I love it when old friends come home from school. Well, I should qualify that: I love it when we can still relate to each other despite my not going off to school too. I had one such encounter last night, when a good friend and I discussed the intricacies of life while enjoying a Grande Meal. Let’s see if our conclusions still make sense now that the high’s worn off:
1. Questions are good
People don’t usually take offense or feel judged when you ask questions. If anything, they judge themselves with the answer. The one caveat, though, is with pointed questions. It’s quite easy to ask qurstions that imply a certain answer, so people could still get offended/defensive. Our conclusion is that the question should never be to trap the person, but only to get the person to ask the question for himself/herself.
2. Conformity and Rebellion are not opposites.
I enjoy paradoxical questions, so consider this: if all the cool kids are rebelling, then are they conformists or rebels? If conformity and rebellion are mutually exclusive, then people will usually respond with a wholehearted “it depends on your perspective.” Many people argue that these people would be simultaneously rebelling and conforming, depending on your perspective. My friend and I concluded, however, that non-conformity isn’t necessarily rebellion, and, conversely, non-rebellion isn’t necessarily conformity. There are actually four camps, not two. There are conformists, non-conformists, rebels, and non-rebels. (You have to be either smoking something or be a philosophy major to figure this stuff out. Luckily for our reputations, my friend just so happens to be the latter.)
3. Life’s short; devote yourself to something worthwhile
Not many things are worthy of a life, so why are so many people careless with how they “spend” their own life? My friend and I concluded that each person should devote himself/herself to something worthwhile. Some people spend years preparing; others seem to have the Midas touch, where everything they do is worthwhile. Still others accomplish things as simultaneously respectable and worthless as winning eight Olympic gold medals.
Regardless, do something worth doing. There seems to be a shortage of clean air, water, and food in the world; what have you done with yours?
Tags: paradox