Imagine + 9/11 Anniversary

for your weekend.

In honor of the anniversary of 9/11

my thoughts & prayers are with the victim's families

By: John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today. . . 

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace. . . 

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one 

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world. . . 

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one 

My Very First V-Log!

. . . enjoy . . .

I Do This to One Person Everyday

life is a chain-reaction.


i had something very rare happen to me today. i went to Extreme Pita to grab a yummy grilled chicken pita for lunch and as i was about to hand over my cash to pay, the guy behind me says, "i've got this . . .  i do this to one person everyday, don't worry." i of course think, "ok . . . this guy is probably trying to pick me up." so i politely declined and told him "get outta here, no way, absolutely not etc, etc" in the most light-hearted aw-you're-so-sweet-but-no kind of way. however, he insisted (politely) and i could tell from his physical appearance that he in no way thought there could've been any kind of future interaction between us. so i said "well, thank you . . . but at least take a five . . ." again he declined and said "no, no . . . if you see someone begging for change, please give it to them . . . that's all i ask." he paid for my lunch, i thanked him once again, we got in our separate cars and drove off in different directions. he did this out of the goodness of his heart.


therefore, he has inspired me to do this post. it is rare that we see random acts of kindness just for the sake of being kind. they are very special moments. you know i heard once, that when human beings observe other people being kind to one another (especially strangers) it actually triggers a slight chemical reaction in our brain in which we begin to feel happier. aside from being compassionate to random strangers and accumulating wicked karma, anything we can do each day to improve the world is beyond worth it. it's only through small acts like this that we begin to change the world. 


i was with friends the other night, saying farewell to a special young lady who is adventuring off to Ireland to receive her Masters, when one friend brought up an interesting way to dramatically change your life very quickly. the task? no complaining for 6 weeks. 


. . . this would be no easy feat.


it would take a tremendous amount of effort and discipline. two things i can run very short of from time to time. i was thinking about writing a post about how much Wal-Mart disgusts me but when i heard of the notion of "no complaining" i decided against it. all i'm going to say is this. in order to help myself and the world around me, two new things will be added to my list of self-improvement . . .


1. no complaining (um, for 6 weeks)
2. abolish information overload one day a week (probably on Sundays) this means no tv, internet, cell phone, blog, facebook, or email


the reason for the second addition is simple. technology is robbing us of face to face interaction with people and our psyches need periodical breaks from the amount of information that is thrown at us on a daily basis. if it was up to me, i would happily go back in time to live in any era from 1900-1970. unfortunately, we have not cracked the code on time travel.


maybe one day . . . 


be conscious of your actions. be conscious of how you can do one small thing a day to show the world compassion. and be conscious of how it changes your life. too-da-loo!

The Fussy Revolution

We all want to change the world.

Or do we? Wow, so last week on Earth Day (April 22) I wrote up this big, long, wise post on a new development (The Fussy Revolution) which I spent over an hour on and my very, slow, very bogged down laptop accidentally highlighted the entire post when I went to highlight a word to delete… well… I’m sure you could guess what happened next.

It was late and I wasn't thinking straight. I was just so stunned and panicked because I knew Blogger autosaves and I wanted to get out of the post as quickly as possible before it saved, well, nothing. I got out, but not in time. The whole thing was gone. I took a deep breath, closed my laptop and went to bed – it was 12:15am. That is why you haven’t seen a recent post from me. I have been giving my blog the silent treatment until today - I finally realized that I had gotten over “the incident” and could continue to write again.

Thankfully.

I won’t make this one as long because frankly, I don’t want to bore you. The jist of my previous post (RIP) was simple. I had been doing a lot of thinking about Earth Day (which was first started in 1970 by a US Senator by the name of Gaylord Focker (kidding!) no really, in all seriousness, his name was Gaylord Nelson) I discussed with a friend at work, how most people these days acknowledge days like Earth Day as if it was the birthday of their favorite celebrity – a kind of “Aw, that’s great!” expression and then not another thought about it.

It seems that people don’t express their concerns for issues, like our planet, like they used to – no passion, music playing, protests, flower planting, hair braiding… nothing. We understand the issues but assume others will do “something” about it. Myself included. This irks me. I think it goes hand in hand with the rapid development, obsession and dependence we all have on cell phones, txt messages, emails, blog posts, Facebooking/Tweeting, etc. Is this the beginning of the end? These media and technology outlets aren’t going to go away, so what can we do to create some sort of balance? It seems we are so wrapped up in our own world (both online and off) that we aren’t even getting together with friends as much anymore. We aren’t noticing the beauty of the world around us because our face is always looking at a screen.

