Favoritism

     Is favorite best? Most beloved? Most popular? Your pet objects? Why are things favorited? What causes people to choose something preferred or deemed more beneficial than another?
     One of the largest components in creating "favorites" is upbringing and taste. The environment that forms an individual contributes a large portion to his experience. Either that experience caters to and embraces his tastes and interests, or it causes a rebellion to embrace the things directly opposite of that initial upbringing. Further experience and interactions through life will gradually shift these tastes as he ages.
     Coupled with the environmental experience is the association of memories with those particular markers. I have terrific memories from going up to see my grandparents every summer in a small, isolated, backwoods town in Western New York state. Many of my passions and ideals of life stem from the joy developed and landscape explored during those stays. Conversely, grandparents on the other side of my family cherished material wealth and social habits of the higher end of society. As I aged, one situation saw me rebel while the other saw me attraction. The generation of soldiers from the 1940s will be hard pressed to support German industry under any circumstances while the new generations hold little grudge against their German counterparts.

     Emotional stimulation is the last stimulus of favorited items. Psychologists and market analysists attempt to associate activities or feelings with specific emotional states. Colors have an impact on this as well. Many religious movements in the modern West have attempted to ally their teachings with emotional peace and benevolence.
     In the end, one's preference for most things has little impact on on the overall curvature of life. Your satisfaction in life should be unhindered whether your door is brown, white, or green. The pampered, excessively materialistic West throws temper tantrums for favored positions and items while those less privileged are more accepting of adverse conditions. Reexamine your priorities and determine which preferences define your core values to diminish other, simply pleasant, emotional associations that needlessly inhibit key judgement choices of favoritism. 

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Agatha Tyche

Uncomplicated Biology

     Despite the ease of urban life, something seems to stir in man's rigorous society that causes him to long for the freedom of open hills and unexplored land. The open field, virgin forest, uncharted desert, and frontier land has always inspired great deeds and ideals of newness. Doing as no known individual of our species has ever done appeals to a great many people. This trait remains prominent in America, descendants of those who left the old world to venture into "unclaimed" lands.
     The glories of the simple life have been toted since ancient times. Although by modern standards, Alexandria, Egypt under the Ptolemaic Empire remained a small city, it focused creative arts from the far ends of the world. Poets held the life of shepherds as blissfully uncomplicated. Only the repetition of days called. Tending crops, caring for animals, and tending the home were the only "necessary" tasks to life unburdened with the needs of social pleasantries in the cities.

     Though the basic goal of this rural lifestyle is survival, stress is still prominent. Famine, drought, and disease are always factors. Socially, you are trapped with a very small group of people every day of the year usually limited to the ten to fifteen family members living in the house and farming the surrounding land. If something goes wrong, you have limited resources and manpower to accomplish the task. While the "simple life" has been glorified, several powerful reasons have gradually forced humans to congregate in ever increasingly large cities.
     This desire for a "simple life" has been around nearly as long as major civilization. The Hellenestic world, especially Alexandria, Egypt , focused on writing romantic literature (anacronistic terminology) that depicted farm work and animal husbrandry as glorious trades above the gloom of city life. The next time you wish for the simple life, remember the hard work in manual labor, the setting aside of harvest and limited resources to last through the months of unproductive winter. Life is much more dependent on the weather, and increased distance from other people confines relationships with the people in the area.
     Be thankful wherever life has put you. If a time comes to farm the land and store your produce, cherish those life lessons as much as ordering a meal in the restaurant, though the frequency of the second has lost its sparkling appeal for many. Enjoy your life as it is while always grateful for the others around you.


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Agatha Tyche

Dictator Apprehension

     Fear.
     Control.
     It is remarkable how much of life is controlled by fear. We are afraid to step out of our pre-determined boxes and be judged by those around us for not predictably following our reputation. We are afraid to jump in somewhere that we have no experience and pitch in, take charge, do the task. This is true for all ages especially in schools and jobs. Once a reputation is assigned for one quality, even a reputation for disinterested neutrality, any excursions outside of it are fitted as uncharacteristic. A proficient example of this is elementary or junior high school when the teacher yells for silence. Of course, everyone ignores her and continues boisterously until the quietest child in the class screams for silence. Everyone is so surprised, they hush instantly. Nothing changed in their desires to continue the conversation. When the expectations of someone we assume to understand rather well does that unexpected thing, surprise abounds. To avoid that unwanted attention, many of us simply conform to that expected box of our personalities that is affectionately known as a "mask." Our fear of doing the unexpected controls our actions, and we become a stranger even to ourselves.
     This problem is compounded when physically near people more familiar with your habits. The times I have been most uncharacteristic is around people I have never met and run little chance of seeing again. This is also true for my friends. If they meet someone I am acquainted with, they might have acted completely unlike the behavior I expect.

