Stepping Outside of the Box

[sshenry]

BOXES.jpgBoxes - by their very nature - are designed to hold things; papers, chocolates, powder, frozen dinners, the list is endless. Boxes come in every shape and size conceivable. Most boxes, at least the ones with any practical sort of value, are designed with a bottom, sides, and a top or lid to keep the box's contents from escaping or spilling. Boxes can be as plain as a cardboard carton or as ornate as a hand-carved teakwood chest, but one thing they all have in common is that they have been designed to confine.

It is rather ironic, given the nature and purposeful design of the box, that Americans, indeed most of those "independent" and "free-spirited" individuals in the free-world, spend most of their lives in boxes of one kind or another.

We live in boxes (albeit insullated boxes with windows and cetral air and heat), but they are boxes nonetheless. We drive to work in small boxes that have wheels stuck on underneath. We work in small, cube-like boxes stacked inside of larger boxy office buildings. We exercise in boxes filled with exercise equipment, shop in boxes filled with boxed merchandise and ship boxes of goodies to those we love. We purchase food that is stored in boxes and cook the food in larger boxes. Is it any wonder that we feel boxed-in?

But let me make one thing quite clear: Boxes are Dangerous!

The danger does not lie in the obvious boxes, in the boxes that we see and use every day. The real danger lies in the boxes that we can't see, the boxes whose bottoms are made up of family and religious traditions, whose walls are made up of societal norms and expectations, whose lids are constructed from our acceptance of everything that we have been taught in order to keep our well-ordered lives safe and secure; to keep the contents of our lives from spilling out into the great unknown.

But just try speaking out against the boxes. Better yet, try pointing them out to people. Chances are they will just look at you blankly, as if you are speaking Martian. Those few who understand what you are saying will most likely tell you that these sorts of boxes are necessary in order to maintain a semblance of order; that without them there would be chaos and anarchy; that without them no progress would be made; that there would be no control.

And there lies the real truth. Boxes were designed to confine, to contain. Boxes were designed to impose order on chaos and lend a semblance of organization to anarchy. Boxes, whether of the everyday, ordinary sort that we live in and purchase off the shelf, or the kind that can not be seen but holds us just as firmly as any material box ever could; were designed so that things, places and people, could be controlled.

Do you want to be controlled? Do you want to have someone else deciding what you should do, where you should go, and when you should feel afraid? Then remain in your box, the reality would probably scare you to death.

The truth is that byond the confines of the box there are worlds waiting, ideas laying in wait, truths lurking and mountains of information just waiting to be discovered.

All you have to do is step outside of the box.

[hrishi]

--xx--x-

[sshenry]

Oh no, never blast, it would be too upsetting for those who are not ready to leave the comfort of their box/nest yet. They'll discover it for themselves eventually.

But for those who are ready, for those who are itching to slough off the cardboard, a step beyond the box can do wonders for the mind

[Satisfiction]

This is the theme song of the TV Show 'Weeds' (yes that kind of weed).


Little Boxes
by Malvina Reynolds

Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky
Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses all went to the university
Where they were put in boxes and they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and there's lawyers, and business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course and drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children and the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp and then to the university
Where they are put in boxes and they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.




Note... my tagline is all about breaking free of the box I came up with it when I was doing my own personal 'break free' from religious concepts of a boxed God. Now I'm on to the society part.

[sshenry]

ticky taky boxes for a cookie cutter world

[sshenry]

I love your tag line by the way, Satisfiction Great reminder!

[MiamiSound]

Think outside the bun

[Zen O]

I realized, soon after my awakening at 24 yrs old. That my apartment was not just a box, but a rat trap. One that I paid so much of my income for, that I felt I should spend as much time as I could in it. Just so I could get my money's worth out of it. Then I sat around and watched pictures in a box. Pictures of people having a life. A life that I no longer had because I was getting my money's worth out of my boxes.

Then I moved out of the big box, and gave away the little box. I got a VW Bus, a real "Box on wheels" that had my bed in the back. Then at least I could find myself somewhere else. The mountains, the beach, a concert or a friend's house, anytime I decided to "Step out of the box".

And I did it all...without boxing gloves

[sshenry]

Love it Zen O. My husband has always wanted a VW Microbus, he wants to paint it like the dream machine (go figure).

Just as long as I don't have to be Velma

[Zen O]

Love it Zen O. My husband has always wanted a VW Microbus, he wants to paint it like the dream machine (go figure).

