Inquisitive The happiest days of my #life have tended to be the days when I have been most curious. They are the days when questions have flowed freely from my mind. When the need to explore the world both intellectually and geographically has weighed deeply upon my mind leading me to read, learn and go out and discover. Pushing me to find out what's at the end of the road, or on the other side of the hill or find out what will happen if i try new things yes, The most memorable days of my #life have often been a product of serendipity and curiosity.

Democracy Is Not A Dirty Word Once upon a time it wasn't obvious that democracy was a good thing. The idea of letting everyone have a say was terrifying for some. Some people are just not capable of choosing the sensible thing they said. Which really meant that they wouldn't choose the same as them. Democracy at this time was seen as being a step towards anarchy because if you let everyone have a say in political matters then the result would eventually be chaos and fragmentation. Should you really let the undesirables and stupid people have a say in how we are governed, they asked themselves. They concluded that only those capable of making an informed choice should be allowed to participate in political discourse. They used democracy as an insult because it was not seen as being something we should strive for. God forbid that there should be equality and equal rights for all, they seemed to think. Looking back to this time when democracy was not a given, or taken for granted. When democracy was a dirty word it makes me glad that today we live in a time when democratic principles are seen as a set of values society should strive for. Democracy is no longer a dirty word but now it is the ideal to which we all claim to be striving for.

Your So Unreasonable Unreasonable so often really means you don't agree with me. Unreasonable usually means I think you are wrong because you don't think like me. Unreasonable and irrational are used to make us feel like our way of thinking is less valid then somebody else's. The truth is that everyone is reasonable, everybody has reasons for thinking the way they do, from the maddest to the sanest. The only difference is some of us have more socially acceptable reasons then others. Reason and rationality are simply words that get used to try and persuade others to accept what is being claimed is the 'reasonable' opinion. If we don't agree with them who claim they are the reasonable then we are the mad. But if society has gone mad itself then does it mean that the unreasonable ones are the sanest?

Birthdays I have never really understood birthdays. They tragically seem to me just like every other day. You expect this deep change to occur within you when you reach the end of another year of #life. To wake up on your birthday feeling like a new person, different changed special. But in the dawns half awake light you feel remarkably the same. You look the same, you think the same, in fact if you had not seen the date you wouldn't even know that I was your birthday. You don't feel any older or any wiser when it's your birthday. But maybe birthdays aren't about you and a change within you, but they are for other people. A birthday is when others get to celebrate the #life of another person and show appreciation that they are alive and in their lives. Perhaps, this is why I don't get, or like them. Is that it's a day in which it's almost unavoidable to be the centre of attention when everyone is looking to you, but you have done nothing to deserve being the centre of attention. Birthdays to me are an enigma something that I half understand and can appreciate the significance of for others but for myself it all seems superfluous and unneeded. After all we should celebrate being alive everyday and appreciate people all through the year and not on just one day.

The Problem Is Our Thinking So many problems are caused by flawed thinking. The problem is, however, that most of the thinking that causes the problems is hidden from us. It is thinking that has been done by others. It is thinking from the past, society, parents, leaders and the media. This thinking has given us a set of ideas that lie inside us unnoticed. It is these ideas that we have inherited that inform our approach to the world. The problem with this is that some of this thinking is bad and causes us problems. For instance, thinking that we have a never ending supply of oil will cause us problems, thinking that our culture is the best culture will lead to intolerance and racism. When these problems occur we don't ever stop to question the thinking that lead to them and try and change how we think. Instead we think of solutions and cause more flawed thinking. And so the process goes on bad thinking begets bad thinking. So instead of automatically trying to think of a solution to the worlds problems look at the thinking that lead to it. Problems such as criminal behaviour won't be solved by locking criminals away but looking at the thinking that creates criminal behaviour. This is harder as it involves questioning the ideas we have about the world and the assumptions which we rest our world view on. It requires the ability to say 'yes how I thought about the world was wrong ' and to admit our mistakes is never easy. But until we stop and look at the way we see the world and our thought processes we will only ever add more problems to our existing problems.