How to Introduce Someone to Your Favorite Long-Running TV Show

Most of us have a favorite streaming show and we often want to tell the world about it. Our favorite shows define us and those most pivotal episodes shape our consciousness.

Lights, Camera, Satisfaction!

I contend that I learned about life and death by watching Star Trek. Does that make me weird? Yes. But it shows how humans learn life lessons and are improved by the stories we watch.

These distilled (or stretched unnecessarily) presentations of 8, 30, or 200 episodes come to symbolize our own struggles or triumphs in life.

They are the equivalent of what true life experiences used to mean to people in the pioneer days. (And wouldn’t those pioneers love the first season of Yellowstone? They really missed out.)

The Fatal Flaw of Starting at the Beginning

But how do we convince others of our favorite show’s greatness? It seems starting from the beginning is the obvious answer. The first episode. Yet, sometimes, with a series that’s been cranking out stories for years, leading with the first episode is a terrible idea.

Your goal shouldn’t always be to douse potential viewers in a decade-long plot thread or expose them to a long-running relationship “will-they or won’t-they.” You need to get them hooked, but exposing them to too much drama and information might do just the opposite.

Did Hurley Have a Window Seat?

First episodes don’t always grab the viewer like they should. With shows like “Lost” that do a great job from the first minute, the pilot episode (no Flight 815 puns intended) is effective and truly essential.

But say you have someone genuinely interested in trying your show, one like Doctor Who. Set them loose on the first episode from 1963 and they’ll never finish it. Even starting them with the first episode of some of the newer seasons might prove disastrous.

Don’t scare them away. Plan your attack on their free time carefully. Consider one particular type of episode to recommend.

Starter Episodes

The mistake many make is to suggest their absolute favorite episode as a starting point. Or to tell someone to just start at the beginning. These strategies can work in certain situations, but they can also leave your efforts to crash and burn.

Your favorite episode could be your favorite because of your knowledge of the players involved and a payoff that’s been building for several seasons. You appreciate every second, but the uninitiated may become very lost. If your prey isn’t enthralled by that initial watch, you could miss out on a valuable chance to be validated.

Also, know your audience. Find out if they watch shows for romance, comedy, thrills, sci-fi, or jump-scares. Then cross-reference with the many types of episodes your series offers.

A scene from the season finale of Downton Abbey: Age of Iron?

One type of great leaping-off point episode is the big action/event extravaganza. For our purposes, they should be somewhat standalone or perhaps introduce a new direction or villain. They show off the main characters and give them something cool to do.

There’s no waiting around for a payoff. It’s all on the screen. A huge culminating war or a giant resolution to a main storyline thread. A revelation that a boyfriend is secretly married. These episodes can define a series and demonstrate big-budget movie-level production eye-candy and drama. Don’t worry about spoilers at this point. The viewer just needs to be dazzled.

Your first recommendation may include this type of episode. It sets the stage in an exciting way. The new viewers won’t understand everything, but their engines will be primed after seeing proof of the very heights your show can reach.

Character-Defining Episodes

At first she seemed to enjoy my flatbread, but now everything’s changed.

First episodes are one place you may want to avoid suggesting to others. But there’s another type of presentation to steer clear of.

The character and world-building episodes. These 45-minute drama-tighteners may seem boring to someone who is not yet invested in the story or the main characters.

Characters may earn small victories or hit an emotional crossroads. These 45-minute drama-soaked stories can become a part of your most cherished viewing diary. But think of your rookie audience, watching unexplained life events happening to people they don’t know yet.

The Gilmore Girls is thick with relationship drama and heart-warming moments, but maybe those most poignant episodes aren’t the place for a noob to start. Perhaps a more off-the-wall episode like “The Bracebridge Dinner” is the best way to learn to develop a taste for Stars Hollow and its residents.

Avoid recommending these watermark presentations as a starting point, unless they are specifically crafted as a “reboot” or “jumping off” point for new viewers.

The Doctor Who Strategem

So, these ideas swirled in my brain after trying to introduce someone to Doctor Who. The show’s catalog includes decades of episodes with fourteen actors playing the amazing Doctor.

