Well... I guess I'm now TWENTY-TWO years-old. When I was a kid I remember thinking to myself: "You'll be an adult when you hit 21. That's the age that you can drink alcohol legally, and so the world must trust you when you've got that many years. With age comes wisdom and responsibility." My fucking god, was I wrong. The civilized world, though thousands of years old, is as immature and confused as I've always been.
The following ramblings represent a few of the lessons life has (kind of) taught me thus far. I was assigned the task of outlining such points, and though my response has deviated from the template of my assignment, I believe it compliments the fundamental goal of the project nonetheless.
Some malformed pieces of my life --
Humans know they are important. This is a fair assumption. Under the right frame of mind anything is important, though, for humans, our existence compels us. It is our nature to dwell on... the nature of things... and so we are different than animals; the word "different" is appropriately ambiguous in this case, as our separation from animals and the natural world is debatable, yet undeniably certain. No other creature on our planet dictates the fate of its neighbors, let alone are they aware of their global existence. No - only humans watch each other on TV. Only humans have invented buttons, whose sole purpose is to submit to the pressure of a finger. There is no Tom Cruise of the animal kingdom.
Humans believe the make-believe. As a result of dwelling on EVERYTHING, humans have convinced themselves of many fantasies. Such distortions of reality now occupy our "everyday" and no longer appear as fiction, but reality. One powerful example (though not worth exploring as the argument is too familiar) is Religion. To quickly comment: we believe in a creature called "God" who shares many mystical qualities with another creature fabricated also in the depths of human imagination - The Unicorn. Neither have been seen or heard from outside of fantastical literature, or the stories of crazed (albeit intoxicated in some fashion) human beings.
Instead, let's talk about the internet, which is something we can all agree on. The internet occupies no space. Normally, when a noun cannot be weighed by its mass it is called an "idea." For example, the effects of globalization can be weighed, and are tangible, but "globalization" itself is but a term describing a human effect which occupies no real space. So is the internet something humans have simultaneously spoken into "virtual" reality, whose only appearance occurs through screens that glimpse into the 2nd dimension - a dimension where human life is impossible. And the internet is only one example of how humans insist on bizarre retardations of reality without acknowledging the absurdity of it all.
What about, "THE ECONOMY." Somewhere exists a giant pool of numbers, swirling and menacing, that determines the fate of billions - even before sperm hits the egg. I didn't sign up for this money game, and I don't think it fair that I should be forced to participate.
Reason is our most triumphing evolution, yet we love to contradict it. We live to contradict it. As a result, not much of human life, at all, makes sense.
In short: I am confused. You should be too.
See "Paris Hilton"
Humans obsess.
Human relationships are complicated, and rarely genuine. To my knowledge, no other being searches for a companion with whom to spend 20, 30, 40, up to 85 years(!). I do believe that love (as opposed to only lust) exists among animals, though the humanly definition of the word has evolved along side us. Humans have adopted the idea of "true love" - a cosmically fated connection, unique and eternal. We spend most of our lives obsessing over the potential of this connection, searching, failing, and searching again. This quest, and our interaction with the conscious body of society, create a number of lies that confuse a person's identity. We cover ourselves with masks, and hope they attract a special someone. We don't realize, however, that even our inner consciousness, the personality inside our head who we recognize as our "self", is also masked. Humans lie to themselves, consciously and subconsciously convincing themselves for comfort and hope. We do this without realizing, everyone does, as a result of existing within a self-conscious society. More often than not these masks make genuine human connection difficult, and perhaps impossible. Still, it's beautiful (albeit frustrating) that we keep trying. If only we could relax the mind.
See Sigmund Freud, Luigi Pirandello and Brett Easton Ellis
Human communication does not communicate, this blog post as evidence. How could I possibly tell you what I feel?
See Reuben Abel
Art is human transcension. "Look what came out of my brain!" Art asks no forgiveness, only reflection. Art explains more than science. Art keeps me alive.
These lessons should have been more mundane. Perhaps I could have told you stories about relationships or other poignant moments of my life. If these lessons were more specific and less cerebral I'm sure you all could relate better. Life didn't raise me that way. Life raised me this way.
Humans are strange. Life is unexpected.
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