Just as long as I don't have to be Velma

I have a cyber friend on Hawaii that is a hippie style artist. You should see her VW bus (here): http://people.tribe.net/hopper

[Calibas]

Don't you guys watch the news on TV? There's scary shit outside your box! Things like muggers, murderers, pedophiles, rapists, wars, disease, lies, conflict, evil and Satan.
Didn't your parents tell you this? Didn't they warn you about strangers? 99.99% of planet earth is strangers! Your parents wouldn't lie to you, unless perhaps they were ignorant it was a lie... You should listen to your parents, the bible says so.

It's safe in the box. I can lock the doors in my house or car to protect me from evil-doers. I can connect to the world through the Internet, another box. The Internet is safe, I'm anonymous, just another faceless person in an enormous crowd.

My box doesn't reflect me, I'm simply stuck inside.

[xandermalcom]

First of all sshenry I want to let you know that you are one of the few people I enjoy viewing a post from. A little more thought and a little less self fluffing of egos would do IS much good.

I could not get the quote operation to work so here is the quote take from Calibas.


"Don't you guys watch the news on TV? There's scary shit outside your box! Things like muggers, murderers, pedophiles, rapists, wars, disease, lies, conflict, evil and Satan.
Didn't your parents tell you this? Didn't they warn you about strangers? 99.99% of planet earth is strangers! Your parents wouldn't lie to you, unless perhaps they were ignorant it was a lie... You should listen to your parents, the bible says so.

It's safe in the box. I can lock the doors in my house or car to protect me from evil-doers. I can connect to the world through the Internet, another box. The Internet is safe, I'm anonymous, just another faceless person in an enormous crowd.

My box doesn't reflect me, I'm simply stuck inside."


The properties of a box are that it contains things. Where in the definition of a box is there a judgement of the "good" or "evil" of the box? Well that would have to be considering how the box was used, right? Even when considering the intent of a man using a box you still have the same outcome; the box was intended to contain. Wherein lies the evil of the box then?

I am a stoic. I was since before I knew what a stoic was. A common phrase I use is

"If you can change a situation, do it. But if you cannot change the situation then you need to adapt to the new situation"

You cannot always change what you want to. But you can alway decide how you will react to what happens.

Ever been assulted in the streets by the bad men of which you speak?

I was walking down HWY 99 in Vancouver WA with a couple of friends when a white SUV stopped at a light next to where we were walkin. My friend Adam starting talking shit to the people in the car for no reason in particular.

Three of them stepped out of the car and came walking towards us. Two of my friends just kept on walking, my buddy adam stepped back 20 ft behind me. The driver opened the backseat door of the car and pulled out a metal bat.

Most people I would say would choose to be afraid at this point counting on the evil in those people to be so great that they must surely leave or be victims of pain.

I tell you from my personal experience that NO PERSON MAKES A DECISION THEY THINK IS THE WRONG CHOICE AT THE MOMENT! At the moment of choices almost unanimously the person somehow reasons out why they are making the right choice at the time.

I stood and waited for the three to approach me, gratefully they did not surround me but rather all stood in front of me while I spoke to them.

I told them that this situation was going bad places for dumb reasons, that my friend just likes to talk shit but there was no real harm done so there was no reason to get physical about things right now. Everyone could walk away and nothing would happen.

I know there are a lot of people who do bad things, but people like that have made a line of decision based on their life and beliefs that sometimes makes them confused about the right choice. But there is a tender side of humanity to every being who feels emotion, the zombies of war who are trained until they have no emotions are the only kind of people I believe cannot be reasoned with.

So lets get back to the box. In your mind you say there are bad people out there. I tell you there are only good people who make bad choices sometimes. The conception you have of a person being either good or bad is simply illogical. The person is neither good nor bad, they are just a person. And every person makes good or bad decisions sometimes so there is no use in trying to put people in catagorical boxes.

There is an art to being able to talk down a person who is extremely dangerous, they are called negotiators, artisins of words.

All boxes do is contain. Contain what you want to but I would try to be careful. When you box something up like the idea that there is a world full of strangers out to get you than you are only putting yourself and everyone you know into the box, not them. You are containing yourself from the rest of the world because you are afraid of it.

Jesus said we should love on another. If you fear the mugger or rapist than you cannot love them. When you love them you would try to understand them and when you understand them you would begin to pity them and once you pity them then the words you need to say to reach the person you now love will just come.

You can either change yourself to overcome the new situation or you can struggle endlessly to resist what you cannot change.

Consider your house. You somehow feel that because you are inside of that box that you are safe. This is not true. There are many ways to break into a house and into cars and into very important government buildings. The box is not the safety. This is wrong observation.

