v2.7 - What Happens Next?

Good morning friends!

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It is officially Thursday by the Gregorian Calendar and one more day from Friday. Today''s musing is brought to you today by an XL Double Double from Tim Horton''s and guess what? I GOT IT FREE!!!

That''s right folks, 1 in 9 sitting right here getting ready to deliver the Musing over Coffee.

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Musings are much more enjoyable to write when the fuel by which it is delivered was free :)

{slurp} Oh yeah

On my way to work this morning I was listening to a song entitled ''Everybody''. They lyrics for this song are actually quite good despite the music. There is one verse in the song that goes:

Doesn''t anybody hate it when the street light.. turns red?
Doesn''t anybody want five more minutes in bed ?
Doesn''t anybody, doesnt anybody have a letter to send ?
Doesn''t anybody wish to have just one more friend ?

Of course, the entire song has lines like this in it, but these few really send a message out.

No, I''m not going to talk in depth about people''s wants and needs, but I do want to talk today about conformity.

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Conformity is defined as an action or behavior in correspondence with socially accepted standards, conventions, rules, or laws.

I have a friend here at work who is always talking about convention and what it means to be socially accepted. I have also heard a few theories around the office when we get into these little discussions. The bottom line is we work our entire lives to become socially accepted and conform to the rules and regulations that guide us.
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Rules are not a bad thing to have. However, sometimes I feel there are SO many rules out there that people have forgotten what it means to live. We are constantly being told every single day how to live and how to react to certain situations. If the street light turns red, we know to stop our vehicles and wait. These are traffic laws that must be abided every single day. The speed limit sign says 50KM/h so we drive 50ish.

What typically happens when we step outside of these rules and regulations that govern us? Well, in the above example, if you are caught you will get a fine from the police. Here we have people who have made people rules and are having them enforced by other people. Bottom line, we are all the same. I heard a funny quote in a cartoon not long ago (Finding Nemo I think). One of the characters was telling another how everyone is special. The other character responded by stating that is another way of saying nobody is special. I sat and pondered that for nearly an entire day when I first heard it.

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So what makes me more special than you? Well, I''m not. We are both Homo Sapiens (sorta) and we both are alive. Everyone has different experiences in their lives which ultimatly determines the kind of person they are. Of course a lot of our behaviour patterns can be blamed on genetics, ultimatly it is YOUR decision on how you act and react to situations.

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Getting back to the subject again. Because we are all unique (not special), we tend to feel special in some way. The world has developed a set of rules and guidelines by which we need to follow. If you step outside of those rules you will be punished. Let me put it this way:

We''ll start off by stating that there has NEVER been an incident of stealing EVER in the world. As far as stealing goes, it is just a word in the dictionary and probably refrences baseball or something. Ok, so we now have a world without stealing. As a result of this, there are no rules or laws about stealing. Why you ask? Simple. All our rules and regulations were created because of some event in time. Someone was murdered, therefore we made rules that state it is wrong to kill. Someone was driving their car to fast so we made speed limits and enforced fines when those limits were exceeded. For every single law out there, there is a reason behind it.

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So back to our example. World without stealing. Someone decides to walk into a store and ''take'' something without paying. This person doesn''t know there is anything wrong in doing this because it has never happened before. The store clerk sees the person and says he can''t take that without paying. A fight begins and the police show up. What happens next?

Exercise: Write a paragraph (or 2 or 3) about what happens next to the above story. Email it to me at ralic -at- shaw.ca with the subject line "What happens next". I will pick the best story and post it in my Monday Musing along with the top 3 runner ups. I''ll give you the weekend to think it over :)

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So anyone have any big plans for the weekend? This weekend my family and I will be heading over to my Sister''s place to celebrate her 27th birthday. Should be a good time :)

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Well gang, sorry for the short musing today but my boss has requested I take a look at some things for a meeting this afternoon. I want to get an early start on it so I''m prepared. Stay tuned for tomorrow''s Musing and don''t forget to send in your "What Happens Next" write ups :)

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Cheers,

Al