Politiks

via tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com
If Anna and Grace (foils of one another)
can work out their differences and work together,
so can we.

Ah politics . . . I had started this blog years ago to soak my feet into this foreign world (mind you I was definitely not a poli-sci major before law school like most people I know). As I progressed through law school and learned politics through the lectures of my professors and the insights of my classmates, I was rather fascinated at such prevalent topics with such polarizing sides. I loved that although every side had a compelling point of view in its own right, it was only through our own life experiences did we know exactly where we stood on certain issues. For example, I took a strong stance towards gay marriage and wrote an entry about it here (though perhaps rather not too eloquent now that I read it again) and an extensive article on the unconstitutionality of proposition 8 for my school journal two years later. Why? Because I have a great group of gay friends who I can't imagine not being able to cry at their weddings, merely because it's up to the majority of each state to decide whether or not they can or cannot consummate their love for each other. It's our life experience and upbringing that ultimately pulls us to the left or to the right on certain issues. I'm sure George Lakoff's "Moral Politics" can vouch for that (I oddly started this book before law school and never finished it . . .)

However, what has been turning me off about politics is the fact that heated arguments about certain topics have crossed boundaries and have become personal attacks on people, rather than their point of views. Example? Rush Limbaugh's "slut" comment directed at law student Sandra Fluke for her position on the contraceptives controversy. On a more microscopic level? The facebook comments I see on my my friend's statuses regarding the KONY 2012 campaign. Some defending the movement and others alleging it's a scam. This is fine because I was listening to NPR and it was refreshing to be presented with both sides of the issue - more informational and up to the listeners to decide, rather than a persuasive piece. However, back to the facebook comments, as I scrolled down discussions regarding this issue, some became heated attacks on the person - one person was calling the other person "uneducated" because he was at a community college, another person making general statements about ignorant Americans, and more people criticizing about how people are so dumb because they merely "watched" a 30 minute video and now think they're "social activists." Wow, just wow. This is so amature.

I wish politics was more about being able to present multiple sides of an issue, have people decide for themselves where they stand (after being as informed as possible of course) and stand up for those issues with an open mind of where the other person is coming from - and if they feel strongly about it, they can still present their case without having to bring the other person down. I'd say apply more of an European-like inquisitorial system, rather than an American-like adversarial system. It's like religion - just because I don't ascribe to your religion, does not make me a "lost soul." There are room for a multitude of beliefs and viewpoints and that's what makes our society so great! Sadly, we have a long way to go. . . My lesson? To be able to be passionate about certain issues and voice those opinions without losing ground by throwing dirt, the type that involves personal attacks.

Happiness Project

Sasha Pivovarova for Club Monaco 2012

"I had everything I could possibly want - yet I was failing to appreciate it.  Bogged down in petty complaints and passing crises, weary of struggling with my own nature, I too often failed to comprehend the splendor of what I had." 

"What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner." - Colette  

"How could I let go of everyday annoyances to keep a larger, more transcendent perspective?" 

"One of my goals for the happiness project was to prepare for adversity - to develop the self-discipline and the mental habits to deal with a bad thing when it happened. The time to start exercising, stop nagging . . , was when everything was going smoothly.  I didn't want to wait for a crisis to remake my life" 

"Exercise for sanity not vanity" 

"If you do it for other people, you end up wanting them to acknowledge it and to be grateful and to give you credit.  If you do it for yourself, you don't expect other people to react in a particular way."  

"I have an idea of who I wish I were, and that obscures my understanding of who I actually am" 

"You've always had this desire for legitimacy, and you'll have it forever.  It's probably why you went to law school."  

"I ignored options that, no matter how enticing they might be for other people, weren't right for me." 

"Challenge and novelty are key elements to happiness" 

"People don't notice your mistakes as much as you think" 

"One reason that challenge brings happiness is that it allows to to expand your self-definition.  You become larger. . .  Research shows that the more elements that make up your identity, the less threatening it is when any one element is threatened" 

"Between the ages of 20 and 40 we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity" - W.H. Auden 

"I was confident enough to take criticism graciously and able to respond without attack or self-justification."   

