The We/They Issue: What LeBron, the stupid octopus, & war have in common & what we can learn from them all

Last night LeBron James announced his intentions to leave his Cleveland Cavaliers to put on a Miami Heat jersey next season.  About ten seconds later, former fans in Cleveland decided to help him along by physically adding heat to their once beloved LeBron James jerseys, lighting them up in flames.  Perhaps these fans just wanted to see the new look for themselves.  Actually, probably not.  They probably just hate LeBron James now.

But how did this happen so quickly?  I mean, for the last seven years, these fans called LeBron “king”.  I’m pretty sure he didn’t have any sudden changes in values, and he probably didn’t lose all of his basketball skills either.  The only change was the team for which he played.  For Cleveland fans, LeBron was no longer one of us.  He had suddenly become one of them.

What decides whether or not we like people?  Probably a lot of things—like whether or not they say nice things, whether or not they’re good-looking, whether or not they’re blocking our view (cough Mark), whether or not they comment (cough you) on our blog posts…  But I’m convinced that the largest factor is how we think of them in the plural form, whether we think we or they. 

Just think about it.  Seriously.  The we/they issue is true with the LeBron scenario (he's now one of them).  It’s why the Big House hates Ohio State quarterbacks (eww, he's one of them), and it’s why most Germany fans now hate that stupid octopus (what the frick, he's now one of them?).  It’s why we get upset with other drivers in traffic (jeez, what is wrong with them?).  It’s the problem with democrats and republicans (let's just not listen to them), and it’s even the reason for racism and war (wow, I hate them because they're them). 

The cool part, though, is that this we/they boundary can be easily influenced.  I often—and I’m guessing a lot of people—subconsciously place strangers in the “they” category.  It happens almost by default.  With no previous interaction with these people, why should we think about them in the we sense?  It's mostly a thoughtless thought, however, and there's no real basis for it.  With just a little effort, we can rethink our "we-group" to be much more inclusive and spread the love a whole lot more.  

Usually it only takes some conscious thought to recognize common values.  For instance, yesterday I was driving home, annoyed with the dense traffic around me.  I almost felt as if the other cars were my competition, preventing me from getting home quickly.  After thinking about it, though, I realized everyone else was just like me.  We all just wanted to get home quickly and safely.  It sounds weird, but suddenly, the other drivers became my friends as we all worked together to get home.  Believe me, it was a lot less lonely, I felt better about society, and with our newfound camaraderie and compassion, my friends and I all made it home in the end… brings a tear to me eye :'-|

Anyway…

 

So do it.  Look for commonalities, think about “them” a little, and find reasons to love-not-hate.  After all, LeBron is from Ohio just like Clevelandians, the octopus just wanted a nice meal, and those people we’re fighting across the world have families too.  After all, all of us are one of us.

Heck, maybe someday an alien attack/other severe threat to our planet will arrive, cause our nations to unite together, and create world peace at last… er, that is, if a third of the world doesn’t argue that the threat doesn’t exist.  But that’s a story for another day.

Psychic Ant Predicts Germany Win

Big news! Conclusive evidence that Germany will come out of tomorrow's world cup semifinal matchup the big "Weener" against favorites Spain:

Click for High-Res Version

This pick surely trumps the nonsense out there that has the sporting world convinced Spain will defeat the Germans.

It's Not Easy Being Special...

...but I have a plan!

A plan to set our blog apart from the zillions out there:

Plan Part 1: Fewer Words, More Graphics

Plan Part 2: Blabbing with Listening
Let’s face it: there are millions of blogs lying around with blab that is rarely read. There is just too much blabber and not enough reading, so I am pledging to go "blabber-negative" with my posts. For every one of my posts, I promise to read at least two posts of others. Should I learn some fascinating facts, I’ll re-share them with you! That’ll definitely go along with the plan’s part 3.

Plan’s Part 3: Fun Facts
Did you know that Meerkats can close their ears to keep out sand? …didn’t think so. It's no secret that people love fun facts. These days, too much of the internet's material is dedicated to useless arguments over what's real and what's make-believe. Well, facts are fact, and facts are useful, so stay tuned for some useful facts to impress all your friends!

Holiday Adventure in Capac

Like most people I decided to spend this 4th of July weekend with my family. Home, for me, is a 8 miles outside a little town called Capac. It is about as far as you can get from life in Ann Arbor and still stay in the state of michigan. From the middle of a college town to the middle of nowhere, the weekend was full of adventures with my family and neighbors.

Adventure July 3rd. My brother cousins and I are lighting off some preliminary fireworks in our drive way, when we see a huge plume of smoke in the distance. My cousins and I take off running across the field and through some weeds to check it out. We stop just short of the tree line on the other side of the field, where we are able to see a massive bonfire twenty feet tall. Realizing it wasn’t a forest fire we quickly left because we were in fact trespassing.

Lost in Translation (Capac)
Neighbor- A person or persons living within a mile or so (walking distance) of your residence.

Drive way- A gravely stretch at least 150 feet long and sometimes reaching ¼ of a mile.

Weeds- Plants of an aggressive nature reaching a minimum of four feet in height

Summeresolutions

Roughly six months ago, when the world semi-simultaneously flipped a decade, billions of people did two incredible things. Firstly, they counted backwards from ten while being moderately to severely buzzed. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, they set their sights on the new year, the clean slate of a fresh era, and collectively pledged to make themselves better. How inspiring it was to shake ourselves free from memories fond and forgettable, to focus on the dropped crystal ball and the optimistic future within.

Whether we've followed through with those resolutions uttered ages ago or not, a half-year lays ahead, leaving time aplenty to make a change, live a dream, and embark on our declared adventures. It is time to renew and realign our promises to ourselves - Summeresolutions!

Here in the apartment, Ian and I made a resolution to run a 10-mile route around Ann Arbor. Last week, I felt physically unprepared and mentally freaked-out, since Ian told me how marathon runners finish races shorter in stature than when they begin. I'm 5' 7" tall, and really can't afford to lose precious centimeters. Despite the serious risks the run could potentially impose on my game, we went for it. We marked our heights on sticky notes on the front door and began playing mythbusters.

I received my first cramp at mile marker 0.5, experienced bouts of sobbing hysteria a half-mile later, and we got lost three miles in. Aside from a possible big foot sighting, the rest of the run was smooth, and even scenic at times. And by smooth, I mean that I could feel my vertebrae compressing with each impact and that the emotional distress I was in overshadowed any actual pain.

Finally, having conquered the adversity of ten pounding miles, we returned to our apartment. Before celebrating our triumph, I kicked off my shoes and slammed by back to the front door. Ian's grim look told me I didn't even need to gaze at the mark. I was a full centimeter shorter than 1.5 hours prior. Ian also posted a statistically less-significant loss in height.

Myth Confirmed: The run was free, but it cost Mark a dime.

Was I scared? Yes. But after a good night's sleep, I came to a few realizations. Running 10 miles is sort of like living a decade. Even though you face setbacks 1/20th into it, get lost along the way, or run into dangerous mythical beasts, you must press on and push through. When I woke up, I returned to the post-it note and noticed that I recovered my lost dime and then some - I was at the top of the note!

Aim high and keep it up - you'll come out a bigger man.