Ever wonder why OJ tastes so delicious?

Honestly have you ever wondered why OJ is so delicious? I really like the ruby red grapefruit though. My favorite was always the not from concentrate, fresh squeezed kind, you know, it says all natural, no sugars added, just pure deliciousness in a box. 

But have you ever wondered why it consistently tastes exactly the same? Ever wonder why it is, no matter what time of year, no matter what kind of crops the trees produced, that brand of OJ that you drink always tastes exactly the same? I know even within the same bag of oranges, when I rarely buy them, each orange tastes different one to the next and none of them tastes like the juice. And I think to myself maybe it's just the combination of so many different oranges that it gives it that delicious flavor. But seriously, buy oranges and make your own juice. It will not matter how you do it you will not be able to match the taste of what you buy in the box.

So how is it that the juice always tastes the same?

I found out that they do several things to it.

First, they are able to store it for long periods of time by taking all of the oxygen out of it. They put the juice in huge containers, suck the oxygen out and leave it sit for up to a year.

Problem? After doing this to the juice it has no taste. And don't forget it is pasteurized as well. That means almost boiled. The juice typically reaches a temperature of 185-201.2° F (85-94° C) for about 30 seconds when being pasteurized.  This destroys all of the vitamin C.

But how do they fix this taste problem? Simple.  They use chemicals to re-flavor it. So now your delicious OJ can taste exactly the same no matter what time of year, no matter what quality of harvest.

Problem? Real OJ can only sit for a couple hours, a day at most, and it is no longer really any good. By good here, I mean good for you. Fruit begins to lose its nutritional levels quickly. What we consider ripe fruit is already decaying actually. Technically fruit is something that should be eaten almost immediately after it’s been pulled off the plant, but they don't really want you to know that. So...

We have been told it is good for us. It is not.

Problem? They openly lie to us. The box says all natural, nothing added; pure Florida oranges. That is a lie.

Bigger problem? It is not just the OJ. It is literally almost every product in the store! There are of course a few exceptions. There are some companies that use good products to make their products. It is rare though.

Even bigger problem? It is not just the food chain! War companies pay politicians the same as the OJ companies do. Pharmaceutical companies do it too. Banks do the same thing. Some war, pharmaceutical company and big bank employees are even politicians.

All our life it has been a certain way. We have all just accepted it on certain levels. That acceptance has lead us into trouble because we have been accepting a lie. It is not just the lie on the box. We are allowing people to intentionally harm us in order for them to make a profit.

Isn't this the biggest problem of all? Profit.

Are you telling me people cannot provide a living for themselves growing oranges without lying about it? Without harming people? That they cannot make a living and keep the health of their consumers in mind?

Our culture seems to be mindlessly consuming all of these corporate products without any thought whatsoever to the consequences or the truth of what is actually going on.

It is not just this one single product.

Can you see the reflection of this one product to the whole of what is going on? They are doing anything to show a profit. Literally anything.  They disguise their lies with a pretty box and addictive taste.  But who said profit is the most important virtue? It is not even a virtue. They pay politicians to make loopholes so they do not have to be honest about what is in their product. What kind of political system is this? Why are so many mindlessly participating?  It is just freaking orange juice.

Stop buying their products!

What if we stop buying anything corporate and started creating demand for local made products? What if we support the community in which we live; directly. Every single time we buy something that says made in China we are basically mailing money to someone in China, or at the least supporting the corporation big enough to do such business. This is not some patriotic talk, or ethnocentric babble, it is a reality. The Fed will eventually have to stop printing money. Every time we buy OJ we are essentially only paying money to a few people in that company anyways. Don't you work for a company? Who is making all of the money?

People always say, "that is just how it is," but they are believing a lie.

I have always been saddened by how poor a state the Clinton, MO farmers market has been in these past few years. There are over 10,000 people in that community and there were maybe five or six vendors on the best of days at the farmers market. I am not so sure half of them actually grew what they were selling. As I said a sad state of affairs.

It would not be this way if there were demand.

Mostly corporations are a funnel of our money to a few people. Sure corporations create jobs, but the money paid to the employees ends up right back in the hands of the corporations when their own employees buy their products too.

