A lot of times it seems that the actual purpose of a law or commandment may have been lost throughout the ages. Either because people no longer have the same problems they once had or they are advancing and are given higher laws which are more encompassing. Originally the commandment was thou shalt not murder (or thou shalt not kill depending on your translation of the Bible), but Jesus Christ said, "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matthew 5: 22). Instead of just murder being wrong, humans are told to no longer be angry at each other lest they be judged and condemned. It isn't enough for us to control our physical actions; we must control the emotions we feel for each other too.
So, in order to be sacrilegious and silly, I rewrote the Seven Deadly Sins how I felt they should be in this modern age. I feel it should be said that I don't judge people according to any of these. I just think they could help some people, but are not required to be happy or accomplish anything involving this life or the one after.
- Lust. I know it's in the original seven, give me a break. It is still a very serious problem for a lot of people. But I define it slightly differently than I usually hear. Lust is the fulfilling of physical/sexual desires solely for the fulfillment of physical/sexual desires. Two people having sex is not wrong if done correctly. Sex is a very intimate act and should be a mutual experience. Both parties should want it, enjoy it, and be happier because of it. If either party is participating for no reason other than to be satisfied I think it is wrong, mostly because it is a betrayal. An act as intimate as sex needs to be shared at many levels, but if one person isn't sharing the emotional connection sex should form, they are forsaking their companion's emotions and that is quite rude if you ask me. Lust does not apply to sex only either. Any desire to be physically satisfied for no reason other than to be physically satisfied is greedy and selfish. If someone wants to discover what turns them on or figure out what feels good to them, they don't have a singular goal to be satisfied; their goal is to learn as well. But staring at pornography for hours, in example, is wrong, because it, in almost every case, serves no purpose other than to satisfy some strange desire to be physically satisfied, but not emotionally. That's why it is wrong, to be truly happy we have to be satisfied on more levels than just physically. Giving in to such base desires with no higher goal is reducing ourselves to something less than the beauty we are.
- Hatred. I find that hatred follows wrath rather closely, but it's more in-depth. It is not enough to simple control our physical outbursts to non-violent means against a person. In fact, often times refusing to be physically damaging to a person and being creative in the way we punish them can be more hateful and destructive than simply beating them up. Thoughts create emotions and emotions create actions, so unless we can stop the hate at the thoughts (which are really hard to control without years of practice and conditioning) or emotions, we're gonna end up hurting someone else as well as our self.I have found the best breeding ground for hate is when we refuse to forgive someone. And sometimes forgiveness is hard. Like, really hard. But we've gotta do it, because if don't forgive others their trespasses who are we to expect others to forgive us of our sins?But I also mean hatred towards ourselves. For a lot of people, loving and accepting others is easy, but learning to love ourselves is the much more difficult battle. We have to learn to love ourselves before we can truly learn to love others. And it is hardest to forgive ourselves when we know we are wrong.
- Waste. So often today people just waste. They waste time, resources, energy. It reminds me of what sloth used to mean. It wasn't the sitting around doing nothing that was wrong, it was the fact that they were missing out on so much around them. Today, we waste our time online, on games, on cellphones, on blogs..., and on so many little things. We are accomplishing nothing of value. Granted, sometimes you learn something really cool or new online, but is it worth the hours you spent otherwise? I enjoy Facebook as much as the next, but I try to use it just to check up on what is going on and make sure my friends are still alive and well. A lot of the time, I use computers to help me relax. I play mindless games, chat with no purpose, and increase my nerdery through various webcomics and websites. It helps me detox at the end of the day, but I shouldn't do it so much. Wasting my time and energy on things that provide no enlightenment or improvement wastes ourselves.
I also believe that we often waste opportunities all too often. We could do great and amazing things, except we choose to be comfortable and safe. As I did not overtly say, but meant before we too often choose what makes us feel safe instead of what can improve us and make us happy. Life is an adventure, so let's be adventurous. - Deception. Preventing others from learning the truth. Lies. Little ones, white ones, little white ones, big ones, huge ones, destructive ones, ones concerning the ancestry of a child, any lie is a lie. But I have found that lies are often not the problem, it is when we deceive deliberately. We avoid subjects and conflicts. We beat around the bush. We spin words in such a way so that we are not lying, but we're keeping half the truth locked-up. This is, usually, not far to either party because the one who knows is refusing to share the burden, probably harboring ill thoughts, which leads to #2, and that's no good for a relationship. It isn't fair to the other side either though because they can do no good to save the relationship. We've got to be honest and not just the bare minimum. Honesty breeds trust which breeds love. Usually. Most of the time. I hope so at least.
