Twilight is Raising Kane to Love?

Image courtesy of Pinterest

                                              

Yesterday I watched two different pieces of film that had the same theme. Twilight Zone and Citizen Kane. The episode of Twilight Zone was titled "One More Pallbearer" it is about a man, Paul Radin, who brings in people who he believes has wronged him to his Nuclear Bunker to force out an apology.

Image courtesy of Aliana and Simon Cherpitel
and Bing

Citizen Kane is about a man who is separated from his family at a young age and adopted by a company thus making him fabulously wealthy. The movie starts with Kane saying his final words, "Rosebud." The rest of the film goes on a journey with a newspaper journalist to find out what his final word meant. 

Now, what do these have in common? SPOILER ALERT:

Both the character of Paul Radin and Charles Foster Kane
wanted to be loved and both tried to force it from people. Paul tried to force those who had wronged him to plead for his forgiveness. Charles Kane was trying to make his girlfriends or wives to love him with his wealth or lovely rhetoric. You can guess that neither worked. Why didn't it work though? As Kane's second wife, Susan, stated, "You never really give me anything that belongs to you, that you care about." That's just it. Paul Radin and Charles Kane never shared anything with others that they cared about but they demanded that they deserved the love and compassion of others. It's kind of twisted isn't it? Well, that is the Twilight Zone and Orson Welles for you. 

Is this really too twisted though? You may have known or heard about a person who manipulates others to get what they want. When these manipulators don't, they think a privilege that is rightfully there's has been taken away. These people don't understand that people are people. That in order to get love, you have to share love. Just take it from the Beatles in their song The End. 

Now, how does one share the love? At my NCSL conference we had a project where we had to call seven different people that impacted our lives. One of the calls I made was to my high school English teacher. I told her I was at the conference, that I planned to be a teacher, that her difficult classes pushed me and made me think outside the box. She said she had never been so touched and later texted me that week saying it still made her glad that she got that phone call. Just a five minute phone call made someone feel appreciated enough to remember it all week. Heck, Eminem wrote a whole song as an apology to his mom in Headlights and Eminem is one guy that I wouldn't call a fluffy teddy bear.

If you are more of the squishy type that doesn't really show their love, I get that. Not judging. They should still know that you love or appreciate them. You could send an anonymous letter or gift to that person if you are especially shy. If it is a co-worker, you could send them a note or a nice email. Still too cheezy for you? Well, if you are bold enough just saying three little words can make a big difference to them. "I appreciate you." That's all you have to say. Another kind gesture that you could do is tell your fellow employees or employer, friends, parents or whomever, about what the other has done that you thought was great. So often we hear it is a dog eat dog world, wouldn't it be extraordinary to actually help others up instead of pushing them down? All of this might sound pretty cheezy and dopey but to someone else it doesn't. Treat others how you wanted to be treated and be the change in the world that you want to see. (Yes, digging deep with famous quotes and cliches.) Really, though. How do you expect your work, school, town, meetings, clubs, or whatever else to improve if you don't try to boost with kindness? Be the positive motivator in your organization or home. Be a leader and a cheerleader in other lives, everyone needs it. 

End On a Happy Note: Animals having thoughts and souls? According to these owners or former owners, the love of animals is apparent and real. 

http://magagag.net/?p=11489

Also, have a hugging cat gif! http://imgur.com/gallery/SaTAD

Easier to Love Or Hate?

When it comes to being kind to others, it can be difficult at times (or all the time). My question is why do those people choose to be unkind and, in a sense, ugly? Those individuals who are unkind somehow believe that what we would consider are the good parts of them, are not worth sharing. They keep it deep inside themselves and but show off their ugly exteriors.

