Homeward Bound

Finally, it’s done.

Home, home, home.

That word never sounded so right. And so much to look forward to. Food, family, friends, and, of course, my flame.

The Journey Back

I’m setting this to post at 11:10am 04 January 2009.

At this point in my life, I’m in an airport waiting for my flight.

I’m listening to Explosions in the Sky. Let me be so bold as to say that I am listening to the song “Your Hand in Mine”. How do I know this? I know that I’m the type of the person who finds a song he likes and listens to it obsessively for a few days.

I’m thinking about life – as I always do. Excitement is in the air as I’ll be heading back to a place not so different from home – wondering if there’s any way I can get all those books on time, if I’ll be able to pull off 19 units this quarter, if the flight will be delayed, what kind of airplane I’ll be flying in…

I’m wondering about a great many things – and one of them a discussion Gary and I had.

Gary and I have been talking about religion, beginnings, ends, and happiness recently. We’ve concluded that the holy grail, call it the question to life, the universe and everything if you wish, cannot be found of the Earth. It’s something that is not attainable by the living because all human life is said to be shallow. But no matter, because we can all choose to attain happiness even if it were of the Earth. And that is what we called the “tried perpetuation of happiness”, the closest thing to the Holy Grail humans can get. Be it through a spouse, a family, material possessions, a career, a belief, anything.

Then we discussed Buddhist beliefs of impermanence. It states that humanity believes impermanence leads to unhappiness. But in truth, it advocates that the path to happiness lies in the belief that we must accept that all things are not meant to last. Through reading this article, one can be exposed to the idea of impermanence leading to an eventual good – as I’ve posted before “Knowing that everything will come to an end, anything is possible”. And I believe once it is understood that nothing will last, it’s much easier to simply jump into the pond with no clothing, as it were.

So then the search for the question of happiness isn’t so much in the quest to find something eternal, something that will be forever, but rather a journey to understand that all things will come to an end – and with that we can find some solace of contentment with our lives. A belief is not forever. A career is not forever. A human is most certainly not forever. Therefore, we can try to find happiness in the existence of the opportunity, a relation, a friendship, a life.

Actually, my plane will most definitely be a Boeing 737 – but I’m not sure what type. Hmm…

Oh well, winter break was very good to me – and in a similar fashion quite an ass. But I enjoyed the adventurous night, restful afternoon, and nonexistant morning.

Let’s shift the paradigm a bit in ’09.