As we are friends (at least I assume we are if you've been willing to read this much) I make two promises to you. I will never forsake you. We are friends and I will keep that foremost in mind no matter what happens or comes between us whether it be money, time, or women (or anything else likely to. I just find those come up more often than not). I will never lie to you, but I will probably be forced to deceive you at some point. It might be about a crush I harbor on you or a something you've done that bothers me (because I try awful hard to keep that first promise and haven't ever broken it, as far as I know, and would hate for you to be the first one to prove me wrong) or whatever, but I will probably avoid the subject or talk in such a way that you won't ever know what is actually going on, but will still feel satisfied. - Hypocrisy. You see what I just did. I was a hypocrite. I am expecting others to do that which I am unwilling to do. First off, I'm sorry about that. Please forgive me, cause seriously it isn't something I can change. There are things about me you won't accept, because you just don't know me well enough. The way I define hypocrisy is important though. It is the expecting of something you are unwilling to do. This can be a physical actions, something as simple as asking someone to build a part correctly or to pick someone up after school. More often though I find it is emotional and mental things. I expect other people to be as compassionate and forgiving as I try to be, but I often fail at it.
I believe there are two other parts to hypocrisy: Giving advice you would not follow yourself and not following that which you know to be true. Just to combine them, I believe we should only give advice we know to be true. For the sake of calming opposition, believing is seeing so all truth is individual. Debate me all you want (seriously, if you disagree with me I'd love a second opinion). So, when I someday write down my list of truths (there are currently fifteen) please understand you might disagree with them, but that doesn't make them any less true. So, when we know something is true, when we've had enough experience in this life that something about it just needs to be defined in order for us to deal with it, we need to be willing to accept and follow it. One of my truths is that "if the truth hurts change it." It's a little harsh, but I spend a great deal of time and energy making sure every fact in my life is not going to hurt during those moments I'm forced to look back on myself and realize what I did wrong. I spend a great deal of energy making sure my definitions of this life don't make me feel bad about myself or others. If I don't do that, I'm a hypocrite and am held liable in the eyes of man. - Ignorance. Since we're talking about truth, I'm gonna keep going with it. Ignorance is the refusal to learn and grow, the refusal to face and accept truth, and the refusal to learn who we are as individuals. I find ignorance is kind of a deception of the self. It is the individual choosing to be a sheep in the herd instead of an individual worth something more. It's willingly pulling the wool over our own eyes. It is...I don't got no more sheep references...sorry. If we refuse to grow, we stay very comfortable right where we are. We move neither up nor down, neither left nor right. We tell ourselves we are safe. The problem is the world moves around us so we lose our footing and fall. We stagnate and become wretched creatures not content with anything. We can't just stay safe, we have to explore and learn. If not, we are condemn to be thrown with restless violence round about this pendent world. Or to be worse than worst...imagine howling. Props to whoever gets the reference. It's a great play. Also, refusing to learn truths that life attempts to teach us I find is also a sin. If you know that you are miserable when you get drunk, but do it because your friends are...you're an idiot to drink! If you don't like working manual labor, but tell yourself it's the only way to make enough money to be happy...you're an idiot! I'm not even going to be nice about this one. If you do something that makes you unhappy in the attempt to make yourself or another happy, you have no idea what is going on and need to get ahold of yourself. If you have something to teach yourself, just learn it already. You'll be happy.
I find the refusal to learn who you are is one of the most tragic things in this life though. Why wouldn't we want to know what makes us who we are? Why wouldn't we want to know what turns us on, excites us, or makes us tick? Is it truly that terrifying to learn of the man or woman behind the mask? Yes. It is that terrifying. It is the scariest thing we can do, break ourselves down enough to see who truly stands in the mirror. But we've got to do it if we ever wish to be successful, happy, or move on. - Forgetting. Finally, the end. Forgetting is, in a sense, the opposite of ignorance and I believe it to be a higher sin. As ignorance is the refusal to learn, forgetting is taking what we've learned and throwing it away. We forsake the truths we've learned, the experiences that taught us those truths, and the people who taught us how to be human. When we forget our past we forget what made us up to be who we are and when we forget who we are we forget our goals and aspirations. We lose our purpose and I think that is one of the scariest things in this life. Without a purpose I have no reason to live and that truth can wear on you pretty quick.
you're good.
ReplyDeleteI love you.