Writing, unsurprisingly, about life.
Millions of thinkers have spent their respective lives... thinking about life. Life is a confusing thing. I mean really confusing. Try and decide what's alive, right now. Human? Easy. Dog? Of course. What about that plant? Sure, I suppose, er... maybe. Now how about a rock? What's to say they aren't conscious and screaming as we mine them, we're just deaf to them? This paragraph isn't to make you feel bad about digging in dirt, I want you to grasp exactly what we can't: life. We are nothing short of completely incapable of comprehending what it is to not be alive. Sure, we're fairly sure that rocks aren't living, but we wonder plenty about what happens when humans die.
That created religion, I think. Because it was comforting to think there's a reason that your love is staring blankly at the ceiling, that if you're good and kind to the world, when you pass on you'll greet her and spend eternity with your other half. Maybe that's how it is. I don't know, because I'm not better than you. I'm completely incapable of comprehending death much the same way you are.
Sure, we can hide behind clinical charts, quantifiable data, but the truth is, life and death are powerful, powerful things. I am alive now. I am a fantastic thing, as are you, reader. And your neighbor, they're fantastic, too. So is your dog and the bird outside your window and even that kid you hate in 4th period. Why? Because they're alive. You're alive. Try and grasp what that means. Your heart is beating? Neurons in your brain are communicating? You're in good enough health to take that next breath painlessly?
No. Those are not what it is to be alive. To be alive is so, so much more than that. Life is the thrill of discovery, the warmth of joy, the pain of loss and the crushing weight of regret. Life is putting that next foot in front of the last, taking another step, even if it's towards the eventual oblivion that might await us all. We don't know, we can't know, so we move on. We carry on. We live.
Living is hard to appreciate, as it's all we've ever known. You can't imagine not being alive because it isn't anything. It's a nothing. That's why we're alive, because it's a something. I contend that the point of life is not love, it is not to be rich, or to learn guitar, or attract a girl, or anything. The point of life is you. You, reader. You are the center of your own little world, the world that you see that contains everything but your own face.
When you live, you do. You do, you bring joy and pain and hate and cruelty and love and happiness and most of all LIFE to others. You are the reason everyone else is alive, much the same reason everyone else is the reason you are alive.
This may be getting confusing. Allow me to clarify.
What do you think about in the morning, or late at night, or when you meditate or dream or scream or cry or smile? You might answer, "Me." Well, you aren't me to a thousand million people. You're you. And in some small way, you play a part in their lives, an act of selflessness or selfishness, love or hate, joy or sadness, or any one of a million other things, that you brought them. You are, to me, not me, but you. I think of the effect you've had on my life, it's grand.
Still confusing.
What I'm trying to say (and failing miserably) is that you live for me and I live for you. We all live to have an effect. Great men and women who leave their marks on history are hardly better than a man who helps a fallen boy back to his feet. Why? The only difference is in numbers. Both change, what's that, /lives/.
Downright hopeless, now.
Look, let me be perfectly clear: we live to make an effect. On history or on your son, it matters little. The important thing is we live to do. To be the change. To strum the chord, to help the man to his feet, to cry, to scream, to yell and rage and fight and smile and hope at the very, very end that it was all worth it to end up there. Whether it end on the godforsaken soil of a battlefield, your coffin made of shells and bodies, or buried in an English cemetery in oak and a suit, life is a constant struggle which begets joy and suffering. Maybe in equal measure, maybe not. The important thing is that you clutch those joyous moments to your chest and remember them, look to them for warmth as you live. Live well, readers. Live as you wish and live to make the world as you see fit, from the seat at the top of a corporation or from a stool in the middle of a drum kit in the middle of a stage, do as you will with this life.
It is, after all, the only one we have.
10 comments:
Awsome post man! Hard to wrap my mind around... and shit, it makes my head hurt! O.O
I like this a lot. It sortof reminds me of Wiccan thinking... it forces you to wrap your mind around the earth rather than around yourself. One perfect example is the question "When a tree falls in a forest, and there is no living creature around to hear it, does it make a sound?" The "Wiccan" answer is No, because there is nothing to percieve it as noise. It is just vibrations until it is identified as sound by one living organism or another.
Very interesting.
It's also very atheistic... we aren't living for god, the afterlife, etc... we are living for the now. We're living for eachother. It's a fantastic concept- because it's true.
This is part of why wars seem stupid... we live for one another, so why screw it up for anyone? Human nature's a bitch.
Enjoyed reading, man.
Well AJ, of course it sounds a little athiestic. He's Agnostic. Most people with that view have this similar kind of output on life. And there's no problem with that. EVERYONE has their own output on life, and everyone has their own opinion on why we are here and what death means
As for your post, Anthony, it was a joy to read. Very intellectual and very stimulating to the mind. I think about these questions often myself, and it's always interesting to hear others honest thoughts and ideas in its entirety.
That was by far one of your greatest post I have read in quite a long time man. Freaking amazing. Life is given to us so we can do something with it so lets not waste it. Preach on bro.
That was epic Johnny! It was one of those things that like opens your mind to see what other people see. That's why philosophy makes for good discussions (especially at 3 am, running on pizza and orange soda!), because it has like, endless possibilities! Again, awesome post
Thank you to everyone who's commented, those were really nice of you all.
@Aj Very interesting, remind me to research that. It seems a way of thinking I might agree with. Of course, thanks bro, it's good to see people enjoyed it.
@conor Thank you very much, first and foremost. Also, yes, people don't get enough chances to discuss deep things in today's society. Fortunately, a number of countermeasures are in place. I'm one of them.
@Kagel Thanks, man. Means a lot to me.
@Halley That's what I've been saying! Text me at 3. This is what you'll get, really. Also, thank you very, very much.
In summary, I love you all.
Ballsacks. Great post
Haha Johnny, awesome reply. Bring me pizza and orange soda, then text me at 3. You'll get a very strange sounding, very confused me, complaining about a stomach that is much too full of pizza and orange soda. Close enough, right? :p
I'd like to point out here, my Captcha is shizer. I pronounce that with a hard T. :)
What t?
Oops, meant hard Z haha. Pronounced like a T. So it'd be shitzer
Post a Comment