The River of Consciousness

One sign of a high IQ is the abil­ity to ignore unim­por­tant infor­ma­tion. Being smart is being selec­tive. Peo­ple with pho­to­graphic mem­o­ries com­plain that they wish they could turn their real­ity recorder off. They are tired. They also usu­ally lack the abil­ity to dis­cern between the flood of mere infor­ma­tion and the key sips that lead to clear choices. In short, you can­not drink the whole river of real­ity.
Some things are worth know­ing — many are not. It is true in the out­side as well as the inside world. Much that floats around inside our heads needs to just float on by. It is infor­ma­tion of no con­se­quence. Other than glean­ing a few insights, the rest is just water under the bridge. Thought obses­sions are just whirlpools that take you in a cir­cle, and even­tu­ally suck you under. Pad­dle away from them.
Your money is likely to go into the hands of oth­ers, if they can get your atten­tion. Fru­gal peo­ple hear but ignore lots of com­mer­cial mes­sages. They know that qual­ity liv­ing can­not be pur­chased. Con­sumerism leads to the water­fall of hope­less debt. Going over the edge might be quite a rush, but drown­ing in bills…that would not be fun.
Regret is try­ing to pad­dle up stream. Do not for­get that the river of time will wear you out, if you do not play by its rules. Respect it and enjoy the jour­ney. For­give your­self and oth­ers, and watch for the rough waters ahead. The waters behind you have already passed. For­get them.
Nav­i­gate with some style. Do not let the rough waters intim­i­date you. Develop a spir­i­tual life. By doing so, you will dis­cover that when your boat begins to sink, you can just get out of it and walk — right on top of the water.