The Bra Street Rambler

“Any problem can be solved with a little ingenuity.” -MacGyver Most of us know who MacGyver is. Even if you were born long after Richard Dean Anderson was doing his secret agent thing on air, years before the creation of Colonel Jack O'Neill, chances are good you still know what it meas to be a MacGyver. If for no other reason, you know him because of Patty and Selma from Simpsons. In short, for those of you who do not know who he was, MacGyver was a fictional United States secret agent that was known for his resourcefulness. He could get himself out of the most difficult situations using only what was available to him. Now, granted the situations were a little outrageous but the message remains the same: where there is a will, there is a way.  Sadly, I feel this is a message that is rapidly going extinct within our society. Resourcefulness is a quality quickly being beat down by a vicious monster called laziness. Even something as simple as finding a phone number has...

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” -Chinese Proverb Every day we learn something new. Something about the world, something about those around us, something about ourselves. Everyday we are offered many learning opportunities but how many of those opportunities do we recognize and learn from? How many do we take a close enough look at to learn all that we can? Since beginning this blog, I have been forced to take a closer look at what I have learned, what I know, and what I am learning. In it's own right, this blog has been one of my greatest learning opportunities. Creative outlets are great that way, hobbies in general really. They allow us to push ourselves, to go beyond our established capabilities, to learn what we are capable of when we set our minds to it. For the longest time, I have struggled with writers block. Or at least, I thought that's what it was. I would start writing a new story.... and that's it. I could plan, an...

Last week, I talked about working towards a better understanding of those around us in order to invite understanding and to feel less alone in this great big world, but that was only one part of the equation. Wouldn't it be easier for others to understand you if you were first capable of understanding yourself? Now I know, a lot of you may say “What are you talking about? I know myself, I understand myself.” and while this may be true for some, it is far from being true for all. If you would have asked me just years ago if I knew myself, I would have said yes without hesitation and argued anyone who said otherwise. In fact, several years ago, someone very dear to me did ask me. They looked me in the eyes and asked “Who are you?” I of course, was confused and responded something along the lines of “I'm me, what do you mean?” But you see, he wasn't asking me what my name was, of what family I came from, or any of the topical definitions of self that one would ask ...

Lonelyyyy, I’m Mr. Lonelyyyy, I got nobodyyyy for my own. You know the song, that really annoying song by Akon. I don’t think there is a single one of us that has not, at some point in our lives, felt alone. Whether you are actually alone in the middle of a figurative wasteland, or awash in a sea of people, no one escapes without getting hit square in the chest from time to time by that feeling of longing to be connected and understood. The weird truth in all of this? That sense of loneliness that we all feel at times, is exactly what ensures that we are never truly alone. It is the one thing we can all, on some small level, understand. It is one of those few things we all share in common.  No matter how much you hide your bad day, no matter how hard you try to wear your mask and pretend everything is alright, part of you always hopes that someone will know you well enough to notice the little things about you and see right through the facade. Someone who knows you so w...

None of us are strangers to fear, we all have boggarts in our closets waiting to catch us off guard and sometimes it can be quite difficult to think of something funny to defeat it with. I mean, if only life were as easy as picturing Professor Snape in an ugly vulture hat! Alas, things are not so simple. When we are young, we fear the monsters in our closets and under our beds. As we grow up, we realize that our monsters have become far more dangerous because hiding under the blankets no longer hides us from them. No, as we get older we learn that the monsters are on the same side of the blanket. What used to be under our bed, is now all in our head. Whether it be the fear that we will fail, the fear that we will disappoint, or the fear that we will be hurt, whether it be the fear of spiders, clowns, or even olives, when it comes to fear it is all the same. That anxiety that keeps building, the tight feeling in your throat, the nausea, the fight or flight feeling that le...