Then What is This?

I read a book today. A book that simply told me everything that I already know, something that we (everyone) already knows. I have had this idea in my head for so long that it is somewhat comical that I read a book about it today. This idea, or way of life, ideology if you will is the message that I want people to get from the person that I am. And this is where 'my' idea makes me into a hypocrite. This book is called This is Water by David Foster Wallace. The book is very small but so applicable to everyone that it's significance is simply ignored--the idea of the book is like a contact, a clear contact. In a world where everyone needs contacts but not everyone chooses to wear them. After a while, we users of contacts forget the very thing that allows us to be able to see past the reach of our own noses. The only time we acknowledge the fact that we need these things (contacts) in order to see is when we go through the extraordinarily monotonous task of putting them in when we wake up and taking them out before we sleep. The contacts don't really matter. I'm just trying to explain what I am thinking about this thought... What I'm trying to say is: The contacts represent this thought--from the book. The eyeballs that the contacts sit on are like an odd representation of us--people. Anyway, half way through this book I realized that this single idea is something that can link all of us together because it is so basic--the only thing that separates us from realization is the liquidie crap that lubricates the whole ordeal. The idea puts all of us on the same page, regardless of whatever each of us believes in. This idea is what everyone goes through but doesn't have to. It is easy for me to say what I feel and consider what I want

Where I find trouble, and I'm beginning to discover that I'm not the only one, is in considering other people. Not golden rule like, or b attitudes here. Just considering other peoples reasoning and perspective. I'm not wrong for feeling selfish, because that is what most of us really are. We each worship our own thing and if others don't, we (I) dismiss what ever it may be. I've come to the conclusion that life is all perspective. For starters, my opinion is just that. I can't tell anyone what is right and wrong for them. I do feel that there should be a WORLD WIDE understanding, but that is just my feeling again. My aspirations for this world and the world of my own are just that. If I can learn to wade through the deluded joys of the world to true understanding I feel that I will be happy and make the world the best that I could have. In an essay I can't recall the title to--nor do I feel like looking it up--a man said, "it is through good intention that hell is proverbially paved." Why i bring that up here is because seeing the idea of life through a section of deluded liquidie crap paints a picture that is far from realistic. And face it, if we don't meet our own standard of life then it doesn't matter what we think of after-life and reincarnation. Our very own personal hells will be made available to us very quickly right here on earth. "Hell on earth." Who ever said that knew a little something about what a bad perspective can do. So this book, it is good. I feel like Siddhartha when he found out the meaning of life... I just read a book though, and these are really just a days worth of thoughts. I've been thinking about it for most of the day. Especially when I was waiting to fast forward through the commercials while I was watching the draft. And by the way, I don't see the talent in most of these dudes. I feel like I'm a much better 6th round snag. I kind of want everyone to understand this truth so I'm going to either rewrite this a few times, or just keep writing in the same spirits--which is somewhat what I think I've been doing--I just have some professional inspiration now. David Foster Wallace Died in 2008 too, not like I knew the guy or anything, and it is kind of disrespectful for me to talk about him when I read about his death on his book cover, but I guess that is why they put it there--so people would read it and feel bad. Anyway, I feel like he knew something about me. I feel like he and I have a similar understanding of the world. Granted, mine is far more unrefined and raw than his, but I hope that I can one day refine my eyes in the same magnitude that he did.

-Zachary Alexander Hale