Food for Thought

I tend to share a lot of articles or links that I found really interesting on my Facebook, and I’d like to do the same on my blog. Sometimes they interest me so much that I feel compelled to write a full blog entry on. Other times, I will post them together with maybe some highlights and a couple of my thoughts. If anything, social media and the internet are really great the way we can share so much.

This article has been circling all over my Facebook, so I took a look at it. It is amazing, and clearly this is why everyone wishes to share it, as I hope to share it with you. Here’s a small gem from the article: “If anything, pure happiness is linked to not helping others in need…” There’s More to Life Than Being Happy – and I believe it. I think the generation of twentysomethings are continually battling with the pressing need of being happy, when they should be looking for what will make their lives meaningful. I am still figuring out what exactly makes my life meaningful, but I’m slowly getting there. Have you discovered what makes your life meaningful?

Who said you can’t put a dollar value on a life? Nadia Taha took a stab at it in The Cost, in Dollars, of Raising a Child. I’m sure many people disagree with what she attempts to do, since most people take having children as a given. Still, I thought it was worth a read since it does greatly impact one’s life. It does come off really cynically (if we all stop having children because of money, clearly humans would die out), but it does amaze me how expensive everything is today. Then again, this article can easily be read through the lens of the above article since it mentions that parenthood adds meaning to one’s life, but often is shown with a decreased happiness level.

China’s Great Shame – The Great Famine is still a forbidden topic in China — unless you want to say it’s because of the unrecorded natural disasters. I remember first really learning about this topic in a government class at Harvard. I had heard of Mao’s Great Famine before, but only in numbers. X amount starved. It was a tragedy. While the number in itself is ghastly, the true horror to me were the conditions that caused it. The ambition, the lying, the hoarding. Communist members hoarded the rice from the peasants. This truly was a man-made disaster that continues to break my heart. Admiration goes out to the author, Yang Jisheng, who is risking his life to spread the message of this horrible event.

If you weren’t aware, sex education in America is pretty damn shitty. I’m amazed we even know how to do it, all things considered.

Read anything good lately? Share it with me!