Do I have goals in life? I do. And very ambitious ones. How am I going to fulfill them? Well, I have some ideas and I will go shaping my plans as I live life to the fullest and consider the circumstances that destiny and/or God present me with. God? Destiny? Or are they random circumstances? Do we have any control over them? This is precisely my inspiration for this month's post. Nothing is guaranteed. We can dedicate long hours and put all our energy towards achieving that so longed objective, but it doesn't fully depend on us. Our determination plays a huge part in overcoming obstacles and succeeding in our endeavors, but there's also a luck factor, a randomness factor, destiny, God's will, or whatever you may want to call it, that plays an important part in the fulfillment or failure of our plans. Nothing is guaranteed. Nothing. And I have experienced this in a number of ways in the last 1 or 2 weeks.
Nothing is guaranteed. I have been working in an IT company since June 2007. I really didn't like what I was doing but the pay was good and it was helping me pay for school, so I had to swallow the bad-tasting work experience in order to continue studying. After a year of working for the company, and right after I got back from New York 2 weeks ago, I got home and checked my emails and learned that my contract would not be renewed. The reason? I don't know. No one talked to me. Maybe they realized I didn't like the job and I would not continue working for them after I graduate. Maybe I was no longer useful for them. Maybe it was too much of a complication since my job was business oriented and as for an IIT requirement my job had to be technical and related to my field of study, so every time I renewed the contract I had to lie and describe in the IIT paperwork that I was working in something I was actually not. There's a new CEO in the company and he probably didn't like this... anyway, they did me a favor. Sooner or later I had to leave the company... but to be honest, I was planning on this job to pay for this semester's tuition. How am I going to pay for school this semester? I don't know. I have no idea. But this is not the first time. Since I got to the US, many times I did not know how I would pay for that semester's tuition, even 1 or 2 weeks before the semester would begin, and somehow I have always been able to pay for it. This time will not be an exception. Nothing is guaranteed, though.
Is financial need going to continue conditioning my life choices as it has done all my life? I promise myself it will not. Not after I graduate.
Nothing is guaranteed. After 5 years living in a small apartment with part of my family, my parents have recently bought a house and we have spent all last week moving our stuff to the new place. It's an old house, pretty ugly I must say, but the price was low and it is in a really nice area, so the idea of my parents is to invest in the lot, construct a new house, and then sell it for a juicy profit.
Last Friday we were all in the Dodge Caravan of my dad going back to the apartment cause the new place still didn't have gas nor hot water, and suddenly a 16 year old girl, who apparently had just learned to drive and had a new and shiny driver license, turned into the street we were driving in and hit us on the front passenger side. It was not a big accident, but the van was rendered undriveable and my mom was injured in the head and sent to the hospital. Fortunately it was just a minor injury, nothing serious – see pics :) - but... think about it. Nothing is guaranteed. Nothing. You could be driving with your family and a drunk driver hits your car killing your parents and ruining your family forever. Anything could happen. Nothing is guaranteed. Nothing. We can have fantastic and ambitious plans, but suddenly something like this could happen and all your dreams would be shattered into pieces, maybe even destroyed forever.
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How vulnerable we are. How insignificant we are. How arrogant we are to think that we control our lives. How stupid we are wasting our time in inconsequential and superficial activities that do nothing but just distract us from much more valued and generally neglected things. Things that we learn to value once gone, once we don't have them anymore. This could be your last day, enjoy it :) and do not regret anything that you do.
It sounds pretty alarmist and tragic, but...
Nothing Is Guaranteed.
16 comments:
Amigo! Que nota buena che. I really appreciate it. There is one thing that is guaranteed though: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever"--Hebrews 13:8 . You are so right,we are not guaranteed our next breath or heart beat! But if we give our lives, our breaths, our heart beats, every part of ourselves to God, we don't have to worry about what will happen next because:" We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose". --Romans 8:28 But it's not just for anyone, it's for those who LOVE God, who HE has called. We have to be willing to trust our lives to God. And really, it's almost insane NOT to, since He knows the big picture and IS in control of all things. It is arrogant like you said to think that we have control over our lives instead of God who created the world and is the Lord of all. I would destroy my life if it were left up to me...Thanks again for writing, espero que mejore tu mami prontisimo!
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
old time is still a-flying,
and this same flower that smiles today,
tomorrow will be dying.
