Risky Business

May I just start this blog by saying one thing? Normal is boring. Life is about living (it's in the name). We're meant to go out and have fun; not sit around but get out and zip-line, skydive, whatever we want. Then again, if we never stop doing these activities that are normally memorable and exhilarating, will they lose their significance to us? Will our lives be so packed full of moments that we won't be able to tell them apart and they won't mean as much? You decide that for yourself.

 In my opinion, a life without irrational moments is meaningless. If everyone is constantly rational, it's a step towards a society where everyone acts for the same causes and for self-interest . If everyone embraces utilitarianism in its entirety, we are closer to an entire population conforming to one character. No one has individual interests, no one acts differently from one another. We live a full life when we have those moments acting out of ration because what makes us feel alive are the moments when we're closest to death, not the moments when we're walking to the grocery store.

I have never been skydiving but have always wanted to go. Let's challenge the idea of life being about self-interest and live a little, shall we?

Hate to Love You

Soo… Today my blog is going to be something in which you'll learn something about me (more than you readers normally do in my posts). I've been doing quite a bit of thinking today to try to discover my inner contradictions. I was trying to come up with an original one and not one that was given to me in class until I realized that what I'm most guilty of is something that my teacher brought up in class.

I bet you're all so curious as to what this contradiction I've come to identify with is. Well, let me start by saying: animals. Am I right! They're so hard to hate, unless you've had a traumatic experience with one as a child. Even if you're allergic them, your first reaction to seeing a dog when walking down the street tends to be something along the lines of…

Now I consider myself an animal lover. I also like clothes. Can you see the connection between the two? Where this is going? Yes? No? I can't see you through the computer so I'll assume you know nothing and continue hinting. I have a leather backpack for school, as well as many leather jackets, purses, and coincidentally I am also wearing leather shoes right now. Whenever I see a leather jacket I tend to just stop like:

I know it's terrible and as an animal lover I shouldn't purchase leather products; it isn't benefitting any creature in the least. I'm not going to give up one or the other because it's whats in your heart that counts, yet I still have felt bad. In the past I've bought vegan leather (whatever that is) in order to balance out my unhealthy leather obsession with my love of animals. Then I'll walk through a store and spot that one item and I think "maybe it's vegan" and take it home only to find it isn't. 

Whoops. What I'm getting at is it's not possible to maintain a life without contradictions, whatever they are. Besides, some animal activists aren't vegan but have to eat meat because their diet requires it, not because they want to. That may work against me since my contradiction isn't live-or-die, but nevertheless I've come to terms with it. I'm not going to say "I'll choose one, I love leather so much I suppose instead of loving animals I should hate them and get rid of my own pets." No, no, no. NO. And most of my leather is secondhand; someone bought it before me and got rid of it. I didn't buy it straight from manufacturers, I just kept it from being thrown out. Whatever the matter, I've come to live with it and when my pets see me wearing leather, they don't seem too upset.