Your safety comes from how you treat people. If you try to be a reasonably nice person than because you give noone a reason to be angry at you than noone decides to raid your box. Your interactions are your safety. So how much safer will you be when you are generously kind to all you meet? If you can be kind without an agenda than you could possibly touch the lives of many of the people you would consider evil. And when they feel kindness the natural human reaction is to give that kindness to another.

Certain boxes like the television keep reminding people of all the danger out there to keep people afraid and isolated. If people were not afraid and where kind and did not listen to reports of unkindness than I could pretty much garauntee world peace.

So again be careful what boxes you want to be put in.

I put strangers I meet into the box of possible teachers. I dont alway feel like learning so Im not always talking to strangers but a lot of times I do and I learn. I found this box useful.

peace out
devin

[sshenry]

This is not a response to any particluar post above, (though I want to thank everyone who has responded!) - simply an observation to add to my original thought:

Like the Tao, or the enregy inside the nucleus of an atom, a box simply IS. There is nothing "right" or "wrong" about a box; nothing "good" or "evil". Boxes are tools. They are tools that we have used to organize the chaos (this applies to physical boxes, and those we construct for ourselves out of beliefs and expectations).

It is HOW we use the object - the energy - that determines its nature. Do we use the boxes we've constructed (and I'm speaking here mainly of the invisible boxes - those constructed out of ideas and traditions that I mentioned in my original post). Do we use the boxes to shut ourselves IN or to shut the world OUT?

Just a thought

[Zen O]

I appreciate your views Devin, and agree quite strongly. But in reading the post by Calibas I do believe he was joking, while pointing out a commonly held concept. At least it did make me laugh, while pointing out a generally held interpretation of what many in the world seem to believe.

And yes there CAN be dangers out there. But most often they are not nearly as bad as ones fear about them can make them appear. I have lived outside for years. and once in a while something could happen. But if you sleep amongst the shadows, you are less likely to be seen and/or messed with. I do not recommend it for those who can not protect themselves, dependent on the possible dangers of any given location. But with creativity one can make the wisest use of any particular set of surroundings. I recall once sleeping under a docking platform on the edge of Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles. I had to sleep at a 45 degree angle, but no one even thought to look for me there. The only danger was when I awoke in the middle of the night, not remembering where I went to sleep. It was pitch black, and I sat up and banged my head on an I beam that supported the platform.

Out in the jungle I don't have a house, so "bad guys" don't know where to look for me. I could be anywhere, or not. And yes, I have spent years doing security, being able to put myself in my opponents shoes, and talking him out of having to fight. I still recommend that one be prepared for an all out battle before attempting to convince a possibly stronger attacker. Peace is always easier to convince "bad guys" into, if you do also have the choice of pounding their ignorant @ss into the ground. Peace through strength, but peace first.

So for the moment, I am appreciative of the box I am looking into, and the kind words and knowledge that can be shared within it. Everything in moderation, including the use of boxes.

[Dual]

...

[Calibas]

My above post was design to shed light on some of the fears inside of us.

I remember about eight months ago I decided to face my fear of being attacked. I was genuinely curious about what it felt like to get jumped and decided I would like to find out first hand. This probably sounds crazy, but for the most part I've stopped fearing bodily harm, due to me dissociating with the physical body and realizing the large yet subtle difference between pain and suffering.
Well, guess what happened the next day. I got jumped by three young guys. I took a couple blows but didn't fight back and when they surrounded me I broke free and ran. The experience helped me to get rid of the idea that violence solves problems.

[afontones]

open the box with a quiet anticipation, savor the moment of being freed

kind of like opening a present =]

[sshenry]

My above post was design to shed light on some of the fears inside of us.

I remember about eight months ago I decided to face my fear of being attacked. I was genuinely curious about what it felt like to get jumped and decided I would like to find out first hand. This probably sounds crazy, but for the most part I've stopped fearing bodily harm, due to me dissociating with the physical body and realizing the large yet subtle difference between pain and suffering.
Well, guess what happened the next day. I got jumped by three young guys. I took a couple blows but didn't fight back and when they surrounded me I broke free and ran. The experience helped me to get rid of the idea that violence solves problems.

Odd, isn't it, how sometimes it takes the very things that we fear happening to us- the very things we are trying to protect ourselves from - to show us just how counter productive many of our "fears" are.

[sshenry]

that is a great text sshenry, i probably should get offended since i engage in sociological theories but im not, i actually think we should remove the boxes, or atleast the lids of these boxes, maybe paint them brighter.

See? You can step outside of the box long enough to appreciate the beauty and necessity of them - at least for the world as it currently stands.

[Roier]

I have not an opinion, just that I liked it.

Well thats my opinion., hehe.

I would like to write something inspired or colaborate with something, but nothings come to mind, your post says it all.

Nice one.