Carpe-diem.
¿Les suena? Es muy conocido. Muy mal utilizado, quizás, pero muy conocido. Vivir el día, el hoy.
¿Por qué habríamos de planear a un futuro, si podemos morir mañana? ¿Por qué tenemos q poner en juego nuestra felicidad actual, por un futuro incierto? ¿Vale la pena, o es mejor vivir y ser felices hoy?
Muchos ya tendrán sus respuestas, y yo personalmente... también.
Yo creo q no se debe poner en juego nuestro futuro por un simple capricho de querer disfrutar la vida hoy. ¿Hay que disfrutarla? No hay duda. Pero... ¿cómo pensás disfrutarla? ¿No sería ideal disfrutar haciendo ambas cosas, planear a futuro haciendo lo que nos hace disfrutar nuestro día a día? Muchos creen que el esfuerzo no vale la pena... yo creo q sí.
Quote from my blog :p
I think that despite "nothing is guaranteed"... we cannot live a Carpe-Diem life. We have to plan. We have to have goals. That's what make us effort, and become better every single day. But... is this a reason for not being happy? Hell NO!!! Do what you love, and become better doing that.
For Elizabeth: it doesn't really matter who's in charge right now. It may be God... Satan, Zeus, Allah, Robert Plant, or just the Flying Spaghetti Monster (hahahaha my next post in my blog is going to be about it!). Who's in charge shouldn't change the fact that you should try to do your best everyday. And at the end of the day... it doesn't really matter if there is salvation, or hell, or just the "nothing"... you lived your life like a good and plain person. And because of that.... if God exists, he will also save you!
Eric: maybe we are silly to think that we are in control of our lives... but who else is responsible for it??? So put your trousers and control it!
haha!
Hugs...
Alan.
flying spaghetti monster??!! que?!!
"it doesn't really matter if there is salvation, or hell, or just the "nothing"... you lived your life like a good and plain person."
mmmm i quite agree with this.
"And because of that.... if God exists, he will also save you!"
not so sure about this...
Elizabeth, gracias por el comentario! Hace un tiempo escribi esto en una carta:
"I feel fortunate I did not easily find a solution to my problems; I am also fortunate I have been through so many struggles and so many worries, and I am specially fortunate because all this time of uncertainty has taught me to rely more in God, to trust Him, to significantly increase my faith in Him, and to realize that He is the same God of two thousand years ago, that He still works miracles, and that He will continue protecting us."
I wrote this in a letter for someone who believed in God. I do. Though i have two positions, a rational scientific one, and a more blind one, which kind of originates from the realization of our insignificance, powerlessness, and the search for explanations for events or experiences which to my view and understanding do not have any rational explanations.
Which is the prevalent position? Not so sure.
mmmmm i might write about this someday. It deserves a much more explanatory note.
Alan, estoy de acuerdo.
"¿Por qué habríamos de planear a un futuro, si podemos morir mañana? ¿Por qué tenemos q poner en juego nuestra felicidad actual, por un futuro incierto? ¿Vale la pena, o es mejor vivir y ser felices hoy?"
Uno tiene un gran control sobre su vida. No obstante todos estan expuestos y nadie esta exento de tener un accidente. Diria que si uno es cuidadoso, precavido, y prudente, las probabilidades de que algo malo te suceda y mueras no son grandes. Por lo tanto vale la pena esforzarse y apostar al futuro. Al futuro cercano, metas cortas pero significativas. De todas maneras, hacerlo siempre disfrutando el camino hacia esas metas. Un dicho chino dice que la trayectoria es tan o mas importante que la meta en si, y estoy totalmente de acuerdo.
Abrazo.
oh god, this is just what has been in my mind lately, but i never was able to express it in words. gracias. cos however hard you would try to plan everything, nothing is guaranteed. isnt the most important moment here already, the present?
un beso.
