Death & Philosophy; An Awakening

    I saw a dead man in an ambulance today. How can I translate that in such a way that everyone can understand? Sure, you’ve seen plenty of people die in movies, but a part of you always knows that it’s not real, but when all that’s separating you from death is a plate of glass, when you see it happening for real, it’s completely different. It affects you, changes you even. Even if it’s just the smallest change, it happens. For a moment, you’re not the same person.

    Death is everywhere, but in a small town like ours, in families such as ours, we hardly see it at its worst. When death strikes a family, and actually rattles it, that’s when we find out what we *truly* believe. Or maybe what we don’t believe or can’t believe in any more. In my Philosophy book, the author talks about why he named it “Will the Center Hold?” Long ago, there were these toys called dizzy disks, much like what we call a merry-go-round. In the center, it spins the least, and when it goes slowly you could even stand up on it. However, if the dizzy disk spins faster, you would most likely fall off. Even if you were sitting in the middle, you would slide to the edge and possibly still fly off the toy.

    The author compares this to our lives and our beliefs. When you’ve had an easy life, you tend to think your beliefs are well grounded, but as soon as you face something hard in life, as soon as your life has been shaken and starts spinning out of control, you realize that you don’t know what you believe any more and you go flying off into the darkness.

    Now I know this sounds dark and depressing, but this is only how philosophical thinking begins in most people. Is it really so odd to believe that what I see as blue, *might* not be the same as what you see as blue? There’s no way to prove it either way. Is it really so odd to believe that this world *might* be all a dream? Or *maybe* it’s something like the Matrix. *Maybe* this is all an illusion and the laws of physics and gravity only apply because we *believe* it’s so.

     As for my own beliefs, I’ll save that for later on when everything I say isn’t looked at with questioning eyes. If you’re REALLY curious and just can’t wait, let me know. Shoot me a message about whatever topic you want to know about. Even if there’s just a topic you’d like me to cover, let me know, I’d be more than happy to oblige.

                            Until next time,                        

                                                     -C