Values

Hello blog readers of 2011.

I suppose today is the day I will be discussing the three most important values I hold.

Before starting this bog I would like to preface by saying these aren't necessarily always my top values since my values seem to change with the different stages of my life. I think this is true for everyone. Values seem to come and go depending on what is most pressing currently in your life. Now i'm not saying one loses interest in certain values or that everyone lacks integrity. All I am trying to say is that the values that one considers the most important seems to change over time. That at least is true for me. I always have the same group of values. The ones I cherish the most however change from time to time. Since this is true for me,  it makes it a bit difficult to pinpoint my top three values, but I will say, for the most part, these are the ones that have been fairly consistent no matter what has been happening in my life. (So I suppose they are my "top" values.)

The first value that has been very stagnant in my life in open-mindedness. Within the last four years of my life I believe this has been the most prevalent value I have acquired. Maybe its because of my own personality. Maybe I acquired it because of some of the situations I have had to deal with. Either way I admire and respect people with open minds. Now i'm not saying that one shouldn't stick to their values, but when a valid argument is brought against your own I think a revision of your own views is necessary. When a revision isn't made I think it borders on ignorance and I hate ignorance haha(if someone wants to show me how its not I would love to hear it (trying to be openminded)). Ok, that might have offended some people so my apologies. Anyways I think that open-mindedness is a great trait for someone to possess and that it leads to improvement of ideas and society in general. What if society was close-minded ... say around the time of the geocentric model of our galaxy ( and yes I know they weren't completely receptive to the idea at the time, but they ended up "opening" their minds.) If they stayed close minded we would still believe that we were the center of our galaxy even though we now know that the sun is the true center. Just trying to back up my value haha.

OK this guy might annoy you a little but I think this video makes some great points about being open minded.

And on to my next value. That is my value of honesty. Honesty speaks a lot about a person and what kind of relationship you have with that person. I believe you can completely understand a relationship from the level of honesty that is present. The better the relationship the more honest you are to one another. Even when the truth will hurt someone I believe the result of telling them will be better than keeping someone in the dark. White lies are only needed if you don't have a good relationship with person. Although I say this and although this value is one of the most important, it is probably the hardest in practice. Every value only becomes a character trait once it is "practiced" in life. I am working on this however because the consequences of a lie outweigh the consequences of telling the truth or said in a different fashion "coming clean."

While i'm discussing the value of honesty, I thought I might share this honest 4 Loko commercial.

Recently I believed that my third most appreciated value was encompassed best by the term hard work. That was until I had a discussion with my brother Eli. After that discussion I believe passion provides a better description of this value. Passion. Its amazing. So many different aspects of a person's personality can be explained by their passion. What they value in life, how seriously they take their work, how they love, what fascinates them. These are just a few of the many things that can be explained by a person's passion. I feel like it is this all encompassing trait of how one faces the different tasks and issues life throws at him. It literally describes everything, which is why I value it so much. I always wish to express my passion to the world, but sometimes I feel I do a poor job haha. Anyways, it is probably the one value that is impossible to express through words. Passion is shown through actions and that is definitely something I have to work on.

Well I feel I went a little to long with this so i'll spare you a last video.
Peace out.