Why can't we spend our money locally? Provide the things we need to live in life; locally. We don't need that OJ every week, it is total crap and not good for us anyways. We are just mindlessly giving our money to greedy people. If one has any ethics at all, one would not work for a company intentionally lying to its consumers anyways. Once a year we can send for oranges from Florida, when they are in season, if we need them that badly.

We can grow our own food. We have all the technology and services and knowledge to handle it. To do it effectively and efficiently. Sustainable communities. Think of all the job potential created by moving to self sustainable communities. 

The most important things in life have nothing to do with profit. Absolutely nothing. It is simply the culture in which we were born that makes it seem so.

These people of power are no different from the meth addict who would steal from his own mother to get high. Those who start wars to make money, those who tell lies to sell their products, those who pay politicians just to make a buck; they are addicted to money and power. They will do anything to get your money.  As long as that OJ tastes good who cares what the box says, right? Purchasing their products is fueling their addiction.  It is just fueling them along. These kinds of addictions only get worse and worse, unless they are checked.

Check.

It does not have to be this way. It does not have to change all at once over night. No one has to wake up tomorrow a totally different person. It can start by stopping buying their nasty products.

It can start right now.

I'll never buy OJ again.

The following link is the article where I found out about the OJ.

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/the-6-most-horrifying-lies-the-food-industry-is-feeding-you/

Our beliefs are not true.

I love metaphors.

In the early days of Christianity, people would intentionally sacrifice themselves in the name of God in order to gain entrance to heaven. A martyr is pretty fanatical if I don't mind saying so myself. It's a shocking word in our culture. Fanatic. It is the perfect word to cause fear in the masses to incite a war, much like using the word terrorist. Having certain emotions prompted obviously disrupts clear thinking. Invoking fear actually stifles critical thinking. But realizing this certainly helps bring back some of the critical thinking needed to see it more clearly.

This is the point though where the most empathy will be required. Think about what it would take internally, that is emotionally and intellectually, to cause one’s own death? One would have to believe very strongly about something wouldn't they? Try to imagine having that belief too, if you even can. What would you kill yourself for? What would you have to believe in so strongly that you would actually carry through with it? Can you even do it? I myself cannot imagine it because it goes so far from what I believe. I think this is also where we can see mostly clearly the inseparableness of our beliefs and actions. For an action to occur belief must be right there with it. If we didn't believe we were really going to go to heaven there is no way we would actually sacrifice ourselves. I realize this is a dramatic metaphor, but some people actually believe this.

What I am talking about though also applies to the seemingly smallest of beliefs. Even the way one drinks out of a water fountain is based on a belief. We can only act on what we believe. The fanatic believes she is gaining something for her martyrdom, eternal heaven, but really she has been brainwashed because we all know her belief is not true.

What's that? People can have beliefs that are not true?

That means you and I!

Our beliefs are not true!

There are beliefs that do not have directly measurable consequences. There are beliefs which cannot scientifically be proven true or untrue at the time in which we have to have them. For instance, the belief of whether or not going to college will actually provide an education. We won't know until it is over. But to get through college we must surely believe it is true. Here the terms must also be defined and clearly too; to know if a belief is true or not. There is not a practical way to do such a test. Everyone will be different. There is no absolute universal answer. Kind of makes it seem like it is not that important of a belief doesn't it? But it is. If you think about how much four years of college changes a person, whether one perceives it as good or bad, the amount of change remains fairly constant. I mean to say it changes a person regardless. So in the end, whether true or not, the belief carries a lot of change. From this perspective it becomes incredibly important; belief.

Here lies one of the illusions. When a person does not see the contradiction in what they 'think' they believe, or should I say, what they 'want' to believe, and what they actually do believe, which is their actions; then their beliefs are not true in their own terms. This means that they are not truly thinking about what they are actually doing. And let me tell you, this is everywhere in abundance. Consider the Christian who signs up for the military. She clearly does not believe Jesus when he supposedly said to not kill, to turn the cheek. Her beliefs and actions do not match, she 'wants' to believe in Christ but does not actually believe it, else she would never assist in murder. All these supposed Christians calling for war in our country; hypocrites, each and every one.

