Warren Ockrassa wrote:
A self-centered answer is, "I'm happier."
But are you really?
Oh, yes.
A non-rational answer is, "It feels true."
Ah, but how much of that is it feeling true versus your sense of fair play being appealed to? IOW how much of it is more "I *want* it to be true" than "it feels true"?
There's part of me that doesn't want it to be true -- the part of me that wants to act as though there's a God and I'm it.
A quasi-evidentiary answer is that it has survived the millenia.
Mm. Many things have. ;)
Indeed.
Perhaps I need to believe there's something beyond death, especially since I've been touched by it in more ways than most people.
That's where I'd been coming from, yeah, but not for the same reason. I've said in other contexts that my life got a lot easier after I gave up hope, and it's true really. I don't mean I'm pessimistic -- generally I'm not -- I mean, instead, "hope" in the sense of attachment to a future outcome that might or might not be possible. Acting without that attachment to a desired outcome is a delicate balance but it seems to work. For me anyway.
Then we are in much the same place. "Acceptance," in many of its meanings, voices and contexts, is the best word I know for this.
To the extent that anyone's life is what s/he makes it, yes, I can see that -- but again, what happens if you spend a lifetime striving for something only to discover it was purposeless? (Not saying that's going to happen to you, but what if it did?)
By choosing to create purpose. I'm not sure what you think I'm intentionally striving for. If the answer is "salvation," that goes against my theology. Somebody else did the work on that one.
The story could well be apocryphal; it doesn't matter, because it's a good point. What I'm suggesting here is that one does not need to be divinely inspired to dispense wisdom. (Part of me thinks that's good, since divine inspiration is, to my mind, impossible to achieve.)
It's *all* art, perhaps.
Nick
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