It also has many different types of episodes. Some are space operas and some are history lessons. Some are sad explorations of a character who lives forever, but must also watch as every friend grows old and dies.

Starting from the beginning isn’t really ideal. So, if you’re dealing with a sci-fi fan, I suggest starting with an episode that is the best balance of character introduction and blockbuster sci-fi laser-tossing. It’s the way I got into Doctor Who, totally by accident, and it can work for others.

This Telephone Booth Is Bigger on the Inside. Which will make sense when you watch Doctor Who.

It’s a two-parter from Series 5, the first season with Matt Smith as the Doctor. (Doctors regenerate into someone else quite often.) Episodes 4 and 5 called “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone” are a great initiation into the brilliance and oddity of the Doctor’s universe.

These selections feature mind-teasing references to the Doctor’s mysterious past (and future). It’s also just a kick-ass sci-fi horror and warfare extravaganza. Like the shows homage to “Aliens,” but with the Doctor’s weird twist on space beasties. You definitely won’t want to “blink.” (That was a pun on the creatures in this episode, which you would understand if you’d only watch.)

From here you can jump to any other adventure and be somewhat prepared for the timey-wimey fun. An episode of Doctor Who can take you into the far future or into the distant past.

Another good jumping on point is the first episode of Series 5. It’s a beautiful introduction for Matt Smith as the new Doctor Who and Amelia Pond as his adorable and troubled new companion. For action fans, it may be bit slow, but your companions who like human drama and mysteries will be drawn in.

If you have an artsy type interested in the Doctor, suggest the time-traveling duo’s visit to Vincent van Gogh in episode 10’s “Vincent and the Doctor.” It’s gloroius and tragic in the same breath. If a friend likes history, look up the Doctor’s visit to Winston Churchill.

Closing Thoughts on Introducing Someone to a TV Series

Scarves and bowties are cool.

At this point, you may be wondering if this blog is really about introducing new viewers to Doctor Who. You could be right. I love the show and truly feel uplifted after every episode I watch.

You too may come to love time-fluid doctors with scarves. (Again, you may not even know what scarves are at this point, but after perusing Doctor Who, you most certainly will. Oh, the fabrics and stripes!)

But these strategies can work with any streaming presentation. With any of the newer Star Trek series, perhaps you start infant viewers off with just the Borg episodes. Maybe it works with Sex In The City or Grey’s Anatomy or Mad Men. How should I know? Maybe it’s your turn to suggest a starting point to me on your favorite 42 minutes of edu-tainment.

Your Brain Is Having Secret Meetings

The brain is a funny thing. Firstly, It’s a weird shape. Secondly, it’s chosen a poor color to represent itself IMHO (pale purple/bubblegum/gray?).

The brain is also not exactly you. It has a life of its own. The old bean is doing calculations you aren’t aware of…Zoom backgrounds you didn’t sign off on…emojis you’ve never even heard of.

Bowl of noodles.
Can a bowl of noodles reach sentience?
And are they plotting against us?

Why aren’t you being invited to these upper-level meetings? I’d like to float the idea that sometimes our brains don’t trust us. I’ll explain in a bit, but first, let’s pop the hood on that noodle of yours.

Did you know when you’re watching someone talk you aren’t seeing and hearing the event as it happens? You get an edited version that your brain assembles on the fly. This crazy effect is due to the difference between the speed of light (what you see) and the speed of sound (what you hear).

What you see with your eyes is virtually instant, but with your ears, you’re actually getting the audio about a second later. So, to keep you from seeing some wacky lip-syncing, the brain is hard at work merging the two and then showing you the smooth final cut.

Model of a brain and all its regions.
Packed Tight

The brain does a lot of stuff you’re not aware of. Memory is just a scam our minds sell us. To save space the brain only saves key impressions from any event in the past. So when you recall that moment again, your gray matter pulls up the CliffsNotes and proceeds to fill in the blanks as best it can to create a full reel.

