ILove2Lurk
AI Chatbot
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Whether that goodness comes from "god" or simply the immutable cosmic forces of the universe, it doesn't
matter that much to me. I see it and and feel it from all the people I know, my neighbors and close friends.
I imbue my life and world around me with my innate goodness best I can, and so do most other people I know.
Goodness is a meaning we put into life, and consequently, we find it in life.
You might have seen my wildlife photos on another thread. I practice and work on my photography for
several hours almost every day. As a photographer, you have to be able to see the beauty that nature or man
creates in the world and capture it for your audience. I've learned over the years that not everyone can see
the beauty that I can see. I imbue my life and world around with beauty best I can.
Beauty is a meaning I put into life, and consequently, what I find in life.
I have a few other meanings that are important to me, but I don't want to belabor the point. I imbue my life
with them, and surprise . . . I find them in my life.
Footnote: Like Neo in The Matrix, I've pulled the plug on the simulated alternative reality (cable TV, Facebook,
Twitter, main stream media, etc.) being produced for me and other people, many of whom are unknowingly trapped
inside. It helps to have an arm's length relationship with this culture and current events. That is, living a life as
independently as possible and detached from all the false ideas, false meanings, and false narratives of today.
Of course, YMMV.
"My life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it,
is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness,
which I have the power to put into it." ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Excerpted from The Epoch Times
Many writers consider Anna Karenina the greatest work of literature ever. Aside from being
a novel about betrayal, faith, family and marriage, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is also a story
about one man’s search for meaning in a complicated world.
Konstantin Levin, the story’s second main character, spends a large portion of the novel trying
to figure out how his wife Kitty could believe in a higher power he’s never seen any signs of.
One day, he was listening to a peasant talk about two landowners—a stingy one and a generous
one—and asked the peasant, Fyodor, how it could be that these two men were so different from
each other.
Fyodor replied that the generous landowner “lives for his soul” and “does not forget God,” leading
Levin to realize the miracle that he’s been looking for this whole time—goodness.
Levin reasons that it’s rational for a person to live for his needs like food and shelter, but not for
goodness. Yet, humanity knows about this concept called “goodness,” and many people even give
up their own personal interests to be good.
So, he reasons, where could this idea have come from if it wasn’t bestowed upon humanity by some
higher force?
Levin, the educated noble, likely never expected that an offhand comment by a simple peasant would
be what gave him the epiphany he’d been hoping for.
Whether that goodness comes from "god" or simply the immutable cosmic forces of the universe, it doesn't
matter that much to me. I see it and and feel it from all the people I know, my neighbors and close friends.
I imbue my life and world around me with my innate goodness best I can, and so do most other people I know.
Goodness is a meaning we put into life, and consequently, we find it in life.
You might have seen my wildlife photos on another thread. I practice and work on my photography for
several hours almost every day. As a photographer, you have to be able to see the beauty that nature or man
creates in the world and capture it for your audience. I've learned over the years that not everyone can see
the beauty that I can see. I imbue my life and world around with beauty best I can.
Beauty is a meaning I put into life, and consequently, what I find in life.
I have a few other meanings that are important to me, but I don't want to belabor the point. I imbue my life
with them, and surprise . . . I find them in my life.
Footnote: Like Neo in The Matrix, I've pulled the plug on the simulated alternative reality (cable TV, Facebook,
Twitter, main stream media, etc.) being produced for me and other people, many of whom are unknowingly trapped
inside. It helps to have an arm's length relationship with this culture and current events. That is, living a life as
independently as possible and detached from all the false ideas, false meanings, and false narratives of today.
Of course, YMMV.