I do not wish to make this technical, about how the mind forms its beliefs, but the actions are the truth of the person. We are what we do. This is where the word hypocrite comes in handy. If a person truly believed they were going to burn in hell for eternity, they wouldn't murder; period. It is pretty common sense in these terms. It is proof the person has not fully considered what it is they actually believe. I mean burning in hell for eternity would stop me from doing anything, if I really believed it was true. It is not difficult to not sign up for the US armed forces. At this time in history no one is making us do it.

Some people hold beliefs just because they are afraid to think about what the implications would mean if they actually said what their actions say about them. This is a demon many people never want to face; truth. Change can be scary stuff. The best example I know of is promiscuity. Raised in a Christian culture women are scandalized for being promiscuous, but any woman seeking the truth of her self will eventually have to come to terms with the fact that she is quite promiscuous and there is nothing wrong with being so. The wrong comes from a religion telling a human being they must be some certain way; that is the true wrong. Any woman who has learned this lesson in life can tell you, holding a wrong belief is terribly damaging, whether one knows it or not. Ignorance is not bliss.

We all know we have beliefs and we all know it is the summation of experience that defines a person. We simply are the summation of our past experience. Some beliefs, we simply have because it was what was done before us, and we uphold them unquestioningly. Some beliefs we have, we think we learned on our own but really we didn't, we got them from some authority. This is one of the hardest concepts to realize in life, that one really doesn't know anything. It is hardest to debate with someone who cannot see this point, that what they believe is only what they were taught.

Like the person who thinks they have a good self-esteem, when those of us that are a little healthier can clearly tell they do not. They cannot see out of the box even when you point out their contradictions. Some beliefs come about from all variations of all kinds of things, so technically the list of reasons that humans have the beliefs they do is endless. But it is most important to see the part about the action; it cannot be separated from belief. Regardless of what a person says. When the words of belief don't match their actions, the person is either lying or isn't critically thinking about what they are doing.

If that fanatic did not really believe she was going to get those rewards, whatever they are, in heaven, she would not kill herself. I am not saying there couldn't be another reason a person is doing such things. Maybe they were afraid because their life was threatened or their families were in danger if they did not do it. I do not know. They would still be acting on a belief though. The belief that those threats would be made good on would still have to be there. This is proof that what a person believes directly affects how they act in the world. This does not make the belief true, we all know this, but we rarely apply it to ourselves.

Our actions in the world matter this much though, the same as the fanatic. Just because you are not about to kill yourself does not mean your actions are not harming all of those around you. We all know we are better alive than dead. But people do not have to die to have their lives ruined. A child never beaten can still be scarred for life by emotional neglect, where is the measure of that? Do they have to die for it to count? Sometimes belief blinds people just as much as it makes them see something else quite clearly. Even if what they are looking at is an illusion, belief makes it seem more tangible. Like the belief that as long as people are not directly dieing as a result of, then their actions do not matter so much. This belief is just as false as believing dieing in the name of some god will get you into heaven.

It is a terribly difficult task to undo all of one’s beliefs.

Hell, it is hard just to see how many beliefs one person can have. There are so many beliefs, about so many things, and virtually all of them were given to us through the environment. We have so many beliefs that were not maturely and consciously considered. It requires years of work to become aware of them all. Solid dedication.

I read something on FaceBook the other day about a guy. He was talking about how when he was a kid a school teacher commented to him about making a kissing noise when he drank from a water fountain. Saying he sure must love water to kiss it like that. He remarked on how still to this day he makes sure he is quiet when he drinks from a fountain. His point was that it was only one comment, one time, that still to this day affects his actions. Realizing this makes it difficult to wrap one’s mind around all of those incidences that caused us to be who we are today. It is so profound.

We have beliefs we do not even know we have and we act on them every day.

Think again about the person who believes they will go to heaven if they martyr themselves. They believe if they knowingly commit suicide essentially, they believe it so strongly, they will go to heaven. Seriously think of what it would take to believe in something that strongly. That they would die for it. Then consider what it would take to convince them otherwise. To tell them what they believe must be thrown out and something all together different must be put in its place.

Now go look in the mirror. Can you see that you have the same indoctrination? It may not have been that you go to heaven if you martyr yourself, you may not believe in any religion at all. But you were still completely indoctrinated. Just like we know that martyring oneself is suicide, those who have stepped out of society realize that the way things are culturally in America is not good at all.