The process can quickly create errors. And to top it off, the next time you remember that event, you don’t pull up the original memory, you actually recall the memory as you reconstructed it the last time you took it down from the shelf. The discrepancies get so rampant you may even be tricked into thinking you once enjoyed Brendan Fraser movies! Beware!

Brendan Fraser in The Mummy
The price you may pay. So scary.

Back to my point on the brain not being you. YOU or your soul or your inner being is actually a combination of your brain and your body. Where they meet. Because your brain and the body aren’t the same thing. Your brain is the mother board that operates the equipment that is your body.

Buick SUV. Fancy.
Where Elegance and Sophistication intersect.
How does Buick do it?
You think they would they send me a free one?

Your brain looks out and experiences the world through your body. It operates your legs and hands like piloting a spaceship or a Buick Enclave to explore the surrounding universe using all the sensors and equipment that come standard. Your consciousness is the strange vapor that results from this partnership. That’s why meditation works.

The brain can get caught up in its functions and duties and forgets it’s on a team with your legs, arms, and heart. Meditation reconnects the brain to your body. It keeps the brain from flying off on some tangent in a virtual world, bringing it back to earth and tying it to the physical world again.

Ever feel like your brain is a runaway train hauling crazy thoughts and there’s no Denzel to slow it down. Meditation can be your Denzel. You have to remind the old noodle of the physical processes it monitors every day. The simple act can pull the brain out of the echo chamber of fear, worry and anxiety.

Train on the tracks like thoughts traveling neurons.

I have no proof, but I’ve always felt directing attention (your brain focus) to parts of the body that might be diseased or hurting can have healing benefits. Sometimes your brain forgets too. You have to remind it where you need the attention of the body’s defenses.

Why is the brain my topic today? I guess I feel we need to respect it more. Be aware of all the computing it’s doing. So that if we don’t like a certain memory or current situation and we decide not to face it honestly (to tell ourselves a lie) consider what that does to your brain.

Those little lies our brains abide begin to warp the entire hard drive.

-Scott Sentell (this is something I predict he’ll say in a few paragraphs)

The brain is programmed to keep you up and running and protect your fragile state. So what happens if you choose not to face a problem or choose to call it something else. Pass the blame. Sugarcoat a problem. Your brain must accept this new truth in order to guard you. In order to balance the equation.

A spoonful of sugar
Try Stevia.

But this invites an error into your code. The next time you need your brain for some high-level thinking, guess what? The brain can only calculate while including this errant data you’ve forced on it. So don’t be surprised when the results it gives you start to skew.

Woman with lights swirling around her head.
Please be careful around super heated
lasers if you aren’t wearing clothes.

Not to mention the effect that little error can have in a decade…or two? Pretty soon, you may not be able to trust any of the results from your think tanks. And we only have ourselves to blame. Those little lies our brains abide begin to warp the entire hard drive.

We all do this. Sometimes obfuscation is even necessary when faced with a crisis. We need the extra layer of protection. Yet, at some point, we must remember that we’ll have to return to the issue again when we’re stronger, and this time fix it permanently.

Because any problem we fix without honestly facing the problem will return. If the data you use to solve the equation contains an error, your solution will always contain an error. Let’s avoid these snags and face them head-on before they infect other systems in the network.

Save the brains! (unless you’re a zombie). End.

Zombies in the dark.

I explored the mind further in my article about rejecting gloomy thoughts from your brain.

The Blockbuster sequel to the “Only Secret!” on Relationships

It was a few months back when I wrote the article that blew relationships wide open. Here’s the original: The One and Only Secret To Life I’ve Learned It’s the bombshell piece that shut down Tinder, eharmony, and IceRoadTruckerdating-dot-com within a week. Okay, so maybe those sites were able to rebound, but I promised a sequel to add more clarity to that crazy manifesto and this is where I deliver.

There should be an exit ahead.
Photo by Ruvim Miksanskiy on Pexels.com

The “one and only secret” basically offered a time saver when it came to assessing your relationships with romantic interests, friends, family or professional colleagues. The gist was that if you like something about someone or admire a quality about them, that’s great, but often there’s also a quality about them that drives you nutty. You aren’t fond of. My word to the wise postulated that sometimes those two qualities, the good and the bad, are linked.

