Life is filled with mysteries. Questions like, “How can something be both new, and improved?”; “Why do overalls have loops to put a belt on them when they already have those straps to hold them up?”; or “What’s the determining factor that separates getting murdered from being assassinated?” These riddles, and millions more like them, have crossed the inquisitive minds of creative thinkers since the dawn of existence, but none can compare to the most puzzling of all. The purpose of life itself.
“Why are we here?”; “How did we get here?”; “What should we be doing here?” From ancient religious scholars, to the scientists of tomorrow, and all the burned out hippies in between, everyone wants to know the one thing that only Scott Stapp of the late 90’s fifth generation knockoff grunge act, Creed, could so ineloquently gurgle through his clenched jaw over terribly generic white people music: “What’s this life for?” I’ll give ya a hint, it ain’t for wasting everyone’s time with Best Buy bargain bin bullshit and pretending you’re the second coming of Christ… or Eddie Vedder. Sorry, kind of got off track there, but I just really can’t stand that guy, and that’s OK because it brings me to my point.
We are here to live, plain and simple. You’ve got this time, so use it how you see fit, it’s yours. If I choose to spend my short and ever-so-precious time in this world bashing washed-up, talentless, undeserving rock figures, I have every right to do so, just as they have every right to continue being terrible. But that would be pretty stupid.
All my silly hatefulness aside, I do believe we are actually here for something, but what that something is has been overrun by our self-segregating society’s own conflicts. Whether you buy into religious fairy tales, alien mumbo jumbo, or scientific babble, everyone is on the same page about one thing. We’re supposed to be doing something, but we aren’t exactly sure what that is, so we’re gonna keep on going with this thing that we’re already doing until we’re dead, and then we’ll know whether it’s true or not. Everyone is always so intent on solving the riddle without realizing it’s a trap. It’s in our questioning nature to wonder what things mean, but haven’t we already known all along?
All too often we get caught up in wondering why something is there, instead of enjoying it because it’s there. It would be foolish of me to try and sell you answers that I don’t have, I myself am not an organized religion, but there’s a common thread that they share that may be the key to all of this. Whether it’s the Christians with their crazy contradictory nature and cannibalism, Judaism with it’s pious Rabbi’s and wacky hairdos, or Scientologists with their spaceships and pretentious actors, all of them have a great underlying theme, that somehow gets lost in all the bullshit: Just do the best that you can to be a good person.
Maybe it’s karma, maybe it’s just dumb luck, or maybe it’s common fucking-sense, but I’ve found that the more you just try to experience things without over analyzing the shit out of them and the better you treat others, the better your life will be. Duh. The same goes for the opposite, and it doesn’t really matter what’s out there driving it all, just know that it’s gonna catch you slippin’. Just last week I got Pay-It-Forwarded at a mexican restaurant. A very nice woman paid for my taco salad just because she really enjoyed an otherwise crappy movie that had a great message about doing your part to be a great person. I rode high for the next few days with my newfound hope for humanity, and in doing so, it slipped my mind that I myself had not passed along this favor. In the days to follow I had a couple of the worst comedy sets I’ve had in years, and my car got broken into.
I’m no dummy, so today I am rushing out to buy lunch for the next person standing behind me in line at a restaurant so I can get everything back to normal again. Unless for some reason the guy in front of me is Scott Stapp. Fuck that guy.