Over the years I have talked to more than a few Christians who do not give up their "faith" simply because they don't want to have to change their entire worldview. Non-Christians are no different in terms of giving up a worldview. They don't want to have to restructure the way in which they see the world, the way in which they live their lives. It is a difficult task and they are simply not up for it. I should say that is what they believe; they believe it is not worth the effort. They always say they care, but you never see their actions reflect it.

You see, if we believed it mattered, we would be doing it already. But we are not. Our beliefs are all messed up and it shows in our actions. I have lived long enough now to know it is quite possible to live a good life and still do what is required. I was raised horribly and still managed to figure it out. To simply not harm others. It should be expected between us and it is not. We all think we believe that we don't harm others, but our actions don't reflect it. We are in fact harming others. This means we are not thinking about what we are doing.

If we believed it mattered to be educated, many more of us would actually be educated. These are precise correlations, it is not some abstract idea, a probability or statistic. If we collectively believed children shouldn't be abused it wouldn't be happening, at least, not as much as it is happening here and now in America.

Can you see it in yourself? Can you think backwards so to speak, look at your actions, then re-assess your beliefs? Maybe it will change how you word what you actually believe. You will have to be prepared to give yourself negative labels and come to terms with not being so great as you thought you were.

If a person is raised and only ever sees it one way for a majority of their life it is terribly difficult to move them from their spot. It usually requires a deep crisis and a lot of work no matter which way it goes.

The other way is through social movement; that is, holding each other accountable.

Can you see that when those in your community are suffering and nothing is really done about it, can you see what that says about your beliefs?

I do not mean this as a personal attack. I can see certain people getting way up in their feelings reading this. Oh well, get up in there. If your thinking about it at all I have done what I meant to do. If you are having an emotional response, that warrants a deeper look on your part. It has nothing to do with me. I was raised horribly and ignorantly. I can judge. I can see clearly now why it happened and why it is still happening. I have spent my entire life overcoming. Society stood by while I was thrown under the bus. Yet I am a human being and now I know what's up.

It is ethnocentric to believe the way it was done in your country, state, town, or family is the way that is best. It is ethnocentric to believe how you were raised is the way to be raised. Same as being racist or sexist. It is a shallow way of believing. Beliefs stack on top of each other. So many of our beliefs follow from flawed beliefs, it greatly complicates the matter. Yet, there is no real excuse. If we have the ability to overcome shallow ways of believing individually then we also have that ability collectively.

We were raised a certain way collectively as Americans. Regardless of the individual way our parents raised us, we are still constantly shaped by the overall culture in which we all share and live. It has already shaped us; the affects are already upon us. It was our environment. It is our environment. We are directly subject to it, so we must pay close attention to it. The way in which these things affect us are important if we are to ever live a good life, to live free. Being raised in America does not mean it was right, it does not mean it was the best.

It has actually been quite wrong and far from the best.

Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.

Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not affecting you.

They say perception is everything. But it is not everything. Sometimes things happen to us, that we are not necessarily aware of, and it affects us all the same. There are things in which it barely matters what we 'think’ we still have emotional and physiological responses all the same. There is so much more to being human than what we 'think.' This is a profound idea to someone who has never thought of it before. More to 'me' than what 'I' am 'thinking.' Indeed, a great deal more.

Being aware is always growing, it is always fluid.

Being aware of one's beliefs is a job that never ends.

I hope I somewhat made the point.  Just like the fanatic is wrong in her belief.  Thinking one can believe whatever they wish, that they have that right, is just as wrong.  It is just as fanatical.  Just as selfish.  If our actions and beliefs cannot be separated then it very much matters what we believe.  Because our actions effect everyone around us whether we know it or not.  It matters what we do.  It matters what we believe.  They are the same thing. 

Don't give up.

If you happen to read this, please don't disregard it. Please don't just cast the idea aside without giving it some thought. No change occurs over night. It begins though with a thought. It would take an entire book for me to sum up the whole idea. I cannot fully explain it all in such a short style.  In this format I am only able to put forth bits and pieces. I realize I will be asking some people to do one of the hardest things to do; to perceive outside of the box. But it starts with letting something new bounce around inside of your head. Or maybe instead, like me, you have already thought about these ideas, then know there is someone else in the world actively trying to make a difference.

