Every good thing is about balance.
Our bodies are a triumph of balance, which we refer to as homeostasis. The earth is life giving only if it is in a state of balance: rotate it off its course from the sun just a wee bit and we're all in for a very long winter or summer. And even a good movie comes down to balance - we want consciously or subconsciously for the story to maintain just the right level of so many different things depending on the genre. In the end, we walk away happy from an experience based on balance.
Take a game of football as another example. In a bad game of football, one team trounces the other and we're all tremendously bored by the second quarter. A good game, on the other hand, is a game in which both teams are nearly equal in their abilities and output, and the result is a game that comes down to the final seconds with a miraculous finish that pleases both the fans and the advertisers. Why was it such a good game? Balance. And take almost anything you like and you'll find that it's level of pleasure can be derived from a good level of balance.
Yes, intense action and near death escapes are fun in the game Halo, and everyone likes barely surviving through your own thumb-twitching skillz. However, keep that pacing up non-stop for an hour and you'll find yourself overloaded from the chaos. Throw it out there in small bursts with more placid interludes in between and you'll be a happy gamer. Balance.
Ever played a game of Super Street Fighter IV? Many of the fighters in that game are referred to as "Upper Tier" while some are referred to as "Lower Tier." Try fighting a good player using an "Upper Tier" character while you use a "Lower Tier" character. The result is usually frustration because the "Lower Tier" fighter lacks the resources needed to fairly defeat the opponent. Switch it up so that both players are using "Mid Tier" characters and you've got something. Balance.
Now wouldn't it be nice if every character in that game were perfectly balanced? Sagat would begin to fear my Hakan, I"ll tell you that (SSFIV people will get that). Or what if every NBA game came down to the final minutes because of true balance and gameplay that encouraged it? What if every book, story, or movie you experienced was perfectly balanced in such a way that you left it feeling that everything had been expertly crafted? And, finally, what if the government could strike the perfect balance between services and reservation, between taxation and the free market, between the left and the right? Well, that would be balance, and that would be good.
It all comes down to balance. Balancing the good and the bad, the fast and the slow, the kinetic and the potential... when you can balance these opposites in any given facet of your life, you achieve the best of what can be.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
My Prime Is Always Today and Tomorrow
"You can be anything you want to be."
"Shoot for the stars."
"America is the land of opportunity, where a person always has a chance as long as they have an idea."
Those are a couple of generic quotes that I'm sure we've heard in some version for a very long time. In the United States, many of us are practically raised hearing these things. Yet at some point most of us cease to believe in them any more. We give in to the monotony of life, and the belief that good enough is enough. We succumb to the every day, we become drones, and we follow the same routine with the same dreams without the desire to break free. I refuse to do so, and I hope you do too.
The world needs dreamers. Maybe the dreams won't come true, but if enough of us are trying to break the mold with visions that will enhance and impact the world around us, then surely some of those dreams will become "dream come trues" for all the rest. Why should we ever give in to the "same old same old"? Nothing drives me more crazy than to hear that high school or college are the best days of your life. "Alright then," I think... "I guess it's all down hill from there."
But it's not. It doesn't have to be.
Every day is a new adventure - every week a new chance to set an objective and to go for it. There are enough people who are satisfied. I don't think I will ever be satisfied, and I don't want to be. My prime is today. My prime is tomorrow. It will never be in the past, because I will always be a sentient, conscious person moving forward to a brighter future whether in this world or the next. Yesterday is gone, but I have today and I'm being gifted tomorrow. Why waste them? So life hasn't always treated me fairly - why throw in the towel? So tomorrow may be hard - why give in? So life in this moment is painful - isn't pain fleeting? Who is to say that my silver ship won't go sailing tomorrow? We don't plant splendorous oak trees today - we plant saplings. But those saplings in time turn into grandiose canopies of green, towering up and over us. But if we do not plant now, in time we will see no fruition from our lack of effort.
Be passionate,
Jusin Frazier
"Shoot for the stars."
"America is the land of opportunity, where a person always has a chance as long as they have an idea."
Those are a couple of generic quotes that I'm sure we've heard in some version for a very long time. In the United States, many of us are practically raised hearing these things. Yet at some point most of us cease to believe in them any more. We give in to the monotony of life, and the belief that good enough is enough. We succumb to the every day, we become drones, and we follow the same routine with the same dreams without the desire to break free. I refuse to do so, and I hope you do too.
