The Fog of Noise

All through our culture creeps the fog of noise. From the strangulated cry of the pop star's protest against the impossibility of protest. To the whimper of the elders too tired to scream above it, I've been there! To the nihilistic hum of those caught in between. The rites of passage into adulthood once available to the young are all but gone or unrecognizable. Our education has failed to teach us where we come from. So where does one who comes from nothing go? Perhaps the answer is as simple as, here. For all of our coming and going in our ever busier lives we are always here. Nothing more than a constant state of existence. Some would say, as the pop group Bright Eyes did, of course! "I just do what I do and at least I exist, what could mean more than this?" While it is true that we cannot exist anywhere but here, and to realize that is one of the foundations of happiness, we must also realize there is a difference between existing and existing well. So many aspects of our lives are uncontrollable. We are all born into our own circumstances with a unique set of obligations. Our decisions through life create more of these obligations that we must fulfill. To ignore them is to take for granted the privileged place which our ancestors have given us. But all too often our obligations are smothered by the fog of noise. Let us then search for the pious whispers of our forefathers telling us it is okay to not merely exist, but to excel. To not be ashamed of the faults of our past but to learn from them. Lift the fog of noise and let the pious whispers guide us to excel to a place where future generations will not know what it is to exist, only to exist well.