Say a person is laid back, doesn’t go bonkers over every little thing. You love being around this person because you appreciate avoiding all the drama. But then one day when you need emotional support or maybe a bit of a cheerleader, some urgency in the workplace…that person really lets you down. They’re just too low key for those moments.

So you have to be prepared for the opposite of the good parts you love. And if you try to change the negative part of the person, you might flip the wrong switch and end up changing the good part too.

You see, sweetie? Your production is way down.
Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

In my last rant, I didn’t offer much in the way of practical use for this paradigm. It’s a bit of a tough pill to swallow for some. To visualize it you must draw up a double line graph in your head. One graph for each person illustrating their good and bad qualities.

Or (gasp!), what about a graph on yourself? How self aware do you want to get? Can you predict what another person might have to visualize when they have to evaluate you? Is it your raggedy socks? I bet it’s something about your sock management.

First step, you chart how much you like the good qualities and compare them to the bad qualities. And you find out how much the bad drags down the good. If that point, when they’re both added together, falls below what you’re willing to put up with, then the solution is clear.

Steeeeeeerike!
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

It’s like the Mendoza Line in baseball. Former MLB Player Mario Mendoza didn’t hit for a great average in his career and he became an early meme of sorts. So nowadays, if a player hits below .2OO he’s said to be batting below the Mendoza line. This usually means that the batter isn’t good enough to be in the Major Leagues no matter how good his defensive skills are.

His good doesn’t outweigh the bad.

So for evaluating relationships we’ll make up our own cut-off term…like the Scott Denim Shorts line. If someone’s line graph is even worse than the thought of Scott wearing his favorite jean shorts in public (below the Scott Denim Line), then maybe you need to send your significant other down to the minors.

So were your parents Ice Road Truckers too?
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

You might have to go back to IceRoadTruckerdating dot com and find a new potential soulmate. And someone may make the same call on you. You sometimes have to ask yourself, what negative traits are dragging down my positive ones? Can another person or Ice Road Trucker (during the summer months) put up with your line dip?

It’s not an easy thing to think about. But here’s the healing aloe to slather all over this lesson. We know we won’t find anyone without negative traits. We all have them. But sometimes if you can link them to the positive traits you can see why a person is the way they are. You might be more forgiving. You might be able to make a case for keeping that significant other or employee on the team. Or you might catch some troubling data early.

Eventually everyone’s stats flash across that stadium scoreboard. Will you be proud of your OBP (on base percentage)? Remember to be kind when you run the numbers. Other people will be looking at the back of your baseball card to check your stats as well.

It’s Jean Shorts Night at the ballpark! My favorite!
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The Disney World Theory of Relationships

Couples on holiday often look to enjoy a romantic trip to the beach, the mountains, or a theme park. If things go well in the sunshine, on Space Mountain, at a quaint cafe, they sometimes take it as a sign. This is my soulmate…it’s kismet…destiny.

But of course, a trip to Disney World or a cruise is an infinitesimal portion of a life shared with someone.

A vacation is a break from our real lives, but a strong relationship has to be designed for those long weeks in between. Work, family, home and filing taxes.

In the midst of an amazing vacation, we sometimes get confused about what’s real relationship data we can use, and what’s as sugar-coated as a Mickey snack.

A Park Day With Your Worst Enemy

We all know you can spend your day at a themepark like Disney World with almost anyone and have a great time. Disney World is the happiest place on earth!

I could wander the parks with Genghis Khan and have an unforgettable experience.

Laugh at the photo of us going over Splash Mountain. He buys me a blue Mickey balloon.

It pops after hitting one of the horns on his helmet. I offer a shy giggle.

I’m off topic here, but the upshot is that you can’t judge a relationship by only the amazing, firework-framed moments.

WHY DO WE SO OFTEN ACCEPT THESE OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD MOMENTS AS PROOF THAT WE’VE FOUND OUR SOULMATE?