The world needs dreamers. Maybe the dreams won't come true, but if enough of us are trying to break the mold with visions that will enhance and impact the world around us, then surely some of those dreams will become "dream come trues" for all the rest. Why should we ever give in to the "same old same old"? Nothing drives me more crazy than to hear that high school or college are the best days of your life. "Alright then," I think... "I guess it's all down hill from there."
But it's not. It doesn't have to be.
Every day is a new adventure - every week a new chance to set an objective and to go for it. There are enough people who are satisfied. I don't think I will ever be satisfied, and I don't want to be. My prime is today. My prime is tomorrow. It will never be in the past, because I will always be a sentient, conscious person moving forward to a brighter future whether in this world or the next. Yesterday is gone, but I have today and I'm being gifted tomorrow. Why waste them? So life hasn't always treated me fairly - why throw in the towel? So tomorrow may be hard - why give in? So life in this moment is painful - isn't pain fleeting? Who is to say that my silver ship won't go sailing tomorrow? We don't plant splendorous oak trees today - we plant saplings. But those saplings in time turn into grandiose canopies of green, towering up and over us. But if we do not plant now, in time we will see no fruition from our lack of effort.
Be passionate,
Jusin Frazier
Friday, May 13, 2011
Believing in Hope
The world is a great big place full of great big and beautiful things. Sunny-soaked mountain sides, inspirational rivers and oceans, corral reefs teeming with all varieties of life... Yet as we see every day, the beauty and splendor of our world also coexists with a darker place, a place of misery and hunger, deceit and destruction. And so it is that, in my opinion, life is only truly wonderful when we focus on the altruistic parts of the world we live in, and work towards a future that reduces the inherited suffering of this place.
We could dwell on the negatives of this world and of this life - indeed, many people do. I believe they're referred to as pessimists or "downers." These people view the world in such a way that they become the victims of it with no hope of ever breaking free. Certainly there are people who would have valid reasons for accepting such a dreary outlook - how can a person with terminal cancer or an impoverished child in Africa see any hope for living in beauty and goodness? But it is possible, and it is possible for the whole world to seek better and better lives for all our citizens of this globe we're flying on. There is always hope. Even in the darkest of all storms, hope abounds. And it abides in those who choose it beyond all obstacles, all risks, all probabilities, and all the darkness they face.
Even in failure and defeat there is hope. Even in the end, there is hope. In all times, in all places, and in all people... hope can endure. And so I choose to live my life on the sunny-soaked mountain tops. I choose to live my life seeking the good in this world and the good in other people. Come what may, come whatever pains I must deal with, come whatever disease or heartbreak, sadness and disappointment, setbacks and sacrifices - through it all I will look for hope. Because in every single thing, there is opportunity. In every single thing there is a chance. And in every dark moment, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
So let's go explore this world, facing it with bravado and excitement, in spite of the negatives that exist in it. There are simply too many wonderful things to miss if we don't.
We could dwell on the negatives of this world and of this life - indeed, many people do. I believe they're referred to as pessimists or "downers." These people view the world in such a way that they become the victims of it with no hope of ever breaking free. Certainly there are people who would have valid reasons for accepting such a dreary outlook - how can a person with terminal cancer or an impoverished child in Africa see any hope for living in beauty and goodness? But it is possible, and it is possible for the whole world to seek better and better lives for all our citizens of this globe we're flying on. There is always hope. Even in the darkest of all storms, hope abounds. And it abides in those who choose it beyond all obstacles, all risks, all probabilities, and all the darkness they face.
Even in failure and defeat there is hope. Even in the end, there is hope. In all times, in all places, and in all people... hope can endure. And so I choose to live my life on the sunny-soaked mountain tops. I choose to live my life seeking the good in this world and the good in other people. Come what may, come whatever pains I must deal with, come whatever disease or heartbreak, sadness and disappointment, setbacks and sacrifices - through it all I will look for hope. Because in every single thing, there is opportunity. In every single thing there is a chance. And in every dark moment, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
So let's go explore this world, facing it with bravado and excitement, in spite of the negatives that exist in it. There are simply too many wonderful things to miss if we don't.
