observations

4am thoughts

So I have been thinking a lot about life lately. The idea of a god, afterlife, and faith. I am personally agnostic.

My belief of or in God or heaven is simply based on the fact that I do not know. I do not believe it is possible for anyone to know the truth when it comes down to matters like this. There are so many religions in the world and I believe no one has the right to tell anyone else their religion is better or more correct than anyone elses. This is faith, belief that is not based on proof.

So without religion why lead my life as a good person?

I simply compile the information that I do know, the facts. I know one day I will die. I do not know what will happen after that besides the fact that my body will decompose in the ground. All of my energy will be returned back to the earth. This is a guarenteed afterlife or transference to another place. Your physical energy is transferred through other lifeforms. Remember, energy can not be created or destroyed.

This then leads me to expand beyond the physical destruction of my body and I think about the possibility of a soul or spirit continuing on. Well this again, as I discussed before is not guaranteed. But what is? The memory others have of me and the trace I left on this earth. These memories may or may not last forever and be passed on through generations. But I do know that every action I take has an effect on something. In a ripple effect my actions every day can change the present and future forever. This is your afterlife, a guaranteed one. So, I simply want to lead a good life and be a good person because I want my impact on this earth to be an overall good one. I hope that every decision I make somehow has a positive effect on someone else, which can continue on forever.

I then start to think about the power of art and creation. Anything that is created by anyone helps to prolong their “afterlife” because it is a piece of them which is left behind. This is why I believe that anything that has to do with creation is the most powerful thing anyone could ever do. Think about all the painters, musicians, poets, writers, photographers you have seen or learned about. You have a window into their lives, heart and soul, even though they may have been dead for 100 years, you can feel their emotions. Every art piece has a feeling, everything created by human hands has some sort of bias and meaning which only the creator/artist could have accomplished. So, if you want your legacy, soul, memory or afterlife to continue on forever, create.

Seattle drivers

Ok, so right now I reside in the Seattle area. There is a huge lack of driving skill up here.  I think it is because people are too nice. Everyone wants everyone else to go first. On many occations I have pulled up to a stoplight to make a left hand turn (no arrow) the light is green and I wait for all the cars to go and to turn right. Well, the person making a right turn stops and waves me to go, well I am not expecting this because the law gives them the right of way. So of course I hesitate and start to go, at the same time they seem to sense my hesitation and start to go to. So I stop, now sitting across a lane of traffic, just waiting to be sideswiped, while this person stops and waves me through again. This time I gun it, without hesitation. By this time, if the basic rule of who has the right of way would have been followed, we both would be 2 miles away from this location. Instead we are playing some game in the middle of an intersection.

The four way stop is by far the worst though. I have pulled up to a four way stop, where two people are continually waving each other to go. They both start to go at the same time, but then stop, then both wave the other person to go. It makes me wonder how long they have been at this intersection. Most of the time, being the Los Angeles driver that I am, I end up going first, most likely infuriating both drivers.

Then there is merging onto the freeway. I was always taught that the best way to merge onto the free was to speed up to the flow of traffic, maintain that speed while merging into the traffic. In Seattle, they seem to be taught to attempt to merge into traffic at an extremely slow speed. I have seen people stopped at the side of the freeway, waiting for their chance to merge into the 60 mile per hour traffic. Speaking of which, 60 mph on the freeway is a fucking joke. Worst of all, people actually follow this speed limit. Of course, it is for a valid reason, there are a million cops just waiting to give tickets hiding in the trees and bushes. They even have unmarked police cars. The entire area surrounding Seattle is one giant speed trap.

Last annoyance about the drivers in Seattle. It rains here, quite often. You would think that people would know how to drive in the rain. They don’t. The painfully slow 60 mph speed limit seems to be reduced to a painful 40 mph. I understand in Los Angeles, that when it rains it, people drive slow because well, it never rains in LA. But in Seattle?

Luckily, I am moving back to the lovey LA. I can not wait for the aggressive drivers, driving 80 mph in a 65 zone without getting a ticket. I love the every man for himself attitude when it comes to driving in LA. It just seems to work better and and be more efficient. Everyone has a place to go and they want to be there now.