by Amazing 20 Replies latest jw friends
Amazing, I couldn't agree more with everything you've stated. I have a few things to add:
- We are the only ones in control of our lives.
- Other people can control our lives only if we let them.
- If we base our happiness on the existance of other people, we'll be in for sheer disappointment if they suddenly exit our lives.
- Never look at how far you are from your goal, look at the distance you've already travelled.
Life is its own meaning.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for sharing that with us. I agree with Dave in that it's a blessing when our kids figure out their OWN perception of life and can share it with others......especially their parents.
I am a bit different on the attitude about creating our OWN ideas. Our own ideas are just that.....idea's. For me that doesn't suffice in that it still leaves the thought in my head that I'm probably wrong about my idea's....and at least......cannot be fully convienced my ideas are correct. That's the part that bugs me. I seem to want to know FOR SURE.....how life began, who did it, and why.
I feel man has groped for these answers since man began and that there are millions of ideas....yet nobody can PROVE for sure who is correct.
I hope in time I can also feel as do others.....and enjoy life without HAVING TO KNOW all the answers to it.
Gumby
We are assuming that we agree on the meaning of meaning. I will venture a definition that may bring criticism but it is one I believe is true. Meaning is a universal "sense" of the quality that makes a"thing " what it is. For example, on a rainy day there may be discomfort and worry and other thoughts of how the day is just not right and how it is interfering with our plans etc. We may feel extreme anxiety and simply wait it out etc. etc. Similarly but on the opposite end we might say " the rain is great, it is refreshing , cool , nice etc.etc. And when the rain is over we may move on to exult the sunshine etc. etc. But unless we "sense" the quality that defines the thing,such as the wetness that is in the rain , we do not sense meaning. There is meaning everywhere and in every thing. The problem is in ourselves! We are encumbered and therefore cannot "sense" it!! That is why we theorize and generate religions.
You'll get no criticism from me Sid. As you said, 'There is meaning everywhere and everything.'
Guest 77
Most seek meaning because they are not satisfied with life. When you get down to it, people just want to be happy...
The answer to unhappiness is both liberating and infuriating, but here it is. Happiness doesn't depend on anything that has or has not happened in the past, nor does it depend on your future prospects (thank God, eh?). The simple fact is, in order to be happy:
Yep. Isn't that aggravating? You can't blame it on anyone else, and no one else can do a thing for you. You've just got to decide to be happy, whether or not your logical mind thinks it is rational to be happy and whether or not your moral sense thinks you deserve to be happy. You absolutely will not be happy for any length of time until you decide to, and if you decide to, you can be happy in the face of the most miserable circumstances.
Your son has found what most cannot find!
Jim, is your son still in Oregon. I met him about two years ago but haven't seen him or his wife at any of our apostafests...
carmel
Hi Dad.
Carmel, you actually met my husband, Aaron, and me, Jennifer. Steven is down in Southern California. I am Jim's daughter. Aaron and I are still in the same area, we've just been really busy. We bought our first house a few months ago. We have wanted to attend the apostofests, but the timing has not been good. Maybe in Feb.
Jennifer
(just popping in to say hi)
There is no M E A N I N G to life. L I F E is what it IS. Every moment is fresh and new. There is no repeats: no insect which the intellectual mind can capture in a net. Be here, or be no where. j
I would say that one of the greatest nuggets of wisdom that I've ever come across comes from Victor Frankl's famous book Man's Search for Meaning. In discussing how to restore the inner strength of concentration camp prisoners who had lost all hope, he writes:
What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it really did not matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life - daily and hourly.
This attitude is such a radical shift from the sort of thinking that IMHO is deep rooted in both JW thinking and the thinking of western culture in general - the idea that life owes us something, that we are entitled to happiness. But the incalculable human suffering of the past, present, and future proves that this entitlement mentality is utter foolishness.
I think that looking at life as a series of challenges to be answered has a humbling, sobering, and a strangely calming effect on my mind.
My greatest fear is that I won't be able to live up to the challenges that life presents, that I will go crazy or fail in some spectacular way.