Image Courtesy of Bing Search and
Flying for the Window:
The Bloggings of a Curious Man

I recently finished the book Catcher in the Rye. In the story, Holden Caulfield states that he is surrounded by "phonies" that "just kill him." I agree with Holden. I refuse to believe that those who make people think that they are powerful and big are just trying to cover-up themselves. It's hard to believe that they could have good qualities but do you think these people really act like they do around their families or significant others? If someone pushed over their mother and made fun of them in their home, they must have some sort of mental problem and I mean that with all seriousness.
The next point I want to make are those who aren't bullies or bullied but those who stand around and do nothing. You know how Smokey the Bear tells you that "Only YOU can prevent forest fires." Well, I'm telling you that Only YOU can prevent bullying. You may be familiar with the the TV show What Would You Do. They had a harassment scenario in a restaurant that you can see here >soldier video. Even though the harasser and harassed were fake, you could still see how someone like the soldier stood up for a complete stranger with real genuine feelings. Here is another video about a Reedsburg Studnet who stood up to bullies for others. We have all experienced some sort of bullying and we know it makes us feel like crap. So why do we see it happen but not do anything about it? Well, as Holden Caulfield may say it is because we are phonies. For the bullies it is easier to be mean than to be themselves. For the onlookers it is easier to ignore than it is to act. The ease of things is what drives us.
Let's get our of our comfort zones and get the guts to stand up for others. I'm not saying it will be easy. The great people that stood up for others include Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Lincoln who all died due to the hatred of others. The question I have for you is would you rather live a monster or die a hero if you had to choose? Hopefully NONE of you will have to die for your cause. So I guess a better question to ask you is this...would you rather live the rest of your life knowing you helped that one person or live the rest of your life knowing that you ignored them? Some of you may be thinking, "Oh, and you're so perfect that you always stand up for someone?" The answer is no, I haven't and I regret those decisions. I need to work at this as much as anyone else. So let's all work on this together because we're all in this together as we are all members of the human species.

End On a Happy Note:
We all love the Hiddles. Here is an "Loki'd video" of his interview. Have a great day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K2AI44XI0s&feature=share

Flash Drives and my Death Bed

Today I had a relatively good day. Until twenty minutes ago that is. I got a call from the bank that was not to my liking, I lost my flash drive, and I can't seem to find my butterfly ring ANYWHERE.

LOST RING IF FOUND RETURN TO C DOUBLE T
Image courtesy of Swarovski Crystal and Bing

 I decided to visit my blog reading list as I can only wait until tomorrow to solve some of the issues listed before. One of the blogs I follow is by James T. Robilotta and he posted about the "languages of love." Don't worry it isn't anything schmoozy. (Well, maybe a little.) When I read and watched the video, it made me think, were my issues that bad? In the end money or my ring weren't going to be important at my death bed. As people who have the privilege to have computers, we tend to freak out over these types of frivolous things. We call them "first world problems" and sometimes we say we are "struggle busing." Now, I am not going to say that you should feel guilty or bad because that isn't helping anyone's situation either. Instead, try to be positive and spread that good attitude around. I can hear your scoffs already. Seriously though, having a positive attitude can be hard. 

Image courtesy of Bing

 Last night I watched the movie A Clockwork Orange and I have to tell you, at first I was not a fan. If you aren't familiar with this film I will give you a brief synopsis. It is about a teenage boy named Alex who uses his free time to do what he loves. What does Alex love to do? Rape, kill, and beat others. I was going to stop watching the movie when something happened. This evil main character went to jail. After being in jail for two years he goes under treatment to "cure him of evil" and it works...to an extent. The treatment has made Alex unable to defend himself, which I was all for. I was glad when his former friends and his old enemies beat him up. I felt that justice was being done. It wasn't until the police scene that I went from hating this guy, to sort of pitying him. That was the point. This movie is based off of a book by the same title by Anthony Burgess.  He stated that the point of the book was to show that if we truly believe in "forgive and forget" then we should practice it with even the most evil of people. This brings me back to being positive in light of the terrible (or in my sarcastic font TeRrIbLe). When those bad little things happen to you or me, we blame, we get angry, we get frustrated and then we spread our bad attitudes to others. Much like Alex's situation. If he had chosen to be good and helpful, he would have experienced more positive events. Instead he promoted his evil doings, which almost destroyed him. Have you thought of all the good things that happened to you during a bad day and spread those around? For example, today I also got a ton of free clothes and jewelry from a friend. I also ate a pretty tasty supper AND I am halfway done with fixing a project. I was so quick to think that my day was bad simply because of a few issues. So let's keep it positive. Forgive and forget. Also, don't let the lost flash drives keep you down. 