Friday, May 6, 2011
The Sport of Story
In every game there are rules and strategies that exist in order to make the competition fair, compelling, and concise. In checkers, the rules are simple and well defined. In American football, the rules are quite complicated, but only in order to maintain a strict order of play which results in quick bursts of high-intensity sport. In order to be most successful at any game, unless it is a game of total chance, one must know the rules and apply them in a way better than the opponent in order to win. For example, the master chess player is able to apply the rules of the game many, many steps ahead of the current positioning of the pieces in order to imagine all possible scenarios and in what way he may best place his offense and defense. If the player is able to do this in a better way than the opponent, the player is more likely to end the game victoriously.
I was discussing a game called "Rook" with acquaintances recently. The acquaintances had variations on the set of rules for the card game which I found to be detrimental to the cohesiveness of the strategy of the game. One such rule variance they played with was created so that a weak hand of cards could still be powerful - by failing to do any positive thing at any point throughout the dealt hand, a player who bid "low" would earn a very significant number of points. Unfortunately, this idea was a poor concept because it rewarded failure. The player with the terrible set of cards did not need to apply any mental prowess to the game if they chose to try to fail, they simply needed to play poorly with an already poor hand. Whereas the person who bid normally needed to apply great levels of intellect in determining how to gather the necessary amount of points in the game, the player bidding "low" could earn a nearly identical number of points by losing in the worst possible way. Because of this variant concept, the strategies which make the game of Rook so compelling were deluted.
Writing a novel is much like creating the rules of a sport or a game. The novel has certain key points that the reader wants from the novel in order to be entertained. Applying the points is necessary, but the reader also wants those points given to them in an interesting and semi-unique manner in order to keep their focus piqued. They want to be entertained in the same way that the participant in the game of Rook wants to be entertained, and just as the spectator of an American football game seeks entertainment. In the novel, the reader wants to identify with the characters, they want to resolve a major issue, and they want consistency in the crafted universe. The reader wants a plethora of appropriate and accurate words so that they do not bore with the vocabulary - the reader wants to be surprised with the story in a way that makes sense and can be understood looking back. But the truly good books do not simply follow those basic rules... the truly great novel looks to go for two points in the end, or to shoot the moon. And in the literary world, that means that the novel seeks to answer or call into question major life issues; and thus, the reader walks away more enlightened, and more keen from the experience.
And what are the rules for writing a really terrific blog? Well, I'll figure that out as I continue to add additional entries... and if this one isn't exactly mindblowing or worthy of acclaim, it may be because it's 3:30 am and I need to make it another 16 hours without going to sleep. Yikes.
I was discussing a game called "Rook" with acquaintances recently. The acquaintances had variations on the set of rules for the card game which I found to be detrimental to the cohesiveness of the strategy of the game. One such rule variance they played with was created so that a weak hand of cards could still be powerful - by failing to do any positive thing at any point throughout the dealt hand, a player who bid "low" would earn a very significant number of points. Unfortunately, this idea was a poor concept because it rewarded failure. The player with the terrible set of cards did not need to apply any mental prowess to the game if they chose to try to fail, they simply needed to play poorly with an already poor hand. Whereas the person who bid normally needed to apply great levels of intellect in determining how to gather the necessary amount of points in the game, the player bidding "low" could earn a nearly identical number of points by losing in the worst possible way. Because of this variant concept, the strategies which make the game of Rook so compelling were deluted.
Writing a novel is much like creating the rules of a sport or a game. The novel has certain key points that the reader wants from the novel in order to be entertained. Applying the points is necessary, but the reader also wants those points given to them in an interesting and semi-unique manner in order to keep their focus piqued. They want to be entertained in the same way that the participant in the game of Rook wants to be entertained, and just as the spectator of an American football game seeks entertainment. In the novel, the reader wants to identify with the characters, they want to resolve a major issue, and they want consistency in the crafted universe. The reader wants a plethora of appropriate and accurate words so that they do not bore with the vocabulary - the reader wants to be surprised with the story in a way that makes sense and can be understood looking back. But the truly good books do not simply follow those basic rules... the truly great novel looks to go for two points in the end, or to shoot the moon. And in the literary world, that means that the novel seeks to answer or call into question major life issues; and thus, the reader walks away more enlightened, and more keen from the experience.
And what are the rules for writing a really terrific blog? Well, I'll figure that out as I continue to add additional entries... and if this one isn't exactly mindblowing or worthy of acclaim, it may be because it's 3:30 am and I need to make it another 16 hours without going to sleep. Yikes.
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