Ancient Sounding Modern Day Musings
One cannot script life nor predict it. Acceptance is the first step on the path to wisdom. We cannot know what will happen, and when it happens it often does so in ways we do not expect. Time spent hypothesizing about how things beyond our control will occur is time spent wasted. Worry about elements of life we cannot control is worry without wisdom.
People are inherently unpredictable. One can only know oneself, and even then, rather incompletely, as I for one know that I routinely surprise myself. Even the Apostles point out, we do things we do not expect to do. We do things we do not intend to do. How then, if we know not ourselves, can we even hope to estimate and predict the actions of others? Is it not the height of arrogance to assume that we can know what is on the minds of our fellow human beings? Can we even dream that we know what they think, what they feel, let alone how will they act? All our prognostications are little more than wispy dreams of a world that will never be, for we are not masters of the world. Our best hope is to strive to be masters of ourselves, that we might grow in discipline and wisdom.
One can only take life as it comes. It is useless to obsess and overanalyze the past, it is pointless to speculate about the future. Jesus Himself essentially told us to focus on the present, for that is all that we can ever hope to influence. So it is that we must live life in the moment, focusing on each minute, hour and day, pondering where it is we are going and what it is we are doing. This does not mean we should be fatalistic, crying that we cannot determine our own fates. Rather, our own fates remain firmly in our grasps, subject to the will of God, but our choice of destiny is ours alone. Nor should we be nihilistic, saying all is without destiny or desire. We cannot control the future, we cannot change the past, but we can and ought to work for good in the present. So be it.
A day and a year. Irony.
September 13th, 2004 at 6:34 pm
(1) I cannot function unless I have long-term plans. I don’t feel tied to the plans, but I need them in place.
(2) I think people often misjudge what they can and cannot affect. Until I am satisfied that I understand that distinction, I will go ahead and worry about things that I may not be able to control.
(3) Do you actually think that it’s useless to analyze the past? Obsess over yes, but to look for patterns of behavior that could be changed for the better?
(4) One of my favorite quotes “I never wanted to rule other men, only to rule myself.”
September 14th, 2004 at 4:09 am
1) certainly, the trick is not to make long term plans certain expectations, because when things go differently, one might have trouble adjusting
2) our fields of influence are larger than we know, but we are not omnipotent. we also are very bad are controlling another person’s behavior — we can’t expect that we will be able to make people do what we want them to do
3) overanalyze is what i meant to write, thanks for pointing this out — the life unexamined is a life not worth living, but i’ve personally overanalyzed too much rather than underanalyzed. it’s also worth analyzing oneself, whereas i found in my analysis it was all too easy to analyze others and not consider my own internal motivations
4) neat quote
September 16th, 2004 at 4:37 pm
No, you can never make anyone do what you want them to do. But we can influence other people. In the situation that prompted this post, you have the respect of the person to whom you’re refering. That respect is justified, not only because you’re a good person, but also because you’re an internally consistent person. As someone who has earned that respect, you have at the very least, a subtle ability to influence her. I’m not speaking in terms of manipulation or anything unsavory-but instead a subtle push towards healthier choices.
And I’m really glad that you found someone to dance with. The class of ‘06 is by far the best class ever.