"There are times in the lives of most of us when we would have given all the world to be as we were but yesterday, though that yesterday had passed over us unappreciated and unenjoyed" - William Edward Hartpole Lecky 

"Knowing what you admire in others is a wonderful mirror into your deepest, as yet unborn, self" 

"The things that go wrong often make the best memories"

Favorite quotes from "The Happiness Project"  

"I am a part of all I have read"

via Pinterest.com

Today is the beginning of the last week of this great, relaxing break.  I have done almost everything I set out to do, except the bar prep part, which will be reserved for this last week.

I have finished The Happiness Project and Bonjour, Happiness!.  I have attempted 3 Julia Child's recipe . . . and failed 2.  I have started to read the last Shopaholic book of the series, Mini Shopaholic, and could not seem to enjoy the Becky Bloomwood I loved so much growing up - perhaps I have grown out of her . . . nonetheless I will try to finish it, although it's last on my list.  I am currently also reading Tout Sweet: Hanging up my High Heels for a New Life in France and Simple Abundance.

I knew I've been gaining weight, but it was not until I saw my wine country photos that I realized the excess chubbiness.  And so, I have decided to start on a strict detox diet program from another book, Yoga for Weight-Loss.  Today is day 1 and all I had for breakfast was hot water + lemon, and a small bowl of organic, sugar-free cereal + nonfat soy milk.  Although it's a 28 day program, my goal is to at least make it through 1 week before school starts next week.  I'm feeling a little droopy from caffeine withdrawal already.

Last week, I found an old book in my old boxes called Simple Abundance.  I bought this book back in elementary school or Jr. High at a local library's used bookstore.  It reminded me of my weekend trips to the library, attempting to read every book on each shelf.  I even had a notebook of all the books I read with ratings and reviews.  I remember befriending the old woman in the bookstore who also shared with me her log of books she had read.  I remember reading so many self-help books and accumulating all the quotes I loved and still love.  Ah, I was such an old soul. . .

via pinterest.com

I decided that I've been reading so many happiness books, I should give this particular book a try.  On the very first page I had inscribed my name in a hot pink gel pen.  I guess my signature always had a heart in it.

Upon reading the first couple pages I felt the power of these old words.  It felt even more nostalgic seeing my old highlighting of the passages that still spoke to me over 10 years later. . . I can now see that this book was really the original for all the modern books that I've been reading.  In The Project Happiness, the author talked about a play called "The Blue Bird," where 2 children spent a year searching the world for the blue bird of happiness, only to find it waiting for them when they return home.  In Simple Abundance, the author talked about a famous Victorian lecture called "Acres of Diamonds" where a farmer sold his farm to travel the world in search of a particular diamond.  He died never finding these riches, but the farmer that bought his farm, who cultivated and appreciated it for its beauties, ended up discovering a diamond mine (literally).  Reflecting on these cliche anecdotes, I too have been searching on the web and in bookstores for all these books to buy about inner happiness.  I have spent so much money and time on these books with cute covers, just to feel unsatisfied with the substance inside.  Who would have thought that the book I was hoping for, to fill that void, cost me $1 over a decade ago and was collecting dust in a box.              
   

Outliers of Success...for now

It has been months and months since my blog debuted and I have abandoned it like a stray kitten- trying to find its niche...waiting for it's life to start...Since my epiphany I am proud to say that the grueling law school application process has been complete and I am sitting back and waiting for the raw fruits of my labor to grow. I have been accepted to my safe school in LA, so from this point on, my road to law school is at least secure.

I am still figuring out how to become this woman I strive to be...this fashionable woman with ingenious rebuttals and intelligent remarks in both the superficial and intellectual spheres...I have slowly trickled my attention into the wonderful world of politics via The View (strong women with strong opinions- but often times reaches the borderline of cattiness) and quick once-overs of current political news on CNN.com (enough for me to get the gist and butt into conversations with "yea so I heard..."). I have learned that with Facebook, Tivo and constant internet surfing, I have become a simpleminded voyeur that views the things that entertain and "fast-forward" the things that bore me...and so ADD has become a destruction to my fruitful endeavor to success.

My solution? Read. Yes, boring but it will be a sedative to the hyperactive kid inside me. Reading forces you to focus and understand, which as a result- stimulates my mind and makes me...think. So I am currently reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. It attracted me because it's The Story about Success- a unique approach to how we as a society has come to view this concept and how it can be blemished. I started it yesterday while watching American Idol and have actually taken a slight affinity to Gladwell's ideas. I am a quarter through the book and will discuss in further details when I am complete.

With work being such a bore, I have more time to stop reading other people's blogs and go back to blogging myself!