Oh look, shiny!

Fickle. People are fickle the world over. And God bless them. There's nothing more lovable to a marketing department than people who one minute are talking about their friend's shoes and the next minute saying something like, "ooooh, shiny." They are the kind of people that keep a consumer economy from tanking. It's that "Oh, gotta have it" mentality that allows shoddy, second-rate fashion designers to stay in business. It is the gift of the fickle to keep strange organic goat cheeses and hybrid curd bread on the shelves. But, it is a double-edged sword the fickle wield.  

Fickle people at times can make or break a journalist's career. They can cause market instability and all of a sudden everyone and their grandma is selling. And, it's just something we have to deal with. Over the past 50 years (or perhaps more), people have been rapidly losing their minds. I used to think that perhaps they were just adapting to the information age, and their attention spans were just shorter, but it's more than that. 

We live in an age where everyone wants immediate results. Our food must be done in 5 minutes or less, people must text us no less than thirty seconds later, and slow movies are the bane of people's existences. Many have become, for better or worse, adrenaline junkies. But it's not just the time. They want everything to be perfect. If things don't happen like they planned, they go haywire. "What, you put two teaspoons of chocolate fudge on my icecream?! Screw you!" It's whack. People are wound so tight it's easy to see why we are over-prescribing ourselves. We take medicines to sleep, to stay calm, to digest better, etc, etc. People cannot exist without modern conveniences. People cannot live with themselves as just themselves.  

The perfectionist mentality will only grow, as will the pharmacy's stock of legal heroine substitutes. You can't treat life with a white glove people. Sh*t happens. Deal with it. Try to maintain composure even when everything seems to suck. You have it good. Just look around, breathe, and put down the shiny thing.

The Provo Divide

In the town of Provo there is a great divide.

I have spoken of it on many occasions with many friends. In Provo, and especially around Brigham Young University, there are a lot of young, college-aged types who are looking for a good education, maybe some work, and a good time. Rarely, do they get all three. And if they do, they are the lucky ones.

As a college town, you might expect there to be a lot of students. This is true. But BYU is not the only school here. There is UVSC (Soon to be UVU), along with many beauty schools and other schools I've never heard of. So, the pond is stocked full of tons of fish. You might think, "Well that's good. If you have lots of fish, you have a lot more options." True. But everyone thinks that way and it creates a mindset that is detrimental to anyone ever getting anywhere in life (socially speaking). With so many options girls and guys around here tend to be either extremely non-committal, or way too committal. The first mindset happens because the first group sees so many options, they become fickle, picky, stupid, and like playing games and become worthless flakes, and the second mindset happens because once the other group finds someone, they cling to them for dear life out of insecurity of the system regardless if the person is an absolute monstrosity. So if that's all we've got, it leads me to wonder, what about the middle? Are you telling me (or am I telling myself) that people either play the field or get married after 6 weeks? Yes. The middle is nearly non-existent.

And, that middle has the only people with any common sense. This middle believes that you can date someone to get to know them and see if something more is there without thinking of long-term all the time. The middle believes that you should date whoever you want, but that being on two dates together does not make you a couple. The middle dates for the sake of dating. And, learns about people, relationships, and what they want out of life in a normal way. They are the balance. But, where are they? Well they have fallen into the Provo divide. Into the deep chasm that is or was the normal way to interact. I am one of them. I am not super-committal (I'm not looking to get married after a couple days or weeks of knowing someone), and I'm not a flake (I don't get interested in one girl on one day and then totally psych myself out, convince myself she's ugly, stupid or uninterested and move on to my back log of other potentials). So where do I fit here? That's a good question. Perhaps I just need to go back to the real world (like any place outside of Utah).

I want it, and I want it now!

Today, in this miraculous information age everyone is zigging and zagging every which way while balancing eight plates of fruit and pancakes with silverware in their mouths. It is amazing. It is fascinating. It is frightening. Of course it's good to have people busy and informed, however, it becomes dangerous when people read a couple news articles, assume they are informed, and then press for change. We are always looking for answers...which is good. But it seems we want immediate results. When it takes two minutes to heat your hot pocket, you get antsy. When the guy at the stop light takes an extra second to react, you go berserk. That is scary. I mean, what were you planning on doing in that one second that was so important? Why aren't we more grateful that we didn't have to bake the dough and stuff that hot pocket by hand? On that note, I'm going to get a little political here, however, I think you should read it slowly and methodically and try to understand where I'm coming from before declaring that I'm wrong and out-of-step.

We are some of the most impatient and ill-informed people on the planet. I am constantly seeing poll after poll of Americans who are dissatisfied with the recent war strategy and the war as a whole. Obviously we have not made the best decisions all along since the beginning, but one thing I must point out is that the strategy that we have currently employed, "the surge" has only been in effect for a month, yet senators, presidential candidates and a great deal of the general populace is already calling for a change.

How is a war that is five years old supposed to suddenly come to a perfect conclusion in a month's time? We are not giving our soldiers nor are we giving our commanders the chance to do their job. The little reported truth is that the surge HAS been effective. However, because it is still early, military leaders are hesitant to broadcast their small successes.

However, because the democrat-controlled congress wants to build momentum before Petraeus reports in September, people are of the minds that a decision must be made now. If the white house and congress call this surge to an abrupt end, it strikes me as fickle. It also sends a message to our military and commanders that not only do we not support them and their operations, but we don't think they can do their job properly.

But I suppose the thing that bugs me the most is that all involved here in the US, from citizens to senators, are not on the ground, and honestly do not care what the real situation is. If the media would rather cover death tolls and car bombs than victories and civilian parties in the streets, it does a great job demoralizing our men and women in uniform. Of course I'm not pro-war. No one in the military is even pro-war, but I do believe in logical, well-planned decision making. It wasn't done in the early days after Saddam's regime was toppled, but it does need to been done now. If we act quickly without giving our strategy and commanders time to do their job and report, we are going to suffer a much greater catastrophe. We must think logically, plan coherently and act in the best way we know how. Give our military a chance.