Echoes from the Archives of Oblivion

(Originally posted by us here.)

Echoes from the Archives of Oblivion

If you knew that everything you ever did would amount to nothing, would you still do the things you do?

If you knew that all the words you wrote, the songs you sung, the smiles and hugs you gave, the flowers you planted, the bridges and houses you built, the money you saved, the pictures you painted, drew, or captured on your camera, in effect, everything that was associated with you, would be forever obliterated in a few moments, what would you do?  Would you change your behavior?

What if all the lies you told, the hurts and bad-feelings you caused, the cheating and stealing, the broken hearts and/or broken bones, the damages you caused to the property of others, in effect, everything bad and evil that was associated with you, would be forever obliterated in a few moments, what would you do?  Would you change your behavior?

Does it change your point-of-view when the obliteration of all that you are is presented as an elimination of the bad things you do?

If nothing we do persists, if nothing we do outlives our brief lives, then does it really matter what we do?  Should we all just become amoral, doing that which pleases our sensual animal bodies, living for today?  Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die?

Phred says, “The key to life is sincerity.  Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made!”  (I think Phred is just harassing me, because he usually doesn’t say things this stupid!  One of the benefits of being imaginary, I suppose.)

Personally I can’t live as if nothing I do matters.  With close to absolute certainty I can state that I may never know what the “meaning of life" is, but with equal absolute certainty I can state that life most assuredly has a meaning.  My universe can not exist without a meaning for its existence.

So I continue to plod on, writing words that no one may ever read, spilling blood, sweat, and tears into the bottomless well of an eternal void.  (Okay, no blood, sweat and tears.  However, sometimes my butt gets sore from sitting in this chair while I type.)  But like a subatomic particle that may randomly, spontaneously “pop” into creation outside the event horizon of a black hole, providing a way, however pitifully miniscule, for matter to escape the crushing gravity, so too may the efforts of all of us transcend our pitifully miniscule human existence, and flash into being in a way none of us can imagine.

ClickBank link of the day:  Living on a Dime.

Verbiage for 31/March/2013

March marches to a close, and I am still NOT emperor of the universe!  Drat!  Life’s not fair!

I haven't made a cent from this blog.  I am wondering if a gardening blog/webpage will work better.  Phred grows anxiously for his new bowl, and I haven’t even earned him a penny yet!  Poor guy!  His current bowl is rather tiny.

Promoting clickbank links somehow seems “dirty”.  I guess all market somehow seems “dirty”, (GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!), but I guess I have to get over it if I’m going to make money on the internet, because all online businesses seem to mostly involve marketing.

I’m exhausted from all the work I did in the yard yesterday, but it is a (mostly) good exhaustion.  It is a wonderful feeling to work with living things.  You feel in some tiny way that you are promoting the continuance of life on this planet.

I wonder how people will react when I tell them I am channeling the wishes/desires and alleged wisdom of an imaginary fish?  What sense of self is “real”, and what sense of self is “imaginary” anyway?  We have a different perception of ourselves than everyone else.  In fact, I bet that if you took 100 people you know, and had them come up with a description of you, (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, ethical), you would get 100 different descriptions.  Now here is what is really creepy ....... if you had these same 100 people create descriptions 10 years ago, descriptions today, then descriptions 10 years from now, you would probably have close to 300 unique descriptions!  Our self changes with time.

What is a “soul” anyway, that alleged immortal part of us?  When I was younger, and asked about my soul, I would often reply I had two “soles”, and point to the bottom of my feet.  (Ha, ha ...... )  Do we really have a soul?  If so, what is it?  Certainly not our personality.  That can be altered by what experiences, drugs, accidents, etc.  Personality is certainly not immortal!

Oh my ......... my wife is hollering at me to stop playing on the computer and get ready for church.  We all have priorities in life, and right now I have a higher priority than typing in my daily gibberish.  (Silly woman!  What could be more important than filling up the internet with nonsense?)

Hasta la pasta!  May good fortune and happiness come your way!

ClickBank link of the day:  37 Foods for a Disaster.

Sonnet XII: I did but Prompt the Age to Quit their Clogs

A little bit of Milton to pass the day:

Sonnet XII: I did but Prompt the Age to Quit their Clogs

by John Milton

I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs

       By the known rules of ancient liberty,

       When straight a barbarous noise environs me

       Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes and dogs:

As when those hinds that were transform'd to frogs

       Rail'd at Latona's twin-born progeny

       Which after held the sun and moon in fee.

       But this is got by casting pearl to hogs,

That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,

       And still revolt when truth would set them free.

       Licence they mean when they cry liberty;

For who loves that, must first be wise and good.

       But from that mark how far they rove we see,

       For all this waste of wealth and loss of blood.

He may have been a bit of a prig and more than a little self-righteous, (I don't know - I never met the man), but John was certainly no dummy.  His assessment of the "human condition" seems spot on now, just as it was centuries ago, and will probably continue to be, as long as there continue to be humans.  

Crazy stuff on Clickbank!

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Marx

Working for another pretty much sucks.

Marx fairly accurately diagnosed the problem(s), and he deserves credit for identifying how society stratifies into economic classes, but his "solution" is dreadful!  He simply doesn't account for human nature.

If we were basically good creatures, communism would be the best form society could take.  But we aren't.  We are part angel, surely, but also part devil.  Few of us can acquire power without our devil natures using that power for evil.  This is why the separation of political powers is so crucial to a stable society.

Religion is a spiritual exercise

Going around in circles, you have a lot of time to think.

I used to be a materialist, but it was so depressing.  If there really is no "purpose" to it all, then what's the point?  Why bother with anything?

Eventually you have to "value" something, and the moment you do, you have introduced "meaning" into the universe.  Meaning, of course, can't be measured, so now we are forced to admit that the immaterial must exist.

So then we stumble into religion, and the restrictions and commandments fall on our heads like a cold rain.  But rather than rebel against religion, discarding it because of the artificial constraints it puts on our lives, we should view it as spiritual exercise.

Suppose, for example, we wanted to learn a martial art.  Would we simply start flailing away, imagining that any wild movement we make would be an effective strike against an opponent, or capable defense?  No!  We would willingly submit to the training of a master, using self-discipline to repeatedly practice moves and stances whose uses we would not really know.

Religion is the practice we subject ourselves to, so that we may learn the art of spirituality.