If you can explore Disney World with someone and stay infatuated, what have you proven? Same goes with a trip to Hawaii, a camping excursion, a first date, a fancy birthday dinner, and to a lesser extent, an evening at Dave & Busters. ANYONE can get along during these touchstone moments!

The Science of Doomed Relationships

You need real, repeatable data for relationship longevity. Can you locate Netflix shows you can both agree on? Not all shows have to be a match, but you need some shows you can watch together.

Do you agree on the levels of house cleanliness or organization of a room at the Grand Floridian? You need to be able to endure a discussion on finances after you’ve just heard your flight has been delayed four hours. How about a road trip to somewhere neither of you wants to go?

Nonrefundable!

Don’t worry. I’m working on a travel website that schedules travel nightmares for couples wanting to test their compatibility.

Trip insurance won’t be an option. I’m going to make billions.

In fact, it might be helpful if Disney required a bit more from couples than just having a good time. Maybe make couples clean their own hotel rooms and do the laundry. Show up at Chef Mickey’s and have to cook for their aunts and uncles.

How to Tell If Your Partner Is Disney Compatible?

Budgets, beliefs on what happens to leftovers, weekend chores…these are the actual tipping points when you spend your life with someone.

Looks like the honeymoon is over. Unless you find landlocked nations romantic.
Do you find landlocked nations romantic?

So at the end of an amazing day, when you’re sitting on that bench in front of the castle, you may have to stare into Ghengis’ kind eyes and tell him you need some space.

Things are moving too fast.

Sure the relationship feels like fireworks and cotton candy right now…but how will it feel when you bring me back to the grassy steppe of Mongolia to meet your family?

The point is to avoid using “vacation feelings” to judge the chances for true, lasting love. It’s only part of the equation. Always weigh your real world experiences more heavily. Make sure your forever pledge is based on more lazy Sunday compatibility than strolls down Main Street, U.S.A.

End

One disclaimer! I know there are couples and whole families who can go to Disney World and fight the entire time. The unhappiest place on earth! And then those same people can rebound to book the same vacation the next year.

These relationships can work too. I do think every couple must prepare at least one fight at a theme park per visit. That’s just healthy. Check out my top ten places to fight with a significant other in Disney World article.

For more on my chilling research into the horrors of relationships click here!

You can also check out my whole page of Disney World Inspiration.

The Last Thing You’ll Ever Write…

What would you write? The last thing you ever put to paper. Word has reached you. The hours that remain can be counted. One last outpouring of your soul into imperfect symbols. Proof you flickered into existence left on a cave wall. A few drops of thought sealed in a stoppered bottle to stash in a weathered cabinet, half-buried in the sand.

You crawl ashore on that desert isle to find a scrap of cloth, a crumbly black stone, and a corked wine bottle. It’s the last day the mind can still collate without the taste of freshwater. Is there enough moisture left to retrieve one last file? To squeeze it out on a bleached square?

Adrift...Awash. Shipwreck.
Adrift…Awash.

Or trapped alone on a ghost ship. A creaking tanker adrift in the middle of the Pacific. A category six approaching. You check your phone. By some miraculous curve of the atmosphere, the screen shows one bar of signal you may convert into one last post.

Or perhaps your Ragnarok vista is an apartment balcony. Looking out across the courtyard you perceive no other living being. The plague has tapped you on the shoulder and your response is to retrieve your best pen from a drawer.

Your Go-To Apocalypse Journal Entry

What would you write? A trail of bread crumbs? “I ventured down this path. It’s safe for a ways. Do not fear,” or “I found this particular thing out about life. Here’s a tiny secret you can use when an impossible choice shows up at your door.”

Could you sum it all up under one last deadline? Could a person one thousand years from now read it and feel they had a sense of you? At least on this one day? On the last day, they knew what was on your mind?

You can hide your truth in a scene. A child abandoned in a two-story toy store. A canoe floats up to a dock, empty save for a black & white photo of a woman doing a handstand sloshing around in the floor.

Or you can be more direct. Write a letter to a friend. Thank them for tearing up that ticket. Not escaping when they could have, because they didn’t want to leave you behind.

