Wow two posts in one day! Here’s something that I wrote which I found in my archives from 1994.

The Me Society

You leave your house early in the morning, and start your commute to work. On the way, some jerk cuts you off so naturally you show him a sign of sincere appreciation. After 45 minutes you arrive downtown and spend the next half-hour looking for that illusive parking spot. After another 30 minutes you hit the jackpot and find a spot; it’s metered, how exciting. Then you head off to the local coffee shop for your morning fix only to discover a disorganized mass of bodies waiting to be served. Somehow you manage to arrive at the counter and before you can place your order, you hear an exasperated sigh and some guy pushes his way in front of you to order his coffee. So naturally, you emphatically thank him for making you late for work.

Sometimes I wonder how it can be possible that as people, we have become so self-absorbed that we don’t recognize we are as well. We do of course, clearly see that other people are selfish, immoral even, but we, ourselves, care about people. In High School, they don’t teach you about values; there is no mandatory course. Yet our values affect and guide how we live our lives every day; collectively they shape the society we live in.

I approached Tom Morris, founder of the Morris Institute For Human Values and asked him why it seems as a society, our values appear to have changed to that of being self-absorbed.

“Self-absorbedness is an unfortunate side effect of an upwardly mobile culture full of opportunities and awash in the lures of comfort and luxury. People pursuing success can easily get derailed into a pursuit of money, power, fame or status. And their scope of thought and feeling can easily shrink to the self alone and it’s most material wants. I’m out there as a philosopher calling people back to more ancient and healthy definitions of success and conceptions of the good life focusing on community, family and friends. A proper self-concern is at the heart of ethics, but selfishness or self-absorbedness is a very unhealthy frame of mind. I believe that our affluence, along with the mass media images of material success, have had the unintended consequences of just the reversal of values you describe.”

Each one of us has that ever present code by which we guide our lives by; our values. So is it that our values have changed over time? Have we become so individually overwhelmed that we don’t have anything left to give to one another? It seems we have become a society devoted to “me”.

Dr. Greg Maio, from Cardiff University of Psychology, current research includes examining people’s cognitive support (or reasons) for their values. I asked him what his research findings were thus far. “My research findings suggest that people have difficulty justifying their values. We predict this result based on the theory that people grow up without experiencing many arguments that challenge dominant social values, such as the value of helping others. As a result, people feel strongly that the values are important and widely shared, but they do not bother to develop reasons to explain why the values are important. This process may make the values weaker than they would be if they were the subject of occasional scrutiny.”

We, as a society, spend the majority of our time and energy focused on our own lives, what we want, and how we can obtain it. Perhaps if we individually reexamine our own values maybe we can learn to place more value on each other. Afterall, it’s we as people that give love, inspire others, laugh, cry, and help each through difficult times.

Well hello, yes I know I’ve completely slacked off and haven’t posted any legit update in a while. First off someone sent this to me…

I don’t believe I’ve read that particular Dr. Seuss though it sounds quite informative no?

Ok, so updates… the novel is still coming along, though I’ve been working on it less as I’ve been crazy busy working on other projects the past few weeks. I’m also working on finalizing things for my book of poetry, “Mental Decay”. In addition to that, I’m DJ-ing once a week on a rock radio station and editing/writing for XS BS Mag. So yes a bit busy at the moment but it’s all good.

Completely unrelated, I’m on day two of no dairy. You don’t realize how many food products have dairy until you are not eating/drinking dairy!

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And I’ll leave you with this… here is today’s quote for you: “I don’t want to be a passenger in my own life” - Diane Ackerman

Well, I am leaving early in the morning to head out to the countryside to spend some time with my mom for a few days. It’s just us two single sods again this year for the holidays so it will be relatively quiet. I’ll be cooking us a nice casual din and then we’ll likely go catch a movie. So a short reprieve and some R & R time for me. :-) A few of my favorite delightful things about my moms house… sleeping diagonally in a futon bed that must’ve been made for elves and a computer circa 1980’s. Of course there’s all those naked snow people as well. How can you not smile when surrounded by fluffy white round naked beings?

So Happy holidays everyone! :-) I hope you enjoy the break and get to spend some time with those you love.

One more thing before I go, you’ll notice there’s now a new page that I’ve added for my book “Mental Decay” on the right hand side of the page. If you want to find out more about the book head on over there. ->

Here’s a sneak peek at one of the poems from the book.

I had an inquiry from a website visitor who is an aspiring writer. Anne emailed me with some writing related questions, one specifically that I get asked a lot so I thought I’d post my response here. She had asked what made me decide to become a writer.

“Writers are different from ordinary mortals. They flit through life with their antennae tuned to the moods and marvels of the planet. Like a detective, they’re always asking why, searching for answers, for truth. Like children they’re tuned into wonder. No matter what genre they choose, like poets charmed by the stark beauty of words. By the thunderclap of a verb. Their heads are full of books. And they simply love to think, tracking their thoughts like bloodhound on the scent.” - J. Morrell

From the time I was a young child I’ve always been enamored with words and as soon as I learned how to physically write, I wrote. I’ve always been an avid reader as well. Through my childhood, I remember going to the library and checking the maximum number of books allotted at one time. (around 20+ a week) I spent an enormous amount of time reading and writing. I’ve also always kept a notepad within arm distant, jotting down ideas and thoughts. I still do this.

You’ll find notebooks in pretty much every room of my home, in some places more than one. I am constantly jotting down notes, references and ideas. I even use my cellphone to-do list to sometimes jot down a random idea that might hit me while I’m on the bus or out and about somewhere. I also still read a lot; whether it’s books/articles on the computer, or books at home and work.

So I have never consciously thought “I want to be a writer”, I just always was a writer. Sorry, if this sounds totally lame, I know it’s not a terribly exciting answer.

Thanks for the question Anne. :)