Sunday, January 15, 2012
On the Way It Is
I once read a bumper sticker that said "If you're not outraged then you're not paying attention." At the time it really struck me as being totally true. All around me there seemed to be injustice. The world was out of whack. It seemed as though the world was worse than it had ever been. I couldn't figure out how people could walk around smiling and being happy when there were so many terrible things going on right outside our front door. It was exhausting being that outraged about everything, even the little things. My anger at the world gone wrong showed that I was paying attention. The thing was that while I was apparently angry with the stupidity of it all, I don't think I ever actually did anything about it, other than complain about it. It's one thing to realize that the house is on fire. It's another to actually fight it and try to save what you can. Most people are more content with announcing there is a problem rather than do something about it.
Each of us has an idea of what the world should be like. Hopefully as we make our way through life we do what we can to shape things so that they resemble something like that idea in our mind. All too often though we find that everyone else has a completely different idea of how things should be. This could run contrary to your own vision and that's where the real problems start. I used to think that somehow someone managed to get their way and that's how we got into this mess. It took me a long time to realize that most of the time it's less about someone getting their way and more the fact that everyone eventually just agreed to let one slide. The whole world seems to be an elaborate compromise. Or maybe it's just that most people figure it's always been this way so why fight it?
It's a hard concept for a lot of people to accept, especially those who could be classified as idealistic. For them it's never going to be acceptable. In a way I have to admire the ones who never give up the fight. Not because I happen to agree with them, but because they'd rather fight against a world they disagree with than sit by and let it roll over them. I suppose one could argue that eventually the fight exists for the sake of existing. That some people will never be happy with reality and they've fought for so long that even if they were given exactly what they wanted, they'd keep fighting for something else. That may be true for some people, but I'd like to think that in a lot of cases once the battle is won they could enjoy it. All too often though the battle just keeps going, with neither side willing to give up the ground they've got.
So what are the choices with life? There will always be things that will bring outrage. The world will never be totally in our favor. Is it our place to simply accept certain things will be against us? Everything has a force. You embrace it or deflect it. Why oppose it? Should we stand up for what we believe in, even if the cost is to never truly know peace? Maybe for some it's simply our nature to rage against the dying of the light while others just accept that it's the nature of the world for there to be darkness.
Each of us has an idea of what the world should be like. Hopefully as we make our way through life we do what we can to shape things so that they resemble something like that idea in our mind. All too often though we find that everyone else has a completely different idea of how things should be. This could run contrary to your own vision and that's where the real problems start. I used to think that somehow someone managed to get their way and that's how we got into this mess. It took me a long time to realize that most of the time it's less about someone getting their way and more the fact that everyone eventually just agreed to let one slide. The whole world seems to be an elaborate compromise. Or maybe it's just that most people figure it's always been this way so why fight it?
It's a hard concept for a lot of people to accept, especially those who could be classified as idealistic. For them it's never going to be acceptable. In a way I have to admire the ones who never give up the fight. Not because I happen to agree with them, but because they'd rather fight against a world they disagree with than sit by and let it roll over them. I suppose one could argue that eventually the fight exists for the sake of existing. That some people will never be happy with reality and they've fought for so long that even if they were given exactly what they wanted, they'd keep fighting for something else. That may be true for some people, but I'd like to think that in a lot of cases once the battle is won they could enjoy it. All too often though the battle just keeps going, with neither side willing to give up the ground they've got.
So what are the choices with life? There will always be things that will bring outrage. The world will never be totally in our favor. Is it our place to simply accept certain things will be against us? Everything has a force. You embrace it or deflect it. Why oppose it? Should we stand up for what we believe in, even if the cost is to never truly know peace? Maybe for some it's simply our nature to rage against the dying of the light while others just accept that it's the nature of the world for there to be darkness.
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