Rite and rong, gud and eevil, levt and write, and only people that can read English will ever question the spelling.
Things that only mean something within a specific framework, concepts that need a specific background to have any meaning for you at all. Words that lose their original meaning because circumstances changed, concepts that fall away because they are replaced with new ones that is more fitting to the society that is constantly evolving.
People grow and learn new habits, explore new horizons, set new goals, expand their knowledge, forget older truths, try to conform others to their standards, their worldview, their morals. As the number of people grows and multiplies, the number of conflicting views grows and multiplies, till most people find a type of middle-ground that they are mostly happy with.
Religion and politics, race and culture, education and wealth, age and gender, language and intelligence, and of course, location, location, location. Some of the biggest cornerstones of your worldview, of the way you choose to interact with others. There is just too much information that we have no way to process, that we will never even know of, that we can never even take into account. Things that skews our every thought without us ever being aware of it. 'Beliefs' that we take for granted and never query, because it is a given. A 'truth' that was only true till it was proven wrong.
Angels. Heavenly beings. Ever wondered about them? They stayed in heaven with God, where we will go if we believe that Jesus died for our sins. Lucifer, one of God's favorites, tried to take over and was expelled from heaven, taking nearly half of the angels with him. Does not sound too good, does it? If nearly half of the angels left heaven, because they decided to follow Lucifer instead of God, what will we humans do?
Cannibals only eat people that they have great respect for, as they believe that you take part of that person's courage or strength of character, whatever you admire in that person, and it becomes part of you, when you eat of his flesh. Maybe the disciples ate Jesus's flesh, and this was later edited out of the bible because it did not suit the church to have people ignoring the dead 'men of God', and eating only the people that set an example for the community they were part of. We shall never know.
Nearly all religions preach that life is sacred, and that it is a sin to take it. There is, however, always a few loopholes. A non-believer? Kill him, that is not a sin. Adulterers? Let everybody get together and stone them to death. Enemies? Raze their cities to the ground and remove all evidence that they ever existed. If God, or to be more specific, God's spokesperson, commands you to kill somebody, it supersedes all previous commands.
Chose again. Start to doubt the truth, test it, check for inconsistencies, make your decision based on your own experience. If it still holds true, chose to still see it as a truth. For now. If it fails, acknowledge the fact and accept it. for now. You may have to change your mind again.
Life is not a struggle, it is not a race to run, it is not a play to observe, it is not something you can stop and carry on later, when it suits you better. Life is a moment of experience, a moment of learning, a moment to choose. Choose the way you want, and enjoy the experience. It is only happening now, and it is the only thing of any value.
Thursday, 27 February 2014
Thursday, 6 February 2014
Was it worth it?
Most of the big decisions in my life was made with an eye on the future. Considering all the pros and all the cons, trying to look into the future and decide whether it will be the better decision. Not the correct decision, not the best decision, but the better one. Will the consequences of this decision be worth the effort and time I am committing myself to?
I realized a short while ago that the 'big' decisions in my life were the ones that hardly affected me at all. The important ones, the ones that form your life, that form your relationships with other people, that define who you are, are made without any thought, any hesitation, any realization of the importance of the decision.
The first time I saw my wife, I knew she was the one for me. Split-second decision the moment I saw her. And she was not even close enough to blame it on pheromones, she just stepped from a car about twenty meters from me. She claims exactly the same, and it may well be, but that did not influence the decision.
The first time I touched a computer, I was hooked. Thirty-one years later I am still enjoying myself when pottering around with the 'latest' (meaning three years ago it was not available) technology. It changed completely, but it stayed exactly the same at the same time. This is possible because I look at it from two different viewpoints. Nothing to do with multiple personalities or anything, but I see it as a profession, where it changed completely, and as a hobby, where it stayed exactly the same.
The 'big' decisions in my life had more to do with timing, audience and location, location, location. That is why I took a lot of time and effort with it, because I was not taking a life-altering decision, the aim was solely to impress someone else. Does not feel so at the time, because the ego likes to strut around and look impressive, but it is only the 'look-again' slow-motion with running commentary, explaining with perfect hindsight what happened. The dramatized, Hollywood-version of course.
Was my 'big' decisions worth it? Looking back, it feels as if the longer I took to make the decision, the less its effect on my life. Decisions that I wrestled with for months to take, had some immediate effects, and nothing else. Things that took days to decide changed my life in unexpected ways, while decisions that took mere minutes to make had some major effects on my life.
This taught me something very important about making decisions. The more time you take to make a decision, the less will be its impact on your life. I am now taking my time with all decisions, and the effects are minute. I just hope somebody else will not get upset, and decide to make my decisions for me, as those effects are never pleasant.
I realized a short while ago that the 'big' decisions in my life were the ones that hardly affected me at all. The important ones, the ones that form your life, that form your relationships with other people, that define who you are, are made without any thought, any hesitation, any realization of the importance of the decision.
The first time I saw my wife, I knew she was the one for me. Split-second decision the moment I saw her. And she was not even close enough to blame it on pheromones, she just stepped from a car about twenty meters from me. She claims exactly the same, and it may well be, but that did not influence the decision.
The first time I touched a computer, I was hooked. Thirty-one years later I am still enjoying myself when pottering around with the 'latest' (meaning three years ago it was not available) technology. It changed completely, but it stayed exactly the same at the same time. This is possible because I look at it from two different viewpoints. Nothing to do with multiple personalities or anything, but I see it as a profession, where it changed completely, and as a hobby, where it stayed exactly the same.
The 'big' decisions in my life had more to do with timing, audience and location, location, location. That is why I took a lot of time and effort with it, because I was not taking a life-altering decision, the aim was solely to impress someone else. Does not feel so at the time, because the ego likes to strut around and look impressive, but it is only the 'look-again' slow-motion with running commentary, explaining with perfect hindsight what happened. The dramatized, Hollywood-version of course.
Was my 'big' decisions worth it? Looking back, it feels as if the longer I took to make the decision, the less its effect on my life. Decisions that I wrestled with for months to take, had some immediate effects, and nothing else. Things that took days to decide changed my life in unexpected ways, while decisions that took mere minutes to make had some major effects on my life.
This taught me something very important about making decisions. The more time you take to make a decision, the less will be its impact on your life. I am now taking my time with all decisions, and the effects are minute. I just hope somebody else will not get upset, and decide to make my decisions for me, as those effects are never pleasant.
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