Selfless love
The other day, I was talking to a friend about relationships and dating.
“You know, sometimes I just find this whole thing so depressing,” I said. “There is always a catch to the good ones, you never have any attraction or chemistry with the ones who are perfect for you, and then there are those who want you but are no good for you—where are the ones who are just as good for you as you are for them?”
“Taken,” He replied. “Taken by girls who don’t deserve them.”
Have you ever wondered why this appears to be?
Most women, at some point in their lives, have made The List. The List, for those who aren’t familiar with the term, is a list of things a woman wants in a man. Smart, good-looking, hard working, sociable, wealthy, influential, drives a nice car, has shiny teeth—whatever is on it, The List varies from woman to woman, but they all have one, either in their heads or on paper.
A couple months after my 16th birthday, my parents gave me a purple notebook. I still have it today. I entitled it “Chanel’s handbook for life”, and in it, I made lots of lists. I made one on the person I would like to be, my priorities in life (and what they should actually be), the perfect way to balance my time and energy, goals I want to achieve in my lifetime, things I want to do in my lifetime, life lessons I have learned, things I need to change, etc. etc. And then I made The List.
The Four Seasons
Every year, day after day, year after year, mother nature acts out a story.
It starts with the birth of the world. The clouds started to part, showering the earth with life-giving rain. The grass comes to life, growing greener and greener by day. The flowers wake up from the ground, starting as buds, soon to bloom into a picture of beauty. The trees wake up from their sleep, and some of her children come out to play after a long nap. The inhabitants of the earth called this spring, for everything had sprung to life.
The earth continued to grow and grow, pulsing with newfound vitality. The sun started to show up to work more often, cuddling the planet with light and warmth. Everything from the foundations of the earth to the bluish tint in the skies was at its peak, its climax. The inhabitants of the earth called this summer, for what had started in spring had somehow bled into summer.
Last words
For the last couple hours, I have been listening to a life struggle on the brink of death.
I refer to a fly that is trapped somewhere in my room. I don’t know precisely where he is, but I can hear him. Once every minute or two, he frantically attempts to escape from where he is stuck. It makes a buzzing sound. In the last hour, that buzzing has become less frequent. All I can think is, gosh, that noise is irritating. I hope it stops.
Do you know what it means when the buzzing sound stops? It means the fly is DEAD. It means that there was a living creature somewhere in my room, struggling to stay alive, and I sat by listening to his death pleas, doing nothing, and the only thing that crossed my mind was, “gosh, that noise is irritating”, followed by, “hey, I should blog about this!”
If this fly was a human, you’d be coming at me with the police and handcuffs. If this fly was a dog or cat, you’d be coming at me with pitchforks and PETA. But this fly is a fly, and everyday in the world people are putting flies out of their misery, and nobody bats an eye.
If we bring humans, household pets and household pests down to their simplest form, they are all lives. They are all alive. They all have eyes. They all have hearts. They all even have nervous systems. Earlier this month, I dished out a small portion of my savings fund to save my rabbit’s life. There are people in the world who hunt rabbits for fun. Who am I to decide who’s more superior to live?
Religious discrimination
There is a new kind of discriminating double standard on the scene, and this time it has nothing to do with your age, sex or racial background.
It has always been fairly apparent to me that most people view Christians in a negative light. As most can easily guess, the obvious reasoning behind this is the generally accepted fact that most Christians are going to try to covert, condemn or consult you—you know, the “you’re going to hell!” or “Jesus loves you!” typical stuff. Most people have had an experience like this.
Even if you think you don’t have any negative associations to Christians, consider this: If someone brings up Jesus, or any other subject mentioned in the bible, do you suddenly find yourself even a tad bit uncomfortable? If so - have you stopped to find out why? Chances are you formed these negative associations based on a couple religious walnuts you had the pleasure of running into.
In a world where people talk openly about everything from sex and drugs to that weird fungus growing between their toes, why is it that even the lightest mention of any Christian concept or figure causes the room temperature to plummet and automatically guarantees a “FREAK” stamp across your forehead?
There is really no need to sugarcoat it: Believing in the God of the bible has just never1 been cool.
But what about this new kind of double standard?
I understand that some Christians have been pushy and downright annoying with their beliefs. What I don’t understand, however, is the growing number of atheists on the scene who are just as pushy and annoying with their beliefs (or lack thereof), claiming to avoid Christians for those very reasons.
Hypocritical much?
For the most part, it’s just very much socially accepted to proclaim just how “atheistic” you are. A Christian doing the very same thing would most likely result a hostile response. Nobody wants to hear about how a praying mother and a supportive church community helped you turn your life around, but everyone loves to read about how stupid Christians are, how flawed their faith and logic is and how much you hate God and can’t understand him.
You know, it’s interesting; quite often the people who claim to be the most “open minded” really end up really being the most “selective minded”. I’ve met just as many (if not more) people who refuse to have anything to do with Christian things because they “can’t stand those judgmental, closed-minded hypocrites” than Christians who refuse to hear about about things contrary to what they believe - like evolutionary theories or pro-choice side of abortion debates, for example.
This just goes to show that you shouldn’t ever generalize people. Consider the following statements: “You’re a Muslim, so you must be violent and possibly connected to a terrorist!” or “You’re a Christian, so you must be trying to convert me!” They may sound like ridiculous claims, but I’d be lying if I told you no one thinks that way. There are people out there—and more than you think—who have very limiting preconceived ideas about world religions and their believers.
Don’t be mistaken; I’m not hating on non-believers. I respect people regardless of their beliefs, as long as they have reasonable logic to back them up. It just saddens me to see a society where people can’t (or feel they can’t) express ideas, beliefs and concepts freely because of political correctness and/or social outcasting caused by the rest of the world’s less intelligent population.
1 - [Christianity has never been cool] within modern times. As Jack kindly pointed out, there was a time in history where being anything but Christian was grounds for burning.