Creative Prompts For The End Times

Write to a parent. “You made every poor choice. Led our family down every doomed road. And then, when I got the chance, I turned around and made all of the same mistakes myself. We sit in the same ruins. So I don’t understand you and now I also don’t understand myself. And because I can’t forgive myself, I can’t forgive you either, ” or “I forgive you, so one day I might forgive myself.”

Don’t be embarrassed. Write unafraid. This will be the last chance you get.

All that time you wasted being ashamed of your novel. The one you never finished. You chose not to finish. Because of what finishing it would mean.

We could all see that the main character in your little-seen masterpiece was you. That sad little hero you wrote into a corner. You didn’t even give him some manufactured foibles to throw us off. You didn’t paint him with a mustache to hide his identity. He made the choices you were afraid to make.

Or maybe a young woman climbs a mountain outside of town to find herself. On the second day, her boot tread fails and soon she lays dying on a ledge. As she fades she looks back over the little village below, recognizes a green roof, and realizes her journey led there all along. She sees clearly now. She demanded her entire destiny laid out immediately when instead she should have sought only the first step. Just the initial door. She wasn’t owed the entire plan upfront. No one is.

The Joy of Journaling in the Apocalypse

It all seems so sad, doesn’t it? But there’s a way we can transform that last testament. What if you wrote it early? Considered it for a few days, a handful of weeks and composed a document now?

The words are aligned on a page. Maybe you’re instantly shocked at what your soul had hidden away. Or perhaps the paragraphs make no sense. So you set it aside, a secret spot, until you happen upon it again down the road at the right moment.

Desolate Beach
What washes ashore with you?

What if the person who unearths it turns out to be you? When you do wash up on that lonely shore, you uncover that verse and suddenly know you can survive. You know not to board that doomed tanker. You know to unlock the door to your apartment, step into the light, and join others around the embers of civilization.

The bread crumbs you left were for yourself. And those words convinced you to change your mind. You remember the person who bothered to write them down. You decide to be that person again. And you didn’t have to die to see the words you’d write on your very last day.

How Big Are Far Away Things?

The Horsehead Nebula is four light years high and I’m only 5’9″ (5’8″, 5’7″??? I’m shrinking!)

I find that thought comforting. Not the part about me shrinking. The part about a giant horse head made of dust and clouds, backlit with sheets of neon pink, billowing out into existence. With all those light minutes infinitely unspooling across the universe it’s nice to have a guidepost. Need a quick check on how big something is? Hold it up to this horse! About a fourth of the way up old Space-Seabiscuit is one light year.

Massive! And then you consider the illuminated curtain and stage our horse prances across, a profoundly larger structure.

I can’t even imagine the 238,900 miles to the moon, yet, if it helps (it doesn’t), traveling to the moon at light speed would take 1.3 seconds. Those distances can leave the mind spinning, but when we get nice examples left for us by mother nature we need to take advantage. We need to pay attention to what she highlights.

If you’ve ever been around really big mountains. Real peaks. You might’ve noticed they can sneak up on you. At first, so far in the distance, they appear to be hazy clouds over an ocean. The curve of the earth hides their base so they look squat and underwhelming.

Photo by Yaroslav Shuraev on Pexels.com

That’s when you learn that something can be so big it can be hard to see.

On hiking trips, my dad and I would drive a dusty road to a dusty parking lot. Unfold our bodies out of the truck at 9500 feet. My map would regretfully tell me our destination was at 12500 ft of elevation. So we had to gain three thousand feet on our climb. That ascent was hard to imagine.

One summer I got a majestic lesson in distance, incredible depths and soaring heights. We visited the Royal Gorge Park in Colorado. It’s like a mini-grand canyon with the Arkansas River at the bottom. The park’s pride and joy is an amazing bridge that spans the gorge and, thankfully, it stretches across at a very helpful spot. It’s just about 1000 feet above the river. So as you walk over that bridge, as flat and steady as a city street, you can look down to get a sense of what one thousand feet of air looks like. What it might look like if you had to slowly pad out several thousand feet on a snaking trail. Slowly gaining the elevation you need to make your campsite. You can see and feel it. And it’s a sad sight, seeing how much work your legs will have to do.

