2006 March archive at Raven's Rants

As we travel through life, we are moving without the benefit of signs, maps or a guide. Like wonderers lost in a giant wood, we know where the paths are, the directions they head and, perhaps, where we want to go, but we know nothing about where the paths may lead or how long they will carry us.

Basically, we're lost travelers, constantly at the mercy of the various perils of the world around us, wondering from path to path, decision to decision, never knowing if we're going to get where we think we're headed.

We make the decisions the best we can, judging all of the variables we can see, but never really knowing what lies beyond the next bend. It's a frightening prospect and one that has broken many souls. We live in fear and uncertainty and that is our permanent state.

Yet, we press on. The air often grows cold and the nights are long, but we press on. Not because we want to or because it's easy, but because we have to. There is no going back, there is no alternative.

But if we press through these tough times, if we keep ourselves warm on the long cold nights and survive the hardships that nip at us every step of the way, we are rewarded. No path can stay uphill forever and no trail can remain rugged for all of time.

History is paved on the backs of the souls who quit, those that couldn't push on or find the new path. However, it's written about those who do, the ones that break through and find something worthwhile at the end.

So, if a path is a dead end or taking you a wrong direction, don't hesitate to take another one. Even though you don't know where it leads, it can hardly lead you more astray. But most of all, keep yourself warm when the nights get cold and don't let the perils of the forest get to you. Though they might alter your course, if you can keep pushing past the difficulties, greater things await.

For life is a game for those that don't give up. Those who go just a little bit further see things until their end and push on through hardships. Victory in life isn't determined by money, wealth or fame, but by having enjoyed and cherished the human experiences.

Sadly, it's hard to cherish life while you're watching it pass you by. That is why we must keep moving and constantly progressing. Even if we're not the first, we can still be the happiest.

For the struggles we face along these paths make the triumph of beating them that much greater and they offer wisdom which can help us with the trails we choose to follow in the future.

Wisdom, which can bring even greater rewards.

You see them everywhere you go. The people that blaze through four way stops, the jerks that cut in line at the movie theater, the morons that intentionally take up two parking spaces at the mall and the fools who thrash around their lives without a care for what impact they might have on others.

While everyone makes mistakes and, on a planet with six billion people, we're going to adversely affect those around us, some among us take it to a whole new level. They are either so negligent, or even malicious, that their acts are a conscious disregard for others. This goes beyond a lack of compassion or the absence of empathy and shuns all convictions and morals aside.

When you see these people, take a moment to look into their eyes. You'll see something truly unique. When you stare down into the pit of their souls, you'll see that they believe they're better than you. They seem themselves as a superior life form and yourself, along with those around you, are just insects waiting to be stomped.

With this form of imagined superiority comes a sense of entitlement, and that is where things go wrong. These people not only believe that they are better than the world, but that the world owes them something. Be it the color of their skin, the way they grew up, the money in their pocket or just something inside them, they feel that they are entitled to better treatment and they will take it if necessary.

That sense of entitlement is what leads to their downfall. Nature, as luck would have it, doesn't possess and entitlement clause. Those who think that they are owed something might be able to take it from time to time, but will never really be able to possess it. Those who believe they deserve something, for no other reason than who they are, are incapable of working for it and earning it.

And in there lies the bitter truth. All men are created equal, but they don't always stay that way. Some of us work hard, achieve great things and make something of our lives. Those who do that, for the most part at least, learn humility and invest themselves emotionally into ideas of justice and equality.

Others feel entitled; they do nothing, achieve nothing and, instead, leech off society. These are the ones who feel superior, the ones who achieve the least, offer nothing to the world and, instead, only flex their supposed superiority by taking that which does not belong to them.

In the end, it's their very sense of superiority that prevents them, not just from becoming better people, but from becoming anything at all. They can't plow the fields in the kingdom they believe themselves to rule, thus, they never make anything grow.

Their accomplishments are fantasies and society, let alone nature, will not favor these fools. They are doomed by their own delusions and will feel the wrath soon.

So when wronged in such a manner, try to let it go. If it was an honest mistake, it will not be repeated and, if it's someone taking what does not belong to them through a feeling of entitlement, they will feel their own demise soon enough.

For nature is cruel to those who don't earn their keep and nothing you can do will ever be able to compete with the very forces that keep evolution going.

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