Best Three Ways to Be a Better Human Being

Respect (song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A lot of my posts have centered around this type of theme.  Maybe it comes from all of the soul searching I’ve been doing lately.  Situations, events and people that I’ve come across in the last few days, week, month and years have helped me package the type of person that I want to be or striving to be (change can’t happen overnight – that I know and understand).

So for this post, I want to focus on the ways that I believe would make me and everyone a better human being.  These are not huge shifts in behavior but small changes that can grow to major changes in my life and yours.  I believe that these changes all begins with our behaviors, attitudes, moral compasses and that if we understand how these changes affect others and the world around us, they may not seem as drastic or hard to make.

So here are ways I’m suggesting to be a better human being.

1.  Respect the planet

2.  Respect your fellow human beings

3. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes

I’ll start by saying, I’m not an environmentalist and I don’t claim to understand everything there is about climate change – I know the basics.  Yet, I leave on this planet and have seen some of the devastation that hurt it – oil spills, nuclear disasters, landfills etc.  Being a better human being is not hard in this case and really starts with some of the small things – I’m not asking you to go out and join Greenpeace.  No, just look at your lifestyle and make small changes – that way you are respecting the planet.  Try recycling, composting, putting your garbage in an actual garbage – its amazing the people that don’t do this!  Respect the planet.  I want it to be here for my kids and their kids…and that has to start with me.

Respect your fellow human beings.  This is a simple change.  Respect their rights, their culture, their religion and even their values and opinions.   If you don’t agree with them – fine – but don’t go out of your way to be hurtful – just say nothing.  Respecting our fellow human beings is one of the key ways to be a better human being.  Say hi to someone, say thank you or please.  That is respect.

Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is a positive way to become a better human being.  A lot of us live in a world of privilege and don’t even realize how many doors are open to us.  Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes provides an insight into a life you might never have know.  It doesn’t make you an expert but it gives you a better understanding of where people are coming from.  Sometimes it can be humbling.  To bring us down a level on our superiority complex – to simply realize that access to water for some people is a luxury but not something we think about twice.

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Best Three Reasons why Charlie Hunnam is a great pick for Christian Grey

Ok. First off let me just get this out – YYYYYAAAAAAHHHHH! YAH!   Yes, I’m married (and I love my husband) but I have a huge crush on Charlie Hunnam.  Ever since watching Sons of Anarchy, it has just grown.  When I heard the news that he was cast as Christian Grey, I couldn’t stop jumping up and down (not literally – just figuratively) since I was at the office and that would have been a little awkward to explain to my boss.  She doesn’t watch TV or read books like Fifty Shades of Grey – actually she did mention once that she thought they were ‘trash’ books – it was those really weird moments because all I wanted to do was laugh but she was so serious…laughing would not have gone over well in that moment.

Charlie Hunnam is a great pick.  I had previously done a post about the actors that I thought would be great for this role and he wasn’t on it.  For some reason I didn’t think of him (sorry Charlie) – plus there is a reason why I’m not a casting agent!  Yet now that he as been cast, I completely and utterly see him in this role and as Christian Grey.   Here are my reasons why he was a great pick.

1. He is absolutely gorgeous!

2. He has the ability (and the acting experience) in being serious and stern (Jax Teller – Sons of Anarchy!)

3.  He will look amazing in a suit

Ok.  The first thing is probably the most important.  He is gorgeous with the blond hair and blue eyes, tall, muscular.  Jeez, I sound like I’m writing a romance novel.  This man needs to carry the movie where he will be the main focus.  He needs to look good in and out of cloths and let me say Charlie can do that without a problem.   Plus in the parts of the novel where Christian smiles, I can easily picture Charlie’s gorgeous smile.  For those of you who have never seen him in Sons of Anarchy, I would suggest you check him out before you critique.

Playing Jax Teller, President of SAMCRO, an Outlaw Motorcycle Club, he has run in to many a serious situation.  He definitely can be stern and Charlie acts his character brilliantly – that is why I picture him as Christian.  He can do serious.  He can do stern and he can do angry,  Again I point to the Sons of Anarchy.

Again, it comes back to him in a suit.  He can definitely wear a suit.

I just can’t wait for this movie (August 2014)!

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Best Three Reasons Not to be Polite for a Change

Thank You (Photo credit: mandiberg)

All of our lives, we are told to be polite.  Drilled into our heads as children that we need to be courteous and polite to others.  Parents use the famous saying of “Don’t forget to say “PLEASE” and “THANK YOU.”  These are values that are ingrained in us and that we carry into adulthood.  Yet along the way, some people forget the basics – they no longer think they need to say please and thank you to others.  It becomes a distant memory in their minds.  They’ve carved out new values and those teachings about being polite fly right out the window.

There are a lot of these people.  I encounter them on a daily basis.  It’s amazing really the amount of people…and that is why I started to think about this topic.  I explored the reasoning behind why I need to be polite.  Sure my parents told me to be but why I’m I still polite.  I’m an adult.  I make my own decisions, I pay bills, I work, and yet I’m always polite.

That is why this post is a departure for me and I’m venturing into new territory – to a place where I advocate reason why you don’t need to be polite.

1.  It gets annoying when you never get a thank you or thanks back for doing something polite

2. People stare at you strangely when you say please and thank you

3.  Its exhausting being so polite

I don’t know how many times I’ve done something nice and polite – open the door for someone; get out of my seat for someone on the bus; let a car in front of me on a jammed-packed road full of traffic…I could go on and on with these examples and I would say about 5% of the time (that is 5% out of 100%) someone will say thank you.

People do stare at you strangely when you say please and thank you.  It seems likes its a crazy foreign language that they have never heard before.  I get this a lot.

Always saying thank you and please is definitely exhausting.  There are a lot of reasons where you need to say it and it just gets to be so tough to keep it up.

All in all, I’m still going to be polite (that is how my parents raised me) and something I believe makes me who I am but sometimes I really like the best three reasons why not to be polite for a change.