Enlightenment

In my brief 50 years on this earth, I have come to realize that while we do fight for the same things other animals fight for (food, shelter, safety), we are a species largely self-governed by our cognizance of the finality of death and our fear thereof.

Along the way, the more clandestine and fastidious among us have concocted elaborate hoaxes to keep us in line, all of which are based on the most strange and implausible set of circumstances. This has apparently all been in an effort to push, pull, persuade, demand and control.

And every time one in seven billion challenges any of these notions, a wave of fear spreads throughout our collective, captive minds. What if they're right? Do we all come unhinged? Does someone else's imaginary story trump our own? Worse yet, what if the rule they challenged doesn't have any impact on our well-being at all, and only removes another screen between consciousness and reality?

I, for one, truly believe there is another level of consciousness that we as human beings are striving to reach. Something beyond our everyday religious rule book, our fear of death, our self-contrived order that, while altruistic and meaningful in its approach, comes with a long line of strings attached that have created consequences equal and opposite of any good intentions.

I believe that this next level is not "out there," not over us and is not under us. It's inside of us.

And it's among us.

Every person who's ever felt love and compassion from another human being has felt it.

Every person who's ever been ostracized or harmed by another human being has experienced the very real effect of it being taken away.

I think it's time for us to give ourselves credit for who we are, where we've been, what we can achieve and what we can be. With this level of consciousness, our fears will subside, and one day, maybe, we will develop into a species who realizes that the love we all share for one another is a product of our own doing, is the force that really makes the world go 'round, and is so much more powerful than death that we don't even fear death itself anymore.