Thu 10 May 2007
I picked up a hitchiker today. I tried to go ride the Jardine Juniper trail that I hiked on Sunday but it beat me into submission embarrassingly fast. I’m really hoping that it was due to my lack of nutrition from the night before and eating a big unhealthy breakfast, but I just couldn’t get it going.
Every so often I realize things that I have realized in the past. I had one of those realizations today. As many of you know this will be my eighth year as a college student, sort of, and it seems like that is not motivation enough to graduate. The thing is I have no desire to have a profession. You know, to do something to benefit myself monetarily. I really like what I do now and would be happy doing it for a long time with a few side things going on in the background. To my father’s dismay, this realization came a long time ago and is what made me give up the idea of being an engineer, and not the kind that drives trains. I think I would self-destruct within a few years of trying to be an engineer. I guess what it really comes down to is the fact that I don’t want to become something else, I’m quite happy with what I am.
Realizing what I am is the reason that I chose my current major, journalism. As one person put it, I guess I want to “journalize.” But that poses another problem, I don’t really want to “journalize.” I just want to be me and be me really well, hopefully well enough that I can be me and make enough money to keep myself and family from starving. That is all I ask of life, and so far life has been willing to give that to me without asking many questions. So I ask you, my loyal readers, what the hell is this whole rat race about? Where are we going? and what in the name of Mary are we going to do when we get there?
Most importantly, what are you going to do with all the stuff you have accumulated when the game ends?
After this epiphany of sorts, I read, again, Thoreau’s Life without Principle. Everything he wrote makes perfect sense to me in conjunction with the way I view life. I see no reason to whore myself out to industry and commerce only to be able to live more luxuriously. I guess the question posed in Office Space is quite appropriate for me. If I had a million dollars I would probably just keep doing what I’m doing because that is me. The beauty of all of this is that I don’t need a million dollars to be who I am. I just need a few.
Declare your sovereignty.
May 10th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
You know Lukey, just because someone has a job doesn’t mean they work solely to live a luxurious life, whoring themselves out to industry and commerce. Some people do what they do because they LIKE to do it. Some people go to school to learn things because they want to know those things. Some people go to law school but turn away from corporate law and riches because they want to do something they think is important. It’s not always about money bro. Some people in this world still have substance and judge their jobs by the satisfaction it brings and the help it gives to society, not by the amount of zero’s on their paycheck. So I guess I think those people aren’t “whore’s” of industry and commerce. Just a thought bro. Keep being yourself, but remember to do your laundry.
May 11th, 2007 at 1:50 am
My answer to the “Q”, “what are we doing here and where we are going?”, would be to serve God. That is why he created us, to glorify and honer Him. That is what I gather from the Bible anyway.
-Zac
May 12th, 2007 at 6:58 am
amen to what she said
May 12th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Abby,
That’s kind of what I was saying, I don’t see any reason to go to school or have a job “just” so I can have a luxurious life. My point is that I am happy now, which makes it difficult to struggle through something that won’t change that. You only whore yourself out to industry when your priority is wealth and base your decisions upon the seeking out of material things.
May 12th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Ah then bro, we are in agreement. And just as a side note you’re question “what are you going to do with all the stuff you have accumulated when the game ends?” Well put. That’s all.
May 13th, 2007 at 6:47 am
“What are we doing here”?
We are surviving the situation that we are born into. You can take anyone on the planet; rich or poor, industrial nation or developing nation, the answer is the same. It’s survival while attempting to dislodge dogma from reality.
People attempt to look too deeply into this question.
May 13th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Luke, as I read this entry I wish I could have a crystal ball and show you life in 20 years. Life means lots more when you have a family, children that are more dear to you than life itself. One year more of school would seem like a very small sacrifice when it would allow you to have the necessities of life for your little brown eyed son. All the sacrifices Dad made for you were not sacrifices at all when he provided for you “luxuries” of life. That’s what life is all about and that is how you change the world. Even when you have to jump through hoops that don’t seem relevant now. Love you, Mom P.S. Amen to Zach!!