Happy Birthday to me, I turned 40 yesterday. Woke up to unexpected blue skies and a rainbow outside my window and ended up watching a spectacular sunset from Fort Ord Dunes, near Monterey.
In honor of my first 40, I'm going to relate 15 things that seem to me just now as the most important things I've learned during my years on planet Earth.
Douglas Adams gets a nod with my number one, which I find is always good advice, regardless of the situation: Don't Panic!
See the other 14 below the fold!
- It's important to pay attention in life!
- I now understand why:
The American British poet D.H. Lawrence was right when he said that the only evil was to "deny life."
The Romantic poet William Blake was right when he said that we can see "a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower," and can "hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour."
The American sci-fi writer and humanist Kurt Vonnegut was right when he has Kilgore Trout declare that the "meaning of life is to be the eyes and ears and conscience of the universe, you fool!"
The American scientist and humanist Carl Sagan declared that "our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos, in which we float like a mote of dust."
- Music really can save your mortal soul.
- Money can't buy happiness, but it can most certainly diminish or even avoid many forms of pain and suffering.
- I continue to believe in free will, as I have my whole life. Yet with every passing year, I become more aware of how my life has been shaped by events - often exceptionally random-seeming events, that are completely outside my ability to control, or others' abilities to foresee. As a result, I now consider that the essence of free will is the ability (that I believe) I have to decide how to respond to the situations and events which I face in the present, in the now.
- Many of our sacred traditions teach the importance of "living in the moment." I agree. Yet I know a man who says he's been trapped in the "now" since a brain injury in a car accident took away his memory. His life is just as difficult as mine, and even more so in many, many ways.
- Regardless of the specific belief systems of the the world's many myths and religions and any paranormal or supernatural claims said myths and religions may claim, the nice things like mercy, compassion, forgiveness, peace, love, etc. - these are all manifested in the real world by the individual choices and actions of actual human beings, like you and me. I believe that in this way, what we think of as God is in me and is in you.
- In the same way, the devil dwells as potential in me and in you. The devil is that part of each of us that wants to turn away from mercy, compassion, forgiveness, peace and love, and instead considers how to turn situations where these virtues are needed in order to alleviate pain or suffering into opportunities for personal gain or personal pleasure.
- True wisdom consists of the knowledge that we don't know much at all. That idea has been around since the time that Socrates may or may not have lived in Athens. But just last week I heard the Somalian rapper, K'naan, say it better than anyone before, "Any man who knows a thing, knows he knows not a damn, damn thing at all."
- Self-knowledge really is an important part of living a "good life."
- Personal growth usually refers to a a person improving his understanding of the relation between his or her choices and the consequences that will likely result.
- Growing up usually refers to a person becoming more effective at separating their individual feelings and attitudes from the actions they take.
- We only need three commandments, not ten. The first one: Always try to do what you believe is right is qualified by the second: Try to do no harm to others. The third: Be as honest with yourself as you humanly can about commandments 1 and 2!
- It helps to break big questions down into smaller questions. For instance, what's the meaning of Life (that's with a big "L," meaning life in general): simple, adapt! That's a broader question than what the meaning of my own individual life might be (or yours). I'm still working on my answer to that one (how are you doing?), but I realize now that it's largely up to me to decide.
Oh, and here's yesterday's spectacular birthday sunset:
Fort Ord Dunes
Thanks for reading! Best wishes to you all in 2011!!!