I Know Nothing, But I Am Willing To Learn
I am writing this down To remind myself that I know nothing…
Not that I do not have knowledge,
Not that I do not have the will to learn,
But that no one can ever truly be sure about
The unique and individual situations
That we all must face in our lives.
The universe does not bend to our will
It is the other way around…
The more we grasp for control
The further it will ultimately slip away from us.
But, one must also learn not to
Lose control so willingly, and
Become addicted to our raw and animalistic nature…
In all things there must be balance.
Life is not all sunshine and rainbows,
Nor is it all darkness and storms.
Therefore, life can never truly be lived that way,
For the world simply is not that way; and
Just as we must bend to the will of the universe,
We are also directly effected by our immediate environments…
There will always be chaos,
There will always be creation.
Once we realize that they are one in the same;
Only then can we open our hearts and minds
To a world of endless possibilities,
And feel proud to stand up and say
“I know nothing, but I am willing to learn!”…
Bad Things Are Going To Happen
Bad things are going to happen to you…
Life is not some fairy tale
Where the hero inevitably triumphs over evil,
Where some golden haired knight
Faces down a monstrous dragon, and
Comes away victorious with barely a scratch…
You will feel pain and you will suffer;
But, it is through this suffering
That you will learn what you are truly capable of…
We all have in us the potential for greatness, and
The drive to achieve victory; but
How could you fully appreciate and understand its true value
Without first feeling failure and defeat?…
Failure, or course, has a deterministically
Negative connotation and definition:
“Lack of success, or an unsuccessful person”
“The omission of expected or desired action”
“The action or state of not functioning properly”
But, what is success really? And why must we, as individuals,
Strive to attain the expectations or desires of others?
For fear of being labeled as “Not functioning properly”
In the eyes of a society which can not see through yours?
Shouldn’t we instead look inward, and
Determine our own definitions of
What will make us feel truly successful
In our own unique and individual lives?…
Control
Why does the term “out of control”
Hold such a negative connotation?
Is it really so wrong
To let go of the controls in our lives
At least from time to time?
Is a life spent totally “in control”
Even a life worth living?
And why does being “in control”
Hold such a positive association?
As though, “As long as you’re in control
Everything will happen as you expect it to, and
You’ll never have to struggle, or
Challenge yourself to improve upon
Who you once were…
How could something as minuscule as
Mankind ever hope to gain control over our environment?
Sure we can chop down trees and build new cities
Pull resources from the earth and trap animals in cages;
But one day those trees will grow back and those cities will topple,
Just as those resources will replenish and those cages will break.
We are simply self important fleas
On the back of a mangy immortal dog
Blissfully unaware of our unimportance…
Truly, the one thing that any of us could ever
Even hope to be in control of is
How we choose to allow our environment to influence us, and
How, in turn, we will react to said influence…
The initial definition of Control is:
“The power to influence or direct peoples behavior or a course of events”
But, that is not the only definition by far!
Control can also mean:
“The restriction of an activity, tendency or phenomenon”
“A means of limiting or regulating something”
“To maintain influence or authority over”
Some would even argue that there are, in fact,
More negative than positive aspects to this word.
Ultimately the concept of negative and positive is subjective
As is the notion of control itself…
For example: If I decided, of my own accord,
To move out to the middle of nowhere on a small plot of land
Stop cutting my hair, stop eating processed meats
Grow my own food, raise my own livestock, and
Generally quit committing my time and attention to
The standard life goals set by societal norms;
Focusing instead on my own happiness and self sustainability;
Would you then say that I had “lost control” of my life
And thereby consider me useless or “not functioning properly”?…
On the other hand; If I decide, of my own accord,
To move to a bustling metropolis and live in a 400 sq. ft. apartment;
Surrounded constantly by loud noises, pollution, and
Millions of other people just trying to survive, day in and day out.
To work behind a tiny desk, in a tiny cubicle, in an absurdly lit room
Chasing the same paycheck week after week
Slowly forgetting about the dreams I held dear as a child
Would you then say that I was “in total control” of my life
And thereby consider me a successful person?…
Neither of these examples are necessarily “good” or “bad”
Just as neither of these examples are necessarily “wrong” or “right”
They are simply subjective to our own
Unique and individual perspectives…
So, it is my belief that,
The true question we should be asking ourselves is:
“Do you control it, or does it control you”?
And, for that matter, as I interpret it;
If you are constantly worrying about
Whether or not you are “in control”
Then how could you ever truly be??…
Case Federal 