Patterns

It is amusing how people accuse history of repeating itself while all the while we are repeating ourselves as well.

This year I, again, spent too much time in the sun, thinking 'oh I won't get burnt this year' and now, bathed in cream and pain I am smirking to myself knowing that in all probability I will do the same thing next year, so much about once bitten/burnt/scratched/annoyed twice shy (or as Bush would say it: "There's an old saying in Tennessee. I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says, fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me you can't get fooled again." http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushism-foolme.htm - SS do not kill me please, thanks).

Anyway this repetition of patterns is omnipresent as it makes our lives much easier and more efficient, just repeating tasks we do every day. Even the days are cyclical, and the months. We are comfortably following the same route in circles, hopefully in a spiral, so that each time we are a little bit better off than before.

However, some people are on a spiral to destruction, or they are following it unhappily, not even realizing that they are not happy because of what THEY do and think, and not because the world is not suited to their needs.

A diary or even just noting down what you do and what makes you unhappy should make you realize how some things are cyclical in your life. For example, how every day someone is unhappy in the morning because they have to wait in line in mcdonalds to get your breakfa(s)t, and yet they keep doing it, "Because I have always done it" is just as popular as "Because my parents did it/told me to do it".

Another problem arises that people read books, watch television and play games ([especially social] games are an essential learning tool) to learn these patterns and are then shocked when they use "YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN" in an argument with their loved ones and are then mortally insulted when the only response is ??? Of course phrases such as MY LIFE IS EMPTY WITHOUT YOU sound nice on paper and maybe even on TV but when said in reality it just signifies RUN AWAY, CLINGY OBSESSIVE PERSON AHEAD.

So maybe it is time for us to find new patterns of acting, preferably ones that we have tested ourselves and not just repeat what we see on TV, monkeys can repeat too and it does not make them one bit happier than us (bananas do).