What blows your mind?

[skcin]

And I do mean your MIND, not other body parts. Preverts.

I watched that "Into The West" miniseries that was just on TNT. It wasn't exactly stellar (although I was impressed with much of the acting, esp. the woman that played Margaret Light Shines and the older Jacob Wheeler & his wife.)

But I kept thinking "wow, this was only 125 years ago!" Not very long at all. I find it almost impossible to comprehend how different things are (good and bad) in the U.S. now compared to then. To think that people did not even have running water & electricity, and suddenly (well, pretty suddenly) here we are with computers & phones & Ipods & cars & movies & paved roads & refrigerators & TVs....the list goes on & on. Amazing. It also amazed & saddened me that way American Indians were pushed off of their land & out of their homes & treated like dirt. I am ashamed.

A few other things:

The natural beauty of the earth. Whether it be bodies of water, or rock formations, or dense forests. Weather blows my mind to.

The fact that the human body is so intricate, and that a sperm & an egg can form a human being. So many things can go wrong during development - sometimes they do, yet they usually don't & there you have it, a perfectly developed baby.

Numbers of people. It doesn't matter if I'm thinking about the entire earth's population, or India's or even Buffalo; or the number of people killed in disasters, or how many have died of AIDS or how many are starving right now. I simply cannot fathom such enormous numbers of people.

Racism & bigotry. So many people have so much hate in their hearts & minds. I can't understand it.

Stuff. The amount of stuff we have, so much of it useless. Look around at all the stuff you have - what's it for? Think of all the people who have just as much stuff as you do, if not more. Where does it go when you get rid of it - won't we eventually run out of room to throw out our stuff? And at the same time, more people/factories/companies are making MORE stuff! AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH! I can't think about it anymore.

What blows your mind?

[DrummerDeanna]

I totally know what you mean about the history thing - when I watch Little House on the Praire (shut up ) I just think about how all that stuff that they so inaccurately portray was not that long ago in the grand scheme of things....it's crazy.

Also - the amount of stuff we have - I think about that a lot - and how pretty much all of it is useless in the grand scheme of things - I have things around to entertain myself - but I try not to get too materialistic.

The night sky always blows my mind. I can sit/lay and stare at the sky forever...

Airplanes and the whole flying thing blows my mind...and fightens me - how they keep a multi-ton hunk of metal full of people in the air is beyond me - and I LOVE flying through or over clouds...BLOWS MY MIND!

[wondergirl9847]

I agree with what ya'll said. I sometimes cannot even wrap my brain around things. The fact that everything in our body has a certain job to keep us alive, even nose hair has a purpose. LOL

About the hatred/racism thing too, I cannot even fathom how you can hate a human being so much ONLY because of their race/because they are not the same as you. We are all sooooo different, yet the same! Our bodies are only shells for our souls. I didn't choose my body, nor my soul....God granted me this body/soul/life. I DO however choose how to use it and I wanna care, I wanna love everyone. It's extremely difficult to love all humans because of their hatred/violent ways, but I know it's the right thing to do.

Airplanes. I hate being in a plane, but it's a necessary (evil LOL) thing. It's still mind-blowing to be in one though.

The fact that our planet is suspended, just hanging there. The sun and moon are there for a reason, for control. The universe and everything in it blows my mind. God created the most amazing stuff.

I'm always amazed at how music touches my heart and soul so deeply. It can make you cry, laugh, feel anger, it's awesome.

[GateandGarden]

The human body really blows my mind as well. I've always been particularly intrigued by the heart. Its persistence and strength baffle me, as well as the mystery of what makes those muscles begin to contract and expand and work together so precisely. The sounds of the valves have always captivated me, too.

I'm also blown away by people who can draw and paint very well. It's something I can't even begin to do so it amazes me.

The idea of living medieval times blows my mind. Feces all over the streets and entire families sleeping in beds together...oh, and no one has properly showered. Also, very, very few people have any grasp of science, and not only is religious fundamentalism prevalent, it's even more ridiculous than the kind we know today. Superstitutions we consider asinine were valid beliefs. But those who were not rich spent so much time working for so little pay and no real rewards that they didn't really have time to ponder other belief systems, I don't think. (I had to read A World Lit Only By Fire a few semesters ago for a history class, and it blew me away).

Prejudice really befuddles me. How one can't realize that his or her reality is not the same as everyone else's and rightfully so is beyond me. For example, the fact that someone can say that the only valid sexual orientation is heterosexuality is really something to me. It's hard for me to believe that people can't see that they are partial to their own realities because it's easier to see things from your own point of view and that is what makes many prejudiced statements flawed.

The night sky blows my mind. Before I took an astronomy class (which was horribly, horribly difficult but at least I got a couple of things out of it) I had no real concept of the vastness of the universe. The distance of the stars outside my window is unfathomable to me. How tiny Earth is relative to the universe itself and many of its bodies is an enigma to me. It's obvious to me that we can't possibly be the only creatures in it.

[WildInTheWind]

THe universe blows my mind. The thought of never ending....it just keeps going. Back in my acid days that thought would keep me entertained for hours. Just trying to fathom the thought of endlessness. It still blows my mind, I just don't let it get to me or try to make sense of it anymore!
The ocean gets me, too. When I sit and look at it at night is when I am really amazed by what a power it is.

