Competition...

...fuels the fire. Of course, fire can be highly beneficial or highly destructive. Whether we want to admit it or not, we live in quite the Pharisaical society. Social ranking and status mean a great deal. The athletic industry dominates our culture, in many ways. At some point, individuals stop being viewed as people. Rather, they are seen as obstacles to be overcome.

Competition provides a warped sense of logic. Our moral failings are deemed acceptable, as long as there is someone else who is failing much more significantly than we are. The "at least I'm not like so-and-so" mentality is deeply rooted in our psyche. We even become competitive in our selflessness. Acts of service and "good deeds" move beyond an intent to help, care for, and love others. Instead, we stockpile such gestures, making ourselves appear more favorable in the eyes of the public than those who do less. How ironic that we would attempt to focus on others with the aim that the world would focus more on us!

Perhaps the root problem of competition is an overwhelming compulsion to be well-liked. We need to achieve such victories because we are obsessed with what others think of us. And that is quite the fickle obsession. We are always going to be a "nobody" in somebody's view. Sadly, some of us believe ourselves to be "nobodies" in everybody's view. So who out there has a point of view that actually matters? We need a person who can be the Great Equalizer, eliminating the necessity of competition. And, if such a person exists, does he or she think you're a "somebody"?

Desire...

...makes and breaks our world. We praise those who succeed in this life, attributing such "success" to their desire, or willpower, or drive. Life without desire seems pretty monotonous. Isn't it our nature to want things? Does that not therefore push us to new heights? And when desire and achievement finally embrace each other, is there any greater experience? Yes, desire is a wonderful thing. Of course...

...desire is often self-centered. That's right--our desires tend to revolve around us. It's what we want to make our lives something better, something extraordinary. Moreover, our desires often focus on matters that are side dishes, not the main course, of life--sexual fulfillment, victory in competition, acquisition of "stuff", etc. Naturally, we then accumulate more and more desires, which means more and more of them go unfulfilled. Unfulfilled desire leads to anger, frustration, and stress. Once we realize the world isn't catering to our whims, we just tend to get really pissed off. Suddenly, desire isn't so wonderful. Ironically, it's actually the root of so much that is undesirable about life.

So what do we do about that? Can we seriously expect to achieve a life without desire? Hardly. I wouldn't even wager that we were intended to live that way. Maybe we could simplify. Perhaps we could live our lives with only one desire. And, if possible, that desire would never go unfulfilled. We would find that our one desire is always in reach. And then, imagine if that one desire caused all the other "trivial" desires to fade to the point that they really don't impact us anymore. Now that sounds like the good life.

Of course, where would we ever find something like that?

Life...

...is bizarre. It's being on a mountaintop. It's a train wreck. It's fraught with hidden meaning. It's lacking purpose. Life is about so many things to so many people. The things that ruin one person's day have no bearing on the day of another person. We are so easily swayed. We are elated and deflated by endeavors that, one week later, matter not one bit to us. Sometimes life seems like one great big hormonal imbalance. In fact, that pretty much describes us humans, doesn't it? We rejoice one day because we "feel good" or things went our way. The next day we scowl because some unknown stimulus has angered us or nothing went our way. My goodness, such fluctuations at times seem to dominate our lives!

Please tell me there's more to our lives than us! What a difficult, high-stress way to go through this strange journey called life. It appears there actually is some sort of peace that's out there. I've met folks throughout my days that possess it. They can't be thrown off-course. Their peace is an anchor--not one that weighs them down, but one that stabilizes their lives. Oh sure, they deal with crap. Trials and ordeals come their way to varying degrees. But their lives seem focused...purposeful. Few seem to find that, however. Perhaps that's the narrow gate...