October 11, 2002
I'm a philosophical sort. Its not that I've read much of the great philosophers and intellectual egg-heads of our day. Its more that I have this constant compulsion in my head: this basic thought that keeps repeating itself every day, all throughout the day: "WHAT THE FUKK IS THIS ALL ABOUT?" What IS this life anyway? Who ARE we? What are people FOR? ANd what exactly IS this strange world in front of us; this enchanting and ever-shifting mixture of light and sound and feeling. This solid dream. THis infinite Universe that little ole you and me are plopped smack dab right in the middle of. When you think about it: it is eminently weird that anything is even happening in the first place. It is all very mysterious, isn't it?
Now this one so-called pragmatic friend of mine scoffs at all this philosophical thrashing. "Ace! You're never going to figure it out, so whats the point of thinking about it; whats the point of smashing your head against that brick wall?"
Which is fine, except that one of my abiding philosophical hunches is that the whole POINT of this existence, the whole reason we're here in the first place, is specifically to try and figure out the whole puzzle of it all.
Many people scoff at the notion of "philosophizing." And there are certainly many bad philosophers. But the fact is: everyone has a philosophy of life, whether they've given it much thought or not. All you have to do is spring one little question on them -- "What do you think happens when you die?" -- and all their most basic philosophical premises will come tumbling out.
Some friends of mine take sort of a pride in being "hard-boiled realists." THey consider themselves from the Sgt Friday-nothing-but-the-facts school of philosophy. They maintain:
"Nothing happens when you die. They dig a hole and put you in the ground. You're dead. thats it. Its all over. Theres no more to it than that."
I mean, who knows for sure. None of us will truly find out until we die, right? And yet, as logical as they think this position is, its always struck me as the most illogical and absurd philosophical premise of all (as well as the most unimaginitive). I mean, we're in the midst of this awesome, mind-boggling, infinitely-complex Infinite Universe. To think that one's life -- which is certainly part of this universe -- would add up to nothing more than a meaningless spec of dirt in the face of Eternity hardly seems to jibe with the overall blue-print of the Universe.
What exactly IS this world in front of us? Thats the question that always keeps pushing its way into the front of my lobes. Philosophically speaking, the only thing I know for sure is that this whole Universe is One thing. Everything else I consider to be strictly in the realm of personal opinion. This entire universe is One Unified Thing. What this One Thing is is almost completely beyond the realm of my understanding. But I'd certainly like to get more acquainted with The Guy, whoever or whatever He/It is.
He's a very mysterious fellow for sure. heh heh. I guess I'll have to think about it some more........