It comes to my attention, as I have just gotten cable again, the abundance of mindless reality shows that people distract themselves with. This is a very disturbing discovery. I don’t know what’s going on in other parts of the world in terms of TV entertainment but c’mon North America… what the hell is going on? I just found out the other day that the mistress of Jesse James (Sandra Bullocks husband) might get a hosting gig on a new reality show called “Celebrity Cheaters” co-hosting with one of Tiger Woods’ mistresses... are you serious? Don’t we have enough shows about nothing? The Bad Girls Club, Paris Hilton’s BFF, Kendra, America’s Next Top Model (don’t you just cringe when Tyra opens her mouth?), The Bachelor and the list goes on. I know I’m not the only that can’t stand this crap, but the scary part is, is the majority of people can. Are we regressing as a species or moving forward? This is what I’m concerned about. Why is the majority not striving for human greatness? Don’t fall victim to numbing yourself in front of a screen! Take time off and join me… in the Fussy Revolution!

What will you do this week to get in touch with your human side?

Everyone just needs to slow down and eat some pudding...

Chocolate pudding to be specific.

My dad and I were having a conversation about the nature of war, the drama between places like North Korea, Iran and the US, all the while I was enjoying spoonful after spoonful of Belgian chocolate pudding purchased from Trader Joe's (the best grocery store in LA). We have come to a conclusion. All problems can be solved with pudding. Pudding makes me smile. It would probably make you smile too for those who have never tried pudding. If truck load after truck load delivered pudding to major problem areas around the world, I think people would just shut up and eat their pudding. North Korea wants to start a nuclear war with the US? Someone should go up to North Korean President Kim II-Sung and hand him a thing of pudding. Relax and eat your pudding - enjoy the coolness and sweetness of it. Enjoy how smooth and creamy it is. Who knows maybe he'll have this massive awakening all because he at some great pudding and he'll realize we're all in this together. He'll realize that he really needs to climb out of his ego and start acting like a human being. Maybe he'll begin to understand that with the vastness of the internet, social networks, instant communication, etc. that we are now one community. The whole world. Who knew? That something as simple as pudding could potentially be the solution to any problem to ever exist. 

In other news - does anyone know how to make my blog more beautiful? I want to have tabs and different pages like other bloggers. I'm not as internet savy as I'd like to be so if anyone has any tips or answers to that question, please email me at jusmcknight@gmail.com.

Off to a fun girls night at my apartment tonight...gotta go make my bed.

Happy Fourth...

To Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY AMERICA !!! Since this is a day of celebrating independence and freedom in what was, the most powerful country in the world, I have high hopes for the future of America under President Obama's administration. Why you ask? Because President Obama understands that in order to transform America, the leader in charge must base everything on serving the people. Every political leader should make the people their primary concern, however many nations around the world that claim to do this - don't. What a lot of the world does not realize, is that there is no disconnect between the condition of the lives of the people and the condition of the land in which they live. I just read a great article in Living Buddhism that I find pertains to changing the conditions America is facing today. What I love about this philosophy and the writings of Nichiren Diashonin, is that it relates to any time, past, present and future. Many Buddhist traditions believed in a "pure land" that is somewhere separate from this "impure world". There is no such thing as a separate paradise, we need to create our own paradise here on Earth. What is so great to understand is that Nichiren points out that if there was a profound transformation within the life of each person, it would undoubtedly bring about a transformation of society or the land. A quick excerpt from the article that really struck me...

"To turn one's eyes from the problems of society and the world and remained concerned only with spiritual or religious matters may seem like a holy way to live, but Mahayana Buddhism admonished against such an approach to religion as self-serving...Today, the SGI, based solidly on the principles and spirit of Nichiren Buddhism, is actively working to promote peace, cultural exchange, educational progress and respect for human rights, while contributing to solving the serious problems facing the world." (Living Buddhism, Jul-Aug 2009)

I am so proud to be working so hard on transforming my own life and helping others do the same. We can transform this country, and the world one person at a time. Have a safe and happy weekend everyone!