Risk can be the most terrifying thing in the world. Going out on a limb and searching religiously for the things that will test us and frighten us can be amazingly cathartic, and begin our healing process. If we start from our beginning and search our souls we will find that the most youthful and alive we ever feel has been when we are standing on the edge of a proverbial ledge about to jump. It's a strange feeling, being on the edge. It can be an odd but exhilarating experience. We all have the power to plummet over the brink, or step back and ignore the epitome of who we could potentially be. I'm saying we should all jump, for we have nothing to lose but indecisiveness. Go back to the start when things were easy, and count through the years. You will truly find that age is the answer and not the question. It does not matter if you are 18, or 75. You too can find excitement and comfort diving into the unknown.

A Paradigm for the Masses

Sinners and saints: Two organizational cubbyholes that we've been placed in for centuries. The grand question is this: are these the only two categories that we as humans can fit in? Must we be either a selfish demon or proverbial good Samaritan? I say no, and that we may each have our own soul and identity. Let's create a theoretical situation: a man forces his friend to go to confession. Is the man a saint for helping his friend be saved, or a sinner for destroying his friend's free will and sense of individuality? This is the real battle. A man can not and should not be judged on his day to day doings, but on his heart and mind. "What can you ever really know of other people's souls - of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands." What can we take from these words of wisdom from C.S. Lewis? He insinuates that we can never truly know a person, with the obvious exception of ourselves. The only person's head we can ever really see the inside of is our own. So why do we believe it is our right to judge people? Have we been appointed to be the judge and jury of someone else's personality? No, we have not. It's not our place to call someone a sinner or a saint when most of us are failing to be a paragon of ourselves as it is. Let's just be the best people we can be and worry about ourselves. If we do that then people would enjoy a higher level of understanding and there would be be a better social construct in general. Join me in putting down the gavel.

Existentialism at Its Best

I can now see what I was blind to for so long. Change is inevitable. Change is the driving force behind everything in nature. Everything from the evolution of man to the changing colors of the leaves on the trees in autumn. The real question is, how do we adapt? For those of us who have missed opportunities and not been able to keep up with a constantly oscillating set of social requirements, the answer does not have to remain so elusive. Henry David Thoreau said, "Things do not change, we do." Our best bet to stay alive in this savage jungle they call life is to be open and accepting. It would be easier if life had a Dow-Jones or a NASDAQ that would let us know our net worth, but what we need to realize is our worth is only as high as we lead ourselves to believe it is. Our ability to adapt and create new futures and goals for ourselves is vital to a high level of affluence and personal happiness. When we start being the change we want the world to experience like Ghandi suggested, we actually create a new universe of which we are the master. Do we pass up such an opportunity? Do we walk away from a perfect version of ourselves because we are afraid of losing something we think is important? Or do we find what we want, and then take it? I guess the ultimate answer is that we must conquer the most difficult opponent we will ever face: Ourselves.