Awareness...

...is quite possibly the key to everything. Those who are best at what they do--be they doctors, athletes, teachers, or what have you--are often those who are most aware of the present needs and constant variations of their surroundings. The Enlightenment period pushed the concept of awareness to new heights. We entered the Age of Reason. Our common sense and ability to logically process data created a profound sense of self-awareness in our society.

And self-awareness is a very good thing--for the most part. We need to constantly evaluate ourselves, being aware of those tendencies that pull us off-course. A problem arises, however, when self-awareness becomes self-obsession. Sadly, this is often the case. We become consumed with what we think. We cannot see beyond how certain situations affect us. Through reason, sound thinking, and trained ability, we can push through any difficulty and accomplish anything.

Of course, obsession borders on worship. You worship that which you spend the most time focusing on. So, in many ways, humanity worships itself. We are the be-all and the end-all. Thus, our object of worship becomes the Nobel Prize-winning scientist, the Olympic athlete, the suave politician, or the heroic rescuer.

But if the obsession really is with humanity in general, then the object of worship is also the child abuser, the rapist, the serial killer, the man who lies for a living, the woman who cheats on her husband, and the hit-and-run driver. That, my friends, is one schizophrenic object of worship.

Ah, humanity. We are so aware of ourselves, our own needs, and our own surroundings. Yet many of us are aware of little else. We run and scurry, fuss and hurry over a measly little life that lasts just over seventy years. And the eternal things? No need to be aware of those, because we couldn't have invented them...

Ignorance...

...is bliss? That's how the saying goes. And there's definitely some truth to that statement. Sometimes we are better off not knowing. We shield our kids from certain "ways of the world" that are evil or destructive. It's pretty tough to argue with doing something like that.

Of course, ignorance can also be an excuse. We prefer to stay in the dark about certain truths. That way, when we fail to live up to those truths, we can play the "I didn't know" card. But this begs the question: Do we really not know?

We probably know more than we let on. There is something within us that tells us right from wrong. Deep down, we know a whole lot more. We just don't want to embrace it. We don't want to confront the fact that there are certain inescapable, universal truths out there. We avoid the confrontation because such a confrontation would require life evaluation, soul-searching, and even (gulp!) change on our part.

Maybe we should say ignorance is temporary bliss. If you haven't noticed, the Truth tends to come out. And once the Truth is out there and obvious to everyone, we can no longer claim ignorance. And if we haven't embraced that Truth, yet we now know about it, that means we have rejected it. Who knows what the consequences for such rejection might be?