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Appreciation
Nov. 21st, 2004 12:11 amI was commenting on one of my LJ friend's expression of why he believes in God; basically because he needs a being to whom he can express his gratefulness for his life. LJ decided to break after I'd written my comment, not giving me a new submit button — clearly, this is a sign that I should turn my comment into an update, so here goes:
When I'm not in my teensy little identity I too deeply appreciate this life: my astounding mind/body/being, my wonderful friends, this awesome Universe - all of it! Yet for the great mass of humanity there seems to be a great deal of suffering; possibly much more than their allotment of joy. I know and I know of too many people who deserve great lives and are instead given horrible circumstances.
I am one of the fortunate people who has abundant joy. I am extremely grateful to the dozens of people who have enabled me to receive the contributions of the millions of people who set up the abundance of opportunities I enjoy. And I am aware that I could come down with cancer or other nasty circumstances at any time. I've lost young and vital friends to AIDS and cancer. I've lost old friends to "natural" aging - and it is not a very nice process. My friends have lost friends to despair, addiction, suicide and murder.
I often have a sense of providence: some mechanism or aliveness in the scheme of things which is offering me a much greater life whenever I let go of the petty things I fixate on. Is this truly available to everyone? It seems to me that far too many people are not experiencing any such offering. I don't know the nature of such providence as may be. I am loath to relate to it as some kind of super-being.
If we can keep evolving spiritually and intellectually we may yet create a world which human beings as a whole can be grateful for. Given time, we can create Paradise and a God to administer it. In the meantime, my joy is tainted with the pain of how little it is shared and the fear of how easily it can be taken away.
When I'm not in my teensy little identity I too deeply appreciate this life: my astounding mind/body/being, my wonderful friends, this awesome Universe - all of it! Yet for the great mass of humanity there seems to be a great deal of suffering; possibly much more than their allotment of joy. I know and I know of too many people who deserve great lives and are instead given horrible circumstances.
I am one of the fortunate people who has abundant joy. I am extremely grateful to the dozens of people who have enabled me to receive the contributions of the millions of people who set up the abundance of opportunities I enjoy. And I am aware that I could come down with cancer or other nasty circumstances at any time. I've lost young and vital friends to AIDS and cancer. I've lost old friends to "natural" aging - and it is not a very nice process. My friends have lost friends to despair, addiction, suicide and murder.
I often have a sense of providence: some mechanism or aliveness in the scheme of things which is offering me a much greater life whenever I let go of the petty things I fixate on. Is this truly available to everyone? It seems to me that far too many people are not experiencing any such offering. I don't know the nature of such providence as may be. I am loath to relate to it as some kind of super-being.
If we can keep evolving spiritually and intellectually we may yet create a world which human beings as a whole can be grateful for. Given time, we can create Paradise and a God to administer it. In the meantime, my joy is tainted with the pain of how little it is shared and the fear of how easily it can be taken away.
