A Summary

I am feeling like I almost need a break so some of this settles in. I have picked a line through existential philosophy into psychology through Zen and into perception. I tried to tie it back in an easily relatable way to things you can relate to and even participate in. Participation really counts, as you may have noticed, as it really adds to what is going on. A lot more action happened in the comments than in the posts.

A weakness I have let stand and should rectify is the I-R model To make this as easy as possible, I am going to skip a lot of the thinking that precedes it, namely Transactional Analysis by Eric Berns, which is an interpretation of Freud. When a child is born, that child has potential that can be developed into almost anything. It's almost limitless. The environment we put that child into and the training we give that child contribute to what the kid becomes. This is the "I" in the I-R model, that potential that the human being possesses.

As we grow up, we are socialized by our parents. If we are scolded for doing wrong, and rewarded for doing good, we start developing an 'image' of ourself. I'm a good boy, I ate all my green beans, regardless of how they tasted. I leave the craziness of the mixed message to your imagination.

We go to school, and we get evaluated, and we get grades. We get report cards. A role, and we're being evaluated at it. We grow up, we go to work, we volunteer, and all of the other things that fill our lives. We are seen as the sum of our roles. But, as CMHL so succinctly stated, we are so much more than that. The "R" stands for roles in the I-R model. It gives us a view of how we see ourselves and how the world sees us. It's also a way of seeing how our self-esteem comes into being, and ought to be a starting place for goal setting. Just a thought.

Returning to the major theme, a nice summary might include that time is precious; we all live under uncertainty; the best we can do is to educate ourself and to try to take advantage of the best opportunities available to us; that everyone struggles, no matter who they are, or how good it appears they have it; the journey is the whole thing, and that trying is everything.

Eastern, Western, ancient Greek or Roman Philosophy the bottom line really is Know Thyself. Sounds simply, it's about as difficult to do as anything on Earth. It is an Ultimate Life Goal.

Finally, we started looking at perception. The Internet many of us the ability to communicate with each other yet to remain anonymous. When we do remain anonymous, others view us with the viewer's idealized view of us, which tends to follow national averages. Some traits about us are deducible from what we write, the majority of the traits that make us who we are, aren't discernible. We tend to focus on the content of the message we write.

That concludes the summary. I have cut out an enormous amount to keep this as simple and straightforward as I can. If I continue this, you will never believe where we go from here.

But why make the journey this far? Remember the initial challenge about writing a story about a woman and her struggles? Have you read about Pickled Olives struggles with her house, and the painting of the house? There's more to come. Have you read about Cindy's affirmations in an attempt to deal with her huge workload between school and work, and how she's going to handle it? How about Claudia's struggles with a woman on her team who screwed her around about a deadline on a class project? That never happens to anyone else, does it? I was going to describe Lee as an artist with both hands intact. Go read her story about trying to help a kid who had caught his hand in a print maker, while waiting for an ambulance. Spoon had a piece about men not understanding what happens to women. CMHL wrote a pensive..........

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What do you think, is this a worthwhile exercise for us as bloggers to see, and think about? Should I go on?