Life is not a drag race. There is no straight line to the end. Everyone certainly doesn’t start equal. There is also not a guaranteed path to victory if a certain plan is always followed.
(Note I am not speaking of drag race in terms of the sexual connotation. If someone wants to choose to be something else other than what they had no choice over, then I am all for that. I think it is admirable and brave and I commend them. Society is mean and hateful and spiteful and I don’t want to promulgate that and I certainly won’t stand for any slander. If what I believe in free will is true then everyone is just trying to find a way to interface with the world. Some may be born with the set of tools they prefer and some may have to go to the “store” and find a new set that better aligns with ideals and values. I can choose what I consume so why am I not allowed to choose how I identify. What is the world we live in anyway? I am not even sure what I perceive is entirely real to begin with so playing the role of absolute judge seems morally and physically wrong. But I digress.)
I think life is more like a nature trail. Life curves around trees and its uneven. It’s not a rigid concept and it leads to everything and nothing at the same time. It exists in a way that can be organic or it can be manipulated to those who wish to change it. Often you will find the trail leads to nowhere in particular but the journey there still held value and weight. I wouldn’t say it’s a race whenever I walk on a nature trail though I could make it one I suppose. Often I have a semblance of an idea of where I am headed on a nature trail but the end goal is always somewhat blurry. There is no right or wrong way to take in nature, it’s a religious experience in that regard. The world likes to think that there is a stringent, straight way of living. It’s a resolute fact that some values and principles are upheld and the ones that are deemed strange are at the very least looked down upon and some are castigated and admonished. I don’t think that should be so.
I guess it could be akin to comparing a straight line and a spider web. A straight line is rather easy to follow and it gets to the point in which it set out to do. There is little interpretation of this rigid formality and what is and appears to be is just that. A spider web is more abstract and it’s not entirely certain that one single line in its structure will even come to a termination point. Like of maze made of lines, you could possibly follow a single line in this structure and either end up somewhere or nowhere. This structure has utility and but its existence is rather tenuous and it simply at the whims of reality and existence. I know the comparison isn’t exactly one to one but the point is that people are so sure that there is a normal way of going about life and that there cherished ideals are gospel.
I don’t consider myself an iconoclast but I also don’t think that the dogma that pervades society should exist. With humans come culture and customs but I don’t think these things have to be so rigid and non-conforming. My issue is that people are so willing to hold steady to values that they had no part in creating. This doesn’t make them wrong but it does create the impression that many people don’t think enough about existence and meaning behind living. Religion for example is a device that has been used to control the masses for eons now. It’s just considered a mainstay of life now. Like the way grass is green and that water is wet, religion to humans is prevalent and resolute. I challenge the barriers that are put up to ultimately belittle those who disagree and elevate those who join in. I just find it frustrating that a set of beliefs can be paraded as being the true meaning and reason of life when it clearly is just as real as any other religion. How can someone who is Christian look at India and say, “You see, my religion, which is younger, is definitely the right way of doing things. The values I uphold are more correct and anyone else who doesn’t believe this way is wrong.” I know that not all religious people are so unwavering dogmatists but that can’t let me ignore those that are. I think the underlying framework of all religion is similar in that it is humans trying to understand the world that we are seeing and translating that into a reason for living and struggling through life. That’s where the fundamental principles of culture and neighborhood breakdown thought with 7 billion people. Our tribes have become too big for harmonious understanding amongst everyone. Ignoring things such as imperialism and systemic racism and bigotry ( which are terrible but warrant another conversation). If humans wanted to be united and act peacefully I think it would difficult because of the superiority complexes and austerity that is conveyed.