Thoughts…thoughts…thoughts…I
have unequivocally decided, now more than ever, that, in general, people are
failures when it comes to thinking deeply about their lives, or at the very
least, they are failures at communicating those deep thoughts (including
myself). I always believed that our communication skills improved with age and experience, or at least I hoped this much was true, but lately, I’ve noticed how wrong it is. I know that there are people out there who are successful in their attempts to analyze, criticize, and introspect their lives and surroundings, and I respect them, I genuinely do. I just wish that it were true for more than a small minority of the population. But maybe I’m wrong, maybe somewhere there are multitudes of people who are able to answer the big questions of life honestly and aren’t afraid to expose emotional and intellectual weaknesses, a group of people who share my interest in cerebral stimulation. Anyway…

When people are explaining their beliefs to you, do you ever ask them why they believe it? And how often are they able to give you a straight
answer? Probably not very often at all. And if they are unable to give you a reasonable answer, then don’t you wonder how they can believe something without knowing why they believe
it? I remember a special someone once told me that lawyers were the doctors of society…and I also remember that my first response was to ask why. And it was only after I asked why, and received a satisfactory answer (namely that lawyers mend the problems of society within a court of law just as doctors mend the problems of the body with the jurisdiction of a hospital, and an individual probably needs a lawyer on more occasions in his life than he needs a doctor) that I realized the brilliance of that statement. The truth is, I have always felt it was natural to question both others’ and your own beliefs, to ponder if and why they are
correct. It is what makes us intrinsically and distinctively human, what differentiates us from other animals, our potential to wonder, to analyze, to feel, to express, to love, to abhor, to scrutinize, to forgive….so why doesn’t everyone seize that
potential? My point is, it doesn’t seem plausible to me that most people do not question
things. In fact, I am confused as to how it is even possible. But I suppose it is possible, which is why I feel the need to write this entry in the first
place. Ok, so it is possible, it just saddens me. Because I know that if I were to ask someone why fire hydrants are placed in the middle of streets instead of on the corners where they are much more easily accessible, a lot of people would just shrug and not give my question a second
thought. And that not only saddens me, but it angers me as well…why won’t people ask such
questions? At the risk of sounding like an intellectual elitist or a snob (of which I am neither,) I don’t really want to associate with people who don’t wonder about fire hydrants, or don’t ponder and struggle with the paradoxes and complexities of life. I wonder why they don’t… The students that I work ask me the most simple and complicated questions…and I try my best to reason and give them logically answers. At least I know I’m not lying to them but giving them further reasons to explore their answers. Why as adults have we neglected this frame of thought and questioning? I have noticed that a recent wave of apathy has washed across the population as of late, especially among my generation…perhaps that is the
reason. But apathy, really? When it comes to the biggest and most important concepts, ideas, and questions of your life, apathy seems like an extremely destructive attitude to possess.

To be honest, I think part of it probably stems from our “Facebook culture,” our “I’ll look at some pictures and brief tidbits of information about a person, and come to a judgment about him/her based on that, without bothering to delve deeper, or find out
more” perspective. (((Please don’t sit behind your computer…and lie to yourself that you aren’t making judgments about viewing others on facebook – going through their pictures and seeing who they hang out with. Also checking out to see how many friends they have…etc….at some point of our lives we all do it). And it’s nothing to be ashamed of)). In all seriousness, Facebook is probably the main reason that I have a LiveJournal/BLOG in the first
place. Because if you want to know what my butt looks like in my jeans, check
Facebook. But for me, LiveJournal/blogging is soooo much more than that, it is my place to analyze myself, to contemplate the complexities of my life, to grow as a person…

Who would have thought a blog could be capable of all that?

Luv, fin

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 9:52 PM and is filed under Change, Faith, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.