The Rules For Being Human

[seven]

The Rules For Being Human

1. You will recieve a body. You like it, you may hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informational school called life. Each day in this school you will learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think they are irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error; expiermentaion. The "failed" expiermentations are as much part of the process as the expierments that ultimately "work".

4. A lesson is repeated until learned. It will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. ONce learned, you will then go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that dos not contain its lesson. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better than "here." When your "there" has become a "here" you will simply obtain another "there" that will gain look better than "here."

7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all this.

[cob1639]

8. What you make of your life is up to you. YOu have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. THe choice is yours.

Tell that to the little kids in the 3rd world countries with the big fat malnourished bellies and their ribs almost exposed. They DO NOT have all the tools and resources they need.

They could be dead in 6 months. Should we blame them? After all, "They had all the tools and resources they needed."

"Sorry kid, you didn't use your tools and resources wisely - that's why you starved to death"

[Trina5695]

:cool: Yeah, I agree. Life just isn't as simple as all that. Each human's situation is unique. I suppose I could agree that having the tools and resources is all a person needs... IF they are adults (or nearly), and if they do not have any sort of mental disabilities to overcome. (such as severe retardation).

[Wallis]

What if . . . .

When I was a much younger child growing up, I believed that it was so tragic that everyone born into the world did not live to an old age.

A hundred years later, when I got to be a little bit smarter, I came to realize that "age" accomplishment was insignificant.

After another hundred years, I learned a very painful lesson: all of the personal accolades and accomplishments amount to a hill of beans. All is dust.

A hundred years later, I was further enlightened by a baby who lived only a few weeks. "What a waste!" was my first thought until I realized how that short life affected so many other lives.

It is not so much as what we do in our lives but what we do for other people in their lives.

[cob1639]

Well said - and I accept that, but the babies didn't have the tools and resources to do anything in their lives. That's my only argument.

I agree with everything else on that list except for #8 (tools) and #3 (mistakes). How many times do we make stupid mistakes AFTER we learn the lesson about it? Those should be called mistakes, shouldn't they? Maybe I'm just speaking for myself. Maybe I'm the only one who does stupid crap...

[Wallis]

Maybe we could alter that saying: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

"Once burned, once learned. Twice burned, admit it: you're a hard head."

:D :D

[seven]

Those rules were from Chicken Soup for the Soul. I liked it. So I thought I'd share.

Any guidance or advice will always be relative. I think those were general rules.

I took it as a reminder not to beat yourself up over tripping and falling on your face sometimes. Just to understand why you tripped and fell and how to not do it again. Most people I see just do the same thing over and over and get frusterated for the reason it keeps happening instead of finding ways to avoid it.

Focusing on the crack that causes us to trip or the hump that we stumble over instead of just accepting that it's there and walking over it.

That's what I got from it.

[seven]

I wouldn't suggest that all lessons are that simple. I do believe that the harder the lesson, the wiser we become from having learned them and the opportunity we have for sharing with others so that the lesson might be a little easier for them.

It's always nice to have someone share a map from a path they have already walked. It's even nicer to offer one.

Of course, it's just a map... the conditions, obstacles, or blocks of the path for them might be or have been different than when we travel or traveled it ourself.

Never the less, a map is usually always helpful so that we can have some kind of direction or guidance to wherever it is we are trying to find our way to or out of.

[cob1639]

Maybe we could alter that saying: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

"Once burned, once learned. Twice burned, admit it: you're a hard head.":D :D

Am I the only one who does stupid crap once I've learned not to or am I the only one who can admit it?

Hard head? Absolutley!

Either way, situational variables can cause you to unlearn almost anything.