{"id":1299,"date":"2014-10-30T19:50:51","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T02:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/?p=1299"},"modified":"2014-10-30T19:50:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-31T02:50:51","slug":"21-days-til-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/10\/30\/21-days-til-30\/","title":{"rendered":"21 days til 30"},"content":{"rendered":"

This idea was contributed by one of my most loyal readers who has asked to stay anonymous. But he’s got a full list of great ideas that I’ll be using over the next few weeks. If you have an idea, then please let me know it!<\/em><\/p>\n

A way you’ve become more cynical, that makes you sad<\/strong><\/p>\n

I no longer think that the world is inherently good, and that the exception is evil.<\/p>\n

I now believe the world is inherently apathetic, and the exception is empathy.<\/p>\n

This makes me incredibly sad. Let me dig in a bit more…<\/p>\n

When I was going through D.A.R.E (I must have been one of the last classes as far as I can tell), I thought to myself, “Why do they teach us this? Adults are smart enough to know to stop doing drugs. And how much trouble can you get in as a kid anyway.” Well, I was wrong about that, and I was wrong in general that naivety and bad decision making are the purview of the young and innocent (maybe the innocent, but give me that one).<\/p>\n

I also never understood that there were a million things wrong with the world. I thought it was genuinely the things on the evening news, and that everything else was exactly like the life I lead.<\/p>\n

I think it’s fair to say that by 15 I knew better, but I still believed that the world was inherently good, and that people, to create a good world, inherently helped each other.<\/p>\n

Having now lived beside\u00c2\u00a0the homelessness situation in San Francisco, read\u00c2\u00a0how brothers turn against each in civil wars all over the world, and watched myself not let someone into the lane even though they had their signal on, I know it’s much, much worse than I thought.<\/p>\n

I didn’t think though that it was this bad.<\/p>\n

I don’t know what the event was nor did I really realize how extremely I’d flipped to the other side until I read that question. As soon as I read it though, I knew what the answer was. Happiness removes entropy from the system. So does anger. In fact, reacting in anyway does so. Only apathy seems to bring the world to its natural place. And that’s awful. But the world keeps proving this true over and over again.<\/p>\n

I never thought this way as a 5 year old, and Amelia and Luka don’t see the world that way. I wish I never had. I hope they never have to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This idea was contributed by one of my most loyal readers who has asked to stay anonymous. But he’s got a full list of great ideas that I’ll be using over the next few weeks. If you have an idea, then please let me know it! A way you’ve become more cynical, that makes you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-kX","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":311,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/03\/18\/and-then-there-was-a-date-but-before-that-drama-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":0},"title":"And then there was a date... but before that drama (Part 1)","date":"March 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I was assuming that my wedding, of all weddings in all the time that has passed since weddings have happened, would be drama free. Not being one who looks for drama, I just assumed things would be easier for us. I was wrong. Drama #1: Guest List If you don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Melih gets married"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1478,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2015\/02\/03\/am-i-the-only-one-jordanian-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":1},"title":"Am I the only one - Jordanian edition","date":"February 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I remember in high school that my French teacher, and one of the strongest leftist influences in my life, Fabienne took us to a talk at UNC about the death penalty. The person speaking was the son of the Rosenbergs who were executed for spying for the Soviets, and giving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":169,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2009\/09\/04\/step-on-the-field-to-play-the-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":2},"title":"Step on the field to play the game","date":"September 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I played a game with my indoor team \"Where's the Beer?\" last night. I think we lost 19-1 or something along those lines. It wasn't pretty. I've learned that the most important element in the match is coming out of the match with a degree of pride for the way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports Stories"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2009\/05\/19\/losing-battles\/","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":3},"title":"Losing battles","date":"May 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In the last few months, I've found myself fighting very large battles, and more often than not losing them. It's tough; that's really the only way to describe it. I've discovered in this time that it takes an unbelievable amount of personal strength to decide to stand back up when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":338,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/05\/31\/russian-river-weekend\/","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":4},"title":"Russian River weekend","date":"May 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Micky and I trekked north to the Russian River region which is the northern tip of the North Bay. At least, I wouldn't call too much past Guernesville the Bay Area. More than an hour out, and you're really pushing it. Anyway, just as we were getting to our hotel,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Melih gets married"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1275,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/10\/24\/27-days-til-30\/","url_meta":{"origin":1299,"position":5},"title":"27 days til 30","date":"October 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Surprises (Part II) It's a huge surprise to me how slowly career moves. Advancement happens after being in a place, learning the right way to do things (often after doing it the wrong way first), and then a lot of timing and luck. It's not how I expected it to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}