Meaning

I wrote this a while ago on Facebook for a few friends. I figured I might as well post it up here as well.

Life does have meaning.
I know that sometimes it is hard to see it, and sometimes it is harder still to know that you do, but it does.
There is meaning in the way that branches curve against the sky, in the way that the sunset sometimes lights up the horizon in a last burst of color before dropping down, in the way that sometimes it doesn't. There is meaning in a child's laughter and a grandmother's tears.
There is meaning in the way that a dog will sometimes look up at you with such a look of devotion... and immediately afterward eat your favorite pair of slippers.
There is meaning in the knowledge of friendship and in the possibility of friendship.
Life has meaning.
People might read this and completely get what I mean.
People might read this and not understand it at all.
And you know what? There's meaning in that, as well.
The quest to find meaning in the world is everywhere in history and myth - it's a common human striving.
Some people have to find meaning on their own, and some people have to be shown it, but it is for everyone.
Usually this quest for meaning takes the whole of your lifetime, and too many people are brought low by hopelessness long before they ever find it.
Do not be brought low by hopelessness.
Your life is your own.
Your life is what you make of it.
The human life span is something like seventy years and it is a waste, a waste, in not appreciating that length. Too many people are influenced by the romanticism of suicide, the lure of helplessness and hopelessness, and they splinter those seventy years into fragments.
And I have no sympathy for them.
There is always hope if you are willing to take it.
The possibility for failure lies only in your willingness to quit.

So don't give up.
Find your own meaning in the feeling of a friend's hand in your own, the smell of the air after it rains, the bright colors of the sunsets and sunrises in your life. When it seems as though everyone is trying to shape you into a mold, think about hope and perseverance and the bright future that lays ahead of you if you are willing to make it.
The future is never set in stone, and you are never what others tell you that you are.
You are what you make of yourself.
The responsibilities, the joys and the sorrows, the highs and the lows, the hope and the moments when it seems that all hope is gone, the friends, the lovers, and the mentors wait for you, at a point somewhere up ahead in your life. All you have to do is reach out and take them.

Chik fil a: My sentiments

Alright.

My sentiments on the Chik-fil-A debacle:

-Everyone. Calm the HELL down.

-Personally, I wish that everyone liked each other, and respected each other's views. While I'm at it, I'd also like a pony and Venezuela.

-That said, that would be really boring. You get the most interesting things from the edge of conflict. The desire of something that's impossible can make possible the improbable.

-The main problem with both sides of this issue is that we don't want to be tolerant anymore; we want to be *right*. And we want the other side to admit it. And maybe grovel for a few years. It's the human condition to be an overbearing jerk.

-The idea of free speech is being dramatically overplayed here. While I have the freedom to say one thing, everyone else has that same freedom to disagree with me publically. The line is drawn where we start actually becoming a menace to society: like if I yelled "Fire!" in a theater. Because that creates more conflict. Don't bitch about free speech and then turn around and tell me that I can't say what *I* think, because that isn't how the world works. It's at such a point of conflict right now that it's essentially a non-issue, because it feels like everyone this thing has the same opinion on it. And I'm pretty sure that opinion is "I do what I want."

-I believe in gay marriage. I believe in free speech. I believe in a lot of things. I also believe that my moral stance has NOTHING to do with what I use my wallet for. I am a college student. I work so that I can afford school. If the food that I eat happens to come from somewhere that is run by a person whose opinion doesn't align with mine, I. Don't. Care. If that makes me a hypocrite, then so be it, but I am not at the point in my life where I can afford to care where my 5 dollars are going.

-That said, I've actually never heard of chik fil a before this past two weeks. Every time you protest something, you run the risk of giving it the "underdog image". And people love the idea of championing the underdog.

-But really, my main point is:

Everyone. Calm the Hell Down.

-I welcome responsible comments and discussion.

My definition of responsible is subject to the cruel whims of whichever book I happen to be reading at the time, but feel free to play the lottery and tell me why I'm wrong. Or right.