Some time ago--around the time Construx Nunchux was born, in fact--Paul wrote this: (<----CLICK!)

Since then, two and a half years have elapsed, or collapsed, and time has done laps around us while we lap up laughs.  A lot has happened that's never even made it into this blog; hurdles and distractions, obstacles and promises.  Instead of losing interest in the site, we've only persisted and grown consistently.

Of the content that has made it in, and of what this blog has inspired, very little gets noticed.  I used to get discontented by that fact ("Lobster Lobby only got thirteen hits today?!?!"), but I often console myself with the knowledge that this site is primarily for our future selves, maybe even our present selves.

If you've stayed with me so far, I'm just getting started, so hang on.  Gotta go pee or grab a sandwich?  Do it now.

Recent events (those hurdles and so forth...) have manipulated my thinking and allowed me to fall into a constant cycle of disapproval and nearly psychotic vindictiveness.  I wanted to take today's blog opportunity to belatedly respond to Paul's initial inspirational post with some thoughts on lessons we all should have been learning all along.  In a sense, I want to say, I'm aiming at getting back to where we belong, but in truth, it's somewhere we've never really been.

As with every post we create, this is pretty much for us, but if you stay with me, and happen to take something home from this, something you can stuff in your pocket and forget about for a while then pull out unwittingly while searching for a napkin or your keys, and be all excited that you found it like when you find a ten dollar bill while searching in your pockets for your keys or a napkin or something because you had stuffed that ten dollar bill in your pocket without realizing it, like maybe you were drunk or something, or like when you find $300 in a Travel Scrabble box and you yip with surprise because you had forgotten that you were putting your tips in there for a while and had apparently made so much money that an amount as significant as three hundo could slip by, unnoticed, sorta like our blog posts, until one day where you recall vaguely that you had some amount of money and needed it to impress a girl you just met who would go on to rearrange your furniture one night while you were out and then date you for a while and then have a nasty break up with you but you didn't know that part of it yet and were really excited because you found her attractive but had no money until you opened Travel Scrabble thinking you'd find maybe 80 or 100 but instead you find three or three fifty and you can take her out and get her drunk and when the bartender hands you your change from your final round you just stuff it in your pocket and forget about it for a few days until one day with the same girl in tow you come home from work and you can't recall where you placed your keys and while rummaging around searching for the keys or maybe for a napkin or something you find that forgotten money that you had stuffed in your pocket the other night, that date night with that chick who told you she didn't like you because you didn't kiss like a man but for some reason you both thought it sound to continue seeing each other for something like two and a half years, which was also the amount of time that would pass between founding a goofy website with your brother and you recounting those selfsame events but in a codified manner and that all wouldn't even begin for another five years and you had nothing to write about, at least nothing important, at least nothing about that girl because really, nothing had happened yet, and you had no clue what the next two years would hold for you, but even though it seemed for the most part like a waste in self-congratulatory hindsight, you still took something away from the relationship, you learned some practical things and had some nice memories that no one can really take away from you, if you can also take away something from what I'm about to write then we're golden.  Daedalus.

Still with me?  Great.  Let's get started here.

Why do we get so frustrated about our positions in life?  Why do we insist on suffering?

We can insist we were cheated, or we can realize that we still possess a great deal at any given moment.

We can hide behind blame, but no one can force us to feel bad.  No one can force us to do wrong.

Likewise, no one can stop us from feeling happy if we want to.

There is no amount of good that you can do in this world that it will ever owe you for in return.  The good we do is for ourselves. But it is, indeed, good.

There is no force on this world that can prevent us from our preferred perception of our environment and events that lead us where we are.  It's just a bunch of stuff that happens.

There are people who will put great effort in trying to make you miserable, who have convinced themselves they hold that power over you.  You can allow them that power to alter you or you can walk on, laughing.

How you feel at every, any moment is solely your responsibility.

The only way to succeed is to stop getting in our own way.  Whenever we try to control how others feel or what they do or try to even the score, we get in our own way.

Insisting on fairness in this world is just veiled declaration of entitlement.

Insisting on justice is only a coded way of saying we think we're too good to struggle the same as everyone else.

Whatever happens to others doesn't affect you or concern you, unless you let it.  Don't rely on helplessness.

It's very rare that people we believe to be cruel or bad have a conscience that grows or speaks to them.  Not only do they get away with being "bad", not only does no one see or seem to care, but "bad" people themselves walk on, feeling justified and serviced, without regard for who they hurt.

It's common that the angriest people are the most fearful, that the ones who treat life with the least value are the most apprehensive about death, that the most violent are the most cowardly, the ones who contribute the least demand the most, the ones who demonstrate no love cry for pure adoration.

For everyone who takes, whether taking more than their share or just taking advantage, take it upon yourself to give.  For every entitled demand you hear, keep that much more understanding at hand.  For every complaint, voice a compliment.  For every frittering, fretting threatening cretin, tether yourself with unfettered respect. 

We can be the equalizers, by holding ourselves accountable and producing the goodness and love that is stolen or lost, by including and considering everyone.  This is the only way we can make this world fair or even.

Legality does not constitute morality. 

You can only be a villain if you allow others to think you're one and call you one.

Justice is just something we've tricked ourselves into believing exists.

We have to simply put faith in the notion that everything will work out the way we want it.

If we hold onto a cliche for long enough, if we put meaning behind it and act upon it, it can become a principle.

Life isn't fair, but we can be.

Reality rarely offers reconciliation and never resolution.