Procrastination

Procrastination. We have all participated in it. Of course, I cannot lie--I am procrastinating as I write this blog. Thus far in my school year I havn't done much school related work, yet I am at a point where I have realized that I MUST start doing work if I want to receive reasonable grades in my classes. I am reading textbooks which, though I find interesting, I do not want to read because someone else is telling me that I MUST do it. In these textbooks are materials that I find very intriguing, even so much that I might want to learn this information in my free time if it were not in such a dull, bland form. As stated earlier I was doing school work when I had the sudden urge to write a blog. This being only my third blog, it was a strange urge indeed, yet I felt it necessairy to share my thoughts on procrastination with you before I get back to reading the texts that I am required.

Why do people procrastinate? The problem being put off will usually not solve itself as time progresses, especially in the case of school work or projects that have a due date. however, some problems DO work themselves out. There are a few things that can happen to a problem if we put it off:

1. It WILL fix itself.
2. It will fix itself for a short while, then return at a very inconvenient time.
3. Nothing will happen and the problem will overrun us.

Yes, some problems will fix themselves. Unfortunately for humans, we are learning creatures, and once we have seen that a problem may fix itself, we continually wait until the very last possible second before taking action. In essence, we are so lazy that we are willing to risk a terrible consequence so that we do not have to work through a problem ourselves. There were always the occasions in school when you didnt do your homework, or study for the test and
you arrived at school feeling horrible and for some reason the teacher was absent, or the copy machine wasnt working and you were saved from the error of ways by a great stroke of luck! "From now on", you always tell yourself "From now on I will ALWAYS do my work on time!". Yet, you find yourself doing your work less, in hopes that the teacher will break her leg in a freak walkathon accident, or that there will be a heatwave in mid February and the power will be cut. The excuses that we tell ourselves get all the more ridiculous as time goes on; even when we are punished for our lack of action, the memory of that ONE SWEET ESCAPE still lingers in the back of our mind.

The movies that we watch definetly compound this problem--the main character is in a terrible fix with NOTHING to save them, that is until their friends return with an army, or the power goes out and the bomb defuses itself, or the sick child find the medicine they needed in the cabinet, or the character wins the lottery, and lives out the rest of their days in a wonderful beach house in Monaco. Unfortunately, as we know, the movies are fiction, and the wonderful
stories that we see take place onscreen, rarely occur in real life.

The second thing that can happen to a problem is that it will SEEM to fix itself, but it will return! Again, in the school analogy--when you didn't finish your homework, and your teacher wasn't there to collect it, what happened when you got home that day after school? Did you immediately jump to your desk and rush to finish it? NO! You put it off again, thinking that the teacher would be sick the next day also! Yet, your jaw dropped in dismay when you walked into
class the next day, only to find the teacher already sitting at her desk, and a neat little stack of papers in front of her that the other students had already turned in! How shameful!

One of the more prominent cases of a problem seeming to be fixed, then returning at the most inconvenient moment is the case of broken technology. Cars have many moving parts in them, and are liable to break down for the most seemingly insignificant reason! How many times has the "Check engine" light lit up, yet it was ignored for weeks, and then suddenly it dissapeared! "HAHA!" you tell yourself "I KNEW there was nothing wrong with the car afterall!". Or how many times has your computer been acting strange for a short period of time--say a week, and then the next week it is all fine like nothing ever happened! "Forgive me", you can almost hear your computer whisper in your ear, "how could I ever have been so selfish, it will NEVER happen again!" as you welcome it back to your family with open arms. You live your happy life as you always have, driving your car and using your computer, when suddenly when writing a paper your computer BREAKS DOWN AGAIN! And after you are already an hour late to class to TURN IN your paper that you had to re-write, your car decides to take a sabbatical on the side of the freeway! We are victims of our own conspiracy to defeat the undefeatable universe.

The third and most common outcome in the war against problems with our arsenal of procrastination is complete and utter defeat. However, we do deserve it. As stated earlier, we are learning creatures, and though we can learn things that are not so helpful in this thing called life, we can also learn things that will assist us in the continuous flow of problems that head our way. I do no pretend to be all knowing, and all perfect, and part of me writes these blogs so that i can help learn what i am preaching. It is easy to tell other people their problems, but when it comes to my own problems, it is much harder to see even the obvious. However, i do see that i am a master of procrastination, and hopefully i will learn my lesson sooner than later. As for now, i have to find something else with which to procrastinate my school work because there is nothing left for me to say here.

Love

What is love? According to science, love is a complex chemical reaction in our brains...but our physical bodies are based wholy upon physical stimuli--and i dont think love to be merely a physical stimulation. True, attraction is definetly a physical stimulation, but what can cause a high paid, handsome movie star to fall in love with the unattractive woman who doesnt have all the glamour, looks and riches of his peer group; or an old couple to stay together for 50 years, when all physical attractivness has gone, and only wrinkles and grey hairs remain.

Love MUST be more than something that nature has designed for humanity to help couple partners so that procreation can occur. We see that love is not necessary in all other species of animals who simply mate, then move on to their next target to mix up the gene pool a little more. It seems that love, therefore, has no function in procreation whatsoever, and therefore must have zero biological function. The 'purpose' of life, as science might put it, is self preservation and procreation, and love fits neither of these categories.

In fact, love goes against all natural instincts. Putting the needs of another above oneself goes against everything that nature has engrained in the minds of all animals. Whether it be love of a country, love of an infant, or love of a partner; love can manipulate great minds, and change the actions of sane people into those of madmen. Who in their right mind would run into a burning building to save a child? Who would move all their possessions, forgoe their surname and break all family ties to marry someone? Who would run onto a battlefield with death all around them to save people that they do not know? Of all the emotions, love is inarguably the strongest.

There are obviously different kinds of love. I love my parents differently than i will love my wife, and VERY differently than i love all my buddies that i have grown up with. It is love nonetheless, but they are seperate feelings with seperate outcomes.

I dont beleive love at first sight is possible--yes, deep physical attraction at first sight may happen all the time, and i have experienced this, yet i beleive that love takes cultivation--time being a key ingredient to love. To love a person you need to actually KNOW them, to see what makes them tick; what they like and dislike. People in our society today seem to throw around the world "love" so casually that you can love your girlfriend one day, and dump her the next because she tweaked you the wrong way. Love doesnt give up so easily--love isnt perfect, yet it still works out the kinks between two people to show that a relationship can work even in troubling circumstances.

The next time you say "I love you" to someone, whether it be your parent, significant other, or your pet, think to yourself "what would I be ultimately willing to sacrifice for them?" A thousand dollars for a surgery for your pet or waking up in the early hours of the morning to give a friend a ride to the airport may be a small payment compared to the ULTIMATE sacrifice--death. John 15:13 says "...greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Think to yourself--the friends that i TRULY love, the significant other that i REALLY do care about--would i be willing to die for them? THAT is love.