Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Percolating Questions

My thoughts have been unclear for a while now, as I'm sure has been apparent, and I've had a hard time picking a new direction.  Too many questions, too afraid of the answers I think.  A lot of this started when I came out of the closet and started allowing myself to question everything more, although I think some predate it.  Come to realize, allowing yourself to question everything is a good first step, but then you need to actually look for answers, which I've more or less been too timid to do I think.

Here are some of the things I'm thinking about in random moments on a daily or weekly basis:

Do I overthink everything?

Having left my childhood religion, what do I think of spirituality?
Is spirituality a thing people need, or a delusion created by religion? (in other words, are the dogmatic atheists right?)
How do I deal with death?  Must I proudly embrace oblivion with no hope of anything beyond to be a good person?
Do I really believe in anything beyond a material, clockwork universe?  Am I a positivist, materialist?
Do I have an emotional need to believe that the world is weirder, and bigger than it appears because of how I was raised?
Did I receive adequate training in dealing with the disquieting existential questions that arise from being a sentient ape?
What is the shape of my worldview, now that I consciously wish to abandon the one I was raised with?
How many unconscious adventist assumptions still shape my current worldview?
How important is it to me that I be purely rational?  Or purely irrational?
Am I allowed to reserve judgement until I've gathered more information?

Do I really want to write?
Would I be any good at writing?
Is there any point where I'm going to stop talking about it and just do it?
Ditto for piano and music.
Ditto for swimming and exercise.
Ditto for Japanese and language.
Am I every going to abandon childish whining about the difficulty of striving and be and adult and strive?
Do I have a clear definition for adulthood?  Is it important to have one?
Am I on my way to being a better person?
Just how much damage did a long devotion to comics, games and glowy, tappy things do to my attention span?

What do I do about the amount of injustice in the world?
Is there anything to do about it?
How much of the misery I'm told to consume as "news" am I responsible for?
Do I spend too much time looking at the forests and not enough time at the trees?
How do I coexist with people, when people frustrate me so badly?
How do I exist with myself when I frustrate myself so badly?
Do I need to relax?  Or could people stand to behave better?
Where is the fine line between defending my boundaries and being an asshole?
Where is the fine line between being reasonable and being a doormat?
Where is my community now?  Where are my people?
Why do I subject myself to the gaming community?
How to I find social groups concerned with bigger questions than "is my game fun enough?"

How do I structure my environment?
Is it important to be choosy about the tools I surround myself with?
Am I too much of a luddite about glow screens?
Is it okay to be tired of staring at glow screens?
Are there more questions about technology to ask than "is it new?  is it shiny?  does it give me social capital?"
Do I have a better criteria for whether to adopt a new technology and could I convince anyone else to agree?
How do I survive in a culture that seems to value so many things I don't value as core values without seeming like a crazy person?
Am I a crazy person and no one's told me?
Am I too much like my father?
Am I not enough like my father?

How do I fight self-righteousness while still fighting for principles?
What are my principles?
Am I fighting for anything or just whining?
Why do I feel like I'm standing still so much of the time?
What will it take to move forward?

Do I overthink everything?

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