A Little Something If You’re Bored

By PJ Beaudry

People walk through their lives and they underestimate how many things accessorize it. All of
the little things that we do every day, both the people we bump into on the train and potentially
never see again and those we see every day, what we eat, what we drink, who we kiss.
Ultimately all we have is those moments and what our brain chooses to make of them. They
become sandstone blocks meticulously placed upon the compass points of our morality to
become, eventually, a pyramid to represent our life, and upon which we will climb to the
heavens.

I have been building my beliefs for a long time, and I feel as confident about them as I am of my
own name. I think that each baby brought into this world, each animal, each plant, each insect
and bit of rock is given a piece of a force, one that guides but never rules, that connects but never
binds. In this way, we are all fundamentally the same, a tiny piece of the same whole. Our
external differences are here for us, for life, and our inherent sameness is here for us as well, but
for death. Like the Tao, to give this force a name would be to restrict its power to some
characters on a page, to put a textual limit, a space within parentheses. I believe that humans are
special in this world because we are able not to comprehend this force, but to contemplate it, and
to come to their own conclusions about what they believe it to be and do. Whether they call it
God, Yahweh, Vishnu, The Great Spirit, or any number of other names, this contemplation is
what is important. No matter how different we may be in our lives, we have this contemplation
to connect us when the force that underlies it is too far below the surface to be seen. Things
happen to us, people and places and events, that seek to bring this force a tiny bit closer, to help
us see and understand it just a little better, though never fully.

This force has given us other tools to aid us in our quest to understand it, too. The most powerful
of these tools are balance, love and companionship, perception, morality and communication.
Each of these is equally important as the others, and each serves its own purpose, but each is in
some way connected to the others.

Balance allows human beings to experience their lives in full, and if they can find the strength
within themselves, to be thankful for everything both for what it is and for the insight it will
provide for them for the future. It teaches us that we cannot fully experience, understand, and
appreciate a thing without having experienced, understood, and appreciated its opposite in the
spectrum of life. In this way, we cannot experience love without hate, possession without loss,
contentment without discord, comfort without pain, et cetera. Every action has an equal and
opposite reaction, and every emotion, every being, has something to act in antithesis. Finding
balance in one’s life is one stepping stone in the path to fundamental satisfaction, and will allow
us to understand more clearly the ways that our unifying force works to make us a part of our
world.
Love and companionship allow human beings to endure the rough waters that is our time in this
existence, for our time here is rough. To be fundamentally alone is to be powerless, to the world,
to those around you, and to yourself. It allows us a stable environment in which to thrive as
human beings, to fulfill ourselves and others, and to enhance the world around us. To love is to
trust, and to be a companion is to show others you can be trusted. This means allowing your
portion of this force to influence that of others, for the betterment of all involved. It means
submitting your natural inhibitions to the connections your were born to make. Finding love and
companionship in one’s life is one stepping stone in the path to fundamental satisfaction, and will
allow us to understand more clearly the ways that our unifying force works to connect everything
in our world to us and to itself.

Perception allows human beings both to take in all of the things that accessorize their lives and to
interpret it in their own unique way. It is one of the fundamental powers of humanity; that the
same thing could mean something completely different to different people. In this way, it allows
us to transcend what makes us the same to become something built of many different colors and
textures. Beyond that, once we have built ourselves of these colors and textures, it enables us to
recognize them in others and have others recognize them in us, in order to build bridges, to form
connections that harken to the original fundamental similarity. Utilizing perception in one’s life
is one stepping stone in the path to fundamental satisfaction, and will allow us to understand
more clearly the ways that our unifying force works to make us a kaleidoscope, unique yet built
of pieces between which commonalities can be found, used, and traced back in a pattern that can
be identified.

Morality allows human beings to decide for themselves how they will use their own piece of this
force, which they have been given. People have differing morality not because they are given
differing pieces, but because they use their piece in different ways. This is another fundamental
power of humanity, and enables us to determine and mold a shape for the foundation of our lives.
We may be influenced by others, but we will ultimately make the decision how what will be
added, subtracted, and built upon most extensively. More accurately, we carve a key that opens
only our life’s door, a portal through which everything must pass. It is a gift from this force to
us, one which can define the path upon which we will walk if we allow it to. Additionally, it
allows us to make a lasting mark upon our world and those who occupy it, if we can find the
strength within ourselves to do so. Utilizing morality in one’s life is one stepping stone in the
path to fundamental satisfaction, and will allow us to understand more clearly the ways that our
unifying force works to provide us with something we can always be sure of, to feel confident in,
and to know was both given by this force yet created by us.

Communication allows human beings to form a continent from a series of isolated islands, to
take full advantage of the efforts of others, and to enhance the lives of others with our efforts. It
allows us to share what we have come to understand about our own piece of this force, and to
perhaps gain understanding from others. It enables us to produce music, speech, anything that
can carry messages more profound when they are expressed. It allows us to know that we are
not alone when life makes us feel so. Utilizing communication in one’s life is one stepping stone
in the path to fundamental satisfaction, and will allow us to understand more clearly the ways
that our unifying force works to give us the tools to allow the world to influence us, and for us to
influence the world.

With these tools, we may find fulfillment in our lives, such that when our time here is over, we
can leave it in peace. Who can possibly say what happens when we die, when our hearts give up
their beating, our lungs their breathing, our brains their thinking? I would like to think of this
force as something similar to a quilt passed down through generations. We are given a piece to
make our own, and when our vessels are spent, all the wine is drunk, our finished product returns
to the whole, enhancing it with something both fundamentally unique and intrinsically the same.
Therefore, what we do in life matters to us while we live it, and after it is over, it matters in terms
of the effect it has on this whole, becoming a beautiful one or one that is ugly, simple or
complex, big or small.