Apart From Reality

Following in the same vein as the last post, this one is also about reality and where I am at with that in this stage of my life. I firmly believe that if 2020 and 2021 were not the absolute shit shows they have been, I very likely would not have come to the conclusions I have. I don't even know if I would have been put in a position to study, learn about or care about these things. But, here we are. 

I have been trying to figure out how to best articulate my current thoughts on reality. It's pretty nuanced and based on a whole lot of different ideas. I guess it all began to fall apart when I finally let go of living life through the lens of Christianity. That in itself was a tough pill to swallow and it only led me down a deeper rabbit hole as I work to make sense of everything to the best of my ability.

I feel removed from reality in a way. Not like an out of body experience or anything like that, but I feel like I am seeing the bigger picture in ways I never have before. I am not so easily caught up in the rat race. I am able to embrace life as a journey and not take things quite so seriously. Because, I have come to realize that nothing truly matters the way it is portrayed. Not in the abstract, anyway. Things like status or wealth or even health. You get what you get with this life. And maybe there is something after this life and maybe there's not. I am more inclined to think there's not, based on the complete lack of actual evidence. In the end, your credit score is bullshit. Your salary is whatever. 

I feel like I can see why religions were created and I do believe that they were very necessary in the emotional evolution of our species. It is true that the biggest plight of a human's life is that we are doomed to know we are going to die and there is nothing we can do about that. Religion was based on the stories people came up with to try and explain and understand the world they were living in. They had no way to comprehend the reasons they experienced things in nature so they created something to fill those gaps. You can see why something like that would be necessary to create the earliest civilizations. There had to be a reason for people to follow the rules and humanity had to create some form of morality. And the world these people lived in was a brutal one. That continued to be the case for thousands of years. There were so many things waiting around every corner to kill you, it's no wonder they had to come up with something to act as a source of comfort. 

I believe religions had their place in establishing some necessary aspects for early civilizations of humans. You can watch as it has become less and less necessary over time though, at least for certain sectors of the population. Those who are open to growth and maturity and hoping to see humans continue to emotionally evolve over time. The idea or morality is not absolute like many religious doctrines declare it is. Morality should (and does) shift based on knowledge and understanding of what does the least amount of harm. That's it. 

Where I am at right now, is a place where I realize I am living in a time of human strife and suffering as our species attempts to move into the next evolutionary phase, but that I won't live to see that, most likely. I am at a place where I realize aside from my objective physical reality that consists of everything I can perceive and experience with my senses, everything else that exists is just something some people made up and a certain group agreed upon. None of it is actually real. I am at a point where I see that my value and life purpose are only predicated on the value and purpose I give my life. I choose to see that as freedom and not something to bemoan. 

I choose not to worry about all the things society tells me are important and what religions declare to be right and wrong. I decide what is real. I decide what is important. Reality is subjective and so is morality.