Lately, I've noticed that many people don't quite understand what blessings and curses are, and how to accept them. I went with the opinion of most people, who generally believe that a blessing is any good thing that happens to you, and a curse is any bad thing that happens to you. That is, as is the case with most public opinions, wrong (from my point of view). A blessing can be 'bad', and a curse can be 'good'... but before diving into this, please allow me to define the parameters that I'll be using, and develop my main points:
- Good: That which will improve a part of your life on the long run
- Bad: That which will ruin a part of your life on the long run
Both ideas of good and bad have to be thought of in the long run, because it's a different case in the short run. In the short run, many long-term bad things can be perceived as good things. A simple example is drugs... people do drugs every day, because they find it good. If you ask them they will never stop talking about how good they are.. they alter their state of conscience, and they feel as if they are beings of a higher order; they feel as if they have been freed from their bodies, and are free souls now. But that's only as long as they're high, and only considering the short-term benefits. When taken on the long run, the benefits of drugs are outweighed by the harms.. and the biggest of these is the loss of the 'self'. Not the lack of control over desires, but the lack of desires in themselves. After long-term addiction, people lose the will to live if they're not high. They disregard everything else but that in their lives; the top priority. You might ask, but isn't this the same as having a passion? Well, a passion is something that grows out of who you are, and you choose how it defines you. Drugs define who you can't be and turn you into a hollow person; a hungry ghost; an animal. That insatiable craving changes your human fabric. So, are drugs a blessing or a curse? In the short run, a blessing for the person who's on them. In the long run, a curse for him and all others around him. (One has to be careful regarding the point of view they are talking from when defining good and bad.)
Thus, a contradiction arises; just like it always happens with anything and everything. Everything contradicts in a way that they seemingly agree with each other in a way that's beyond our grasping. That enchanting beauty of everything that is connected around us without us knowing it, but just feeling it. The connection that exists between all that is alive is enough to convince me that there is a creator. The contradiction mentioned here is double-faced: a contradiction between the points of view, and a contradiction between the long-term and short-term effects of anything. The contradiction is natural, but is important to consider and wonderful to ponder over.
In the same (contradicting) manner, a curse may be a hidden blessing. If one, for example, gets really ill and goes to the hospital for a long time, they might consider this a curse. But if they were to consider what they could do with their time in the hospital, and what that illness might have prevented them from doing outside that would cause them more harm, they'd see it as a blessing. It's a matter of perception and the double-edged standards of humans who want nothing but blessings that are good in both their long and short term effects, and very few of these exist.
In application, everything will always contradict perfectly, as planned. Every blessing is a curse. Every curse is a blessing. We're destined to live confused. What we can do is choose carefully from what we're presented with... think ahead about the potential benefits and drawbacks. Consider how your decisions will affect the lives of those around you.
God bless.
(:
- Good: That which will improve a part of your life on the long run
- Bad: That which will ruin a part of your life on the long run
Both ideas of good and bad have to be thought of in the long run, because it's a different case in the short run. In the short run, many long-term bad things can be perceived as good things. A simple example is drugs... people do drugs every day, because they find it good. If you ask them they will never stop talking about how good they are.. they alter their state of conscience, and they feel as if they are beings of a higher order; they feel as if they have been freed from their bodies, and are free souls now. But that's only as long as they're high, and only considering the short-term benefits. When taken on the long run, the benefits of drugs are outweighed by the harms.. and the biggest of these is the loss of the 'self'. Not the lack of control over desires, but the lack of desires in themselves. After long-term addiction, people lose the will to live if they're not high. They disregard everything else but that in their lives; the top priority. You might ask, but isn't this the same as having a passion? Well, a passion is something that grows out of who you are, and you choose how it defines you. Drugs define who you can't be and turn you into a hollow person; a hungry ghost; an animal. That insatiable craving changes your human fabric. So, are drugs a blessing or a curse? In the short run, a blessing for the person who's on them. In the long run, a curse for him and all others around him. (One has to be careful regarding the point of view they are talking from when defining good and bad.)
Thus, a contradiction arises; just like it always happens with anything and everything. Everything contradicts in a way that they seemingly agree with each other in a way that's beyond our grasping. That enchanting beauty of everything that is connected around us without us knowing it, but just feeling it. The connection that exists between all that is alive is enough to convince me that there is a creator. The contradiction mentioned here is double-faced: a contradiction between the points of view, and a contradiction between the long-term and short-term effects of anything. The contradiction is natural, but is important to consider and wonderful to ponder over.
In the same (contradicting) manner, a curse may be a hidden blessing. If one, for example, gets really ill and goes to the hospital for a long time, they might consider this a curse. But if they were to consider what they could do with their time in the hospital, and what that illness might have prevented them from doing outside that would cause them more harm, they'd see it as a blessing. It's a matter of perception and the double-edged standards of humans who want nothing but blessings that are good in both their long and short term effects, and very few of these exist.
In application, everything will always contradict perfectly, as planned. Every blessing is a curse. Every curse is a blessing. We're destined to live confused. What we can do is choose carefully from what we're presented with... think ahead about the potential benefits and drawbacks. Consider how your decisions will affect the lives of those around you.
God bless.
(:
No comments:
Post a Comment