Simple-Minded Living!

Can it really be that simple? Do we really choose the life we live? Do we decide what kind of universe we live in? Do we decide what our place in it is, and what our life ultimately means?

Yes, I think so. We get to decide for ourselves what kind of universe we live in. For instance, we can decide that the universe is a cold, empty, ever-expanding immensity. Or we can decide that the universe has heart, soul, love and meaning embedded in it.

We can also choose none of the above, or I suppose we can choose not to choose.

But funny as it sounds, this big-time decision is ours. No one can choose for us. We can listen to the advice from others, we can search the great books, we can measure and figure and count, we can observe, we can retreat, we can noodle and ruminate.

We can delay our decision. We can spend a life dithering. A lifetime of dithering is a choice too. It sort of sounds ridiculous. Can it all really be up to us? Yes. As Philip Dick once put it, "You are the authority."

Yes, that's a little bit scary. And kind of deflating. The answer isn't out there, lightening isn't gonna strike, the clouds aren't gonna part and the voice of god isn't gonna zap us upside the head. Nope. If there is a voice, it turns out it's ours. Our own voice, speaking it's own truth, as we decide to tell it.