When in Doubt...

Write! OK, off-track title in a way. I'm not having doubts about anything other than what to blog about. So, I take my own advice and just start writing. Cheesy, headline grabbing title, I know.

Here's something. You have to care enough about me to bother to read what follows. OK, maybe that isn't fair. Maybe I just need to be interesting enough to keep you reading. Let's face it, I might have an engaging personality (arguments - do I hear arguments?) but if what follows this sentence is completely boring, you won't read. I wouldn't either.

No pretending here. I admit to wanting to write something to you - for you. Something beautiful and rich. Something like an elegant bit of music, or a fine tapestry woven with choice cloth. Something with a comforting richness - an orotund gathering of words onto electronic paper that leaves you wanting more.

Yet, all you get is me. Usually. Sometimes?

What - you still here? Good. I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you regular readers. For a person that spends any amount of time writing, it is eminently satisfying to know there are readers reading the words. Thank you.

And now I shall tell you of great and dark secrets. It is why you have stayed this long - yes? You must know what makes the world go round. Why do things happen the way they do? That is what you wish to know. The truth is that nobody knows. Lots of people have opinions about the deeper things, but that is all they are: opinions. They can point to books, but those books were all written by other humans. They can claim those humans were guided by a god or gods, but that is only an opinion. There is no god to question. You must believe. You must have faith. You. It's always the solitary you.

Remember that. And then go and do right because right is right. Thousands of years of living together have given us the knowledge of what is right and wrong. Stealing from your neighbor might be satisfying for you personally, but it fucks up civilization. You don't have to be a scholar to recognize the wisdom in that thinking. Keep stealing and you will be selected out of civilization.

Be a friend because it is right and good - not because you might gain something from the relationship. Again, thousands of years of humans having relationships have shown the rightness in that thinking. Should you choose to be an enemy of all you meet, or an asshole in general, soon you will find yourself naturally selected out of civilization.

And the real truth is that there is only now. You are not guaranteed another minute. There are some that want you to think there is something more. "This can't be all there is, because it is a dark, cold distance in the long black, and the long black can't be all there is. We deserve more." And when you believe there is something more, it makes what you have - especially when all you have is a pile of stinking shit - something to be survived. A future of goodness and golden streets makes all this shit some of us think we suffer with now, worth the struggle. But that's a lie. You only have now. Grab now. Hold it up and examine it like the fine, multi-faceted jewel "the now" is. Breath deeply. Run with it. Don't hold out for a future based on someone's opinion. Because, no matter how they try and sell it to you, that is all it is. Opinion.

Now, I have to go and feed my lizards. You can almost stop reading now.

Some things to think about on a Sunday.