Our country seems to have gone crazy, or maybe it would be better to say, it is our culture that has gone crazy. As a result of our culture our government has been overrun by greed.  The measure of our society has been the GDP for too long now. People making huge profits should not be in charge of our health and well being; this is common sense isn't it? This says something about us as a people whether we want to admit to it or not. Please give this some thought, why has money been made so important?  There are much more important things in life than how much our GDP is, whether it is the greatest nation in the world or not; it should not be measured in terms of profit.

Again this is common sense, isn't it? I mean as human a being, in our day to day lives, isn’t money far from the most important thing? It is rare I find a person who wouldn't rather being doing something else than going to work.  I understand that we have been raised to think money is so important, we were born into a situation where everything has a monetary cost, but can't we see past this just a little bit? Over the past century our government has become almost completely corrupted because of this focus on making money. Philosophically and literally the government is bankrupt which I believe to be a reflection of those who make it up, which is each and every citizen, you and I. There are a few good people involved, fighting the good fight, still trying to make a difference, but the major players are making money off of war and drugs. Big money. They are addicted to acquiring money. This is a very serious issue.

We all know it is a complete mess. We all know we want it to change. Most of us, if we think about it deeply, feel very helpless. We all know that we want our country to be a better place, but feel helpless to do anything about it. I think most people feel so helpless about it they just completely tune it out. But don't we all want to live in a place where we have our freedom? By labeling ourselves this or that, politically, all we are doing is creating division. Crying that we want them to stop is not enough. Simply becoming educated about these issues is not enough either. But we still are not helpless. It just so happens that freedom must be earned.

The bulk of the work, the majority of what needs to be done, is going to have to be done in our local communities. There seems to be a belief in America that we can just do whatever we wish on a day to day basis and there won't be any consequences for having that belief. Doesn't this belief need to be questioned? From my perspective it does not seem to be true. Because it does seem to matter a great deal if one really pays attention to what is going on; it seems our actions do have an impact on those around us. There is a great deal of scientific knowledge now which points out just how social we are as primates, and how much our environment affects our growth and experience. Other human beings are a huge part of our individual environment. This is a fact of life that many people are not fully aware of.

As it is, I do not believe we are aggressive enough in expecting more of each other as Americans, not in terms of achievement, not in terms of how much money one makes, but in terms of self-education; achieving awareness. We do not collectively hold each other up near high enough. Far too often it does not happen at all. We simply don't expect enough of one another.  I don't mean being aggressive in some physical sense, but more in the sense of how Mormon missionaries do it. Every day we should be making contact with at least one person and attempting to open their eyes. Socializing with one person who is still stuck in the social standard of society or stuck in some other dogmatic way of thinking and getting them to be more aware of what is going on; this is of great importance in a culture such as this.

There is a tendency of the supposedly educated to leave the ignorant behind. I personally believe it has to do with the natural tendency in humans to establish pecking order. And being unaware of this, it happens in quite a negative way for those lower on the ladder. The supposedly educated create the illusion that they are doing something about it, but they are not really ever actually fixing the problem. Politicians are a perfect example of this, they are supposedly educated, but yet are taking advantage of everyone lower than them on the pecking order. I personally have experienced this in my life, this failing of the system so to speak. They often talk a good game, but if you pay close attention to their actions, although they may label and study those less fortunate, they rarely actually reach in themselves and live a life that resolves the issue. They never become aware of their own nature and use it in a non harming way. Much like the racist who doesn't see her own ethnocentric traits and uses it to rationalize violence we must also see past the pecking order. These people of power are rarely reaching into the dark side of our society and actually pulling people out. They have not stepped out of the box yet themselves.

As social organisms this is how to affect change in a culture, by reaching out and opening the eyes of another. We must work to change the culture itself; it is not enough to socialize with those whom we already have an understanding with. We cannot afford to simply stay with our own kind, we can't be ethnocentric ourselves, which we all have a tendency to do. My brother and I are often in close agreement, so it does the world little good for him and I to discuss awareness. But discussing it with someone who does not get the opportunity to discuss novel ideas, someone who does not think about it that much; discussing it with others makes a big difference in the world. We have a responsibility to our neighbors, to each other.