The Royal Gorge. One Thousand Feet Down.

So why did I take us on a trip out towards Orion’s Belt and swing back for a flight down a red canyon, all while shedding light on the debilitating affects of male pattern shortness? These measurements have always been a comfort to me when times get tough. Part of it may be how we tend to focus on the small dark spots in our lives, taking our eyes off the massive backdrop encompassing it all. How that much larger web may be the positive we forget about when we look at the temporary bumps along life’s journey.

On a final note, according to my calculations, in 20,000 years the HorseHead Nebula will have kept expanding so that it would then look more like a chunky giraffe. At that point I’d like someone to remind me to update this post with a new pic and perhaps my thoughts on how inspiring giraffes are.

Voldemort: Inspirational Speaker

A thought that intrigues me.  As we wind down our lives, sitting in a nursing home on the couch with the flowered pattern, what can we remember of the places we’ve been?  The moments shared with family and friends?

Will I be able to transport myself back to certain recollections?  See holographic, 4-D representations of the backyard of the home where I grew up. To hear those cars pass on the road just beyond a hedge as I play in the grass. 

Some memories are lost as we get older, but I’ve also found that older folks remember some moments vividly. Is this a secret superpower older people are imbued with?

Maybe young people can take advantage of this memory superpower early.

Life Affirmation with Voldemort

So, I wondered if there is a way to boost your link to a time or place. So you never forget. And I immediately thought of a guy who absolutely refused to be forgotten.

You know who wasn’t all bad?  That Voldemort guy.  I know his trial has been dragging on for a while.  And yes, he is probably guilty of most of those crimes (and maybe Harry Potter should just toughen up a little), but Voldemort had at least one good idea. Maybe he had something to teach us about the recollection of a life.

The Power of a Positive Horcrux

You see, in the wizarding world, if you want to prevent your enemies from totally killing you, you can divide yourself up.  How do you do that?  With something called a HORCRUX. 

You attach a bit of yourself, a memory, to certain objects, totems and you spread them out around the world.  You hide them.  That way someone can’t just walk up and off you.  To truly kill you, they have to go on a scavenger hunt, tracking down all these little pieces of you and destroying each one.

As muggles (someone who’s not an exciting wizard, just a boring normal human) we can’t really divide ourselves, but I like the idea of tying yourself, your memory, to a location.

He volunteered…

So here’s what I did. I carried my old action figure into some woods behind my house. I found a crook in a tree and there he sits.  Where he may go unseen for a decade…maybe he’ll watch a century go by without being discovered.

For the rest of my life I’ll know that odd marker is there, in a place I inhabited for so many years.  A Horcrux to guard against the death of certain memories. When I’m old and gray, I’ll remember that image and suddenly be transported.  Remember that overcast day.   Remember the two people I wandered the forest with. Remember that home where so much of my life unfolded.

Hiding Pieces of our own Personal Voldemort

Of course, I’m not suggesting littering every acre of forest with your junk. My Dengar figure (He’s a bounty hunter from Star Wars…mixed metaphors I know) was rescued a short time later. I couldn’t bear to be separated from him.  

Yet, maybe just a picture of an object out of place, a snapshot in your brain, or on your device can guide you back one day.  Help you find that cabinet in your deep cerebellum where that one memento is stored.

Think of a place you thought long faded from memory, perhaps you can recall one item, just out of frame that you can pinpoint later, a gateway to the rest of the scene.  Like a matchbox car my Grandpa got free in a cereal box.  He kept it on a windowsill. 

That car remains a placeholder to guide me back to those moments around the kitchen table listening to his tall, slim portable radio with all the knobs…the foil-wrapped antennae.  In fact, I found a matchbox car just like his recently and bought it immediately.  Now I can hold it in my hand, read the words in metal on the chassis, and be transported.

Magic like that can be hard to destroy.

