People travel for miles, sometimes many thousands of them, to see a wonder like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls. The landscapes are indeed breath-taking. There is a grand majesty in seeing what a powerful sculptor nature can be, and for her, it is effortless. Her tools? Precipitation, winds, erosion, and most of all... time. These natural beauties were created by persistent and consistent forces over millions of years.
Talk about values - why is it that our most precious resource is one that we fritter away with minutiae? How many of us find ourselves trying to endure our time rather than relishing it? Do you spend five sevenths of your week looking forward to the other 28.5 percent we call a weekend? Do you then even waste some of that fretting about the fact that Monday is looming just around the corner again? Do you frequently find yourself on the brink of beginning your life for real, and then notice that the times you planned to do so just keep crashing upon the shoreline of your consciousness and then disappearing into the past, leaving only the apparitions of faded dreams?
Our world-views have a way of corralling all of our thoughts and perceptions into easily understood and definable conceptions we then call "reality." We have discussed memes all term. Memes are bits of information that are passed on from person to person, usually through communication, like talking, singing, writing, etc. Every day, ideas fight for recognition and acceptance within human minds, and like viruses, these ideas do so apathetically. The ideas do not care about whether or not they are accepted by you, although the people disseminating them may care very much whether or not these ideas grab others.
For instance, Senioritis has always been a pet peeve of mine. It is a set of ideas that are not based in material reality. In other words, it is not generated out of human instincts, nor are your cells aware that the entire organism is a high school senior. There was a time when twelfth graders did not exist, and therefore, it is not much of a stretch to assume that senioritis did not exist. Yet, year after year, I see the power of this set of ideas grab ahold of the spirit and energy of healthy 17 and 18 year olds and "force" them to miss the joys of that time and age in their lives. They are told by their peers that it is normal and natural, so they assume that makes it all right. Conversely, adults who apparently have stopped setting meaningful goals for themselves tell these teens that "these are the best years of your life!" How sad a life story is when the climax is in the exposition.
These are all world views, prepackaged ways we see the world and filter out that which does not fit these views. This is why optimistic people see opportunities but sometimes miss dangers; and this is why pessimistic people are great at seeing potential roadblocks but miss the beautiful two-track that could take them to a breath-taking lakeside panorama.
Are you tired of not having ideas of your own? Are you yet aware that many of your ideas have you?
"Shoulds" can be useful, but they can also be chains. People give you shoulds every day, in both spoken and unspoken ways. We also learn our shoulds just by watching how others live. If we see quality in their actions, either consciously or unconsciously, we assume that those are ways one "should" live. For instance, if someone has a million dollar home, a Navigator, a Porsche and travels the world every year, we might value all of this and assume he has found the way a human should live. Then, we might want to emulate what he has done to achieve these valuable commodities. At some point, we might realize that he has been involved in the the sex slave trade as a side job. Now, our world view would become even more important, because one person might see that the slave trade is wrong and that this man should no longer be emulated. Another person might instead say, "Wow, I might have to be more careful than he was so I do not go to jail.
So, bringing it back to Philosophy class: The Daffodil Project was designed to get you to see a different world view, one that teaches that incremental progress on goals we set for ourselves over time can lead to successes we would not have if we had not invested our time and energy over those days, weeks, months and even years. It is a carpe diem assignment. However, I fear it was tainted by world views. It was viewed as "just another assignment, " "just another due date." Therefore, goals that you chose for yourselves, not those imposed by me, were not enjoyable or meaningful for many of you. While you were completing your particular projects, you may not have been saying, "I am glad I took the time to do this, because I have always wanted to." Instead, the thought was, "Oh my gosh, when is the due date for this project? I haven't done anything on it," thus making it just another stressor.
Trust me, I am not blaming anyone, judging anyone or accusing anyone. Just pointing out a human tendency. I technically do not have time to write this blog, but I did it anyway.
If you want your life to become wonderful, think about how canyons are made. Put concentrated effort into meaningful goals (not just shoulds) over your time on Earth, and someday people will look upon you in awe because of the spirit of excellence your life exudes.
No comments:
Post a Comment