Bullfights and Forks

 According to Dr. Susan Weinschenk's The Brain Lady Newsletter, at the latest Consumer Electronics show there was recently introduced a device called the HAPI fork (pronounced 'happy'). This fork vibrates when you eat too fast and has an app that keeps track of your eating habits, allowing you to become aware of what you are doing so you can then modify your behavior accordingly.

Excuse me! Truth is I can see how it could be a behavior modification tool, but, really, my first response to this 'fork' was more of the 'you've got to be kidding' variety. Are we so dysfunctional that we need to make an electronic fork that tells us how fast or slow to eat? Does anyone else think there's something wrong with this picture?

Life is changing so rapidly and not necessarily for the better. Part of me just wants to go hide out in the backwoods somewhere and get back to a life of simplicity. Or at least move in that direction. Simplify! Simplify! Simplify! That is my heart's cry. I want out of the rat race. I don't like where it seems to be heading and I don't know what, if anything, I can do about it. Which for me brings me back to the question of what's the purpose and meaning in life? Specifically, what's my purpose and meaning in life?

There are those who would have you believe that there is no purpose or meaning to life, that we just happened to evolve out of nothingness. Sorry, but I don't have enough faith to believe something that seems so preposterous. Life and the universe cannot possibly be a result of random chance. That's actually the easiest part to figure out about all of this. After that things seem to get extremely complicated, or should I say complex. It's all about one's chosen point of view.

If life is viewed as an unsolvable series of complications, it's easy to slip into a victim mentality. Been there, done that as the saying goes. This point of view tends to keep you mired in apathy and disappointment, or, it makes you like a bull in a bull fight, constantly getting ran through with swords until the pain drives you crazy, raging mad and you try to kill everything in sight. Not a pleasant place to be. Nor productive, for yourself or others.

But, if life is viewed as a thing of beautiful complexity, it's possible to see the wonder and feel the excitement of discovery, down which path there is enthusiasm, passion, and a zest for living that keeps you focused and moving forward, growing. Somewhere along that path you learn to let go of the concept of purpose except as it is defined by "being". "I AM" God told Moses. It is difficult for us mere mortals to "be", to understand that 'being' IS the purpose.

I wonder if Adam and Eve worried about their purpose? Somehow I doubt that.