Try To Make Someone Smile

I am not what anyone would call a religious man. Sure there have been times in my life when prayer seemed like a good idea and times when I would gladly have made a deal with the devil.

For a number of years I went to church on a regular basis, listened to the sermons and afterwards I would mill around talking to the other parishioners drinking that horrible church coffee. I did some odd jobs around the church and was in a Christmas play once. That didn’t mean that I believed any stronger then than I had in the past, I just needed the sense of belonging at that time in my life. I tell myself that I wanted the kids to have a solid knowledge base so that when they decided that religion was bunk they knew what they were talking about.

Well, as much as anyone can “know” about religion.

Sometimes I envy those who have a very strong belief in a loving God and rewards in the afterlife. When I was working as a mailman, I wore a uniform to work and every day I knew just what clothes I had to put on. Uniforms take that early morning decision making of what to wear away from you and protect you from the wagging tongues about your choice in fashion. It would be wonderful to wake up every morning and KNOW that you had a place reserved for you at the right or left hand of God.

Religion is based on belief and belief is not an iron clad certainty so no one can be sure that they will end up in whatever version of heaven they happen to believe in.

My faith seems to alter almost every time I really start to think about it. Not a lot you understand but enough to keep it fluid. The basic precepts remain the same, be nice to people if I can, try to do the right thing in any given situation, do my best to leave this world just a little better than it was when I arrived. The last one is tough because it is difficult to make even a tiny change. I think I will have to hope that the people I have chosen to surround myself with during my life will have learned something from me that improves them and their world. It is likely that what they learn is what not to do, but that works for me.

I hope that when you read this you are having a good day and try to make someone smile if you can.

Easy

Generally speaking, if something is “easy”, that something just isn’t worth doing. Well, that seems to be the general consensus in our society. If you work hard for a long period of time with multiple failures along the way, then you have somehow succeeded. You’re worn out and near death, but yea…success.

There are of course those that manage to succeed the easy way. I guess the easiest way to succeed is to be born into a wealthy, hard working family who have generations of struggle and success behind them. Then, you can be the ne’re do well that just wants to enjoy the fruits of that labour. Of course this is all speculation because I don’t have first hand experience at being wealthy. There was a chance I could have been born wealthy. I understand that my great or great, great grandfather came from a well to do family that owned a lot of real estate in downtown Toronto. It is possible that one of those great, greats was the one who decided to screw work and start to piss the family fortune away. I guess I was just too little, too late.

 

I have a feeling that the Puritan work ethic was developed to keep the masses in line. I remember reading that societies based on hunting and gathering would work about four to six hours a day. I am assuming that would be the norm if there was an abundance of food to gather and animals to hunt. When we were in Hawaii we found that when the first Europeans arrived at the islands there was a population of about a million people and they were totally self sufficient. Today with all of our labour saving machines and improved farming and production techniques, there are 1.5 million or so people and 95% of food and goods are imported. From talking to the people, they work much longer than four to six hours a day.

 

I don’t know if those figures are accurate, but it seems that in our current political climate we are able to create facts and figures to suit any situation.

 

Anyways, all I really wanted to say is that it is really very easy not to write a daily blog. My life is pretty much the same except that I have a little more time each day to put to more productive uses. Nah, just kidding, I am watching more TV and reading fluffy, mindless drivel. Strangely, I feel that I am letting myself down. I know that no one else needs to have this blog, but I think I do. If nothing else, at the end of a lazy day I can say that I have at least written something. Sometimes I am even proud of what I have written, not often, but sometimes.

Hopefully I will be able to find the time to be a little more productive in the future.