A little self-promotion never hurt anyone. I started another blog called “Things That I Can’t Afford”. You should all follow that and submit something to be nice, you know.
My friend Chris Universe likes to make my words look good.
Fuck It, It’s 2010
Two-thousand-nine was undoubtedly the most unpleasant year that I’ve had to face in my life. In order, I experienced a job loss and heartbreak, my mother was laid off, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, my father was threatened with a lay off, potential foreclosure, the death of my grandmother, denial of admission into school, further heartbreak, and as a result committed acts of betrayal which led to a downward emotional spiral.
What follows is an unnamed philosophy I’ve come to adopt this year that’s changed all of those experiences, as well as some new ones, from terrible circumstance to digestible life that in the end feels positive.
The words that I offer you here aren’t magic—they’re simply words. If applied to everyday life with honest effort, however, I can tell you that some, if not most, things will be easier to deal with, and troubles will bead off of your skin like water.
These ideas aren’t for everyone. Some [maybe many] of you will disagree. Some of them conflict with faith, while others challenge more general spirituality or ideas of interconnected existence. Be forewarned: Enter here with a closed mind and you will see nothing, but come with a desire for change and you may well be surprised.
I can tell you first hand, though, that my life has never been so good and it has nothing to do with what’s happened to me and has everything to do with how I now see the world.
After reading through these five things to remember, if you find yourself with questions or comments, positive or negative, feel free to shoot me a message on my Formspring.
I hope you find what you’re looking for.
![The Universe, represented, constituted, and described by space-time, does not exhibit [as far as the laws and theories of physics have shown through experimental calculation and observation] either consciousness or a system of weights and measures based on human behavior and/or moral code. In a system as large as the known observable universe [defined as the area from which light from any part of the electromagnetic spectrum can be observed], this can be determined to be a logical assumption because of mankind’s proportionately insignificant presence amongst an estimated 100 billion galaxies.
There is no omniscient, omnipresent being out there judging you, deciding how to accurately reward or punish you for your behavior based on some abstract moral code. The only real answer to why anything ever happens is chance or organic intervention. Take the short human life-span out of the equation and imagine being able to live forever—you would experience all things, “good” and “bad” that could ever happen, based solely on odds. In the time of The Universe, everything will happen, and it has nothing to do with you.
Accept control of your life when it is yours, and relinquish it when it is not and you’ll never ask “why me” again.](http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l119keSbtA1qzxti9o1_500.jpg)
The Universe, represented, constituted, and described by space-time, does not exhibit [as far as the laws and theories of physics have shown through experimental calculation and observation] either consciousness or a system of weights and measures based on human behavior and/or moral code. In a system as large as the known observable universe [defined as the area from which light from any part of the electromagnetic spectrum can be observed], this can be determined to be a logical assumption because of mankind’s proportionately insignificant presence amongst an estimated 100 billion galaxies.
There is no omniscient, omnipresent being out there judging you, deciding how to accurately reward or punish you for your behavior based on some abstract moral code. The only real answer to why anything ever happens is chance or organic intervention. Take the short human life-span out of the equation and imagine being able to live forever—you would experience all things, “good” and “bad” that could ever happen, based solely on odds. In the time of The Universe, everything will happen, and it has nothing to do with you.
Accept control of your life when it is yours, and relinquish it when it is not and you’ll never ask “why me” again.
![They say that the image you project to the world is a reflection of the image you project on yourself. You are only what you make yourself to be, so subject the idea of your “self” to your whim. Create who you want to be, believe in it, and it will [even if it happens slowly] become true.](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l1190b1JnG1qzxti9o1_500.jpg)
They say that the image you project to the world is a reflection of the image you project on yourself. You are only what you make yourself to be, so subject the idea of your “self” to your whim. Create who you want to be, believe in it, and it will [even if it happens slowly] become true.
If you do not force an expectation on a given situation, then what occurs is only an event; “good” and “bad” become irrelevant and you become free to simply experience.
Imagine yourself standing in a room with an empty container in your hand. On your first day in the room you are thirsty, so someone comes into the room, fills your container with water and leaves. This is what you wanted, so you are happy. On the second day you are thirsty, so someone comes into the room, fills your container with water and leaves. You drink it and are happy. On the third day, however, you are hungry. Someone enters the room, fills the container with water and leaves. Now you are disappointed and stand hungry with your container of water.
Imagine now that you are the container. Regardless of what it is the person brings into the room, you are happy to be filled.
Be the container.
All life ends, and yours is no exception. Accepting that there will come a point where you no longer exist should motivate you to find positive light in the short, dark time you have on Earth.
Samurai would wake up every day knowing that they were already dead, and that death was the nature of life. Armed with the notion that all time is borrowed, they lived in the moment and accepted all things as they were. Arm yourself with this same idea to let go of your fears and pain that holds you back from truly living. Existence is too brief and miserable of a thing to not spend every moment absolutely enjoying it.
Out of all the infinite possibilities on all the billions of worlds floating around all the billions of stars in all the billions of galaxies in our ever-expanding universe, a single thing will be what kills you. You might not yet know what it is, but until you find out, rest assured that nothing else can end your life.
So live fearlessly.
GPOYW, because I’ve never participated before.
