Title

Happy 4th of July Weekend to everyone. Too bad it's over already.

Happy late bdays to Andy and Scott. I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but back in the day when my family was moving back from Taiwan, we were very close to buying a house in your little cul-de-sac (across the street from Andy's house). I wonder how different my life might be (for better or worse) if things had worked out that way.

I watched 2 movies over the weekend, Spiderman 2 at the theater, and Independence Day on TV. Both were of the "over-the-top action with lots of corniness" type of flick, but I still liked them both. Watching both these movies got me in a thinking mood for some reason. First, I know it makes me sound retarded, but I felt like I kind of identified with Peter Parker when he was losing his powers. Not that I have any super powers normally, but it does feel like recently I haven't been as sharp as I'm used to. I'm a lot more absent-minded in general, forgetful about a lot of things, and just feel like a big dumb idiot overall. I've had a bunch of near misses driving in parking lots, and one non-miss when I scratched my bumper on a concrete post pulling out of the parking garage at Olivia's condo. I'm spilling stuff on myself (even more than usual), dropping things on my feet, banging my knee into corners. Those inanimate objects will get you every time. Then, at work I'll be reading an article and go through an entire page without absorbing or understanding any of it. Or sit through a 2-hour meeting and forget what it was about, right after I leave the conference room. Also, when I played softball a couple weekends ago, I was sore for a good 4-5 days afterwards. I used to only get that sore from playing football, a sport with actual physical contact. Anyways, like I said, it's not like I have special Spidey-sense powers that I normally use to save the world, so nobody cares. But like Spiderman, I'm suddenly having problems performing at a level I'm used to, and I don't know why or how to fix myself. So it does suck from my own point of view at least.

Another thought I had while watching the movies was about "perspective". When you're seeing giant Alien warships destroying the White House, or a guy with 8 huge mechanical arms stomping around New York City, you start to lose some sense of reality and forget about your own world. Which is kind of good, and that's part of the point watching of these kinds of movies to begin with. I mean, it's just nice to escape into fantasy land for a couple hours, especially nowadays when life outside the theater has been getting uglier and more stressful. Of course, it's only temporary, but it's still cool. Don't tell me you guys weren't pretending you were Spiderman when he was swinging through buildings and stuff.

But about "perspective", I guess what I was thinking about is how a lot of times we talk about the concept like "you gotta keep things in perspective" or like when something bad happens, "it really puts things into perspective". I say those kinds of things myself a lot, but now I'm wondering, what does it all mean?

For example, when someone complains about how it sucks to wake up early to go to work, you could really get on his case about not having the right "perspective". What about the kids in Malaysian sweat shops who work 18 hour days with machines that might chop off their fingers? Ever think about them? Or you could be one of those coal miners back in the day working in deep holes all the time, breathing cancer-causing air at your job. Just be glad you're not a slave being whipped, who doesn't even get paid and has no choice about when to wake up or who to work for, like you do.

Or, when we were kids and didn't want to finish our food, our parents probably gave us similar type lectures. There's all these kids dying in Somalia and you don't appreciate every last bite of your food? That homeless guy on the street would probably give anything just to have some of your leftover crumbs. Don't forget that when we were your age, we had to share half a grain of rice between our 53 brothers and sisters for one meal a day!

Basically, with this thinking, no matter how bad you might think your life is, there is always someone who has it worse, so you have no right to complain. Don't like your car? At least you have a car! Hate your parents? At least you have parents! Think your house is too small? At least you have a house!

I think throughout the years, I have been trained with this school of thought. Maybe people around me might disagree, but I would say that I'm someone who typically doesn't complain about anything, regardless of how bad it might be. Probably burned somewhere into my subconscious mind is the image of an orphaned blind and deaf boy born with no arms or legs, who is also mentally retarded. So when anything bad happens, I can always say to myself, "at least I'm not the retarded crippled orphan kid!" and that's supposed to make me feel lucky to be where I am.

I don't know how exactly this discussion came out of watching Independence Day or Spiderman 2. Maybe it was just thinking about the part in Independence Day when everyone around the world joins together to fight the aliens, and then comparing that to the state of the world today. We have the Republicans and Democrats bickering about this and that. The Americans and the French arguing about every last issue of foreign policy. The Muslims hate the Jews, Michael Moore hates President Bush, Red Sox hate the Yankees, but no matter how big or small our disagreements are in a relative sense, wouldn't we all forget about everything if our world was being threatened with global destruction, whether it's from aliens or from a big ball of fusion?

I kind of forgot what my point of writing this was. Maybe what I was trying to say is that although a lot of the things we concern ourselves with right now would seem silly or insignificant when viewed from another "perspective", does that mean we don't have a reason to still be concerned with them? That is, just because we have a great life compared to the blind crippled orphan, or because our world is pretty good compared to how it would be if aliens took over, does that mean that nothing else really matters? Should I feel so guilty if I have a bad day once in a while (from my own perspective) and want to complain about it or feel sorry for myself for a day or two?

I guess I don't really know the answer to that question. Clearly, all of us have a lot to be thankful for, compared to the rest of the world. There are definitely situations where I have to maintain a grateful heart, despite some things not going the way I want them to. On the other hand, you can't realistically expect to go through your entire life with the constant mantra of "it could be worse". Or maybe you can?

My head is starting to hurt now from all the thinking and writing, and I have to get back to work. Before I go, I would like to suggest that we play softball again this Saturday, 2:30 at the same place (DGS). Hopefully I'll have time tonight to send out an email and most of you guys can play again.