Well, this should be interesting. And brief. Or maybe just brief.
My brain is infused with hardening cement right now, so my fingers will have to come up with a blog entry all on their own.
Anyway.
I had this thought last night. Just a random thought like millions of others that have popped into my head over the years. Preventing sleep. Unleashing dozens or hundreds of linked thoughts to tumble and crash.
What if I had a choice?
That was the thought. Six simple words, but six words strung together in a sequence that they'd somehow managed to elude for a very very very long time.
Just a simple question, really. But not to me. And, and the answers...
I can't stop thinking about the question I asked or answers that I almost immediately, reflexively, instinctively, gave last night, as I toed the line between awake and asleep.
Someone else, I answered.
Anyone else, I continued.
And, even more surprising and unexpected than the answers, was the fact that the question could exist in the first place.
Everything has changed now, mostly because I asked, but also because I answered the way that I did.
This won't last. Only one thing ever lasts.
Dave, I think your "allergies" and coughing would be a lot less of an issue if you stopped smoking.
posted by: Ed Merckx | August 18, 2010 8:28 AM
It would be neat if you had a choice. Unfortunately, every philosophy and religion I've ever heard of teaches and preaches that we have no free will and that our lives are predetermined.
And what is that one thing that lasts? Death? Taxes? Your unrequited obsession for a person who cares not? Do tell.
Hey, I have an idea! You should volunteer at a soup kitchen. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result (which is also the definition of Dave Siltz's life) this might throw Karma a curve ball. Oh, right, I forgot...no free will. Well, have at it, Sissyphus!
posted by: ArnoldHano | August 18, 2010 9:44 AM
Yeah, it certainly wouldn't hurt, unless the shock to my system killed me.
Please watch the quotes. I might have to start wondering whether you really "don't" blow dead goats.
posted by: dave | August 18, 2010 7:14 PM
I did the soup kitchen thing in Seattle. It was pretty cool, until we ran out of food and they all got pissed.
posted by: dave | August 18, 2010 7:17 PM
The no-free-will people piss me off. I think fate is a crutch, an excuse for weak-willed people to use when things don't go their way.
posted by: dave | August 18, 2010 7:40 PM
It's amazing how adept some people are at getting around with crutches. I guess if you use them enough you can forget they're ever there.
posted by: ArnoldHano | August 19, 2010 1:37 PM
I don't know if they forget the crutches are there, or if they just decided to start pretending that they're not a handicap.
posted by: dave | August 19, 2010 8:23 PM