Imitation or mimic is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another’s behavior. Imitation is also a form of social learning that leads to the “development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. It allows for the transfer of information (behaviours, customs, etc.) between individuals and through generations without the need for genetic inheritance.” The word imitation can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to international politics.
Category Archives: Self-help
Excess in Moderation…
My grandmother lived to age 97 on scotch, shrimp, cigarettes and iced coffee – rarely drinking water, except as a splash in her scotch. She joked that water would rust her pipes. Her aerobics were a bridge game twice a week and tending her roses. Occasionally, she flexed her gossip muscles, and she was always thin with a zest for life. The only time that she fainted was in the ‘50’s when she went on the new-fangled, ‘expert suggested’, vegetarian diet to lose a few. Other than that she was healthy until the day she died.
One summer holiday, she panicked noticing her grandchildren were eating watermelon and ice cream together. She warned that this combination could make us lose our minds because years ago a friend of hers had gone crazy after eating this mix and had to be put into an asylum. Hearing this story, our childish giggles rang out. But even as we laughed, we also worried that it might be true.
In my early teens, being a ballet dancer, my physical reflection in the classroom mirror became a constant critical adversary. Thin at 5’3” and 90 pounds, every meal was magnified in the mirror of my distorted body image. So, I starved myself, going days without food, until so overcome with cravings for grease and fat. I’d succumb to double orders of fries or a bag of Fritos dipped in peanut butter. This bizarre eating ritual kept my frame fragilely thin, but over time my energy to dance was diminished. My usually glowing skin became sallow and I was irritable most all the time.
Driven by a quest for solution and innate curiosity, while not only wanting to be thin, but healthy and energetic, I scoured through books and women’s magazines about everything concerning health, diet and nutrition. There wasn’t as much written on those subjects in those days.
So on my own, I tried different combinations of foods, using my body as an experimental lab. I found that if I ate only protein, the weight would drop off, but leave me with less energy. Eating mostly carbohydrates, my body stayed trim except a bit puffy, but I had more energy. After trial and error, I found my best fuel was a bit of everything with focus on lean meats, vegetables, and fruits, limiting sugar and flour with intake to match my energy out go, pretty much the same diet that my mother offered up.
Each one of us has varying needs and body chemistry. A vegetarian diet might work for one, but can be disastrous for another. And it’s possible that certain combinations of food or supplements may create the atmosphere for predisposed individuals to become allergic, physically ill, or even go “crazy.” That lady friend of my grandmother’s combining watermelon and ice cream in one afternoon could very well have triggered a unique chemical reaction in her body that affected her mind. Enough so, that her behavior was attributed to this mix which shows that our perceptions concerning food can lead to all sorts of results and misconceptions about what we should or should not eat and in what combinations.
Our current information has become more in-depth and sophisticated or has it? Should we eat ‘expert-suggested’ amounts and combinations? Eat carbs or not? Restrict meat consumption or have more? Dairy is good or dairy is bad? Keep a daily journal about what we consume or don’t think about it at all? Count calories or cholesterol levels? Eat more complex sugars or less? Eat only raw food or cook our food thoroughly? Eat real butter or fake? Eat real sugar instead of chemical based substitutes? Take vitamins, mineral or herbal supplements, or rely that what’s needed will be supplied by eating a variety of foods? Follow the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid or eat a triangle of pizza? Drink wine occasionally, and is it red or white that’s best, or abstain all together? Take a mysterious little pill that ‘magically’ releases fat from our systems even though a great deal of time will be spent in restrooms? Or eat anything desired and workout 24 hours a day?
Is it about what we eat or about what’s eating us? Eat a little, eat a lot, eat many small meals a day or three squares, eat certain combinations, but watch out for others lest we ‘ lose our mixed-up’ minds a bit more about what to eat? Or should we forget about it all and sit down with a big bag of chips and beer, as it’s all so conflicting, confusing and changing?
How about “Moderation in all things.” Publius Terentius Afer, 190 BC – a recommendation that’s been around for quite awhile. OR is Oscar Wilde’s suggestion best, “Moderation is a fatal thing, nothing succeeds like excess”?
Who really knows for sure, but anyone for some watermelon and ice cream?
Our individual, internal moral adjuster…
We all have one and they are all different. It’s that internal place in each one of us that tells us and decides what is right, what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. It’s created in us by the time and place we are born, our environment, our teachers, our parents, our education, all of our experiences and situations, ultimately, it’s who we are at our deepest level. It’s our core. It’s our conscience. It’s our soul.
1 “I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall
have no other gods before Me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved
image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down
to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of
those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep
My Commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in
vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor
and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male
servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is
within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the
sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5 “Honor your father and your
mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is
giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit
adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you
shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female
servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your
neighbor’s.”
Raise America’s standards…
.. so that America can get back to excellence. America has been lowering her standards for decades to make everyone ‘fit’ in and to ‘feel’ equal. Well, we are all equal in the eyes of God, but we are not individual in that opportunity. We are all born with different strengths and weaknessess.
Cognitive dissonance, one reason Liberals and Atheists may behave as they do…
As an artist you see things that others don’t…
and reveal it to them. So they will see things differently, from another viewpoint and perspective and know….
Inmates running the asylum…
An interesting dynamic…
Have you noticed when someone hurts you, they don’t like to be reminded of it, or to go over it, if you have the need to, in order, that they understand the full, extent of the damage they have done?
Eyes can betray and eyes can reveal…
What are the reasons that you won’t, don’t, will, or do look someone in the eye?
Would you take dating advice from…
….someone who has never been married or had a successful enduring relationship? Would you take financial advice from someone broke, or who has financial issues, as in lived above their means and was deeply in debt? Would you take diet advice from a fat person? (Oprah) Would you take child rearing advice from someone who never had children, or ever worked and engaged with them in a real enduring and meaningful way? (Oprah) Would you take marriage advice from someone who had never been married? Would you want to be guided spiritually by someone who lived a life displaying low standards and morals, as in affairs, addictions, etc.? (Clergy, etc. who cheat on their wives, lie, commit all sorts of perversions.) Would you take life advice from someone whose life is a mess? (Psycologists, with out of control children, addictions,who have affairs with married people, or their clients.)