     Historically, many people have had little choice in their daily conduct. The goats need milked, the irrigation canals need cleaned out, firewood needs stacked, and when the work is done, exhaustion forces sleep. In modern times governmental power enforced rigorous conduct laws on citizens. Despite this constant management of both human and physical resources, people eventually took the courage in hand to resist and choose their own desires. The Prague Spring of 1968 revealed the resentment against the United Soviet Socialist Republic in the surrounding puppet nations. This rebellion occurred at the height of Soviet influence, wealth, and military might. The people still opposed.
     Political rebellions reveal the instability of a government. No longer can the law be credibly enforced. The masses arise with bitterness at the mistreatment for an actual or imaginary wrong, and the rebellion is crushed or a civil war breaks out. Ancient Egypt successfully rebelled against the Persian empire's invasion and reestablished native control and religion for a generation. The Greeks defeated Persian advances twice. France successfully repelled British land claims after more than a century of war. America overthrew their perceived oppressors in the British monarchy. Britain resisted Nazi advances and remained unconquered.
     History invariably reveals the desires of a people. With America's social stigmas of nicely situated boxes and divisions, personalities and interests are farmed for cooperation in the work place and monetary expenditures. But if history has taught anything, it is better to resist these outside influences.
     Be yourself. Choose the option most suited to your interests and desires. Don't let your social stereotype paint you into a box that poorly fits your personality and talents. Don't fear the judgement of complete strangers. I have a tendency to act like the people around me. The more time I spend with a single person, the more like them I become. Sometimes this is good; often it is unsatisfying. Be who you want to be. Act as you see right -  not because it is expected but because you honestly are that way. Go about the life you wish to lead without apprehension of the dictator in the public society around you. Just smile, say your greeting, and get doing what needs done!


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Agatha Tyche

Personality in Words

     Words carry meaning through historically defined associations and connotations over time. Specific words may hold special meaning to an individual with emphasis on other suggested context. This understanding of various explanations can be applied to the words used or the actions displayed. I now bring up the question of my presence here. What initially encouraged me to begin this blog and analyze greater concepts of humanity in relation of understanding the present through examples and explanations of the past?

     Scientific discoveries fascinate me, and I am much inclined toward modern discoveries, especially in the arena of genetics. Progress is nothing unless compared to and improved from the past. This is where the foothold for the blog begins - I am fascinated by history because of the observations that can be drawn into the present to shape our world. Historical analogies are easily applied to the most specific instances of life today - if only to contrast the difference. Human nature does not, however, change as readily as assumed in the West, and large components of Greek, Roman, and other cultures convert very well into our understanding.
     Why write fiction then? To what point and purpose does non-didactic prose play its part? It is refreshing to read for the sake of reading. As a college student putting between sixty and eighty hours into my studies each week, the last thing I want to do in my free time is further educate my mind. Fiction is an easy and enjoyable way to allow the mind to strengthen different areas other than every day functionality. Fabricated worlds and unique scenarios transport us away from our modern misery. Certainly, this is true when one reads a story, but it is more apparent and fulfilling to stir up words into the shape of your own imagination. I have several fictional story lines floating in my head; each is but a single chapter of my ideas. I apologize that none of them will be written here. Most will probably never be written down at all because of time.
     Writing an aggregate between science, history, and sociology rationally stretches the mind as it searches for associations, connections, and links between two seemingly different areas. In conclusion then, writing achieves the same effect in the writer of both fiction and nonfiction: a natural expansion of the mind that strengthens the interrelations of life.
     Why am I here? For years I have expanded that mental connection internally and lost much progress in branching out from other areas. Once one of those theories or interpretations is physically, or in this case virtually, recorded, my mind is now liberated to shift focus and expand farther.

     Read, enjoy, appreciate, criticize, ignore, apply, retort, quip, or argue. Connections are always springing up where you least expect them, and each one carries a new perspective on that activity or object of the past that can instruct the future.


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Agatha Tyche

Prohibit Assessments

     "One reason we struggle with insecurity: We’re comparing our behind-the-scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel.” ~ Steven Furtick

     People differ. People also interact. Life is about interacting in a tolerable and acceptable manner with those people that differ . All lives are different, all experiences vary, all tastes prefer and change in accord with circumstance.

     A successful person is one considered to relate to and gain support from those people that do not closely resemble him. Politicians attempt to cater to the simple, hard working man that few politicians have ever associated with.

     I find myself in a position of leadership over a group of men with widely variant interests from my own. My goal is not pleasant association but mastery and love through earned and proven decisions.

     “You must be their leader, their father, their mentor, even if you’re half their age. You must understand their problems. You must keep them out of trouble; if they get in trouble, you must be the one who goes to their rescue. That cultivation of human understanding between you and your men is the one part that you must yet master, and you must master it quickly.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

     One of the joys of life is discovery. By accommodating the input of mentalities estranged from your own, expansion is the only possibility. Whether that expanded world crashes off a cliff or enriches its possessors is merely a risk of life.

