Well, here it goes. I don't know where to start. I was born a poor....no that's not where I should begin. I feel a lot of pressure to come up with something profound being that this is my first blog entry ever. You would think I would have something to blog about. After all, I have been around for 4 decades, have seen my fair share of world history, read a few books, seen a few movies, travelled a bit, lived a little. However, at the end of the day, what do any of us really know? We know what we see, read, feel, think, experience, but what does that really amount to? It is a collection of personal history, experience, study, feelings, thoughts, useless knowledge, useful knowledge (like don't touch a hot stove). As we grapple with all that life has to offer or in some cases all that life does not have to offer, there is always the morbid reality that our life on earth will end someday. What do you do with that? Most of us ignore this fact and live day to day, week to week, month to month (you get the picture) with ever really delving into a search to find an answer to the reality of death. Sometimes, I am stopped in my tracks by the realization of my mortality. Then, I try to push the thoughts out of my mind and move on to the day to day living that all of us have become very good at. Filling our lives with endless noise. Afraid to quiet ourselves and listen to the still small voice in our conscience that is begging for an answer to the question, what next? If you look at cultures that have enjoyed a little bit of wealth like the U.S., you see people who are always looking for entertainment, adventure, diversion, vacation, fun, etc. The basics are taken care of (food, clothing, housing, etc), so now the pursuit is for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. I am amazed how much we spend on the pursuit of pleasure. The entertainment industry is enormous. T.V., movies, musicals, music, whatever you fancy we spend and spend on these things. We are trying to escape reality. "The Reality" that someday soon it is going to end. Why are we afraid to grapple with the question? I know there is an answer, if we are willing to go on the journey to find it. But that would take us away from our pursuit of pleasure and force us to encounter some pain. We would have to swallow the red pill and wake up to the reality of life. And I don't know if we are willing to really do it. I think we would rather play life and not actually live it.
Well, hopefully, this amounts to a good first blog.
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