[xxxmx]

technology blows my mind. why does a cd play music? how does that burner put music onto a disc? how does it know what to burn? i don't see anything, what happened? who came up with that? who came up with tapes? vinyl? it's a needle scraping over vinyl, how does that make music? if i scratch circles into vinyl, can i play it? mindblown just typing it out!

water. i sit at the marina at night and just look out at nothing. there may be a few lights out there somewhere coming from a boat, but aside from that there's nothing. and it goes for forever. forevah. much too creepy to sit on the beach at night.

math. blows my mind in a very negative way.

[WildInTheWind]

Originally Posted by xxxmx

technology blows my mind. why does a cd play music? how does that burner put music onto a disc? how does it know what to burn? i don't see anything, what happened? who came up with that? who came up with tapes? vinyl? it's a needle scraping over vinyl, how does that make music? if i scratch circles into vinyl, can i play it? mindblown just typing it out!

water. i sit at the marina at night and just look out at nothing. there may be a few lights out there somewhere coming from a boat, but aside from that there's nothing. and it goes for forever. forevah. much too creepy to sit on the beach at night.

math. blows my mind in a very negative way.

I agree on the math thing. I never understood it. No beach at night?! I love the beach at night.

[xxxmx]

Originally Posted by WildInTheWind

No beach at night?! I love the beach at night.

very scary if you go it alone. plus, clearwater beach is lightning-strike central. two people were struck last week alone. if i'm sitting on a beach getting zapped, i want to know that someone else saw it happen.

[GateandGarden]

Originally Posted by xxxmx

math. blows my mind in a very negative way.

And mine too

[WildInTheWind]

Originally Posted by xxxmx

very scary if you go it alone. plus, clearwater beach is lightning-strike central. two people were struck last week alone. if i'm sitting on a beach getting zapped, i want to know that someone else saw it happen.

Yea getting zapped by lightning wouldn't be much fun! The beaches I've been to at night I didn't see any lightning, execpt waaaayy out in the ocean. And I was never alone.

[AliceLover]

Originally Posted by GateandGarden

And mine too

math is an absolute nightmare for me. I had such a nightmare this year which math. I had to switch out of classes and levels it was terrible. I just don't get it. My guidance counselor and teacher don't seem to understand that I am terrible at it and I need extra help. They think when they explain it once everyone has it. And if you need extra help that you need to come the day after they teach it. WE HAVE LIVES ABD 6 OTHER CLASSES WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF. I hate my school. I wish I was at public school. So far private highschool has been terrible. Im so depressed all the time just due to school.

[GateandGarden]

Originally Posted by AliceLover

math is an absolute nightmare for me. I had such a nightmare this year which math. I had to switch out of classes and levels it was terrible. I just don't get it. My guidance counselor and teacher don't seem to understand that I am terrible at it and I need extra help. They think when they explain it once everyone has it. And if you need extra help that you need to come the day after they teach it. WE HAVE LIVES ABD 6 OTHER CLASSES WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF. I hate my school. I wish I was at public school. So far private highschool has been terrible. Im so depressed all the time just due to school.

That's pretty much how high school was for me, too. I failed Algebra II the first time I took it and that was awful because I generally made good grades. My report card that year literally had straight As and an F in Algebra. It seemed that no one had much sympathy other than my parents. The math and history teachers were the worst at my school. The people who needed help in math weren't really getting it. I can remember being confused every single day. I just sat there not having any idea what was going on. I literally wrote complete bull**** on my tests because I had no idea how to do anything. It was a nightmare. I was at a public school, not a private one, but I think my experience has probably been quite similar to yours. But don't worry, Jimmy, because these things do get much better. The nightmare is over now that I'm in college. Math is much easier now (and more elementary because they don't require much math of English majors) and when I've needed help I've been able to get it. It does get better.

[WildInTheWind]

Originally Posted by AliceLover

math is an absolute nightmare for me. I had such a nightmare this year which math. I had to switch out of classes and levels it was terrible. I just don't get it. My guidance counselor and teacher don't seem to understand that I am terrible at it and I need extra help. They think when they explain it once everyone has it. And if you need extra help that you need to come the day after they teach it. WE HAVE LIVES ABD 6 OTHER CLASSES WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF. I hate my school. I wish I was at public school. So far private highschool has been terrible. Im so depressed all the time just due to school.

I was the same way when it came to math. It just didn't make sense. I almost failed summer school I was so bad at it! My private school sucked ass, too.

[littlecricket2]

I was wondering when math would show up on people's lists. Well, I'm a high school math teacher and I'm working on a master's where part of my degree requires graduate level math courses, and I can tell you that even if you're mathematically inclined, certain aspects of it will blow your mind anyway, LOL. Hillary knows how much topology is blowing my mind, . By the way--I just got back from a 7-hour topology homework marathon! (Hillary and some others on here will know what I mean).

Let's see, other things which blow my mind:

Aeronautics is a good one! Also how there can still be so many unwanted pregnancies (ones that aren't the result of rape) in this day and age when there are so many methods of contraception available.

People who seem to draw from an unlimited well of creativity blow my mind: people like musicians, artists, etc., who can seem to make something out of nothing.

The fact that the media can so successfully pull the wool over our eyes with regards to the Bush administration's antics, and feed us crap like what Lindsey Lohan's latest temper tantrum was about instead, blows my mind.

[GateandGarden]

Originally Posted by littlecricket2

By the way--I just got back from a 7-hour topology homework marathon! (Hillary and some others on here will know what I mean).

Yes, add that to my list! Those topology notes of yours that I've seen definitely blow my mind!