It's very relative rubia, it depends the kind of plans you have. The present is important, but the future is also very important. Did you plan for your present? I will so that my presents are a direct consequence of my plans, though when talking about important and big plans... simple and everyday things, you can't plan for that, and it's much better not to... it's much more exciting to be spontaneous and each day, when you wake up, do the first thing that comes to your mind :)
¡Hola! Estoy bien. Mis clases empiezan en el 22 del mes. Me faltan 2 cuartos para terminar. Me gradué en marzo. Voy a aplicar a seis o diez escuelas para mis estudios postgrados. Quiero aplicar a Columbia, NYU, Yale, William & Mary, San Francisco State, y Berkeley. Es posible que aplique a unas otras (Brown, Michigan State, UCLA, BU, Cornell, University of Wisconsin- Madison). Si podría ir a cualquier universidad, iría a Yale. El gran problema es que la escuela probablemente no me aceptará. ¿Qué vas a hacer después de graduarte?
Y una cosa más: ahora estoy visitando a mi familia, y tengo el disco con tus canciones. Te las enviaré más después.
Eric....Ok so yes I believe in living everyday to the fullest and being a "good and plain person" (not sure about the plain though, jeje), but tell me...Where does your meaning of "good" come from without a standard? What is good? And if you mean moral and right and just, where does that concept come from? We can't have good if we don't have a standard of good. And we can't have bad if we don't have a standard of good.....que decis?
lisbs? Elizabeth?
where did i write about being 'good'. what's good? it's completely relative.
a standard? Every society molds that standard, which varies from generation to generation. What's good today very well could have been considered bad not so long ago.
At a personal level, it also depends on your education, your values, and the moral norms that lead your life.
So what's good? There's no good and bad. We set the standards. We as a society, and we as individuals.
Dani, much suerte con la aplicacion para Yale :)
que voy a hacer despues de gradarme? Trabajar, pagar la universidad, y viajar por sudamerica. Despues probablemente vuelva para uno o dos masters. Pero hay tiempo para eso, quiero viajar!
ps mandame las canciones!!
Si, soy yo, Elizabeth. `Every society molds their own definition of good??? So maybe pretty soon our society will say murder is ok...Then what will we say? Oh well, it's the new definition of good, we're just going to have to live with it...? We canNOT have good without a standard. And where did our sense of right/wrong come from? Why do people know that it's a higher calling to help a little old lady across the street than to push her in front of a bus. From society? I think not, tiene que ser algo mas Grande.
"So maybe pretty soon our society will say murder is ok.... and we're just going to have to live with it?"
Certainly. In the US for instance, capital punishment is accepted in some states, whether you want it or not, and those who oppose to it just have to live with it. In some other countries, other societies, capital punishment is unthinkable.
There are still countries wherein if the majority thinks you've done sthing wrong and you should pay with your life, they stone you to death. In some others this would be totally unacceptable.
What's the standard for good and bad? Again, it's totally relative. Probably these standards originated with the 10 commandments, and all moral laws under which present societies govern themselves derived from them.
But probably it is different for some other parts of the world, with other religions, standards, and societies.
I didn't say killing for the sake of serving justice, I said murder. What if society suddenly said that it was ok to murder and there was no justice to be served at all. So you come home one day and someone's murdered your whole family and the police say well, the killer was just going on what is right for him, so we can't say that it's wrong. You'd be pretty upset right? Why?
Why would society suddenly say that it is ok to murder? Murdering is socially accepted to be wrong, and therefore there's no reason for society to move in the direction of declaring it to be right. This is simply not going to happen, at least it's not going to happen in a 'sane' society. There are numerous examples in history, and the Nazi regime is one of the most recent ones, in which murdering Jews was socially accepted to be right.
So again, yes, societies mold their own definitions of good and bad. Societies as a whole.
Because they have no standard of good Eric. We're already moving in that direction. Abortion has been happening for 35 years and it is getting more and more brutal. It is legal to perform abortion at later and later times during the pregnancy and some are even advocating for letting the baby die if they survive abortion. That's murder to me and the beginning of greater and greater allowances. So now only sane societies know what good is? You're still missing the BIG notion that without God as our standard of good, we can't trust in anything society makes. I'm just wanting you to think about this, Eric, I'm not trying to attack you. sabelo!
They did have a standard of good which was different than ours.
I'm not missing the big point. You are being partial. Who says God's standard of good is the absolute standard? Does God exist? Now be objective here...
"So now only sane societies know what good is?"
My mistake. 'Sane' would be totally relative too... societies mold their standards of good and bad according to what they believe is right or wrong.
loca, I'm not trying to attack you. sabelo! :P
beso grande!
btw abortion has been happening for hundreds of years...
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