Good morning all; good afternoon or evening to others. There was an interesting mix of reactions to my last post, and I’m grateful for every one of them. I’m not depressed or anything like that. I’m starting to realize that I’m much older now, and my memory is fading; outing the unneeded, such as those of the faces I took for granted that composed the landscape of my immortal and unchanging world. It was a glimpse inside of my mind when someone is telling a story to my slack-featured face and I say, “I’m sorry, what were you saying?” I partied a lot when I was younger, but definitely not anymore, for what should be obvious reasons—wife, kids, responsibility. All good reasons, for whose lack of probably had me sidled to the bar. Still, mix one part full moon and two parts free time and I’ll ride like Paul Revere.
One thought that arrests me is the concept of no beginning. God has no beginning, if you believe that. When I was a teenager, and most likely stoned—which I cannot verify for sure, but this kind of revelation is in line with that state of mind—I stared at the stars while laying on the hood of my friend’s car, in his driveway, waiting for him to finish getting ready. The impact of no beginning hit me like a wrecking ball through a shelf of fine china. How is it possible? And yet it has to be. My heart felt like a gyroscope as those two thoughts churned inside me until I was forced to shut it off. My mind is too simple to ever understand the basic nature of our existence. How can a computer program know what it is?
Think about it. We are just like software, unique from one another in many ways, but in the most important ways we are no different at all. We live, grow old and die. In between we struggle with the same issues, yet deal with them differently according to our programming. When backed to the wall we will almost to a man fight with vicious ferocity. We read stories that capture the human condition, that bit of programming that makes us all the same. We all want to love and be loved, and how successful we are with these basic tenets shapes the person that we are.
If there is a God, he made the laws such that we will never travel the breadth of this universe. The way out is one that we haven’t considered, to which we are incapable besides. Perhaps we have been banished to this place, a prison surrounded by the infinite vacuum of space, and given fragile vessels inside which we must adapt or die. Perhaps we are being tested, the last rite of passage into a holy fraternity. Hey, am I starting to make a case for heaven?
I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.
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9 comments:
I'm laughing at Mrs. T's response to you. LOL!
Anyway, every time I think about God's eternal nature (having no beginning) my head starts hurting.
Tanya
These metaphysical questions will literally drive you insane. As an agnostic, I believe that if there is a God, he is a physicist whose mind is to us what we are to an ant- unfathomable and complicated beyond the scope of our understanding. Our "faith" is what keeps us from going crazy contemplating time and eternity. When I lost my friend a couple weeks back, as a scientist I couldn't help thinking, "How is that we can put transistors on the head of a pin, we can peer into the cosmos and thus billions of years back in time, yet we can't stop the people we love from dying?" Heavy stuff today. Great post.
"I’m starting to realize that I’m much older now, and my memory is fading…"
Wait a minute — is this the young guy I met last week talking?
I don't know about you, but when I die, my soul is going to the Delta Quadrant, God knows how many parsecs from here. I'm going to reincarnate into something hairy and multi-legged on a planet where chicks dig a man who's hairy and multi-legged. And after that, who knows?
I remember contemplating the universe as a very young child (well, under the age of ten and over the age of six). Wondering where it ended and what was at the end? Or were we in a box in some infinitely small corner of some alien's closet? Although not beginnings it has a similar unanswerable theme!
And we are not all the same--IMO--we're all built on the skeleton of DNA but with sociopaths and psychopaths feeling nothing, except self-gratification, I think we are the lucky ones.
Also making no sense. Please shoot me now!
Toni - I think he's saying that at a basic level we are the same - genomes and all that stuff - it's the programming that's different, or a virus in the data that corrupts the motherboard. Right?
Good post - great thinking process. I think you do know what you're talking about.
Eve always sorts me out :)
This is my belief. We are put on this earth by God for the betterment of human kind. What a person does with the life given to them is up to them.
Within each person there is a spiritual void that needs to be filled. Again, how it's filled depends on the individual. We are free moral agents created by a God who wants a personal relationship with his creation.
The way I see it, there are no coincedences. Our exsistance influences in some way, shape or form, every person we meet; even in passing. And none...none of us are dispensable within the fabric of creation.
So philosophical and deep; we're all getting older Scott and that's a good thing. With age comes wisdom. Come to think of it, with age comes senility...er security. I meant security! Ha!
You're thought provoking as always, wonderful post. ((hugs))
Mrs T - You don't have any do you? This is nothing compared to what my brain on drugs can produce.
Tanya - Mine too!
Natalie - Can you imagine though if we really could stop aging? What then? We live until we die of a disease, and people could only have children by winning the lottery. We'd have to sterilize most of the population.
Mr. Schprock - I guess I should wait the join the AARP for just a little while. I like your thoughts on the Delta Quadrant. Do you have any brochures?
Toni - I think we are more alike than you think. A couple head wires moved from gate a to gate b and you might not feel either.
Eve - Interesting thoughts. Yes, we are seperated in measurable ways.
Moni - I like to think there are no coincidences either. Maybe that is the romantic in me, but the concept of a plan makes it seem like we are heading in a direction anyway.
Toni is exaggerating - she usually straightens me out - keeps me on that straight and narrow.
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