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EagleScorpion
Senior Member

since 2000-03-08

Posts 1644
Here, Now, Forever

0 posted 2006-02-14 03:46 PM

What is it about a night of excessive drinking that leaves you in such misery the next day? Can’t they invent something that you can get a buzz from without slowly killing you at the same time? With any luck, such a thing has already been invented, and it is sitting in a top-secret laboratory miles below the Earth, never to be released to the populous; a miracle drug that heals all of your ailments and makes you feel like a million bucks. If one were to ingest this miracle tonic, they would get the high of a lifetime. All of the problems in the world would be over if everybody had some. The possibilities are simply endless. Sadly enough, such a thing doesn’t exist. If you want a nice buzz, you have to pay the physical (and financial) consequences. I’m afraid that is simply the nature of this world we unfortunately live in. There is no light without darkness. No action without reaction. It is this cruel balance of nature that our very lives are built upon. Things simply happen, and that is that. The problem is that they dont "simply happen". There is a very complex and endless series of events that lead up to "things happening", but I don’t have enough time in my life to sit there and calculate the cause and effect of each and every action I take. Who does? And who cares? Who knows how deeply each of us affected “the grand scheme of things?” Odds are that you and I have indirectly ruined many other people’s lives, or caused them to die or miss out on something great that would have happened to them if your sorry ass didn’t show up to the scene. Have you ever really thought about that? And should we feel bad about it? What the hell can we do? We didn’t know any better. That’s just what we’ll all be saying when we realize just how horribly we destroyed ourselves and the world around us. To hell with it all. We’re only human. But on the flip side of that coin, what if you saved the day for everyone just by being who you are, and didn’t even know it? That’s a good feeling to have. I always wondered about this. Am I a negative influence? How can I be a positive influence? Am I already a positive influence and don’t even know it? Don’t you see? I want to save lives. When I die, I want to look back on this life and know that I did something; that I meant something and made a difference. I want the joy of knowing that I made life better for somebody else.

There are many great people in the world, but real people are one in a million.

Midnitesun

Member Empyrean

since 2001-05-18

Posts 28647
Gaia

1 posted 2006-02-14 04:42 PM

Lots of heavy thinking going on in here, EagleScorpion. You are the only one who can direct your actions forward onto pathways that let you become a positive force on Earth. Only you can choose to turn negatives into positives. Your heart already seems to be heading in a positive direction, so just keep your feet and mind following accordingly.
Have a safe and fun year!

Klassy Lassy
Member Elite

since 2005-06-28

Posts 2187
Oregon

2 posted 2006-03-31 02:33 AM

Joe, I don't know if I've ever felt I was responsible for someone's failure in life, but I do know whatever successes I've had have been directly influenced by the power of my own thought and what I hold dear. Looking through human eye, I have missed a lot, and my mind and heart are the implements to vision clearing, but only in reflection that comes of a spirit much bigger than I.

You do ponder a huge question here. A tonic, though, for what ails ya?...knowing human frailty, someone would probably build a monopoly on it! We seem unable to live without our boxes, hangovers and all.

hugs, K.

fractal007
Senior Member

since 2000-06-01

Posts 1958

3 posted 2006-04-01 10:49 PM

Honestly, Eagle, I don't think this post belongs in the prose forum.  Perhaps it's better suited for the philosophy section.  But hey, I'm not even a moderator (and I don't have the time to try out for the position).

But enough of that.  Let's get on to what I think.

It sounds like the speaker (mind if I talk about your narrative voice, rather than saying "you" all over the place in my response?) is having a bit of a crisis of behaviour.  He'll probably keep up with this thread of thinking until he reaches a conclusion that varies around the notion that we really can't be sure what the outcome of our actions will be.  I think I detected that in his resigned expletives like "to hell with it."

What I like about this piece is how it ties into what I've been reading in Darwin's book "The origin of Species."  In the natural world (Darwin), and in our social world (the speaker in this piece) there are inter-relationships that are nearly (and in many cases completely) impossible to fully comprehend, between actions, individuals, groups, etc.

So as food for thought, the piece is interesting.  With respect to paragraph structure, I think that presenting us with a single monolithic paragraph makes reading this feel a little overwhelming at times.  It feels more like a rant.  Your speaker (and your subject matter!) deserves better structure.  I'm not saying write an essay here, but perhaps break it down a little.

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