How could it be?

Have you ever heard of brainstorming?  Do you know what that is?  For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, brainstorming is a process of thinking of all kinds of ideas.  The best way for a brainstorming session to be conducted is to have a group of people, maybe 6 to 10 people or so.  You agree in advance that all ideas will be considered relevant, nothing is stupid (no matter how stupid it really is!), in other words, nobody will be teased or belittled for any idea that they throw out, even if it is rather senseless.  Set a time for the brainstorming session, let’s say 10 minutes, or 20 minutes.  Set a topic.  Let’s say that you are going to have a brainstorming session trying to come up with a new product for your company to start making.  Then, everybody just throws out every idea that comes into their head.  You don’t come up with an idea then think it over, consider how good or bad it might be, you just blurt it out when it comes into your mind.  The leader of the brainstorming session writes the idea down, and then other people blurt out their ideas.  When the brainstorming session is over (at the agreed time deadline), then the group considers the merit of each idea.  The interesting thing that happens is that none of the ideas may be found to have merit, but maybe combinations of multiple ideas, or slight variations of ideas might be found to be perfect!

I remember when I was a kid, my Dad worked in the paper industry.  He was an engineer, and later moved into management in the industry, and he was quite successful.  I vividly remember my Dad had a joke that was a picture drawn on a piece of paper, it was a design for a new toilet paper recycling machine.  Actually, it was obviously a joke, because the way it was designed, you would re-use toilet paper that had already been used, with no cleaning or processing or anything.  Obviously, if this were a serious idea, it was a stupid idea, but perhaps if the right person saw it, they may have come up with a real workable idea based on the joke, who knows?

Anyway, the thing is that as we think, or come up with ideas for things we should do or try, many of the ideas we come up with are stupid, or unworkable.  There is nothing wrong with that, it is just part of the process of coming up with good ideas that will make us money or improve our lives in some way.  Perhaps our good idea will improve society, or help other people.  But, we would not be able to come up with good ideas if we did not go through a certain number of stupid or bad ideas in the process.

Perhaps the most valuable asset one could have is the ability to filter through the stupid ideas and discard them, while saving and refining the good ideas that are in the mix!

In my own life, when I come up with a new idea, I often think that it is a good idea, something valuable that will improve my life in some way.  Then I start thinking it over, and I often feel after a day or so that the idea is not workable, it turns out it was just a stupid idea.  The good thing, though, is that as I think about the idea, sometimes that thought that comes from the stupid idea spawns new good ideas that I never would have even considered if not for my pondering about the idea that was actually stupid!

So, stupid ideas are not a waste of your time.  They are a breeding ground for good ideas, and are actually a necessary step that you must go through in the thinking process.  We all get stupid ideas.  The key is in being able to recognize that it is just another stupid idea, and to discard it before you invest too much time or money in it.  And, also, being able to use that stupid idea to spawn other ideas which are actually quite good!

Not only is it just nice to see these normal levels of blood sugar, I also feel a lot better.  The good feeling is both physical and also mental as well.  When your glucose is out of control, you tend to be moody, get angry easily, etc. and I am glad to not have that problem anymore.  Who likes being angry?  I sure don’t.

Another major problem if you let your diabetes go uncontrolled is that you get a lot of infections, because your immune system has it’s guard down when your diabetes is out of control.  Even just a minor cut or scrape can easily turn into a serious infection, and that is certainly not good.  When my diabetes is out of control, I am very prone toward these kind of infections.

Anyway, I am feeling good.  I eat less than I used to and I enjoy life more.  I hope that I can continue to control this terrible disease.  I know that I will keep trying my best.

Because of this conversation, I decided to share a little bit about my relationship with my dad, and how it affected me.

When I was a child, my dad had a job that required that he travel a lot.  He mostly traveled in the US, but he took trips all over the world too.  He was on the road about 250 days per year, probably 50 of those days outside the country.  So, as you can see, we did not see him too much.  My Dad was a very highly successful man.  He got his College degree in Chemical Engineering, and immediately went to work for a major paper company.   He remained with this company until the day they were bought out by another company, at which time he worked for that company until he took early retirement.  When he retired, he was a Senior Vice President of one of the biggest paper companies in the USA.  After retiring, he went back to work, as an executive of a paper company in Canada.  So, as you can see, he was a very busy and successful man.

During my childhood, and into my adulthood, my father had a hobby that he would do on weekends, or anytime he was home from the road.  He enjoyed working with his hands – woodworking, building things, mechanical work, all that kind of stuff.  He was good at it too.  My memory from when I was a little boy was that my Dad was rarely home.  When he was home, he would be in the workshop.  If I would go to the workshop and sit there looking at him, and wanting to talk to him, he would ignore me.  Sometimes he didn’t ignore me – he would tell me to leave him alone.  By the time I was about 20, my dad was so successful in his work that he and my Mom had a 10 acre ranch.  Their house was 4,500 square feet, custom built to their specs.  It was their dream house.  My Dad had a separate building for his workshop, which was 2,500 square feet in itself.  He basically had any kind of tool ever made.  You need a screwdriver?  He had hundreds of them, all hanging on the pegboard walls, laid out in the exact order that he wanted.  But, I was not to touch them – those were not for me.  Even in my 20′s, I was not included in such things.  My younger brother, on the other hand, was my Dad’s work buddy.  My Dad taught him everything when it came to handy work.  If my brother needed a tool – hey, no problem!  Ah, he didn’t even have to return the tool, my Dad could just buy a new one.

This really hurt me, even though I didn’t fully realize it.

