Commitment and sanity.

These days have been tough. I've isolated myself from the world while chasing a chance to serve the world. Paradoxes flying around everywhere; we sometimes need to run the opposite way in order to catch the necessary impulse.

Setting goals help us move with a purpose and, having a purpose makes us feel we are here for a reason; at least this is what I've learned, so when I commit to something, apparently I really (really) commit. Good for me, right?.. then again, commitment always comes with a price and sometimes we seem unable to distinguish to what grade is that price bad or good for us in the long run?.

To prove yourself and accomplish things based on hard work, to put some horse blinders on and just walk/run towards that goal.. how much is too much?. There's too many opinions, the ones that believe you must give it all for your dreams, and the ones who think you must never sacrifice friends and family in the process of "improvement".

The first group of people believe that somehow we need to be the best version of ourselves in order to give the best to others, so that reasoning makes the efforts and sacrifices worth it in the end. Most of all, they understand that family and friends will always want the best for us and will get the why we must do what we are doing, that neglect is not really the right word to label the situation.

The second group of people see things differently, they believe that the process of reaching a goal involves the rest of the people, that sometimes we need to sacrifice some of our personal achievements to help others achieve as well. They sincerely think that "eyes on the prize" is not the way. There's more to live than achievements and what counts is the process.

Combining the two lines of thinking? that's the ideal, but in reality it's not always as easy. Balance is, to some people, the most wanted upgrade to life. Maybe an aggregated/secondary goal could be finding a balanced middle ground to our main goal.. I don't know, something like that, it's worth the shot.

Which way works better? well, you let me know when you guys find out.. in the mean time, I'll just try to surpass my own demons and be a little more receptive to my surroundings, blinders are tiresome. Hoping I'm able to, life is not as long as we sometimes think.

Casting Crowns - Slow Fade

Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler, philosophy of success.

This talk has a lot of truth in it, wise thoughts formulated a few years ago that still apply to our present society when it comes to the general conception of success. I really don't need to formulate a lot of thought in order to introduce it, cause it certainly speaks for itself. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

"One of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. A lot of the time our ideas about what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They’re sucked in from other people. And we also suck in messages from everything from the television to advertising to marketing, etcetera. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.”

Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler, philosophy of success.

Powerful Illustrations: To make you stop and think.

I loved the work of Polish artist Paul Kuczynski, thought I had to share it with you. Here are some of his illustrations, you can check the others clicking on the link. You can also follow his work trough a Fan Facebook page.

Decisiones y Paralelos.

Esas son todas, ¿verdad que sí?, pero en este caso intentaré delimitar a que me refiero. Muchas veces nos enfrentamos a situaciones ante las que escogemos la decisión más sensata ante la decisión más deseada (o viceversa), en casos sin respuesta correcta. Son más fáciles aquellas situaciones en las que el blanco y negro son palpables; mientras entre decisiones correctas, sin importar si una u otra, muchas veces quedará un sentimiento que cargar.

El equipaje del paralelismo, así lo pienso a veces.. y en cada oportunidad me llega a la mente la película Mr. Nobody. El concepto de esta película blew my mind, porque así como me sentí tan identificada al verla (hace unos dos o tres años ya), imagino que muchos por igual. Cada decisión que tomamos o dejamos acarrea una infinidad de posibilidades, una infinidad de giros a nuestras vidas, ¿no sería increíble la oportunidad de poder experimentar cada una de esas "vidas paralelas"?.. 

A veces cuando dejaba divagar la mente (cosa que ya hace muy poco), escribía historias de alguna de mis vidas paralelas, lo cual aunque fascinante era ciertamente perder el tiempo. Pensar en decisiones pasadas y sus alternativas consecuencias no lleva a nadie a ningún lado más que al mundo fantástico del "What if?". Aunque pensándolo bien, podría llevar a unos cuantos valientes a recuperar oportunidades "perdidas".. todo siempre dependerá de la persona.  

De todos modos, al ajustar los hábitos de esos años juveniles a los caminos "adultos" que tomamos, aprendemos a ir dejando los universos paralelos.. ¿la razón?, pues realmente no se.. quizás nos tornamos más seguros con respecto a nuestras decisiones, quizás sentimos satisfacción en nuestra presente realidad, quizás aprendemos a asumir más responsabilidad sobre dichas decisiones.. al menos por el lado positivo.

Este es uno de esos inconclusos.. algo que ocurre cuando ataca el espacio en blanco.

Situación migratoria en República Dominicana.

