For what we see, is often times, not what it always appears to be at first glance…
Over time, there’s a truth none of us can ever wish to escape. We must understand how we will maneuver through the world. Whether this come as an easy task, or a tumultuous and unfair disadvantage, we are all marked with trying our “best” to “make it” in the world. All jokes aside, this easily translates into: how well can you and I survive in the world?
Failure is a part of us, it’s a part of our nature to attempt, and sometimes fail at it. Other times, we may make an attempt and actually succeed at our end-goal. In the context of life, this can mean a myriad of different situations. It can be the difference between finding “the one”, it can mean the difference between whether you make the varsity team in college or not. It can mean successfully landing a job that you’ve always wanted (it’s obvious none of us want to work, but you get the idea). But what really makes a failure such a “failure” is our reaction to what happens to us.
You’ve likely heard this kind of phrase countless times before, and you might be rolling your eyes right now (or not?) but the truth is much harder to swallow sometimes. If you getting pissed, sleep for days in your bed, or generally just lounge around and skulk at the fact that you didn’t get it your way, you will likely face a life full of further hardship then it already needs to be. I understand we live through hard times, coming from a personal point of view, I’m currently almost 10,000 dollars in-debt. Life happened to me late last year (2016) and I had to find a way to scramble and pick up the scattered pieces. Sufficient to say, I knew I had to do two things. Continue with my college career, and also, work on finishing the absolute last edit of my first book in a series to come. So this reality became my base for a very tumultuous and seemingly never-ending rock bottom. To be completely honest, I still feel as though I am barely getting my life back together (whatever that means, life is never truly stable).
So here I am, sharing this very personal part of myself to a complete stranger who I’ve never met in person. To the unheard voices of many, I stand with the disadvantaged; because I realized how easy it is for those in positions of power to stampede and trample over the “everyday” person in our ever-faltering society. It’s a fact of life that the only way anyone will ever attain a semblance of happiness, is to be in-tune with their spirituality and ultimately, to be in-tune with each other as human beings. There’s no denying that there are countless lost souls in the world, traversing the world and following the rules that rule over our lives. This is good, of course, because admittedly enough, society is the only “good” thing we have left from the creations birthed from western civilization originating from ancient Greece.
We must work together, or fall as one. There is no in-between when it comes to protecting the innocent and naïve; and to allow them to grow into strong adults and productive members of our shared society.
Truth be told, those who are in positions of power don’t care at all what we, as common “everyday” people do with society. Society, in their eyes, is futile and set-up to fail. It doesn’t concern them, because again speaking from a place of honesty, I can see in the eyes of the materialistically wealthy individual, that they feel powerless and helpless to do anything about the situation. Too often we vilify those in positions of power, because it’s easier for us to do so, then to actually question why those people act the way they do, or commit the actions that they do. It’s much easier to just pin someone as evil due to his or her selfishness and egotistical ways.
Surely, I agree that to some degree, it’s quite disheartening to see such wealth distributed to only those who are fortunate enough to wield such “power”. But to be completely honest, I forgive such actions committed by such vile people. I forgive them, because I understand that this world we live in is about greed. We cannot escape it, it has become entrenched into our very livelihoods whether we as a collective want to admit this or not. We are all guilty of this crime, for we are still living and breathing after all. To be greedy and self-centered (to varying extents) simply means one is looking out for his or her assists (see what I did there). How can we get angry with people like this, when truth be told, if they didn’t act in such greedy ways, they too would fall to the wayside of society and ultimately life altogether in our world.
So what does this mean when we look in the reflection of our modern world?
It means that greed and selfishness is actually rewarded in our society. Yes, you read that right. Like many double standards in our ever-confusing society; we as a collective acknowledge and praise those who can successfully grow a business and sustain it over the long haul. If life were in fact fair and justified, this wouldn’t be the case then. But unfortunately, this isn’t how humans operate the world we live in. By nature, humans aren’t evil, we are just misguided and lost; because the truth of the matter is, we are all lost. We may find who we are, and what we stand for – but in the world, we will always be lost in the shuffle. This realization and truth will set you free, and help you realize that nothing is impossible to achieve. The only obstacle getting in the way between you and your desired future is how you deal with your past failures and how you move on soon thereafter. Make your own path, no matter how you manage to do it, and create a piece of worthwhile life for yourself. Don’t be afraid to try new things, and don’t limit yourself based on judgment alone.
For what we see, is often times, not what it always appears to be at first glance…
Forever in Your Debt,
R.S. Noel
