Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The World as it Seems

    2010. Here is humanity, progressing faster than ever, with new technologies coming out everyday, from new cell phones to new jet planes. Crises are ever growing---the war in Afghanistan, the BP oil spill, the Haiti and Chili earthquakes, increasing threats from North Korea. And here we are, in the midst of all this, wondering where the world is going, and hearing occasional rumors of 2012, attaching it to any new crisis. We think, “Will peace ever be accomplished? Will climate change ever become a first priority for governments? Just where are we in the cosmic scale? Do other intelligent species exist? Do they watch over our shoulders?” And we think about our individual lives: “Why am I here? Does my life have any meaning? Am I really like everyone else? How can I improve my life? Is there anything better than what I am in now, and how can I get it?”
    These questions are important, and all of us have them or have had them. Many go unanswered and people give up, surrendering to the continuous motion of job, money, family. We feel as though we are powerless, and that our voice doesn’t matter in big decisions, that it should be left to the politicians, because we have our own concerns. Everyday is a struggle to earn income, and the crisis of the outside world doesn’t seem worrisome.
 We just want to be happier, to be rid of stress and to earn enough money not to care about the bills anymore. We all strive for this happier state, to feel rich and powerful, so that we can buy Ferrari’s, and manors, and the latest fashions. That kind of future seems splendid, and nearly every thought we have is of that future and how it can be achieved. The future is constantly in our minds. “What if this happens? What should I do? Where will I be in a month, a year, a decade? Will I be safe with this decision? I just don’t know!” The stresses of such decision making burden the mind, and the body, and our emotions. To have a life we want, we go through stress to ensure we can eventually achieve it. We try to find comfort in having firm plans of what we want to do. Such plans almost always revolve around money. “I’m not earning enough. How can I earn more? Do I have the ability to do so?” And so, the stress of thinking of the future turns into fear---fear that you won’t earn enough, and that the street will soon be your home, that your very shelter will be foreclosed and all your possessions taken. That you will walk the sidewalks, searching for scraps of food and begging passerby for money. That kind of fear fills the mind and heart, and pushes us to further our plans for a better future, creating more stress and then more fear and so on, until we are consumed by it, and the side effects it creates---depression, fatigue, bodily illness, etc.
    So, the question then is “What do I do? I work every day and it gets me nowhere. I hate it. Why can’t I make more money? What does it take? How do those rich people get so rich?” These questions then create anger and jealousy. Anger that our efforts get us nowhere, and jealousy that there are people simply born rich and have every luxury in the world, loving life and not needing to work while you’re stuck in a dead end job, working until your sore and in need of a bed.
    This is what the modern life creates. Stress about the future, fear of being foreclosed, anger that you’re getting nowhere, and jealousy towards the rich and powerful. And who is there to help? Friends? Family? They have the same problems. The government? They have some programs, but barely enough to get anywhere, and it seems too petty. So, where can I get help?
    And the answer is, you. There is more to you than what you believe. Allow me to guide you, to help you find your true self, and your view of life will be forever changed.

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