This is a comment made by me in Fred’s blog – FLYING EMBERS –against his post dated 11th March, 2009. You can check up on the post by visiting his blog listed under my BLOGS I FOLLOW.
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It deals with time management, it deals with our aims and aspirations, it touches upon what we should do with this life, it touches upon what is permanent and what is temporary and in fact the entire gamut of things we should do and should not do to make this life useful , profitable, enjoyable, interesting and noteworthy. Will we leave our foot prints on solid rock to remain for ever or on the shores of the sea only to be washed away by the next incoming wave?
In this connection it will be interesting to note the philosophy of William Wordsworth who says that we have all come from God and we have to go back to HIM after a short sojourn in this world. Here we live in a state of forgetfulness or unconsciousness and the earth acts as a foster mother and offers us many temptations. The divine spark can be seen in children but as they grow up this divinity becomes a distant memory.
Well, everyone agrees that our life should be planned, we should have a schedule so as to avoid wasting our precious time on unnecessary things which will not further our aims and ambitions. People who stuck their interests in spite of the monotony, long hours, insurmountable obstacles succeeded in leaving a permanent imprint on this earths history. All great men we revere are of this kind. They persisted and persevered in the fields which they like with consistency and clock work precision. The majority of us take life as it comes and do our best to enjoy it and in the process we don’t really achieve anything concrete in this world.
The fact remains that what ever we achieve in this world, we cannot take it with us when we die. We came with nothing and we will go with nothing. Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, will not be able to take his billions when he dies.
Now the question arises whether Bill Gates is better than others. To some extent yes. He can do a lot for the suffering masses in the world than what we can do with our limited resources. He can do Gods work better than us. He may not be able to eat better than us with all his money. But he can feed the poor, provide shelters for the poor, he can provide medical assistance to the poor and so on. In other words, he will find favor with God more than us. He has used the talents given to him by God in the best possible way while we have frittered away our talents.
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Don't be surprised I can write such a long comment. If I am inspired I can write a longer comment :)
I hope you will put on your thinking caps and be generous in your comments. I highly value your opinions and therefore feel free to write whatever you want.
Best wishes:)
Joseph
23 comments:
Hi Joseph, What an interesting blog, What to do with life is very much on my mind at the moment, My family and grandchildren are paramount to me as is my poetry and love of music, but am I using these talents to my full potential?
A wee while ago I did poetry postcards for a charity which my favourite singer Daniel O Donnell is/was involved and the joy that I was able to help these orphans in Siret was amazing, I didn't do it to make Me feel good ut the fact that something I had an idea for raised thousands of pounds for somone in need. My life is at a turning point at the moment, I thought I was given a second chance of happiness with someone 9 yrs after being widowed 2 yrs ago, but he is not the man I thought he was, Do I stay with someone who don't want me and who is cruel both phsically and mentally? or start all over again.......alone.
We only have one life and I love fun whereas this man likes to sit down all day and watch TV or do crosswords, he seems much older in ways than age. It's a sin not to enjoy life and I would hate to think I have failed myself, family and most important God.
Take care.
Yvonne
Hi Joseph,
I think I can safely say that I speak for everyone when I say that we all greatly appreciate the time, energy and thought that you invest in commenting on all of our blogs. I am far more motivated to put my thoughts and feelings in writing because I always know that you will be reading my posts and sharing your thoughts and feelings about them. You are a true friend and a treasure to the blogging community, Joseph, and an inspiration to us all. We are indebted to you. :)
With warm affection and gratitude,
Mel
And I also want to say that seeing the name of Fred's blog as the title to this post was a blessing to my heart in a deep and real way. :)
I believe the strength of the convictions we possess, the ones we are willing to go the extra mile for, mean much more than the money we have, no matter how much we could(and hopefully, would) use it for good. Mother Teresa took a vow of poverty, but where would we have been without her? Much "poorer" indeed.
Comments, hmmm, you know I discussed them on my blog, so you also know my feelings. No need to comment, not ever on my blog, but if someone does~ make it a "real" one. No: HAVE A GREAT DAY! ;-0.
I'm also fine with someone totally disagreeing with me, but it depends upon the manner in which they do so-if they are full of ego just looking for personal recognition, well, how boring & ineffectual. I had a couple of people like that when I blogged on AOL but none on the new blog thankfully.
~Mary
When we get involved in writing it is like I have no eyes and nose. And your longer comments always inspire me.
Cheers!
What a very interesting post. We do all come from God, even though some will disagree with this. I believe it is hard for some because of the different colors of people. I also believe we do need a plan for our lives, otherwise we just wander through it and have no purpose. Have a nice weekend.
