{"id":2196,"date":"2007-01-03T18:17:11","date_gmt":"2007-01-03T18:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/?p=2196"},"modified":"2007-01-03T18:17:11","modified_gmt":"2007-01-03T18:17:11","slug":"taking-what-youre-given","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/taking-what-youre-given\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking what you&#8217;re given"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was on a plane cross-country recently when the time for the food service came. The flight attendants moved down the aisle, handing out little bags of pretzels to each passenger and pouring half-cups of soda and water. I wasn&#8217;t really hungry, but when the pretzels arrived I dutifully tore open the package by one end, dumped the contents into my hand and ate them.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t want pretzels. I don&#8217;t particularly like pretzels. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever thought to myself, &#8220;Man, I could really go for some pretzels right now.&#8221; But I ate them just the same, and they are now part of my body. That little bag of pretzels, baked in a food mill somewhere I&#8217;ve never been and chock full of chemicals, fats, sugars and salts, has now become a living part of my body, the temple.<\/p>\n<p>I realized this fact immediately after swallowing, and it felt strange. Why did I do that, I wondered? If I wasn&#8217;t hungry, why didn&#8217;t I just leave them there? And if I was, why didn&#8217;t I wait for or plan ahead and pack something that I would enjoy or need?<\/p>\n<p>There are two ways to get things:<\/p>\n<p>1. Take what is provided for you<\/p>\n<p>2. Seek what you really need or want<\/p>\n<p>These ways apply to almost any situation and need, from food to work to information to entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>The pretzels were in the first category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was on a plane cross-country recently when the time for the food service came. The flight attendants moved down the aisle, handing out little bags of pretzels to each passenger and pouring half-cups of soda and water. I wasn&#8217;t really hungry, but when the pretzels arrived I dutifully tore open the package by one&#8230;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/taking-what-youre-given\/\">more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[337],"class_list":["post-2196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-choices-initiative"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9wjHJ-zq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}