I was recently blog surfing and was pleased to encounter the blog of a very astute writer by the name of Allison Nazarian. She had a little challenge going on for someone to try and explain her post and get a shot at owning a copy of her new book. Since the post looked like to me as something that was about belief I thought I’d tickle my keyboard a bit and give it a try.
The following is what I posted in her blog comments.
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Hi Allison. Just ran across your blog and I’m glad I did. Love your take on things. It’s not just juicy medium-well done but it’s the tastiest outer cut of a human blog-experience I’ve had in a while, MMMMMMMMMM.
Ok, you asked for an explanation of your blog post and so here it is.
I’m not going to guess what exactly the hell you were thinking because I’m not a mind reader so how could I know anyway. That’s ok though because I don’t think that’s what you expected. You just want people who you don’t know and who you’ve maybe never met to just write… something.
That’s because that’s what you do and what we should all be doing. Write. Write. Write.
(Ok, False start there.)
Let’s try again shall we.
This post is just bleeding belief. Its belief-juice is running down the page so fully it’s fogged my screen and is threatening to spill out onto my freaking desk. This belief stuff is of course invisible of but know it’s there because its stuff that’s written at midnight in the heart of one who just “gets it”.
Ok, the poetry is over. Now back to business.
Come back here and sit down. This is important shit. Took me a long time to figure out too so get comfortable. (Here’s a fresh baked cookie for you ok? Good.)
BELIEF:
When a person’s belief is in stall mode they are truly on a path to anywhere. Problem is a destination like that is for hobos not great writers like you Allison (or even for some of us). Let’s look at this “train” of thought more closely in respect for the way in which belief is established.
Just two ways:
1. Through argument ( Example: a story or discussion in a book or a live one between two or more people)
2. Through hard evidence (Stepping on a tack is hard evidence containing most of the properties of that damn tack’s existence. Impossible to refute.)
Just two ways. There is no third way to create belief that I know of. It may be dualistic but it’s not simplistic so, let’s now take the train out of midnight and into the light of day.
Let’s look at the mechanics of belief through argument first:
If I could get you to expose yourself to enough material on a particular subject (through reading, TV, audio) that would inevitably create thought patterns to form. After a while these thought patterns would clump together and off of them would arise a type of heat-like energy.
That heat and its intensity is strictly in proportion to the complexity of the thought pattern clump. Incidentally, we all know that clump quite well. We call it our “attitude”.
Now let’s take this just a weeny bit further then we’ll be done. I promise.
If the attitude is strong enough it will inevitably express itself in our performing some action in line with itself. (In this case even an act of in-action could itself be counted as an action if it was dictated by the attitude.)
In other words: attitudes motivate us.
This, in my opinion, is the locomotive pulling the darkest train there is because “attitudes” are not the “life stuff” that naturally causes truly beneficial, creative and spontaneous actions. They are too often created through ques set up through someone else’s template. Thus, you might possess the same attitudes about politics, for example, as your parents
Now let’s have a look at how belief is created through hard evidence:
Remember that tack? That is hard evidence that stepping on tacks is not fun. It’s painful and you shouldn’t be doing it. Belief established like this is rock-solid and cannot ever be ignored. That’s the kind of rock-solid belief in ourselves it should be.
So, to sum up. This post and its metaphorical “train goin’ everywhere” is about the lack of a basis for usable self-belief. This is a “lack-o-motive” that needs to get back in the station and be refitted with a real visceral self-belief based on hard evidence that reinforces one’s self-worth and life-direction. That is the potentiality that once located (clue: it’s felt in the gut area of the body) cannot ever be “missing” ever again.
More Power to you.
