...:::upside down; find the things they say just can't be found:::...

Having an iPod with a short battery life on a six-hour drive  gave me a good amount of thinking time.  And while gazing out into vast expanses of really fascinating farmland, I realized something absolutely...ludicrous? insane? paradoxical?  So brace yourself, and try to read this with an open mind:

I realized that, looking back, I've found peace with--and even embraced--the challenges and struggles that have come my way, particularly the ones I faced in the past couple of years.  <--- I told you...insanity, right?!

So this is my idealistic effort to compel you to put a new, positive spin on your life, if you haven't already.

It's no secret that life's adversities and crises are not accepted too feasibly.  Yet, at one point or another, everyone is dealt some difficulty; if you haven't yet, you will.  Fact of life.  This universal entity of despair will creep up on us when least expected (or least deserved), and slowly try to extinguish hope from our everyday lives.  Most of us view said challenges as the "end-all, be-all", and rightfully so.  However, society isn't telling us to mope (well, not exactly).  Neither is some standard code or doctrine.  We, ourselves, dictate our reactions to adversity.  There is a time to lament, understandably, but then follows a time to just move on (cue the cliche: "life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react").

For lack of a broader example, I'll narrow in on myself.  Because of what turns my life took, I morphed into an entirely new person (...in a good way, I hope?).  I developed direction in my life, newfound optimism, and an improved compassion for every single person, no exceptions.  I backslapped those devilish obstacles by turning them into opportunities for gradual improvement.  Ka-pow.  Definitely try it sometime.

I believe this opportunistic outlook, along with some genuine peace and love, is a great concept ever so slowly captivating humanity.  Filtering the "good" from a mass of "bad" in itself is definitely a challenge, especially considering the patches of grey that taint our world, but it is nothing we can't rise above.   It's what a promising future depends on.



just puttin' it out there...

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."


-Voltaire

  
     I was recently thinking about a conversation my dad and I had (more like a mildly tense debate) in the car a long time ago about Chris McCandless.  And if there is anything I wholeheartedly believe in, it is Chris' philosophy and the purpose behind his self-sacrificing hegira.  My dad's opinion, in tune with the majority of people's, was that Chris was a distraught outcast who embarked on a journey of cowardice to escape the blights of mainstream society.  So maybe his odyssey was an escape, of sorts.  But, honestly...who can blame Chris?  Here is a man relinquishing himself to the perils of nature, simply in quest of inner contemplation.  He sought a means towards obtaining clarity amidst a world that, as he thought, amounted to empty materialism (inject your own opinions about that here...).  Behind the mask we all wear that conforms us to the mainstream, isn't that what our subconscious impels us to seek - simplicity and freedom from conformity?  These renowned figures professed the same ideal:

*Ghandi ("Live simply that others may live.")
*Thoreau ("Our life is frittered away by detail...simplify, simplify.")
*Lennon ("I'm not going to change the way I look or feel to conform to anything.  I've always been a freak and I have to live with that, you know, I'm one of those people.")
*Amiel ("Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.")  <-- Ok, so he's an unknown, but this was a really good quote for my case.

     Simplicity is an essential ideal our society needs to grasp.  I think it's safe to say that our world does mostly revolve around an axis of consumerism, while the minority suffer in mild to extreme forms of poverty.  So I understand Chris' message.  He dreamed of an ideal world, one in which man was man, stripped of titles, honors, and materials, possessing only his intrinsic and genuine self.  You have to admit, he's right.  After all, this message is a variation of exactly what visionaries, Platonists, and transcendentalists alike have been trying to orate throughout the ages.

     Although I fully support Chris McCandless' view on mainstream society for the most part, I think where he does lose kudos is in his faith in mankind.  For all of you who think Chris was a psycho, I will give you this: the way he chose to deal with society was to not only rise above it, but condemn it.  Chris was a true Thoreauvian seeking to right the wrongs of the world, but he failed to recognize the inherent good within mankind.  Sure, people get caught up in fashion, things, and "Corporate America"; and although it may seem like those sorts of things dominate that person's life, they don't dictate that person's true character.  All people truly are good underneath it all - we just live in a world where conformity equates to survival of the fittest.