Constantly having people in our lives that we share our information with, trying to get them to see better what is going on around them really does pay off, and it always goes both ways. I personally have spent years attempting to get friends to open their eyes and it has always worked and it has always been worth it. And by opening their eyes I have opened my own even more. It is a win win situation. A win win way of life.

I have always asked my friends, after we have known each other long enough, to look back and be able to see, if it was worth it. I ask them if they ever wish they hadn't learned to be more aware. I ask them if they think they would have been better off not knowing just how much their belief systems were affecting their lives. They always say they do not regret it even though increasing ones awareness often has times of great sadness; it is always worth the price.

Helping someone else better their life by becoming more aware is what one does when one loves someone else. People often comment on the uncomfortablness of my own approach, they are not following me 24/7 so they cannot see that works. It is how I reach out to others, no two are the same as they say.  The idea though is that it is happening.

 To reach out socially and help improve the quality of the lives of those around us is the ultimate altruism. Who does not want this to happen? Who does not wish that someone would come along that could help them resolve a problem or two in life? This process can seem difficult because people are always so different and the way in which they are interacted with will always be changing. But it still must be done. If there is one thing I have learned for sure it is that nothing is ever true for very long. Something always comes along to contradict something I believe sooner or later. Holding a belief stops learning dead in its tracks.

I used to think I knew what Democracy was, but as with all beliefs I had to give it up.  Democracy is not merely a political system. It is a way of life. To have freedom requires difficult work in our daily lives, if we are to maintain that freedom. One does not just win freedom and after some ceremony has it forever after. It is a fight that never ceases. It requires a stable social base within the community in which we live, and every single day, time and energy must be put into the larger whole, the social organism, of which we are responsible.  But we are not merely a part of the larger social organism, we are more than that, we are the social organism. If the society itself is corrupted, then so are the individuals which make it up. This disruption in the government is a reflection of the disruption in our daily lives. This is why later I will ask you to look in the mirror. The way in which we were collectively raised to live, does not sustain freedom. This is a fact and not some theory. It is a hard fact to swallow because of the awareness it creates.  If we are not doing our part, to the fullest, all is lost.

This is exactly the place in which we find ourselves now. Lost. We as a people have only been doing what was done before us; collectively not giving it much critical thought. Mostly we have been watching TV, not voting, not being involved in self-education and acquiring as much debt as we can.  It is not just the government which has acquired debt, the masses have as well.  We have not been sustaining our communities ourselves. Our standards are too low. Although the reasons are many, and ultimately it is “to each their own” in resolving the issue; collectively it still must be done. We need to open our eyes, and see that our beliefs need to change because that is the only way to change our actions. The belief of what it means to live as an American is going to have to change.  This can only be done by sharing and acquiring knowledge, socially, by discussing the issues at hand. By confronting ignorance head on.

When the ship is sinking only fools do not triple their efforts. We cannot expect of another what we do not do ourselves.

If you think that you don't have the time, or you hear them say, they don't have the time. Don't give up.

It really does make a difference. A little here and a little there goes a long ways in changing someone's life for the better.

The only way to change the world is to change your self. But you see this would not be true if changing ourselves didn't have such a great impact on those around us.

We have to look in the mirror every day.

A full social spectrum

As human beings, we are social above all else.  Cause a break in this much needed sociality and there is a break in the human being.  To be ones best, one must have a full social spectrum.

Best means something like optimal.  Not most money, not most possession, not toughest, not having some special ability others don’t. Best is fulfillment in achieving self; being a human being.  Striving to live the life, that is 'best'.  In this sense that I am using it here anyways.

The way we live our lives is broken in this sense.  We do not live socially as we were meant to live.  As human beings we are not our best.

This is the stepping out of the box business that is so difficult for people.  It requires one to realize that even if they think they are being social they are not.  They are not really being social if the idea of what being 'social' means is set by our current American societal standards.  This standard is far from the best.  It is not even close.

