"Life is what you make it"
"You never know what you've got 'til it's gone"
"Live for the moment "
"Laife is leik a bawks of chaw-clets (ya never know what you're gon' get)"Well, as for the last one, it maybe helps if you pay attention to the menu, Forrest. But sometimes, I suppose it's true- life doesn't always have a menu- there are some things that just cannot be avoided or undone. There are wounds that run too deep, words that are too corrosive, actions that leave a never fading scar.
That said, I still do not believe in Fate or Karma.
As for the latter, I feel it is rather an empty gesture. I do kind things for people because I like to make people happy and I value the friendship of others. I do not pretend to understand the workings of a sociopathic mind. I don't do it because I believe "what goes around, comes around" at least not beyond the simple interplay between people (i.e. " you scratch my back.." etc)
Fate I've always thought is a rather depressing concept. It's like you're on a train track, chuntering along from birth to death and there is nothing you can do about it. The path stretches out before you, all laid there, but the next turn is always shrouded by the hills and mountains of doubt and uncertainty. You can't change your destiny, no matter how many times you walk up and down the narrow confines of the carriages that always seem so much larger until you squint.
That isn't what life is! Life is more like the London Underground. It's a complete irrational mess until you give it a moment's lateral thought. There are many paths that you can choose, that overlap and cross, and based upon the decision you make, you'll end up somewhere completely different. In addition, (as anyone who has misread a LU map will know) Your destination may not be the one you wanted, but it's the one you're at, and you can either make the best of it, or choose another path. Life can also be trial and error in this respect, you learn the "routes" that are necessary to achieve the more you make use of what you have in front of you. Every day's a School-day (yet another tedious cliche, I know.
I've tried to steer clear of the R word in this one, cause I do mention it a lot in my blogs and rants. But to the believers in afterlife, I would answer thus to the yes/no question:
An afterlife is a nice idea. But as with the life we have now, it isn't certain. If such a thing does exist, it may not be the sort of thing you are hoping for either. And that is why I care not for the afterlife. This life is the only one that I know I have. If there is something to move onto after death, then fair enough; but I am content to wait.
The French Philosopher and Mathematician Blaise Pascal coined a "reasoning" known as "Pascal's Wager"
In short, what he is saying is, that the risk is a lot higher for unbelievers than for believers in God.
- "God is, or He is not"
- A Game is being played... where heads or tails will turn up.
- According to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.
- You must wager. It is not optional.
- Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
- Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. (...) There is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite. And so our proposition is of infinite force, when there is the finite to stake in a game where there are equal risks of gain and of loss, and the infinite to gain.
For Believers, If what they believe is true, they will go to heaven, and if what they believe is false, then there will be nothing. For unbelievers, if the believers are wrong, then nothing happens, but if they are right, they risk eternity in hell.
I will not life my life, as many do, in subservience to a higher power in order to get a "good seat" in the afterlife, regardless of this. Subscription to a wager such as this is nothing more than moral cowardice- believing because you think it is the "safe" option. If that is indeed the only reason you are a kind, patient and tolerant individual, then you are quite frankly immoral, deceitful and despicable at heart, and nothing will change that. It also makes the false assumption that one could make oneself believe in something. You either do, or you don't. Just like you either like a colour or you don't, or are heterosexual or not (a truth that some people have trouble swallowing)
So, live your life like your time is running out- because it is. I don't see this as a depressing thing, I see it as a time frame to accomplish things. The things that make me happy may not be infinite, but neither am I, and I'll enjoy them while I am here to do so, whatever time I have left. After all, I could get totalled by a jackknifing HGV on the way to work tomorrow.
But lets hope not, as I have Jammin plans for tomorrow night!
