Brothers and sisters
published: September 24th, 2008
Brothers and sisters
image: mafic
There isn’t room for moral ambiguity. Your life is really a one shot deal, semantics and philosophy can lead you some merry dances but this is all we know for certain. Faith is wonderful, belief is tremendous but their foundations are less than empirical, there is a certain degree of trust in agencies beyond our influence that drive these two charioteers and their companion, hope.
That they may exist and that there may be sound arguments in support of adhering to the counsel of these three retainers is not disputed by this writer. What is being alluded to here is the placing of one’s foundations in certainties and absolutes. What we know for certain is that we are here now and have a process going on. That may not always be so, in fact it definitely will not always be so in this form but the unknown there is when.
Therefore it is crucial that you are clear about what you do and the reasons why you do it. This is the true benchmark of where your life is. Not the stuff that is automatic and that you had no part in the genesis of, but those things that are unique to your life and your circumstance. You didn’t create the world, you didn’t create the computer screen you’re reading this on, they were here before you and came into existence despite you so you can’t really take the credit for them.
What you can do is take credit for the way you conduct yourself within that. I suppose it might be known in the vernacular as the arsehole question: are you an arsehole and if so why? There is no obligation upon any of us to be anything we don’t want to be. Even in the most dire circumstances there are still individuals who preserve their own dignity and integrity without succumbing to the law of the jungle.
Your question has to be, how dire are my circumstances? And yes it’s subjective, it’s all a matter of perception, there are some people running around out there very well provided for who’ve managed to shove their heads so far up their own backsides they’re seeing daylight out of their own mouths. If your life and its potential mean anything to you then these are matters you will give time to, meditate upon, consider and come to your own position upon. It’s not what you do that counts, it’s the reason why you do it that matters and likewise it is not your circumstance that matters but how you respond to it.
Be you pauper or prince, a mentor or a knave, at the top of the chain or the bottom, all are brother and sister, we are all defined to some extent by the actions of each of us and the affairs of the human race are what characterize us all. None of us escapes the human condition, the art is to celebrate it and champion that which is best and progressive. We are capable of extraordinary things and can grasp concepts at the edge of the Universe, we can do and be better. You can do it.