Things That I Believe

I believe that when broken down to its simplest form, a person's life is made up of alternating periods of time spent happily and unhappily. No matter what events take place, one's sense of things gets worse and at some point recovers, and it starts over again.

I believe that money and material things are meaningless and possess very little appeal. Money is necessary to survive and live comfortably, but so long as all needs are taken care of, then being mostly content makes sense.

I believe that people and their feelings matter more than any part of the tangible world. And also more than the selfishness that rules some individuals. I believe that people are selfish creatures by nature, but I do not agree with making selfish things your priority and at the expense of another person's emotions.

I believe in questioning everything. Accepting something because its what you're told and without any other reason is ignorant and promotes further ignorance.
I believe that to feel emotion in place of rationalizing thought is counter-productive and should be discouraged. That's not to say that I believe feelings should have no part in decisions and other actions. But I believe it's important to examine emotions while always identifying what their cause is, and determining whether or not it makes sense. If you don't know why you feel a certain way, I would suggest giving it very little weight.

I believe that a person is not defined by the things they do or don't do. How much should that matter? I think no less of someone flipping burgers than a successful multi-million dollar businessperson.

I think everyone that wants trust from someone else, should be allowed the benefit of the doubt and given a fair chance. I believe that you should let them have that benefit until they betray the trust and then they should lose it.

Although sometimes it is useless, I do believe that forgiveness is one of the greatest forces in the world.

I believe that writing of any creative kind has no rules whatsoever. If someone tells you writing creatively has certain rules, fuck whatever they say.