ExploreTruth.com

Ever since I’ve taken on the Explore Truth Challenge, I’ve been faced by two stark realizations. Firstly, the grandness of the quest, and secondly, the grandness of my laziness. I mean, its not like I’ve just started contemplating the great existential questions in life. This has been a roller coaster of a quest throughout my life, an on and off sort of relationship. Within the past 3 years I have taken on a more unique and focused path of understanding, at the core, what Truth is in my life. I believe everyone has in varying degrees, thought about the questions I am about to touch on(or at least I hope). Maybe you’ve, even if for but a fleeting moment, glanced upward at a nights sky that was bursting at the brim with stars, and you paused for a moment and felt the questions. For some of us, these questions scarcely surface throughout our lives, for others, they are like splinters in the brain. In times past, I’ve been surprised when the questions descend from the sky like bolt s of lightening. Awakened like a slap in the face, after a long and intoxicating night. Directed and pointed, they jolt me to squarely confront my existence. Among the zillions of floating particles we call planets/stars, why the heck are we the only speck of dust, known to man, to be occupied with life?? Anyway…however central we feel these type of questions to be, there appears to be a competing force within the life. A force that attempts to make any deep contemplation about the meaning of life, or whether or not there is a God, for instance, a challenge. And it is truly ironic. Very ironic.

Whether or not overtly stated, we all can agree that these questions have the greatest ramifications, and determine the foundation on which we formulate the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd stories of lives. Much of what we do, say, and how we live, is influenced by our world view and outlook on the puporse and meaning of life, both generally and individually.

So why is there such a disproportionate amount of time and energy openly considering these ultimate questions?. Its like we’ve collectively and subconsciously agreed that these “questions” be placed in the box labeled “taboo.” As if they pose some immediate threat or intrusion to the way we live our life. Maybe thoughtful introspection of life and it’s meaning can be inconvenient. Or maybe its to controversial. WE wish to avoid rocking the boat, as it drifts merrily down the stream called life. So we pack these questions right next to the other delegated issues: Politics, religion, spirituality, and God. Deep thought about what central to life its self, the very things that influence our lives the most , become relegated to the fringe of priority. ‘Welcome to twilight zone’, I believe should be the mantra of our day. Al Gore calls it , in a related phenomenon, the death of reason, and others have wondered if a “new dark age” is approaching. A time, where majoring in the minors before we die, is what we call life. I want to live in this taboo zone, even with the acute and frustrating realization that the answers aren’t screamingly obvious. My hopes are not ones of tackling every million dollar question, with the ambitious goal of discovering and solidifying concrete answers, and being back in time to receive my noble prize. These things have plagued mankind from the beginning of time. However there are world views that have giving remarkable clarity to what is at stake in our world, and in this life. So with the immensity of this feat looming, but the clear understanding that many have been examining life on its deepest levels before me and continue to do so. I decide and encourage others to join the effort to wake up and think. I believe that in todays paradoxical climate, and inversely related values, of what we hold dear often times actually being attended to least, that the decision to simply begin ones journey to exploring truth, can be equally, if not more important than the destination.

The irony continues.

Never have we had more information at our finger tips, via the internet and many other mediums. Never have we had so many tools at our disposal to assist us in mans greatest need to know! To know the answers to the deepest and most urgent of all questions. Never have we had such a high and realistic probability of the complete and utter annihilation as a result of nuclear ooops or the global warming crisis. And this is not fictions anymore, or conjecture. Just turn on your T.V, pick up a scientific journal, and listen in to the conversations of leaders around the globe. But, for some reason this urgency, this desire seems for many(including myself at times) to pale in comparison to that game on TV, the newest blood spiller at the box office, or the job that we honestly are just tolerating. And in so many ways the destination(discovering truth for ourselves in the many areas of our lives) is a goal worth pursuing. These questions are, for me, the needles in the haystack, that we must find. The million dollar needles. The needles that will sow all the lose ends of our lives together, and give one dignity. So…I plunge head first in this haystack, to uncover the truth. The Truth that can begin to mend the ironic, inconsistent, and gaping holes in my tattered fabric of an existence. To quote Socrates, “An unexamined life, is not a life worth living”. What do you think?