Getting Back to Jam (Part 1)

It's a phrase I use often. It's the name of this blog. "It's ALL JAM." But what IS jam, you ask? And why, as the title of this entry states, are we "getting back" to it?

The "genesis" of jam, as it were, was December 10, 2006. That night, I uttered those three words for the first time and it all began to take shape.

Jam is a school of thought; a philosophy of life, and a general state of mind. It means something different to everybody, but the lose translation of it's "it's all jam" as I believe it is that it's all good, all okay (or WILL BE okay, as it ONCE WAS in the past) and that the natural ebb and flow of people and events is inevitably part of life's great design; things tend to work themselves out in the big picture. Although there are mishaps and undesirable elements that are sprinkled throughout life's journey, thinking about the "macro" version of the world and universe at large (as "one body") allows us to minimize and move beyond our own issues, usually more insignificant than we realize at the moment when emotions are being triggered.

Make sense?

If not, it's OK - the tenets of jam are very general and applicable to each school of thought and each personality.

Some may perceive jam as more of a nihilistic idea, and say, "well, since it's all jam, I'm gonna do whatever I want, whenever I want, without regard to morality since it all evens out in the end."

The above thought process is not my idea of jam nor does it define the phrase "it's all jam." When I explain and interpret the implications for myself, I try and steer clear of the existentialist take because, going back to the idea that "we are all one," I believe we must strive to love and cherish others and thus a code of ethics is linked to "my jam." After all, we all came from ONE CELL. A single cell. From that came everything else. Sure subsequent ideas, religions, political parties and national lines arose which divided us, but in essence, our innate humanity (from our humble, one-cell beginning) is the strong and binding tie that unifies us all. "It's all jam" serves as a reminder for me to cherish that spirit and unity, and to seek deeper meaning in life and find the oodness of living in each experience or person that we encounter.

Of course, it's not always a cake walk. And life really sucks sometimes!

The goal of the "jam" I try and promote is one of optimism and confidence that we're all in the game of life together - and in addition to being "one" we're all relatively the same as far as what we want and need - so try and see the goodness in things, in each other, and remember when you're having a bad day that it's, well, all jam.

I recently went through a rough patch. Life isn't all cotton candy and gumdrops now :D but it is much better; partly because of external forces at work and partly because of my changed attitude and mindset. Point is, I "lost" my own jam - in the sense that I conveniently forgot about everything I've written above - because my emotions were the only thing that I felt, and they were heavy. So instead of the ubiquity of the philosophy I have adopted, I was weighed down by these emotions.

Thus, I think life is about being aware of and believing in the jam - your jam - however you interpret it, and knowing that sometimes you will lose it. It will still always be "there," but in essence, the paths we choose in life and the experiences that happen may take us away from those core ideas. The goal is to always dig a path BACK, and re-discover that which you knew to be true all along - JAM!











Furthermore, the idea behind a "jam" mindset is that there is a oneness