Issue nº 50

Traveling in Cyberspace

These texts, which I found on the Internet, are I think worth reproducing here:

I have learned (author unknown)

     I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them;
     I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people just don't care back;
     I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.
     I've learned that it's not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts;
     I've learned that you can get by on charm, for about fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better know something;
     I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to the best others can do.
     I've learned that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.
     I've learned that it's taking me a long time to become the person that I want to be.
     I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may b the last time you see them.
     I've learned that you can keep going long after you can't.
     I've learned that we are responsible for all we do, no matter how we feel.
     I've learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you.
     I've learned that no matter how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take it's place.
     I've learned that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.
     I've learned that money is a lousy way of keeping score.
     I've learned that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.
     I've learned that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're downhill are the ones to help you get back up.
     I've learned that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.
     I've learned that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.
     I've learned that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean that they don't love you with all they have.
     I've learned that maturity had more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.
     I've learned that your family won't always be there for you. It may seem funny, but people you aren't related to can take care of you and love you and teach you to trust people again. Families aren't biological.
     I've learned that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.
     I've learned that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to forgive yourself.
     I've learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn't stop for your grief.
     I've learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.
     I've learned that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.
     I've learned that we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.
     I've learned that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.
     I've learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
     I've learned that no matter how you try to protect your children, they will eventually get hurt and you will get hurt in the process.
     I've learned that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.
     I've learned that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.
     I've learned that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.
     I've learned that the people you care about the most in life are taken from you too soon.
     I've learned that it's hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.

Doubting God's existence

     A man went to trim his hair NS beard. As always happens, he and the barber chatted about this and that, until - commenting on a newspaper article about street kids - the barber stated:
     - As you can see, this tragedy shows that God doesn't exist.
     - How?
     - Don't you read the papers? So many people suffer, abandoned children, there's so much crime. If God existed, there wouldn't be so much suffering.
     The customer thought for a moment, but his haircut was nearly finished, and he decided not to prolong the conversation. They returned to gentler topics, the job was done, the customer paid and left.
     However, the first thing he saw was a tramp, with several days of beard, and long tangled hair. Immediately, he returned to the barber's shop and said to the man who had served him:
     - You know something? Barbers don't exist.
     - What do you mean, don't exist? I'm here, and I'm a barber.
     - They don't exist! - insisted the man. - Because if they did, there wouldn't be people with such longs beards and such tangled hair as I've just witnessed up on the corner.
     - I can guarantee that barbers do exist. But that man has never come in here.
     - Exactly! So, in answer to your question, God exists, too. It just so happens that people don't go to Him. If they did, they would be more giving, and there wouldn't be so much misery in the world.

The world in a village

     This statistic, which buzzes around the Internet, has be published in numerous places across the world:
     If it were possible to reduce the population of the entire world to 100 inhabitants, maintaining the proportions of people which currently exist in the world, it would be made up as follows:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 Americans (North, Central and South)
8 Africans
52 would be women
48 men
70 non-white
30 white
89 would be heterosexual
11 homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the world's wealth
80 would dwell in inhabitable housing
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would have a computer
1 (yes, just one) would have a university degree

     And consider this: if you are more healthy than sick, you are luckier than a million people who will not see next week. If you never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of prison, the agony of torture, the pain of hunger, you are luckier than 500 million of the world's inhabitants.
     If you have food in the fridge, clothes in your closet, a roof over your head, a place to sleep, then consider yourself richer than 75% of the world's inhabitants.
     If you have money in the bank, a wallet or some loose change lying around somewhere, consider yourself among those with the best quality of life in the world.