New Goals and Thoughts

I have made it a goal for myself to post at least one item every week for the next undetermined period of time.  (To the end of this year at least.)  I've also begun a class/program in which I have promised myself that I will write at least a paragraph and more every day.  I've finally begun regularly using a notepad holder that my wife gave me a few years ago and when I am done with my writing today will have a full week of this practice under my belt.

I LOVE writing!  I feel that it is the one medium that I seem to have a little bit of talent in.  Oftentimes, I am pleasantly surprised when I go back and take a look at things that I have previously written and I find words and descriptions that I can actually say that I am proud of.  I was going through the process of closing out my old Myspace account a few days ago (I haven't used it in years) and came across a number of decent posts.  I took the time to copy and save them to my computer so that I can keep them.  Many of them are, for me, like a reminder of what I was doing and thinking during the time that I was posting there.  Others were just quotes that I had liked and threw them up so that I could share them with my friends and anyone else who might stumble across my page.

I would like to post a quote that I found in my cleaning out process and make a few comments of my own on the idea:

"Happiness includes all that is really desirable and of true worth in pleasure, and much besides.  Happiness is genuine gold, pleasure but guilded brass, which corrodes in the hand, and is soon converted into poisonous verdigris.  Happiness is as the genuine diamond, which, rough or polished, shines with its own inimitable luster; pleasure is as the paste imitation that glows only when artificially embellished.  Happiness is as the ruby, red as the heart's blood, hard and enduring; pleasure, as stained glass, soft, brittle, and of but transitory beauty. 

"Happiness is true food, wholesome, nutritious and sweet; it builds up the body and generates energy for action, physical, mental and spiritual; pleasure is but a deceiving stimulant which, like spiritous drink, makes one think he is strong when in reality enfeebled; makes him fancy he is well when in fact stricken with deadly malady. 

"Happiness leaves no bad after-taste, it is followed by no depressing reaction; it calls for no repentance, brings no regret, entails no remorse; pleasure too often makes necessary repentance, contrition, and suffering; and, if indulged to the extreme, it brings degradation and destruction. 

"True happiness is lived over and over again in memory, always with a renewal of the original good; a moment of unholy pleasure may leave a barbed sting, which, like a thorn in the flesh, is an ever-present source of anguish. 

"Happiness is not akin with levity, nor is it one with light-minded mirth.  It springs from the deeper fountains of the soul, and is not infrequently accompanied by tears.  Have you never been so happy that you have had to weep?  I have."  

-James E. Talmage (Quoted from Jesus the Christ)

I will readily admit right now that I am a religious person.  I am a Christian.  I thought that this quote is powerful because it addresses something that I think I need to work on and that I think much of the world could benefit from taking a little time to contemplate.

Everyone has been blessed with this life.  All have been given the opportunity and gift to decide how to use the time that goes with it.  What am I going to do with my time?  What will anyone do with his or her time?

From looking at this quote, I think that Elder Talmage is teaching that there are some things that are worth pursuing in life while other things are best left alone.  If people seek after those things that are truly fulfilling and bring true and lasting happiness, they will be living a life that is not only a joy to live, but one which they will also not need to regret.  Happiness can be real.  I think that most people truly are seeking after real happiness.  The question is, how does one find it?  I submit that "Happiness in ... life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ."  (From "The Family:  A Proclamation to the World")  Now, this doesn't mean that one has to live life like a monk or seclude his or herself in a religious community.  The Savior taught how to live in and be a part of the world, along with how not to partake of those things that Elder Talmage has described above as "pleasures."  I enjoy writing.  I find happiness and joy in this.  I also enjoy reading from a wide variety of sources (though I admit that I like fantasy and like to be made to think things through).  I enjoy movies, plays, the arts, games and many other things besides.  The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches morals and gives people a compass with which they can direct their lives.  It gives a person something with which an individual can gauge any pursuit and help in deciding if that thing is worth doing.  I have heard that many people view religion as restrictive and that it keeps one from enjoying life to the fullest.  I think often of a short story that I heard once.

A young boy went out one day with his father to fly a kite.  They went to an open field with plenty of room and a good breeze.  The father helped the boy get the kite into the air and not too long after, the kite was out as far as it could go.  The father was holding the kite's string and the boy said, "Let the kite go!  Let it fly higher!"  The father then showed his son that if he were to let the kite go, it would actually fall to the earth.  The kite string, which appears to be restricting how high the kite can fly, is actually the thing that is keeping it flying in the sky.

 It is the same with many of the "restrictions" of religion.  In my experience, the rules and values that are given are not there to tie one down, but rather to enable that person to become a strong and principled person.  One who can truly stand on their own.