My Job

Talking with my good friend last night about free will, I kind of realized that I have been neglecting my job.

My "job" is to maximize my gratitude and continually recognize the beauty of the world.

How is this related to free will? Well, as you may or may not have read in my post, 'A question of will,' I was exploring the age-old concept of free will: whether we actually have any or not. This subject is also closely linked to the subject of 'ego.'  Our ego will go to great lengths to convince us that we have some kind of free will. It will tell us all kinds of things to convince us how other people also have free will. And the door that this swings open is a dangerous one: The door of blame.

Somehow, we have convinced ourselves beyond a shadow of a doubt that other people have free will and so do we. So, therefore, people can and should be blamed and we can and should feel guilt. But take a few minutes to consider all of the implications of this: Isn't this the root of the world's problems? The country's problems? Our inter-personal problems?

Just food for thought here. I don't have any answers. I am making all this shit up (or regurgitating it) as I go along. Don't believe me. Just think. YOU have all the answers that work for you. But you have to open your mind a bit and be willing to consider these heavy duty things. It's the only way change happens. Right? Who the hell knows...

Bottom line is this- I don't know if we do or don't have any free will. It seems to me that we don't. We are a bundle of cells, floating in a soup of our own environment. Reacting to a given set of circumstances in the best way that we can. If we relax into the idea of having no free will, doesn't it seem that we would be doing ourselves and the world some good?

However, if we do have free will, wouldn't it best to use it for the things that would be useful? So, I declare that the best job for me is to pretend that I can exert some free will. But the important part about this is to direct my pretend free will in the direction that I think is the most beneficial to me and the world. My responsibility is to take the initiative to bring in beauty (by being grateful) and recognize the beauty (by being in in awe) of the world.

I think I have a pretty cool job! I just have to make sure that I show up for it  : /