I have Committed a Crime

"You have committed a crime." he said, without realizing the hypocrisy in his accusation.

Yes, indeed I have committed a crime, if you consider freedom of thought a crime. You say I have no morality, that someday I'll pay for my sins. Who are you to decide that my beliefs , my actions, are a sin? If I really wanted, I could say the exact same to you, and my arguments would even be more valid than yours, yet still to the world I'll always be wrong. I may not be an average person like everyone around me, no I'm very different, I don't believe in going with the flow, because I know that the flow itself is where the problem lies.

Without doing anything I have become the enemy of the times, I have become that which is given as an example to children to bring fear into their hearts. They say that I am the devil in disguise, out to corrupt the minds of those around me. I am the darkness that makes the night black, the storm that destroys millions of lives, the evil in every heart. What have I done? I have done no more than to actually think.

Rationality is a gift given to few, a virtue to me, but a vice to most. I am a rational being. Is it a sin to be a rational being? Is it a sin to believe in things only after thinking them through? Is i a sin to depart from the societal norms provided I'm not physically or mentally hurting anyone? Is it really a sin only to have a belief, or in my case an absence of one?

The world is burning, this country is burning, why are we letting it? There is no valid reason for taking someone's life, but war is a massacre of thousands, even millions, and there's no law to protect these people who are burning in it. All this bloodshed for an irrational motive, maybe more than one, but each irrational in it's own way.

Yet still you expect me to believe in what you believe in and sell my principles? You still say that I'm the one at fault? You tell me that I should be ashamed of myself, that you're disappointed in me. I don't want to be a martyr, I don't want to be a saint, I only want to live my life, I want everyone to be able to live their lives because to me life is the greatest gift.

You know what I really am? I am the light that gives out warmth, I am the willpower that drives one to learn, I am the earth that nurtures, I am the water that purifies, I am the love that brings people together, I am the wind that touches every soul with life, I am the rational being. I love to play with fire, but you love to burn the world that gave us fire. I admit I have some faults, but you magnify my virtues into crimes.

Yes I am an Atheist and I don't believe in your God. To me there is no God, but there is something much better - the earth and everything in it. If you cannot handle that, then at least don't try to take it away from me, for I have the courage to handle the truth, and I'm proud of it. I have the capabilities to think, to judge true from false, to not get influenced by your irrational ways. Don't force upon me your beliefs for to me my absence of beliefs is the real virtue.

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.
~ Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in physics

Tragedy

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it. -George Bernard Shaw

Do you ever get that rush when you're doing something you love to do, and you know right then that you'd gladly die without any regrets, doing what you love at that precise moment? Or if you achieve something by yourself, and know that in a way it's made you complete? They always say, life's not about what you do, but who you are, but in some way, doesn't what you do make you who you are, with all the right and wrong reasons taken into account?

It's a really scary thought, lying there on your deathbed, and having more regrets to think about than things you're proud of. I wish I had spent more time with my family, I wish I had spent more time doing what I really love to do, I wish I had been more honest, I wish I had been a better friend, I wish I hadn't messed things up, I wish I hadn't walked away, I wish I had taken the chance, I wish, I wish, I wish...but the ache never goes away.

Every time I hear about someone who chased after their dreams, like joined a band, or went on to play some sport professionally, or who gave up their life to become a writer or teacher, or fought for love, I feel really happy for them. Sure, not everyone makes it to the top, most don't even get close, but they can't lie there on their deathbed wishing they had taken the jump.

In today's world, most people care about money, and less about doing something they love to do, or even discovering what they love to do. Most people die not knowing what they love to do, and it's really sad. I guess at a practical level, it's a necessity to give up certain things in your life, playing it safe, it's a part of natural selection. It makes me sad nonetheless, because giving it up is like cutting a part of yourself and discarding it. Is living through life without that part of you really worth it?

Everyone dreams, and over time, dreams change with circumstances. As a student in high school, you aspire to be the guitarist in a famous rock band, as parent you dream of the world being a better place so you can raise your kids in peace, and as a businessman you dream of starting up a business that'll really go places. And throughout life, everyone dreams of true love, whether it may just be chemicals in the brain, or something real, no one wants to die alone. Those who get unconditional true love may be the luckiest of them all.

I say, maybe with material things, you can call it a tragedy to gain your heart's desire, but if it's much more than that, then is it really a tragedy? And so what if it is? I say, give me tragedies, for what is life without them? After all, the fact that you tried is what really counts, right? Not trying is a tragedy worse than that of success or failure.