End of Summer Thoughts

I’ve been thinking on the following ideas for most of the summer (some before summer began) – here’s hoping they engage your mind..

Pen to Paper
I spend a lot of time winding through ideas that I think are unique or creative or original. Unfortunately, when I arrive at the logical end of these ideas, I usually find that my thought is a part of a larger idea that’s been shaped before. This has in large part deterred me from writing, as I can’t bear to create another shamefully unoriginal and needlessly personal semi-autobiography to try to win the admiration of my peers and future publishers. However, if I continue to dawdle in such a manner, I fear I’ll never write anything at all. Thus I shall begin to craft some stories about topics of interest to me, whether they’re especially inventive or not.

Reincarnation
Religion is one of the most divisive topics I will ever encounter. It can also be one of the most unifying. It’s lovely to observe the overlap between seemingly incompatible views of the world, and to learn to appreciate the crevices that make each unique. Where some find pain, others see meaning. Reincarnation is an idea I’ve been contemplating. It’s not a belief widely held in the west, and I can’t think of any monotheistic belief system that embraces the notion. I think the idea of a transition to a form whose ability to reason is anything less than a human’s brings fear to a very large number of people. I see hope in this idea. In the same way that the chemical cycle in effect recycles the contents of living and non-living matter, reincarnation posits that a person’s spirit or spiritual matter is recycled through generations. This means that the good and beautiful things of the past are still here because they’d been recycled. About a year and a half ago I told people that the way in which to go about unlocking the mysteries of the universe is not to first come to a conclusion and then force one’s observations fit with that conclusion, but to observe first and then craft one’s belief systems around the observations made. Now if the physical world reincarnates physical matter, doesn’t it make sense that the spiritual world would do the same with spiritual matter? I know it’s not a sound theory in its current form, but perhaps you can at least appreciate the notion.

Chains of Oppression
I’ve realized through the psychological rollercoaster that has been the last six months of my life that I tend to take what are almost certainly completely random events and string them together to form what I’ll call “chains of oppression”. I seem to give people who have done me wrong a mythical status in my mind. I nearly deify them. They’re barely human, more an idea than anything else. It’s an unfortunate state, as I now have trouble telling who has done great wrong to me and who has done me little, as I mythologize even small pains. Each person that has caused me harm is added to a chain of oppression: people who have caused me a similar kind of hurt in completely unrelated situations. Fortunately, I realize that this is a bit crazy. And the fact that I can no longer really tell who’s cut me and who’s only pinched me has prompted me to try to give everyone a second chance. Which is a bloody hard thing to do, I tell you. Especially when you can’t figure out what your real relationship with someone is.

Historical Perspectives
Many of you know that I desperately search for some semblance of truth in this world. I’ve recently realized that I don’t know how to start looking for it (and I’m kind of wondering whether I can trust the end results of whatever studies I complete). So I’m going to try to study the histories of the fields I think are essential to the search – the sciences, philosophy, anthropology, literature, etc. Here’s hoping things become clearer in the near future.

On Cruelty
I’ve met some truly remarkable people over the past year. People who mean more to me than I can express. And I’ve learned something from them: there really is no excuse for cruelty. That means that no matter how bad you’ve been hurt, it’s not okay to hurt someone else. Ever. I know that psychology and sociology explain human behavior in a logical way that can justify infliction of pain on another person, but I’ve seen people who’ve suffered real pain at the hands of another human being and loved their way through it. It’s an inspiring thing to watch.

Pacifism
Something about a commitment to nonviolence is truly liberating. Last semester I discussed with a teacher’s aide in my European History class the idea that a certain group of European soldiers did not want to fight in World War II. The soldiers had nothing to gain – they spill their blood on foreign soil to return to their farms poorer than they had left. It seems to me that it is rare that the priorities of a nation’s rulers align with the priorities of a nation’s people during wartime, even in a democracy. I don’t think, therefore, that there is ever (except in self-defense) a good reason for a nation to go to war. What about genocide and crime against humanity, you ask? These things are the reasons for which to create an international court with some real power.

Pros and Cons of Paganism
Paganism seems perfect for me. An unusual embrace of dark and light coupled with the ability to choose the myths that mean the most to each individual has real attraction for me. And respect for the natural world is fantastic. Unfortunately, it still feels rather foreign. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to offering devotion to a god or goddess in whom I have to place some kind of faith. Still, the whole thing is undeniably compelling.