Hope A Bit Off The Beaten Track

What is hope to me? To see life for what it seems to be and through this attaining peace and happiness through a perspective that comes to terms with this.

Hope to me is not deluding myself with some warm, fuzzy account of life very unlikely to be true merely because it sounds warm and fuzzy. Acknowledging that bad outcomes could only have been worse (this itself usually unconsciously implied), is a decidedly warm, fuzzy account of life.

For if one sees things as they truly are, is it not patently clear things could easily have been better as well? As such, my quest for knowledge and truth does not discriminate against ideas thought to be sad and hopeless or seemingly “inferior” in other ways.

For instance, many see Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas as not worth following only because he led such a seemingly tragic life. But maybe he stumbled upon some real truths and it is only because of this that he became so depressed?

As I seek truth, I refuse to suppress or deny ideas solely because I do not like them.....that would be incredibly irrational and discriminatory. Perhaps rationality is depressing?

Might this be why irrational thinking (a seeming oxymoron?) seems to be the order of the day?

Why Might We Seek God?

I believe the reason a person seeks God at some point in his life is grounded in a desire to get “outside” self and become connected to something bigger than his/her small insignificant self. I speak of those who seek God to distinguish them from those which had it “chosen” for them at birth or childhood.

By seeking something bigger than oneself, this usually signifies a desire to distance oneself from ego. But what seems to happen quite often is the ego unconsciously reasserts itself within the context of this new found relationship with God. It is very common for many to become so imprisoned by dogma that being who they are is less important than being “correct”. I will expound on this idea with something I personally experienced during which time I was a Christian with a very typical set of beliefs.

Homosexuality and abortion are 2 of the most egregious forms of sin in the eyes of many believers. So because of this, I felt compelled to see these things as “absolutely wrong” though deep down I sympathized with each. Most homosexual people I had come across were very respectful and thus my “I am” had no reason to be critical of them or their behavior. However, my dogma, which was essentially a manifestation of my ego, told me otherwise. This conflict was only overcome when I “broke free” of the dogma which imprisoned me.

In the same vein, abortion is a very explosive and complicated topic. It is unpleasant to think about but I don't think this in itself qualifies me to deem it absolutely and utterly wrong. There are situations where abortion seems to be the “least terrible” choice.

The application of just a small amount of reason suggested to me that there are situations involving abortion, or any controversial issue for that matter, that have no good answers. Asking what an absolutely perfect God would do in such situations is irrelevant because oftentimes there is no perfect answer let alone any mediocre answers.

However, if one substitutes God with “ego” it becomes quite apparent what the perfect answer is. Whatever your ego tells you!