Courage

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. ~Ambrose Redmoon

I wish more people today could take a statement like this to heart. Our country, and all the people in our country, is transfixed in a state of perpetual fear. The driving force behind all political acts made today is fear. On a personal level, all social decisions are based off of fears. The people fear the government, the government fear the anarchists, the anarchists fear the religious, the religious fear the terrorists..or are the terrorists, and we all fear God. We all fear that there is no God. We all fear each other. We all fear ourselves.
When elementary school kids 100 years from now study this phase of American history, their teachers will explain to them that this, the 21st century, was the Age of Fear. It is what we will be remembered by, despite anything and everything that has happened and will happened; and this is fact. The unyielding and widespread epidemic of fear in our nation will trump any other detail of our existence during this century, just as it trumps any other detail of our every day lives.
We live in fear. We'll die in fear. We'll be remembered for our fear..And I've got to say, it kind of sucks. But I'm not about to attempt to convince an entire nation full of people that they have no reason to be afraid, and that everything will be fine if you just think positive.

The Suburbs

I love it here,
Where everything is beautiful and fresh and new,
And nothing is real.
Where plants and people decompose to plastic.
Renovate, remodel and redecorate,
The plastic melts, and reforms.
New schools, new homes, new fees.
Maybe this time it will become a tree.
Maybe this time it will become me.
And I love it here.
Because it is safe and friendly and clean
And all the people are happy.
And everyone's future is bright.
And ivy-covered professions will embrace us all, here.
Because we are the Golden children.
We're the community that God looked down upon and smiled.
And we hate our parents, and we hate our friends, and we hate our teachers,
And we hate ourselves.
And we bitch and moan and curse and sin and weep.
And we are scared.
But we're all happy.
All laughs and smiles and broken hearts,
And walls surrounding us.
Around our towns, our homes, ourselves.
And then we crawl under our sheets,
And pray the world might let us sleep.
And let us die and let us feel.
And let us breathe, and be alone.
And I love it here.
Here, in Suburbia.
Here, in Neverland, the Forgotten Land, Nixonland.
I love it here where it is safe.
I love it here where everyone is happy.
I love it here where I can hide.

The Meaning of Life

Or, more importantly, why do people need to find a hidden meaning to their existence? Isn't it enough just to be here, alive and well, able to experience all the wonderful things the world has to offer? Isn't it enough of a gift just...to be? Who are we to be ungrateful!?! Maybe the real meaning behind existence is somehow concealed within the concept of people needing meaning for their lives. They ask over and over: Why am i here?, Why do I exist?, What is my purpose?, when the only question they should be asking themselves is why they need answers. It is not mere curiosity that fuels people to ask these questions, so why is it that they feel they need these answers? What if the answers aren't what they were looking for? What if they find that life really is random and meaningless? Is the truth really worth that loss of faith?
It might be easier to get down to the core of the matter and have these people ask themselves why they are unhappy. And it is obvious to me that most people search to find the meaning of life because they are unhappy with whatever 'meaning' they have given their lives thus far. So, case in point, the meaning of life is to discover why people are so eternally unhappy, and the reason people are so eternally unhappy is because they feel their lives don't have meaning. This question comes full circle, as do most things in life that are worth spending time thinking about. I have come to terms with the fact that I exist and that there are things I can control, and things I cannot, and that I know the difference between the two. So now I'm going to go get an ice cream, because that is what will make my existence slightly less eternally unhappy, at least right now.

Why I look at the world differently than most people

"I miss the comfort of my mother and the weight of the world."
-Time to Pretend by MGMT

On first listening to this song, I didn't understand how or why a person would miss the weight of the world, but upon further thought, the meaning became obvious. To miss the weight of the world is to miss the feeling that your thoughts and actions and life could change the world, that you have the power to make a difference. In many ways, having the weight of the world on your shoulders is way better than feeling completely insignificant.
A few days after realizing this, I came to this conclusion: I find it comforting that I am so tiny in comparison to the rest of the universe. I love that I am just one small part, one piece of the puzzle that is existence. I don't want the weight of the world on my shoulders, I would much rather be a fraction of a part of something much larger. To me, every living thing has its place, its piece in the puzzle; and because of this, we are all connected. How could someone ever feel alone or minuscule when they are part of something so huge?
I don't understand why people are so determined to make their lives "matter". If your life is important, your existence is key to the continuance of existence itself, doesn't that put a lot of pressure on you? What if you screw up? What if the world ends all because of you? But if you opt to be..no..understand that you are just one pixel in the big picture, there is no pressure. Even if you screw up, there are billions of other living beings to rectify your mistakes, in time. As one small part of the universe, failure does not exist for you. Not only will any 'mistake' you do make be reversed in time as the universe lives on, but what you view as a mistake my save the life of another human being. In day to day life, living things are constantly affecting the courses of each others' existences. This chain of causes and effects shape the history of our planet, our galaxy, and our universe. In this way, every living organism in the universe "matters"; ever living organism has "purpose". People don't need to make some huge change in the world to matter, all they need to do is exist, and so far, they seem to have that down.