What is it, I wonder, about us as people that makes us so concerned about what others think of us? Is it the fact that we are surrounded by these people and we feel that we need their support? Is it because of some kind of personal inadequacy that we have inside of ourselves? Is it because we like the idea of being popular because we've seen it displayed to us so many times in movies and on television? Whatever the reason, one thing is for certain: 80% or so of what we do is dictated by whether or not it will be accepted by others. We have been taught, as is the Christian tradition, that to value ourselves to highly is some kind of crime, therefore we must humble ourselves constantly. If we find that we have too much liking for ourselves, we start to fit into terms like 'narcissist' or 'selfish' or even 'arrogant'. If people were able to open their eyes just a little bit, they would see how much of a fabricated life they've been living. They would realize that what others think is truly irrelevent, because no matter what, you cannot please everyone, always someone will take offense to something or someone will critisize you for no reason. There is a good story for this: A man and his son in the desert are walking a camel. They come across someone who tells them "Shame on you sir for making your son walk on the sand when he could ride the camel." Wanting to appease them, the man lets his son on the camel. A little later they come across someone else who says "Shame on you boy for making your father walk on the sand." So the boy gets off and they both walk the camel together. They then come across an old man who tells them "Shame on both of you, you could both easily ride the camel together and not walk." So the moral of the story is: No matter what you do, people will arbitrarily critisize you, hence it is best to just do your own thing. If someone told you that you werent wearing the right shoes or that your shirt didnt match your pants would you change that? If someone told you that you were stupide and weak, would you yourself start to beleive it? Would you say "Fuck it" and just do your own thing? How many people can say that they've never heeded social criticism because they were focused enough to do their own thing? Not many I think. In the end, human beings are social animals, and it is for this reason that we depend so much on others.

On another note: Boys...Jon and Grant. I dont think that it was necessary to go through all the effort you went through to try and track these people down. Was it really worth making such a big deal over? No... I apologise for the insults that were posted on your blog, however, the best way you could have handled it would have been to just let it go and go with the flow. You like that little rhyme dont ya.