Nectar or Carrion?

        This may seem like an extremely weird title, which it is. But I hope I can make sense of it. The other day I heard an analogy about how vultures eat rotten dead things and hummingbirds eat sweet nectar. So which one do you want to be and which one are you? Do you go around looking for the "sweet" things in life or the "dead" things? This got me thinking. While the analogy makes it's point I wondered if it could be expanded upon. So I I started researching a bit on both of these birds to find differences and special characteristics. If you think about it they are complete opposites. But let's say you compare each of these birds to a different mindset. The hummingbird in this case would be optimism, looking for the sweeter things. The vulture would represent negativity or pessimism. Now think about this. Think about how hard a hummingbird works. You can't even see his wings when they flap. Their heart rates can be up to 120 beats per minute and their wing beats can be up to 20 times a second or more. The hummingbird works so hard to do what he does. Some migrate all the way from Alaska to Mexico. That's pretty amazing if you think about this tiny little bird going that incredible distance. These birds have such a high metabolism that they must eat 5-8 times per hour to survive. They work so hard, yet they can accomplish an almost unimaginably long flight for their size. Now think about the vulture. Think about how you can see vultures gliding through the air. You can watch them for ages and you won't see them move their wings even a tiny bit. They go around looking for dead animals and such. That's how they survive. They can go long periods of time without eating because it takes them almost no effort to fly. They also have amazing eyesight. They are able to see things from distances that would be almost impossible to see with the human eye. These birds live a pretty boring life as well, they stay around the same area for most of their lives. They have no large migrations unlike the hummingbird. So what am I saying? The hummingbird try's his hardest to find the good things in life, even though it may be hard. But in the end he can accomplish so much. While the vulture doesn't even have to put much of an effort into finding the bad things. He can spot things and make them bad in his mind that others would not even think of as being bad. As you've probably realized I'm not talking about the birds anymore. I'm talking about two different types of people. The people who when they work hard and are optimistic, they can accomplish something great. And the people who are negative just because they can be, can do it with ease. They can make a good thing a bad thing with just solely their negativity. But in the end they will accomplish nothing. They will be a person who went through life without putting any hard work in and just being content with living on the dead things. So which one are you? The HummingBird or the Vulture? And which one do you want to be?

"The American Sense of Joy"

Like most of these little groupings of my scrambled thoughts they all seem to originate around this time of the night. When the house is silent, the lights are out and I'm still awake somehow, just laying here in bed deep within my thoughts. For some reason this happens more often than one might assume but on those special nights when my mind is running wild and has most likely been doing the same all day. It just seems like a good idea to write it all down. Not caring who might see it or how embarrassing some things I might write during my late night drowsiness could be. I write.  And all day I've been kinda focused on one thing within my thought process. That thought being, "Am I weird for thinking this way?" Not about how I actually think. But about my thoughts on my "American Dream" I know this might be a quite odd topic for someone my age to be really thinking hard about but for me it just seems like it deserves some thought. I was thinking about what most people's perception of this dream may be. I observed what most people really wanted out of their lives. What they were going to strive their hardest to achieve in their short time here on this planet. So after realizing what most peoples ideal dreams were I started thinking about mine. Now granted all of these people I observed were around my age. But as I observed I realized how dramatically different mine was from theirs. Most people my age are looking leave their hometowns as soon as they graduate go off to college and never come back. Then strive to be wealthy. I mean if you think back through history this really is the common dream between a lot of age groups. This since of manifest destiny to become wealthy and live an easy life. As I  reflected on this I realized that my dream in many ways was dramatically different. I understand the moving away and going off to some college when you are ready for it. But where the differences lie is after that. I wouldn't mind moving back to my home town. Getting a job here or making a job for myself for that matter. That might seem quite odd to others my age. Why the heck would I want to live in a small town for the rest of my life? Well I'm not entirely sure really. But I know that since I was even small I've always thought that wealth was not the peak or the apex of life. This title was held by something different. This is where I look to the authorities in my life. I look at how they have built a family. The way they look at my little sister and me their eyes filled with happieness. I don't understand it but I would love to have that feeling. They are happy. Just plain and simple and that to me is "The American Dream" this sense of connectivity to others, the steadiness of life. Being stable and enjoying the little things. You may not have the most money or the best house but if you enjoy every second of your day to day just relishing in the fact that you are alive and how amazing the people that you've surrounded yourself with are. And also realize how fascinating this world can be. That is happiness. Forever enjoying being alive. That to me is the apex of life. Not wealth or a big house. But happiness. Not just the usual being slighty pleased happiness. Some call this fascination with our lives joy. The sense of stableness and fufillment. I don't know. These are the things that run through my head sometimes. I would love to hear some other opinions on the topic. Remember to look for something to be happy about daily. Something to be Joyful about. And remember to do something today to make the world more awesome, even if it's just a little tiny bit. It all counts.

-Willis

P.S. Go support the band "Loraine" I listened to them the whole time I was writing this and I really enjoy their music. They reached out to me a years ago and asked for me to give them a listen. I was hooked right away and still listen to them today. Just great thinking music. And this is their awesome album cover that has been my background in my phone off and on for a while now. You can listen to their EP for free at  loraine.bandcamp.com