Dear Joseph your post deeply troubles me. Your kind and caring nature and intellectual engagement are warming but I do not share one part of your world view and it makes your post seem very alien.
This 'God' story.
It is here and now and in the real world that children have the joy of living stripped from them by the ruthless greed of a class of parasites.
Rather than the philosophy of Wordsworth I point you to the works of Percy Shelley.
Religion is the lie that kings use to justify their most extreme actions. The lie of a written truth enables the interpreters of that 'truth' to be the voices of Gods and unquestionable. We are tricked to living for the lie of a second life as we have all pleasure in existence stripped from us whilst our tormentors dance in the palaces we have made.
It is not divinity we need but humanity. No book, organisation, or government should be placed higher than a human life.
Religion is a force for division and harm and I regret deeply to find the poison of the god story corrupting a fine mind like yours.
Dear Joseph your post deeply troubles me. Your kind and caring nature and intellectual engagement are warming but I do not share one part of your world view and it makes your post seem very alien.
This 'God' story.
It is here and now and in the real world that children have the joy of living stripped from them by the ruthless greed of a class of parasites.
Rather than the philosophy of Wordsworth I point you to the works of Percy Shelley.
Religion is the lie that kings use to justify their most extreme actions. The lie of a written truth enables the interpreters of that 'truth' to be the voices of Gods and unquestionable. We are tricked to living for the lie of a second life as we have all pleasure in existence stripped from us whilst our tormentors dance in the palaces we have made.
It is not divinity we need but humanity. No book, organisation, or government should be placed higher than a human life.
Religion is a force for division and harm and I regret deeply to find the poison of the god story corrupting a fine mind like yours.
Thanks a lot,sir.I'm very much inspired by ur blog.I've understood that I've still a long way to go through in my life.I'm Satheesh Kumar doing my undergraduation in Medicine at Kurnool Medical College,Kurnool,Andhra Pradesh.I think I need guidance from great people like u in my life so as to make it worthy.I wud like to follow ur blog.And I wud like to invite you to view my blog if possible.Happy Blogging.
Regards.
Hi Richie:)
First of all let me thank your for your comment in my post. Your thinking is quite revolutionary.
While you are singing praises for Shelly, it is a well known fact that PB Shelly was an Atheist and therefore he was just swimming against the current to gain popularity. No doubt Shelly was a great poet but he had flaws in his thinking about God and religion.
I am aware there are atheists in this world.They have a right to think what they want. I have no objections.
All that I can say is that I loved reading your comment which is unusual and out of the ordinary. You spoke your mind well. Many thanks.
Have a loveley day Richie:)
Joseph
Sorry sir,I've forgot to leave my blog address.The following is the link
http://msatheeshkumar.wordpress.com
I'm not using Google blogger now.Shifted to wordpress.com
Regards
Looking at your post about time, death, life all in one, I was thinking this myself.
I often wonder seeing the people walk by, cars running away, if we are all being controlled by a remote. Like being programmed to do this particular thing at this second. Everybody is so seriously doing their works, living their life. What could be going through their mind? Little girls, walking dressed in pretty clothes talking to them seriously; I again wonder what’s going on in their mind? Why are we here, doing what we are doing? Can everybody get lucky enough to realize his or her true worth? I don’t know. But life still goes on and on. Gets up at the sound of an alarm, wakes up others, makes tea, cook, eat every day it’s the same story. No change. Only it SEEMS to be there is no change. In reality, years go by in a flash. The small baby I used to carry in my hand is now trying to lift me up and walk! Proving to me how big he is now! But I didn’t see any of these changes happening. Ten years goes like ten days.
Once after talking about this way too fast life, we both decided why don’t we travel around and make worth of our time. We thought it wont be too hard to make a detour to some other countries on our way to India every year. That took us to Italy.
We learned a good lesson that, to travel around the world, first we need to learn how to live with just
Backpacks. Then we thought, its better to see our own country first then think about outside.
Does traveling make the life worth living? the question is still there. We are still looking for answers..
Thanks a lot for dropping in my blog sir.
Hi sir!
Hru? I was away from blogging for a while...And I am really happy to read such a wonderful, inspiring post after a long time.I perfectly agree with you...I was more impressed when I read that it was your comment made to your fellow blogger. GREAT! REALLY GREAT!
That shows how much you value reading posts. BTW I forgot to mention about the photos, they are wonderful. Especially the second one was *awesome*
Keep inspiring bloggers with your wonderful comment sir.
Have a great weekend!
Cheers!
