Of late I’ve become enamoured with a podcast called, “This I Believe“, which started back in the 1950s as a project to record audio files of people talking about what they really believed in the core of themselves; the beliefs that really mattered when it came down to the nuts and bolts of who they were.

The early recordings (currently being played on the podcast as a revival and fundraiser) are more formal than the modern ones.    They are more prominent people of the times, politicians, actresses, people of note, whereas the more modern you get, the more you get deeply personal recordings from any number of ordinary folk and celebrities alike.   Not all are old or wizened, but many are — I suppose by a later age, your beliefs have either cemented themselves — or stagnated.

It should be said here that in this context, “beliefs” not only encompass any religious beliefs, but also ones about the world as a whole — ethical and moral beliefs, ways of viewing the world, expectations of your fellow human, your ideas for the betterment of humanity and the world, and the pursuit of happiness, meaning, and fulfillment in this short life.

I was listening to a recording on the way home tonight and was musing about my own beliefs and whether or not I could even hope to start putting them down in some format that I could ever record on an “official” copy.   I suppose I have done that already, somewhat, both on my main website under my Beliefs section and here in this blog, under the entries marked by, “Controversies“, but I’ve only really gotten started.    I want to not only attempt to lay out my beliefs but to have them scrutinized, analyzed, and picked apart by the masses — in this, I feel, I can make them stronger, better, less instinctual and more logical, more meaningful to me as a person on a life journey.

I don’t know if this will actually accomplish what I am after or if, at the end of it all, I will know that I know more about particular aspects of my beliefs and less and less about other areas.    It is one of the great adages of philosophy that the more you know, the less you truly know, and the field of knowledge is truly never-ending in its scope.   The reality may be that at the end of the journey I find myself at the beginning, endlessly to revise my beliefs and understandings till the end of my days, never finding a true answer to any of it.   I may, in my efforts, simply be climbing Sisyphus‘ mountain.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. — Macbeth

How about you, dear and gentle reader?   If, given the chance to record your own audio file of your beliefs, or to write them down in a book, would you be able to?   How many beliefs would you say are “cemented” within your mind compared to all the “fluid” ones?   How do you develop and extend your beliefs during your life — or are they a static phenomenon in your life, something unchanging despite the years?

If you feel like sharing, let us all know how you process your own beliefs, whether they be religious, life, or otherwise.    Together, I think, we can better each other in this fascinating process of sorting ourselves out into a better mindset.

Bow Before the Sacred Cow (moo.)

There is a term used in businesses and other organizations to indicate those things that are traditionally regarded as “untouchable” in terms of their being questioned or modified — the so-called, “sacred cows”.    (Borrowed from the Hindu religion.)  These have long been hindrances in business practices because people fail to explore why a particular practice or system is being used the way it is — they just assume that it’s The Way Things Must Be Done™.     However, it occurs to me that this isn’t only applicable to the working world, we have many steers and heifers wandering through our lives that we fail to examine or pay attention to, and we need to be willing to slaughter them in the name of progress, new ideas, and better wisdom if that is what’s required.

Think about your own life — what cows do you hold near and dear to your heart?    Here’s some areas where I see them in both my life and others:

Religion — Big one!   You knew it was going to be in here, didn’t you?    Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I’m a huge fan of questioning one’s religion and figuring out for yourself what really matters and what is simply bogus.    Holy cows roam free in the religious world where some practices and ideas stay the same for centuries or longer without any in-depth exploration.    Even simple things like, “What hymnal should we use?” can spark the, “Don’t kill my cow!” argument with great swaths of people popping up complaining about the possible change, citing history as a precedent.    “It worked for my grandmother, why should we change?”

Traditions — We all have family traditions and most of us enjoy them to one extent or another, but when was the last time that you challenged one of them as being irrelevant or misplaced?    In some families, that’s nothing less than treason, but why should it be irreverant to probe into the meaning and applicability of the things you do year in and year out?

