**** ( This entry is not directed to ANYONE in particular, AND furthermore, the writer is making no claims of perfection or free from guile with regards to the statements made within this subject blog )    

  Many people will come and go into our lives. A few, however, will remain. Those that remain are our choice primarily, and their choice secondly. This is a 2 part equation.  A give and take.  Reason A: Because we CHOOSE to keep these individuals in our lives at a level higher than just a mere acquaintance. Reason B: Something about us has caused these individuals to want to keep us in their lives.
           The rest of the people, come and go like a passerby in the grocery store, or at the hair salon, or at your local restaurant.  We may notice them for awhile, then POOF, they are out of our sights, and thus, eventually, out of our minds.
           However, those that we keep in our lives; those that are more to us than a mere stranger passing us by, will all have their unique intricacies. We choose to keep them in our lives, amist any or ALL of their problems. This is the basis of this post. And so, I will keep this latter statement as a focal point of the rest of this entry.
                So then, why is it, people will become our friends, close or not, and then get upset or change the level of friendship because they don't like the way you truly are? I think a lot of people use the term " friend " loosely because either A) they are not comfortable with calling someone an acquaintance, or B) they don't want to seem or appear demeaning by only calling someone an acquaintance. Would this occur if being a friend is to accept a person for who they truly are? To me it is.
            To me, a friend is someone you can tell your biggest problems to, and they will not judge you. They will listen to you when you need it the most, and they will help you out at a moments notice. Also, they know that you will reciprocate the same towards them when they call upon you, and that you will do so lovingly and without question of what you will gain from helping them out.
            When we choose to keep certain individuals in our lives, it could be for several reasons. We like the way they dress, the way they make us feel, they way the interact with us, they are funny, they are smart, they are, as we used to say in the late 80's-early 90's, " cool " ( haha, who remembers using that word as a term of endearment to people we hung out with? ), they may have the same religious, economic, or political affirmations that we have; and so on and so on. The list truly can be endless.
             Lets take the religious reason as an example of thought, but not the only reason of explanation.  Lets presume you enjoy the company of Suzy Homemaker because she goes to the same church you go to faithfully, every week. Now, all of the sudden, for whatever reason Suzy decides to stop going to church. Does your friendship with Suzy change now because she no longer goes to church faithfully, or do you look past that aspect and continue to visit with her and her family, or have them over for supper/games/etc etc because your friendship is based deeper than a once a week meeting?
            What is bothering me, and is the general idea of this blog is that people now-a-days are getting to the point that they would have stopped being a friend to Suzy because she stopped going to church. Why? Because she no longer shares in the same ideas that you possess? So, then, was she truly ever a FRIEND, or was she just an acquaintance?
             We have all had a person in our live that we called a friend. Then for whatever reason, we have had to regrettably stop the consistency of that friendship ( ie jobs require people to move, marriages, high school is over, college is over, etc etc ). Yet, we truly find out how deeply these people are our friends when you can get back together after 6 months, 1 year, 10 years of separation from a particular person and pick everything back up as if they were only gone away from your life for only 2 days. To me, that is true definition of a friend.
              I know I am not perfect. I try to be, and I have my weaknesses, and I am publicly admitting that. However, I try my hardest to be the friend to those that I choose to keep in my life that I have spoken about in the previous paragraphs. I'm not seeking out for an applause, I'm trying to explain where I am coming from as well. So that, you the reader can call me out on it if I am failing.
              A true friend can do that. They can call you out when you are making mistakes and you, as a good friend to them, should have the moral fortitude to be able to look back and see if what they are saying is true or not.  Yet, would it be " calling out " as we all understand that phrase to be, or would be a checking in on someone to see if everything is alright with them? Perhaps they are going through a rough patch in their life, and so the situation is causing them to be unhappy/rude/ignorant/etc etc.        
            A true friend will not lie to you to make themselves feel better about themselves. However, isn't it the point of having a true friend to have a person in your life that will except you for who you are? What further annoys me is when you have someone who claims to be your friend, they take you for all your good and all your bad, and then change the friendship because they don't like your bad later on down the road.
             I know I have a lot of acquaintances in my life, and I have very few friends. The friends that I do  have in my life have been called that and held to that level of respect by my own doing. If they choose to not reciprocate that level of respect towards me, then I personally down grade their status to acquaintance, as it were.
              Why is it people will hold to a higher standard when it comes to being their friend, or to even have us in their life, and we meet their " criteria " to be considered a friend, but yet they don't hold themselves to the exact same standards towards us, that they expect us to be towards them? To me, that is hypocritical.
                As I sat and pondered the points that I wanted to make in this post, and trying to get my feelings out on this subject ( to which, I apologize to you reader if it seems as though I have whooped a dead horse repeatedly by now ); I was trying to think of an analogy that could be used to kind of bring it all into light and perspective. Perhaps people don't see how they treat others, because, lets be honest, it's hard to see the forest through the trees. One example that I came up with in my head was the following:
               Lets pretend for argument's sake that you met an individual that was upright, walked, always wore pants, even in the hottest of hot days in the summer, always wore tennis shoes, and seemed like an upstanding individual. You get to know this individual after months and months and a bond is forged. A friendship is formed. Months go by, this individual and yourself have gotten the families together for a BBQ, or gone out to eat, whatever the case may be. Then after almost a year of building a friendship and bond, this individual comes over and is wearing shorts, and you notice that they have prosthetic legs or them new metal ones that are being used by current war veterans.
                It is safe to presume that there will be a feeling of betrayal and mistrust now because this individual has never once spoken of their prosthetic legs until now. So now what happens? On one side of the coin, it could be presumed that their will now be judgments made toward this person, not wanting to hang out around them because you may be weird-ed out by this new discovery of information, so on and so on. But lets look at it from the individuals side as well. Why didn't they tell you before hand? Perhaps its because they didn't want to be treated like a cripple, or judged incorrectly, or even have had an issue be made because they have prosthetic legs. Now, what they have been trying for so long to avoid happens. Does the friendship and bond change? It very well could. Should it based on this new discovery of the individual? ABSOLUTELY NOT! You didn't learn to love and appreciate this individual because of their legs, or lack there of; but you learned to love them because of who they are. This is what I'm talking about folks. There was obviously a relationship built on the basis of who the person is, not what the person has or doesn't have extremity wise.
            In closing out this blog segment, I wish to add in as a reminder, that I am in no way claiming to be perfect. I have my faults, just as everyone else does. As a friend, I do honestly attempt and try my best to be the friend towards others as I would want to have in my life. The golden rule if you will. I wish to publicly thank my wife, without whom I would never understand truly what it means to have a best friend or good friend. She has tried tirelessly to keep me in line, but I like to color outside the lines from time to time. She seems to somehow keep being able to erase my coloring outside the line mistakes and rears me back in. She truly is a wonderful woman and I love her very much.
            To all my friends, I truly do love each and everyone of you, and I have made the mental choice to have you as a part of my life for each intricacy that makes you YOU. Please be good to each other, and respect one another.
                 