Hi Joseph,
I remember this thoughtful post on managing our time and evaluating our aims in life so we can look back and see our sojourn here made a difference and the world is left better and more fruitful for our being born. That reminds me of the words of Jesus that we are to bear fruit, much fruit. The power of influence we each have is a remarkable thing, we can bless or we can harm. Your comments encouraging us to not lose sight of this, are at the very heart of what Christ taught and most all legitimate religions of the world. Of course I think God has woven these realities in all humans and we recognize good through our conscience.
I believe that Jesus is the comprehensible form of these truths and demonstrated goodness in its clearest and most comprehensive form.
I was interested in the comments of Richie, and with little understanding of his frame of reference, it surprised me to hear him say these concepts and ideas seem alien. It may be that he didn’t necessarily mean the values you spoke of but rather he meant those, who in the name of religion, corrupt and distort in order to oppress. This of course is a great evil and I would agree with him in that regard. But this is, of course, not the Spirit of Christ who came to set the captives free, lift the downcast, care for the orphans and widows, preach liberating truth to the poor, work for justice for all mankind, and ease the suffering in the world and urge, exhort, and move in our hearts to see these values brought to reality whether we are ever so poor or have great riches. Gandhi showed the world what non violence can accomplish: Mother Teresa showed the world what compassion can accomplish, and your post encourages us to see what we as individuals can accomplish and not become hardened and overlook everyday opportunities to change the world for good. It’s been said we are all part angel and part beast, true religion begs us to eat angel food and starve the beast. No doubt the steams of Christianity become polluted, and I have contributed my share to their despoilment, but I always look to the headwaters for there it is pure and undefiled.
God bless,
Fred
Hi! Thanks for yet another amazing post:)Your posts are actually a journey thru new lands:)
I guess that the important point is to know if we want to make "this life useful , profitable, enjoyable, interesting and noteworthy", as you wrote, Joseph, for ourselves or for others. Or both.
People as Mother Teresa (cited by FrankandMary) or Bill Gates (cited by yourself) succeed to make their life both useful for others and for themselves. Knowing that in the case of Mother Teresa, it is a soul enrichment, in Bill's case it's a material and personal one.
What both of them can do with it ?
Having a richer soul, gives Mother Teresa the opportunity to share more and more goodness all around her, having more money allows Gate to help people around him (I'm not sure it's his speciallity, but I don't know really Gates's life).
At our level, I think the most of us do our best with our abilities. Providing love around us, to our family, friends. Do we do our best ? Certainly not. We're just human. At some times, we forget the big lines, ans we act daily, individually, selfishly. So often, indeed. We're just Human, once more. God shows us the way to resist to the stream of day to day life, and to avoid our selfish attitude. But more than often, we're deaf to God's voice because of the sound of the stream. We're carried away, and we don't resist unconsciously or not.We try sometimes, but we forget often to keep the right road.
Each of us act differently.
And at our level, I believe we live a small foot print. It concern our family, relatives, friends, acquaintances, and even inknown people, as when you give a time or some money, to someone, Joseph, like you sais you did in some of your previous posts. Nos a large footprint as those who have means, but a footprint at the size of our feet.
Have a nice Sunday, Joseph
It is interesting to read the religion's views too:) I am a Christian,but i dont believe in the 'forcible' conversion in the name of christianity,by offering the people,better living standards,etc etc.I feel,as Jesus said,spread the word to all. But after hearing the word,let them choose.Not with the offerings of a good house,schools or education.But if the word means anything to the people who hear them,they will come forward.Many time people becomes christians,in the remote areas ,among poor people,facinated by the good things they see along with the new religion.
I feel what Mother Theressa did was wonderful.She did her works and people went to her fascinated by her works.Its purely selfless act,which would make others wonder why she did all that and thats how i feel one should think,whether to accept a certain religion or not.Jesus did not promise any betterment of worldy life to those who accepts him.But what i see is,just the opposite.
ohhhh i guess this an award winning blog space or something for longer comments than the post itself!!
truely amazing..
It's hard to be good all the time. I would even say that it's impossible, but at leat we can try not to be bad all the time.
Hi Joseph ~~ Thank you for sharing this post with us and for the great photos. I particularly liked the
second one, of the beautiful old tree with the couple sitting under it. What is the building?
Thank you for your comments on my blog and we certainly had a lovely afternoon ~ three friends together
although there used to be four of us before our friend died.
Take care. Kind regards, Merle.
Joseph, your comments always mean so much to me, thank you for taking the time to stop by and to "mingle" in my world.. it is always a treat to be a part of your TRULY IMAGINATIVE & VERY SPECIAL part of the globe! xo, monica :)
I love this sign. What else do we need to know? Thanks for sharing that.
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