PS: An Important message from your Kid President: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5yCOSHeYn4

End On a Happy Note: 
Want to see some great pictures? WARNING: Includes cute cartoons and a sassy attitude. http://9gag.com/gag/a44NpA1

Wanting To Motivate Others

This blog shall contain ideas, blender events, movies, and books that I find inspiring that may also create inspiration in you. I hope to engage someone out in the big wide somewhere with these ideas and hope that they bring these ideas to their campus. 

It has come to my attention that there is not much out there on how to motivate others. As an avid Pinterest addict (yes boo or yay to your delight) I believed that there would be more out there to create positivity but find that there is a lack of links. This is distressing to me. So here I am. I hope to somehow create positive emotions, raise esteems in others, and overall "make love not war." 

I went to a conference in Washington DC called NCSL (sorry for bragging but it was AWESOME). Naturally, at conferences you learn things. One of the big take homes for me was something called "blender events." Usually, campuses or high school clubs are focused on doing big events for the year but are surprised when they lose members. That is because there is not much to motivate those members to stay. Blender events are small things that a club or even a single person (that means you compadre) can create that will boost positive emotions or raise awareness. As mentioned before, I have found a severe lack of them on Pinterest and when I look them up on Bing (Yes, I love Bing. I think it's better than Google and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that thinks that in this universe.) it is usually geared towards teachers. Well friends, and neighbors, and strangers, I hope to find more and put those links or ideas on this blog. 

Ok, for reals-ies I will give you help now. Tom Krieglstein is a motivational (Let's see how many times I can write motivate in a blog) speaker and has created many groups such as Swift Kick and has come up with the Dance Floor Theory. Basically, he is the bomb diggity. He is also the guy that told me about blender events. These blender events are usually simple and engage others. If you were having a bad day and saw a post-it note (Click this title > Post It Note Project < for the video) on a random wall that read, "Be happier than a bird with a french fry." You may just crack a smile. Having you or a club do this does two things. 1. Makes at least one person smile. 2. Has your club involved in something. Be sure to keep it anonymous until you are asked. Having your post-its say sponsored by the blah blah club makes people automatically question the motives behind it. When asked though, the club or person has now gotten permission to explain why they want to create positivity.
Why create positivity? If you haven't noticed, our world can be depressing. I bet one of you knows at least one person who has either committed self harm, attempted suicide, or did committ suicide. I want to change that. But C Double T how do positive sticky notes or movies change that? There have been a few accounts where someone stated that just because someone smiled at them that day or hugged them or carried their books, that they changed their mind. That hurting others or themselves wasn't something they wanted to do when they witnessed such a small act of random kindness. A popular story you may have heard is Kyle's Story which is fictional. Here are some that aren't. http://www.oddee.com/item_98659.aspx. There are people like this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_nr6y601Bc who has inspired bullied youth. I believe anyone can save a life by simply being kind. Grant, some of the links I showed you involved pulling cars into traffic or tracking down a kidnapper but look at the woman who saved a stranger by simply talking to him. Or the man who organized a chain of people to save someone from drowning; just one person holding two other people's arms saved a life. Or even kind words from someone made a man trade in his gun for an x-box. Do I think that a kind word or act can save a life? Absolutely. Hopefully, I can reach out to others so they can too.

End On a Happy Note:
I will always try to end each post with something positive. Here is one of my favorite online videos, sing-a-long if you know it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzKFbUxYJys