This is the end.
Have you ever wondered what it means to be living? To exist in a person? A body? A mind? We all are born into this world as children. Innocent, happy, serene, bashful, content, careless children. And as we grow older, we find that we forget how to be that. As children, we understand that what we're living is just a game. Life isn't life. Death isn't death. It's just a game.
But that's something we also forget. What we're "living" is just a game. Wouldn't it be funny and ironic if we all woke up one day and found out that all of this was one big silly dream. For some, it would be a nightmare. And we're in this dream trying to figure out just why we're here. What's our purpose for being here? How do we win the game? What creates success?
As children, success is enjoying a succulent candy bar or dancing to The Beatles or Stray Cats in your living room. It's petting your dog and running through sprinklers in the sunlight. It's enjoying the love and comfort of your mother when you're sick. It's sitting in a darkened room with your father while he listens to a baseball game on the radio. It's enjoying that sweet summer breeze that pulls through your window on a desperately hot night.
And as children, we're constantly learning. Always curious about what's around us. We're trying to learn about the game through the corrupt minds of our parents. We're trying to understand our meaning of being through our surroundings. Our physical touch, our keen sight and hearing, our taste, the scents around us. Our infantile hunger fades as we start to believe that we've started figuring things out. We get either positive or negative feedback from corrupt adults. They teach us how we should act, how we should speak, how we should think.
But as we continue to age, we begin to question ourselves. What is the game we're playing? What really are the rules? Why weren't we asked whether we'd like to play the game? We start breaking down, wondering whether this really is how you play the game correctly. Everything you were taught: is this how it was intended to be?
Our childish tendencies slowly get beaten out of us by the motivation to earn money. There are things that you want, which require bills to be paid. And how else do you get money, but by earning it or stealing it? So we move into this less innocent period in our lives where we forget what it is to be a child. We think that we've been forced to leave that behind because, according to the people around us, we need to "grow up" and make a living. But making a living is never enough. Making money is almost always closely followed by greed. Soon, we want more things, bigger things, shinier things, updated things. And the more things we buy, the more we think we're succeeding at the game. We have our prizes as we climb the ladder of success and greed.
But when it's quiet, and we're alone, we find we don't understand the empty hole that has slowly built its way in the place that once was that child. That serene, confident, beautiful child who never feared meeting a deadline or getting a paycheck. So we do things to make it so we don't have to think about that odd hole. We date, we drink, we gyrate on steamy dance floors, we watch hours of TV series that spend us emotionally but never mean anything to us in the end. But when we're sober, when we've climbed out of that stranger's bed, when we've watched that final episode, we're faced once more with that hole. That dark, dark hole that we still don't understand.
Our minds have become corrupt like all the rest of the adults around us from our childhood. They didn't understand the game, so they didn't know how to teach us the game. We've forgotten that this really is a game. Suddenly, all this is real. It really means something. All these things mean something. But what is that something? What's the something that it means? Is that something really all that important once you really think about it? What will happen when you wake up and find this is a dream? Will you be glad when it's over or will you miss it?
Winning is not what this game's about. Not at all. It's hardly even thriving in it. It's the learning from it that's important. Learning. It's remembering how to maintain our innocence enough to always question the things around us so that we never need to question why it's happening because we understand. In your mind. Your individual, intimately personal mind. And we don't fear because, in the end, all these people around us are not going to matter--at least their opinions of us won't matter. Because they're corrupt. They've forgotten what it feels like to love everyone. To regard everyone as a friend, no matter what they looked like or spoke like or acted like. We forgave and they were our friends.
It's also learning how to enjoy this existence we've been given. This place in this game. It's remembering to dance like a goofball as if your siblings were right next to you doing the same thing. It's catching fireflies and then watching them fly away with their bright lights. It's tasting all the magnificent foods this earth has to offer. It's enjoying the scent of a new perfume or a city street or your significant other's skin. It's recognizing that we'll all die. That's not what matters. It's how you played the game while you were in this realm that matters. That's all you need to understand. That's all you need to remember. That's all you need to grasp.
