Well, who doesn’t? I’m not being cynical, I wanted to remind myself and you something important. Everyone has problems, very different problems to you quite likely, depending on many different things. Sometimes we look at the problems of others and say to ourselves ‘far out, is this what you consider a problem?!? Look what I’m going through?!’ Yes, it does make us feel better judging others for a moment. Then it’s also wise to realise that if they were too look at our problems, from their perspective, they would probably say exactly the same back to us ‘These are problems? Get over it!’

It’s a human nature that after we go through a certain steps of development and we learned a lesson or more which others might still struggle with that when we look back we judge them a little. Or we forget that we used to be kids and teenagers and had exactly the same issues with first love, perception of others, problems at school, not liking ourselves in the mirror and so on.

I’m writing about it because I had a dream last night that I’d like to share with you.

I was sitting on a train talking to someone. It was a longer ride so I got comfortable and we chat. I don’t remember who the person was or whether it was male or female. Suddenly, in one of the stops man got in that looked almost like a homeless person. Not groomed, poorly dressed, a bit dirty. The reasons walked right behind him – he had 4 daughters, carrying couple of them along with a bag and prams and toys and all the other parenting things. All four of them were very lively and very cute so they were running through the train and had a great time making friends and discovering what they can climb on, run and jump through, under or over. Their father was exhausted.

Then a song that I really like came on and I wanted to hear it playing louder so being an IT guy (I guess that’s a given in a dream) I increased the volume. Because of a control lag I made it too loud but the kids loved it and started dancing so I made it just a bit quitter for everyone’s comfort and looked at the father who’s look signalled very many things like ‘thank you for entertaining them’, ‘I’m exhausted’, ‘You have no idea of the things that I do’, ‘Can I sleep now?’…

In a few stops they got out, I helped them with his things as he couldn’t carry them all at once. It was a lovely addition to the ride but we were all glad they were gone as we could hear ourselves again, talk and just enjoy the ride.

 

Greek philosophers thought that if everyone’s problems were put on a giant pile, we would come, looked at all of them but still take our own back. There’s a Christian version of it which is represented by the picture above, that everyone has their own cross to carry, their own problems to deal with.

Don’t compare yourself with others and don’t judge them, your problems might seem very trivial to them.

“Be grateful for what you have and you’ll get more to be grateful for.”

JF Demartini

This might sound very complicated but trust me, by the end it won’t be.

It has been raining without stopping past couple of days in Brisbane. When it rains, I don’t like to ride my bike so I took my car instead and went to a morning yoga session. It’s a bit gloomy so I turned on my lights and begin my drive. While approaching the first junction, I stopped behind a car and realised that the closer I got, the more my headlight’s reflection spread and got clearer on the bumper’s car in front of me. This made me realise that distance makes you think of things differently, because you see them clearly when close and merged when distant. Let me illustrate.

I don’t know personally Elon Musk but I do admire him for his inventions, business mind and release of all Tesla patents among others. I think he’s a cool guy. But I’m absolutely certain that the closer I’d get to him, the more I’d find out about him and his other side that every one of us have. The one we don’t display in public. The one we protect. We might seem to others as generous, positive, smiling but those who knows us best (siblings, parents, partners…) know better. They know us as we are. Really are. With our “flaws” and “virtues”.

Time creates similar illusion. That’s why no one has written anything else on others tombstone other than “here lies a good person” which we know statistically is not true. Otherwise there’d be no prison, abused women and children, murders and so on.

Jesus falls into a similar category of time illusions. He could’ve been a weed smoking hippy guy that read too much and hang out with some smart people in his early 20ties, and later started his own little cult. Nothing wrong with it, he was probably cool but his life and legacy got bit distorted, thanks to time and distance. That’s the magic. Now he is flawless, more god than human that walks on water and probably doesn’t even poop because that isn’t very god-like.

Our mind plays trick with us and selectively chooses memories that serve our agenda or feelings so it can fuel them. I’m sure you remember the person you got pissed off at recently because they did something “wrong” or something you perceived as not too “good”. Yes, your mind chooses and prefers those memories but then when you think about it, it was perhaps only one memory and you forgot that they displayed exactly the opposite trait or behaviour as well! How can I be so certain? Because we all have all the traits, whether we like to admit it or not in our own unique form.

Have a look at the video below that talks about a Russian teacher, a Messiah that is here to save us. Or the chosen ones (his followers).

 

 

Funny things is that the guy shows up there for about an hour, says something and off he goes again for another year. Only people who are very close to him and spend 24/7 with him, know him as he is. I used to have a similar teacher that I admired but I also had the opportunity to be with him for over two weeks when travelling in Israel and my illusions were shattered. Even though he taught about not being attached to things, not using the internet, or eat sugar, he did it himself regularly.

Is there someone you admire? What do you think would happen if you have them on camera 24/7? Leave me a comment below.