           

Lets call this the amazing hatred for Nutrition..

                 Over the course of the years, technology and the information super highway has become not only a tool to allow laziness ( IE you can order a pizza now online and have it delivered to your house, and never have to once get up and make a phone call, you can do your grocery shopping on line and have it delivered to your house and never once have to get up and actually drive to the store to get what you need ); but it has also become a tool to hold certain corporations liable for information. Well, I wouldn't say that the internet has done this solely. This has been a conglomoration of multiple  facets ( IE congress, picky people, etc etc ).
                   What I am getting at with this last thought directly is that fast food restaurants are now required to post nutritional facts on their food. This is a good thing, I think. I like to know how many calories their hamburgers and cheeseburgers are giving me every time I USED to eat them.  This is the reason for this blog entry. It will be the on ramp to the freeway of hatred for Nutrition.
                  With the information super highway so rampant now a days, and with the immense growth of social media web pages, you can post anything from " OMG, I just woke up " to " OMG, I can't believe I just did what I did last night, I hope I didn't get her pregnant " or to " I'm sorry for your loss, our prayers are with your family ". More so, we can even enjoy pages that we support. Either for the current military situations that the world is facing, to Nutritional organizations, to religious sects, or even to those companies that you drive up to, talk to a large screen with a buffet of pictures that will allow us to ingest some interestingly tasting processed food the world has ever known.
                    Amazingly, these fast food establishments are populating " likes "/fans in the millions. Yes folks, Millions.. .that starts off with a single digit number followed by 6 zeros.  However, nutritional fan pages are generating from mid 30 thousand to 300 thousand fans. ARE YOU FREAKIN SERIOUS? And people wonder why America, and people world wide are so obese. C'mon people! Don't get me wrong, I used to love the smell and taste of the greasy double cheeseburger from McDonalds and the side order of french fries with a  Salt Lick and a large Dr. Pepper to wash it all down with. But seriously, we as Americans are glorifying these companies to continue with their world wide influence to keep people over weight.
                  Its like a person who is very dear to me, and that I take the liberty of calling friend told me just recently " ... merely because it's easier for people to run through the drive through then go to the gym. Plus, ever notice how hard it is to find healthy food on the run? " I couldn't agree with my friend more. I have been guilty of stopping in the occasional fatty, greasy joint and indulging in the taste of wholesome badness, but its how much we go there and consume these foods that is the bad thing.
                   Ok, so lets get re-centered on the topic of this post. I guess I am just amazed at how much Americans, and I'm sure people world wide will show their appreciation and love for companies that are ultimately bad for our health, and how little people show love for companies, whose sole purpose, is to make us a leaner, healthier, in shape people, one continent at a time. Granted, living has become a more hustle bustle commodity, especially now with the economy the way it is. We are getting up earlier, driving further, and working longer than our parents and grandparents ever did. Also, single income families have become a luxury now a days. I am sure that there are families out there that have both parents working, and possibly working 2-3 jobs each just to make ends meet, and that is not including those households where it is a single income family, or even a single parent household. I would dare say that in those circumstance, the multiple jobs would be even more likely to occur versus a dual income family.
                     Having said that, a household that is surviving on the ideological reaction of multiple incomes from multiple employers has a negative consequence on dinner time for the household. So, what happens? We as a people go to a fast food eatery and get our breakfast, lunch, dinner, mid night snack, soda refill, whatever from there and continue on with the hustle and bustle. I know, because I lived that way as a child. So, now we have forgone the home made meals. A meal that is going to be extremely healthier for us.
                    Folks, I'm not saying that each and every one of you need to go out there to your favorite social media website, and click on " like " for every body building, muscle pumping, running fanatic page out there. That may not be your thing, and that is cool if it isn't. However, what I am saying is just be mindful to the supporting of companies that are out there with the sole intention of not giving us a healthy meal.
                   As always, be good to each other, and to yourself. Love your neighbors and friends as you would want them to love you. On a closing note, If I can blame fast food joints for me being fat, then I can blame taking supplements for having engorged veins and other things LOL!!!