Monday, September 21, 2009

Back to Life!

I keep no secret of my fascination for the human mind.
I look at myself: It is me, in the most intimate thoughts.
Yet it is an infinite universe I don’t even start to fathom.
It is so simple and so complicated.
It is strange and comforting at the same time, sometimes wonderful sometimes frightening.

So why is that?
Why do we ask questions and look for answers?
Why do we look for happiness and a higher meaning of life?
“Why not?” Will be the simple answer.

The so called “serious” life, the going to work, making money so we can buy more things it is a pretty dumb life to have, if you ask me.
It is the little, insignificant things in life, like writing on my blog, listening to a good song or playing with my children, that make me happy.
It is the total silliness and the playful side of life that keeps me going not the serious stuff.

If not for those little interruptions, weekends, holidays, vacations, family reunions and celebrations, life would be totally meaningless.
Where is the “rat” race taking us?
How the hell do you even win it?
Has anybody ever won it?

We have evolved from the hunter and gatherer of thousands years ago into the modern masters of technology of today.
We have more things that anybody in history before us.
We have more food that we need, more entertainment than we have time to watch.
We move faster and faster we accumulate more and more things.

But there is a difference between being alive and living and most of us don’t know it.
What I want for me and for the ones I love is to live life with infinite passion instead of just dragging through life one day after another.
What I want is to open my mind to new horizons and possibilities, instead of following the same old, tired concepts and beliefs.

What I know is what dictates how I live.
My mind is the auto pilot of my life.
I am tired of living my life scared.
Scared of wars and economical crisis and swine flu and climate collapse.
I don’t like the way I’m pushed in life by fear.

I need to hit that “reset” button.
I need to reprogram my mind for a new life.

17 comments:

This Brazen Teacher said...

:-)

Reminds me of Conversations with your 'dog.'

We are here to experience who we are. In order to this... we must also experience who we are not.

As always, you're a great way to spend my lunch break... thanks

Scruffy said...

If you like getting a free lunch so much, then wait in a soup line or go back to rations or sit in a dumpster. Any way you slice it, aside from a magical God that multiplies your resources when you find the pot at the edge of the rainbow or winning the lottory, you've got to work your ass off for your rewards or you've got to work smarter and make informed decisions.

My own damned laziness is what scares me BOH, and fear is not a bad thing at all, but unfortunately it doesn't quite motivate me enough. I've got too much to fall back on, let's call it a lottery family and a golden spoon, I'm essentially the undisciplined prodigical son who isn't allowed to make mistakes, and yet I still see laziness as the biggest mistake possible. At least people interpret "not being self-sustaining" as laziness, however I don't see myself as lazy, I do spend hours of my time doing an activity that I would otherwise get paid for if I had a degree and a clean record.

Argent said...

I'm with you all the way on this. I'm in a situation now which may result in me not having a job in about 6 weeks' time, but there's a big part of me that welcomes it and wants to be liberated from the rat race - for a while anyway.

I'm not rich but I'm not on the breadline either, yet still I push myself to work every day. It's not even that I want more STUFF, I don't. But we are programmed to see people who won't go to work every day as lazy, feckless parasites. Why is the only contribution that society recognises or values is one done for money?

Flight said...

As Daniel Quinn put it ,

“The story the Leavers have been enacting for the past three million years isn’t a story of conquest and rule. Enacting it doesn’t give them power. Enacting it gives them lives that are satisfying and meaningful to them. This is what you’ll find if you go among them. They’re not seething with discontent and rebellion, not incessantly wrangling over what should be allowed and what forbidden, not forever accusing each other of not living the right way, not living in terror of each other not going crazy because their lives seem empty and pointless, not having to stupefy themselves with drugs to get through the days, not having a new religion every week to give them something to hold on to, not forever searching for something to do or something to believe in that will make lives worth living. And – I repeat – this is not because they live close to nature or have no formal government or because they’re innately noble. This is simply because they’re enacting a story that works well for people – a story that worked well for three million years and that still works well where the Takers haven’t yet managed to stamp it out.”

Unknown said...

@ Brazen – For some unknown reason to me, this is what I am compelled to tell you:
“I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.”

@ Scruffy – LOL! Wherever did you get the idea that I am looking for a hand out?
I am too poor to receive alms!
About your “lazy” disposition.
I think you are a very industrious person.
Your problem to me looks more like a bad “passive aggressive” habit you have picked up in your young years.
If it really bothers you, you should look for some help.
As all bad habits can be cured.

@ argent – I was there a couple of month ago.
I was on the chopping block but somebody else got axed.
I was scared but after taking to my wife we decided that it wouldn’t be that bad.
Remember: when a door closes another one opens.

@ Flight – That is amazing!
Thank you for sharing it with us!

TALON said...

If the work you do is what you love, then the rat race isn't an issue.

I think life can be quite simple. We choose to complicate it.

Unknown said...

@ Talon - I realize that.
The trouble we are in is the trouble we have created. True.
How do you get out of it when we have managed to complicate things.
When there are kids and mortgages involved?
That is the wisdom I would like to have.

Ted Bagley said...

Seems to me there is only doing no matter what we think time is. We're either doing nots or undoing knots.

Unknown said...

@ Ted - Still searching...
Maybe I should use a sword for this knot?

Ted Bagley said...

"My mind is the autopilot of my life"
Even in a plane there are times when it's better to fly it manually.

Ted Bagley said...

Then there would be not a knot. :)

Ted Bagley said...

...or we start doing not knot jokes.

Unknown said...

@ Ted - LOL!
Like you said - sometimes is better to leave your mind behind and just fly by the seat of your pants...
You started the knot trend with your blog long time ago I am just continuing the thread :)

Ted Bagley said...

Bless you, my friend. :)

TALON said...

I hope you didn't think I was being flip, Buddha. I truly wasn't. I have the kids, the mortgage, the dogs and the cats and the stresses that come along with it. I do my best to find the joy in maintaining as much simplicity as I can and I'm learning as I age that I have much more control than I realized over how I react to the stress and what are truly things I should be worried about and what things are not worth the time. It's always a balancing act.

Unknown said...

@ Talon - Do not worry my friend, I have no ego - or at least I have a very little one - I very seldom get upset and it is never about what people say - it is when people do cruel thing to children or animals that really push my buttons.
So you can present your point of view without any restrictions.
I will always listen with an open mind because I now I can learn something from every person I met

Scruffy said...

Thanks BOH, I appreciate that