On the internet, an expert is the person with all the answers.
The one who can tell you the best way to start any enterprise, the seven steps required to carry it out, the five benchmarks to measure your progress, and so on.
In life however, a truer measurement of mastery is not necessarily the quantity of your answers, but rather the quality of your questions.
For example:
- In my life am I making a genuine contribution to my society, or am I merely helping myself at the expense of others?
- Have I defined what success means to me? If not, how will I know when I have achieved it?
- What is the cost of blogging, or my lifestyle as a whole, as measured in time, personal relationships, and family?
- Of all the things I am pursuing, which ones will still matter in five years? Which ones will matter after I’m dead?
The difference between these two approaches, I feel, is not merely the difference between internet and reality, but the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
—-
I know that being a humor site, serious thoughts are not really what you were expecting here. But what can I say, it happens.
Happy Monday.
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{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
I hope this doesn’t mean you are contemplating an ominous ending….. to the blog, I mean.
I appreciate your serious side also, Brent. I have to admit though, I kept waiting for the punch line…
A blog takes on a life of its own — sometimes funny just isn’t on the agenda.
Was that a deep thought or no?
The other question I learned at midlife is, have I done what I’d set out to do, and if not do I still want to do it and if I do, I suppose I’d better get cracking because I may not have much time left!
I dread the day people look to me for answers.
Are we waxing philosophical? Then, could you wax my car as well?
So, are you going to stop being funny? Or will you get even funnier? Are we supposed to reflect on this post and give you advice, or can we just sit around and wait for you to figure it out yourself? I’ll go over to Humor-Blogs while you work it out.
so where’s this expert you speak of? Let me know when they arrive…
Being ridiculously shallow, Rickey defines success by sitemeter hits on his blog.
The Serious Comma strikes again! Very nicely done. Reminds me of a famous quote:
“The wise man doesn’t give us the right answers, he poses the right questions.” — Claude Levi-Strauss (pretty smart for a guy who made cowboy clothing for a living)
I have all the answers. Just none of them are right…
I really enjoy the Contemplative Comma. The questions you just posed frequent my brain as well Brent. Usually my reflective mood is sparked by feelings of sadness until I remember that sadness is an EXTREME just like happiness so as long as I’m content life is good.
Not to get too technical on you but I’ve been reading about conceptual metaphors and how they inspire the evolution of language and in turn the structure for literary theory and anthropology. Let’s say all thought is based on unconscious physical metaphors with beliefs determined by the metaphors in which these ideas are framed. Framing meaning our thinking depends on emotion and that a person’s rationality is bound by limitations of attention and memory. The implications of these frames are hard to understand because they are bound by our subconscious. So what I’m trying to imply here is that reasoning (contemplating one’s existence or purpose in life) may not be based on logic, facts, and a fit to reality but rather a series of conceptual metaphors gained through the abstract.
Brent, I think your mind is at crossroad (notice my use of a conceptual metaphor; relating your mind to a crossroad or journey of thoughts), and maybe you can take comfort in knowing the journey is far more interesting than the final destination.
“Some Men” obtain notoriety because of their wit and skill. While they impress the masses, their efforts only succeed as a distraction. They last only until “Some Man” comes along with a bigger distraction and history remembers them not.
“Great Men” obtain greatness not because of their skill or ability. They rise above themselves and their contemporaries because they take hold of a vision bigger then the sum of all they are worth. History claims to remember “Great Men”, but, truth be told it is the vision that is remembered.
Lord help me to be a “Great Man” instead of “Some Man”
John O.
I totally understand this mid-blog crisis of sorts,B. I still have no clue what my blog is about and why I do it.
Comma’s are, sooo, misunderstood; that’s why they,are,misused.
The first two hit close to home since I know a couple of other people asking themselves those very questions.
It’ll be interesting to see what each find as their answer.
Hopefully something that will make them happy…
I like all your questions. I’m still working on my answers. Everyday seems a stuggle. I try to stay focused on the end goal. The process feels a little like walking up a sand hill.
Ok, Lynn & Sally now those sand hills are making me think of this famous quote by an unknown (the best kind of quotes come from unknowns if you ask me…no personal agenda attached):
“You can’t leave footprints in the sands of time if you’re sitting on your butt, and who wants to leave butt prints in the sands of time?”
Ha! Well I made myself laugh anyway!
Either a thoughtful post about reaching a crossroads in life or a clever diversion because you couldn’t come up with anything that met your new standards of funny.
Either way, well done.
I liked it. Introspective and real. I’ve asked myself those same questions myself.
The answer is: there is no spoon.
The comments were tons more fun then your actual post.
