June 27, 2007

• Programmed standardized responses and the sun

  I have decided that it is time to address the issue of socially programmed standardized responses.  For instance, “How are you doing?” has become a standardized greeting rather than an actual question.  When someone poses that statement they don’t mean it as an inquiry, but rather as something akin to “hello.”  The response they expect is usually “good” or some other synonym for it.  Most of the time they don’t really care how you are actually doing and certainly don’t want to hear it.  In middle school when people would ask me that, I would take them literally and tell them how I was really doing.  Responses would vary depending on the person.  When I got older I sort of fell into the groove and gave them the answer they wanted to hear regardless of whether or not it was true.  Not because I intended to lie to them, but simply because the same form of social programming which altered their minds succeeded in altering mine, and because I seldom gave ritualized greetings anything more than 50% of my attention.  I began to answer them as one who is not paying attention might answer a child, positively without any kind of awareness as to the nature of the inquiry.  For example, “is it OK if I go to my friends house instead of practicing my instrument?”  Response: “Ya (not paying attention).”  Since I disapprove of improper language usage I now only tell people “good” if things are going good.  Of course it is all relative, compared to a starving peasant in Ethiopia my worst day is probably better than their best.  At any rate, I have found that for less than ideal circumstances “so-so” and in more extreme circumstances “not so good,” will suffice as responses without incurring too much irritation from the “inquisitor.”

  Another issue I struggle with is the “yum yum fun sunny day,” which is simply  how they refer to non-overcast daylight condition, or a bare sky, on that terrible old show “Barny and Friends” (which I always referred to as Barfy and Friends or Spewball and Chunks).  The first Job I ever worked was in Plano Texas, during the summer when it remained 100+ F all day.  I think I was 17 years old, maybe 16, can’t remember for sure, but I was a bagger at a grocery store.  My duties also involved pusing the carts out to the customers cars, and collecting any other carts that might be out there and returning them.  The sky was barren for almost the entire summer, the only time we had anything resembling any kind of cloud cover was when the smoke from the forest fires in Mexico partially obscured the sun.  It was so hot and so bright and so dry that when I walked out of the store into the heat I felt like I was going to pass out.  My skin was burning, and I sweat so much that my body was lubricated far beyond the point of feeling sticky.  I felt like I was swimming in oil.  It was the most miserable job I have ever done.  One thing I noticed, was that many of the people I helped would say, “Isn’t it a beautiful day today,” or “It’s a beautiful day today.”  I realized subconsciously that this was a form of ritualized greeting so I instinctively reciprocated with the appropriate ritualized response, initially.  Of course I absolutely loathed and hated the weather.  My skin hurt, my eyes hurt, they throbbed, and my head began to hurt as well.  My energy was drained from me by the sun.  Looking up was painful, and the light was so abundant that looking at a white car (with sunglasses on), hurt nearly as much as looking up at the sun.  It was like a huge portion of the sky was on fire.  I absolutely hated it, and if any of those people had thought about it a bit, surely they wouldn’t have made such a statement to me.  After all, the soaking wet shirt clinging darkly to my chest and back should have constituted blatant evidence of my discomfort.  After a while when I was greeted with those kinds of statements I would tell people, concerning the weather, that, “it isn’t what I prefer,” “it’s too hot,” or “I don’t like this kind of weather.”  Some people would agree with me, because in their case, they were merely participating in a socially programmed ritualized greeting, which did not reflect their true feelings, whereas others would simply fall silent.

  I think that in some cases when people say those sort of things they are participating in a ritualized greeting, whereas others are in fact convinced that a yum yum fun sunny day is something desireable and ideal.  I believe that the majority of people who think they prefer the yum yum fun sunny day are programmed by society to think that it’s good, and their feelings are not based on original thought or sentiment.  How did this even get started?  I don’t know for sure, but my theory is that it ties back to Europe.  Most of the people in the US today have their family origins in Europe, and in fact for this reason the US fits beneath the umbrella of “western culture.”  Most of Europe gets a great deal of rain, and too much rain can create complications.  Wet soggy muddy soil can be difficult to build in, and it can also be difficult to plant and grow crops in.  So a yum yum fun sunny day from time to time might actually be a good thing, because the excess moisture can evaporate, and Queen Victoria can go out and play croquette without getting her skirt muddy.  Also, a yum yum fun sunny day might be the harbinger of the end of a long winter, finally the snow can melt, and we can all stop wearing these darned animal skins.  It is however, absolutely silly to wish for yum yum fun sunny days all the time, like so many people do.

  Back when I was at ORU there was this really whimsical girl that sat at our table and started going on about how much she hated the rain.  My friend mindflenzing simply informed her of the water cycle and it’s importance, and reminded her that living things need water.  She was rather surprised and said, “you’re right, I never thought of that before.”  I wonder if she ever thought about anything before?  But I digress.  I want to give my position on the yum yum fun sunny day.  First of all, the yum yum fun sunny day, I absolutely hate.  Even during the winter I do not welcome sunny days, because the sunlight still hurts my eyes, even with sunglasses on and looking at the ground.  It is simply too much, and it’s not natural.  It was not part of God’s original plan for us to have to endure weather like that.  He created the Earth with the water canopy to block out a lot of the negative rays of the sun, which was why the plants, animals, and people grew to be much larger back then.  I am not saying that it has to rain all the time, but I at least prefer for it to be overcast.  I also find it ironic, how most of these people who say that the yum yum fun sunny day is “beautiful” also spend most of the time when they are outside, in the shade, squint their eyes and/or wear sunglasses, and run airconditioners in their homes.  Some of them even complain about it being hot.  Hello?  Can’t have it both ways. 

  So if this kind of weather is so good, so natural, and so beautiful, then I encourage all people who hold those beliefs to go outside, open their eyes wide, and look up into the sun.  If it’s enjoyable, then enjoy it to the fullest.  Drink it in.  Also, switch off the air conditioner and let your house be hot.  That’s what the sun does, it heats things up, enjoy the heat.  Now if these things are not enjoyable, and the average person finds their comfortable temperature range to be 65-75 F, then chances are this is the natural temperature range under which we were supposed to exist.  Just something to think about.  Also, before I go, melenoma is real, and anyone can get it.  Once you get it then you can have it forever, even if you begin to avoid the sun afterwards.   I know someone who used to tan a lot, and now, years later, she has to sporadically return to the doctor to have parts of her skin removed due to recurring melenoma. 

  • 3:52 pm
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