Shortly after Feyma and I got married, we had some kind of job that needed to be done at home – some kind of repair, I don’t remember what it was, nor is it important.  Feyma asked me to fix it.  Honestly, I broke down into tears.  Feyma asked me what was wrong.  I told her “I don’t know how to fix that, because my Dad never taught me how.”  At that moment, all of the feelings that had been welled up inside me came rushing out.  I talked to my Dad about it, he said he was going to teach me that stuff.  It never happened, though.  My Dad died about 2 years later (at age 55), and he had never done anything about it.

I had not thought about this in detail until now.  Of course, I did at that time, but this is the first time since then that it entered my mind.  As I sit here typing this, I am choked up.  I mean, teaching your boy how to use tools, how to fix a car, how to cut wood and such – that is something a father does.  For me, if I went to his workshop during my childhood, I was made to feel that I was bothering him, or in his way, even though I had not seen him for days or weeks, and just wanted to have some time with my Dad.  It never happened though.

The thing is, being smart is not necessarily always a good thing.  There are times when being dumb, or at least pretending to be dumb is the smart way to go.  If you are smart, people have very high expectations of you.  Even if you can meet the expectations, doing so can sometimes only be done be exerting effort that maybe you don’t care to use at that time.

For example, I do a lot of work with computers.  I can usually do just about anything I want or need to do with a computer.  Frankly, though, I really don’t know how to do most things on a computer – I just figure it out by trial and error if it is my first time to try something new.  I have to play with it for a few minutes, but it’s rare that I can’t get it doing what I want, if you know what I mean.  Now, when other people see that I can do this or that with a computer, I am like a magnet.  They are constantly coming to me wanting me to do things for them, fixing something on their computer.  I live in the Philippines, and my Mom lives in the United States.  Sometimes she will call me on the telephone and say “my computer is not working right, can you fix it?”  “Over the phone,” I say?  Of course, that is what she expects.  I can’t even see her computer over the phone, yet she things I can fix it!  Now, I am not talking bad about my Mom, I love her dearly, I am only trying to give an example of the kind of things that happen when people know that you are intelligent.

I have a friend who used to live here in the Philippines near me.  He is also a very intelligent person.  His IQ, in fact, is a bit higher than mine.  He and I talked many times about what a burden it is to be smart.  Gene, in fact, told me that in his life, there have been times when he moved to a new area that he lived an act, playing “Bubba” – a not so intelligent guy, just to avoid the burdens of intelligence.

You may read this and think I am crazy.  But, if you are an intelligent person, I think that you know what I am talking about and have experienced this in your life too.  If so, leave a comment and tell me about your experiences.

Part of reviving the site is that I gave the site a new look to start off the new year, 2009.  I also changed some of the categories of things that I will be writing about.  One of the categories that I will be focusing on is Mental Health.  Why?  Am I crazy?  Well, I think that all of us have mental issues, and that does not necessarily mean that we are crazy.  It is a matter of using the proper exercises to keep our mental attitude good, and keep our minds clear.

Part of maintaining a proper mental attitude, for me, is writing.  It gives me an opportunity to think about things, and by writing those things down, it gives me an outlet to clear my head.  Making yourself mentally healthy is an important part of being all around healthy in life, so it is something that I want to focus on in my life.

In addition to Mental Health, I will be writing about my General Health, Diabetes and Weight.  Of course, each of these issues has subcategories, logically.  For example, under the Weight category, it can include exercise and diet, because each of these help me maintain a more appropriate weight.  Under Diabetes, it can include many factors that affect a person with Diabetes.  So, these are broad categories, no doubt.

Anyway, what I am saying is that, yes, I will be including Mental Health in my topics now.  I’m not crazy, and I hope that by thinking more about Mental Health, I can keep myself from going crazy!

If you’d like to listen to a sample of Self Talk, go here and click the play button.

One thing that I was thinking was that I am feeling good, and feeling happier lately than I used to. Several months ago, and for the past few years, I was usually not in a good mood. I would be upset about something or another. A lot times, I didn’t know why I was upset, I just was. I am sure that my mood made it hard for others to get along with me. Now, though, my “normal” mood is happiness. Sure, there are times that I am upset or in a “down” mood. The difference is that it does not happen very often now, and also that if I am down or angry, I know why now. It takes something out of the ordinary to make me moody now.

Why?

Here are a few answers that I thought of, I don’t know which are valid, but I think that all of them play a role in my happiness.

1. In the past few months I have overcome several serious issues that had bothered my psychologically for years. I feel that I have released a burden by dealing with these issues.

2. I have started a regular exercise program. I have learned that when you exercise, that releases endorphins, and endorphins released into your body lead to happiness, more energy, etc. I do know that I feel good when I exercise, and when I exercise it makes me want to keep up with more exercise. I believe that the whole theory about endorphins is a reality.

3. I have lost weight in the past few months. Of course, this makes a person happy.

4. I believe that one of the most important factors in my happiness is that I have taken control of my diabetes. I was first diagnosed with diabetes (type II) about 10 years ago. With the exception of a few short periods, I have let my diabetes go uncontrolled for that 10 years. In the past 3+ months I have taken control of the diabetes with great vigor. I have been delighted with the results I have achieved. I think that this has helped my outlook in two ways. First, it makes me feel good that I know that I have gotten my disease under control. Second, I believe that the control has made me healthier, and getting my system “cleaned out” to where it should be, the “chemical reaction” inside my body is better balanced, and that is making me feel better. I don’t have any scientific evidence for this, but I do know that being healthier is just a good thing all around.

Whatever the reason, I know that having a more positive outlook, and feeling physically better is a great thing. Try it!