Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. I love America. Our way of life provides a framework to make possible the attainment of all the good that life has to offer and way more than any one lifetime can accomplish. That's the challenge, what is of value and what amounts to an enjoyable distraction?
Maybe it is just a personal problem to have a concern for what is "the good" or "the right". But I can't help feeling that as we lay on our deathbeds there will be thoughts of what could have been or should have been. Not so much a fear and dread as a sorrow. The thought of having lived a life in Disneyland is how I visualize the issue.
I have no desire to live in some primitive land where "life is simple" and uncluttered by modernity. Having suffered a broken leg in a remote area of Arizona as a youngster I learned early that there are some very good things about "civilization". It's just the number and beauty of so many things that seems to crowd out the ability to discover life.
Some people believe that life consists of collecting experiences so trying everything imaginable becomes the goal. Others see altruism as the reason for life and are constantly helping others and feeling good about themselves. Some are convinced that education is the path and some that riches give peace. Sometimes I feel like Solomon and am convinced that "all is vanity". When a person's time is up, my time, what will be the defining evidence that I have lived?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
"what will be the defining evidence that I have lived?"
How about leaving behind the one thing you just can't seem to shake --credit card debt? Nothing seems to leave a lasting impression on your relatives than piles of debt.
Joking aside, I've wondered that as well. I can't help but think that no matter what I accomplish, no matter how large/important/world changing in 20 or so years time there will be some teenager that's never heard of me (and probably never will).
Ask any kid about Albert Schweitzer? But, even the fame (notoriety) of our modern day athletes/movie stars fades quicker than coat of car polish. Instead of good works getting you noticed it's really the unfortunate gaffs which garner headlines (paris hilton, lindsay lohan).
Is there anyone or anything to look up to? I suspect that as we open our eyes for the last time and look up from our deathbed, past the neon and through the golden arches ceiling we'll glimpse God on earth in the form of mickey and minnie.
I talked to my dad a few years before he died and asked him if it felt like he was doing anything special flying a bomber in WWII. He said that at the time he didn't see it as particularly consequential; he was only a 20 year old kid and everyone was doing what they could to stop the Nazis. It was only later when many of the countries of Europe were liberated and the history was written that the importance became known.
I suspect that there are a lot of those moments in life. It would be nice to be able to see clearly enough to not waste the short time we have waiting in line for It's a Small World. The ride's not that good and the song will make you nuts.
(I'll leave you my Goofy hat with the floppy ears and buck teeth.)
That's the genius of life and not having a God's-eye perspective. We don't exactly know if we're storming the beaches of Normandy or tilting at windmills.
For one, I'd hate to have the gravity of some decisions firmly cemented in my conscious before flinging myself into the unknown. Most of the many amazing jobs and people I've met have been by happenstance and just a matter of riding the wave.
Sometimes it's not the best thing to have a perspective any further along than our current moment. You can have some solace in doing the best with the information you have...it might not be right but you might just be changing history without knowing it.
The problem is that not deciding is a decision. Letting things happen or allowing oneself to be influenced by the spurrous is to decide. I think to a large extent we make ourselves who we are and choose our so called destiny by the little decisions made daily.
Opportunities occur but our will, not chance, controls the path we take and our will largely controls the outcome. At least, that has been my experience.
Yes, making no decision is making a decision. But you're misinterpreting the underlying theme/meaning --you can make all the choices you like, but humans have no way of seeing the bigger picture. Sometimes the choice turns out important (personally or historically) and other times it's only a blip on the radar of disappointment.
Depending on your beliefs about predestination it may never be up to you. Understanding the path and being able to execute a formal decision over it are still, seemingly, out of the bounds of our abilities.
The more optimistic side of me would like to think that because we choose the smaller things available to us daily our overall direction proceeds in a more logical course. I'd liken it to a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby I decide on my course for the day/week/month and try to live out that plan.
I just know that life gets in the way and doesn't always accept our plans and we have to move with the flow instead of always fighting it.
It seems to me that everything begins with what a person believes. If a person, for instance, believes in a God who wants to help him, he may set his sights on something that a natural thinking person would say was impossible. The argument may be made that if the thing occurs it is because God answered the prayer or possibly that the person's belief caused them to do the things that made it happen.
We had to read a book in one of our training sessions called A Framework for Understanding Poverty. My immediate reaction was that I didn't want to understand it but avoid it. But the point of the book is that people who live in generational poverty don't believe that their choices make a difference so when it comes to tests, for example, they won't study. They believe that rich or successful people are just lucky.
I think that what people believe changes, even creates, their reality.
Post a Comment