Each to His Own: October 2008

Monday, October 27, 2008

Change Starts with the Individual

America is in a critical time right now. Everyone in the country wants a new direction and wants to re-establish American greatness. God Bless Barack Obama for his vision and leadership, but he can only do so much. The change America needs can only be brought upon if each of us do our part. Each of us need to be responsible, competent, educated and healthy. Even if it just meant that we returned to the average weight per person that we had in 1990 we would create 1 trillion dollars in productivity. That's just the beginning. No government program can compensate for individual intiative.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Lose Yourself

All attatchment is based from the attatchment to the ego. Often times people are misled when they are told to "let something go." Ultimately, what they need to let go is their idea of self. It's just be like water all over again. There is no "I."

P.S. If my Fight Club scene analysis didn't make sense, this concept is what I was talking about.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

"Only In Losing Everything, are We Free to Do Anything"

"You have to give up, you have to know, not think, but know that your are going to die"
-Tyler Durgen

I first saw this clip over a year ago and I'd been trying to understand since. Sure, I could classify the philisophical prinicpals that it is based on, and expalin why it was such a crucial part of the movie. But, I still never quite knew what the "sacrifice" Tyler Durgen was, or what he meant by "our model for God." I think I get it now.
When we avoid pain, when we avoid confrontation with our reality and when we avoid the acceptance of death we are dimishing our humanity. The chemical burn is on all of us. If we face it, and give up, then are we free to live without denying the reality that it is not there. However, it is so much easier to block it out and fantasize that we are somewhere else and this is not our reality. That is a lower form of existance, that is what those "dead people" do.
Tyler says that "God is all probability hates you." This is not a sacreligious statement. It instead of acknowledging the truth that God will always bring suffering upon you. To me, hate and love in this context are meaningless, God is God, but I understand why he says that now.