Everything Happens For A Reason

Everything happens for a reason - so they say. Thousands, maybe millions or possibly even billions superstitiously believe that, which they allow to be a leading force in their meaningless lives.

Yes, you heard me right, and before we proceed I encourage you to brace yourself for an adventure into the world of no uneasiness about hurting others’ fragile feelings, though hurting is not my intention.

I desire that we all thrive. Nonetheless, many blindly trust their well-being to the hands of parents, professors, doctors, spouses, gurus, friends, kings or presidents.

I was on a city bus the other day; the road we were on was closed due to a fire in one of the buildings, and the bus had to stop indefinitely. A passenger demanded instructions from the driver as to what her next actions should be, insisting that it was the driver’s responsibility to make such decisions for the passengers. “Grab your life in your own hands, turn your brain on, get your ass off the seat and keep on moving in accordance with your mission,” I might have said if I were the driver.

And no, we don’t stop there; we voluntarily and unconditionally give up control over our own lives and hand it over to the mysterious power of ‘everything happens for a reason’ with statements like: “I am where in life I was meant to be; now looking back, it all makes sense why it has unfolded thus; I had to learn from the lessons presented.”

It might make sense to some, but a possibly a more intelligent attitude is that it could be happening for a reason, but it doesn’t dismiss us from being intellectually, spiritually, morally and physically alive, utterly responsible for our behavior and accountable for our failures. You might have had lessons to learn along the path, and yet I dare say you have not learned a damn thing. I cordially invite you to join me in my way of having fun. Let’s entertain this idea. Shall we?

Laziness is a fatally poisonous vice of human nature, so it seems. There was a choice that you, a conscious human being, could have made last evening: eat the pie or gift your body with an activity. You must be overweight for a reason, and I highly doubt it is because a higher power is preparing you for an acting role in a Hollywood blockbuster. Yes, there must be reasons why you are miserable in your marriage and fake a smile to mislead others as well as yourself, and one of the reasons for that could be your unwillingness to explore the unknown solitude everyone is so frightened of and discover inspirational comfort in the brilliance of your own company--to walk through life taking every step with unyielding integrity of your confident character.

But no, instead you befriend imaginary but so-convenient vulnerability and insecurity and utilize their injurious characteristics. Are there reasons for the human species to be giving up on their dreams and giving in to the slavery of fear, fear of their own shadow, followed by innumerable disgraceful excuses? I heard myself justify such treacherous behavior many times in the past. No, it was never a refusal to fearlessly and devotedly live up to one’s dreams; failures were results of never having been introduced to and shown how to navigate one's own brilliance.

Yes, there must be numerous reasons for our success in mastering mediocrity; for example, persuading ourselves and all around us in our ordinariness vs. being the best we are every step of our meant-to-be-exhilarating journey:”Yes, I am willing to confirm that I am a worthless piece of trash; just please don’t pull me out of my comfort zone and inspire me to dream!!”

Look around you and peek within and you will easily determine which choices we, the world's humanity, have been making. We seem to be intellectually, spiritually, morally and physically damaged, possibly even beyond repair. And my speculations are that much of that is due to a rather simple reason: laziness. It is not fear; it is not lack of confidence or the invented physical, intellectual, geographical, or any other deprivations, or “they” who build boundaries and create obstacles on our way. Yes, “they” might be leading us in directions of their preference but “they” don’t hold a gun to our head ordering us to opine on their judgment and not ours. No, there was virtually no chance of escaping from Nazi camps and yes, people had to obediently enter gas chambers, but those people had a choice of staying informed and alert and leaving Germany when learning about alarming developments.

No, it is none of the above, but instead I say it is simple laziness and we find ourselves where we are at given times because our conscious decisions have led us there. I repeat myself for those who were day dreaming: conscious decisions and not angels gently leading us by the hand. Uncountable years of steady breeding, support and the practice of ignorance and mediocrity by an unequivocal majority must have been happening for a reason. And that reason, or rather one of them, could be a refusal to unwaveringly tap into the inexhaustible treasures we are.

