... whoa.

Well, it's been a little over two months since my last post.  Oops.  To the two of you who faithfully(?) read, my apologies.

I have good reason for not posting.  No, wait, no I don't.

Anyway, I've graduated college.  What's that mean?  Well, currently it means I possess (and by possess I mean will possess once it arrives in the mail) two BA degrees and no job.  Woohoo!!  I've applied to eight jobs as of now, but haven't heard anything back.  Oh well.  I'm not getting [too] down about it.  Something will turn out eventually.  Right?

But, what's really got me thinking tonight (and by making it sound like it's one solitary thing I'm thinking about, I'm hoping to fool you, as well as myself, into believing that it actually is only one thing) is how the mind works.  Well, actually, more about people's minds in general.  (Yeah, I Tweeted this the other day: "It amazes me how the [[my]] mind works sometimes" but that was purely coincidental actually.)

Back to the point though.  I like to think of myself as possessing a relatively openly closed mind.  Whoa, what?  I think everyone's individual mind is relatively closed.  I mean, each person has their set beliefs (be it religious, political, or any other beliefs) that they follow.  When it comes to those set/core beliefs, many will not change them without a lot of proof and convincing.  For example, the belief that Christians hold about Jesus Christ being the one and only Messiah.  That is something that is the core of their belief system, therefore it's a difficult task to convince a dedicated/devout Christian otherwise.  Therefore, when it comes to that, their mind is "closed."  But, does that mean that person can't be open to the idea that others possess different (and *gasp* sometimes conflicting) beliefs?  No, that's where the open mind comes into play.  Yes, a  Christian is supposed to spread their Good News to all the Nations, meaning they're supposed to tell others about their beliefs and try and get them to believe it too.  Some are accepting of this and others aren't.  A Christian with an openly closed mind will see this person not accepting their beliefs and say, "hey, that's what I believe and I wish you would to, but I'm not going to force it.  What is it that you believe, I'd be interested to hear!" (Hopefully said in a much less corny way, that is.)

[[I'm hoping/assuming this makes sense so far.  And sorry for using the Christianity example so much; it's just one I know the most about.  It's really only there for example's sake, I swear.]]

All right, so, onward to my point.  Why is it so difficult to have an openly closed mind?  Why do people think everything has to be one way for everyone: their way.  Everyone doesn't possess the same beliefs as you, so don't put others down because of it.  Accept the fact that everyone is different.  No matter what people may say, there is a such thing as an individual, and each one of us is one.  Yeah, we all have loads of things in common, but not everything.  I honestly try to live each day evaluating my life according to certain beliefs (if I were to give myself a grade right now though, I'd definitely be failing, but that's beside the point), and when I come across someone who differs from me, I don't automatically shut them out or judge them, I try and think that they are doing the same thing as me; they're accepting me too.  And all of this is done within a fraction of a second for most encounters.  Walking down the street, if I see two guys holding hands I don't think, "OMG, gays!!", instead I think of them as people, just like me.  When I see someone dressed in something other than the "normal" attire of the day, I don't think, "whoa, look at the freak!", instead I think about how I would love to just sit down with them over a cup of coffee (and by coffee, I definitely don't mean coffee, gross) and talk about who they are.  And who they are is not gay.  Nor is it defined by what they wear.  Who they are is what's on the inside and out and in their heart and mind and body.  And I want to know that.  Yeah, I don't actually sit down with every single person I see (though, how cool would that be?), but I just wish others would have this thought process instead of shutting out or judging because they don't agree.

Now, about the rest of the stuff in my mind...