Values

“Modernity has given us a lot of comforts and conveniences, but it has also unleashed a torrent of stimuli competing for our attention. To live a truly flourishing life amidst this cacophony of distractions, mastering your attention is key. At the end of your life, who you’ve become, what you’ve learned and accomplished, and who’s there at the end with you will be the sum total of what you chose to pay attention to each year, day, and hour of your life.” –Brett McKay

What separates man from beast or any other common animal? What specifically is the elusive entity that makes us human? One would presume almost instantaneously our intellect, our capacity for spatial reasoning, and our self-awareness is the answer to these questions.

What good however, is any of that if man is still subject unto, no, enslaved by their base instincts? Are we not little better, if not the same as the other animals if we are governed by our instincts then? I state this not as some sort of religious zealot preaching for sinners to abstain from things deemed unholy, but as an eternal student seeking a deeper meaning in a meaningless unforgiving world.

I believe what allows us to transcend our animal nature and to live life truly as a person is our ability to define our values and to live by them. To live by this invisible code of honor, not written in any physical parchment, but on the fibers of our souls is to live a life well worth living; a wholesome and fulfilling one. Religion is but one way humanity has attempted to guide itself along this route. Though I believe it is folly as values are essentially forced on a person (mainly due to their strict tenets, rituals, and societal implications for failure to abide by its precepts) through religion instead of the individual person developing their values themselves.

Troubling issues in the course of the entire human existence in my opinion is the failure of individuals to understand who they are, what their values are, and not living up to their values. It is easy to state you value things like love and honor; yet if you compromise on them incessantly, they effectively lose what has made them valuable. Sacrifice is a large part of what defines values, as it states you value something more than the other, giving it its worth. Constantly compromising on who you are as a person or letting others dictate how you should be leads to you becoming a husk roaming the world, another member of the ever-growing legion of the living dead.

There are several components that define the person we are; in addition to that, situations also typically have us put on different masks and facades (i.e. acting differently when with family than when with friends).

Of course everyone defines their own path, just as they define their own values and these opinions of mine are completely negligible if one chooses to believe so.