I think it would make everyone’s life a little better if we took time to plant things. I mean, the act of getting your hands dirty with earth and water and then patiently tending a fragile growing thing has got to be good for the soul. Plus, doesn’t the world need a little more patience, a little more nurturing? Things go fast fast fast all the time, and with speed comes haste and laziness, and soon things are done just to be done, with little care or consideration, and at that point the meanings attached to words, actions, projects and the like are easily forgotten, trimmed away for the sake of speed. I think the whole of earth could use a bit of a reality check, I mean, we need to get our priorities straight, myself included. It is so hard to see what is real when we speed along the way we do and contrived human notions surround us on a daily basis. Marketing, media and unspoken rules about what makes a good life. Phobias, greed, the cries for justice which so easily shift in to cries for war, blood. I understand that there are things worth fighting for, I really do, but I think we fight for silly things sometimes. We focus our attention on things that don’t matter. We isolate ourselves in order to avoid the conflicting emotions cause by empathy for those who are worse off than ourselves, and in turn feel jealous of those who we see as above ourselves in this social construct of our own imagining. And the thing is, when a vast majority of people believe in something, incredibly enough, it is very hard to distinguish from reality. It’s called the tinkerbell effect. I think children should be taught to plant things, instead of to tear them down. I mean, I think its time for us to choose some new things to believe in, this just isn’t working.
Tag Archives: beliefs
I thought of Christophe, the sweet man who had picked us up an hour before Paris yesterday, and taken us directly to the public transit station so we wouldn’t get stuck trying to hitch through the city. I thought: I believe in people. It’s not the mystical benevolence of god that count I count on day-to-day, it’s the goodness of other human beings, the kindnesses lying ready in the human heart. I believe in the goodness of people and people bring me goodness. It was this wash of gratitude that I stuck out my faithful thumb on the A-10.
off the map
Philosophy has really been shaking my world view. Theories about invisible hands, the myth of the cave, the world of being vs. the world of becoming, who should rule, social contracts, subjective reality, monads, and the matrix, just for starting in reality and justice. I feel like the world is all cluttered with good intentions and bad intentions, but the outcomes are not always what you would expect. These words, like justice and dignity, that hold such powerful ideas keep cropping. I almost feel like I’m being brought from one reality, into a higher one, as in the myth of the cave. From the world of accepting, to the world of questioning, but it isn’t easy, I’m losing my footing and security along the way, the naive idea that everything must be right with the world. I’m not talking about conspiracies here, looming danger, but more about the injustices that go ignored, ideas formed by uninformed minds, and the human tendency to push things under the carpet – out of sight, out of mind. In a way I feel like I’m losing faith in the world, in humanity, but at the same time, I’m gaining it because of all these great thinkers, all the strong, empowered individuals I see asking questions, learning, creating. A short while ago I read the intro to The Reason For God online (I’m reading The God Delusion and want to be fair about seeing both sides). I remember scoffing at how the author, Timothy Keller, insisted that faith was growing and scepticism was growing at the same time, but now I think it might be a type of paradox. Maybe that’s only because I feel similar about my level of faith in humanity, it’s higher and lower than ever, because I am learning more of the horrible things humans have, and continue to do, and I’m discovering more and more people who are creative, wise, musical, kind and intelligent. I guess, I’m not quite sure what to think, but I feel optimistic, and a bit empowered, because at least I’m thinking about it, thinking about the world and what I believe in.
Sometimes I feel like I
Am a paradox.
My beliefs contradict each other
and yet
If you contimplate,
I am true.