Can anyone not see that it is just hard work and we are too lazy to simply do it--not afraid to fail, as a lot swear, but simply too lazy to stand up for the task? Yes, almost all of us work forty hours a week. We often do overtime; many of us are diligent and praised for being employees of a given month; many become widely-known chief executive officers; some start their shifts at 3 a.m.; many make sacrifices for ventures they represent. But may I ask everyone a question: how many years, months, weeks, days or at least hours do we devote to exploring, discovering and living up to our dreams instead of settling for the tolerable jobs of our disgraceful choice, which suck our brainpower out, numb our creative force, feed our stomach and starve our soul?

Your brain is off at the moment; you are leisurely reading thoughts my faculties generated, but how much time have you devoted to the exploration of your inner self, of who you are, what your passions are, what fruit your talents can bear today? How much time, I ask? Though the following point is unquestionably arguable and requires further rumination, at this time of my understanding, I tend to insist that each human is empowered with choice.

We have all heard inspiring real stories of individuals who somehow managed to rubble through conformity and escape life imprisonment from the society of zombies who follow precise instructions and look to others to lead them, be it parents, professors, spouses, politicians or ‘everything happens for a reason.’ Often such persons found themselves with virtually no choices available to them, and in most desperate life situations. Some cases originate in developed, third-world or impoverished countries. Those persons have brilliance about them; they express purity of belief, sincerity, passion, and unyielding integrity. Through their hard work and an uncompromising set of values they develop incorruptible immunity from intellectual, spiritual, moral and physical abuse. When they make a mistake, they don’t excuse it with ‘everything happens for a reason’; they answer for it, take it to their heart, learn from it, apply it to their chest of knowledge and never repeat it again. I somehow have no doubt that if an invalid can participate in the Olympic Games, then something inspirational and powerful can be born in you.

I hear God believers on every corner of the world yelling out about their devotion to Him. I dare you to quit discrediting His excellent work, respect His infinite generosity and begin exploring talents he has unconditionally inspired in you.

What is love? You claim you love God and at the same time you impudently denounce his divine creativity by doubting and keeping dormant the strength of character, mind, soul and body He has graciously gifted us all with. All! Do you hear? There is not a person in this world, neither there has been or will ever be that is not a genius. You claim you admire His perfection of creation and yet you dare to deny your own when He has presented you with everything you need to lead an overwhelmingly rewarding life, bearing fruit which humanity will feast on while enjoying eternal intellectual, spiritual, moral and physical prosperity.

Allow me to tell you about Kristine, whom I went to school with. The girl has a talent for singing; she is now a realtor. Who is Anna? She is a financier, selling greed and fear. What mercy or respect could I ever ask of God who has inspired brilliance in me and put no limits on my growth capabilities? How arrogant would it be of me to continue complaining and demanding that He step in and do the job for me when I already have all the necessary skills? How can you claim that you love God or expect Him to feel love for you when you have chosen to drive a bus for your profession or being an accountant or a physician who doesn’t have time or desire to seek the root of an illness, and instead prescribes an operation? Or you're a stock broker, or a senator, or a sultan? I refuse your excuses. I am exhausted from living in the world of mediocrity when humanity represents excellence.

If only we would not suffer death at the moment of our individual birth. Born unconditionally free, we are instantly shackled by the boundaries of a country, language, history, religion, political system, ethnicity, fears, memories, mortal offenses, limitations, prejudices, hatred and so on. Once you take your first breath, you are lost to yourself. For many it is forever; good luck finding yourself after all the inhumane experiences and permanent damage your body, spirit and mind undergo during early development in the household, at school and on the streets.

I would like to pay some of the deserved but not justly-given attention to selfless creatures who claim that they will jump in front of a bus or a bullet to sacrifice their own lives to save those of their beloved children. On the other side, I speak of those who teach us that laziness is a vice, and yet set an example for us or guide us into jobs that supply us with paychecks but sedate our creativity and suspend our dreams until after retirement, insisting that this is a normal and inescapable set of things.

