Motivation
{“David, no matter what the subject matter we may discuss, it always gets steered back to god, or Jesus, and what have you. We tried it before. It didn’t work. I feel manipulated and the intrusion on my time makes me resentful.I don’t want to hear about god at all. That’s the simple truth.”}
I recently realized, two things-the what and the why. What many or most or all do with my little essays is simply ignore them. Why that is so is expressed in the polite but candid message above, which I received from a very intelligent, caring, and who I would consider a very nice person. I had an inkling that that was the situation with everybody. So, I didn’t take it personally. It’s just the way it is.
So, why do I bother? I’m closer to death than birth. That’s just the way it is.
When I shave and get a hair cut, I can pass for a 62 year old, but I’m 72 and feel like 92. I’m not looking for sympathy at all. That’s just the way it is.
When death comes all a person leaves are fading memories and stories; nothing the person learned, none of his or her knowledge still stuck in their brains endures. Life is like a mist blown away by the wind. Those are just the way it is.
All the negatives happening in my life are simply the results of Nature’s order of things-like the fact everybody dies at one point or another. Or they are the lingering consequences of my failures, for example, to read warnings on the MSDS provided by OSHA, or failure to appreciate many other things I knew about or should have, or wrong personal choices and objectionable things I have said or done and people I have hurt. Every action has a reaction. That’s also just the way it is.
I don’t take any of these facts of life personally. I used to, but no more. I tried to commit suicide as a teenager, because I did take them seriously. Too seriously. Guilt, maybe. Yes. That’s just the way it was.
But something happened. That something has been my motivation to write essays. That’s just the way it is.
What would you do if you inherited hundreds of billions of dollars? Would you find the best ways to share that wealth? Or, if you discovered the cure for cancer? Would you figure out ways to make a large profit off of it? That’s just fantasy.
Well, I am never going to be wealthy, never smart enough to find medical cures. However, I can write essays. That’s just the way it is going to be.
To conclude, something happened, and that, finally, is just the way it is.