But that's something we also forget. What we're "living" is just a game. Wouldn't it be funny and ironic if we all woke up one day and found out that all of this was one big silly dream. For some, it would be a nightmare. And we're in this dream trying to figure out just why we're here. What's our purpose for being here? How do we win the game? What creates success?
As children, success is enjoying a succulent candy bar or dancing to The Beatles or Stray Cats in your living room. It's petting your dog and running through sprinklers in the sunlight. It's enjoying the love and comfort of your mother when you're sick. It's sitting in a darkened room with your father while he listens to a baseball game on the radio. It's enjoying that sweet summer breeze that pulls through your window on a desperately hot night.
And as children, we're constantly learning. Always curious about what's around us. We're trying to learn about the game through the corrupt minds of our parents. We're trying to understand our meaning of being through our surroundings. Our physical touch, our keen sight and hearing, our taste, the scents around us. Our infantile hunger fades as we start to believe that we've started figuring things out. We get either positive or negative feedback from corrupt adults. They teach us how we should act, how we should speak, how we should think.
But as we continue to age, we begin to question ourselves. What is the game we're playing? What really are the rules? Why weren't we asked whether we'd like to play the game? We start breaking down, wondering whether this really is how you play the game correctly. Everything you were taught: is this how it was intended to be?
Our childish tendencies slowly get beaten out of us by the motivation to earn money. There are things that you want, which require bills to be paid. And how else do you get money, but by earning it or stealing it? So we move into this less innocent period in our lives where we forget what it is to be a child. We think that we've been forced to leave that behind because, according to the people around us, we need to "grow up" and make a living. But making a living is never enough. Making money is almost always closely followed by greed. Soon, we want more things, bigger things, shinier things, updated things. And the more things we buy, the more we think we're succeeding at the game. We have our prizes as we climb the ladder of success and greed.
But when it's quiet, and we're alone, we find we don't understand the empty hole that has slowly built its way in the place that once was that child. That serene, confident, beautiful child who never feared meeting a deadline or getting a paycheck. So we do things to make it so we don't have to think about that odd hole. We date, we drink, we gyrate on steamy dance floors, we watch hours of TV series that spend us emotionally but never mean anything to us in the end. But when we're sober, when we've climbed out of that stranger's bed, when we've watched that final episode, we're faced once more with that hole. That dark, dark hole that we still don't understand.
Our minds have become corrupt like all the rest of the adults around us from our childhood. They didn't understand the game, so they didn't know how to teach us the game. We've forgotten that this really is a game. Suddenly, all this is real. It really means something. All these things mean something. But what is that something? What's the something that it means? Is that something really all that important once you really think about it? What will happen when you wake up and find this is a dream? Will you be glad when it's over or will you miss it?
Winning is not what this game's about. Not at all. It's hardly even thriving in it. It's the learning from it that's important. Learning. It's remembering how to maintain our innocence enough to always question the things around us so that we never need to question why it's happening because we understand. In your mind. Your individual, intimately personal mind. And we don't fear because, in the end, all these people around us are not going to matter--at least their opinions of us won't matter. Because they're corrupt. They've forgotten what it feels like to love everyone. To regard everyone as a friend, no matter what they looked like or spoke like or acted like. We forgave and they were our friends.
It's also learning how to enjoy this existence we've been given. This place in this game. It's remembering to dance like a goofball as if your siblings were right next to you doing the same thing. It's catching fireflies and then watching them fly away with their bright lights. It's tasting all the magnificent foods this earth has to offer. It's enjoying the scent of a new perfume or a city street or your significant other's skin. It's recognizing that we'll all die. That's not what matters. It's how you played the game while you were in this realm that matters. That's all you need to understand. That's all you need to remember. That's all you need to grasp.
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