A Thought On Influence

This was actually written March 3rd. I found it on my thumbdrive and liked it, so I decided to post it.



I'm going to see “Into The Woods” on Thursday. I can't help but remember Century's performance, and assume this one will be the same. It only just occurred to me that Cleveland is an entirely different school, with an entirely different stage, auditorium and people.
So Century's astounding performance will affect my review of Cleveland's. But can I help it? Can we help but be influenced constantly? Things happen, you experience daily life, and it changes you. Every minute we are changing because a minute before you weren't talking, you didn't see that poster, you were happier, you didn't take that latest breath. We are creatures of constant change. The question I pose is, can we help it?
Physically, we cannot. Our bodies act on their own accord, and it keeps us alive. Your diaphragm flexes, your lungs inhale, your hair grows, your cells die your heart beats your eyes blink and all of this is done to keep you alive. How does it feel to know that millions, possibly trillions, of cells have been created and cast off to die simply to keep you alive? This is out of our control. You always change, and grow, in life and death. Do our bodies not rot into dust when our minds have abandoned them? Our flesh deteriorates and we have no control over it.
But do we have control over the mind? The mind, surely, changes just as much as the body, for it is encased in flesh and you cannot have one live without the other. But are we able to consciously control that change after it reaches a certain point? When we are children, our mind is changing much quicker, our nerves are new, and quick to make the electrical connections and solidify memory in order to help us learn. I would not like to have an infant's miniature mind, unless I was able to remember the experience, of which their brain is incapable. Their bodies grow and with it the fleshy prison called the brain. It grows and makes more room for the mind to expand. There are odd connections between our brains and the world. Colors affect our moods, posters influence our choices, music creates emotions, and most of the time we aren't even aware of it. Can we help but be affected by this constantly, when we don't know we're being affected? We don't know we're being altered, ever so slightly, every second of every day, and that those alterations change us. Can we freeze our experiences in time, so as not to ever experience another one? Would that be such an awful fate?
To some, it would. To always be the same, and never see anything new, to never have another new thought, to never have another epiphany. To never change is to never learn. To never grow. But some are afraid of that change, and would pay any price in order to not. So deathly afraid that change isn't better so they would rather live monotonously in life over and over.
We cannot keep from changing. We cannot control it, or stop it, because most of the time we spend changing we aren't aware of it. That is how we cope. Those of us who hate changing, or being controlled, do not realize all the factors that are controlling them, and they don't realize how helpless they are in controlling it. If it does not occur to you, you will not be bothered by it for thought is the beginning of everything.



So there you go. An interesting idea I had a couple of months ago.

A Confession of True Love From Buttercup

"I love you," Buttercup said. "I know this must come as something of a surprise, since all I've ever done is scorn you and degrade you and taunt you, but I have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more. I thought an hour ago that I loved you more than any woman has ever loved a man, but a half hour after that I knew that what I felt before was nothing compared to what I felt then. But ten minutes after that, I understood that my previous love was a puddle compared to the high seas before a storm. Your eyes are like that, did you know? Well they are. How many minutes ago was I? Twenty? Had I brought my feelings up to then? It doesn't matter." Buttercup still could not look at him. The sun was rising behind her now; she could feel the heat on her back, and it gave her courage. "I love you so much more now than twenty minutes ago that there cannot be comparison. I love you so much more now than when you opened your hovel door, there cannot be comparison. There is no room in my body for anything but you. My arms love you, my ears adore you, my knees shake with blind affection. My mind begs you to ask it something so it can obey. Do you want me to follow you for the rest of your days? I will do that. Do you want me to crawl? I will crawl. I will be quiet for you or sing for you, or if you are hungry, let me bring you food, or if you have thirst and nothing will quench it but Arabian wine, I will go to Araby, even though it is across the world, and bring a bottle back for your lunch. Anything there is that i can do for you, I will do for you; anything there is that I cannot do, I will learn to do. I know I cannot compete with the Countess in skills or wisdom or appeal, and I saw the way she looked at you. And I saw the way you looked at her. But remember, please, that she is old and has other interests, while I am seventeen and for me there is only you. Dearest Westley--I've never called you that before, have I?--Westley, Westley, Westley, Westley, Westley,--darling Westley, adored Westley, sweet perfect Westley, whisper that I have a chance to win your love." And with that, she dared the bravest thing she'd ever done: she looked right into his eyes.

Buttercup's Confession Page 52-53 The Princess Bride

The Packrat's Paradise

Scrap is my new favorite place in the world. Dezzi and I went there together a while ago and I just now opened up our bags of stuff because the play I'm in has kept me super busy.

I got these two great big fabric swatch books for things like upholstery. One of them I'm going to take the pieces and cut them into squares and make a scarf, but i don't know what I'm doing with the other one yet. I also got this really long zipper, that I'm going to make into a rose, and I got a bunch of photos and art gallery postcards. Dezzi got some cards as well and these two big empty book covers that she's going to make into boxes.

So we got these two bags just crammed with stuff (mostly crammed just because the swatch books and book covers were so big) and the entire bill came to $5.45

Scrap is so cheap. It's a thrift store for crafters. A packrat's paradise (whether you're collecting or trying to get rid of). They have all sorts of "junk" that they get donated and sell super cheap. And I mean SUPER cheap. An entire inch of unused scrapbooking paper (that's probably more than 100 sheets) is just 10¢. Everything you can think of, they have. Scraps of fabric, wood, frames, photos, paper, cardboard, string, things that you don't even know what they were originally used for, but look really cool anyway.

Go buy stuff and support Scrap. It's awesome.