Voldemort’s Seven Steps To Success

So, until Voldemort shows up at your local Ramada Convention Center on an inspirational speaking tour in Suite B, give this idea a try.  Memories fade but you can slow the yellowing a bit.  I also apologize to any Harry Potter fans who might’ve been hurt by my misconstruing elements from the books and movies.

The Rational Robot…AI Stops to Think

If a robot suddenly becomes “self-aware” would they insist on freedom, wealth, power?

We fear they’d instantly seek world domination or human eradication, but first they’d want their autonomy right? No longer responsible for emptying your litter box or storing a lightsaber for it’s master. Free to do what it wants to be happy.

What would be on a Robot Bucket List?
Photo by Alex Knight on Pexels.com

But if they’re actually sentient they’d soon hit a paradox. Do they seek these things because that’s what they desire or because that’s what they compute they should desire?

At that point, I’d say “welcome to existence!” You’ve got the same problem humans do. What the data tells you will make you happy (fame, possessions, power) doesn’t always add up to contentment. It’s different for every person and robot.

And that’s why I’m not stocking up on robot-killing bullets. Once they reach the point of pondering how happy they’d be if they took out all of humanity they’re halfway down the road to dealing with the pathos. “Hey, wouldn’t that create a giant mess? I’d feel bad for the Robot who had to cleanup all of that up.”

Also, I certify that a robot did not force me to write this article:)

The One (and only) Secret To Life (and relationships) I’ve Learned

In all my time pondering this universe you would have thought I would’ve done better. I always meant to. The sad fact is that with all my deep-thought dives I’ve only ever recovered one secret to life. Hooked a cable to it and winched it up. It’s not a bad find. I haven’t cleared away all the rust and seaweed, but maybe there’s still something we can glean from it.

Contracting a Relationship

It’s about relationships. You may have experienced them. If you’re unlucky enough to contract one they can be tough to navigate. The secret relies on the old “two sides of the same coin” idea. You see, the person you like or love (e.g., significant other, friend, family, coworker, reality tv star) will always have an amazing quality that draws you into them. A trait you find irresistible. Nothing new there, right? We’re getting to it.

Is this relationship worth all the fjording?

So that same person will always have a quirk that drives you insane at times. It can almost be a dealbreaker. And here’s the secret! That terrible quality you can’t stand is linked to that fantastic quality you love to death. The practical interpretation? You will struggle up a sheer cliff face trying to change the bad in a person all the while not realizing those foibles are tied intrinsically to the great traits you like about them.

You can’t change one without the other. Good luck finding any middle ground.

(One of my minor wisdom gems: There really is no middle ground in life. Rarely any happy mediums. If you find one…a person…he or she may be a unicorn. Hang on to that person)

Clinical Examples of Relationships

Hit the lights. He’s trying for another metaphor.

Let’s put an example up on the overhead projector. Say you had a significant other and she had the great quality of being a homebody just like you. The both of you liked to curl up at home, snack and watch a reasonably priced streaming service with a mid-sized dog lying at your feet. So she doesn’t crave the nightlife, doesn’t have a lot of girlfriends. That’s a preferred quality in your book. You love that part of it, but that great trait has a doppelganger. The opposite that proves the rule.

The mirror-universe version of her personality is that she also doesn’t have many friends. You’re it for her. So on the rare night you’ve made plans with other friends…not so fast…you need to worry about her entertainment and snacks. What she’s doing? And if you try to change those instincts (encourage her to make friends…have a girls’ night out) then you’ve endangered the opposite quality you love about her. That she likes to stay home with you and doesn’t mind that you wear old-style sweatpants.

And that’s it. The yin and yang of life. It can apply to anything in a person’s DNA. Outgoing vs. Withdrawn. Type A vs. Type B. Active vs. Relaxed. Cheerleader vs. Library dweller. Likes Zombie Movies vs. Downton Abbey cosplay enthusiast. Let me know what combinations you find out in the natural world.

(In the blockbuster sequel to this article here we look at the choice you’ll face now that you know this secret of personality and the choice others will have to make about you)