Aprecio la historia, aunque admito que nunca me ha apasionado en realidad, y es que no creo que deba regirse nuestra existencia por eventos pasados. Cada generación es pensante, cada generación se nutre de nuevos ideales, cada generación evoluciona de cierta forma en relación a la anterior. ¿Por qué parecemos nosotros retroceder en materia social?..

Hoy, después de tantos años de vivir en aparente comunidad, pretenden atarse "cabo sueltos" constitucionales que tienen décadas sin ser cumplidos. No me pintaré como experta o incluso muy conocedora de la materia, aún así siento que tengo derecho a formular una opinión. No todos entienden de qué se trata la sentencia 168/13 del Tribunal Constitucional (TC) Dominicano, así mismo no todos se han molestado en entender.

A diferencia de lo que piensan muchos, nadie se opone a que se cumplan las arcaicas leyes constitucionales.. lo que parece ilógico e injusto a muchos (incluyéndome) es la forma en la que se ha querido aplicar esta medida, después de décadas de venirse incumpliendo. Es realmente inhumano, no ya negar, sino quitar la nacionalidad a personas nacidas en territorio Dominicano desde hace años [que han realizado sus vidas en dicho territorio] porque sus padres se encuentran/encontraban "en tránsito" o de manera ilegal en el país en dicho momento.

La pizca de esperanza se pierde luego que la reunión con el Consejo Nacional de Migración no rinde reales frutos y se espera entonces conocer el susodicho plan para "Regularizar a los extranjeros" que será presentado en un plazo de no más de 60 días. Sobretodo es ahora cuando se pretende crear un Instituto Nacional de Migración, o sea que aparentemente nadie se ha encargado de estos asuntos en el país desde.. nunca.

Yo quiero creer que hay capacidad en nuestro país para idear y llegar a soluciones favorables para todos, que no será necesaria la intervención de organismos internacionales. Quiero creer que el alboroto será en vano porque nuestros gobernantes y consejales serán sensatos. Que se pierdan los sentimientos de no pertenencia y demos paso a una mentalidad más progresista, más empática. Poner orden no requiere de injusticias.

El orden inicia desde el hogar, queriendo decir que si invitas a tu casa a alguien esa persona probablemente copiará tu comportamiento, si nunca pusiste reglas no puedes esperar que se sigan. Los cambios se hacen de manera progresiva, ningún cambio repentino da resultados a la larga. Se requiere un poco de prudencia, no es una manada de vacas que se va a cambiar de pastizal, se trata de personas que quedan en un limbo migratorio.

Adoro mi país, pero también adoro las cosas bien hechas.

P.S
Una carta conmovedora que vale la pena compartir, pinta con claridad sentimientos que hoy reinan sobre todos los afectados por esta medida.

Lady Gaga's Applause as a reflect of Society.

You probably have heard the song already, one supposes she's singing to her fans and expressing how much she needs them or something (speculating). Well, this song happened to be release around the time I was engaged in a little personal "research" on common behaviour of most teens in less known and more anonymous social media (might seem like I have a lot of time to loose). I got to kind of play the song in my head as the perfect soundtrack to that scenario.

So, we all know what an applause is, but to add some structured definition I'll use the lovely and helpful Wikipedia.. "Is primary the expression of approval by the act of clapping... As a form of mass non-verbal communication, it is a simple indicator of the average relative opinion of the entire group; the louder and longer the noise, the stronger the sign of approval.". Then you start connecting the dots.

Average behaviour between most teenagers and young adults pointed lack of confidence; interestingly, is not the lack of confidence I consider to be expected at this stage of someone's life. I mean, I'm insecure sometimes when it comes to challenge my capacities, trying new things or maybe at the time of considering big choices... but isn't that just normal human panic emotions anyway?. On the other hand, desperately and constantly appealing to other people is kind of disturbing when it's happening in a massive fashion. Appeal is a process for requesting a formal change to an official decision, being that formal decision (in my opinion) their own perception of themselves. 

Then "I live for the applause" could be easily interpreted as living for the approval of others, seeking that loud noise and living to make it louder and longer. There's a difference though between younger and older people regarding this subject. Younger people try to stand out, they're trying to be different in a way that gets them to call attention and gain popularity, they just want to be liked; while older one's try to be successful within the normal to be approved, taking in accountant their neighbourhood, house, car, job, et. 

This is nothing new to anyone, this is the way it has been and probably will be for most. I just wanted to state that Lady Gaga got to capture the essence of this joke, probably cause she also gets  it (being her the one who radically transformed into a whole new personality just to gain fame... and God, must be hard to maintain that act). Do you "..live for the applause, applause, applause"?