There are those who praise and demand honesty from us an at the same time shamelessly lie about Santa Claus to us, making up a myth that children do not have highly intelligent minds starving for intense intellectual engagement, challenge, inspiration and growth, but instead have shallow brains requiring incessant entertainment that inspires stagnation, if not regression. They thus keep our development under control, which suits the system that breeds robots that will later follow precise instructions and slaughter people without asking questions, while hiding behind patriotism. By the way, it seems to me that laziness breeds not only fear and insecurity but also patriotism, nationalism, revolution and pride, leading to animalistic arrogance and viciousness.

At times the hypocrisy I see makes me feel sick to my stomach and I experience an urge to vomit. I feel disdain for those who seek advice on which ring to wear with a particular skirt and whether their date is handsome, funny and smart, but who don’t know or understand themselves. They fantasize they will miraculously understand children and their essential needs and blindly insist they will live in peace with their spouses, when they can never find peace in their own mind. They never cease persuading themselves that being in intellectual, spiritual and physical agony is a norm. They cheer for popular wars knowing little about history; they have no desire to understand what a human being represents--our species’ omnipotence and its significance, fundamentals of how to raise a child and what an accountable task that is. They may uncontrollably weep seeing a puppy abused, but do not allow news about ferocious murders in their name, paid for with their money, enter their consumed-by-consumerism brain cells. But they somehow conclude that they are fit to have a spouse and children.

“What can I do?”

“Not much unless we change the system!”

“Good luck with that!”

“If you knew there were cancerous flaws in the system that severely injure each human being’s life, why did you go with an option of bringing a vulnerable child into a system that will destroy or at least irreparably damage his intellect, spirit and body, and there is nothing you will be able or willing to do about it, just like your parents failed to resist the vicious system and forbid it to manufacture an intellectual and moral cripple out of you? Could there be a chance of you not knowing? Impossible! You knew!”

“It is okay; there is no need to get this upset; everything happens for a reason”

It might be meant to be, but it is not happening. Infinity has inspired us with unlimited force, intellect, wisdom, strength, imagination, will, desire, passion. Do you ever hypothesize that it might celebrate a little initiative from us, not having then to decide on every nuance on our behalf, when we are in possession of every skill we need to prosper?

You keep repeating that we must continue breeding, otherwise humanity will extinct itself. It sounds as though you are concerned about humankind, yet you entertain yourselves to death, insist that humanity is worthless, helpless, and cannot be changed, and do virtually nothing to push evolution forward. You contribute to industries that keep us in the stagnation mode, refuse to challenge your faculties, deplete resources without replenishing them, destroy your surroundings, and handicap your own children in their daily lives. Contradictions are everywhere we look. It is all a big lie. We must do our utmost to excel in honesty and integrity, and I am afraid ‘everything happens for a reason’ cannot and will not show us the way there.

Any aspect of human existence as we know it seems like one big despicable lie that has been kept alive by generation upon generation: politics, religion, love, war, medicine, economy, education, relations between lovers, parents and children, siblings, friends, business associates, companies, sports teams, tribes, nations, cultures and countries. Have I left anything out? I am sure I have. We have grown out of proportion, are disconnected and cannot see our own tail. We despise and oppose the dysfunctional system we find ourselves trapped in, and yet directly participate in it allowing it to continue to thrive, repeating like parrots that we cannot change the world, and the party goes on. Who will answer for our crucial failures and misjudgments, our children? Just like we are paying for our parents’ bet on ignorance?

And the cycle continues. Of course the world is not going to change; but no, I disagree with you that the world cannot change. It is not just that you do nothing to change it--you are also perpetuating the masquerade by completing its tasks, meeting its deadlines and producing necessary-for-its-survival material, constantly creating obstacles to change. Stop! Please do! Please turn the brain on! Analyze, observe, explore and seek the roots of our ailments, the causes and effects of our minor and major individual decisions and their significance. But first you will need to struggle to understand what ‘roots of our ailments’ means, and 'the causes and effects of our minor and major individual decisions and their significance.' It is crucial that you do this for you, your children, humanity and possibly something beyond everything known to us. Nothing happens for a reason! You are the captain of your own life. Please take control and navigate it towards brilliance. I will see you there!

“Be the change you want to see in the world” -- Ghandi