A spiritual and philosophical journey
The I, I am varying from the you, you are. Opinions and assholes, everyone has one!
The I I am is really about me, myself, and I being. A lifetime collective of honed skills and experiences. These captured memories become the evolution of the longer stories. The analysis and reflection become more powerful in the rearview mirror. You are reading this, so welcome to our shared path, regardless of length and duration.
Life is a journey, not a destination, enjoy the trip
On the desolate tundra of life, it was a dark, cold, and long winter of discontent. When will the sun rise again and bless us with its warming rays? Whimsical smells rolling across the vast wasteland, are they good smells or bad smells, that has yet to be determined, all that we can fairly say is that indeed they are whimsical.
Perhaps one might wonder who these circumstances came about. Well on the journey of life there are many paths from which to choose from. I have chosen the path less travelled, and it has made all the difference. By difference I mean an epic journey through some insane adventures, some happy times, some times of despair, generally content in the choices made.
Now, many miles down those various different, less traveled paths has led me to a lost and lonely place. Questioning which way is up or down, do I backtrack the way I came and hope to find fellow travelers or drive forward with dreams of the mirage and a better tomorrow? Maybe where I strive to be is indeed just around the next bend. Perhaps just two more days to Shangri-La or some equivalent Nirvana. Hope.
Hope keeps us on the path, love gives us the devotion, and faith drives us forward knowing it will be alright. Are these the same illusions or disillusions that Chris McCandless experienced when journeying Into The Wild, or referenced by Baz Luhrmann’s song “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”, perhaps on the timeless desire of Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
Life is a journey, and everyone makes their own choices and decisions that bring them to a pivotal point. Synchronicity, an alignment of time and place; how did we get here, what comes next?
We all make choices that get us to the point in time we call the present. Of the choices in reflection and 20/20 vision of hindsight, could we have done differently to improve our present state? Using that wisdom gained from stopping for a moment and processing the hindsight, can we mold the shape of our future timeline, be better people. Better more positive enabling and engaging forces in the world we reside in? Or do we accept fate as something written in stone and premeditated, what will be will be.
Is searching for meaningful answers something that takes a lifetime? Or something that you find on a random website you accidentally stumbled across on the internet? After all, that site seems to have all the information you were seeking to answer your burning questions. Perhaps that well-written piece is a self-fulfilling prophecy, you read it, and now believe it as the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. So which is it? Can my life’s meaning already be found packaged up, waiting to be discovered, if I only knew the correct search terms for Google, it would simply reveal itself?
Life, and the journey of life, sometimes poses more questions than answers.
As someone who feels that he always has the answers to those questions, I feel intelligent and often give others input and guidance. Maybe I should shut the fuck up and let others find their own way. Don’t try to be the wise old competent man; who might be stepping over the boundaries.
The most perplexing is the brain. How it stores and retrieves data processed for long and short-term retrieval. How are those memories stored? What compression or encryption is applied? Does it work more effectively than a computer, or is the brain much simpler and we just haven’t cracked the code.
You see, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, even in itself, can be a cliché. Along the road of life, the journeys and adventures and the people you meet along that road become your experience. You will meet the good, the bad, motivators, and some that are just bat shit crazy.
From those who have intersected your path on your journey, you will give something and take something away, no matter what the scale of the interaction. What you give or take away might be on such a micro-sub-conscious level, you may not even give it a thought in passing.
How does it all end? This is also one that keeps me up at night. How can you possibly have a mid-life crisis, if you don’t even know where the mid-point is? Maybe these pondering questions weigh in on us more as we get older. Presently it hasn’t ended yet, after all, we are reading this, so by that measure, we have already outlived a percentage of our peer group, friends, family, and others. Sure that sounds morbid, but maybe it is something to celebrate; that our time has not yet come. Why them? Why so soon?
So how does it all end? And then what comes next?
Thank you for our shared path, and know this, our paths will cross again!