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Agatha Tyche

Resourcefulness

     "One and done" seems to be the christening chime of every new consumer item in Western culture. "Disposable" this and "recyclable" that. Even with the economic recession, things are built to be thrown away when their use has been fulfilled. No longer is the extra screw from the remote saved in a can to fix the clock when it breaks - a new clock is simply bought to replace the broken one.
     The GI generation seems to be the last great generation of repairman. The white collar classes seem incapable of getting dirty. Even gardeners use gloves to dig around in the dirt. In the great classics of adventure, most written while Britain ruled the seas and explored the deepest jungles, men knew how to work with their hands. Gun jamped? Clean it out. No matches for the fire? Rub sticks together. Cheer crying woman? Buy the biggest bouquet of flowers and actually know what each flower symbolized.
     Yes, these are Romantic examples and emphasize the tragic portions of life while avoiding the hum-drum. However, there is a net social lose as these skills pass from the working knowledge of a population. Many men no longer know how to check their engine, change their oil, or jack a car because AAA will come to the rescue if the car breaks down.

     My favorite book has long been The Swiss Family Robinson. Why? Stranded from society, the family salvages what materials they can from the wreckage of  the ship then proceeds to create nearly every aspect of the European civilization they left behind. Robinson Crusoe also does an excellent example with resourcefulness from the most obscure items to make a fully functional life.
     But why is resourcefulness important in our modern technical age? Does it achieve anything purposeful? With increasing limitations in resource gathering, re-usability has once again become desirable if still limited to the materials used. Gold, used in computer processing units, is heavily recycled both for value and rarity as is platinum in catalytic converters.
     Resourcefulness teaches thorough mastery of the environment while retaining frugality which was highly valued by Benjamin Franklin and the Romantic authors of the nineteenth century from all nationalities. Resourcefulness allows independence since much can be done with very little. Isolation and limitations are reduced to inconveniences, not crippling disasters. Independence is liberating.
     In this sense, yes, subsitutive capabilities achieve an economic aptitude and unrestrained personal liberties. The more you can do with what you have, the fewer things cease progress.
     Resourcefulness is always valued in war. Whether an invention that does your particular need exists or not,, little aids a dying man or outnumbered troops in their immediate needs. Improvisation is a skill useful for the highly experienced mind since physical resources are easily overcome with creativity and flexibility. The general that adjusts his strategy to increase the advantages of the natural topography stands a larger chance of survival if not outright success, and the man that is ingenious enough to use a razor as a bayonet may yet live to fight again.
     The next time an ordinary item becomes useless for its purchased purpose, ascertain its worth by applying its properties to a new task.

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Agatha Tyche

Cynicism

     Bitterness is a highly concentrated acid that resides in a region around the heart. If this gland's container is punctured, scared, or shaken, that acid may begin to leak. Since the gland will continue to produce acid as before but exposure will spread to the rest of the body, the container is rendered useless but can almost certainly be repaired. If th container is not patched, the concentrated acid will destroy the heart, erode the stomach, damage the liver, and puncture the lungs. If left untreated the acid may also infect the brain and poison its perceptions into a illogical insanity of hate.

     The cynical mind has been poisoned by its own views. Understandably, some event or person has ruptured the regular bodily processes and created a perverse, embittered mind. While the bitterness supplies a sort of adrenaline affect that enables the user to bear considerable burdens beyond normal bounds, the price is mental sanity and a shortened life.
     But if cynicism provides a limited "superpower" of life, isn't it worth the price? Cynicism sucks the joy from life; no circumstance can provide happiness to the cynic. Optimism is worthless because beneficial events only serve to increase the bitterness as the user recognizes the vanity of false joy. Pessimistic to the core, apathy and depression stalk the cynic in all aspects of life. Without doubt benefits can be found, especially within the determination to hate and striving toward destruction of the hated ideal or being.
     Theodore Roosevelt's launched an entire crusading speech against the blasé of life and cynism.

"The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer . . . There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic never tries to perform – these are not marks of superiority but of weakness." 

     While you may defeat the opposition of life, you do it at the cost of yourself. Again, another famous, oft-quoted man of the American past, Ralph Waldo Emerson, cautioned against the burning hatred of dissatisfaction and enmity in life.

“Don't hang a dismal picture on the wall, and do not daub with sables and glooms in your conversation. Don't be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don't bewail and bemoan. Omit the negative propositions. Nerve us with incessant affirmatives. Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. When that is spoken which has a right to be spoken, the chatter and the criticism will stop. Set down nothing that will not help somebody.”

     Embrace the life you have. Accept your faults, the faults of others, and the rainy-day circumstances that force the barometer to weight heavily on your life. Cherish the moment and embrace challenges to prove yourself to those that contest your merits.

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Agatha Tyche