Life is Just What It is
This blog entry will essentially talk about two main points: entitlement and love.
The past few Fridays and Saturdays I've spent, mostly comprised of great and diverse conversations with many different people. Many of which I've only met in law school, which include my blockmates and with one, which I consider to be my current mentor. I've had conversations with my mother as well. As for the latter, I don't think we always arrive at the same conclusions. I guess, parents and children don't always jive.
So back to it. Entitlement. It's a rather abstract concept not usually defined in books with clarity; yet to try to word it exactly in my thoughts - such entitlement includes such of having been bestowed with something, to be privileged in every sense. Sometimes, you never really know how much you have until you're faced with life-changing decisions. At most times, what you have can actually define what you are; what you're born with, you can't really escape. At rarer times, what you can't have, you try so hard to get, to feel as entitled as the person next to you. That seems to be the story all the time.
There are those who are born with some level of privilege - of wealth, status, excellence, kindness, intellect, beauty, among many others. Some have used such privilege to further themselves and get ahead even more. Some have used such privilege to be at par with certain people of the same blood or affiliation. Some have exceeded expectations. Some have chosen to take different paths. Some have chosen to lead happy, peaceful, and humanitarian lives, and try to give back as much as they can to others who are "less privileged." Some try to be an inspiration to younger generations. Some try to simply accept the reality of that privilege, do nothing, and ignore it.
Then, there are those who try so hard to be part of that entitlement. At times they fail, most of the time, they just die trying.
There are many ways to attack such condition. But at the end of the day, the titles don't really matter. Whatever entitlement one has been given, all choices still come down to what is best at the moment. Sometimes people have to wait longer than others to accept such reality and actually do something. There's a price to pay in any privilege but you don't really flaunt it, you just try to make the best of it. At the end of the day, you hope for the best that you will not be trapped in your sense of utopia - the perfect world.
LOVE. This word comes up every day, on any occasion, on any coffee conversation, on TV, on blogs, on practically everything such worldly world can offer. But this concept is rather hazy to me. Too abstract for my own good. Too deep for my own understanding. Too personal to even try to intellectualize (which is a hobby of mine).
But you see, even if love is such an abstract concept, the world revolves around it (and money too). Love caters to all ages - white-collar and blue-collar, rich or poor, literate or uneducated, etc. It's probably the only concept that binds and unites all peoples together. It's the only common concept that any body can actually relate to. I might be an exception since the concept is very much unclear. But as a general rule, love is for everyone. Such barriers of platonic, romantic, agape, filial (and whatever those others are) love just remind us that we have that special need as human beings to connect, care for, and sacrifice for another. It's part of our biological built to love. Hence, we also have that ancilliary right to choose who to love as part of our free will. My new concept of "freedom to love" so to speak.
We all try to search for that person to love. That search can be never ending - leading us to lose our sanity; not realizing that sometimes, these people are right in front of us. We look and search in places too obscure or too proximate. Sometimes, we just have to wait for that right moment. We should "Let It Be" the way The Beatles has envisioned it.
Entitlement. Love. Life. Sometimes, that's how we choose to live. We send off wrong signals for our need to be happy ("our road to happiness") - and to take pleasures that transcend what most of us are even capable of handling. But life is really what it is. It's fair enough for us to persist in. It's fair enough that we are part of it. Have courage for it!
The past few Fridays and Saturdays I've spent, mostly comprised of great and diverse conversations with many different people. Many of which I've only met in law school, which include my blockmates and with one, which I consider to be my current mentor. I've had conversations with my mother as well. As for the latter, I don't think we always arrive at the same conclusions. I guess, parents and children don't always jive.
So back to it. Entitlement. It's a rather abstract concept not usually defined in books with clarity; yet to try to word it exactly in my thoughts - such entitlement includes such of having been bestowed with something, to be privileged in every sense. Sometimes, you never really know how much you have until you're faced with life-changing decisions. At most times, what you have can actually define what you are; what you're born with, you can't really escape. At rarer times, what you can't have, you try so hard to get, to feel as entitled as the person next to you. That seems to be the story all the time.
There are those who are born with some level of privilege - of wealth, status, excellence, kindness, intellect, beauty, among many others. Some have used such privilege to further themselves and get ahead even more. Some have used such privilege to be at par with certain people of the same blood or affiliation. Some have exceeded expectations. Some have chosen to take different paths. Some have chosen to lead happy, peaceful, and humanitarian lives, and try to give back as much as they can to others who are "less privileged." Some try to be an inspiration to younger generations. Some try to simply accept the reality of that privilege, do nothing, and ignore it.
Then, there are those who try so hard to be part of that entitlement. At times they fail, most of the time, they just die trying.
There are many ways to attack such condition. But at the end of the day, the titles don't really matter. Whatever entitlement one has been given, all choices still come down to what is best at the moment. Sometimes people have to wait longer than others to accept such reality and actually do something. There's a price to pay in any privilege but you don't really flaunt it, you just try to make the best of it. At the end of the day, you hope for the best that you will not be trapped in your sense of utopia - the perfect world.
LOVE. This word comes up every day, on any occasion, on any coffee conversation, on TV, on blogs, on practically everything such worldly world can offer. But this concept is rather hazy to me. Too abstract for my own good. Too deep for my own understanding. Too personal to even try to intellectualize (which is a hobby of mine).
But you see, even if love is such an abstract concept, the world revolves around it (and money too). Love caters to all ages - white-collar and blue-collar, rich or poor, literate or uneducated, etc. It's probably the only concept that binds and unites all peoples together. It's the only common concept that any body can actually relate to. I might be an exception since the concept is very much unclear. But as a general rule, love is for everyone. Such barriers of platonic, romantic, agape, filial (and whatever those others are) love just remind us that we have that special need as human beings to connect, care for, and sacrifice for another. It's part of our biological built to love. Hence, we also have that ancilliary right to choose who to love as part of our free will. My new concept of "freedom to love" so to speak.
We all try to search for that person to love. That search can be never ending - leading us to lose our sanity; not realizing that sometimes, these people are right in front of us. We look and search in places too obscure or too proximate. Sometimes, we just have to wait for that right moment. We should "Let It Be" the way The Beatles has envisioned it.
Entitlement. Love. Life. Sometimes, that's how we choose to live. We send off wrong signals for our need to be happy ("our road to happiness") - and to take pleasures that transcend what most of us are even capable of handling. But life is really what it is. It's fair enough for us to persist in. It's fair enough that we are part of it. Have courage for it!