“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; the
proper study of Mankind is Man.”
Alexander Pope. An Essay on Man
I believe
we are responsible for our own lives. It would be irrational to delude yourself
with rewards sometimes in the unknown future let alone in unknown worlds. We
have the greatest gift of life and all we need to forge our path though it.
Unbelievable as it may seem at times most of us have the ability to reason. Regardless
of if you believe in God or Nature, we have freedom because God loves us, because
Nature values us. Loving parents respect their offspring and wouldn’t offend
them with demeaning micromanagement and control. Slaves do not have
responsibilities, free people do, regardless of position and in our own lives
we are entitled to the highest possible position.
We are the
sovereign kings and queens of the most important realm: our own lives. That’s a
right to govern we don’t have the right to cede. And if that sounds too
comfortable to be true it isn’t. If we are free of constraints it should be OK
to do with our lives whatever we want including wasting them completely. But I
don’t believe that’s true.
I love the
biblical story about the Master of Talents who gave his servants talents
according to their ability and when he came back demanded not only the talents
back but also profit and reprimanded the one who buried them. That’s why I
believe that as we expect good governance from politicians to deal with our
taxes and other common resources and from business leaders to whom we entrust
our investments it’s only logical that we have the greatest responsibility to
govern our own lives not only to preserve but to make them as good as possible.
To put it
simple I see God or Nature if you prefer as Masters of Talents and us as
Masters of Reality. We take it as it is given to us and have the responsibility
to make our lives as good as possible. We have all the tools and the ability to
think is the most powerful among them followed by the ability to communicate
and cooperate to achieve goals unreachable on one’s own.
We make
mistakes along this road and that is only human. It is part of the learning
process. The best bet to avoid mistakes and errors is to discuss and learn from
others. Success is based on the respect for everyone’s rights and opinions even
if we don’t agree.
Reality is
what we create, it is what we dream of and work to achieve. A castle in the
clouds will collapse if we don’t build foundations under it and that makes us
real Masters of Reality. Reality exists as we create it or is the way it is because
of our neglect. The Master has given us talents and it’s up to us to use them
for prosperity. That’s the only way to be human. We have talents and freedom
including the freedom to choose the life of a beast.
Mish Mash for busy minds
