Postcards from the Funny Farm

After writing part II of a series I’m doing called “Love Homework: Mirroring” over at at It Might be Love I got a really inspiring email from the author that included a guest post from she herself. (So cool!) She’s part of a select few that answers my open plea to write here occasionally. It allows the oxygen to once again enter my bloodstream as I take a rest from posting at the Funny Farm :) FYI, I interviewed Chelle a few months ago here. It’s a wonderful interview for bloggers and/or lovers to read :) The niche of my blog here is psychology on the offbeat side and her post, below, is about as “in the pocket” with that as you can get. I hope you enjoy Chelle’s post about the worth of ones work.

For the past few weeks, as we’ve been reading here at Postcards From the Funny Farm, we’ve been listening to Damien go on and on about Google Pagerank and rating systems based on numbers. And as usual it got me thinking about the “deeper side of things” which inspired me to write this post.

There are 2 important things to remember in life: 1. It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks of you, you’re still who you are and 2. Why I Failed Physics Class (I know the second one seems pretty strange, but keep reading and you’ll see what I mean.)

It’s so important to realize it really doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks of you. I applaud Damien for coming up with his own CAN Self Blog Rating System. Your self rating system should be all you rely on and all that matters. There are billions of people out there, each with their own thoughts and opinions. Sooner or later you’re bound to collide with someone or something that doesn’t agree. If you set your mind to it you can do anything. Take for example the man who recently made a life scale car out of matchsticks. Do you think the neighbors held back on “rating” that idea?

But think about it: If someone thinks you’re weird or silly or mean, does that make it true? Of course not! What do they know? Just because they might have some “system” or outdated values to judge you it doesn’t mean they KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOU. And since they don’t know and understand you, what they think just simply doesn’t matter. In the end, it’s what you know and understand and what you believe that is true.

So now that I’ve explained why it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, let’s move onto why I failed physics class.

Our physics teacher often gave us test questions like these: “A guy is riding on a motorcycle at 60 mph. Up ahead is a 36 degree jump over a cliff with a distance of 50 feet to the other side. Will he make it to the other side?”

Sure, there’s a mathematical equation to finding the solution to this problem, but I personally refused to answer it. How can we REALLY know he will or will not make it to the other side? What if a big gust of wind suddenly comes and makes him turn his wheel? What if he gets dust in his eyes? What if by some miracle a huge eagle comes swooping down and lifts him by his shirt collar to the other side?

Sure, those things probably won’t happen. But there is A LOT more to life than just numbers and math formulas. Life is full of variables. Just because numbers say something will or will not happen, doesn’t mean it can’t. It’s an old cliché, but there’s an exception to every rule.

Needless to say, my physics teacher didn’t like me too much. After about 9 weeks of the class we both mutually decided it be best I become the first person in my high school’s history to be allowed to drop Honors Physics. But I refused to believe that everything in life can be generalized, predicted, and relied on as being true just because that’s what the numbers said.

We can hope that Damien and other fellow bloggers’ pagerank woes will soon be solved. But until then, it’s always good to remember the important stuff in life isn’t ranked by numbers. And even if your blog does manage to bring you and other people a lot of money, ultimately it is only the standards that you set for yourself that should determine your success.

This has been a guest post by Chelle, blog author of It Might be Love. Pack your virtual luggage and go read a few posts of hers why don’t you.