It's About Time

I haven't written in 3 or so months and it's probably about time. A lot has been goin on in sleepy Michigan the past few months; I've been to 2 weddings, had 2 visitors from Guatemala, and 2 dear family members have passed away. So there's been a lot to think about.

 Right now (which was when I first started this post 2 weeks ago) I'm feeling a little under the weather watching MLB Networks "The Club". It's a behind the scene look at my favorite baseball team the White Sox. It's a lot of fun to watch since they were awful at the beginning of the year and now they're in first. I might be feeling not so good since I dropped my sister off at O'hare this morning at 3 am so that she could return to Guatemala. The next time I see her will be May 2011 as she's about to get married.

On with the meat and potatoes of this post...

My recent thoughts have been directed towards life. What is the driving force behind our lives? And, at the end of a life how do you know if the time spent here on Earth was fulfilling? I think the second question answers the first. The driving force behind our lives is to fulfill it, to make our time here "worthwhile". Personally, I try to experience new things as often as possible. That's probably the most cliche thing to say and if you ever go on a dating site (though I've never been) you'll probably read that a lot from people who's profile pictures are of them standing on a beach gazing at a setting sun. But really that's an awesome motto to live by. The problem is that it's easier said than done... uh oh more cliche's let's just get them all out now: "opposites attract", "great minds think alike", "there's a light at the end of the tunnel", and finally "moo fart woof quack mustache"... and often we don't realize we've become complacent and get caught sort of cycling through life. So every now and then we need a good kick in the butt. Now, what a fulfilling life consists of is completely subjective. It will mean completely different things for everybody on this planet, and it will even mean wildly different things to the same person throughout their life. Especially when there's kids to consider and all that junk, but that's my two cents for now. (squeezed another cliche in there...score)
Given the chance to live an eternal life would you take it? There's all kinds of follow up questions that would need answers. Like does your body age? Or can some of my friends/family also have eternal life? What happens when the world ends (here I imagine myself floating in space "swimming" towards the nearest star in search of other life)?

 Would I feel pain? I mean the questions go on and on and each answer would have serious implications to my choice. Supposing there is a genie offering this option my decision would probably be made for me since I would die before I could make up my mind. We all fear death yet given the chance to avoid it I'm not sure we would take that chance. On some level I think we all feel that we are here on this Earth for a certain amount of time and that's all we get. Some get more, and some get less. And since we don't know how much time we get let's take advantage of what we do have.

It is said that there are two certainties in life: death and taxes. These are the things that are out of human control, yet paradoxically one of them is entirely a human creation. I think it's an interesting concept that there are things beyond human power, so what are some other things and what kind of effects do they have on our lives? Starting at the beginning, wherever we are born and whoever we are born from commands much of our identity and who we become. I feel extremely fortunate to have been born in America and I try to remind myself of this whenever I am having a bad day. There's no reason that I should have liberties when others do not simply because of my origin yet I do. This is one of the greatest injustices of the world, every human should be granted the same freedoms. This is a big engine to my "global mindset" doctrine. Which has been mentioned in a previous post. It's wonderful to have pride in one's own country but nationalism should have no superiority over globalism.
Evolution is another realm beyond human control. This planet has been shaped based upon physical principles out of our control and was able to sustain human life in addition to all other life. The geography, certain catastrophes and conflicts, and biology have converged to create our lives and human nature as we know it today. The solar system is in this galaxy which is in this universe that we know. It is daunting to think of how little control we have had of anything outside our little sphere of where we live in the vast universe. What makes this little tale fascinating is how we got here has been completely out of our control, but now that we are here (that is to say in the present) we get to control where we go! This is such a special time in human or all of biological evolution. Modern humans with complex societies are known to have been around for about 10 thousand years and this Present is the culmination of all our human struggles. We as a culture have never been more aware of ourselves or surroundings thanks to science and political and social freedoms. It's my opinion that the majority of the world is striving towards what is Right. The worldwide civil rights movement, the fall of communism; much of the population now have seen this in THEIR LIVES. Imagine what wonderful things my generation and future generations will  be able to do without these shackles.

Every human gets one life, one set amount of time and that clock is always counting down. Each society gets a collection of human lives to build its foundation. Our species is the building supported by the foundation of all these societies. It is an awesome sight to zoom out to take a look at the building we have created.