Hey, how did you find me? I thought I had copied and pasted your ‘blog fodder’ without your knowledge. And yet, you found it and you weeped. Should I be touched? Or are you?
I’m disappointed in you Brent, go and have a long look in the mirror and pull some funny faces, then write your next post and forget this ever happened
No, just more focus.
Sorry.
Sweet, that we can work with. Looking forward to it.
I am going to vote for funnier. It’s just that every once in a while I have to get something off my chest before I can move on.
The last time this happened we had a good discussion on Martin Luther King Jr and where we are today as a county (it was amazingly non-political.)
So its okay.
Well, they will have to find you first and that is your advantage.
That’s ok. I have all the (rest of) the questions!
I think I got the same list. Did you buy your out of the back of a comic book?
Oh good grief my comment was way too long sorry!
I am going to have to read up on conceptual metaphors, but I do understand the journey metaphor.
I am every bit as skeptical of someone who has “arrived” as I am of someone who has all the answers.
After all, if they have met all their goals so easily then maybe their bar wasn’t set very high.
As each birthday arises, (cough, cough, hint, hint)it gets harder to ignore the fact that your Exit From Life is approaching at sixty minutes an hour.
It just makes you a little less wasteful of your time and energy.
So many places to go with wax:
Your legs? Your lip? Your commemorative plaque as One Of My Favorite Readers?
Sometimes it takes such restraint to play nice.
You can’t miss them, they are all posting on how to get rich on the internet.
(Number one method – selling things to help people get rich on the internet.)
Thank you Jeffery, I don’t have the energy for matching serious and funny blogs like you do, so I blur the lines from time to time.
When I get a chance I’ll try to set up a separate feed or something so people can opt out of serious thinking. It’s quite exhausting you know.
I suddenly feel so abused. There must be somewhere I can report this.
That kind of goes back to setting your bar high enough. (See Debbie’s comment above.)
I completely agree John, like we were talking about with MLK, some people look for causes they can use to promote themselves.
However, change comes when people can forget about themselves long enough to embrace a greater vision.
Thank you Bee. I have found that happiness is a continually variable state, it comes and goes.
What is more easily held on to is contentment. Not that it is a piece of cake either.
So your success rests upon the goodwill of Google? Clearly you are a man of courage.
I have seen that happen around some Air Force guys I once worked with. Their mantra was “aim low, avoid disappointment.”
This sounds like I am making a joke, but sadly it is totally true.
So you can wax my car then?
Number two method – taking out the competition.
Number three method – Becoming a total monopoly like Wal-Mart or your friendly local utitily company or Exxon.
And sand hills always make me think of Luke Skywalker, which makes me think of their struggle to overthrown the evil emperor, which makes me think of flowers and weird hair styles, which leads me to shopping, then to food, and now I’m tired.
That’s exactly what I was thinking Lynn! You crack me up OC sista!
I’ve found that over time I’m posting more and more on The Stinker and less and less on The Thinker. On reflection I don’t think it’s because I’m more funny than serious; I think it’s because I have an overwhelming creative urge. The Stinker is a creative outlet where I get to make something new, whereas The Thinker is more of a commentary/instructive/essay type site, and not so creative per se. If I had to do it all over again, I would probably have a humor blog with an occasional serious post, and/or use humor to try to make serious points about critical thinking, rather than try to run two blogs.
I guess that’s a long-winded way of saying I like the way you’ve gone about it.
I’m happy when I read this blog. (smile)
That sounds like too much friction for me.
Define waste. Are people glad to see you? Do people that matter to you love you in return? Does making people laugh make you feel good? Isn’t a life well lived, with merriment and joy and a sense that you are doing something well, as important as anything else on this often incomprehensible globe?
Is that a booger on your shirt?
Opps. Sorry.
You have an excellent point, spreading joy is not a waste. I was referring to other things like “needing” to keep up with cool show and the cool cars and the whole hamster wheel of stuff.
But that’s just me.
I’m sorry, were there old standards?
I hate to say it, but when it comes to comments every post is pretty much like that. They’re all just an excuse for people to start commenting. Someday we’ll just move this whole thing over to a forum and I’ll just retire.
As for finding you, I can’t say a lot about that except to be afraid, very very afraid.
I’m sure they are all sporks in your drawer.
Oh No No, I disagree. We need our Ominous Comma Leader or we would fall all over ourselves with no direction.
-Litte Commas
Awe, do you hear that, Debbie just called me skinny. “Litte commas.” Thank you Debbie. You are quite Litte yourself.
I’m trying, Spooky, I’m trying. Must…squint…harder.