This has been a topic I have long been interested in understanding. I know I am an emotional person and also have the power to reason; the power to understand my emotions. If I allow my emotions to rule my conduct then I know I will suffer from out bursts which may hurt others and myself. Humans have the ability to think in abstract ways and this sets apart from all other animals. Great scientist and others have been able to think and reason with mathematics and logic to uncover many mysteries of our universe.
Even those who are mystics and give themselves to philosophy and theology have developed logic to support their beliefs of the existence of God. Too often there are those of religious convictions who allow their emotions to rule their judgments. Emotional religious experiences can lead many seeking a relationship with God, to be led astray. But to deny our emotions is to put ourselves into a place where those emotions will someday surface, and when they do they will erupt into sometimes violent conduct.
My emotions and knowledge changes over the years; as an infant I would cry when I was hungry or needed my diapers to be changed, my memories of being an infant are few. I do think that infants learn very quickly and they hear words and feel emotions and soon they are trying to form words of their own and smile and laugh and parents enjoy seeing their little one developing day after day.
The teenage years are the time when we become aware of so much about our urges and struggle with authority and trying to decide what we would like to do with our lives. Perhaps our parents are pressuring us to do what they want us to do, but if we always give in to their pressures we will probably regret it later on. It was a cultural shock to me to move from a small farm into a town with my brothers and sister; I didn't have to awaken before dawn and go to the barns to take care of farm animals. I would just get up in time to dress, eat a little breakfast, jump on my bike and ride off to school. No more school bus that would come by the farm, but now, sailing along on my bike I would greet new friends and at lunch I would race home to fix myself a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk. I started to try out for sports and soon was part of a baseball team, a football team, and a basketball team.
I did have a good work ethic and worked at night in the bowling alley setting pins, and in the morning I was hired to open a coffee shop and serve customers breakfasts of bacon and eggs, juices and coffee. I earned my own money and bough my own clothes. Being a farm boy taught me how to work and taught me the value of every penny.
There are many times I want to think to myself..."What if I had only...." But what if's don't do any good, what is lived out is what can or can not be accepted. It is better for me to decide to accept what I have done with my life. Pretending doesn't work here....making excuses only puts off the pain of owning up to my losing my way and giving in to my more animalistic urges. I'm consoled in the fact that I am not alone, that human beings all have those same urges and it is impossible to pass through the younger years of life without caving in to something, regardless of the weakness.
Onward and upward to better understanding of who I am and who others are around me. The knowledge of seeing just a little bit about human nature brings me to a place where I am aware that completely knowing all about my life and life itself is an impossible endeavor. But it is enough to know just a little bit, having just a glimpse into the joys and sorrows of life helps me to be humble and ready to listen to spiritual ideas about a God who would love all of us so much that He would send His Son...yes, that's the belief of the Christian faith....using an old book they call the Bible. I know there are other religions and holy books all describing a hope beyond this life... I am bias, I know that too, however in comparing theirs to Christianity seems to be like comparing religion to a faith in a way of life that is not a religion, it is believing that we all have a purpose and are urged to love God and our neighbor as ourselves.
There are many occasions when our emotions are the best way to understand certain real life experiences; listening to music can be understand logically by understanding how music is produced, but listening to various types of music often caused deep emotional feelings and that's why nations have their own special national athems to stir the souls of their people to take action against other nations. Some nations only use the sound of drums and those sounds drift far away and can be a form of communication between neighbors. Every day when I watch the news on television, I see crowds in an emotional fury waving flags, burning objects and shouting slogans. Fear and guilt are emotions which have long been used to control people and to bring them under subjection to various organizations.
There is the emotion of hope which I try to keep hold of; it provides me with a sense that no matter what happens around me, I can always believe that whatever happens, happens for a reason, for many reasons. Losing hope and having the feeling of uselessness is something I never what to have.
No comments:
Post a Comment