Kevin's ODYSSEY

Real Change Requires Real Change

2007-09-27T20:51:00.000-04:00

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

It's clear that our government continues to do the same thing over and over, yet expecting different results. Just moments ago, I 'virtually' attended Newt Gingrich's opening presentation for his American Solutions workshops. The theme of this weekends workshop is 'Real Change Requires Real Change', going from a world that FAILS to a world that Works. It promises to be very insightful. There are over 30 workshops this Saturday covering issues like the environment, immigration, space, education, taxes and much more. The idea is to create REAL CHANGE to all 513,000 government officials, not just the White House and Congress.

The workshops begin at 1:00pm EST and go up Newt's closing remarks at 5:00pm EST. Regardless of your Party preference, participating in this workshop should prove enlightening and thought provoking.

Something simple

2007-09-26T19:12:00.000-04:00

"The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards."
- Arthur Koestler (1905 - 1983)

How many times have you been stumped by a problem, only to find that the answer was staring you in the face? If you are like me, it happens quite a bit. For instance, I spent an entire day trying to figure out why I couldn't export from my computer to another computer. It seemed simple enough. I do it several times a day everyday, yet, for some reason, today was different.
I pulled other people into the situation to help try and figure it out.
Almost at my wits-end, I pulled back from the situation and then it hit me...my computer was out of memory space. Ughhhhh! "Egg on the face'! All I could hear in my head was the 'Price Is Right' loser horn.

Taking a deep breath and stepping away from the problem for a few minutes to get your head together is sometimes all you need. It's then that you realize that it was something simple.

What Is The Purpose Of Your Life?

2007-09-24T19:32:00.000-04:00

"My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?"
- Charles M. Shulz (1922-2000)

When I was younger, I would often ask myself, 'What is my purpose?', 'why am I here'? I searched through every book I could find (including all of the religious texts), I tried moving away from my hometown to see what else existed beyond my 'little world', and yet, I've never been more satisfied with my life as I am now. Sure, occasionally I look back on my life and and say, 'what if', but I'm quickly reminded of the insightful words of Soren Kierkegaard who said,

"Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward."

I truly believe, deep down, that you must follow your instincts on these things. No matter what others tell you about how you should live your life (whether friends, family, government or religion), following that 'gut feeling' is important. Discovering the world around you and experiencing life will bring much more wonder to your existence. Clearly, the only resolve to the question of 'What is my purpose in life', can only be answered by you. It can be as complicated or as simple as you like. There is no right or wrong answer.

Top 100 Best Novels

2007-09-23T10:51:00.000-04:00

“Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting."
- Aldous Huxley

In 1998, The Modern Library put out a list of the Top 100 Best Novels since 1900. Having read some of the 'classics' growing up, I realized rather quickly, after glancing their list, that I had not consumed as much literature as I had thought. I read 1984, The Catcher in the Rye, Robinson Crusoe and the likes, but never ventured past the class requirements.

I then came across Time magazine' s list of their Top 100 Best Novels since 1923. Needless to say, these two lists could easily be retitled "Kevin's List of Books Yet Read'. To prove that I am at least aware of this deficiency, I am currently reading 'The Great Gatsby', by F. Scott Fitzgerald (only because I own a copy, but never read it).

"In a very real sense, people who have read good literature haved lived more than people who cannot or will not read."
- S.I. Hayakawa

*Update - thanks to m.lubbers for The Guardian's list of the Top 100 books of all time! A much better list, in my opinion.

...Already In Progress

2007-09-22T15:40:00.000-04:00

Merriam-Webster defines Odyssey as 'an intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest.' Indeed, the word odyssey conjures up images of Homer's epic poem recounting the long wanderings of Odysseus. This is forgivable and not lost on me (hence, the more precise description 'Kevin's Odyssey').

This is MY quest, already in progress, to try and make sense of the world around me. I agree with Albert Einstein who said, "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible."

I believe an essential part of any journey is to be flexible so that you don't miss any opportunity for a quality experience. Life is short and should not be wasted. It was Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, who said it best in his book 'Unweaving The Rainbow',...

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here."

Life is wonderful. Let's get on with it shall we?