Business — Time and time again it’s been shown that good business is a balance between doing things in ways that work and doing things in new ways that may or may not work better.     As a younger person in business, one of the hardest things I have to face is convincing the older staff that systems can be changed without sacrificing the stability they’ve enjoyed so far and, given the chance, can even be improved upon.  Fear is the glue that holds sacred cows in place and keeps them from being herded in another direction.   (Gives some interesting visions of incredibly sticky cows, now, doesn’t it?)

Your Halo is Slipping

Life Philosophies — Many people, including myself, find it hard to break out of the typical “normal” life that has been prescribed by society and to choose a unique and interesting path.   The cow becomes sacred because it’s a societal pressure and deviating outside of that not only brings you problems in terms of diapproval but issues with the economics of the situation.    As much as I’d love to be in school longer, economically, I had to do my 4 years and get out to a job.   I would love to stay home and write or do something else, but the bills wouldn’t get paid.    Becoming a bum would be fun, but it would be frowned upon.   The cows become sacred as a standard that we are all expected to follow, even if someone could deviate without becoming a liability on the system.

There are many other places where this crops up — how we live, how we work, how we act, how we love.    What are some holy bovines in your life, and what are you doing to try to negate them, or do you simply embrace them wholesale because — that’s what you do?

I’ve often considered the question of immortality to be an interesting one, because it directly affects not only myself, but the people and the world around me.    Why can’t we simply keep on living — forever?   Why must we miss out on all the terribly interesting things going on in our world as time progresses simply because our bodies wear out?   I often curse that I was born in such interesting times, the dawn of the Internet, the age of information and globalization, a real turning point in the evolution of the human race to perhaps something more than simple survival and sex.    When I consider the dates, and realize that I’ll be fortunate to see the next 50 years,  impressive to see 70, and inhuman to have another 80, I tend to get really, really depressed.

After all, I’ve already blown through 31 years, most of which was spent figuring out life and all its complex nuances.   I mean, the first 5 years are a wash — you don’t recall anything, and you’re just learning basics.   The next 15 you’re toddling through your childhood, blissful and ignorant, mostly ignoring the turmoil around you, until you hit adolescence, are suddenly told to act like an adult, get a job, and be mature, and then you spend the next 10 years figuring out, exactly, how to do so.   So by the time you emerge from the haze around 25 or so, you’ve generally got the course of the ship sorted out but you’ve spent over 1/4 of your life doing so.   Good job on the efficiency.

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not yet seen the movie Twilight and you know nothing about it and want to be completely surprised, then stop reading now.   If, however, you’ve read the book or at least know the basic premise, nothing will be revealed here that might detract from that.   I just had to warn those out there, like me, who had not read the books and had not seen the movie until last night.

At the end of the movie, Bella is presented with a curious choice:   Edward can easily make her into a vampire simply by biting her and letting the venom take its course, and then they can stay together forever (since vamps are immortal), but she becomes what he is, a “monster”, destined to stay the same age forever, constantly running away from suspicions and curious humans, attending high school over and over, and either sating her thirst with the blood of animals or falling to the burning desire to nurse on the carotid of some unfortunate sod.

Her family, friends, and others not afflicted similarly would fade away; grow old, sick, and die in time, while she remained the same in physical form, forever bearing the weight of the ages on her soul.

The bonus to this, however, is she gets to remain with her true love for all time; to never grow old, sick, or die; to have the strength to defend herself against almost anything and to do superhuman feats with ease.    She would easily get to experience centuries –  millennia — of human progress and invention, the ebbs and flows of societies, cultures, and countries, and to experience all that technology has to offer for the future.

But is the sacrifice worth the gain?

That is the question, and that is my question to you, dear readers — what is the solution to Bella’s Dilemma?

I admit; the appeal to become immortal and see all that is to come, to have the strength and ability to be diseaseless, and to retain that which is myself — my thoughts, my actions, my experiences that I took so long to acquire and paid such dear prices to have — this seems a wonderful thing, perhaps.    But at what cost?

Would you willingly expose your neck to the fangs of infinite opportunity in exchange for the everlasting stigma?   Or do you accept the ravages of time and the inevitable end?