This is what I mean by that fundamental flaw in psychology research.  It typically defines what is best by societal standards and performance, and not in comparison to the actual way human beings are meant to live; being truly social caring for one another.  In this conversation the reasons why we live the way we do does not matter so much.  The reasons why are not nearly as important as having the realization itself that we can live a different way.  People often get offended if you suggest what they are doing is not what they should be doing.  But it still stands.  One must open their eyes to possibility to see that the criticism is not offensive.  It is what it is.  If one truly researched it, one would come to the same conclusion.  Attaching feelings to the observation of another is almost certainly the stop of all critical thinking.  So just think about it.  Don’t let your feelings sway you.  Feelings must mature too.  They are never supposed to stay the same.

Maturing never ends, there is never some time, when it is done.  The day will never come when you stop experiencing.  The same goes with the changing of our back ground information, it is always growing and changing.  It is a constant and never ending process.  Some people suppress the change but this only increases their suffering.  The flow of experience does not ever rest.  Even as we sleep our brains are experiencing.  Our socialness as human beings never rests either.  It is a non-stop flow and the two, social and experience, cannot be separated.  We may separate them in our minds, metaphorically, as two different things, but they are actually the same thing in actuality.  They are connected and cannot be separated.  Our brains literally evolved to be social.  This concept of social also means we are all connected.  We are individuals in a whole, not separate from it.  In a certain sense the word human and social are interchangeable; they are synonyms.

Everything we do affects those around us, regardless if they, or we, are aware of it or not.  Our conscious mind is but a speck of the complete individual.  The largest portion of our brain is for social functioning and our conscious mind, most of the time, has no idea about this and what it is causing us to do, or should I say, how to be. The affect of this fact on our life is profound because it means so much of what we do requires absolutely no thought whatsoever.  We are oblivious to it. This is lack of awareness.  Having no idea of the affect of those around us and our environment, on us as individuals. It goes both ways.  Because it is one thing. 

Achieving awareness is a big part of the overall maturing process.  Could almost say it is the process, but we do have a great deal of biological maturity that happens regardless of whatever we might think or feel.  By doing this, by becoming aware of what is going on around us, this is what it means to be actually educated, to be in control of one’s own life.  Failing to educate one's self harms those around you whether you know it or not.  We are not taught these things unfortunately.  We are typically taught that by going to school and learning some trade/skill/ or line of thought that we are educated.  I have my suspicions as to why so many people are apathetic but that is another subject.  Luckily for me though, overcoming my past caused me to dig deep into the depths of what it is to truly be a human being and here are a few of the ideas I picked up along the way.

What if all the women raising kids, what if they were all helping each other out?  What if instead of living in groups of two, a man and a woman, trying to work, raise kids, live life, and be happy; what if instead of that we were living in groups of four or five?  What if instead of a city block containing 10 or 12 houses it contained one big one?  A large living area, with separate living quarters for the families?  What if everyone was helping to raise each other’s children?  What if living in tighter quarters with larger numbers of people helps keep each other accountable for their actions, enables them to mature better, faster, and live a much less stressful life? 

I am not saying something like this would completely change the world and that all of our problems would just go away.  I am not saying that all of the suffering would go away either, suffering is part of life like all the rest. This idea will not create some utopia.  But I am saying that this kind of living would greatly reduce the suffering being created by our current culture.  It would make what we have now, much better.  It would be evolution in effect.  Changing as a social organism to survive the current environment. 

If there are eight or ten adults living in the same house, if the children all grow up living together sharing everything.  That would mean at any one time there would only ever need to be half the adults at home.  Just considering this fact alone, think about how much freer each individual living in that situation would be?  How much easier would it be for the mothers to nurture the children?  For children to not only have one mother for nurturing but four or five; not just one father figure, but four or five!  The shortcomings of one compensated for by another; it would have a profound impact.  Each of their individual traits and characteristics contributing to the children's over all development and security through an entire childhood.  Think about being able to go on dates, to go to the store, to do anything you wished and know your children would be safe while you were gone.  People would be able to leave for weeks at a time and their children would be absolutely fine. 

