You know, the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet, yeah

If there is anything that I will never understand, it’s people. Myself included. I’ve mentioned this point before, but it’s something that I suppose I really can’t say enough. People are… interesting creatures.

This evening, my sister and I chose to venture off into strange new territory with the objective of getting extremely lost. In pursuit of this fantastic adventure, we drove up to exit 13 from I95, and continued to drive North until we reached a strange town named Derby, surrounded by lots of other very strange towns we had never heard of. My sister managed to lose her confident young driver’s mentality and was beginning to get exceptionally nervous, even though we had hardly deviated from the one main street that would easily lead us back to familiar territory.

So why exactly is it that we get uncomfortable or nervous when it comes to new and unfamiliar experiences? Is it possible that we’re really that conditioned to fear the unknown? It would seem to me that given the fact that one can always ask for help, getting lost really shouldn’t be such a tremendous stressor. A little bit of uncertainty once in a while might actually be a good thing. Experiencing a world of ordinary and familiar streets, people, and places to go is not a notion that I find particularly attractive.

Considering such things makes me think of the effects of this fear of the unknown on sheltered individuals. It is terribly unfortunate that there are actually people who may never get the chance to experience being on their own, or may never get the chance to experience the absence of the certainty that everything will work out smoothly.

Quite the shame, to be given life but to never actually experience it.

Relativity!

I find it endlessly amusing how everything is so dependent upon its situation and the circumstances. It makes it terribly difficult to make a strict code of anything… conduct, morals. I’ll specifically focus on the latter.

Morals! What a lovely topic. I like to think my morals aren’t particularly awful, but I suppose even that’s relative. Naturally, one can never set anything in stone. Life is too full of twists and turns for that kind of thing. I could tell you today that you should avoid the sun because of the awful effects of UV rays, but tomorrow the sun may not rise, and all of a sudden (that was for you, Noel), those UV rays will seem a little less significant and we’ll just want the damn sun back. That was an awful example, but bear with me?

So yes, morality. It’s interesting, because I’ve always felt that in order to be a good person, you need to exhibit a certain degree of morality. That would require that you be respectful, behave appropriately, etc. But it’s interesting. Morality seems to be much less straightforward than I’ve always assumed it to be. There are situations where one can bend their morals, and it’s completely acceptable. In fact, there are situations in which it’s almost unacceptable not to bend your morals.

Recently, I’ve tried to adapt, and to be a little more open to different interpretations of proper conduct. It’s just interesting to think that if we can’t even be sure that the way we’re acting is right, how do we have the right to judge the actions of others?

That gives me a lot to think about.

People.

A broad topic indeed. People are interesting. People are complicated. Unless you’re living in someone’s mind, the chances that you really understand them are extraordinarily slim. Actually, the chances that they’ll tell you exactly what they’re thinking, without censoring their thoughts or any previous events that may have affected the way they think, are even slimmer.

One of my greatest problems is my desire to understand people. It’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever achieve that goal, but that doesn’t change my determination to do so. It would certainly make things much easier if we all knew precisely what everyone else was thinking. Whether it be what they think about us, what they think about the world, or what they think about life itself. But then again, I suppose that would be too easy.

Ha, it’s interesting how that works. There’s rarely an acceptable middle-ground. You either win or you lose. You’re either certain, or doubtful. You love passionately, or you hold back.

I know I’m as guilty of dancing around the truth as the next person, but recently, it’s seemed to me that we’ll never really get anywhere if we just keep playing these little games.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if people could just be honest with you? If you could find out how someone really feels by just asking them? Ah, people.