The benefits of the children growing up so much more social with other children, having so many more adults around to support and raise the children would be profound beyond comprehension.  From our current standard it would be difficult to imagine from a child's perspective what this would be like.  This is not some original idea of mine.  I am nowhere near the first person to realize this.  But I also know it is not beyond our reach; it is actually quite feasible.  It simply requires us maturing a bit more, collectively, just like we hope our children will do.  Like we ourselves are supposed to do.  We just have to see that we have not set our standard high enough; the GDP is not the standard.  Our quality of life should be set on the quality of the communities in which we live.  Don't miss this major point, the more social we are, the more we grow.  It starts though, with us as individuals.

We have the internet now.  All of the families could have something like FB, where people vouch for one another, keep track of what other families are doing.  A social network for finding other family groups to live with when moving occurs or disagreements occur.  And they will just as they do now.  We all change, so when the changes occur, we have the means to move on and find others to live among.  As they say, if you don’t like who you are, change who you are around.  There would be a lot more open land with so many fewer individual houses for all sorts of endeavors.  Growing food, hobbies, sports, parks, on and on.  The benefits of this type of life seem almost endless in comparison to the divided way in which we live now.  There would be far less children growing up without parents, far less children being neglected, far less being treated with violence.  Permanently scaring their lives.  Parents would be less stressed about their day to day life because there would be others there helping raise the children.  Others there helping live life.  Just the lessening of stress alone would have a huge impact on the raising of children.

Our social spectrum would simply be much more complete.

When I look at someone, clear my mind, truly look at them, that is when I can see them as another human being who is just like me, exactly like me, in what it is to be a human being.  Just trying to get through life; surviving.  This does not mean I take on some passive role and just accept whatever it is they are doing, even if I realize exactly why they are doing what they do.  Yes, I should have compassion.  Yes, I should display empathy, but I must also love them.   When you love someone you hold them up.  When they do something we all know is not even an attempt at best; we say something to them, that is love.  This can be done in a variety of ways, it would be impossible to list them all.  But we don't turn our heads and this is exactly what happens in our current society.  Almost everyone just turns their head the other way.  Apathy; the opposite of love.

If we are all living together in larger groups, there is no head turning.  You can't just turn your head when you hear a child screaming in the other room because a man is abusing him.  That man doesn’t do that kind of thing when others are around, because he knows it’s wrong.  But when someone can go home where there is no one to hold them accountable, they can, and do, whatever they wish to their children.  No matter how atrocious.  They do not realize those kinds of events, that those kinds of actions affect those children for their whole lives. 

Isn’t it time to end this? It needed to be ended thousands of years ago.  But now we are in a different age, now we have the ability to acquire massive amounts of knowledge: FOR FREE.  Catholics are no longer killing us for seeking the truth, although our government is getting closer and closer to telling us what we can and cannot know.  But we still have the means and ability.  It is time, as a culture, to begin demanding of one another to grow up, to mature, and to become educated about life, about what is going on around us and to do something about it.  It is time to start much more than a political revolution; it is time to start a cultural revolution.  We desperately need to change our culture, from greed; to care and concern for one another, showing this, by doing it first ourselves.

We both scientifically and technologically have the means to move beyond this current type of cultural family life.  We have the ability to move beyond division and apathy.  The reflection of a generation of children raised in a more egalitarian environment would ripple on forever and ever in what it is to be an American.  To be free, to be educated, responsible, and Democratic.  To live in a country where we do our part.  A land where we are not the best because we have the highest GDP but where we are the best because of how we live our individual lives by taking care of one another on a personal level in our own communities.  An America where we do not need the government to do anything for us because we do it for ourselves.  An age where we live our lives to the fullest. 

By living our lives divided, not realizing the affect it has on us as social beings, we are unable to do all the things that need to be done in any given day, not if we are to have families.  But by being more social, living together in bigger groups, caring for one another, we would be much freer to live our lives more fully.  To mature and realize you can love more than one person; that more than one person can love you.  To mature and know that you can love other people's children as much as you love your own.  To actually know what is going on around us, to have the time to read and learn and teach each other.  There is so much to learn it can’t be done without help.  To be good people, in a free country, living good lives.  I know it seems foreign.  Such a big change.  All the negatives creep in, what about this and that.  All change is difficult at first.  But the change starts first with discontent; which we have in abundance.  Next is discussion.  Share this with your friends.

I will definitely be writing more about this.  Everyone tells me to keep it short.  So I will break up the whole concept.  Bit by bit. 

There is a great deal more to being aware.